These are my notes from the webinar that EO Coimbatore organised for today, 25th April. The livestream replay is at the bottom of this post.
“When you are in fog, you don’t need inspiration… you need clarity”
Sadhguru
Don’t seek inspiration, seek clarity.
Memory and Imagination – this is what we are suffering.
Right now you are home with family. Nothing is missing. Your memory can haunt you and your imagination can scare you. It is you who generates suffering.
Where is your intelligence working? For you? Or to scare you? Or to haunt you?
Family and Relationships
Every relationship we have formed, we have formed to fulfil our needs. We cannot control the other. Everything that happens outside of us (outside of our mind) will not happen our way.
Do you want control? Get a dog. Guaranteed 12 year love affair. No human being will give such love.
On Freedom…
Freedom in the USA = I want my freedom to not change, to not adapt, to have my haircut… even while people around me are dying
70% of US employees “hate their job”… and still go… what damage it does to oneself to spend time with people or things that you “hate”
- Many are stuck in the rut… but it is a comfortable rut
- If the virus lockdown is short… we will stay in our ruts
- If the virus lockdown is long… we will be forced to leave our ruts
If the quarantine is less than 12 months… we’ll go back to our old ways. Growth, growth, growth… 2%, 5%, 8%… we will destroy this planet.
What is success without growth?
Either consciously we slow down… or an outside force will slow us down. If we don’t do this now, we will never make this change.
Thought experiment…
Everyone in India is walking around with the latest phone, the latest sneakers. It is like it is an embarrassment to have a 4 year old phone. Imagine:
- If you buy a phone, you must use it for 4 years
- If you buy a car, you must use it for 8 years
If we don’t do this now, 2050 or 2100 will be bring massive challenges for humanity.
Are we serious about sustainable development goals?
Investment is messed up
“Over 70% of global investment goes into 30-40 cities”
Sadhguru
No city can handle this level of inflow. Not New York, not Mumbai. Slums are a terrible place for women, for children. There is dignity on the land… but not in the slums.
How to create opportunities for human beings where they are?
If we saw our children without food for just one day, the food industry would change very rapidly. We would each highly value having some land.
Education – ripe for major change
Today: Teacher is someone who has read a book you haven’t read. Education as transmission of information is on the way out.
Teacher must become someone who helps you read books you haven’t read, and inspire you to create the works you can create.
Taking care of Oneself
“I have not given the privilege to anybody to make me happy or make me sad”
Sadhguru
What is being well? …to be Happy, to be healthy, to be functioning well. This can only happen if the controls are inside.
Are you joyful as your own nature, or triggered by outside? Once you leave it in the hands of other people, you are accidental in your existence.
If you are accidental, anxiety is guaranteed.
There was happiness before iPhone, car, home. The experience of being human doesn’t change. Only the outside changes. We get used to certain things, and we think this is life
What we gather should serve us. People have lost the distinction between what is me and what is mine.
There are two kinds of suffering – body, mind.
Today it is like the Animals/Plants are saying: “Let’s make the planet great again”.
It is Friday for 6 weeks…
- The problem is not work
- The problem is not family
- The problem is your own mind
Education should focus on “the inner wellbeing of the human being”.
Your body and your mind should work for you, always. Anxiety is your own mind working against you
The science of inner wellness
Only to create pleasantness in our surroundings depends on many many factors. Pleasantness in mind, in health, in compassion… this is under my control
“The One Thing”
Be part of the solution. Inner audit – am I contributing to solution or to problem?
Be part of the solution. Do what you can do. Don’t make things worse.
If you liked this, you will also like Sadhguru: If you lose your laugh, you lose everything and Relationships: Build trust.
What are your thoughts?