April 29, 2020
Notes by Ambika Mishra
Review
Vivekji reminded us about last week’s class and how we talked about the advertisement signs for a drink and how the person who made the signs had thought everyone would be reading them left to right, but everyone was actually reading right to left. That was all a matter of perspective. The values we learnt from the last class were to be relevant and to be modest.
Story
This week’s values are Amana (to be quiet) and Amada (to be mindful).
This week Vivekji told us a story about a great thinker named Sri Ramana. When Sri Ramana was a young boy he was lying down in a temple, and he was so focused on figuring out how to be happy and what was the purpose of life, he actually found the purpose of life and how to be happy. From that time on he did not need anything to fulfill his happiness, he was just happy. Sri Ramana lived in the northern part of Tamilnadu and there it was very forest-like, there were scorpions and snakes and all kinds of other things. Sri Ramana was happy so he did not need anything to fulfill his happiness so he was never afraid.
When people were unhappy or scared, they would go to Sri Ramana. They knew that Sri Ramana was so happy and fearless so they would go to him. Whenever people came in the room where he was sitting, all of their worries and fears would go away. He never even looked at them or said anything to them, all the worries and fears just melted away. If someone went to Sri Ramana and said there fear out loud, he would open his eyes open and they’re worries went away. If the person who was worried was even more worried and even more scared, then Sri Ramana would open his eyes and say “who are you?” and they would no longer be worried. That was how peaceful Sri Ramana was.
Values
AMAANA
Vivekji asked us if we were ever awkward with ourselves, the answer is no, we are not awkward with ourselves because we are comfortable with ourselves. We do not have to lie to ourselves. When Vivekji was younger he used to ski and once he and some high schooler friends were sitting in a cabin and just talking, then they met an agreement to stay quite unless they had something important to say or something about how to be happy, and they stayed quite for about 45 min. It was not awkward silence because they were all comfortable with this silence. If you are going to a party and you are meeting someone and you want to be closer to them than you should talk about what you are good or what your experiences are and then you should stop. That is what it means to be a quiet person, a person who is not constantly wanting to talk about themselves.
AMADA
Vivekji asked us a question, how many of us ate dinner, how many of us had made the dinner and how many of us bought the dinner. Then he asked how many of us had earned the money for the dinner. Our parents had done all this for us. This shows that we are dependent to our parents, but that is okay, because our parents are also dependent on us as well. This is called being interdependent. One should never have to depend on anybody for happiness. Happiness is within us.
Practice
our practice was to look at all the family pictures hanging around the house or at the family photo album and look at each picture for 5 seconds. We did this to practice being quiet and being mindful. Don’t just look at yourself!
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Notes by Keshav Ganesh
Story
Shri Ramana was a young boy. He was very focused on finding the purpose of life and happiness. One day, he actually found the purpose. He never needed anything. When he grew up, he lived in the jungle part of Tamilnadu. Since he never needed anything, he could live on his own and face the animals like bears, jackals, lions, and leopards. Because of doing all of this, almost everyone in the town knew who he was. So whenever someone was unhappy, they went to him and when they saw him, all of the unhappiness would go away. If someone was even more unhappy, they would tell him what was bothering them, and Shri Ramana would open his eyes and all the unhappiness would go away. If something was bothering them SO much all of this would happen again, but this time he would open his eyes, then say “who are you” and all the un happiness would go all away.
This is Vivek Ji speaking about something that happened to himself:
“So whenever I go to Vancouver, I go to a ski lodge to visit my friends. So we were talking about stuff. When someone got the idea to see how long we could stay without talking. We couldn’t talk unless it was important and about happiness. So once we started, someone had to say something, but he realized it wasn’t important and this happened a few times. It lasted for 45 minutes.”
Values
Amana — Quiet
Amada — Mindful
How come talking to yourself is not awkward? You never get sarcastic or dishonest.
We depend on our parents, but do your parents depend on you? Yes.
You can depend on other people for a lot of things, but you can’t depend on them for happiness.
Practice
Go to every single photo hanging in your house, then look at each picture for 5 seconds.
Did you look at yourself?
RAW
Explain everything to your parents.