To what extent does one's professional success depend on one's love for one's job?

To what extent does one's professional success depend on one's love for one's job?

This is a highly debatable subject. I know of many people who loved their jobs passionately, but failed at it miserably, whereas the world is full of instances of people who succeed at what they do, despite not liking what they do... What exactly is at play here?

First of all, one must remember that different people are motivated by vastly different reasons.

One person may not really like the work that he does, but is motivated highly by the lucrative pay packet and perks... he may perform consistently well to continue raking in the financial benefits.

On the other hand, another person may love the profession he is in, but may not be able to cope with the organisational pressures and politics that he may be subjected to.

Every business model has profit as one of the main goals, and unfortunately, every organization is not run by visionaries who are also empathetic leaders with deep concern for the well being of employees.

Now, all organizations would like to retain a good performer, but loving the job does not necessarily qualify one as a good performer. A good performer has to have a rich and diverse set of skills that extend beyond just the job at hand. It includes people management, time management, self motivating capability, tact, a high tolerance threshold, etc.

Hence the demand for training professionals in today's job market. A training professional is able to take all the various factors that constitute success into accout and equip professionals for success.

With the increasing complexity in psychology, a firm grounding in human psychology and the psychology of relationship is essential, along with the wisfom and foresight to apply the right skill at the right place/time.

TONIGHT

Tonight the firmament is full of stars,
Scintillating, bright, pulsating light.
And high upon the deep
A presence moves,
At once invisible and in sight.

Cradled in the hand of God
The mighty planets reside.
They question not, but abide.

Upon the earth two souls unite
In perfect harmony.
No fear, no pride, no respect lost,
And great is achieved at little cost.

We are the substance,
We are the sum,
When we find equilibrium.

And all is well, within and without,
Peace and calm reign supreme.
A new leaf begins to sprout,
With the birth of a new dream.

A dream of distance and of love,
As below, so above.
And distance is but space,
To behold the beloved's face.

And so God teaches and is taught
By man, by woman, beast and child,
By things beautiful and things wild,
That all belong in the Greater All,
And Earth is within Heaven's Hall.

S.B.

Flesh and Bone

Oh Flesh and Bone!
A dream made real
You are,
Composed of starlight
And hope, and longing
Turned to actuality.

An awful man

Met an awful man today
With the voice of a teen
And the mind of a maniac.
He has inherited a tutorial
And treats teachers like
So many little tin cans.
His voice an arrow
Thats lights with precision
On the other's flesh
Slicing man like bacon meal.
Said he pompously,
"I do this business for profit"
"This study center is a Mudi Dokan
for me. It's all about the money!"
Won't someone tell him
That Mudiwalas deal in inanimate objects
While good teachers engage themselves
In the nurturing and nourishing of life?
His wife a teacher,
embarrassed and teary eyed,
Silently swallowed her fate.

Freedom from self

A mind full of ideas and preconceived notions about god can never experience divinity. The mind limits itself to the confines of what it thinks it knows. And thus begins the endless cycle of creation, second hand creation of images and rituals and beliefs based on the content of the mind. And it is all this that constitutes the self. And we make it stronger and cling to this identity as if our existence depended on it. Do you see how ridiculous all this is?
Freedom is freedom from ideas and concepts. Freedom is to be able to breathe without thinking about how to do it. Freedom is to be able to laugh heartily when one feels like and to love generously without inhibition. Freedom is the reclamation of innocence.

Be free, of all things, of the suffering self, and live.

Love,
Sanjay.

The Story of My True, Almost Unreal Experiments With Truth (and other delusions)

My spiritual journey began relatively early in life. At the age of 9, I was already curious about God, thanks to my missionary education. Jesus and plain simple Christianity was a good starting point.

As I grew older, my interest in all things material and spiritual (from sex to samadhi, as Osho put it), spiked. Being a voracious reader, by the age of 15 I had pretty much digested the entire spectrum of religious mythology from Hinduism and Buddhism to Graeko-Roman Myths.

The result was a tiny head full of ideas, including very imaginative concepts ranging from physical immortality to levitation and psycho-kinesis.

My early youth from age 17 to 25 years or so was a confusing period. I had many experiences, from sex, drugs and rock n roll to far out experiences of "satori" or spontaneous illumination. My life was a flurry moving like a rapid technicolor reel.

At the age of 23, I lost my hearing for a week due to overexposure to loud sound. That pretty much put an end to my blossoming career prospect as Rock Star. My hearing returned gradually, but I was diagnosed with "tinnitus" a disease which modern medicine is clueless about. The symptoms incluse a high-pitched extremely disturbing siren that keeps ringing in the ears even when there is no external stimulus. The attendant problems are very low noise tolerance thresholds, extreme irritability, inability to ever again experience the beauty of silence, and worst of all insomnia.

Coming as I did from a classical dysfunctional family, I had little ot no emotional support from my parents. Add to that the misery of growing up with a father who was Obsessive-Compulsive and extremely violent. In short, life was hell. And thus began my pursuit of heaven.

My pursuit of heaven was marked by extensive far reaching forays into various meditative disciplines and practices. I have had a wide range of meditative experiences, from the sublime to the terrifying. These were interesting and stressful.

I have been formally initiated into at least 5 spiritual disciplines and have informally had love affairs with several others. I explored sufism, tibetan buddhism, hinduism, vedanta, bhakti marga, zen, taoism, esoteric christianity, tantra, yoga marga.

My intense involvement with these paths kept me from going insane from the pressure of managing my job as a teacher, dysfunctional relationships, chronic health issues (anxiety disorder, irritable bowel syndrome & tinnitus) and other evils. Needless to say, I lost many friends along the way, suffered countless personal and financial losses and ended up disillusioned with "everything".

Now I've entered my 40's. What's changed? Well, on the surface, nothing. Except the few things that have - reconciliation with my brother, a mature and caring wife, my career change from teaching English to helping people live stress- free lives (surely i'm uniquely qualified to help people with stress related issues as I've experienced the entire gamut of stress related problems myself and have lived through it all to tell the tale).

The time is now ripe for me to share my realizations:

1) parenting is not for idiots and insensitive folk. It requires great skill and intelligence.

2) meditation is an activity that can divert your attention from things that are sources of problems. Meditation does not solve problems. It can however help one cope with problems and live through the most challenging situations by activating brain centres that can render considerable support in times of crisis.

3) no god or guru can take your pain. It's yours to suffer and sort out.

4) loving relationships are more important than material possessions.

5) when all else fails, surrender, simply breathe, watch the breath with ease and allow it to gradually deepen and relax.

God bless,

Sanjay.

Kumbhaka & Raja Yoga

Kumbhaka ordinarily means "breath retention". However, one must remember that yoga is not mere physical exercise. It is a metaphysical action that restores to the yogi the state of one - ness. Shiva is the masculine or active force. Shakti the feminine or passive force. In the context of breath, Shiva is inhalation, the positively charged breath that energises and Shakti is exhalation, the negatively charged breath that relaxes. The middle, the space where the inhalation and exhalation meet is kumbhaka,  the union of Shiva and Shakti. When the yogi consciously raises the inhalation to the third eye with the mystical mantra of Shiva-Shakti, holds it in that space and releases it,  he is a Raja Yogi. This is the essence of Raja Yoga.