What career advice can you expect to get from the Buddha. In my opinion all that you need to know to master a profession – or any money making skill – is summarized in the following few verses: We are what we thinkAll that we are arises with our thoughts,With our thoughts we make the […]
Author Archives: nikhilmg
On Learned Leisure
One of my earliest memories when I was young was being taught the virtue of hard work. My family and society emphasized working for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden. I am thinking in particular of my grandparents who lived through the Indian struggle for independence led by Mahatma Gandhi. My grandparents were very […]
Psychological reasons
In this blog I will try to explain the psychological factors that may be preventing people with extreme views (example Islamists and Maoists) to understand any point of view other than their own. Specifically I would like the extremists to understand the points I made in my blog below: I will start by stating the […]
How to prevent a Nuclear Holocaust
Now you might think that I am off my rocker. Here I am with no experience in government, politics or managing people and I am saying I can help avoid a nuclear conflict. But if there is even one chance in a million that I have something worthwhile to say it makes sense to read […]
Why I got robbed and what you can learn from it
What follows below is my personal experience: A person whom I thought was my friend kidnapped me and forced me to sign away a large part of my savings which were held in the form of equity shares traded on the stock exchange. I had made the mistake of boasting about my shareholdings to this […]
How to make a Powerful Impression on People
You will notice that I have said, a powerful impression, not necessarily a good impression. If that does not deter you read on. The best way to impress people is by not giving a damn what they think of you. Quoting from Emerson’s essay on Self Reliance: Honor is venerable to us because it is […]
Reading for Self Cultivation
Following is a paragraph from Gurcharan Das’s book, The Difficulty of Being Good. Mr. Das had taken early retirement from a successful corporate career and decided to take an academic holiday in which he did a lot of reading and thinking and discovered for himself the meaning of life. Here is how he went about […]
Why War is good
There is reason to think that war is not only inevitable but also desirable. What do I mean by that? I read chapter 2 of Osho’s book on Jesus’ teachings recently. The name of the book is The Mustard Seed and it is considered by some people to be a classic. Link is below. The […]
Why don’t People learn
I first came across this question – Why is it that people never learn – while reading the opening chapter of Shogun, the popular bestseller by James Clavell. If you are looking to be entertained by a rip roaring adventure while being exposed to Japanese culture that this is a book you will want to […]
Do we deserve our Freedom
Do we deserve our freedom? I overheard a conversation between two gentlemen of a mature age recently. They were discussing Donald Trump’s instigation of the crowds that invaded Capitol Hill following his electoral loss to Joe Biden in 2020. After criticizing the democratic form of government that tolerates and allows these sorts of antics one […]