Thursday, December 5, 2019

THE INFALLIBLE RULE OF 70:20:10 - LIVING GOOD, DYING BETTER!

The Speaking Tree, Sunday, 05.01.2020
Looking around one sees all round stress in people trying to work harder and harder to acquire, own, accumulate and possess more and more wealth, comfort, luxury goods, ornaments, travel experiences, social media posts etc. Nothing to fault this except that depression, suicide, frustration, early strokes and heart ailments, are rising alongside this lifestyle revolving around wanting more and more in less and less time. This is a global condition. Result is the same: adverse impact on mental and physical health. Although people seem externally at peace, the calm exterior hides the uneasiness and fragility within. There’s forever pressure to showcase to the world what new and different we’re up to. It seems like if we don’t, we’d become socially irrelevant or worse, relegated as societal discards. ‘Too much in the window, too less in the house’, as HH the XIV Dalai Lama, terms it.

Something needs to be done about it. Advertising companies, brand developers cannot be blamed for enticing people to fall prey to their gimmicks. It is their job to do so. They’d fail in their fundamental task if they failed to seduce people’s gullible minds! As Buddhist Master Nagarjuna said: “Phenomena don’t bind us, it’s our grasping to them that does.” What’s the way out then?

Here’s and empirical formula I’ve come up with. It has been termed as The Infallible Rule Of 70:20:10. Sample this.

Each one of us has some skill that we have acquired either from education, training, genetics or any other influence. Armed with these skill sets and application of some of common sense and intelligence we’re able to secure ourselves a job or start an enterprise. Working smartly and diligently, we’re able to grow organically in our job or business. This growth takes care of our basic needs and wants, plus leaves us with some additional disposable income to invest, take vacations, acquire few goods, possessions and comforts; all the time taking care of a healthy work-life balance, joyful and happy family time etc. This situation one finds himself/herself in, is what i term as being in the Zone of 70, which essentially means we can take care of seventy percent of our needs, wants, desires and comforts.

Having achieved the full potential of the Zone of 70, driven by natural instinct of human desire, we work even more hard, expend more of our time, energy and effort at the workplace, go that extra mile to achieve target and deadlines, all in the quest for earning more. At this stage we have acquired several more comforts, leisure, possessions and have a lot more disposable income to invest and spend. However, in the process we put at risk knowingly or unknowingly, the neglect towards our health, quality family time and personal space to grow in emotional quotient. Our real happiness quotient goes down, even as economic development has taken a good leap. This is potentially a tinder-box situation. This situation one finds himself/herself in, is what i term as being in the Zone of 20, which essentially means that the additional twenty percent catapults us economically, but drains us considerably in other spheres of living a joyful, healthy, happy life. Work-life balance gets skewed.

Now we come to the zenith of The Infallible Rule. The race to achieve the last ten points, in order to reach one hundred percent! This is the most treacherous and unforgiving zone. Not many i’ve seen in my life have run to complete it and come out unscarred and unscathed in the process. Not because they fall short in their effort, strength and intelligence but because this ‘hundred percent’ is such a deceptive mirage, a forever moving target, that it leaves one clutching at straws, nothing more! In the struggle to reach the pinnacle of one’s career, so much of everything is put at stake that mental, physical, emotional and psychological disasters have taken place within and families and personalities left ruined in its pursuit.

My personal take for a well lived and well-balanced life would be to play near the point of eighty, sometimes peaking to eighty-five, seldom to ninety, rarely or never beyond. The rest of the time, space and energy could be invested in developing as responsible human beings, generating mental awareness in understanding nature of reality, exploring the true nature of our mind through a well guided scientific and spiritual process. Limiting our desire and making way for unlimited joy, is the name of the game. All this care and investment, so that we not only life a great human life but are spectacular also in death. So, try and follow the Rule of 70:20:10. It’s foolproof. It works inside us so it’s easy to control too.

Girish Deshpande
(The author is an ordained Ngakpa and follows the Palyul school of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. More on www.speakingtree.in 

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