thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
happiness in themselves, and at the same time create world peace.World peaceexpressed with no ironyis the recurring theme for Meng, and his contemplations have led him to the firm conviction that meditation is the path to world peace, since all prior efforts, he says, have failed by imposing social or political structures on people. They tried to create world peace from the outside in. My idea is to do the reverse, to create world peace from the inside out. In Mengs view, meditation is the methodology for creating peace from the inside out.However, Meng feels that if meditation is not approached scientificallyif it is not data-drivenit wont achieve widespread popularity. Very few fellow Buddhists he contacted showed much enthusiasm for the idea of proving the benefits of meditation scientifically, but Alan Wallace (whose Shamatha Project aims to prove the tangible benefits of intensive meditation) was very encouraging. When Wallace told him that the Dalai Lama had reached the same conclusion, Meng felt he was really on to something.Yet, as Meng sees it, establishing meditation as scientifically valid is just one element in a larger campaign. For meditation to be widely adopted, people will need to think of it as something as normal and obviously beneficial as exercise. If meditation is regarded as a workout for the heart and mind, the thinking goes, it will start to become a part of the fabric of daily life. When Meng read Daniel GolemansEmotional Intelligence, he felt hed found his vehicle for aligning meditation with real life. Emotional intelligence seemed like a desirable feature that everyone would like to have and that would be appealing in a business context, as a means to make people more effective. Google is, after all, a business, and there needs to be a business justification for whatever we do, Meng concluded.Meng felt EI would appeal to engineers and high-achieving people because we may have some problems in dealing with difficult conversations. We either avoid them or go at them like rampaging geeks. Either way, we recognize its a deficiency. Also, Meng says, software engineers may think that the most important thing is coding, and that interacting with others takes a backseat, but as one gets into higher levels of engineering, half or more of the work is about talking to people. Learning to emerge from your shell and interact well is what emotional intelligence is all about.Meng asked Mirabai Bush to help design a course. She brought in poet and Zen teacher Norman Fischer and persuaded Dan Goleman to help generate interest by giving a talk at Google. Peter Allen, director of Googles employee education program, known as Google University, became SIYs patron saint and an active participant. Eventually, Google University started the School of Personal Growth, which is headed by Meng. It includes SIY, a course that Meng teaches called The Neuroscience of Empathy, and a few other offerings. They frequently invite eminent guest speakers such as sleep scientist William Dement and neurobiologist Dan Siegel.The current SIY curriculum has been designed by nine contributors, in typical Google teamwork style.
The design team mixes scientific, meditation, and business expertise. In addition to Fischer and Bush, it includes, for example, the young Stanford professor Philippe Goldin, a leader in the budding field of contemplative neuroscience who told me that hes fully in sync with Mengs notion that contemplative practice may one day be seen as a beneficial workout for the mind; Marc Lesser, author of Z.B.A.: Zen of Business Administration; and Monika Broecker, who was instrumental in the development of the School of Personal Growth and is now an independent consultant and business coach.SIY includes an introductory class, a full day of mindfulness practice, and six two-hour sessions, each a week apart. Class sizes range from twenty to fifty, depending on the time of year and whether an entire team or department has signed on for the course. The course begins with the Neuroscience of Emotional Intelligence, which shows participants that there is a growing body of scientific literature on the effects of training attention and emotion. In addition to basic mindfulness, the course includes instruction in journaling as a means of nonjudgmentally noticing mental content, mindful listening, walking meditation, mindful emailing, and a variety of other contemplative techniques. The latter stages of the course emphasize empathy using loving-kindness meditation, and social skills, including how to carry on difficult conversations. The word Buddhism is not used.The first course ran from October to December in 2007. It garnered a lot of attention within Google and participants deemed it a success. It has been offered regularly ever since, and more than two hundred people have gone through the program. In response to my request to interview participants, Google asked that, given the personal nature of SIY, I use anonymous reports of participants responses to the course. One reported discovering that a lot of body problems have emotional bases and found that they were sick a lot less often. Another talked of being less egocentric and yet better able to make decisions and stick with them. Another said that he began to practice responding rather than reacting. I realized that my assumptions about the other shaped my reactiveness. Googlers are encouraged to work in non-hierarchical teams of three to five, and one person said that being more relaxed in meetings seemed to bring out the creativity in others. One participant simply said, This course changed my life.Norman Fischer, one of the foremost students of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and a former abbot of San Francisco Zen Center, quickly came to love teaching at Google, and students there are fond of him as well. They find him unassuming and yet deeply insightful. He takes them places they arent accustomed to going, and according to Fischer the googlers take him to unaccustomed places as well. Hes called the Abbot of Google.When I spoke with Fischer about Google, he was enthusiastic about his experience with SIY. Googlers are not interested in being quiet and calm, they dont want less stress, theyre not interested in religion. So why would I be there? Because the corporate culture supports people who sincerely want
to make the world a better place. Im a Buddhist teacher but I dont teach Buddhism there. That hasnt been hard, though, because my goal of personal integrity and the goals of the corporation and the participants seem to line up. Many people these days recognize that operating out of touch with your emotions yields bad results. Its not going to work anymore to pay all of your attention to work life and none to your inner life. Theyre not separate.One reason Fischer likes making the trek from his Marin County home down to Silicon Valley is the spirit of inquisitiveness and debate he encounters in the high-tech crowd. As Meng pointed out to me, many of the people at Google grew up being very scientific, very investigative. The best of scientific engineers do not accept authority. If you simply take things on authority, you never make a breakthrough. Both Fischer and Meng feel that the googlers questions and doubts make for a deeper engagement with the material and the practices.Questioning, Fischer tells me, is built into the spirit of Buddhism. In the Kalama Sutta, the Buddha explicitly tells people not to accept something just because the teacher said so, but over the generations debate and questioning have become very circumscribed. There are questions considered outside the sphere of questions that can be raised.Whereas his Buddhist students are more inclined to simply accept what he has to say, the people at Google feel full permission to ask any question, whether it fits the realm of Buddhist discourse or not. Thats energizing and fun for Fischer, because questions that are not the usual questions give me a chance to rethink what I know, and understand and reframe it in new ways.Fischer also enjoys the Google ambience. Their main value, he says, is not the hard-nosed, hard-edged, profit-seeking mind. Its the creative mind, the altruistic mind. They really believe that if you give room to and foster the creative altruistic mind, you will make money and youll also be able to do good things. Fischer allows that Googles brief, stunning history has helped reinforce that belief, but whether it lasts or not, the belief and its beneficial results are very much intact at Google today.Above all, Fischer has come to appreciate the workerstheir diverse talents, their brilliance, their readiness to bring mindfulness into every aspect of their lives, and even their grace. One time, during a break, he tells me, I was staring dumbfounded at a very sophisticated espresso machine. A participant came up, a young woman who had been a champion barista at Starbucks. She offered to make me a cup. She created magic before my eyes. In two minutes, she ground the beans, made the espresso, steamed and swirled the milk, and handed me a latte whose surface was the shape of a bodhi leaf. It tasted magnificent, and its the finest offering Ive received as a Buddhist teacher.Mirabai Bush is the grandedame of the movement tobring contemplative practices into the mainstream of society. Shes a connector par excellence and was instrumental
in the cross-pollination that brought Search Inside Yourself into being. When I asked her whether she thought SIY could be exportedmade open source, as Meng saidBush felt certain that it could be. Of course, it would probably have to be adapted, she said. The whole point was Meng wanting to bring mindfulness first into Google. That required figuring out how to design and market it for Google people so they would see it as helpful for both their work and for becoming full human beings. But what motivates people will be different in different workplaces. SIY is a good curriculum and if its exportedand weve been talking about how to do thatit wont simply be a Google thing.Bush noted that the accommodating environment at Google removes much of the stress thats ubiquitous in the traditional workplace, but she says, the stress of producing and creating is still there and when people take SIY they start to see underlying patterns that were causing stress. They begin to actually reduce stress, even though stress reduction wasnt the door they entered through.On top of that, you have to appreciate that these are people whove gone to the best schools and been at the top of their classes, she says. Theyve been thinking algorithmic thoughts in front of screens from a young age, but maybe theyve been less at ease in their interactions with others. Emotional intelligence can help them be better integrated people with a wider circle of friends and family, a sangha.Questions always arise, Bush says, when contemplative or spiritual practices are brought to any corporate setting. Will they be taught in merely a technical way with no larger ethical significance? Will they truly serve the participants lives or just the companys goals of efficiency and profit? In her experience, If programs are taught by good teachers with integrity, students glimpse the whole span of the dharma and it begins to have profound effects beyond the workplace.Bush feels we could be right on the edge of a world where many people will want mindfulness in their workplace, and equate emotional fitness with body fitness, as Meng hopes, but the challenge will be to take it to scale. Big institutions do lots of training, so theyre inclined to think it will be easy to simply teach larger and larger numbers of people and to train trainers. But this kind of teaching is not simply about getting people to close their eyes and watch their breath. If you dont have the experience of transformation through practice, you cant really appreciate the depth required in a teacher of contemplative practice. There are not many Norman Fischers out there.That said, Bush is upbeat about Google and loves going there. She tells a story about teaching mindful emailing, in which participants are taught to take three breaths after typing an email, look again, imagine how the other person will receive it, visualizing both their mental and emotional response, and then alter it if need be.One person came back the next week, she said, and he was amazed at how
much of a difference it made when he was reflective about email. I wrote this whole email out, he said, and I knew it was really important for the person to receive it with openness to my ideas. But the message was emotionally loaded, so he might not respond very openly. I looked at it carefully and reflected, and then I did something very radical. I called him on the phone. Others in the class nearly gasped, and then he said, You know, it really worked!
Leadership coach Crane Wood Stookey offers these two practices to help train you in the attitudes of generous leadership. The crews of the H.M.S Heda & Griper cutting into Winter Harbour, 1819.Photo flickr.com/Toronto Public Library Special PublicationsWe usually accept that teaching others can be a generous thing to do. Being willing to learn from others can also be generous.What do your people know that you dont? Have you made an effort to find out? Have you created a culture in which people expect to learn from each other up and across the organizational chart as well as down?It may feel a bit unsettling to encourage people under you to show that they know more than you do, but people are always going to know things you dont know. None of us are omniscient. An excellent way to engage people is to ask them to teach something, and then make the effort to actually learn it and make use of it.Curiosity practice If you are not naturally inclined to seek out what you can learn from your team members, you can start with safe territory. For instance, if your child is doing a history project, ask people when theyre settling down to a meeting whether anyone knows about that historical period. Ask them a question your child is addressing, and let everyone hear the answer. Share the answer with your child, and report back what they say. Or if youve heard that one of your team members speaks another language, ask them to teach you some phrases. Actually learn the phrases, accept coaching on pronunciation, and greet that person with those phrases when you see them. The possibilities for learning are many. You can be as creative as you like.The point is not to make conversation or single out people with little relationship tricks. The point is to train yourself in the habit of learning from your team. It helps to ask about things you have some genuine interest in, but you can also find ways of being genuinely interested in what each person can offer. You might be surprised at what you can learn, and from whom. Everyone has something to teach, though it may be submerged. You can create conditions for them to discover it and offer it. Thats what makes this a practice of generosity.Putting-to-use practiceThe more immediately practical kind of learning is the kind that directly benefits the teams efforts. Do you have lunch and learn sessions where people can present or report to their colleagues on relevant topics in which they have particular expertise? If you do, set the example of asking questions, being careful not to sound as if youre testing them. Is there something in the tactical plan youre not clear on? Who can explain it? Let them explain it to you when others can hear too. In any situation, try to notice opportunities for people to show what they know in a useful way, and then help their teaching to emerge.When someone is being a showoff or undermining the contribution of their colleagues, you can
speak to them more directly about the culture of teaching and learning that you want to create. Or you might be able to find a way to let the situation do the work, by looking for things the showoff really needs to learn and for ways their colleagues can teach them, publicly, without humiliation. Ideally this would be about something truly useful to the person in question, that they can feel the immediate benefit of.When some people are hesitant to offer what they know, you may need to more actively create opportunities for them and provide some protection for their first steps.Then, when challenges arise and youre not sure of the best course of action, you will have trained your people, and yourself, to engage the full spectrum of your abilities, together.For more about Crane Stookey, read Learning the Ropes by Barry Boyce, here on Mindful.org.
O tempo passa. A gente aperta aqui e afrouxa ali.Se antes isso passava, nao passa mais.Se antes aquilo nao bastava, chega a sobrar.As prioridas, as visoes, os sentimentos mudam. E voce nao e uma nova pessoa.Voce e voce no tempo da vida.Mais uma coisa perdida a desapegar. Eu vi esse rascunho hoje. Ele tava la pra baixo nas postagens. Por algum motivo, eu nao postei. Decidi fazer agora e voltei na tela porque fiquei curiosa para ver a data. Mas eu nao imaginava que uma vez que se mexe no rascunho ele atualiza para data da ultima modificacao. Vai saber... "O que faz andar a estrada? E o sonho. Enquanto a gente sonhar a estrada permanecera viva. E para isso que servem os caminhos, para nos fazerem parentes do futuro."Fala de Tuahir, em Terra Sonambula, Mia Couto nada pode ser mais emocionante do que ver relacoes felizes, saudaveis e guerreiras, apesar de tudo, apesar de sempre.hoje sai da terapia lembrando de quando eu escolhi estudar no colegio militar (sim, eu escolhi), de todos os passos que dei depois disso, de todas as lutas que vivi e ainda vivo, de todo apoio integral que recebo das pessoas que me querem bem. cheguei em casa, vejo, no fb, que uma amiga ensinou seu filho a escolher algo dele para doar quando ganha um presente. vejo um amigo que concluiu o mestrado e expressou com uma sinceridade simples e bonita seus agradecimentos.de repente, meu coracao ficou cheia de alegria. me sinto meio boba, meio emotiva demais. mas nao e isso o que faz sentido?obs. e isso mesmo. a cada periodo de tempo indeterminado esse blog pode ganhar uma atualizacao hahahana verdade, eu ando pensando em postar aqueles textos que eu escrevo no fb e acabo achando por bem nao postar. entao vai aqui. esse cantinho mais meu. Por hoje as incertezas me devoram, mas nao seduzem tampouco fascinam. So por hoje. Que ilusao.Nao somente hoje. Mas breve. Bem breve.Nao e mais o poco de mim que me move. E o meu bem, estar.E isso, sim, e so. dizem que saudade e a prova de que o passado valeu a pena. meu mestrado valeu a pena.tive a sorte e o prazer de conhecer pessoas que me trouxeram novas perspectivas da vida, do que se pode ser e viver. o que mais poderia deixar imensa saudade? a saudade nao e um retorno ao passado e o proprio passado vivendo em paz no meu presente.A vida e so uma surpresa, um pressente perfeito, faz dois anos nao imaginaria pessoas tao maravilhosas compartilhando um mesmo caminho comigo num lugar que pareceria longe de minha acostumada vida, voces fizeram a diferenca da minha vida do Brasil, minha experiencia nao seria tao linda sem vcs nela, abracar suas vidas foi o melhor privilegio.a saudade? a saudade e uma lembranca que a gente gosta de ter. porque so sente falta do que foi bom.eu nao sei. tenho que pensar muito. a saudade e aquilo que valeu a pena. feliz e aquele que vive sem pensar nos finais e revive os seus comecos
pouco mais de um ano atras visitei uma exposicao do Kandinsky. ate entao nao sabia nada a seu respeito, mas estava a procura de um passeio cultural e conhecer um artista russo parecia uma chance talvez unica. suas obras sao lindas. ele trabalha as cores de uma forma tao sensitiva que nao me permite descrever. mesmo assim, os textos, dele e dos curadores, tambem ressoavam muito em mim. o nome da exposicao era "Kandinsky: tudo comeca num ponto" e uma das frases que mais me impressionou foi "eu vi todas as cores em espirito. selvagens linhas quase loucas foram esbocadas na minha frente". essa visita mexeu comigo. foi como me fizesse perceber um caos harmonico de transformacoes loucas e lindas. transformacoes que comecam num ponto. eu decidi que aquele dia seria o meu ponto e abandonei uma serie de perguntas inuteis, sem resposta e um pouco destrutivas que vinham me ocupando. era natural que eu as fizesse e eu nao me culpava por isso, mas a sensacao da sua inutilidade junto da sua propria natureza as deixavam um fardo. foi como da agua pro vinho. nao e que tudo tenha sido assim superado de um pro outro. mas naquele ponto eu mudei o curso da minha superacao definitivamente e abandonei de uma vez uma serie de travas pra seguir em paz meu caminho. fiz isso quanto a uma questao pontual que vinha sendo um vulcao em mim. hoje eu percebo que ha muito tempo tenho buscado fazer isso com outras questoes que vao e vem e sao muito mais minhas. muitas vezes bate um cansaco. bate um desanimo de comecar de novo. porque nos meus momentos mais otimistas me digo que havera dali em diante "um ano novo" de Drummond, mas quem decreta sou eu, inves do tempo. parece ate um sumo ato de responsabilidade por mim. percebo hoje como e mesmo exaustivo comecar tudo do comeco ou pensar que assim sera. me construir desde o inicio (ou quase) e uma tarefa tao grande que e sempre impossivel e, entao, frustrante, o que me faz ser arremessada por mim mesma pra a bem longe do triunfo do meu decreto de vida nova. por minha sorte e por meu esforco em ser melhor comigo e, assim, com quem comigo convive, e que tenho percebido um caminho de aprendizado, que me faz abondanar o decreto de me criar do zero e traz suavidade pra trajetoria. hoje rememorando essa exposicao, por um acaso do touchscreen, me deu uma alegria imensa pela decisao que tomei naquela vez. mais do que isso, me deu a leveza de pensar de que o ponto do comeco e o ponto de alteracao da rota. e o ponto de se arriscar em novos caminhos, sem que isso represente que todo o percorrido ate ali nao tenha seu sentido e sua beleza. e mais uma etapa das transformacoes da vida, como linhas lindas e quase loucas. Quando criei esse blog minhas (in)certezas eram tao existenciais. Nao sei dizer bem qual foi a trilha que eu tomei que me trouxe a ser tao
mais mundana, pratica e imediata. Mas nao por isso clara ou desprovida de muitos conceitos. As angustias e desejos miram agora em outra direcao. Querem adivinhar o futuro, dar conta da agenda diaria e acertar em cheio a meta mais proxima que tiver. Em paz com o meu sentido de ser e tao inquieta com em como estava, estou e estarei. Ai me pergunto: estou, tambem, mais superficial?