Beingful
Blogs & Stories
A New Turn to Being
Three millennia ago, a series of natural calamities, wars and mass migrations led to the dissolution of established civilizations and empires in ancient Greece, India, the Middle East and China. This disintegration caused a loss of trust in religions and other institutions and practices of society.
Ancient Parables of Impermanence
For the Buddha, impermanence was one of the three fundamental marks of existence, the other two being suffering and the non-self.
The Inner Ruler we Coronate in the Age of the Coronavirus
As the coronavirus leaves an ever-growing trail of real suffering and destruction, it also presents a real opportunity for re-discovering a different way of life during and after this crisis.
Beingful Work and Work Life Harmony
What do Satya Nadella, Jeff Bezos, Beingful Work and Beingfulness have in Common?
Seeking Meaning
Our culture is obsessed with happiness. Every material effort, everything we do, even our spiritual endeavor, is geared toward the relentless pursuit of happiness. However, new research suggests that directly pursuing happiness may actually lead to unhappier people.
The Greeks on The Meaning of Being
Being refers to anything we can think or talk about. It can include living beings, as well as tangible objects and intangible concepts. Anything that “is” can be considered a being.
Being in The Medieval and Pre-Modern Period
The medieval period was highlighted by the growth of Christianity in the Western world. Aristotle’s notion of God as the highest being sparked the studies of Christian theologians, such as Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, mystics such as Meister Eckart, and pre-modern philosophers like Leibniz, Spinoza and Hegel.
Dasein and Being
Heidegger and Deleuze were the pre-eminent Western inquirers into Being in modern times. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) suggested an “overthrow” of metaphysics because he believed that philosophers from Aristotle onwards had forgotten to inquire what Being really meant on its own.
The Unfolding of Being
After failing to satisfactorily answer the central question on the meaning of Being in Being and Time, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) abandoned philosophical language and adopted a writing style that encouraged poiesis, where something is brought into being that did not exist before.
A Critique of Being as Identity
Gilles Deleuze (1925-95) exposed a major assumption underlying the West’s inquiry into Being: it had emphasized identity at the cost of difference.
Being in the Ancient East
The Vedas are texts that were developed over hundreds of years and are made up of hymns (samhita), ritualistic interpretations of hymns (Brahmanas), semi-metaphysical inquiries posed by thinkers who had renounced worldly life and lived in the forest (Aranyakas), and metaphysical explanations of rituals (Upanishads) contained in the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas.
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.