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2 May 2003 @ 12:22, by sharie. Business
Corporate billionaires are polluting and poisoning and drugging and mass murdering us so they can be rich and rule the world. The question is "why?". The only answer I can see is they have a serious mental illness. If you have the power to create a hellhole, then you have the power to create a wondrous world... why would anyone choose to create a nightmare from hell when they can create a wonderful, magnificent life for all of humanity?
The choice is simple. The ultimate result will impact their sense of self-worth... do they want to rule over a sespool of poverty-striken urchins or do they want to benefit from living in a wondrous world among magnificent human beings?
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 21 Dec 2002 @ 23:59, by ming. Business
While discussing xpertweb, an interesting system for connecting people with experts through a peer economy, Britt Blaser mentions, amongst several problems with real-world reputation systems:"People no longer work for a living. They hold jobs for a living, which pays better. ..which sort of got me thinking. That isn't just a flippant thing to say. I have a hard time thinking of anybody who really works for a living. When I have work that needs doing, I have a hard time finding anybody who would like to do it, even for money. And, I must admit, I don't really have time to work either. There's nothing I'm available for that you can just come and pay me for and I'll do it. And, looking around me, a lot of people seem to work that way. OK, I can still go and get a haircut and pay for it, and I pretty much know what I'll get. But that kind of thing is becoming more rare.
The times I have been employed by corporations I was always puzzled by the fact that most people weren't really doing anything terribly productive, and it made relatively little difference what amount of work people actually were putting out. I several times had the task of making a computer system that would automate what a certain company was doing, so I specifically had to study what it was that actually took place. And along the way I noticed how rather little it had to do with doing work and accomplishing finished work. For example, it is with some embarrassment I note that I once hired a guy to document a program I had written. He had an impressive resume, and the company had to pay above the norm to acquire him. After a year he left to join a big consulting company, and everybody shook his hand and congratulated him on his great career move and his excellent service to the company. I and everybody else knew, at least via our peripheral vision, that the tangible product of his 1 year of work was 1/2 written page of a suggested outline for the manual. We're talking about an expense of maybe $70K for 1/2 page of writing, which I could just as well have jotted down in five minutes instead of hiring him. But nobody cared, because none of it really matters that much. The company was busy and the organizational chart looked good and the money flowed somehow. And this guy had great relationships with everybody. He was very supportive. I enjoyed working with him.
It is not all crazy. The point is that it is relationships people want, rather than giving or receiving quantities of work. And in some mysterious way, that's actually working. With the people I work for today, I'm an independent contractor, but I've insisted on arrangements where I get paid fixed amounts of dollars per month, but I don't promise any hours of work, and there are no deadlines or anything like it. If they or I are unhappy, we'll change the amount or stop the agreement. But it is not about work. It is about paying attention. It is about being present for whatever comes along in a certain area.
I have not yet myself learned to be comfortable with that in situations where I'm the person who's needs some work done. I can see how it ought to work, but it just hasn't become intuitive yet for me. The point is of course that it needs to be a mutually beneficial relationship. I pay attention to these things, and you pay attention to those things, and together we're better off somehow. It is not about me forcing you to deliver certain goods at a certain price. The world is changing rapidly and the future is uncertain, so maybe the relationship model is more viable than a transaction model. But, of course, it needs to be a good relationship, not a bad one. More >
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 17 Dec 2002 @ 17:24, by ming. Business
IM - Instant Messaging - is my most important business communication tool. I mention that because quite a few people seem to think it is about wasting time chatting with people all day about nothing. I have little interest in that. That is also why I don't list my IM account numbers in the sidebar here, because I don't want to invite just anybody to drop by and ask me how the weather is. IM is a high priority channel for me, for short business-like messages, but it is also something I can answer in my own time. I get too much e-mail to easily notice everything. I don't like phonecalls much, as I can pretty much do nothing else while talking. I'm multi-tasking, I usually do several things at the same time. I mainly use ICQ because it has the professional features I need, like archiving and being able to write to people who're off-line, and because everybody I do business with are on ICQ. I'd like to get into Jabber, as it is open source, and I can interface with it from my programs, but I haven't had time yet.
For those who don't know what IM is - it is a little program running on your computer which allows you to send a message to somebody you know, and the message can pop up right away for them at the other end. But they don't have to answer right away. So, you can have a conversation without having to be fully present. For you Europeans - it is SMS on your computer, and for that matter, there are various ways of sending messages between cellphones and IM programs. More >
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 20 Nov 2002 @ 17:50, by ming. Business
Communities of Value form between people who have a common interest in value. It is mostly used about groups where consumers / customers / regular people are networking with each other concerning a certain type of product or service, or a certain brand. Oldfashioned companies HATE that people are sharing notes about themselves, because they want to just talk TO people without interference. Translation: companies that want to lie to people will try to sabotage any attempt of those people talking amongst themselves. What's new is that those companies will go out of business, unless they change and learn to thrive on the free networking and self-organization amongst the people they serve.
eBay has made it huge by facilitating Communities of Value. Napster was a great Community of Value, but the music industry didn't recognize it, to their own loss. Open Source software is often coordinated through Communities of Value, where both programmers and end-users participate. Linux is a great example, or PHP or MySQL. Communities of Value form by themselves all over the place, wherever online forums are easily available, and regardless of whether any related companies participate or not.
Communities of Value might also form amongst businesses that have similar economic interests, or that might find synergetic relationships amongst each other.
Read more:
Community is the best Commercial, Reshaping the Landscape, Backroads. More >
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8 Sep 2002 @ 08:31, by mkirtikar. Business
The Importance of Mind Consciousness
and Independent Thinking
in the Business World -
The world is beating to a new rhythm. Do you feel it too? Perhaps youÂ’ve also noticed, that the rules of the game of life, as we have known them so far, have changed. Most of the knowledge we have accumulated in the past centuries, in particular the lessons and the training we received in the past decades, are antiquated and inadequate. Equipped with an open mind and sensitive to the super natural, some individuals have been aware of this change for some time now. Free of fear they are able to embrace the new and to meet the challenges they face. They are quick to pick up the new vibrations and quick to adapt to the new rules that have not as yet been defined clearly. Those who resist change and the unknown as a rule, are in for a rude awakening. One canÂ’t help but notice how change is accelerating and is affecting our lives globally and individually. Nothing, absolutely nothing is certain any more.
HereÂ’s a big welcome to the Age of Independent Thinking; The Information Age; the Age of Communication and the Age of Consciousness Awareness. Global, Group and Individual Consciousness. The individual who is quick to learn, quick to adapt, intuitive and creative is in now in great demand. Most wanted is the individual who can think out of the box. The challenges of our time are such that the industrial era thinker is threatened with extinction. The inept individual with an over inflated ego driven by selfish motives belongs to the dinosaur age. The new individual feels comfortable with new technology and with the different cultures of the world. The new individual is balanced physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. The new individual is family, group, community, nation orientated and above all globally aware.
Narrow views such as intelligence is fixed at birth and IQ intelligence tests are out. Today we talk about multiple intelligence. Psychologist Howard Gardner for example,
in his book ‘Frames of Mind’, introduced seven measurable intelligences and later documented over twenty five sub-intelligences. I personally believe that intelligence cannot be measured. Ninety five percent of what we know about the brain has been discovered in the past decade. We know today that intelligence can be developed regardless of age. We know that our brain is multidimensional and more flexible than any computer invented and can improve with age if exercised properly. We also know that each human being is unique and is gifted at birth with unlimited potential for learning. The foundation for global, nation, organization and group consciousness is the individual consciousness. In this essay which includes an excerpt from my book ‘Visions Unusual’ I focus on the individual consciousness and in particular on ‘mind’ consciousness. Mind training has been known in Indian Psychology as Raja Yoga for thousands of years, according to the widely known teachings of the sage Pantajali. Pantajali introduced a mental training technique, where by the individual learns to develop the higher mind, which is the door to the source of all power, the Universal Mind.
About half a century ago the Metaphysician and Scientist, P.D.Ouspensky wrote: ‘To know and to understand are two different things and you must learn to distinguish between them.’ Independent thinking is still very rare and has to do with a developed mind. We now begin to recognize that the mind is the sixth sense that mankind is to fully develop in the new age. The mind is invisible and manifests itself through the brain. In other words, the brain is a tool of the mind. To express life there must be mind, but mind is static unless put in motion. God created the world but he endowed man with a mind and the capacity to direct energy, by the power of the mind through thought. The spiritual Master Oamraan Michael Aiivanhov tells us: ‘When mankind begin to use their mind consciously and take command of their instincts, when they begin to purify and add the spiritual element to that level of being, then they become powerful factors capable of changing their destiny.’
The mind is a complex and a wondrous tool and like everything else it can be used or misused. It can be used for simple unimportant tasks or it can be used intelligently. It can be passive and just store the messages that our five senses supply, the data of what we see, hear, taste, touch and feel. Our emotional perceptions and thoughts supply the rest of the data about our external and internal reality. Mind can also be active, it can interpret and attract and create. It can discriminate between various qualities of information received, it chooses what is important and discards what is unimportant. It has the power to discriminate. You are free to create your own picture of reality and to choose your perceptions. You are free to choose what you want to believe or disbelieve. Knowledge for the mind, like food for the body, is intended to feed and help to growth, but it requires to be well digested and the more thoroughly and slowly this process is carried out, the better both for body and mind. Most people are unaware of and, therefore, do not exercise this ability. They accept everything as it is presented to them, and become slaves of their environments. Each one of us has the same power to perceive, to experience and to learn. What we learn differs, our perceptions differ, and our applications of our powers differ. If we change our ideas, we change our actions.
Consciousness can be studied and the best thing we can do is to begin with studying our own consciousness. Our conceptual reality is a result of our ongoing method of thinking. It is through our thinking that we influence consciousness and our consciousness creates our reality. The key is to understand the two major components of our mind, the conscious and the subconscious. The value of the subconscious is enormous, it inspires us, it warms us, it furnishes us with names, facts and scenes from the storehouse of memory. It directs our thoughts, tastes and accomplishes tasks so intricate that no conscious mind, even if it had the power, has the capacity for them. The subconscious mind never sleeps, never rests any more than does your heart or your blood. Stating specific things to the subconscious mind to be accomplished, forces are set in operation that lead to the result desired. All of this is governed by a natural universal law known as The Law of Attraction.
We are related to the world without by the objective mind. The brain is the organ of this mind and the cerebrospinal system of nerves puts us in conscious communication with every part of the body. This system of nerves responds to every sensation we perceive with our five senses. We are related to the world within by the subconscious mind. The sympathetic system of nerves presides over all subjective sensations such as love, joy, imagination, fear, hate, respiration and all other subconscious phenomena. It is through the subconscious mind that we are connected to the universal mind. When we can bring the objective and the subjective minds into conscious cooperation thereby coordinating the finite and the infinite, we can then control our life from within. The Zen Master Thuong Chieu wrote: ‘If the practitioner knows his own mind clearly he will obtain results with little effort. But if he does not know anything about his own mind, all of his efforts will be wasted.’
Quantum physics has shown that matter is simply a certain vibratory rate of energy. Matter is attracted to other matter and we call this the ‘Law of Gravity’. All energies therefore will gravitate to other energies of the same or similar vibratory rates. All beliefs thoughts especially when they are accompanied by strong emotional currents vibrate at a certain frequency of energy. And so all people, events and ideas that vibrate harmoniously will gravitate to each other. Actions do not produce themselves. When we can see that and understand it, we can see that law does not operate itself. It is we that cause actions and experience their reactions. It is we who set up causes and feel their effects. There is no action unless there is a being to make it and to feel its effects. This law rules on every plane of being and every being of every grade is under this law. We never act alone, we always act on and in connection with others, affecting them for good or evil and we get the necessary reactions from the causes set in motion by ourselves. This presents to us the idea of absolute justice for under such a conception of law each being exactly gets what he set in motion.
We are told that the student of ‘Raja Yoga’ or mental training, has to realize that the mind is intended to be an organ of perception. The process to be followed is first to gain right control of the thinking principle. Second is to stabilize the mind so that it can be used as an organ of vision, a sixth sense, and the synthesis of all the other five senses. This will result with correct knowledge and the right use of the perceiving faculty, so that the new field of knowledge which is now contacted is seen as it is. That which is perceived is rightly interpreted, through the subsequent assent of intuition and reason. Right transmission to the physical brain of that which has been perceived, the testimony of the sixth sense is correctly interpreted, and the evidence as transmitted with occult accuracy. Result is correct reaction of the physical brain to the transmitted knowledge.
The entire Raja Yoga, is based upon an understanding of the nature, purpose and function of the mind. The ability of the mind to attract, is also under your control. You can chose your beliefs and thoughts and information will be attracted to support them. In other words you think success, you attract success. You think doubt, or fear and you attract failure. You think wealth and you attract wealth. You think health and you attract health. You think ill health and you attract ill health. You think love and you attract love. This is the reason for repeating positive affirmations to yourself. Through the repetition of affirmations you can influence and reprogram your subconscious. Your mind has the ability to create information and therefore to create circumstances. Many people still do not understand the importance for the use of affirmations. The idea is that as you repeat the affirmations to yourself, your thought through your concentration, is occupied with that particular affirmation and, therefore, cannot fall into the trap of a negative thought. In time the positive affirmation which you are repeating consciously, will get impregnated into the subconscious pushing out and replacing the old habit of the negative thought.
If for example you have a financial problem, the more you worry and think about your problem, the worse your problem will become. The reason is because you are adding fuel to the fire, by feeding the problem more energy to keep it alive. When you, however, ignore it, and concentrate on imagining money flowing in to you, having trust in the abundance of the universe and in your mind see yourself doing better, eventually the problem will turn around. At the same time, it is important that you engage yourself to do whatever is within your power to do, in order to help the situation on the physical level. Remember the saying ‘God help those who help themselves’. If you remember that thoughts are energy vibrations and if you do not feed the negative with more energy, eventually it will disappear because you have unplugged the source, the fuel to keep it alive.
This process works for everything. To know your mind, observe and recognize everything about it. To the untrained mind, also known as concrete or lower mind and the myopic consciousness, life is a startlingly endless succession of the minute of non essentials. The lower mind loves exactness and definiteness. Its chief characteristic action is in discrimination and in assessing relative values. It tends to analyze and separate, to break down and compartmentalize, to categorize all that it perceives, to rank its preferences and to judge and criticize. The small minded intellectual sorts everything out as wise or foolish, good or bad, useful or non useful. This attitude has been typical of humanity in the Piscean age. It gets stuck in the little unnecessary details and is incapable of a wider view of life. The Buddha warned us that the untrained mind is a slayer of the truth.
The universal mind, is the all pervading undistributed Creative Power. It is your choice to tap into this Infinite Power. It is in abundance as everything else in the universe. You are the Master of your thoughts and actions. You are the Master of your life and what happens to you. Thoughts are energy and energy follows thought. If you spend your time thinking and living in the past, plotting revenge, being unhappy or angry, or feeling sorry for yourself and blaming others for your problems, or day dreaming about a future, then you are not only wasting energy but your thoughts cannot possibly attract anything good to you. Thoughts attract other thoughts that are comparable to them in accordance with the Law of Attraction. Through concentration you can train your mind to influence and change your thought patterns. Even Winnie the Poof has some insight for us: ‘Down through the centuries, man has developed a mind that separates him from the world of reality, the world of a natural laws. This mind tries too hard, wears itself out, and ends up weak and sloppy. Such a mind, even of a high intelligence, is inefficient. It goes here and there, backwards and forwards, and fails to concentrate on what it’s doing at the moment. It drives down the street in a fast moving car and think it’s at the store, going over a grocery list. Then it wonders why accidents occur.’
The secret of power is a perfect understanding of our relationship to the Universal Mind. ‘Thinking’ is dealing with the magical power of thought and consciousness. When you begin to perceive that the essence of the universe is within you – you begin to feel the inner power and you begin to do things. It is the fuel which fires the imagination, the fuel which lights the torch of inspiration. It gives vitality to your thoughts which enable you to connect with all the invisible of the universe. Experiencing this within you, you are able to plan fearlessly and to execute masterfully.
In the west much emphasis is laid on the intellect which is important, except that there is a great danger, as there is in all things, when the golden middle line is crossed. The danger is having an over developed intellect. Often an over developed intellect is mistaken for intelligence. Intellect is acquired knowledge from outside sources. It is using the brain, it is ability, it is genius, it is propensity but it is also most definitely partiality. In contrast Intelligence is reason, understanding, sense, penetration, mentality, distinction, discrimination and refinement. In other words intelligence goes a step further and deeper than intellect, it goes into reason and understanding. This we reach when we combine a harmony of intellect and love, the heart aspect. Or intellect with spirit. The knowledge is taken intellectually and reflected on an inner deeper level bringing the heart love aspect into it in order to shed a different light upon it, to make visible other deeper aspects, giving a wider and more holistic view.
With an overdeveloped intellect the heart aspect is not included. Everything happens in the head area, it gives only a partial view of the whole. No deep thought or reflection is exercised any more, and facts are accepted and stated as read or taken from an external material source. Anything else that does not fit in is flatly rejected. An intellect has no compassion nor deeper understanding that penetrates through the physical and the obvious. The inner balance and harmony is lost when one has an over inflated intellect. Intelligence, in comparison, is based on deep reflection with an open mind and a compassionate heart. Intelligence embraces versus an over developed intellect that separates. The danger in an over developed intellect is that it can block the mind, the heart and the intuition and what more in its rigidity can lead to mental illness.
Here is a beautiful example given to us by Swami Vivekanda from Inana Yoga, the Yoga of Knowledge, to give us a simple and clear picture to make us understand, the difference. Picture this: ‘A chariot (the physical body), the charioteer (the mind), the rider (the Inner Self), the reigns (the intellect) and the horses (the five senses). Only the charioteer can communicate with the rider, i.e. the Mind with the Inner Self. When the horses are well trained, and the reigns strong and kept well in the hands of the charioteer, the rider reaches the goal set. But when the horses are not controlled, and the reigns too weak and not well managed, then the horses run wild and lead all including the rider to destruction.’ This is the reason for self development and mind training. The goal through the journey of life, is to develop and to refine the Inner Self. The self is on the plane of intuition. A developed mind is necessary in order to establish communication with the self within, the source of all things, and to bring out the Omnipresent in you. That is your power. Mind is synonymous with understanding. Ouspensky tells us another important truth: ‘You can understand other people only as much as you can understand yourself and only on the level of your own being’. Mind consciousness is important to understand oneself.
Excerpt from ‘Visions Unusual’
” Margo Kirtikar Ph.D.
August 2000
References
The Psychology of ManÂ’s possible Evolution by P.D. Ouspensky
The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh.
The Power of the Mind by Master Oamraan Michael Aiivanhov
The Mind and Its Functions by Gesche Rabten
The Tao of Winnie the Pooh by Benjamin Hoff.
All rights reserved. Reprint with permission.
For comments or questions please contact:
Margo Kirtikar, Ph.D.
Coach
PRACTICAL LIFE PHILOSOPHY
Torgasse 6
8001 Zurich
Switzerland
Email:mkirtikarphd@visionsunusual.com
www.visionsunusual.com
Next book to be published shortly
FLOWING WITH UNIVERSAL LAWS
www.1stBooks.com
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26 Jun 2002 @ 19:50, by ming. Business
Grr, I really don't like monopolies that keep secrets from you in order to control you better. See this article about how car manufacturers keep the repair codes from their computers secret for anybody who isn't their own dealer. In case you don't know, all modern cars are controlled by an onboard computer, and very often the only way of diagnosing or repairing anything about the engine is by talking with the computer. But if you aren't allowed to know what its codes mean, you can't. The result is that around 10% of all car repairs can not be carried out, because the repair person doesn't have access to the computer codes, and he will have to tell the car owner to go away and go to a (much more expensive) dealer. More >
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 1 Jun 2002 @ 02:34, by ming. Business
One of the threads the Minciu Sodas Laboratory is exploring is that of "Working Publically". It doesn't quite reflect on the website yet, but it takes place on some of their mailing list discussion groups that I'm on. The same kind of thing is also going on on an increasing number of web logs (~news logs}, particularly amongst well-known techies on the net, like Jon Udell, Dave Winer or Adam Curry More >
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 28 Jan 2002 @ 17:05, by ming. Business
Interesting article in L.A. Times about the culture of the Enron, the failed energy company. Many things that at first glance sound very positive. The culture invited and rewarded personal initiative, and the company supported its community generously, and promoted positive values of creativity and charity. But, looking a bit closer, what it really encouraged was that as long as you bring the company more money, you can break any rule that is in the way. An arrogant the-ends-justify-the-means kind of thing. Get there in any creative way you can think of, no matter who gets hurt along the way, and then make sure you look as good as possible. More >
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 18 Jan 2002 @ 20:14, by ming. Business
As the article below, from today's Los Angeles Times talks about, the scandal surrounding Enron, the failed giant energy company is just so good that it hurts. Now there's really somebody who got caught with their pants down their heels. They have apparently bribed everybody in sight, including the current and past U.S. president, the press, their accounting firms, etc. They've gotten special treatment all the way, haven't paid any taxes for 4 out of the last 5 years, they have hundreds of foreign "subsidiaries", and still they couldn't hold it all together, and last minute calls to all their friends made no difference. More >
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