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Archive for October, 2009

Knowledge, Inspiration, and Energy (Part 1)

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

(Excerpted from Swami Kriyananda’s Knowledge, Inspiration, and Energy, Lesson 3 of Success and Happiness through Yoga Principles)

For those who want to follow well-worn paths, familiarity with what has been done before is important. This is the path of tradition, which to a great extent means a path of imitation. To follow this path, one needs knowledge, but doesn’t particularly need inspiration or energy. For success in any tradition, one needs the necessary education taught by people competent to instruct others in the basic “rules of the game.”

I remember the organist at the church where my mother’s funeral was held. The purpose of the ceremony was to comfort the bereaved and to send blessings to the departed. The organist’s job was simply to play a piece of music for the event. What I asked her to play was a composition of my own. She was graceless enough to tell me that she wouldn’t play it because, as she pointed out firmly, “This melody doesn’t end on the tonic note.” In fact she was right according to the “rules of the game.” Had she played the piece first, however, and listened with her heart, she would have seen that, in this case, she was wrong. (more…)

What are these?

Tags: creativity, energy, innovation, leadership, opportunity, productivity, success
Posted in leadership, productivity, success course | No Comments »

Leap In and Try Things: Interview with Brian Kernighan

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

Referred to as "K&R"

Brian Kernighan (pronounced ker-ni-han), Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University, co-authored The C Programming Language, which has sold millions of copies and has been translated into 27 languages.

C is one of the most popular computer programming languages, and it has influenced nearly all languages in use today, including C++, C#, Java, Javascript, Perl, PHP, and Python.

Before becoming a full-time professor at Princeton, you had a long and brilliant career at AT&T Bell Labs. But let’s go back further. Can you tell us about your childhood and early interests?

Professor Brian Kernighan

I was born in Canada and grew up in and around Toronto. My father was a chemical engineer, which gave me a bit of exposure to some kinds of science and engineering. I went to the University of Toronto in a program called “Engineering Physics”, which was meant for students who were pretty good in math and science but didn’t have any idea what they wanted to do. It was extremely tough because there was a heavy workload and a lot of material — academically, I don’t think I have ever worked as hard since. But it was a very good foundation for all kinds of later studies, and of course the experience of just working hard full time was good (though painful at the time). I didn’t really encounter computers until I was nearly done with my undergrad education, but when I did first start to play with computers, I found them great fun, and of course still do.
(more…)

What are these?

Tags: c, career advice, computer science, creativity, innovation, java, javascript, opportunity, programming, python
Posted in career, interviews, leadership | 2 Comments »

The Brain—Engineered for Higher Awareness

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Dr. van Houten

by Peter van Houten, M.D.

Dr. van Houten serves as Medical Director of the Sierra Family Medical Clinic and is a longtime resident of Ananda Village. This article was originally published in Ananda’s Clarity Online Magazine.

In the early 1980’s, I attended a revolutionary conference for scientists who specialize in the brain and nervous system called, “The Ever-changing Brain.” New information was being discovered about the nature of our brain and central nervous system that corroborated strongly with what the ancient spiritual traditions of yoga said about the brain’s ability to change. According to the old scientific model in the West the brain didn’t change much during a person’s lifetime. The brain developed through childhood and adolescence and somewhere around age twenty, it was thought, our brain cells began to die off without being replaced. After that, it was a race to see how many brain cells you would lose before you died! It was pretty grim. (more…)

What are these?

Tags: anger, brain, calm, energy, frustration, human values, introspection, meditation, negative emotions, productivity, stress, success, tension
Posted in medical research | No Comments »

Leaders Give Career Advice (1)

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

This collection of career advice for young people was gathered from our recent interviews with business leaders.

Rashmi Bansal

From Rashmi Bansal, author Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, and Founder/Editor, JAM Magazine:

I think the biggest issue I see with young people today is that they have taken this whole thing of “I’ll get into the right college” as the end of their ambition. They try very hard, and they struggle, and they get into the college of their dreams like an IIT or IIM or whatever. Or, on the other hand, they don’t get into the college of their dreams. Either way, they don’t see that that’s just the first point. That’s the steppingstone for their whole life. (more…)

What are these?

Tags: business, career advice, graduation, IIM-A, introspection, mba
Posted in career, interviews | No Comments »

Make Inner Peace Your Bottom Line

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Listen: Download Audio MP3 (4 MB). This post is Part 2. See also Part 1.

(Excerpted from Swami Kriyananda’s First Things First, Lesson 6 of Success and Happiness through Yoga Principles)

Money is something I myself have never sought for personal gain. Yet I have certainly had to earn it for the benefit of others. The spiritual communities I founded could not have come into being without money, and it was I myself who, in the early years, had to earn almost all of it. There were times, in fact, when my financial needs must have been as pressing as any family man faces whose interests are focused entirely on his personal needs. Indeed, mine may have been heavier, for hundreds of people came, in time, to depend for their material security on my activities, and thousands more for their spiritual well-being. The pressures on me to “perform” were sometimes, to my sighs of regret, intense.
(more…)

What are these?

Tags: anger, calm, deadline, frustration, leadership, negative emotions, stress, success, techniques, time management
Posted in leadership, productivity, success course, techniques | No Comments »

Reevaluating The Bottom Line

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Listen: Download Audio MP3 (2 MB). This post is Part 1. See also Part 2.

(Excerpted from Swami Kriyananda’s First Things First, Lesson 6 of Success and Happiness through Yoga Principles)

There is an expression in America today: “the bottom line.” I don’t know if this expression is used in England or in other countries where, as in India, English is widely spoken. Usually the expression refers to monetary profit. By extension, it also indicates something of fundamental importance to an undertaking. Because profit is so often people’s concern, unless they make it clear that they mean something different it is generally understood that they are talking about money.

Let me clarify what I mean, then, in naming this lesson as I have. For this course of lessons serves a dual purpose, and may be said, in this sense, to have two “bottom lines.” First, it accepts the common equation of material success with monetary profit. It also attempts to show, however, that monetary profit, without corresponding inner satisfaction, is a hollow victory. As the Bible puts it, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?” (more…)

What are these?

Tags: anger, calm, frustration, leadership, negative emotions, productivity, stress, success, techniques, time management
Posted in leadership, productivity, success course, techniques | 1 Comment »

The Story of “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”: Interview with Rashmi Bansal

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Rashmi Bansal, Author

An interview with Rashmi Bansal, Founder/Editor JAM Magazine, and author, Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

Listen: Download Audio MP3 (13 MB)

Thank for talking with us, Rashmi.

Thank you, Dharmaraj. It’s nice to be on the other side of the interview table, for a change!

How did the idea of the book come to you?

I have been an entrepreneur and have been fascinated by entrepreneurship. I have covered entrepreneurship extensively in my writing over the years. IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) approached me and said, “We have this idea for a book, and what do you think?” I said, “I think it’s a great idea and I think I should do it.” I just knew that I had to do this book. It was also an opportunity to meet people and just understand what this whole journey is all about. (more…)

What are these?

Tags: business, entrepreneur, IIM-A, leadership, mba, opportunity, success
Posted in interviews, leadership | 1 Comment »

Harmony at Work

Archive for October, 2009

Knowledge, Inspiration, and Energy (Part 1)

Leap In and Try Things: Interview with Brian Kernighan

The Brain—Engineered for Higher Awareness

Leaders Give Career Advice (1)

Make Inner Peace Your Bottom Line

Reevaluating The Bottom Line

The Story of “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”: Interview with Rashmi Bansal

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