"misc" Archive
Three N's: names, notes and notice
Three way to appreciate folks: use names, write notes, and notice
Another way of reminding your coworkers of their importance is through the three "Ns": names, notes and notice. Know people's names and use people's names because the most powerful, important word in the world for any human being is their own name. The second "N," notes, because the written word is 8 times more powerful than the spoken word. "Good news should come in writing, bad news should come in person. The more good news you send in writing, the better." Finally, as a leader, notice everything. Look for things that are positive and frequently overlooked. Praise employees in a note for something good they are sure went unnoticed.
by Nipun Mehta on Apr 10 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Maps of Meaning
In a pretty interesting lecture (an hour online video), Jordan Petersen talks about stories and its value beyong just the facts.
His basic thesis, in Maps of Meaning, is that human life unfolds and consistently oscillates between two poles: the known and the unknown. The unknown is fraught with both danger and promise; the known -- in the form of culture -- is what protects us from contamination with the unknown. But it is the unknown that holds what need to know the most, what we often fear the most.
by Nipun Mehta on Apr 15 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Mindful Avenue, Compassion Way
Mindful Avenue. Compassion Way. Instilling Goodness High School. These are the signs you'd read when you're at the 488 acre City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. It a Buddhist "sangha" where no animals have ever been killed in anger in the last 25 years, where money only exchanges hands at the two place (bookstore and restaurant), where peacocks roam freely and you run into monks and nuns on the streets.
I was invited to give three talks (all in one day!)-- boys school, girls school and the main assembly. The boys cut class to hear more service stories (the principal gave them permission), the girls stayed after and talked with me about Hollywood, and in describing Bo's story, I managed to mentioned the word "sex" in the Buddha Hall (where there are ten thousand statues of Buddha, hand made by Master Hua. So I managed to create good trouble. :)
by Nipun Mehta on Apr 19 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
The World Is Changing
Bob Hopkins founded Philanthropy World, so when he gave me a copy of the latest issue, I figured I would read it on my flight from Texas to Dallas. I randomly started at page 50, which read 'How to Change the World' ... what else? :)
So, page 50 read something like this:
Consider that twenty years ago, Indonesia has only one independent environmental organization. Today, it has more than 2,000. In Bangaladesh, most of the country's development work is handled by 20,000 NGOs; almost all of them were established in the past 25 years. India has well over a million citizen organizations. Between 1988 and 1995, 100,000 citizen groups opened shop in former communist countries of Central Europe. In Canada, the number of registered citizen groups has grown by more than 50 percent since 1987, reaching close to 200,000. In Brazil, in the 1990s, the number of registered citizen organizations jumped from 250,000 to 400,000, a 60 percent increase. In the US, between 1989 and 1998, the numbers of public service groups registered with the IRS jumped from 464,000 to 734,000, also a 60% increase.
by Nipun Mehta on May 2 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Pulp Fiction Dream
On Sep 11, 2001, I had a very unusual dream that included, of all people, Samuel Jackson. Uncle Sillyhead has an interesting theory on why Samuel Jackson appeared in that dream. He points to this passage from Pulp Fiction, by Jules:
"There's a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." I been sayin' that stuff for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a homeboy before you popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some stuff this mornin' that made me think twice. Now I'm thinkin': it could mean you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. I'd like that. But that stuff ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd."
by Nipun Mehta on May 14 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Sounds Shape Matter
He's a nuclear physicist turned carpenter, a vegan activist totally focused on cultivating his spiritual path. Shawn Berry, aka Shanti Deva, hosts Monday night meditations in SF and last night ...
I heard Alex Theory talk about the impact of sound on our body. Stripping out all the new-agey stuff, he focused on the science of sound -- how specific frequencies shape matter in a very concrete, predictable and repeatable pattern. Alex thinks that in another decade, instead of doctors prescribing drugs as medicine, they will give you a CD of sounds to listen to. The vibrations of those sounds will destroy the dis-harmonious patterns of matter that we generally call disease.
The most amazing fact was that in Sanskrit, things aren't named by convention but rather by the sound frequency that the shape of the matter resembles. Aum, in particular, is a very interesting case study.
by Nipun Mehta on May 17 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Today is el-sri-zee's 26th birthday. Last December, instead of attending a meeting at the UN, I lay sick in my New York hotel room. Sri, rather randomly, rolls through with some hot soup and insists on staying the night to keep a pre-med eye over my temperature. He slept on the floor till 5:30AM, when he took me to his house. Instead of studying for finals, he treated this out-of-town patient for the next whole week!
Sri was also the first to tell me about Paul Farmer whose biography is aptly labeled 'Mountains Beyond Mountains'.
Beyond mountains there are mountains. As you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.
by Nipun Mehta on May 19 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Random Banner of Insight
Scott Pelikan surfs everyday. Every single day. One night, after a campfire, he had a visceral, palpable insight that rocked his world and increased his conviction -- many-fold -- to put love into action. In June 2000, he started a project to put random banners of spiritual messages on the web.
Imagine-- Get rich quick. Watch Brittany in concert. Lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks. We can do no big acts, only small acts with great love.
Yup, that's the shock value he was going for. And over the last two years, he arranged for 100 million views of his banners! On the web, it's the top search hit for words like "enlightening". Alexa also tells us that 312 other websites are linked to it, and it's current reach is about 2 million users.
In 2003, Scott became a CharityFocus volunteer. In January 2004, he merged his project with CF. And on Monday, we launched the revamped version of it that is getting RAVE reviews! Check it out, check it out: http://www.enlighteningmessages.org
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on May 25 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Your Mind is All Stories
I leafed through 'Knee Deep in Grace' once again. Dipa Ma has ten lessons. Number five reads: "Your mind is all stories."
In a group interview, Jack Kornfield innocently asked, "What is it like in your mind?" Dipa Ma smiled, closed her eyes, and quietly answered, "In my mind there are three things: concentration, loving-kindness and peace." Jack, not sure if he heard correctly, asked, "Is that all?" "Yes, that is all," Dipa Ma replied.The room was silent. Then there were a few sighs and quiet laughs, followed by Jack's barely audible whisper, "How wonderful."
by Nipun Mehta on Jun 4 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
What the #$*! Do We Know!?
Matt Henning's -- one of the four volunteers on the first CF project -- picks are generally must-see. He recently recommended the movie, What the #$*! Do We Know!?, about quantum physics.
A really inspiring movie about what the new science is really telling us. We live in a world of possibilities, of parallel universes, where the observer and the observed co-create the reality we live in. Physicist Neils Bohr put it this way: "If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet."
Science can now understand what St. Francis of Assisi means when he says, "What we are looking for is what is looking." Pretty exciting.
by Nipun Mehta on Jun 7 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Hundred, Hundred
Over lunch, John Robbins and I started talking about how much of service is internal and how much is external. Some would say 50-50, some would say 90-10, some might even say that's an irrelevant question. Very spontaneously, John responded: "Hundred, hundred."
On an unrelated note, John also mentioned that he felt that asking people to have a sex-change would be an easier sell than trying to convince them that the meat in their plate was actually a real, live animal. :)
by Nipun Mehta on Jun 10 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Dave The Painter
As we took bids for getting our house painted, a 70 year old man walks right in and introduces himself as Dave. Rather quickly, he spews off about half a dozen predictions about the house -- most of them, right.
Then he looks to my fascinated eyes and says, "You know what the problem is these days?" "Um, I don't know, Dave. What's the problem?" I counter. Dave says, "People just don't listen. All the information you ever need is right there in front of you, but everyone's in a hurry. Rat-race. Winner of the rat-race is still a rat. The higher you go, the lower you fall. I like to stay in the basement."
As he was leaving, Dave tells me, "I think you are a guru." I hadn't spoken much to him, so I quizically ask, "Why do you say that?" He looks at me with a wry smile and says, "Your name. It's just one of those names." :)
by Nipun Mehta on Jun 24 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Gross National Happiness
For no good reason, I went out for a walk today. I ended up sitting at a park, where about 10 kids were crowding this small playground. One was walking on a ledge, another pouring dirt on it, a third munchkin was hanging down from a rail, fourth one was yelling, fifth one was staring at me. No two kids were doing the same thing. In a way, it was a masterpiece of nature -- a unified vision of having fun in a space that can contain diverse approaches.
But still they needed a couple of parents to enforce the boundaries. Made me compare democracies and autocracies like Bhutan, where the constitution mandates growth in GNH -- Gross National Happiness.
by Nipun Mehta on Jul 16 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
20 Minutes of Writing
I recently ran into a Stanford researcher, Tasneem, who told me an interesting fact: research shows that even 20 minutes of writing, one time, can help abuse victims recover much faster from their trauma.
So the good old blogging revolution is probably filling some void in our collective trauma. :)
by Nipun Mehta on Jul 18 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Costco and Wal-mart
Sixty-seven percent of Wal-Mart's stores are in the 30 states that voted for Bush and Cheney in 2000, according to a comparison of store-location figures in the Wal-Mart 2003 annual report and election results.Costco's stores are mostly on either coast, with 208 of its 321 stores in the higher-wage, more union-friendly 20 states that voted for Democrat Al Gore in 2000.
by Nipun Mehta on Jul 24 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Aum, Aum, Aum
For her birthday, Jen invited a few friends to a Trilok Murtu concert at Stern Grove. To end his gig, Trilok initiated some audience participation ... which got a lukewarm reception.
It reminded of a time when I was at a celebration for Wavy Gravy's 60th birthday; he talked about how a Ben & Jerry's flavor was named after him and then said -- "yum!" He then asked 3000 others in the audience to repeat after him. Yum! And again. Yum, yum, yum. By no coincidence, it sounded like "aum", "aum", "aum" and the vibration in the room was stunningly different. There was no denying it.
Sep 10th, 2003: The longest lasting symphony, scientists just discovered, has been playing for three billion years. And it's coming from a black hole that's 250 million light years away. Astronomers at Cambridge detected the sound to be B flat, the same pitch as a key near middle C on the piano. But the song of the Perseus Black Hole is 57 octaves below that middle C -- a frequency more than a million billion times deeper than the limits of the human ear. [more]
by Nipun Mehta on Jul 26 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Never Been Anywhere Without Me
Richard Linklater rolls through with solid movies ranging from Goodwill Hunting to Waking Life. Today's Quote-A-Day was a knockout from Before Sunrise:
Usually its myself that I wish I could get away from. Seriously, think about this. I have never been anywhere that I haven't been. I've never had a kiss when I wasn't one of the kissers. Y'know, I've never, um, gone to the movies, when I wasn't there in the audience. I've never been out bowling,
if I wasn't there, y'know making some stupid joke. I think that's why so many people hate themselves. Seriously, it's just they are sick to death of being around themselves. Lets say that you and I were together all the time, then
you'd start to hate a lot of my mannerisms. The way, uh, the way every time we would have people over, uh, I'd be insecure, and I'd get a little too drunk. Or, uh, the way I'd tell the same stupid pseudo-intellectual story again, and again. Y'see, I've heard all those stories. So of course I'm sick of myself."
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 13 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Million a Minute
I was at a hip grocery store in the East Bay today. In the express lane, I noticed two guys in front of me put their groceries into their backpacks.
First thought -- only in Berkeley! Second thought -- I wonder how many bags could be saved if we all did that? Turns out ...
Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are now consumed worldwide. That's comes out to over one million per minute! But ... Ireland has reduced plastic shopping bag consumption by over 90% since the PlasTax was implemented in March 2002.
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 17 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Politics of Obesity
I was reminded of a great article in the NY Times that argued that the cause of obesity, meat consumption and other bad stuff: cheap corn.
The rules of classical economics just don't seem to operate very well on the farm. When prices fall, for example, it would make sense for farmers to cut back on production, shrinking the supply of food to drive up its price. But in reality, farmers do precisely the opposite, planting and harvesting more food to keep their total income from falling, a practice that of course depresses prices even further.
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 20 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Distractions in Schools
80 percent of classrooms have Internet access, 70 percent of college students even have wireless, and it's no surprise the distractions in the classroom are going up.
But instead of trying to ban these gadgets, teachers are taking advantage of them to be more interesting than the distractions ... according the NY Times article that Matt Henning forwarded.
Yogen threw in another idea: "Schools should use distraction-reports as a measure of the performance of the teacher. Higher the distractions during a class, less interesting and engaging is the teacher. The same measure would work for company meetings and presentations."
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 24 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Smile House
Universe is an amazing mirror. On the way to Andy and Ada's wedding intercultural Christian wedding (Chinese and Mexican), Guri and I saw a Korean restaurant:
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 28 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Husband 1.0
Dipesh shared a really funny joke ... glad it wasn't from my wife. :)
Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance -- particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NHL 0.4, NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0 as well as Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashed the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What do I do?
Signed, Desperate
[ read more ... ]
by Nipun Mehta on Sep 1 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Fact of Fiction: Gandhi's Love For Mira
I don't understand why people are bent up on sensationalizing Gandhi. Yogen forwarded me an article in today's Times of India, featuring the author (who is "incidentally" also promoting his new book -- Mira and Mahatma):
"Bapu wrote 350 letters to Mira; he never wrote so many letters to anyone else. She published only some. When I met Miraben in 1965, I asked her about the missing letters. She said they were with Richard Attenborough. He doesn't have them. They are priceless letters, the missing link. Mira's diary entries and letters to Romain Rolland are fiction. It's the closest I've come to the truth.""Years after the Mahatma's death, Mira went to live in Baden, near Vienna, where she lived in an isolated cottage. She didn't speak about Gandhi to anyone. I think she wanted to preserve him for herself. She didn't want to share him with anyone. She thought the world had misjudged him and nobody knew him better than her. It's an amazing story of an extraordinary woman, yet I think she was fulfilled because she was so pass ionate.
by Nipun Mehta on Sep 24 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
13 Extraordinary Women
At meditation last Wednesday, Rahul showed up with a hand made candle, and shared an incredible story about the Thai nun, Mae Chee Sansanee. A bit later, Ragu told me about a project to profile 13 extra-ordinary women.
Here's a one-liner profile and a quote from each of these truly extraordinary women ...
[ read more ... ]
by Nipun Mehta on Oct 9 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
The Kecak Dance
Ever since I saw some clips from Baraka, I've wondered about the monkey dance. Neerav just sent a link that describes Bali's infamous
Kecak Dance!
by Nipun Mehta on Oct 14 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
White Sarees and Orange Robes
I don't understand it. Why do we expect so much from orange robes and white sarees? So many people see monks and nuns, build an image of a "holy" person and then sit there judging all their actions to see if they neatly fit into their image. It seems like a useless exercise.
Personally, I see them just as fellow cultivators, fellow travellers on a journey to "truth". They certainly get my respect, not because they're "holy", but because they've made a committment to being holy. If they fail, that's fine. We all fall. Saints are just sinners who get back up again, as Yogananda once said.
by Nipun Mehta on Oct 26 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Dennis at Green Festival
I first heard about Dennis Kucinich when he presented a bill for a "Department of Peace". Last weekend, while some CF'ers were handing out smile cards, they heard him deliver a powerful speech at the Green Festival:
We come here in support, not just of principles of sustainability, but brought together by a belief in our interdependence, in our interconnection, understanding that the choices each one of us makes affects the world. As any one of us chooses, so chooses the world. And so there's great power in that; there's the belief that we can make a choice in our everyday consumer habits that can help direct the world in a way that is truly sustainable.
When I met once during his campaigning days, I didn't feel he had the charisma to be the president; but he surely had some of the best talking points! Full transcript of his talk is listed below.
[ read more ... ]
by Nipun Mehta on Nov 6 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
If You Ever Lead a Revolution ...
Eduardo was Che Guevara -- with a Cuban cigar even -- for Halloween. At a party that night, someone made a "dead serious" comment that blew him away: "Hey man, if you ever lead a revolution, I'm with you." All of a sudden, the costume took on a new meaning, an almost daunting responsibility. What does it really mean to be in the shoes of a revolutionary? The responsibility of the heart and souls of so many?
If you don't know about Che:
Quote from a profile by Time; picture from a recent movie: Motorycle Diaries.
by Nipun Mehta on Nov 19 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Guy Kawasaki's Top Ten
Almost all gradutation speeches have a top-ten list. That's why I like reading them. :) Guy Kawasaki's 'Hindsights' Baccalaureate Speech had these:
- Live off your parents as long as possible.
- Pursue joy, not happiness.
- Challenge the known and embrace the unknown.
- Learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument, and play non-contact sports.
- Continue to learn.
- Learn to like yourself or change yourself until you can like yourself.
- Don’t get married too soon.
- Play to win and win to play.
- Obey the absolutes.
- Enjoy your family and friends before they are gone.
by Nipun Mehta on Dec 13 '04 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Recommendation Letters
To find the good in yourself, find the good in others.
And I learn that lesson everytime I write a recommendation letter. This admission season, I wrote a couple of recommendations and came away thoroughly inspired. Like many times in the past, I got a reply back from one of the recepients saying how he was speechless after reading about what his dream perspective on life is.
Instead of seeing people for who they are, sometimes I see them for who they can be. That's empowering, for me and the other.
by Nipun Mehta on Jan 12 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'
Status of Blogging :)
While I take my time to mid-wife the birth of the gratitude blog, :) just a quick note to let you know that I've been writing on the CharityFocus blog (like this Tigers Update) and kindness stories on the HelpOthers.org site (like this $62.82 story).
Oh, and Guri's got a new photo blog ... where she hopes to post a new photo everyday.
by Nipun Mehta on Jan 7 '07 | add comment | permalink | more 'misc'