Greetings of love and compassion. I'm Saamdu Chetri, born in a cowshed in remote Bhutan, a traveler of love and compassion. I wish to share my thoughts on self-development from an oriental perspective. Let me start with my everyday practice first. I believe in self and try to go inwards to surrender to oneness through self. I try to be aware of my arising intentions, emotions and give my full efforts to get to the goal.
Aristotle said, "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." Remember, what we do each day repeatedly builds into a self-developed habit. Further, I try to find the righteous path to walk on it and learn every day to live in compassion but thus said, your thoughts and your mind are the temple and compassion is your worship.
When I wake up, I first sit leaning on the bedpost with my eyes closed. I try to reflect yesterday and think about how I could better today and design on an incremental practice towards my growth. Thereafter, I put a resolve for the day and begin my meditation of 18 to 36 minutes. I make a multiple of nine. I find nine times is very powerful and a mystical number aligned to existence. After that, I lie back in the bed and stretch myself as much as possible. I then raise my upper back lightly, lift my hands parallel to my legs, and begin my cycle kicks. I do it 108 times. Then I swing over my legs to the ground and thank mother earth for allowing me to walk on her again that day. I thank all elements, people, and things that enable me to be who I am. I cry sometimes for the destitutes and hungry people and send my loving prayers, the least that I can do sitting far away from them.
Then my days start with self-affirmation. I keep them around, such as in front of the mirror and in places I spend most of my time. I also have vision and mission statements displayed in strategic locations where I spend my time. I make sure to listen to uplifting music as I work and read inspirational books. As I do my morning exercise, I listen to the great teachings from various gurus. I try mindfulness from waking to the sleeping movement.
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Saamdu Chetri:
Greetings of love and compassion. I'm Saamdu Chetri, born in a cowshed in remote Bhutan, a traveler of love and compassion. I wish to share my thoughts on self-development from an oriental perspective. Let me start with my everyday practice first. I believe in self and try to go inwards to surrender to oneness through self. I try to be aware of my arising intentions, emotions and give my full efforts to get to the goal.
Aristotle said, "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." Remember, what we do each day repeatedly builds into a self-developed habit. Further, I try to find the righteous path to walk on it and learn every day to live in compassion but thus said, your thoughts and your mind are the temple and compassion is your worship.
When I wake up, I first sit leaning on the bedpost with my eyes closed. I try to reflect yesterday and think about how I could better today and design on an incremental practice towards my growth. Thereafter, I put a resolve for the day and begin my meditation of 18 to 36 minutes. I make a multiple of nine. I find nine times is very powerful and a mystical number aligned to existence. After that, I lie back in the bed and stretch myself as much as possible. I then raise my upper back lightly, lift my hands parallel to my legs, and begin my cycle kicks. I do it 108 times. Then I swing over my legs to the ground and thank mother earth for allowing me to walk on her again that day. I thank all elements, people, and things that enable me to be who I am. I cry sometimes for the destitutes and hungry people and send my loving prayers, the least that I can do sitting far away from them.
Then my days start with self-affirmation. I keep them around, such as in front of the mirror and in places I spend most of my time. I also have vision and mission statements displayed in strategic locations where I spend my time. I make sure to listen to uplifting music as I work and read inspirational books. As I do my morning exercise, I listen to the great teachings from various gurus. I try mindfulness from waking to the sleeping movement.
Self-development is a part of education, and it is a lifelong journey. We learn every waking moment of our existence if we are ready to be aware, observe, and reflect. We educate ourselves for bread and we must self-develop for life.
People find different definitions of self-development. They also call as self-education, personal development, and so on, and they try to distinguish among them. For me, what is important is not what they mean, but how to get to them. We struggle in life for self-development so that we do better in life. But what is self-development? The dictionary definition is the process by which a person's character or ability are gradually developed. The term develop brings a sense of continuity as there is no threshold for development. Thus, we can safely conclude that self-development is a continuous process, like education is.
Two very important words emerge from the definition, the development of character and ability. The caution that arises, then, is how to bring development in character and ability. It is the process. So what is the process? How to know which process to follow for what? Before we begin into the process, let us first try to understand where these terms reside in us. Our character is developed through the values, culture, beliefs, faith. The repeated practice from childhood in any of the beliefs has resided in us as our character, which decides our destiny. What is the destiny we desire to have? This should lead us to gear towards finding and practicing the right way through action planning.
Can what we already wrote in our character be deleted with a better one? A simple answer is yes. We can delete and rewrite and wrote in our subconscious mind. It is called the epigenesis by Dr. Lipton. We know ability as skill can be enhanced through practice. Skills allow us to function with ease in our profession or occupation. However, it may become boring after a while doing the same thing over and over again. Nevertheless, when both skill and challenges meet, the flow begins. Try to find them.
When we deeply look into these two terms, we realize both character and ability are important. The former provides us our life, and the later provides us our living. Both can be looked independently, but they are both integral part of our existence. What is character? The dictionary definition is the mental and moral quality distinctive to an individual. It is also cultural dependent to decide the character. Here I'm discussing on the universal truth of humanity. Thus, what is a good character without enough to live? What is a wealthy life without a good character?
Now, what is a good character? It is a character who knows the self and knows others and is kind, compassionate, altruistic, serving and sharing and caring others. Lao Tzu said, "Knowing others is intelligent. Knowing self is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power."
The truth is we all will pass one day. What is then our responsibility on this planet as long as we live? It must be beyond just the struggle for living that helps us to leave behind us a legacy. It must also help us to relate to the question why we are born. We all cannot be famous, but we definitely can be great human beings, and that is where the purpose lies, to serve others. One who lives for others with compassion holds the highest human character and very core secret of life.
When we are in control of our mind, we are in control of our existence. And the moment you become aware of where you wish to change, you become awakened. This helps you to think beyond and find a way to change those habits. It is futile to try to change the world outside of us. We need to change within ourselves so that we can witness the world outside as we have in.
We have five poisons of our minds. If we become aware of them, which are greed, excessive desires, pride, jealousy, and anger, we can be awakened. Ignorance with delusion are the parents of these poisons of the family. If we can realize how they destroy us, we will begin to nurture wisdom. This will help us to begin building our character towards being human beings.
A famous Australian indigenous saying is, "We are not human beings in search of spirituality, but we are spiritual beings in search of humanity."
To you young Zoomers of the present world, my request is please change and build more connections. Learn to live in today, not yesterday or tomorrow. We are bound by three days in our lives: yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Which one we choose decides our future. Therefore, mindfulness is a powerful way to find one's own possibilities for self-development. Mindfulness helps us to be self-aware all day long. When we are aware, we think, understand, and do the right things, not only things right. For these, we must learn to meditate and surrender to oneness. We must see things as they are, not how you want them to be. Try to see good in everything. Avoid choosing between good and bad, beautiful and ugly. It is seen within us, not outside. Everything's beautiful in its own space.
So character in self-development is an internal matter. One must look within. On the other hand, skills in self-development can be seen as an external matter that builds from within. At the end of the day, it is the character that decides everything. The definition of skill is the ability to do something well, expertise. This can be done when we have understood ourselves from within, the build of our character. We then begin to practice for a greater achievement, and that is where the skill development comes in.
We need to have a goal of our own, not of others. Never try to compare yourself with others. Try to find your own uniqueness and work on it. We are inspired by others and we struggle to get to that skill and realize after a while it is not what we wanted. Vivekananda said, "Awake, arise, and stop not until you reach the goal."
I know of many professional students in engineering, medicine, and other professions who regret. Suddenly they realize that they struggled to earn the degree, but they find their passion in somewhere else, in something else. Many become actors, singers, teachers, and go in remote villages and begin serving the poor. This mistake happens either because environment sensitizes them or parental guidance. Bruce Lee said, "Take what is useful and discard what is not." Nevertheless, it is okay if one has rise to that stage. Make your profession to earn and use the extra to do what your heart calls for. It is not too late to develop another skill in life or one's inner call. Develop goals, visions. With an end in mind, prepare mission statements and affirmations. Then come back from the goal, preparing and planning each step, breaking them into years, months, weeks, and days. And as you have developed the character, you will follow it with ease.
Again, remember, repeating anything over and over for many days gives us the skill, and practicing the same thing over 10,000 hours make us absolute experts according to research. Says about this monk and asks his novice monks to repeat a mantra OM for 108 million times. Om stands for oneness. We are not separate from the existence. We have the same substance as a leaf of a plant. In other words, we must understand the meaning of what we are repeating as a practice for self-development, for self-transformation. "We become what we think," say Buddha.
The goal of every human being is to be great. That makes all of us the same. But we are born with different abilities and uniqueness. Young parents must find this is in every child, and encourage them. Ultimately everyone wants to be happy and well. We all suffer from our minds. When we make victory of our minds that brings fear, anxiety, worry, delusion, we then become free, realize, and we do better in life. No doubt of it.
Meditation is so very important. We may become great in our profession or occupation, but if we are unhealthy with the highest skills and good character, we are unhappy anyway. Thus, self-care is very important for self-development. What we eat makes us. We need to nourish our body with the right kind of food. The vegetarian food has the power to keep us mentally and physically robust. Our mind reacts to the food we eat. Right kind and nourishing food build a greater functioning mind that will always be friends with you.
Self-care also entails talking to yourself as often as possible when any of the emotions arise. Thus, surrender to yourself. Make friends with your own self and sleep eight hours. Do a 30 minutes of sweating exercise using your four limbs and cardiovascular exercise. Meditate for at least half an hour each day. Break into portions if you do not find the luxury of time in a stretch. Do every two hours a minute breathing meditation. Make movement of your body for another two minutes. You could also stand in the same spot where you're sitting right in front of your chair and jog.
Finally, let me conclude by saying breathe every moment, meaning feel the breath now and then. And when you are connecting with the breath, you are in the present moment. When you are in the present moment, you are aware of everything. More wisdom will flow in, and you are meditating always. However, silent meditation to connect with the greater self is important and to be victorious over your mind, meaning thoughts would have stopped to bother you as you would have become friends with them.
May you all be happy and well, free from fear and any anxiety. May you bring happiness to the lives you touch. May you become the light for yourself, your families, loved ones, friends, community, and the country. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Make it your friend. Tashi delek. Thank you.