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.
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
