Notes by Arnav Chugh & Saadhvi Mamidi

Notes by Arnav:

Introductory Reflection

• Going to do a deep dive into re-ACTION. We aren’t trying to replace bad habits with good habits, but trying to learn from them and become our best selves.
• This will take patience and knowledge; it doesn’t happen immediately.
• Ex: You can’t force a bud to sprout, takes time and some factors — sunlight, water, etc.
• Self unfoldment through right action

Guidelines for Engagement

• What do we want to gain?

I want to improve on what I have learned from my last power hour. This can include disciplining myself to following the RAW and applying what I have learned in my environment.

• How do we want to be respected?
  • I want my opinions to be respected.

• What do we want to value?
  • I value and respect other people’s opinions.

Dialogue

Fundamental: How and why the world is the way it is

#1 How would you describe life?

• I said adventure
• Life is action according to Sumanji. Life is dead if there is no action. The hallmark of life is action. For the living, inaction is impossible. The key point is what type of action we choose to engage in.

#2 What is the cause of action?

• I said desire
• Thoughts that develop into desires prompt us into action. All actions that we engage in begin with desires. From this we assume happiness is somewhere outside of us.

#3 The law of karma (the law of action)

1. Every cause must have an effect

• We are the effect of our parents
• The cause of a tree is a seed

2. Every action must have a sentient doer of that action

• Behind every action there is some sort of person behind that
• Me joining power hour
• How do we explain wind then? I said earth

A way to think of this is to think of god. One word for god is ishwara. Ish means to govern — god resembles those rules of the universe that we live in

3. Every result of an action goes back to its doer

How do you explain something you are accused of but it’s supposed to be on someone else?

All of our actions and consequences in past bodies put us into new bodies to reap the rewards and consequences

How do we prove the law of karma?

Ex: son of king and son of beggar, who determined these ppl’s positions

• How do we explain this
• We can we say that this is random

Probability — quarter

1. Wind, how I flicked the coin, and other factors determine probability
2. We can’t calculate these factors,
3. Randomness can never be the cause of anything

Karma is the only viable way to discuss why what happens in the world

I am responsible for my sorrow or happiness

How should i share this knowledge

1. When something comes up on me, one should accept it and try to fix it
2. We should help others with their karma if they’re suffering — you can support and comfort them

Discussion

Propose other viable options that explain the world we’re living in… what are your alternative theories?

My Reflection: It depends on your perception of things. This perception depends on one’s past experiences. There is no right answer because of the complexity of the topic. For me, I believe in the goodness of a person. I, personally, don’t like the concept of karma. I don’t think there’s a causation to things. There is no definite way to say that. I do agree with randomness in some cases. Some people say coincidence, free will, and fate

Debrief with Sumanji

• We review values of collective growth
• We all want to commit to the ideas on the doc as a group
• We should invest in it together

Look at it when you’re deciding to come to class or not, thinking about our sense of community, when the world seems like a struggle, bring this doc up and remind yourself what you are doing, together we’ll face these challenges

Reflection Adventure of the Week: Don’t look at or use any screen for more than 20 minutes a day, unless it is for work

Personal Reflection on RAW: For me this RAW is quite challenging. I am already accustomed to using my phone for more than an hour per day for other work. For myself, I will modify the RAW so I don’t use a screen for more than an hour. When I meet this goal and start having consistency, I will slowly decrease the time.

Notes by Saadhvi:

5 Takeaways

1. The cause of all our actions is desire
2. We have desires because we think that happiness is somewhere outside of us
3. Bad things that happen to us are of our own doing, whether that’s in this life or past lives
4. Have compassion for others — we’re all constantly making mistakes
5. I am the architect of my own present situation

Fundamentals of the World

• Hallmark of life = actions (cause of actions is desire)

Law of Karma/Action

1. Every cause has an effect
2. Every action has a sentient doer of that action
3. Every effect goes back to the doer of that action

• Randomness can NEVER be a cause — we use probability to quantify our ignorance
• Who makes the wind blow? Ishvara (totality)

Discussion — What are some alternate theories for the Law of Karma?

• Everything is random, no reasoning — this theory is a bit saddening — if everything is random, we have no control
• God punishes based on their own faults (Ancient Greek approach) — also saddening, we have no control over our own situation
• If we can’t control bad things in life, that also means we can’t control the good things that happen to us

RAW: Don’t look/use any screen for more than 20 minutes a day (other than for the purpose of schoolwork)