Friday Reflections

What Do You See?

POINT TO PONDER

If the doors to perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. 

                                - William Blake

STORY LINE by Rajiv Shah

I'm currently reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven J. Covey. The early chapters outline a test that was conducted involving the picture below that I found interesting:

The chosen subjects were asked what they saw. Half argued that they saw an old woman in her last days. Asked if they saw anything else, their response was overwhelming "no."

Much in the same way the other half of the group concluded that they saw a beautiful young lady, possibly a cabaret performer in the prime of her life. Asked again if they could see anything besides the young lady, their response was also a resolute "no." 

Both sides were sure as to what they saw in the picture and believed there was nothing else to the drawing. Which group was right? 

In fact, if you look closely, both groups are correct. An old woman and young lady both do exist in the same image. 

REFLECTION

How many times do we look at a problem or situation in life and accept our view as the only one? Perhaps there is often more than one answer? And maybe we can find that there is more than one point of view that is correct. 

You Don't Tell Them How, You Show Them How.

POINT TO PONDER

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

                                                    - Mahatma Gandhi

    

STORY LINE

Vince Lombardi, two-time superbowl coach and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, was known for his relentless dedication to practice. He would line his players in formation to run a play. The players would run the drill. Any variation or mistake, however minor, would lead to Lombardi yelling out, "run it again!" 

     And they would run it again. This time something else would be off. "Run it again," Lombardi would bellow. 

    And again they would run the play. And again. And again...

    After a while the players had run it so many times that they could catch the mistake themselves and would bark at each other, "run it again," before Lombardi could chime in. The players would line up and run the play over and over until they knew what the play felt like free of error. 

 

REFLECTION by Rajiv Shah

Vince Lombardi didn't just tell his players how to play, he provided the framework to allow them to feel what it was like to get the play right. Lombardi wanted his players to achieve mastery of the play, that action, not through lecture but through execution. Once mastery is achieved a player doesn't have to think about the play, he can just feel it and be fully present in the job at hand. 

    Repeated practice led to mastery and mastery allowed his players to enter what psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi termed a "flow state" - also known as being in the groove or in the zone. And to be in the zone you can't be thinking about how you are performing an action but instinctively acting and reacting in the moment to any given stimuli. 

    In the acting world, Stella Adler (famed teacher to Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, and Benicio Del Toro) spoke of rehearsing to the point where you stop thinking about what you are doing or how you are doing it, but you just do it in the moment. Adler called achieving this state as getting back to zero. Zero being a place of simplicity, connection, and effortlessness. But Adler believed that effortlessness came from many hours of preparation, so many hours that you could no longer see that preparation at work. 

    Lombardi was getting his players back to zero. They repeatedly ran plays so that in a game situation the players were able to act and react to given circumstances fully present in the moment. Vince Lombardi understood that through repeated practice the players would learn for themselves the right execution. He didn't tell them how, he showed them. 

The Story of Yudhisthira and His Dog

POINT TO PONDER

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

                                                                                               -James D. Miles

STORYLINE by Rajiv Shah (Retold from the Mahabharata)

Yudhisthira finally stood at Indra's chariot. Indra loomed over Yudhisthira - a noble and skilled man - and his trusty companion, an ugly dog that had joined him one day on his trek while he was resting under a tree, alone and tired. He had lost his brothers on the journey - one by one they died - from starvation, the bone chillingly cold nights and the brutality of the heat during the day. One by one they were taken from him. It was when his last brother perished that he found himself at his lowest, under that lonely tree, when the dog appeared to him and never left.

They had been searching for Indra's chariot on that mountain to take them the final way to the gates of heaven. Yudhisthira and his brothers had heard finding this place, this paradise, would bring them peace. They were brave men and many believed they could make the journey through the treacherous mountains but in the end it was Yudhisthira alone, with his trusted dog, had made it.

Together he and the dog had passed over jagged rocks that cut them, hot sand that burned, painful thorns from unwelcoming bushes, and deep mud that threatened to suck them in and not let them go. When they found food - sometimes Yudhisthira finding it, sometimes the dog – they always shared it. When neither found food, they starved together. And as sometimes only loneliness can bring to two creatures, it brought Yudhisthira and his dog love. He trusted the dog with his life.

His dog was looking up at him and he patted his head. They had finally made it to the place they were searching, and Indra's voice bellowed out to him, “oh, you finally arrived! I have been waiting for you so long! It's a pleasure to have you here in my chariot, let's fly to heaven.”

Yudhisthira and his dog took a few steps toward the chariot when Indra raised a hand, “But... the dog can't come, look at it, it's old and thin. It's not worthy of my heaven.”

His dog stopped and Yudhisthira looked down at him. The dog laid down at Yudhisthira's side, resting its head on his cracked paws. Yudhisthira looked back up at Indra, “I'm sorry, if the dog can't come with me, we will turn around and go back now. I thank you for your invitation, but I cannot leave this animal. He has been my faithful companion during this journey.”

Yudhisthira headed back down the mountain, the long arduous path they had just come.

“Stop,” Indra cried out.

Yudhisthira turned and discovered not his dog on the ground where it had been, but the dog transformed back into its real shape: the God Dharma.

“Now you can come, this was your final test and you showed that you deserve to come with me.” Indra opened the doors to the chariot and Yudhisthira stepped in. Indra closed the door and off they went.

 

REFLECTION

The dharma, represented by the dog in this story is the representation of the only way a person can attain peace. And within this story, the path is found through righteousness not because of what Yudhisthira will attain but because of the intrinsic value of doing what was right.

This begs the question of whether we do good things because of what we feel it will bring us: appreciation or reward.

*I was inspired to focus on this story from the Mahabharata and the picture of the week after reading a moving article about a dog refusing to leave his owner, a fallen soldier. The story can be found here: 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/man-best-friend-mourns-death-175219915.html

 

 

 

*In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.

 

POINT TO PONDER

Our experiences define us but can also hold us to outdated beliefs and focusing on what can't work rather than what will. 

 

STORYLINE by Rajiv Shah

Slavomir Rawicz' “The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom” recounts Rawicz' incarceration by the Russian military in a Serbian POW  camp, and how he led six prisoners over 4,000 miles – through the unforgiving Serbian winter terrain, Gobi desert, Tibet, Himalayas, and India - to their freedom.

       During his early days in prison, Rawicz's first ally becomes  Khabarov, a man who has dreamed of escape ever since his incarceration, four years prior. He has studied the terrain, how to create a diversion, and what it will take to survive in the excruciating climate that surrounds the jail – nature proving to be the harshest prison of all.

       When a snow storm blows in and makes visibility low, Rawicz decides that it is the best time to escape. The blizzard will cloak their break from the prison and cover their tracks as they trek deep into the wilderness. They are set to go.

       Rawicz wakes his friend Khabarov and tells him it is time, that the conditions couldn't better for their escape. Khabarov balks. He goes through the scenario in his mind, as he has many times before, eventually counting all the ways their plan will fail, even though the opportunity of freedom is right in front of him.

       His years in prison, his dreams of escape, his research and experience come to a head in that pivotal moment, and Khabarov chooses not to go with his friend. He stays behind, fearful and convinced by his experiences that their plan will not work. He can't change and his experiences in the prison keep him from his freedom - a freedom that Rawicz and his six companions find.

REFLECTION

I came across the title for this reflection* while perusing the gift shop at the Getty Villa in Malibu. On a magnet was this little tidbit of wisdom from J. Paul Getty, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

       Around the world, we are on the brink of major change economically and socially. Change that has left our leaders in great upheaval and wondering the best course of action. Change that has forced us to reexamine how we choose to live.

       There are people that believe that the end is near. I believe that what is happening is not the end, but a new beginning, a shift in the way we live. Jobs are scarce, the US government has raised the debt ceiling, and we are being forced to change our daily habits. Does that mean we are close to the end?

          Not in my opinion. We are just having to learn a new way. Our experiences define us but can also hold us to outdated beliefs and focusing on what can't work rather than what will. Much like Rawicz and Khabarov in the story, our experiences can keep us from acknowledging the conditions currently in front of us. Often our experiences lead us to focus on the harsh realities rather than the possibilities for change and growth. Especially in today's climate, not taking any action and continuing to proceed in the same way is a prison unto itself.

 

*Title quoted from J. Paul Getty