January 25, 2023

Notes by Saamya Deo

Review

Last week we learned about a young man who seeked wisdom. He asked a Swami how he can get some and the Swami told the young man to follow him. They reached the ocean and went inside of it. The Swami pushed down on the young man’s shoulders and let the young man’s head go under the surface. The young man struggled to breath. Air, air his brain screamed over and over again!

Then the Swami pulled him up. The young man yelled at him. Asking the Swami whether he was trying to kill him. The Swami said that if he wanted to then he wouldn’t have pulled the young man up. He also told the young man that he will receive the knowledge or whatever he seeks if and only if he wants whatever he wants as much as he wanted air. 

From this we learned that . . . . . .

1. Goals help us grow
2. To accomplish our goals effort is needed (required) 

Our goals also need courage, sincerity and effort. 

We also learned that there are 3 types of goals. 

1. Immediate (Tomorrow)
2. Short Term (4-6 months)
3. Long Term (1 year to forever)

Story

A group of friends go ice skating. As they got on the ice, everyone held on to the wall, slipping over and over again. One person started to slide a little bit. They kept sliding until they fell on the ice face first. They slowly got up and fell on their butt. Everyone starts to laugh. The person gets up again and starts to run. As they run the lean forward and all anyone can hear is the sound of their ice skates gracefully gliding across the ice. Lesson 

Some things that we learned

1. BE CURIOUS
2. Effort
   1.  Not everything is in our control, but the amount of effort that we put in is something that we have control over
3. Attitude
   1. The person in our story had an attitude
   2. The person didn’t care what anyone thought, whether they laughed at him or not

RAW

Everyday, try an activity or a skill that you have trouble with.

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Notes by Om Shreejay

Review

We reviewed last week’s story about the young man seeking knowledge and wisdom. He found a teacher who told the man to follow him. He went into the ocean and went deeper and deeper. Eventually when the water was up to his shoulders, the teacher turned around and pushed the man under the water. The man fought with all his might to get air. Just when he was about to give up the teacher lifted him out of the water. The man yelled why the teacher had done that. The teacher said that if he wanted knowledge as much as he wanted air then knowledge would come. 

The lesson from this story is to fight for your goals with all your might, as much as you would fight for air when you are drowning in water.

Story

There were lots of people at an ice-skating rink. Everyone was thinking about how embarrassing it would be if they fell. So they held on to each other and to the sides. None of them were really learning how to ice skate. Then one of them tries to walk on the ice. Everyone watches him as he starts to walk on the ice. Then he fell and everyone thought that he was done. But the person gets up and starts trying again. Over and over the person falls but never stops trying. Finally, he run across the ice and slides all the way to the other side of the rink. At the end, the only person who had learned to ice skate was that person, while everyone else held back and did not even try. 

Lesson

We should have the mindset of not giving up even if we fail trying to do something. We should be curious about how we failed and keep on trying to make ourselves better. But even if you put in all the effort some things may still not happen in our favor. For example you can water and take care of a seed but the seed has to grow. But there are still some things that you can control. The first is your self-effort, which is not giving up. The second is your attitude – even if you fail your attitude is to keep trying. 

Virtue

Being curious in the face of failure

Practice

We imagined one thing that we struggled with. Then we thought about how to struggle with it less. We practiced how to keep on trying to do it, and if/when we failed, to be curious about why we failed and try again after fixing what was in our control.