The Teachings of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
One of the earliest descriptions of Being in the Upanishads can be found in the discussion between Ajatashatru and Gargya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Ajatashatru, the king of ancient Kashi, offered a thousand cows to Gargya, a brahmana, if he could provide a satisfactory explanation of Being. (Brahmanas refer to texts, as well as priests.)
The Teachings of the Chandogya Upanishad
The Chandogya Upanishad provided one of the earliest descriptions of the return of the soul after death in the story of King Pravahana Jaivali’s instruction to a great sage, Uddalaka Aruni. This instruction was known as the doctrine of the five fires.
The Shakti Tradition
The worship of the Mother Goddess is one of the oldest traditions of the world. In ancient India, the goddess was considered the supreme power (Shakti) responsible for the creation, sustenance and dissolution of the world.
The Buddhist Worldview
The Vedic and the Shakti beliefs of the self-existent Being were soundly rejected by the Buddha 2,500 years ago. The Buddha therefore came to be considered a denier of Self/Being (nastika) by the Vedic schools.
Extending the Indian Mahayana Tradition
While the Madhyamaka school believed everything had an empty existence, the Yogachara philosophers of the Indian Mahayana tradition proposed that the representations of consciousness alone (vijnapti matra) were real.
Mindfulness and Beingfulness - 1
“Beingfulness” may sound like just another buzzword for “mindfulness,” but the two concepts differ in significant ways.
Mindfulness and Beingfulness - 2
What are the ways through which we can reduce our suffering and increase our well-being? Mindfulness says that it is through our mental state of awareness.
New Model of Business Leadership
How many of us have heard this at work? It is as if we are expected to set aside our real being and put on our business persona when we enter through the corporate door.
The Fundamental Question
After three decades of observing, teaching, and participating in business and business leadership, I have come to the conclusion that something tremendously important has been missing all along.
Being in Business
“There are two birds, two dear friends, who live in the very same tree.” So say the Upanishads, ancient Indian philosophical texts about the nature of reality.
Beingful Leadership & Business Performance
Business leaders who are sceptical of the business worth of the principles of Beingful leadership may well ask, Can such a Beingful business also do well in terms of conventional measures of success, such as material profits and market value?
Jochen Zeitz on Being in Business
If the ordinary senses cannot establish our connection between the material self and the universal self, then in what other ways can we do so? One way is to consider our hidden correspondence with other beings directly.
Being & Connection
When talking of Being and connection, I am reminded of an encounter involving Jeffrey Swartz when he was the COO of Timberland, an outdoor clothing and goods company.
Ancient Indian rituals and Business Leaders
Despite the considerable effort that the death rituals (and other ancient Indian rituals) required from the individual performing them, they provided value that far exceeded the costs.
Benefits from Beingful Leadership
As management scholars Louis Fry and Mark Kriger point out, this journey of centering in Being becomes a source of inspiration for every other aspect of business leadership, such as spiritual perception, moral sensitivity, leadership values, and leadership skills and actions.
The Higher Reality of Business Leadership
Since business is an institution that is created by and composed of humans, human reality can and should inform business reality because of the Upanishadic principle of correspondence.
Dharma of Business Leadership
The dharma principle gives the organising rule for maintaining balance among the different subsystems that describe business’s connections.
Aspire to a Higher Sense of Self through Business
Business is a key means through which individuals imagine opportunities to develop a higher sense of self that is special to them.
Shadows of Material Self on Leadership
If business provides great opportunities for individuals to aspire to a higher sense of self, then there are also vast shadows cast by our material self on the field of business leadership.
Business Leadership to Recognize Being
I have written until now of how my material self influenced my first start-up’s business leadership and the kind of organization we were aspiring to be in the early stages of our funding.