March 2, 2022

Notes by Aarya Mishra

Review

Shankarji reviewed the 4 virtues we have learnt so far. Viveka – Prioritization, Vairagya – Acceptance, Shama – Quietude in Mind and Dama – Discipline.

Lesson
We learnt about the 2 ways to practice discipline.

1. Don’t listen to your desires

2. Take more charge of responsibilities.

We learnt about a new virtue in the class – Uparama, or Understanding. To understand, you have to see where the other person is coming from, or understand them. For an example, we watched Adventure Time this week.

Adventure Time
A villain called the door master, stole some belongings from Jake, Finn, Princess Bubblegum, and Marcellin. They chased him, and he ran past a door they couldn’t get through. The door had writing inscribed on it. It said an honest band could open it. They all tried to get through. When Marcellin was singing a song, Bubblegum said that it was bad. Marcellin got mad, and started singing a truthful song. The door started opening, but she broke off. They all got mad at each other, and they all left except Jake. He started singing a song, and the door opened! They went in, and they found the door master. He gave all of the stuff back, but then they found out that Marcellin didn’t lose anything! She just wanted to come with them.

Lesson

Marcellin and Princess Bubblegum used to be friends. Princess Bubblegum had lost a t-shirt that Marcellin gave to her. Marcellin and Princess Bubblegum stopped being friends because they didn’t understand each other. Marcelling thought Princess Bubblegum didn’t like her, and Princess Bubblegum thought that Marcellin didn’t like her!

They were just not seeing things from each other’s perspective and therefore lacked understanding. We have fewer conflicts and better peace of mind once we open our minds and become more understanding.

RAW
Count how many times you get into a fight or arguments this week.