Dr. Ariyaratne's talk

On Thursday, Oct 15, 2009, we had a deeply inspiring talk given by a man who has spent six decades in active service and meditation. The talk was featured prominently by the Stanford Daily.

Dr. Ariyaratne started off by sharing the secret of meditation - that of becoming a scientist of the mind. By observing what goes on in the mind, we can go toward developing equanimity. He warned us against reacting - it is always better to respond after contemplation from a space of silence than to react from a space of anxiety and confusion.

He shared the incredible story of Swami Vivekananda and Rockefeller in his own special style and reiterated Swami Vivekananda's message of trusteeship of wealth, not ownership. As he spoke about the foundation of Sarvodaya, Dr. Ari lay emphasis on spirituality and morality. This brought an excellent question from the audience - "What is the difference between spirituality and morality?" Dr. Ari said that spirituality is the space where all distinctions and labels ceased to exist. That is where we just are. Morality is a much lower idea than spirituality, where distinctions do come in. It just has been seen that those who pursue spirituality naturally follow the rules of morality. For example, a spiritual person would find it very hard to tell a lie or deceive others. His idea of morality seemed to be much larger than the dictums of any creed - they were based on universal ideas of "truth-telling" and "right action."

He made a clarion call toward developing "purushatva" or personality (or strength of character). People with a strong character and willpower can do a lot of good for themselves and society, and therefore, Sarvodaya's aim is to help develop such character and willpower.

Next, here are a few reflections that have been shared by some of those who attended the talk.

"I can relate to Dr. Ari's comment that learning doesn't happen in the universities, it happens when you're out in the field trying to put things into practice. Some of my biggest life lessons I learned from a bunch of 7 year olds as I was trying to teach them to play soccer. The 45 minute meditation was tough and totally awesome ..."

"I am very thankful for a once in a lifetime experience of meeting such a spiritual person, a true Karma Yogi, a person who took spiritual and moral principles with a deep conviction and empowered people through service and kindness. My main take away from Dr. Ariyaratne's talk is inspiration - inspiration to pursue noble silence, inspiration to follow the path that I feel is right, inspiration to pursue service with the realization that "self-belief" is very important in such endeavors - this self or I should not be limited to the physical me but should be ever expanded to include more and more people and living beings into the "I".

Dr. Ariyaratne's description of the fundamental ideas on which Sarvodaya are based provides an excellent, proven, and working model for how grassroots-level community development can occur with the right spiritual and moral focus. The existence and functioning of such an organization provides a lot of hope for the future. At the same time, I realized during the talk that I need to become actively part of such a change. I should not limit such ideas to just thoughts but convert it into action. This was another take away that I got from the wonderful talk."

"He started his talk quoting a phrase from the Dhammachakkapawattana sutta which was the Buddha's first sermon-"Chakkung udapadi----"- meaning "Vision arose, knowledge arose, wisdom arose, science arose, and light arose in me". Dr. Ari said (something like) he was inspired by these five (attributes?) of the Buddha.

He said that he would call the meditation we did at the beginning "Noble silence" because during that time we were free from the things we were accustomed to do with our six senses. Instead we were either just looking or trying to look at the constant process of breathing in and out which were are doing since our birth, or thinking of well being of others if we were doing something like loving kindness meditation.

He said that "Love is love" and there are no barriers from religion, race, etc., meaning that it is universal.

On his basic principles, he mentioned that he has adopted the gradual development at six phases-self awakening, family awakening, village awakening, city awakening, country awakening, and the world awakening - throughout his Sarvodaya movement. They all lead to the next, seems very logical."

Thanks to Christine for taking photos (note the art in the background - that was Project Love's contribution). If anyone else has photos, please do share them with us. You can also check some thought-provoking questions on Michael's blog.

Looking at the gifts that were left in the Gift Room at the end of the day, it was awesome that all the meditation handbooks are gone. We should get more at the next event. The Art Room raised some interesting questions, and Michael should be sharing the resulting art soon.

Here is the video of Dr. Ari's talk:

# posted by Capital Socialist/Social Capitalist @ 10:45 AM 3 comments

What is your 1000-year plan?

Imagine a speaker who starts off with the question, "What is your 1000-year plan?" This was Prof. Anil Gupta, a man who has stretched the boundaries of intellectual property rights to bring it to rural innovators, who are normally ignored by mainstream society.

Speaking to a diverse group in the Summer Quarter (Aug 2, 2009), Prof. Gupta shared the story of Shankaracharya, a young monk who started four centers of dharma in the four corners of India with a 1000-year plan of providing a beacon of guidance to humanity. These institutions still exist, a thousand years after they were founded, and inspire society with its adherence to truth and service. A more recent manifestation of this service is in the Shankar Netralaya hospital, known for its excellence in eye-care service in South India. Prof. Gupta made the point that in modern society, we are able to take out a whole town or city with a bomb. In ancient society, wherever an enlightened teacher arrived, even if it was in a forest, a new township and direction for life would emerge.

Prof. Gupta encouraged the audience to think for humanity with a horizon that reaches far beyond our lifetimes. Such a mindset would help us give priority to long-term benefits over short-term benefits, and we will find ourselves invariably thinking about what we value at our core.

He then shared his hypothesis - that innovation happens in an environment of scarcity, not abundance. Therefore, there are many innovation stories waiting to be told in the poorest communities of society, and they have much to give us in terms of creativity. To prove this, Prof. Gupta embarked on a journey across South Asia, criss-crossing village communities and becoming an observer of innovation. He became an expert on such innovations and one day, he realized that he'd made money with the knowledge imparted to him by rural innovators, and yet, his income tax return did not show any money that had gone to them. Bothered by this inequity, he decided to create a mechanism to encourage and support rural innovators.

The result is the HoneyBee Network, a massive database of innovation that takes our breath away with its expanse and creativity. The name is significant - a honeybee takes nectar from every flower and supports the flower's interest by pollinating it. It is symbolic of the symbiotic relationship we have with all beings in the universe. The network aims at catalyzing such a relationship between innovators and entrepreneurs. Prof. Gupta is perhaps the first to focus on Microventure formation (different from Microfinance, which focuses on proven businesses). Microventures are about innovations which are not yet in the market.

Here are some inspiring videos that have been produced by the network for Discovery Channel.



It was fascinating to hear that the tree-climbing apparatus in the video above was used by an east-coast professor to facilitate research on birds (yes, such researchers do need to climb trees) and to learn that tree-climbing was an unsolved problem until Appachan came along. Prof. Gupta remarked that we normally exercise on cycling machines but don't produce anything useful. Remya, the innovator behind the cycling washing machine, had managed to connect an opportunity for exercise with the need to wash clothes.

Over the course of the evening, we saw several other innovations, like the bicycle with a spring which speeds up, instead of slowing down, when going over bumps (by converting the bump into useful energy). Then, there was the man who would grind wheat on his two-wheeler. We heard about the farmers of Bangladesh, which faces famine and flood in the same year. They plant banana crops surrounded by other crops. When there is a flood, the banana crop absorbs most of the water. Later, when there is a famine, it releases this water to surrounding crops. What an ingenious discovery!

We saw the picture of a house in Kashmir, where the walls still look fresh with paint, after more than a decade. It turns out that jute powder was mixed with the paint. Jute has the property of being antibacterial, and is much cheaper than other chemicals used in hospitals to kill germs. This could revolutionize the construction of hospitals in any developing country if it were known more widely.

Finally, Prof. Gupta opined that the farmer suicides in India were preventable if the farmers had access to the innovation network. They wouldn't need to go to the market to get fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides and turn their farming process into the unsustainable endeavor that it has become today. Honeybee has documented several combinations of plants that support and protect each other naturally. All of Honeybee's database is freely available to all and many of the innovations are patented, so that innovators can share in the prosperity that comes from productizing their creation, which Prof. Gupta felt would happen in the traditional markets which had such mechanisms. It was an interesting observation that innovation happens in the fringes of society, far from the markets, but to bring it to regular people, we have to get back to the mainstream markets.

Prof. Gupta is on our mentor blog, and one of these days, we will hear from him. Here is a little group photograph with some of the attendees at the end of the event (thanks to Sachi for all the photographs).

# posted by Capital Socialist/Social Capitalist @ 3:00 PM 8 comments