Inner Peace

During January 2010, I took a 10-day meditation course. It had profoundly changed my life and made me shift my life completely. Since then I have been practicing on and off, not as much as I should. But because my perspective on life changed so much during those 10 days, I see things very differently in regular life.

I have been re-reading "An Ancient Path" by Dr. Paul R. Fleischman. I want to share a portion of the book here that has been on my mind lately, especially with the terrible incident that happened last week that shook me to the core.
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**There was a period of time when I set about the task of studying people who attained inner peace. What do they say? How did they do it? There are people from every era of history, every culture, who address this problem in one degree or another. Here is a conclusion that seems timeless and culture-free: there are two agendas that human beings share. One agenda is to be peaceful, to be happy, I want to find "more" to life. The other agenda is safety, security; that gold Cadillac may come in handy, or gold may come in handy, you can't trust other people, history if perfidious. There could be a war; I better situate myself in a good position. With two apparently competing agendas, very idealistic or simple philosophy might conclude, well, just walk the open road. Very pragmatic, very skeptical philosophy would say: make sure you know which side your bread is buttered on. But notably successful peace seekers throughout time and place have come up with what psychiatrists call the end of splitting. Splitting is where we divide human life into antagonistic partial answers. The end of splitting is where we make complex whole answers that take away divisiveness and produce skillfully integrated middle paths. The middle path of inner peace is to live a practical, competent, skillful, worldly life, during which every moment is also infused with the spirit of harmony and peace. Peace is part of survival, not its antagonist. Rather dividing or splitting adaptation and harmony, you fuse them.

Successful lives of inner peace exemplify competence illuminated.
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I seek now to find that middle path. It's a journey, and I am very happy to be in that search-mode. It makes my life so much more meaningful. In everything I do, I try to rise above the 'splitting'. It is not always easy, it is actually very hard. It takes a lot of self control and understanding. Every time I make a small progress, it gives me great happiness since I know I am on track. This is my life's purpose now. I know it will let me live an invigorating life. That is my definition of Happiness.



**This has been copied from the chapter "Cultivating Inner Peace" from the book  "An Ancient Path" by Dr. Paul R. Fleischman. All rights belong to the author.

Solutions for the US Economic woes

Everyone seems to be talking about the fiscal cliff. It is in the air we breathe these days. So I thought I will also put my two cents into the mix, for whatever it is worth....

Here are my solutions to US' economic woes ---

Tax Consumption not Income. I think making money/ having an income is a good thing. Why would you want to tax that? As a small business, I need to pay payroll taxes when I hire an employee and then that employee also pays taxes on the money he/she makes. What is my incentive to hire if I have to pay a tax to hire? When when you tax something, you tend to reduce the 'sale' of that commodity. We should not tax payroll/ income. Instead, we should tax consumption. Americans are the most wasteful consumers in the world. Here, it is all about buy, consume, and dispose. ("Amrika mein kehte hein - thoda khao, thoda pheko.") That habit needs to be changed if we want to have a sustainable planet. Let's tax the consumption and rein the uncontrolled spending on consumer items. They do this in Canada and Australia, and people still survive there! I will gladly pay 15% extra on a gas guzzling car or a fancy Louis Vuitton suitcase. I vote for the luxury tax, if I want something fancy which is not a basic need, I should pay the premium for it.

Delete / Reduce Corporate Tax. US has the highest corporate tax rate. Every tax season we hear that all the big multinational corporations take their earnings outside of the country. But we, the small businesses, cannot do so. We are stuck in the US with the exorbitant corporate tax. I am not sure how the government thinks that if they tax us more we will help build the economy. If they are thinking that by taxing corporations they are taxing rich people, they are totally wrong. Please tax the rich people directly, not the corporations!

Eliminate the Mortgage Deduction. We own a nice little home in San Diego. And I will admit that it is a stretch for us to pay the mortgage every month. In spite of that, I am for eliminating the homeowners interest deduction on our taxes. I feel that this deduction messes up the calculations of home ownership and subsidizes the acquisition of grander and fancier homes, which in turn leads Americans to lead a life they cannot afford. This deduction supports the consumer culture too. I have grown up in India and also spent couple years in Australia. Both these countries do not have these deductions and the 'dream' of home ownership still stays strong. By the way, why should the 'American Dream' have to be linked with purchase of a home? Why can't it be just a good happy life? When I came to the US, I believed that 'pursuit of happiness' was the key to American success. It is very sad to see that the people and government here believes 'pursuit of home-ownership' is an American right and that you can be a happy American only if you have a home to your name.

Tax Carbon. I am very happy to see that there are not as many Hummers on the roads these days as they were a decade ago. May be it is the price at the pump or maybe it is something political? I do not know. But I believe that carbon tax is a kind of consumption tax and need to be levied on every item of consumption. As I said before, Americans are the most wasteful society on this planet and it is time we pay the price for it. If we use it, we should pay for it. Period. This tax will be an incentive for us not to pollute the environment due to our consumption addiction. Why should the whole world pay the price for wasteful consumption? Tax carbon and give the proceeds to the EPA!

Legalize Marijuana. I am so happy to see that Washington and Colorado has legalized marijuana. Shame on you, California! A lot of money is spent by the government prosecuting criminals of marijuana while it does not have any major effect on the planet's well being. This legalizing of marijuana can reduce spending by the government, and if it is taxed (like cigarettes and alcohol), it will bring in revenue too. That is the economic side of things. Legalizing marijuana will not make every person a drug addict - if that was the case Netherlands would have been wiped off the map by now. If only the Federal government could see some sense on this issue. Legalizing marijuana may deliver the death blow to the Mexican/South American drug trade and 'save the planet'! Oh! Wishful thinking on my part....

Decouple Employment from Health Insurance. Last but not the least, I feel that we should not have employers offer health insurance to employees and their families. Yes, I do depend on my husband's employer to cover my health insurance. But that is because I do not have any other choice! Employers should focus on developing the employee as the best person capable of delivering the work product that the company provides in the marketplace. Just as the employer does not provide housing or transportation to its employees, they need not provide health insurance. The way to do that is to eliminate the health-insurance tax write-offs. I heard on the radio that this deduction costs the government about $200 billion per year. It just does not make sense to me. Just as we shop for car insurance in the wide marketplace, why can't we shop for the best health insurance? The employer's 'entitled' health care plans, in my opinion, makes people get better coverage than they need and then use it more often, and as a result drive up the cost of health care for everyone. And yes, I agree that everyone, yes everyone, should have a healthcare insurance policy, no exceptions.

Well, I am no economist. Over the last year, through the presidential run and beyond, the air waves have been incessantly buzzing about the economy. I have listened and formed my own opinions. They are a bit controversial, but I believe that it will help the US (and the world) if followed. I also know that no one cares about what I think. Ha!