Can Knowledge Bring Me Spiritual Well Being?

By Carl Serapian

Some of us can cite beautiful citations from holy books or even know by heart the story of Buddha. Can this knowledge bring spiritual well being? Let's explore this.

Knowledge is basically an accumulation of information. The nature of the mind is that it is always looking to accumulate things. When we accumulate knowledge, we can proudly say that we "know". We can have interesting conversations and debates with other people. We are excited to continuously learn, it's a beautiful thing.

Having said that, the spiritual path is somehow different. Spiritual well being is not rooted in knowledge; it is your experience as it is really happening from within. What does that mean? You can be sitting down, having a conversation with someone about what Buddha has said to his disciples, feel good for a few moments but still you know the burden that is waiting for you once you leave this conversation. Your wife, your boss or your troublesome child is waiting for you and you know you can't escape them! In this situation, we can say that what is happening in the background, behind your wishes for well being and your knowledge about well being is your true experience. You might try to hide that experience with beautiful thoughts, drugs or work but it will never last. Sooner or later you will fall down and experience sadness or whatever emotion you have been bottling inside of you.

To answer the question: Can knowledge bring me spiritual well being? I would say that knowledge can be a great introduction to it but by itself it would never bring you to it. Curiosity and the yearning have certainly their place on the spiritual path. But the real yearning, beneath the one to learn is the one of liberation. Knowledge doesn't liberate you for too long. In the long run it can actually get you further and further away from the spiritual path.

So if you are in a place where you are trying to feel better by learning more, you're still in a good place. There's never a "bad" place to be. You have a desire, that's for sure. You want more. Imagine how it would be if you can experience what you actually know. Imagine if you can make that feeling of liberation last for minutes, hours and days at a time. Imagine how it would be to actually know from within.

How will it be if you're in touch with a constant "knowing", a moment to moment "knowing", always there in your experience no matter what impossible situation is happening in your life?

Carl Serapian is an innovator in the field of personal growth with over a decade of research. For a limited time and for free, he's sharing his discovery of a simple powerful meditation rooted deeply in the yogic science of spiritual well being. It's available from his latest website that teaches taking and sustaining the spiritual path without having to change your current lifestyle.
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There Are Two Ways to Make Decisions - By Gut Instinct, or by CarefullyStudying All of the Facts

By Tom L Randle

"Right is not right; so is not so. If right were really right, it would differ so clearly from not right that there would be no need for argument. If so were really so, it would differ so clearly from not so that there would be no need for argument. Forget the years; forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home."

--- Chuang-Tzu

Gut instinct is really a function of experience. The more something has worked for you in the past, the more likely you are to use the same strategy again in the future. Sometimes you can use both methods and come up with two different courses of action. The easiest decisions are those in which your gut instincts and the facts point to the same course of action. Good decisions come from experience and experience comes from making bad decisions.

The tough calls come when these two things point in opposite directions and there was no other choice to be made.

Don't force it as instincts come naturally. If you have to deliberate for days whether something is really the right move, then your instincts are not clear.

• In my role as CEO of a large credit union in SW Florida, there was a director who did not share the approved governance policy and had tried for a decade to reshape it to his liking despite getting no support from others.

Take right action when opportunity presents itself. Getting the facts to back up your instincts is prudent; but there are situations that require swiftness. Waiting for more supporting data is not always an option. If your instincts say go for it, then take action.

• It was time for this person to go. He was damaging the organization. The board had known that for years in their gut.

Do not let fear of past mistakes cripple your decision-making. The best leaders in the world are not right 100 percent of the time. Sometimes your instincts may be wrong. Learn why you were incorrect in a particular situation and move on. Don't let past errors scare you into missing future opportunities.

• The board of directors is human and wished to extend an opportunity to this person to be successful as a director. They overlooked ten years of undesirable behavior because on occasion the person was a contributing part of the board. The fear of confrontation and of forcing a resignation ran contrary to their values and personality.

Showing moral courage and taking a stand against inappropriate behavior is a hallmark of an ethical leader. The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. The more often you walk past someone or something that your instincts tell you are wrong, the more emboldened that person becomes. They may have gone their entire life without anyone saying to them that their actions, words or deeds are unacceptable, wrong and offensive to your values and honor code.

We have heard the expression should have, could have, would have, if only and next time. These all point to wanting another chance in how we handled a particular situation. Sometimes important life and work issues don't come with a second chance to do the right thing.

What are you attracting into your life? If the results are less than satisfactory the issue may be that you have come to accept a standard that does not represent who you are, and you are better than that. Achieving a work-life balance forces you to ask are you moving toward what you want or simply away from what you don't? Not taking a stand and doing the right thing increases internal discord.

Where do you need more integrity? What do you feel is holding you back?

To receive a FREE Leadership Talents Assessment, contact us at http://www.kesgroupllc.com/index.php/contact-us
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Don't Study Too Much History - No One Will Understand Your ReferencesWhen You Talk

By Lance Winslow

The other day, I noted that one of my neighbors down the block had a garage door open and some ping-pong table set up. I asked them; "are you inviting over some Chinese to do a little international diplomacy and negotiation?" They laughed with me because they understood the reference. The reality is not many would, a good number of younger people in our society were not around when Nixon was president, or they didn't follow the news recently when Warren Buffett went to Asia and played table tennis as part of an international business affair.

One thing I found is that if you study history too much, and if you know too much about it, you are liable to catch people off guard who don't understand those references. They might think you are weird, or even strange, they won't understand what on earth you are talking about. Does this mean we shouldn't study history; because no one will understand the references we talk? No, I think you should study history, and it's unfortunate that more people don't. If they didn't understand the references, but they probably wouldn't make the same mistakes over and over that humans often make.

The pattern doesn't always repeat itself, but all too often it does, history really does repeat, but if you don't study your history, or if you study a false history with politically correct blinders, then I would say that old quote is correct; "you are doomed to repeat." Maybe more people should use such references when they have intellectual conversations in public, and maybe more people who don't understand what they're talking about might ask, maybe in that way we can transfer information to others and subsequent generations can learn from us.

It might be difficult to explain a historical reference in 145 characters in a tweet, but it's not impossible to do in one-on-one conversation, you can learn a lot when you study history, or when you talk to someone who has, even better someone who's lived through it. In fact, you learn more when you talk to people who have lived through it, lived to tell about it, and came back with personal lessons and personal perspectives because of it. It changes the way we live in the future of our society in so many ways.

With all of this said, it doesn't make sense to make people look stupid in public because they don't know what you're talking about, often attorneys do this, and esoteric university professors. It's probably why people don't like to talk to them very much. But everyone likes to hear a story, and when we hear stories we tend to remember them better, sometimes better than even our own history. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on the Future of Education. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

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Winning A Battle Is Not Winning The War

By Joshua Clayton

Some of the greatest battle wins have happened, and wars were lost after those small battles were won in a great way. Why? Because, in winning any war, including every day wars and struggles of life, what is worth it has to be picked, chosen, and clear strategies must be made clear as to when and why to take action in any matter. Small battles that are not worth it and large battles that are genuinely worth winning must be delineated clearly and fully. In short, leaping without looking is the most foolish thing that can be done.

Anything that is worth doing is worth doing right, and successfully. This is a key to what I mean by when you win, you must choose why you win it, what you when and how you win, in that order. Why you win is most important, because without the proper why, the rest will not work. Sacrificing for nothing is the most foolish thing you can do, you betray your reason why you are doing it as a whole. But when you have a good reason and know why you are doing it genuinely, you are that much closer to genuine success and greatness. When you do not know why or are not sure, you are that much farther from success. Genuine failure is simply not having a strong enough reason why to succeed. With that said, a success that is genuine knows absolutely why success is needed and wanted. A success that is phony or fake just wants success to "look good". So, I will impart this: This is where looking good and genuinely being good are two different things genuinely.

Living by what others think successfully is the epitome or highest ideal of looking good. Being good in your own genuine estimation is genuine success. That is a strong enough reason why that naturally combines with the how and creates the reason for you. Looking good is just empty success, being good is successful, it does not matter how you look at it, then. A genuine fool wants to look good for others. A genuinely astute and wise person wants to be good for themselves. In this sense, I can honestly say that life is as good as we make it for ourselves, but if dishonesty were the case, the "wisdom" of a genuine fool in my opinion would be: "They who die with the most toys, money, and clout wins." I believe in my first statement avowedly, life is as good as we make it for ourselves, and I would like to add this Aristotelian statement: Happiness is real power and the sadness lies in living purely by what others think and say. This is where the sadness happens of "winning" the battle that does not count, and not the war that does count. So, I will end on a politically honest note: Polls do not cause happiness, actions do cause happiness though when done right.

My name is Joshua Clayton, I am a freelance writer based in Inglewood, California. I also write under a few pen-names and aliases, but Joshua Clayton is my real name, and I write by that for the most part now. I am a philosophical writer and objective thinker and honest action taker. I also work at a senior center in Gardena, California as my day job, among other things, but primarily I am a writer.

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Trophies and Awards - Motivating Employees With Non-Cash Incentives

By Tim M Lee

Money alone is not enough to motivate employees. It is more of a 'cold' reward for working and does not connect well at an emotional level. To encourage people to really exert discretionary effort you need to engage them in their roles. Employee engagement levels have been consistently linked to improved performance and profitability. Non cash incentives such as vouchers, social events, trophies, plaques and awards are all excellent ways to boost engagement levels amongst your team. The goal is to turn your employees into team members, striving to win that championship trophy.

So how do you go about implementing a non cash incentive program? There are two key elements to this. Firstly what behaviours are you looking to enforce, and what rewards you are going to give to reward those behaviours.

The most important element of employee engagement is showing discretionary effort in one's role. This is going above and beyond what is expected of them and really giving their best. The opposite is a disengaged employee, who shows up everyday to do the bare minimum or just enough to not get fired. The advantages of high engagement are obvious, as are the downfalls of disengaged employees.

Reinforcing engagement behaviour can be difficult especially if the behaviour can not be easily measured. High engagement leading to increased sales figures is easy to recognise and reward. Excellent customer service or teamwork are more difficult. For these more difficult measures, trophies and awards make great solutions. Customer service and teamwork are both very emotional behaviours and rewarding these with cash incentives is not ideal. Trophies, plaques and awards can fill this emotional gap as they provide emotional reward through praise and recognition from others. As social beings this is a very strong reward and more fitting than financial incentives.

Trophies, awards and plaques are also effective in the workplace for the same reason that they are so coveted in the sporting arena. Sports teams show extremely high levels of engagement. Even at the local club level where players are not paid, individuals show up to training religiously and give their all at every game. Even at the top professional level players are happier to win a trophy than their multi-million dollar salary. The trophy for them is the ultimate achievement that drives them to work hard. Translating this kind of engagement into the workplace can produce outstanding results. Through creating a sense of belonging to a team you can instill this sense of team pride in your workforce.

By presenting a monthly trophy, award or plaque you can instill this sense of striving and teamwork in your employees. It will incent them to go above and beyond to 'win' the trophy' as well as instilling a strong teamwork ethic if you are presenting both team and individual awards. These programmes when run in conjunction with cash incentives are powerful tools in increasing engagement, productivity and profit.

Xpress Awards NZ are specialists in corporate trophies. Visit Tim M Lee's Google Plus page

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Attitudes and the Choices

"Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today."

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer/contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.
The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you."

What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.

So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized, we would have done it differently.

Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project."

Who could say it more clearly? Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.
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