The Third Mindfulness Training

Once upon a time, there lived a handsome young man - Megh (Cloud). One day, Megh left his village for the capital in search of a job. On his way to the capital, Megh stopped at many places to do small time jobs. By the time he reached the capital, Megh had earned five gold coins.

When Megh reached the capital, he heard that the Buddha Dipānkara was going to make an appearance. Everyone was so excited! Megh too wanted a glimpse of Buddha Dipānkara. He had heard so much about him. Here was a chance to see a Buddha in person! Megh did not want to meet the Buddha empty handed. But what do you gift a Buddha?

Suddenly she appeared, right in front of him, carrying five lotus flowers in her hands. It was as if the Goddess of Beauty, Rati had appeared in human form. She looked at Megh. He looked at her. The poet Kalidas has said that love begins with the exchange of glances.

Let's call her Pushpa (Flower). If you look closely, you can see the cloud in the flower and the flower in the cloud.

"Those are beautiful lotus flowers! Where did you find them?", asked Megh.

Pushpa replied, "I bought three from the local florist and plucked the other two from the lake near my house."

"I was looking to buy a gift for the Buddha Dipānkara. Will you sell them to me?"

"Why should I? I intend to offer them to the Buddha myself."

"I will give you five gold coins."

"I don't care much for money."

"Ok. Keep the three that you bought from the florist and sell the other two to me."

"What's your name?"

"Megh."

"Listen Megh, flowers are a symbol of love and love is not for sale."

Megh didn't know what to say. Suddenly it was announced that the Buddha Dipānkara was going to appear on the stone platform. Pushpa slipped two lotus flowers into Megh's hands. He smiled. She smiled back. Second stage of love.

The Buddha began speaking. "Dear friends, look at this mango. But can you also see the mango tree? A mango tree comes from a mango seed, earth, water, air and sunshine. These elements are already present here but you are unable to see the mango tree. A mango tree is a sign. We are caught in signs. Where there are signs there is deception. The mango tree is right here but you don't see it because you are looking for certain signs. When those signs are not present we think the object is not present. We experience separation. We experience suffering. But I have some good news for you. Separateness is an illusion. We can awaken from this illusion. To be awake is to be mindful. The Five Mindfulness trainings are the practice of Right Mindfulness. They are an expression of true love. Learn to love. If you truly love, you can be together forever. You can be free from birth and death."

The crowd applauded. Megh and Pushpa were delighted. Megh threw a lotus in the Buddha's direction. It fell right into Buddha Dipānkara's hands. Pushpa too threw a lotus in Buddha Dipānkara's direction. That too fell right into his hands. Everyone cheered! Buddha Dipānkara smiled. He called Megh and Pushpa on to the stage. He could see true love blossoming in their hearts. He advised them to practice the Five Mindfulness trainings together.

A few days later, Megh and Pushpa married. They were happy.

At the age of 50, Pushpa died. Megh suffered. Separation causes suffering. Megh began to understand this. We suffer when we are separated from a person, an object or a condition that we desire. He loved Pushpa and did not want to live without her. What is the use of meeting if we must part? Everything ends in separation in samsara. There is no happily ever after in samsara.

Such experiences lead to one of the two things - despair or a quest. Pushpa's love and their practice of the Five Mindfulness trainings inspired Megh to find his way back to her.

Many years later, Megh was born as Prince Siddhartha in Kapilvastu (Kausambi). Pushpa was born as the Koliyan Princess Yashodhara. They never parted again.

Something is true if it always exists. True love always exists, in samsara as well as nirvana. When we experience true love even for a few minutes we touch nirvana. At that time, we abide in apranihita (the samādhi of aimlessness).

Many people feel that true love does not exist. They say that those who believe in the existence of true love are idealists and are harbouring wrong views. What do you think?

We must understand the difference between existence and manifestation. That something is not manifesting does not mean that it does not exist. When you are at work, your family members who are at home, do not manifest. That does not mean they do not exist. They will manifest when you go home. To come home is to come to love.

The practice of the third mindfulness training has four aspects - Maitri, Karuna, Mudita and Upeksha.

Maitri - Maitri means love, friendship or a union. It is the practice of being a friend or a lover forever, without expecting anything in return. To let go of expectations is the practice of renunciation. We are no longer enslaved by anger, jealousy, pride etc. as they manifest only when we seek for ourselves.

Karuna - Karuna is the ability to understand and eliminate others' suffering. Our presence should bring joy to others. Veganism, social activism, etc. are some ways we can practice Karuna.

Mudita - Mudita is joy. Our practice should fill us with joy. Social engagement in accordance with the Five Mindfulness Trainings can help us manifest joy. Practicing tea meditation in a group is an example of such a social engagement.

Upeksha - In love, there is no discrimination. Upeksha is the lack of discrimination. No one is superior or inferior. Men not superior to women. Humans not superior to animals. There is no hierarchy. We must practice and promote mindfulness and veganism and help social causes like gender equality, peace and non violence etc. but be careful not to become a part of a hierarchy while doing so. We must practice treating everyone as a member of our family and not seek to eat them, use them as resources, earn more than them or to be their manager or ruler.

To love is to understand. Understand what? The understanding that we are not separate from each other. That you are in me and I am in you. I exist because you exist. This is called shunyatā (the samādhi of emptiness). To experience this we must practice true love. For us to exist, everything else must exist. Our body comes from our parents. If we did not exist in our parents, where did our body come from? If our parents are not in us, how come our DNA reveals their identity?

People we love are not separate from us. They are in us. To learn to recognize them without signs like body, voice, name etc. is animitta (samādhi of signlessness). When we abide in animitta, we cannot be separated from our loved ones.

The Five Mindfulness Trainings lead us to the samādhis of shunyatā, animitta and apranihita. So we must practice them diligently.

"Be a lover. Be a beloved."

(The author, Saurabh Singh, is a student of Thich Nhat Hanh.)

#ThichNhatHanh #SisterChanKhong #5Mindfulness #TrueLove #Maitri #Karuna #Mudita #Upeksha #Emptiness #Signlessness #Aimlessness

What The Buddha Taught

A cloud never dies. In fact, nothing can be created or destroyed. Water turns into clouds which turn become ice or rain and flow in the form of rivers. The water in your tea is really a cloud and will be a cloud again. The tears that we shed will turn into rain someday. Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing can turn into nothing. There is only continuation. Not even a speck of dust can be destroyed. Before we were humans, we existed in other forms. We were animals and before that we were plants and trees and before that we were rocks and ice and air etc. We are a continuation of everything. Everything exists in everything else. All mothers exist in their children. And where do children come from? From their parents. They are in their parents only then they can come from their parents.

Since we cannot transform into nothing, we will continue to exist. We will stand to benefit if there is peace and joy. We will suffer if there is violence and pain. What we will be tomorrow depends on what we are today. If we consume cigarettes and alcohol, our tomorrow may not be healthy. It is very important to perform right actions.

If clouds create a world where rain is despised and made to suffer, then those very clouds will suffer when they become rain. In a world which discriminates, we will become victims of discrimination. In a violent society, we will end up experiencing violence.

We don't want to make ourselves or our loved ones unhappy, do we? But when we perform wrong actions or harbour wrong views, we make them suffer.

Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths.

The First Noble Truth is that we experience suffering.

The Second Noble Truth explains the cause of suffering. We suffer when we are separated from someone we love, or from something we want or from conditions that would make us happy. This is because we perform wrong actions which come from wrong views, which are in turn a result of ignorance (lack of understanding).

The Third Noble Truth says that there is a way out of suffering. When a cloud transforms into rain, if other clouds think that the cloud has died then the problem is their inability to recognize manifestations and communicate universally. This is lack of know-how - ignorance. Since the problem is ignorance, it can be fixed through perfect understanding.

The Fourth Noble Truth is the path. Right Mindfulness leads to Right Concentration which leads to Right Views which leads to Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Actions and Right Livelihood. We, then, must practice Right Diligence to ensure continuity in our practice.

Practicing the Five Mindfulness trainings (Panchsheel) is Right Mindfulness.

You can't be happy or free from worries if someone is trying to kill you. This is why we must not kill or encourage killing. This practice of nonviolence is the first mindfulness training. It leads to peace. If you people don't fight, we won't have wars and other firms of violence. Animals too experience pain just like us when we inflict pain upon them by killing them or hurting them. When we practice the first mindfulness training we stop hurting animals too. Death causes separation and that is a painful experience, so we must not cause or encourage killing.

You can't be happy in a society where economic and social inequalities exist. You don't mind your mother making more money than you. This is because she shares her property, food and monetary resources with you. A noble family collectively owns it's material resources. In our society, we don't own our resources collectively. Some people rig the system to create and illusion that they deserve more than others. This leads to discrimination, hierarchy and inequalities. The second mindfulness training is to not seek more than others and to share what we have with others. We must not seek to create wealth while others starve to death and have to constantly worry about paying their bills. When we take more than others, we are stealing from them. No employee ever agreed to starvation wages while his CEO made billions. When we consume cow's milk or wear wool or leather, we are participating in large scale theft. No cow gave permission to you to consume her milk. To take from others, what is theirs, without their permission is theft.

We create grounds for discrimination like specie, caste, gender, educational qualifications, roles, designations etc. Such wrong views and actions are enforced on our society through an established hierarchy. Such hierarchies exist everywhere, from schools to offices to the political system. Religions too are grounds for discrimination and foster wrong views. All discrimination is due to lack of love. In love we are equal, we are one. The third mindfulness training is true love. True love can only exist when understanding exists. This kind of understanding is explained in the Prajñapāramitā Hriday Sutra. The Buddha's body came from his parents, his language, food habits etc. from the society, his education came from his Hindu teachers, his food and drinks came from the Earth and farmers and cooks. Everything else in the world makes up a Buddha. A Buddha is made up of everything else but a Buddha, that is why he is a Buddha. This is the correct understanding of self. This is how we all exist. A flower is made of everything else but a flower, that is why it is a flower. When the flower realizes this, then she does develops perfect equanimity and loves everything. Then we cannot kill, exploit or hurt others.

We do not realize and practice true love because we have been taught wrong views. We are taught by our political, social and religious leaders that it is acceptable to kill enemies and animals. We are taught to discriminate between men and women, humans and animals etc. The fourth mindfulness training is the practice of mindful communication. So we must not propagate wrong views. We must communicate in a manner that brings hope and promotes right understanding. Through our communication we must seek to end discrimination and inequalities. Our communication should promote mindfulness and true love. Violence, inequalities, exploitation etc. will end only when everyone practices true love.

We can see so many people brainwashed into violence. They have acquired wrong views. These wrong views have resulted in wrong actions which have become habits. For example, food habits like consuming animals and animal products like milk. We consume through our five senses and what we consume leaves an impression on our consciousness. The fifth mindfulness training is the practice of mindful consumption. We must be aware of what we are consuming and avoid what is harmful to us or is obtained through cruel means. The most common way we consume is by breathing. So we must develop awareness of our breathing. This is Ānapānasati. This leads to abiding in the four establishments of mindfulness (Satipatthana). These lead to the development of mindfulness which is one of the seven factors of awakening which in turn leads to the development of  the other six. The seven factors of awakening lead to enlightenment.

To share this understanding with others is the practice of giving (Dāna Pāramitā). All six pāramitās are in each other. So, when we learn, practice and create awareness about the Five Mindfulness trainings, we are practicing the six pāramitās, which is the education we need to embark upon the Bodhisattva career.

It is difficult to practice in a community where people are exploiting others, chasing wealth and sensual pleasures and engaging in violence. Therefore, we must help manifest communities which practice the five mindfulness trainings.

The Heart Of A Lover

If you take a spoonful of salt and add it to a cup of water, it turns salty. If, however, you add a spoonful of salt to a river, it does not turn salty. The heart of a lover is like a river - immense in its capacity to receive, embrace and transform.

When our hearts are like a cup of water, we suffer. To cultivate happiness, we must develop the heart of a lover.

Wish you a Mindful New Year! Be a lover. Be free.

The Ugly Truth About Indian Ecommerce

Traditionally, companies are set up with the intent to earn income. They provide a service or a product in return for money. They strive to keep their cost price lower than their selling price. They invest in plant and machinery, employees, expansion etc. Some of them come out with IPOs allowing small investors to participate in their growth.

The valuation of a company does not necessarily depend on the income it earns, it depends more on what it can earn in the future. People are willing to shell out more for shares in companies which operate in segments like  Ecommerce, Internet of Things and electric vehicles, which are likely to grow at a fast pace.

Companies like Flipkart command valuations based on their growth. They don't make profits. Flipkart and its subsidiary, Myntra, report their performance in terms of Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV). If they sell 10 units of a product with an MRP of $100, the GMV is $1000. GMV does not take into account the cancellations, returns, discounts etc.

GMV can be easily inflated and companies can show rapid growth even when there is little or no growth. By showing rapid growth they can attract investment at higher valuations. Investors play along as they hope to exit at higher valuations through or post an IPO, dumping their shares on small investors at astronomical valuations. 

Companies which represent performance in terms of GMV will not see their GMV reduce if your order is cancelled, undelivered or returned. In fact, they may be able to increase their GMV by selling the product again. If a company delivers a $100 product in great condition to a customer, it will have a happy customer and $100 in terms of GMV. If a company sells a $100 defective product to customer at 80% discount, it is returned and sold again, it gets $200 in terms of GMV! Surprisingly, the second company commands higher valuations! In many cases, the MRP is inflated to inflate GMV. Be careful with those private labels!

 Some ways in which Ecommerce companies inflate the GMV are:

1. Cancelling orders - Customers often find their orders being cancelled. The company may not really have those products. They may just let people place those orders attracting them with huge discounts and in the process inflate their GMV. They may be more than happy to issue a "goodwill coupon".

2. High RTO - RTO stands for "returned to origin". These are undelivered orders. Managers set high targets for their delivery staff and ask them to "deliver or RTO or don't come to work again". Unable to deliver all orders, delivery agents end up marking some orders as "RTO". These products are sold again! All that adds up to the GMV numbers. A company representing performance in terms of GMV may show growth even if all their Logistics staff go on a strike!

3. Tender Liquidation - Certain Ecommerce firms allow customers to place "cash on delivery" orders, pay using a credit card at the time of delivery and then return the product and obtain a refund into their bank account. A lot of people just place orders to convert the credit limit on their cards to cash.

4. Shipping damaged and wrong products - Companies deliberately ship defective merchandise to customers. If they are returned, they are sold again. Higher GMV!

5. Inflating the MRP - ACSI recently pulled up Flipkart for displaying a higher MRP on the website than what was printed on the MRP sticker. In order to prevent getting caught companies may be shipping many products without the manufacturer's MRP tag. They may just be printing the price on the barcode sticker. Watch out! Those prices may be inflated.

Mindful customer care staff may stop a lot of such activities, like high RTOs and returns. They may highlight issues to delivery centers and want improvements, so the companies insist that communication with DCs take place only through an established hierarchy. To prevent customer service staff from following up and taking ownership, companies set high targets and allow the system to be gamed. Those who can game the system, are rewarded will higher performance ratings, more money and are promoted.

The people who come up through such a system which is rigged, may be excellent at the following skills:
1. Disconnecting calls while making it look like a technical issue.
2. Exploiting loopholes in the CRM software to increase their email count.
3. Avoiding difficult or time consuming work (a.k.a skipping).
4. Providing meaningless responses like asking you for "more images" or requesting you to confirm if "product is unused" even if you might have already selected that option while initiating the return.
5. Networking with TLs, Managers, QAs etc.

Those who are good at these skills will be able to show higher productivity and quality scores and are awarded supervisory roles and perform functions like reviewing return requests and employee performance. Don't be surprised if a perfectly sensible and straightforward return request is rejected.

Companies induce their employees into acting in this manner by applying pressure, initiating disciplinary action, offering rewards and recognition and watering seeds of greed. Companies offer high salaries to supervisors to attract staff into chasing supervisory roles. At one Ecommerce firm, the customer service staff are paid as low as Rs. 200000 a year while team leads are paid Rs.700000 a year. Flipkart paid Mekin Maheshwari Rs.18+ crores in FY 2014-15. That's 100 times the salary of India's Prime Minister and over 1000 times the salary of a delivery agent.

The problems of operating in this manner are:
1. Customers are losers. They lose money and peace of mind.
2. Honest workers are punished. Good delivery agents and customer service staff are replaced.
3. Employees are pushed into a habit of acting unethically.
4. A hierarchy functioning unethically makes all decisions.
5. Lack of transparency (to protect the hierarchy).
6. High income inequalities.
7. Poor work culture spreads across workplaces.
8. Government loses out on taxes.

This is not how things should be. We must always strive to maintain high ethical standards. If we reward the wrongdoers then there will be more wrongdoers. We are fast becoming a nation of cheats, corrupt and greedy. Economic inequality is at an all-time high.

If we want change, we will need to create awareness about this and demand action. Each one of us can do our bit. All states and the center must take appropriate action to protect our values. We need powerful agencies and laws to protect the consumers and non-supervisory employees. At a personal level, we must learn to treat everyone equally and not seek more than others.

(The author, Saurabh Singh, is a student of  Thich Nhat Hanh.)

The Wisdom Of Equality

"The Wisdom of Equality comes from the seventh consciousness, manas. Manas is the number one discriminator. It says, "This is me. This is mine. This is not mine." That is manas's speciality. We have to keep this consciousness, so that it can become the Wisdom of Equality...

Wonderful Observation Wisdom transforms manas into the Wisdom of Equality. We are one. We are equal."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Just 100 people in India own about 10% of India's national wealth. Think about it. That's a lot of money in the hands of very few people. Flipkart paid its Chief People Officer, Mekin Maheshwari, Rs.187 million in the year 2014-15. That's about 100 times the salary of India's Prime Minister and 1000 times the salary of a delivery agent.

Just how much money is enough? I don't think many people think about it. They only compare. Seeking career growth and financial rewards has become a deep rooted habit.

Let us consider the example of a department in a fictitious company, Look Good Corporation. This department answers customer queries received via email. They spend 50% of their wage budget on the people who actually respond to those emails and 50% on supervisory staff like Quality Analysts, Knowledge Management Analysts, Trainers, Team Leads and Managers. It may be possible to write 35 emails in a day but to make financial sense they would need to write 70. The additional 35 to pay the wages of the supervisory staff. Naturally, this leads to unhappy employees as well as customers (as the quality of responses are of poor standard).

If they decided to eliminate hierarchy and implement pay equity, they could double their staff strength and each one would only need to write 35 emails in a day.

The hierarchical system is a manifestation of manas's habit of discriminating. Since we discriminate, one can be superior to others and earn more than others. To earn more money and for recognition and power, we are willing to push others into a life of economic difficulties and make them participants in unethical workplace practices.

If we let go of our desire for such kind of growth, we can transform our workplace into a monastery.

Monks don't possess personal wealth. They all have similar rooms. The teacher is also a monk and does not earn more money than other monks. They wake up at the same time, eat at the same time, study together and meditate without fail. They are disciplined and well organised. Decisions are made collectively. The attrition rate is lower than that at corporations like Flipkart.

We can only continue doing something for a long time if we are happy doing it. Unfortunately, in a hierarchy, the system can be rigged, causing dissatisfaction. Incompetence is rewarded more often.

At Look Good Corporation, they announce opportunities through Internal Job Postings. People apply for these if they want to be promoted. People who apply for the IJPs are looking for more money and better career opportunities for themselves. How can such selfish people make good leaders?

Almost everyone at Look Good Corporation applies for IJPs. If all of them can work by themselves, supervisory roles should have become redundant. If they can't work without supervisors themselves, what makes them think they can supervise others?

Supervisory staff rig the system to prove that they are still needed. If supervisors could really make staff better, staff would work without supervision and supervisors would not be needed. In fact, they do just the opposite. By breaking down a process into parts, constituting separate teams and introducing access restrictions, they hide information from others to create an appearance of possessing more knowledge. They require staff to seek approvals from them. They use their ability to distribute and evaluate work to hide reality and present a completely different picture. Ah! The machinations of manas.

Naturally, in such an environment, no one can be happy. If you make others unhappy, they won't just sit back and watch. There's stress and moral corruption. Politics and disruptions.

If we let go our desire for this kind of growth, it is possible to be happy. We don't need to become the CEO of Look Good Corporation. The 100 richest Indians should not be our role models. We should look up to the Bodhisattvas and follow their footsteps.

Each one of us has come into contact with Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are beings who selflessly help others. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, teachers etc. have frequently manifested Bodhisattva qualities, loving us without seeking money, worldly goods, recognition, incentives or designations in return. We must stop seeking material pleasures. They become necessities, then they enslave us. Then we lose our ability to stand up for what is right.

We must look deeply to see how discrimination manifests suffering and allow the Wisdom Of Equality to arise. Shantideva wrote this verse to strengthen his and our commitment to the Bodhisattva path:

"May I be a guard for those who are protectorless,
A guide for those who journey on the road,
And for those who wish to cross over to the other shore,
May I be the boat, the raft, the bridge."

(The author, Saurabh Singh, is a student of Thich Nhat Hanh.)

No one is free when others are oppressed

The Wife's Cooking

Once upon a time a young North Indian man who was seeking enlightenment came to the South. Here, he met a South Indian woman who was also seeking enlightenment. They fell in love and married.

After marriage, they began practicing the five mindfulness trainings and meditation.  They now studied the sutras together. It was wonderful! They would hold each others' hands and practice walking meditation in the morning and evening. They would study the sutras during the day. The young man would tend to the plants while his wife cooked delicious vegan food. At night they would practice sitting and hugging meditation before falling asleep.

There was just one problem. The young man ate very fast. The young woman diligently practiced cooking meditation and put all her love and culinary skills at work but it made no difference. It did not matter what she cooked, the young man would just gobble everything up in no time. She used to put in a lot of effort while cooking and desired to see her husband eat in a relaxed manner enjoying the food but this was not to be.

One day she confronted the young man.

"Why do you eat so fast?", she asked.

"What a strange question! ", he answered, "This is how my father ate, my grandfather ate and my great grandfather ate. They must have had a good reason!"

The young woman explained to her husband, "Dear one, do you remember the Kalama Sutra? Do you think we should do something just because our father, grandfather and great grandfather did so? Do you think this habit of eating so fast makes sense? How would it be if we walked very fast while practicing walking meditation? How would it be if we got up immediately after sitting while practicing sitting meditation? If we just hugged for the sake of hugging? An action performed in a hurry has no meaning. Eating mindfully also means to contemplate the food that we are eating and to enjoy it. Food is a gift of the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the rain, the farmer etc. There's my love in it too. I wish that you practice mindful eating from now on."

Upon hearing these wise words from his wife, the young man immediately understood the Kalama Sutra - the charter of free enquiry. He also understood the importance of eating mindfully.

Later that night while practicing sitting meditation the young man realised that we are what we eat. He realised that food obtained through cruel methods brought about suffering and food obtained from plants helped heal and nourish the body and mind.

He opened his eyes and looked at his wife. She looked so serene and beautiful practicing sitting meditation. He immediately understood that it was her love in the food that she cooked for him that brought him to such important realisations. He realised that it was her practice of the third mindfulness training, True Love, that was taking him closer to enlightenment. How wonderful it was that she was in his life!

(The author, Saurabh Singh, is a student of Thich Nhat Hanh.)