Notes by Dwija Ramesh
Recap:
What is the manual that helps us live, survive and thrive? Our scriptures:
- teaches us how to relate with the world around us
- teaches us about our nature, Happiness
- how to realize our nature while living this life
Last week, we saw that Happiness was our nature.
Discourse:
What is the connection between Dharma, the mind, and the nature of our Happiness?
Our mind is composed of our personality. Dharma should be applied to this mind-intellect process so one can be integrated and lift the veil that covers their true nature.
Many of us tend to believe that we know virtues and why they are important. No matter how much we learn at school, we are still confused by our emotions and internal battles. Our education helps us survive, but these are superficial. Value-based education helps us lead meaningful and balanced lives. We need more than just education. We have to know how to use what we learn to serve the greater good. It takes only one individual to inspire others to change.
What is the purpose of values
There are beautiful looking people and then beautiful people. With the first, you can’t always judge a book by its cover; you could end up not wanting to spend time with them at all. The latter draws us in with The magnetism of their personalities. The second one is the one we should strive to be; one with virtues. They are the hallmark of integrated personalities.
What are the advantages of being integrated?
- When we lie we feel guilty and we don’t feel great. Being honest helps you get past this and live more freely.
- This leads us to having a quieter mind
- When we procrastinate, we end up feeling extremely stressed, especially if something else gets added on. Instead of this, being disciplined will help us go with the flow and you are always prepared
RAW
Debrief: Think of something that you’ve wanted really badly and eventually, you got it in the steps that we talked about. How much do you value that object now
If we take time to analyze these experiences, we will be more alert 
This week’s RAW is: Identify a virtue for yourself to develop
Notes by Mahathi Yathiraju
Review of last week
– The scriptures teach us 3 important things:
- Our scriptures teach us how to relate to the world around us in a way that keeps us balanced
- Scriptures teach us about our nature- HAPPINESS!
- 3) Scriptures teach us how to realise our nature in living this life
– In our last class, we broke down the experience of dependent joy using an Amazon delivery
– You don’t need to go anywhere or do anything to experience your nature except one thing: Quieten the mind because a noisy mind fails our nature
– we saw that dharma is that which integrates, and that nothing is inherently dharmic or adharmic!
*Vihar is on the set of Rick and Morty while Rishaan is in space!*
Breakout rooms!
Question: what was the integration between the mind, dharma, and happiness?
– happiness is your nature
– it is connected because when you fulfill your duty, your mind becomes quite because you did the right thing and when the mind is quiet, you are able to be happy
– They all work together to make decisions
– If we tapped into our dharma we get closer to our nature, which is happiness
– Dharma sets your mindset to become your nature
– Our nature is happiness, and our mind veils our nature with thoughts
Taking up the question
– That which integrates our personality ar virtues
– and in an integrated personality we have a quiet mind
Class Content!
– Many of us believe we know why virtues are important- especially when we grow older
– BUT for so many of us, it is quite evident we give more importance to possessions and positions rather than virtues
– Whatever we educate ourselves in, when we are living life, we find we are all still plagued by emotional problems like feeling sad and secluded.
– That is a noisy mind, a mind constantly fighting an internal battle
– Value based education: we need more than just education; we need knowledge on how to use that education and knowledge meaningfully. The primary goal in life should be to serve the greater good.
– Example: medical students going into the medical field take an oath to serve the public, but often times they lose sight of this and treat their patients as objects that grow their bank accounts
Purpose of values
– Beautiful looking people vs beautiful people: you may think that beautiful girl, guy, or whomever is god’s gift to the world, but when you spend a little time with them you realise you don’t get along with who they are; looks can be deceiving
– versus: beautiful people. we are drawn to them by the magnitude of their personalities. It’s the inside that matters more than the outside. We are drawn to people whose personalities are awesome- and VIRTUES are what make them awesome!
– example: you gravitate towards people who are happy vs always sad
– The people who are happiest are those who live virtuously and live integrated
Second Question: How many of you have a or had a messy room?
– What happens when your room is a mess
– You can’t find anything in your room!
– This messiness in your room: if everything around us we keep in disarray, then everything within us will be in dissarray
– The outer expression is a manifestation of the inner expression
Third Question: What is the difference between an ordinary person and an extraordinary person?
– They’re extra (pun haha)
– Ordinary things in an extraordinary way
– Extraordinary people don’t just happen- it takes time and patience to get to that stage
– They don’t have anything different than those ordinary people- they become who they are by living what they learn
– The extraordinary person acts on what they know and develops and matures
The ordinary person, despite having the same knowledge, doesn’t act on it, and so they remain the same
– Einstein: insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results!
This week’s RAW and end of class announcements / closing prayer!
– Identify a virtue you want to develop
– think on why you want to develop it
– how will you develop this virtue?