A Psychology of Enlightenment!

We were also privileged to receive a private teaching from Dr. Ravindra Panth, Director of Nava Nalanda Mahavira (Nalanda University) at Rajgir.

"Could there be a psychology of enlightenment?" I asked. "Yes", he answered. "Provided we find a common vocabulary to bridge the gap between Western Psychology and Buddhist Psychology". But Dr Panth emphasised that direct personal experience counts as much as knowledge. "There are three types of wisdom", he said:

1. Listening - acquiring knowledge,
2. Contemplating - on what you have heard, and
3. Experience - "your" experience.

"Your experience is due to your awareness. Unless you experience yourself, your faith won't work. Buddhism does not advocate blind faith".

Developing Leadership Consciousness!

During our Buddhist pilgrimage in India we were honoured to receive a teaching from The Ven. Prof. Geshe Ngawang Samten, Director and Vice Chancellor of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, Varanasi. His answer to the question "how should we best prepare ourselves for pilgrimage?" was a perfect template for how to develop leadership consciousness!

"The best way is to transform ourselves", he said. "And then try to transform others". He went on to say, "cultivate and make manifest those positive qualities in yourself. There is no better way to bring about peace in the world than to transform ourselves!"

Pilgrimage!

Just back from a 2-week Buddhist pilgrimage through North-East India and still trying to integrate the experience! However, sunrise over the Ganges at Varanasi was like the dawning of the world - an event celebrated every morning for thousands of years.

Life is a Choice!

Palliative care nurses work with dying people, typically for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. When patients were questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again:
1. "I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."
2. "I wish I didn’t work so hard."
3. "I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings."
4. "I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends."
5. "I wish that I had let myself be happier."

Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness!