It's Impossible to Please Everyone

I'm writing this as a reminder to myself not to fret about some people who keeps challenging what I do.
- When I write a lot, it's "too much" - though I think some people would have appreciated it as being thorough
- When I write a short description, it's "too little" and does not have enough justification - but some people might have think it's simple?
Well, there's hardly anytime when the length of what I write is appropriate to some people, these people always have a way to challenge whatever I do.

So I rest my case. Challenge me if you want, I know that some other people would appreciate what I do, and unfortunately, you do not.

~ttg @ Realized Tranquility of the Heart~

Me!

Decided that I will make this month all about me. I will love myself and respect myself. I believe I will be a happier person after this since I am pampering myself so much! Then when I'm happy with me I'm sure I'll be more ready to spread some of the love around to other people. Love starts with me!

~ ttg @ Realised Tranquillity of the Heart~

Hyderabad - a great learning experience

Besides work training, I managed to visit Birla Mandir, an Indian temple made of white marble. This is where my colleague Gaurav introduced me to the characters in Mahabharata and Ramayana. Honestly I don't remember any of those characters by now. What I do remember is his excellent elevator pitch on the Mahabharata epic, that if it were made into a movie, it would be as great as Lord of the Rings, if not greater.

Thereafter, on my way back to Malaysia at the Hyderabad international airport, KS wanted to utilize her remaining Indian rupees, so we went to this book shop after she decided not to buy more kerachi biscuits. She bought a magazine, and I bought an illustrated Mahabharata book by Devdutt Pattanaik. The summary at the back of the book cover caught my attention, and it did its job as another great elevator pitch for Mahabharata.

True enough, the epic was interesting and suits me well. It's a mix of folklore, history and religion. While I know that Buddhism originated from India (and was earlier intrigued by another Indian colleague who tried to tell me about the history of Buddhism from an Indian perspective), I did not realise that Buddhism and India / Hinduism have so much in common. I also did not know that this is where the famous bhagavad gita originated from.

Then I went to read up on Mahabharata ans bhagavad gita on wiki, and found that there are writings suggesting that Buddha is an incarnation of Vishnu, same like Krishna. So this is where my colleague was coming from when he tried to explain that Siddhartha was believed to be incarnation of god Vishnu,which I objected at that time. Clearly this incident is trying to teach me to be more open. I do not know what I do not know. What I perceived as the truth may not be the case because I just do not know what I do not know.

I am very happy with whatever has taken place as I felt that I've learned so much on my religion. Seeing its roots in India, gave me a new perspective of looking at how Buddhism has evolved in India and in China. I'm also thankful to my new friends, however short our encounters were in India, I am grateful to have known you all and grateful that you were part of my spiritual journey. Sadhu!

~ttg @ Realized Tranquility of the Heart~

Today's Accomplisment - 20120417

Today's accomplishment
1. Completed 80% of the IFRS online training, could have completed 100% had the website worked. Good course, introduces accounting in a different perspective and make me understand why they make us study certain principles for accounting. For example, why is there a differentiation between liabilities and equities. I know that liability is what you owe other people, and equity is what the shareholders owned. IAS 32 put it in a light that you categorise things based on their substance and not because of their name. You would classify something as liability whenever you are obliged to repay other people. In IAS 23, it explains when to capitalize something (the rules), and the impact of capitalizing it instead of expensing it, i.e. it will result in higher profit, probably more tax as well? I still have to explore more about this, should a corporating pay more taxes today or in the future? In this case, if I capitalize the borrowing cost, profit is higher today and tax is higher today, but the asset will be depreciated later on, so profit would be lower, tax would be less, and I would have more cash flow in the future? Am not exactly sure if this is the correct logic, but interesting topic..

2. Because the website was down, I had to look for something else to do. So I opened up a file I've saved earlier on "I Moved Your Cheese". It strikes me as very familiar to Buddhist philosophy, in some ways:

When I first read the book, I thought about Buddhism because there was a sentence relating to it teaches people to adapt - I was thinking, isn't that what is preached in Buddhism, to be contented? This book says that, that is a dangerous thing to believe - to adapt - I was thinking, is something wrong with Buddhism to teach people to accept that things change, and to be contented with what you have?

Then it says, not to adapt blindly - again, it fits Buddhism - do not accept things blindly.

It also mentions that the mice are thought that things change, the cheese will diminish and you have to find cheese elsewhere - in line with Buddhism that things will change. But the mice are obsessed with chasing for the cheese day in day out in order to survive. There is no other meaning to life. So are we, we are chasing wealth and pleasure day in day out.

Have we wondered who created our world? Who put the "pleasures" and wealth for us to chase? Someone has created it and waited for us to react to it. We can either be tied to it, or we simply don't care as long as we have enough to survive, or we live for a different reason like BIG. If the "cheese" doesn't bother us, it doesnt control us, and we are free.

How to escape this maze or this samsara?
- By looking for aids to climb higher to see the bigger picture
- By not letting it control our thoughts
- By breaking down the walls

This piece of reflection is written as I think about it, with no thorouh analysis. I might revisit this again, as I just have the feeling that it is connected to the Dharma principles, in some ways.


~ttg @ Realized Tranquility of the Heart~

Complaining

There are so many moments when I feel like complaining, and upon calming down for just a few seconds, it can be traced back to myself on what I can do about it. I supposed this is the difference between someone who can lead and manage, and someone who is doing the work.. I am still at the stage of "doing the work", but well, at least I recognize this thought pattern now. Before I allow my mind or my mouth to complain, if only I can stop and think what I could have done, that would save a lot of downstream confusions and misalignments.

~ttg @ Realized Tranquility of the Heart~

Perception

In this life, it is so clouded with perceptions. I perceive what a person is like based on what I see, no matter how accurate you can get with all those theories on reading a person, I think it is still a perception. Even if you are accurate in a point in time, there's no guarantee that the person would just suddenly change his/her mind because of another influence. So how can we judge or perceive? In management they may say that it is a skill to be able to make the best estimate.. yes, and the best estimate will also go wrong.

I am just a bit tired of the perceptions going on recently, either made by other people or by myself.. I actually felt confused.. and I can see that I am also constantly changing because of what I see and hear. One may also say I am easily swayed, which is true.. but it makes me think of this issue - how much suffering perceptions have caused..

~ttg @ Realized Tranquility of the Heart~

2012 Mar 1

Today I felt the gain and loss and attachment. I was playing the Smurf's Village, I was at level 11, the past few days 8cve been planting crops quite vigorously, only to have the application crashed today. All previous achievement lost and I have to start from level 1 again! Perhaps I'm better off if I deleted the application completely, and save my energy for some other more beneficial things.

The other thing I'm noticing about this new toy of mine, is that I knew before this that there are free apps in the world wide web. But because my laptop isn't that mobile, well, it is mobile but not as mobile as a phone, I can still control the time spent online to a certain extent. But now with the smart phone and 2 data package, it's tempting me to download as much as I can to make full use of the package, which isn't really good.. This is a new world to me. It has change me in a way that I didn't expect...

~ttg @ Realized Tranquility of the Heart~