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If you find the following post strange, then you’ve outsmarted me. My idea was to make it shocking!
Let me begin by telling you a story from my own life.
I was born into a devout Hindu family. I grew up listening to Vedic recitals, chanting the mantras and worshiping the gods (all the odd 330 million of them). I was barely thirteen when I began reading the Bhagavat Gita. By age fourteen, I was so completely immersed in it all that I gave up all material attachments and became an ascetic, walking around with a loincloth around my waist and sandalwood paste on my forehead.
Then, slowly but surely, disillusionment set in.
I saw no purpose in following some god whose job was to create creatures like us and play with our lives. I’m not going to be a puppet, I decided.
I was fifteen when I gave up asceticism, replaced the loincloth with jeans, and became a die-hard non-vegetarian, non-conformist and non-believer. At eighteen I was into marijuana, body piercing and other cool things.
A devout, God-fearing kid had grown up into a confused, angst-ridden, wayward, atheistic delinquent youth.
What went wrong along the way? What turned a dreamy adolescent into an ascetic, an addict and an atheist?
Nothing went wrong. It was all my choice.
I deliberately chose to go through all that I went through. Right from my birth. I chose my parents, my country of birth, the situations that I’ve been in, my trials, tribulations, frustrations, hopes, dreams, everything. I chose them all, for I wanted to savor the rich kaleidoscope of human experience. And I’m happy I did so.
The Bhagavat Gita that I read as an adolescent is in fact a book about myself. Lord Krishna who dispenses transcendental knowledge to the confused warrior Arjuna is none other than me. And Arjuna, too, is who else, but me. It’s fun to play these contrasting roles at the same time. Arjuna and Krishna, the muddled and the sublime, the victor and the vanquished, the sinner and the saint, war and peace, birth and death. Oh how I love to play these multiple roles! This variety is what keeps me lively and engaged. If not for this wealth of diversity, the whole idea of creation would be so mundane and outdated.
There is variety and flux because I choose it to be so. It’s all my choice.
Even at this moment, here on earth, it’s my choice whether I am happy or sad, whether I complain about what is not or be grateful for what is, whether I pursue my passion and go for my goals or I wallow in self-pity and drown like a mouse. Nobody else but I choose my own success and failure, I choose the way I live my life.
I choose, because I have life. I have life, because I am God.
Yes, I am God.
And so are you. Because we are one, inseparably one. We are one God with many faces.
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Can anyone actually walk barefoot across a bed of red hot burning coals and not get hurt? Is it possible to take your shoes off and walk on a heap of broken beer bottles without getting a cut on your feet? Fakirs and monks from the east have been known to have achieved such feats, but how about mere mortals like you and me?
Well, I did both and lived to tell the tale and share the lessons I learned.
Firewalk. It was a liberating experience. If you can walk on glowing embers and blazing fire, then you can certainly look at the little troubles in life and say: "Hey, you can't hurt me!"
The first time I ever heard of firewalking was from Indra Gurung, an HR trainer and friend of mine. He had participated in one of Anthony Robbins’ firewalking seminars in Manila some years back and would often talk of his experience. I used to think to myself, don’t some people have anything better to do than walk on fire?
But then, a few days back I found myself staring at a 12-feet stretch of embers and flame, ready to take the steps. Do you think I was scared? Or was I enthusiastic and eagerly waiting for the countdown from my coach? Honestly, I was filled with Fear (yes, with a capital F), and how I wished I could just run away from the scene. But then there was no escape, with more than a hundred people cheering and prodding me from all directions. I did the 12 feet marathon and when I reached the other end there was a winning smile on my lips and not a tiniest burn on my feet.
Then I did something else. I walked over a pile of broken glass strewn on the floor, and I did it without so much as a scratch on my feet.
Walking on broken glass. Look closely and you'll see fear written boldly on my face. But I made it unscathed. The lesson: "Feel the fear and do it anyway."
Tall tale? No. There was not a scar on the feet of any of the people who went through the experience. I was not an exception.
How did we do it? And why did we do it? Why would anyone in their senses ever want to walk barefoot on fire, or glass, or ice, or whatever for that matter?
Let me explain.
How is it possible?
Most promoters of fire and glass walk emphasize that you need to be in a special mental state or have an unwavering belief in order to prevent the hot coals from burning and the sharp glass edges from cutting your feet. Critics quickly point out that neither firewalk nor glasswalk has anything to do with the power of the mind, and it doesn’t really require any special mental state or ability; it all has to do with basic physics.
Going by the laws of physics, the reason you can walk on burning coals is that they are poor conductors of heat. It is the same reason why you can touch a cake baking inside an oven without being burned, but you can’t touch a metal plate inside the same oven.
Similarly, it is subtle pressure management when it comes to broken glass walk. A bed of glass is prepared with sufficient depth for the glass to be able to shift and settle as a foot is planted slowly and directly down upon it. This is somewhat similar to pressing a sharp knife with the flat of the blade against one's flesh, where considerable force may be used without injury.
A word of caution though, no matter how much physics or logic you apply, there are definitely serious risks involved in both fire and glass walks. So do not try any of them at home! To make matters clearer, swimming across a 12-feet deep pool is possible by all laws of physics, but you wouldn’t take the plunge unless you know how to swim or you have an experienced coach to guide you through the process.
Why would you do it?
In certain tribes such a practice is a part of the ritual that you can’t escape, and for the ascetics it may be a form of penance and surrender. As for Tony Robbins, Suresh Padmanavan (whose event we attended) and other life coaches, getting people to walk barefooted across a bed of red hot coals or a pile of broken glass is a way of driving home some valuable life lessons.
These people use fire or glass walk as a tool to demonstrate it to people how they can overcome their fears and limiting beliefs.
One of the most important sets of beliefs that we have are the beliefs about possibilities and impossibilities in life and these beliefs influence not only our choices, behavior and actions, but also the risks that we take and what we are willing to try. If we believe something is impossible for us, we wouldn’t even try it, would we? But once we start believing that something is actually possible, it opens up a whole new set of avenues and choices right in front of us.
The firewalk or glasswalk experience is a perfect example. People who have not seen or experienced any of them find it difficult to believe that anyone could actually walk on hot coals or broken glass without getting hurt. It seems to go against common sense and their previous experiences with hot coals or broken glass. But when they do the walk, the old belief comes crashing down, and there is a major shift in paradigm.
That’s what exactly happened with me.
PS: This article was written almost two years ago right after the event.
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I have been called ugly, stupid, dunce, failure, thief, everything. Not now of course, but in the past.
Do you think I am any of those? Not by any chance. I am a wise and handsome
author and educator who’s into giving, rather than thieving. And I am not a failure; I am a success by any definition.
What about the people who called me those names?
Well, I don’t even bother about them because I secretly know that they were calling those names to themselves.
How’s that?
Look, it’s simple. If they were beautiful people, they wouldn’t call me ugly. Those who have beauty in them also have the vision to see the beauty in others. And if they were wise people, they wouldn’t call me stupid. Those that are truly wise have the wisdom to see the greatness in others.
I never paid attention to what they said. I knew I wasn't any of the things they said about me. So whatever they said went back to them.
Indeed, what we see in others is really what we are. It is our own reflection that we see around us – good, bad, ugly, beautiful, success, failure, everything.
In the story of Little Master, the little boy learns this lesson from the stars. He and his friends were looking at the stars when…. Well, let me give you the extract from the book itself:
Suddenly, the sky looked unusually bright. There was a flurry of flashes and blinks all over the sky. It seemed the stars were in celebration of some kind.
Then the boys and girls heard whispers and giggles up in the sky. "We are beautiful! They think we are beautiful!" It was the stars whispering among themselves.
Then a bright old star in the northern sky blinked merrily at the boys and girls as if it was trying to get their attention. When they looked at it, it simply said: "Thank you for making us beautiful." The other stars immediately broke into a beautiful chorus. "Thank you for making us beautiful!" they sang.
The little boy was thunderstruck, and so were his friends.
"We... how do we... make you beautiful?" the little boy asked in great surprise and disbelief. "You are stars and we're just human, young and little."
The stars continued to sing. "You are made of the same stuff that we are made of. Yet you are more than the stars. It is you who make us twinkle."
"Wow!" exclaimed the boys and girls in unison. "How do we do that?"
The wise old star of the north winked heartily at them and said:
"We are stars because you call us so. We twinkle because you look at us. We dance with joy for you think we are beautiful. If it weren't for you, we'd just be balls of hot swirling gases."
The old star then joined its billions of little friends in the merrymaking. They were all frisking and frolicking and turning the sky into a heaven of lights.
The little boy and his friends continued to look at the marvelous night sky for some more time. Now they had a new reason to look there: to make the stars beautiful, to get them to twinkle. They even made new stars appear in different parts of the sky.
Imagine making the stars beautiful!
But it could be true. It could be true that the beauty we see around us (including that of the stars) is really our own beauty reflected back to us. It could be true that how we see other people is really how we are. It could be true that when we call someone ugly or stupid, we are really calling that to ourselves.
So the next time you are tempted to point a finger at somebody, remember that you might be doing that to yourself. The rubbish you want to hurl at someone might land on your own nose.
But what, now I hear you scream, but what if it is the others who are calling me the names and throwing the garbage at me? It’s they who think I am ugly and stupid. I am the victim here!
Well, in that case, you have a choice: Believe what those people say to you and dutifully play the role of a victim. Or do what I did – DON’T GIVE THEM A DAMN! Let them call you a thousand names, point a million fingers at you and scream their hearts out. You hold your head high, put a smile on your lips, pray for those poor souls and walk your way. For you know the truth.
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There is an interesting anecdote told about Michelangelo. He had just begun work on his masterpiece David chiseling away at a huge block of marble. People who passed by looked at what he was doing and remarked: “Oh, he’s making a statue.” A young boy was particularly intrigued by what he saw. There was no sign of a statue – all he could see was an old man working painstakingly on a piece of rock. So he asked Michelangelo what he was really doing. The great master looked at the boy and said with a smile: “There’s an angel inside this rock. I’m setting him free.”
Michelangelo saw an angel where others saw a rock. He was working to set the angel free while others thought he was making a statue.
In due time, the statue was completed and people looked at it in awe. It was breathtakingly beautiful – a majestic work of art. They then looked at the hands that had shaped the statue and then at the master himself. “It’s wonderful!” they exclaimed. “You’re a genius!”
Michelangelo smiled again and simply said, “If you knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”
How right!
We all have a David, an angel, inside us. The angel is hiding, waiting to be discovered, wanting to be revealed. Geniuses have found their angels. Every great person in history has found and followed their own inner angel. You and I can find ours too. All it takes is a realization that there’s an angel within and some work to reveal the angel.
Yes, it takes work. Ask Michelangelo, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates. It takes work. Ask a farmer who’s weeding the crops. It takes work. Ask a woman who has just given birth to a baby. It takes work!
It takes work to be a genius, and it takes work for a genius to reveal his angel. But it won’t seem like work. When you are out to explore your potential and uncover your genius, it won’t seem like work. Because it isn’t. It is a mission. A mission worth accomplishing.
Find your angel.
All the best.
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Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came,
and he pushed,
and they flew.
-Christopher Logue, British poet
Every kid is a genius. Any doubt about it?
No.
Then why do we need education, schools, and teachers?
To push them off the edge, to show them that they can, to tell them that they are geniuses.
Yes, kids are geniuses, but their genius is yet unexplored. We need education to explore and exploit that genius. We need schools to provide them with opportunities of exploration and discovery. And we need teachers to gently lead them to their greatness.
Indeed, it's the teachers. You can never tell what power they hold in the lives of children. They can ignite passion, inspire greatness, and expose genius from the very core. They shape countless lives and they steer the course of the world.
That is, if they know.
Many teachers do, and we have all felt their influence. It is as if they hold a magic wand in their hands. And there are those who do not know, and in place of the magic wand, they hold a cane of torture in their hands.
Let's see if this teacher in the excerpt below knows what she is doing. The excerpt is from Little Master (Chapter 9: What a teacher!)
"But you are not caterpillars!" the teacher thundered, all of a sudden.
Everyone turned to look at her. They were not surprised at all, rather they were all very eager. Eager to hear what she had to say and eager to see what she had to show.
The boys and girls looked at their teacher with hungry eyes and craving hearts.
She too looked deep into their eyes and peered into their throbbing hearts.
Their eyes were lovely. She had a wild desire to draw a picture on the canvas of those eyes. She knew she could draw and paint anything that she liked there. She could freely paint the scenes of a deadly past and a gloomy future. But then, she decided to splash them with the colors of life.
Now their hearts. She always had a free access into their hearts. She knew their hearts were as large as the world itself. Yet they were so fragile she could burst them with one piercing word. So she chose to build them up.
Such is the power of a teacher!
"You are heroes and champions, geniuses and giants," she declared, and her words echoed. "Shine, my little stars, shine. You have enough brightness in you to illuminate the whole world."
To the little boy, the teacher's words were like a bolt of lightning. He got a pleasant shock and he shivered.
That was when he realized that he had been imagining things. There was no teacher, no garden, no butterflies. It was all his imagination.
"Everything's possible in imagination," the little boy said to himself wistfully. What a teacher she was! She saw her students as who they could be in life. And they saw her as an angel. What a way to see each other!
Truly, what a way to see each other! And what a teacher!
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This is my first blog post ever and, as the title suggests, it is sort of an introduction and welcome note to my visitors.
For those of you who do not know me, I am an author and educator. I write to educate and educate to empower. I believe that every human being has a spark of genius already in them. All you have to do is find that spark, ignite it into a flame and set the world on fire. In other words, discover your potential, explore your limits and live up to your true genius. Prove what you're worth!
Perhaps by now you got an idea of what to expect to read in my blog. But let me explain, quickly.
I write about what I believe in. So you will find articles and resources in this blog that center around the subject of human potential. Now this is a pretty broad area, I understand, and there can be a whole range of topics within it. So to make things easier for both you and me, I have come up with the following four areas of interest, or categories.
Education: The articles you find in this category will be mostly about teaching and learning, about how education can be used to explore the genius and express the greatness that we are all born with. Education can be a joyful experience of marvelous discoveries, it can be an incredible opportunity to unravel your genius, and it can be a doorway to endless possibilities. It can be and it should be. If it is not so, then it isn't education at all - it is torture. I'll be writing quite a lot on this front.
Inspiration: Every article in this blog will be inspiring in some way, but the ones in this section will be especially so. Stories of human achievement and greatness find their place here. We all share a unique human connection, a thread that binds us all heart-to-heart, and so when you succeed, I celebrate, and when I excel, you revel! Isn't that so? If not, shouldn't it be so? We all need a little bit of inspiration and encouragement now and then, especially from one another. So let's celebrate human greatness and be inspired. I'll do my bit here.
Empowerment: Tools, techniques, resources, strategies, principles and disciplines for success and greatness - you'll find them here. No, I'll not give you '10-ways-to-to this' and '20-ways-to-do-that' sort of things. Not my style. I will share with you what I practice myself, or what I know leaders and achievers practice, or what has endured the test of time, or what is new and challenging and worth a try. So no cut-and-paste quick-fixes here. Only genuine, lasting stuff written in my own personal way.
Transcendence: I could have called this category spirituality too, but I like the term transcendence better. Whenever I come up with articles of spiritual nature, I’ll place them here. Now, some people would like to think that spirituality is for the mystics and the old and dying souls, and not for young and modern success-seeking go-getters. But I would say that it is for everyone alive, without exception, kids included. Yes, kids - they are perhaps the most spiritually aware people on earth. How innately curious they are about life and its meaning and purpose! They ask many profound questions like "Who am I? Where did I come from? Where do we all go after we die?" These are questions that adults have mostly forgotten to ask or they simply don't dare ask. I'll ask these and more questions here (in clever ways, of course) and also share my answers. Perhaps you may want to share yours too.
Now a word or two about updates. I plan to update this blog regularly, about once or twice a month, or once or twice in a couple of months. So hop in here now and then to check it out. Or you can receive my new posts directly by email or RSS, if you prefer it that way.
Lastly, and quite importantly, I would want your feedback. Use the form at the end of each post to make your comments about the post or any post-related topic. And if you have something else to say to me, some suggestions to make or some ideas to share, then feel free to contact me. I would be delighted to read your comments, suggestions and ideas. So do me that favor, will you?
Thank you for reading me.
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I am God!
Posted on 15 June 2009 10:50pm in TranscendenceIf you find the following post strange, then you’ve outsmarted me. My idea was to make it shocking!
Let me begin by telling you a story from my own life.
I was born into a devout Hindu family. I grew up listening to Vedic recitals, chanting the mantras and worshiping the gods (all the odd 330 million of them). I was barely thirteen when I began reading the Bhagavat Gita. By age fourteen, I was so completely immersed in it all that I gave up all material attachments and became an ascetic, walking around with a loincloth around my waist and sandalwood paste on my forehead.
Then, slowly but surely, disillusionment set in.
I saw no purpose in following some god whose job was to create creatures like us and play with our lives. I’m not going to be a puppet, I decided.
I was fifteen when I gave up asceticism, replaced the loincloth with jeans, and became a die-hard non-vegetarian, non-conformist and non-believer. At eighteen I was into marijuana, body piercing and other cool things.
A devout, God-fearing kid had grown up into a confused, angst-ridden, wayward, atheistic delinquent youth.
What went wrong along the way? What turned a dreamy adolescent into an ascetic, an addict and an atheist?
Nothing went wrong. It was all my choice.
I deliberately chose to go through all that I went through. Right from my birth. I chose my parents, my country of birth, the situations that I’ve been in, my trials, tribulations, frustrations, hopes, dreams, everything. I chose them all, for I wanted to savor the rich kaleidoscope of human experience. And I’m happy I did so.
The Bhagavat Gita that I read as an adolescent is in fact a book about myself. Lord Krishna who dispenses transcendental knowledge to the confused warrior Arjuna is none other than me. And Arjuna, too, is who else, but me. It’s fun to play these contrasting roles at the same time. Arjuna and Krishna, the muddled and the sublime, the victor and the vanquished, the sinner and the saint, war and peace, birth and death. Oh how I love to play these multiple roles! This variety is what keeps me lively and engaged. If not for this wealth of diversity, the whole idea of creation would be so mundane and outdated.
There is variety and flux because I choose it to be so. It’s all my choice.
Even at this moment, here on earth, it’s my choice whether I am happy or sad, whether I complain about what is not or be grateful for what is, whether I pursue my passion and go for my goals or I wallow in self-pity and drown like a mouse. Nobody else but I choose my own success and failure, I choose the way I live my life.
I choose, because I have life. I have life, because I am God.
Yes, I am God.
And so are you. Because we are one, inseparably one. We are one God with many faces.
 A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul |  Life skills for young people |  An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching |
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The tale of a firewalker
Posted on 08 June 2009 09:16am in Inspiration, EmpowermentCan anyone actually walk barefoot across a bed of red hot burning coals and not get hurt? Is it possible to take your shoes off and walk on a heap of broken beer bottles without getting a cut on your feet? Fakirs and monks from the east have been known to have achieved such feats, but how about mere mortals like you and me?
Well, I did both and lived to tell the tale and share the lessons I learned.
Firewalk. It was a liberating experience. If you can walk on glowing embers and blazing fire, then you can certainly look at the little troubles in life and say: "Hey, you can't hurt me!"The first time I ever heard of firewalking was from Indra Gurung, an HR trainer and friend of mine. He had participated in one of Anthony Robbins’ firewalking seminars in Manila some years back and would often talk of his experience. I used to think to myself, don’t some people have anything better to do than walk on fire?
But then, a few days back I found myself staring at a 12-feet stretch of embers and flame, ready to take the steps. Do you think I was scared? Or was I enthusiastic and eagerly waiting for the countdown from my coach? Honestly, I was filled with Fear (yes, with a capital F), and how I wished I could just run away from the scene. But then there was no escape, with more than a hundred people cheering and prodding me from all directions. I did the 12 feet marathon and when I reached the other end there was a winning smile on my lips and not a tiniest burn on my feet.
Then I did something else. I walked over a pile of broken glass strewn on the floor, and I did it without so much as a scratch on my feet.
Walking on broken glass. Look closely and you'll see fear written boldly on my face. But I made it unscathed. The lesson: "Feel the fear and do it anyway." Tall tale? No. There was not a scar on the feet of any of the people who went through the experience. I was not an exception.
How did we do it? And why did we do it? Why would anyone in their senses ever want to walk barefoot on fire, or glass, or ice, or whatever for that matter?
Let me explain.
How is it possible?
Most promoters of fire and glass walk emphasize that you need to be in a special mental state or have an unwavering belief in order to prevent the hot coals from burning and the sharp glass edges from cutting your feet. Critics quickly point out that neither firewalk nor glasswalk has anything to do with the power of the mind, and it doesn’t really require any special mental state or ability; it all has to do with basic physics.
Going by the laws of physics, the reason you can walk on burning coals is that they are poor conductors of heat. It is the same reason why you can touch a cake baking inside an oven without being burned, but you can’t touch a metal plate inside the same oven.
Similarly, it is subtle pressure management when it comes to broken glass walk. A bed of glass is prepared with sufficient depth for the glass to be able to shift and settle as a foot is planted slowly and directly down upon it. This is somewhat similar to pressing a sharp knife with the flat of the blade against one's flesh, where considerable force may be used without injury.
A word of caution though, no matter how much physics or logic you apply, there are definitely serious risks involved in both fire and glass walks. So do not try any of them at home! To make matters clearer, swimming across a 12-feet deep pool is possible by all laws of physics, but you wouldn’t take the plunge unless you know how to swim or you have an experienced coach to guide you through the process.
Why would you do it?
In certain tribes such a practice is a part of the ritual that you can’t escape, and for the ascetics it may be a form of penance and surrender. As for Tony Robbins, Suresh Padmanavan (whose event we attended) and other life coaches, getting people to walk barefooted across a bed of red hot coals or a pile of broken glass is a way of driving home some valuable life lessons.
These people use fire or glass walk as a tool to demonstrate it to people how they can overcome their fears and limiting beliefs.
One of the most important sets of beliefs that we have are the beliefs about possibilities and impossibilities in life and these beliefs influence not only our choices, behavior and actions, but also the risks that we take and what we are willing to try. If we believe something is impossible for us, we wouldn’t even try it, would we? But once we start believing that something is actually possible, it opens up a whole new set of avenues and choices right in front of us.
The firewalk or glasswalk experience is a perfect example. People who have not seen or experienced any of them find it difficult to believe that anyone could actually walk on hot coals or broken glass without getting hurt. It seems to go against common sense and their previous experiences with hot coals or broken glass. But when they do the walk, the old belief comes crashing down, and there is a major shift in paradigm.
That’s what exactly happened with me.
PS: This article was written almost two years ago right after the event.
| A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul | Life skills for young people | An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching |
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What to do when someone calls you ugly and stupid
Posted on 03 June 2009 02:36am in EmpowermentI have been called ugly, stupid, dunce, failure, thief, everything. Not now of course, but in the past.
Do you think I am any of those? Not by any chance. I am a wise and handsome
author and educator who’s into giving, rather than thieving. And I am not a failure; I am a success by any definition.What about the people who called me those names?
Well, I don’t even bother about them because I secretly know that they were calling those names to themselves.
How’s that?
Look, it’s simple. If they were beautiful people, they wouldn’t call me ugly. Those who have beauty in them also have the vision to see the beauty in others. And if they were wise people, they wouldn’t call me stupid. Those that are truly wise have the wisdom to see the greatness in others.
I never paid attention to what they said. I knew I wasn't any of the things they said about me. So whatever they said went back to them.
Indeed, what we see in others is really what we are. It is our own reflection that we see around us – good, bad, ugly, beautiful, success, failure, everything.
In the story of Little Master, the little boy learns this lesson from the stars. He and his friends were looking at the stars when…. Well, let me give you the extract from the book itself:
Suddenly, the sky looked unusually bright. There was a flurry of flashes and blinks all over the sky. It seemed the stars were in celebration of some kind.
Then the boys and girls heard whispers and giggles up in the sky. "We are beautiful! They think we are beautiful!" It was the stars whispering among themselves.
Then a bright old star in the northern sky blinked merrily at the boys and girls as if it was trying to get their attention. When they looked at it, it simply said: "Thank you for making us beautiful." The other stars immediately broke into a beautiful chorus. "Thank you for making us beautiful!" they sang.
The little boy was thunderstruck, and so were his friends.
"We... how do we... make you beautiful?" the little boy asked in great surprise and disbelief. "You are stars and we're just human, young and little."
The stars continued to sing. "You are made of the same stuff that we are made of. Yet you are more than the stars. It is you who make us twinkle."
"Wow!" exclaimed the boys and girls in unison. "How do we do that?"
The wise old star of the north winked heartily at them and said:
"We are stars because you call us so. We twinkle because you look at us. We dance with joy for you think we are beautiful. If it weren't for you, we'd just be balls of hot swirling gases."
The old star then joined its billions of little friends in the merrymaking. They were all frisking and frolicking and turning the sky into a heaven of lights.
The little boy and his friends continued to look at the marvelous night sky for some more time. Now they had a new reason to look there: to make the stars beautiful, to get them to twinkle. They even made new stars appear in different parts of the sky.
Imagine making the stars beautiful!
But it could be true. It could be true that the beauty we see around us (including that of the stars) is really our own beauty reflected back to us. It could be true that how we see other people is really how we are. It could be true that when we call someone ugly or stupid, we are really calling that to ourselves.
So the next time you are tempted to point a finger at somebody, remember that you might be doing that to yourself. The rubbish you want to hurl at someone might land on your own nose.
But what, now I hear you scream, but what if it is the others who are calling me the names and throwing the garbage at me? It’s they who think I am ugly and stupid. I am the victim here!
Well, in that case, you have a choice: Believe what those people say to you and dutifully play the role of a victim. Or do what I did – DON’T GIVE THEM A DAMN! Let them call you a thousand names, point a million fingers at you and scream their hearts out. You hold your head high, put a smile on your lips, pray for those poor souls and walk your way. For you know the truth.
| A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul | Life skills for young people | An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching |
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Angel in the rock
Posted on 28 May 2009 12:56am in InspirationThere is an interesting anecdote told about Michelangelo. He had just begun work on his masterpiece David chiseling away at a huge block of marble. People who passed by looked at what he was doing and remarked: “Oh, he’s making a statue.” A young boy was particularly intrigued by what he saw. There was no sign of a statue – all he could see was an old man working painstakingly on a piece of rock. So he asked Michelangelo what he was really doing. The great master looked at the boy and said with a smile: “There’s an angel inside this rock. I’m setting him free.”
Michelangelo saw an angel where others saw a rock. He was working to set the angel free while others thought he was making a statue.
In due time, the statue was completed and people looked at it in awe. It was breathtakingly beautiful – a majestic work of art. They then looked at the hands that had shaped the statue and then at the master himself. “It’s wonderful!” they exclaimed. “You’re a genius!”
Michelangelo smiled again and simply said, “If you knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”
How right!
We all have a David, an angel, inside us. The angel is hiding, waiting to be discovered, wanting to be revealed. Geniuses have found their angels. Every great person in history has found and followed their own inner angel. You and I can find ours too. All it takes is a realization that there’s an angel within and some work to reveal the angel.
Yes, it takes work. Ask Michelangelo, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates. It takes work. Ask a farmer who’s weeding the crops. It takes work. Ask a woman who has just given birth to a baby. It takes work!
It takes work to be a genius, and it takes work for a genius to reveal his angel. But it won’t seem like work. When you are out to explore your potential and uncover your genius, it won’t seem like work. Because it isn’t. It is a mission. A mission worth accomplishing.
Find your angel.
All the best.
| A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul | Life skills for young people | An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching |
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The power of a teacher
Posted on 23 May 2009 08:25pm in EducationCome to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came,
and he pushed,
and they flew.
-Christopher Logue, British poet
Every kid is a genius. Any doubt about it?
No.
Then why do we need education, schools, and teachers?
To push them off the edge, to show them that they can, to tell them that they are geniuses.
Yes, kids are geniuses, but their genius is yet unexplored. We need education to explore and exploit that genius. We need schools to provide them with opportunities of exploration and discovery. And we need teachers to gently lead them to their greatness.
Indeed, it's the teachers. You can never tell what power they hold in the lives of children. They can ignite passion, inspire greatness, and expose genius from the very core. They shape countless lives and they steer the course of the world.
That is, if they know.
Many teachers do, and we have all felt their influence. It is as if they hold a magic wand in their hands. And there are those who do not know, and in place of the magic wand, they hold a cane of torture in their hands.
Let's see if this teacher in the excerpt below knows what she is doing. The excerpt is from Little Master (Chapter 9: What a teacher!)
"But you are not caterpillars!" the teacher thundered, all of a sudden.
Everyone turned to look at her. They were not surprised at all, rather they were all very eager. Eager to hear what she had to say and eager to see what she had to show.
The boys and girls looked at their teacher with hungry eyes and craving hearts.
She too looked deep into their eyes and peered into their throbbing hearts.
Their eyes were lovely. She had a wild desire to draw a picture on the canvas of those eyes. She knew she could draw and paint anything that she liked there. She could freely paint the scenes of a deadly past and a gloomy future. But then, she decided to splash them with the colors of life.
Now their hearts. She always had a free access into their hearts. She knew their hearts were as large as the world itself. Yet they were so fragile she could burst them with one piercing word. So she chose to build them up.
Such is the power of a teacher!
"You are heroes and champions, geniuses and giants," she declared, and her words echoed. "Shine, my little stars, shine. You have enough brightness in you to illuminate the whole world."
To the little boy, the teacher's words were like a bolt of lightning. He got a pleasant shock and he shivered.
That was when he realized that he had been imagining things. There was no teacher, no garden, no butterflies. It was all his imagination.
"Everything's possible in imagination," the little boy said to himself wistfully. What a teacher she was! She saw her students as who they could be in life. And they saw her as an angel. What a way to see each other!
Truly, what a way to see each other! And what a teacher!
| A fantastic tale to delight your heart and ignite your soul | Life skills for young people | An unconventional guide to exceptional teaching |
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Hello and welcome
Posted on 18 May 2009 12:34am inThis is my first blog post ever and, as the title suggests, it is sort of an introduction and welcome note to my visitors.
For those of you who do not know me, I am an author and educator. I write to educate and educate to empower. I believe that every human being has a spark of genius already in them. All you have to do is find that spark, ignite it into a flame and set the world on fire. In other words, discover your potential, explore your limits and live up to your true genius. Prove what you're worth!
Perhaps by now you got an idea of what to expect to read in my blog. But let me explain, quickly.
I write about what I believe in. So you will find articles and resources in this blog that center around the subject of human potential. Now this is a pretty broad area, I understand, and there can be a whole range of topics within it. So to make things easier for both you and me, I have come up with the following four areas of interest, or categories.
Education: The articles you find in this category will be mostly about teaching and learning, about how education can be used to explore the genius and express the greatness that we are all born with. Education can be a joyful experience of marvelous discoveries, it can be an incredible opportunity to unravel your genius, and it can be a doorway to endless possibilities. It can be and it should be. If it is not so, then it isn't education at all - it is torture. I'll be writing quite a lot on this front.
Inspiration: Every article in this blog will be inspiring in some way, but the ones in this section will be especially so. Stories of human achievement and greatness find their place here. We all share a unique human connection, a thread that binds us all heart-to-heart, and so when you succeed, I celebrate, and when I excel, you revel! Isn't that so? If not, shouldn't it be so? We all need a little bit of inspiration and encouragement now and then, especially from one another. So let's celebrate human greatness and be inspired. I'll do my bit here.
Empowerment: Tools, techniques, resources, strategies, principles and disciplines for success and greatness - you'll find them here. No, I'll not give you '10-ways-to-to this' and '20-ways-to-do-that' sort of things. Not my style. I will share with you what I practice myself, or what I know leaders and achievers practice, or what has endured the test of time, or what is new and challenging and worth a try. So no cut-and-paste quick-fixes here. Only genuine, lasting stuff written in my own personal way.
Transcendence: I could have called this category spirituality too, but I like the term transcendence better. Whenever I come up with articles of spiritual nature, I’ll place them here. Now, some people would like to think that spirituality is for the mystics and the old and dying souls, and not for young and modern success-seeking go-getters. But I would say that it is for everyone alive, without exception, kids included. Yes, kids - they are perhaps the most spiritually aware people on earth. How innately curious they are about life and its meaning and purpose! They ask many profound questions like "Who am I? Where did I come from? Where do we all go after we die?" These are questions that adults have mostly forgotten to ask or they simply don't dare ask. I'll ask these and more questions here (in clever ways, of course) and also share my answers. Perhaps you may want to share yours too.
Now a word or two about updates. I plan to update this blog regularly, about once or twice a month, or once or twice in a couple of months. So hop in here now and then to check it out. Or you can receive my new posts directly by email or RSS, if you prefer it that way.
Lastly, and quite importantly, I would want your feedback. Use the form at the end of each post to make your comments about the post or any post-related topic. And if you have something else to say to me, some suggestions to make or some ideas to share, then feel free to contact me. I would be delighted to read your comments, suggestions and ideas. So do me that favor, will you?
Thank you for reading me.
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Uday Sharma
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I am a passionate educator. I write to educate, especially on areas of human potential.
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