From destructive competition to constructive competition

From destructive competition to constructive competition – 1

From destructive competition to constructive competition from Chaitanya Charan

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=embed_video&v=2092989980929945

From destructive competition to constructive competition – 2

From destructive competition to constructive competition from Chaitanya Charan

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=embed_video&v=2093031404259136

So thank all of you for coming here.

Am I audible behind? Is my voice audible behind? Thank you. So today I'll be speaking on the topic of from destructive competition to constructive competition. So this will be a two-part seminar and today I'll talk about the world view of constructive competition and how that applies and the application part I'll discuss more in tomorrow's session.

So let's move forward. So when we look at the world around us we see that we have progressed enormously by competition. But what is the nature of this progress? This is one unfortunate fact that competition makes things better but sometimes it makes people worse.

We improve the products more and more but in the process in trying to improve the products we often pull each other down. We people often even good people in order to somehow succeed in competition do things which they would normally not do. So is it possible that competition not only brings out the best externally in terms of the products that we bring about but it also brings about people in terms of their improvement, in terms of becoming the best.

By destructive competition what we mean is that rather than I trying to become better I ensure that the other person doesn't become better. There are many traditional stories about how this kind of attitude simply ends up hurting oneself. So we could say that destructive competition is a result of envy and constructive competition is a result of positivity.

I'll talk about this a little bit more later but one traditional story is many of you know about it. There was a man, two people, neighbours, both of them were praying and when the divine appeared in front of them and said, the first person, what do you want? He's about to ask. So this person said, the divine told him before that, that there's one condition, I'll fulfil whatever you desire but whatever you are asking for your neighbour will get the double of that.

So this person started thinking, he had so many plans, all he wanted to ask for. He said, make me blind in one eye. Why? The neighbour would become blind in both eyes.

So this is an example of where one sees success not in terms of how good one is becoming but in terms of how bad somebody else is suffering or how much the other person is going down. And this sort of attitude is, it can be avoided. So for that, so if you look at the world of tennis, we have in the men's tennis, there is the rule currently of the big three, Djokovic, Federer and Nadal.

So Djokovic said a couple of years ago that actually Federer and Nadal, the competition has made me a better tennis player. And other two in the big three have also made similar statements. So here, although at one level, the number of competitions that one can win is limited if one has very stiff competitors.

But in terms of becoming a better player, there can be improvement. And even in a field as competitive as sports, we all see that in sports, if the competition is destructive, then the joy of sports is lost. If somebody tries to win by hook or by crook, by using performance enhancing drugs, by match fixing, then there is no joy in it.

The idea when we watch sports is that we want to see people perform, to see them exceed the normal human capacities of performance and bring about a superlative performance. That's when sports becomes enjoyable. Winning is obviously a goal in sports.

But if the goal becomes winning at all costs, then the competition, if it becomes destructive, then the joy from the sports is lost. And something similar happens in life also. So now competition is a fact of life, but we are meant for something more than competition.

Competition is a fact of life, but it is not the only fact of life. Our life is driven by higher inspiration, higher instincts within us. If we look at the lives of animals, the law of the jungle is very competitive, as Darwin postulated, the survival of the fittest.

So there is definitely competition in nature and that competition is at the very expense of life of some. Now if we move forward from animals to humans, in human society also there is competition. There is also, we could say at some level the law of the jungle, there is survival of the fittest.

But if we look at the most ennobling, most inspiring actions that are seen in human society, they are not centred on this principle of survival of the fittest. The most inspiring actions are where there is sacrifice by the fittest. So for example, a decade ago, when the twin towers, several years ago, when the twin towers fell.

So at that time, there were the firefighters who went into the twin towers, even when they knew that they may collapse. And they risked their lives to save those who were trapped inside. And they are lauded for that.

If we human beings were driven only by the survival of the fittest principle, then we would consider such people foolish. Why did they do that? If somebody is drowning and somebody else jumps into the sea and runs and swims there to heroically rescue that person who is drowning, even at the time, we were simply driven by the competitive impulse of the jungle. Okay, the person who is drowning is unfit.

Let that person drown. I am fit, I live. But now, we are driven by something higher.

So the progression from animal species to human species is that there is the survival of the fittest, which leads to competition. That side is there within all of us. But along with that, nature is also endowed with a higher side, where we instinctively recognise that those who are fitter, those who are more endowed, they should help those who are less endowed.

And that is the rationale for affirmative actions of various kinds in society. So the humanity of human beings is seen by the elevation from the principle of the survival of the fittest to the sacrifice by the fittest. If we look at corporate history also, we see the 80s and 90s, were dominated by the ethos, greed is good.

The growth at all costs. And as you recognise the devastating environmental costs of indiscriminate corporate expansion, now more and more there is the awareness of corporate social responsibility. That we need that a company is not just meant to grow.

Yes, it is definitely meant to grow. But this growth has to be holistic, not disproportionate. So the company that is growing has a responsibility to society.

So we humans, if we consider our own contemporary society, there is this side within us, which recognises that competition should not be the only ethos that is driving us. It will definitely be one factor in a ultra competitive society. But we are capable of choosing the kind of competition that we are a part of.

Yeah, go ahead. So I'll talk about how we can move from constructive to destructive competition by looking inwards and looking outwards. So looking inwards means that first of all, every one of us is unique.

We are different, not just in our looks. Sometimes twins may look similar. It is not just in our fingerprints, not just in our voices, but it is in our essential personalities.

And even the two twins who are monozygotic, born from the same zygote, they're genetically not just similar, they're genetically identical. Still, their personalities are different. So every one of us is unique.

Our uniqueness doesn't have to be a matter of pride or arrogance, because everyone else is also unique. But our uniqueness can be seen as the foundation for appreciating a reality that every one of us can make a contribution. So when we appreciate our distinctive individuality, then we focus on what our contribution is, not what our competition is.

Certainly, in a competitive world, we need to be aware of what the competition is. But that is not at the forefront of our consciousness. At the forefront, at the centre of our consciousness is, what is my contribution? What can I bring to the table? Not so much what others are bringing to the table.

So if we are focused on the competition, it can work constructively, it can work destructively. Destructively, it can work in two ways. One is that we try to pull others down so that they don't succeed.

Or destructively, it can work by damaging our own morale. Oh, others are so good. What can I do? So when we focus on the competition, there is focus and there is awareness.

So for example, right now, we are all sitting in this room. We are aware, okay, I'm in a particular room, I'm in Arizona, it's daytime, it's around noon now. All this is something which is we are aware of.

But awareness, there can be a focused awareness and there can be background awareness. So we need to be aware of what our competition is. Without that, we won't be able to function in a competitive world.

But at the same time, if the competition becomes the sole thing that we are aware of, then that is disempowering. Why is it disempowering? Because what is out there is not in our control. How good our competition is, how well somebody is going to perform, that's not in our control.

What is in our control is our contribution. How much I can perform, what I can bring to the table. So if we do that, then we will be inspired by what is out there to bring out what is in here better.

But if what is out there becomes the primary focus, so it's if we are externally driven rather than internally driven. If we are externally driven, then destructive competition becomes almost inevitable. Why does it become inevitable? Because as I said, when something is not in our control, then it creates a sense of powerlessness.

And none of us like to feel powerless. We all want to feel we have some control. None of us can have absolute control over anything.

But none of us can find it very easy to accept a situation where we have no control over anything. So when we look at the externals and focus too much on the competition, then that makes us feel powerless. Because what others are doing, that is not in our control.

What we are doing is in our control. So by being internally directed, by focussing on what our contribution is, and how we can enhance that contribution, we can shift that vision, we can begin the journey towards constructive competition. Now, these two terms constructive competition and destructive competition can be defined in different ways.

I would like to define it in one simple way. Destructive competition is where the competition causes us to go down or makes us want others to go down. Constructive competition is where the competition inspires us to rise, and it inspires others also to rise.

So the effect of that competition is what is important. So growth is something which we all desire. But in the body, when cancer cells start growing, cancer is also growth, but it is disproportionate and disastrous growth.

The growth of cancer cells is at the expense of the growth of everything else. And that causes destruction. So on the other hand, in a normally functioning human body, all the organs grow.

And as they grow, the body's functioning gets enhanced. So we all can contribute to a better world, if we focus on how we can become better, not how we can become better than others. Because becoming better than others is always a elusive reference point for us.

It's a reference point that is not in our control. If we are thinking of how I can become better, and others, I can look at it, I can get inspiration from it. But our focus is on how I can improve.

That gives us a sense of security, because we are focussing on that which is in our control. Our reference point often determines our perception. And the same perception can change radically, depending on what our reference is.

So if our reference point is, okay, what is my contribution, then even if others enhance their contribution, we are confident about our uniqueness, and we bring what we can do the best. So we could have two visions. Go ahead.

We could have two visions of functioning in society. One is that society is like a jungle. In jungle, the rule is survival of the fittest.

Whichever has the strongest, that will survive. And that leads to the scarcity mentality. The scarcity mentality is the idea that there is only this much pie, and if somebody gets more of the pie, then I'll get less.

And somebody gets everything, then I'll get nothing. So that is the scarcity mentality. In contrast, there is the abundance mentality.

In the abundance mentality, we see society not as a jungle, but as a body. In a body, when food is given to the mouth, it's not the hearts and the lungs and the hands and the legs that are competing for food. Everybody gets the food and everybody grows.

Every part of the body grows. Of course, if there is cancer in the body, that is an exceptional situation. That is a hazardous situation.

But our basic functioning paradigm, which we have when we interact with others, if that is based on the idea that life is like a competitive jungle and we are governed by the scarcity mentality, then we'll always be insecure. When we see other people's success, we will feel threatened by that success. We'll feel that they are taking away the pie which we could have got.

But the abundance mentality is understanding there is enough for me. I just need to discover it. So the pie that we are referring to over here is not necessarily certain specific goals.

If you look at a class, if it's an academic class, there can be only one student who may come first in the class. There can be only two, three students who are among the toppers in the class. So if we consider the success of education in terms of the grades that one gets, the relative grading or the relative marks, the ranks that one gets, then we can say there is only so much of the pie available.

But if we look at the purpose of education, there is a survey done by some prominent educationists and they correlated the people who topped in various universities in India, from where I come and in America and they charted their career graph. How well did they succeed in their subsequent career? So they found some very interesting patterns. First was that those who topped, who excelled, not just excelled but were the best among the top in their academic performances, their careers started off very well.

They got jobs in very good places. They got very good salaries starting off. But after a few years, the scores that they had in the academics, they became largely irrelevant.

In the academic world, the who comes first is going to, in that, if you're looking at things from that perspective, the pie is limited. But if you think in terms of assimilating knowledge, assimilating life skills, then that is, it is not that somebody else's learning erodes my learning. I can get knowledge, you can get knowledge, we all can get knowledge and our knowledge doesn't have to erode anyone else's knowledge, nor does anyone else's knowledge have to erode our knowledge.

So if we consider growth, if we consider the success of education in terms of getting the top grades, then we will have this scarcity mentality because the toppers are only going to be one or two or three because you're a top three turn up. But if we consider it in terms of learning, acquiring knowledge that can help us to function in our particular environments in future, then that knowledge is something which is characterised by the abundance mentality. There is no, there is enough knowledge for everyone to learn and in the long run, now how much knowledge one has assimilated, what skills one has developed and more importantly, what values one has, those are what determine one's long-term success.

Einstein said that don't try to become a person of success, try to become a person of values. If there are values, from there success will gradually emerge. So the abundance mentality can be fostered when we reconceptualise success, not just success in terms of the specific visible targets or markers of success, but in terms of the inner development of this knowledge, the skills and the values that are foundational for success.

If we consider that there are two builders who are building houses in a particular locality, and they think, if both of them are governed by the scarcity mentality, they think, oh there are only this many customers and I have to build a house the fastest, then people will come to me and people will take the house. Yes, and one of them cuts corners, uses up standard materials, builds houses very fast. That person may get to the target, oh I build so many houses, people come and purchase the houses from me.

And the person may meet that target, oh I won, another person may think I lost. But if the houses are not constructed well, if corners have been cut in building the foundation, then the house will be there, but how long will the house last? It will eventually collapse. And when a storm comes, when some disturbances come, when some seismic turbulences happen, the house collapses.

And at that time, the problems get multiplied much more. The person will face legal consequences of having done the substandard work. So when we are driven by the scarcity mentality, then we may rush to meet certain markers of success.

But even if we meet those markers of success, the success that we achieve will not have a substantial foundation and eventually it will crumble. On the other hand, if we are driven by the abundance mentality, yes, okay, right now there may not be enough customers, but if I do a good job, customers will come. And people, they just, they want houses, but they want houses that last.

So if a builder takes time and builds, does a good job, eventually quality attracts quality. If you give a good product, the proportionate people, proportionate people do come, corresponding level of people. So the abundance mentality may seem absurd or may seem unrealistic if we conceptualise success only in external terms or only in terms that are usually associated with success.

That meeting a particular marker, coming first or meeting a particular idea of success. Yes, there are in every society, in every community, there will be certain visible markers of success. But those alone don't define success.

That is one aspect of success. Just like when we have, if there is a feast to which we are invited. Now whenever there is a feast, there are certain items which are delicacies.

And those delicacies are what become the normal objects of discussion. Oh, we had this delicacy over here. We had this delicacy in this feast.

But most often, the delicacy is not the main menu. If the delicacy is, or if there is some desert, and the desert is the only thing for a meal, then you won't be properly nourished. So the point I am making is that there are certain things which are talked about as success, but there are many other factors also which comprise success.

So when there is a feast, we may talk about the deserts and the special delicacies as the most prominent objects. But that food is to be nourishing, there have to be other more nourishing food items also. Similarly, with respect to success, there will be certain objects which will be seen as the markers of success, certain targets, certain goals.

But success is not reduced to them. If we reduce our conception of success only to getting to this figure, getting to this target, then we will be afflicted by the scarcity mentality. But if we reconceptualise and expand our conception of success, not just how many buildings I have built, but how good a foundation I have created for the building that I have built, then we will see that the abundance mentality is not only, not unrealistic, but is actually the sustainable reality of the world around us.

So Oliver Wendell Holmes says that what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. This means that what lies before and behind is we could consider in terms of time as what we are going to get in the future or what has happened to us in the past or in terms of competition, we can conceive of what is around us. There is much that is around us and everybody is going to make their contributions.

We don't have to become better than someone else. Our purpose is to just become the best we can be. There are layers of self-discovery that we have not yet uncovered.

There are aspects to our being which we sometimes overlook because we are caught with external markers. Again, even when we are faced with a competitive situation, the competition doesn't matter as much as our attitude. Often we are choked in our attempts to succeed and what holds us back is not what we are, but what we think we are not.

Oh, I'm not like this. I'm not like that. I'm not like that.

This kind of thinking is what chokes us. So what we are and what we think we are not, the reference point in these two things is very different. We all know about the glass, we can call it half empty or half full.

Now that is a very banal, ordinary example, but the principle over there is that when we focus on what we don't have, that creates insecurity, that creates anxiety, that creates the fuel for the destructive instinct within us. When we feel that we are unequipped to deal with whatever we are facing, then that feeling of powerlessness leads to the impulse of destruction. Most people who act destructively, it is not that they are powerful, it is that they feel powerless and because they feel powerless, so in a sense of getting power, they become destructive.

Many times in sports, when people are watching their favourite team playing and when they find that their team is losing, I come from India where cricket is a very popular game. So when India starts losing the cricket match, there are people who just smash their TV sets in fury and something similar happens with respect to baseball and other games in other parts of the world. So what is happening over here, that destruction is a result of the feeling of powerlessness.

Now I want my team to win, when my team can't win, then I destroy. I destroy that which is seeming to be the channel of my powerlessness. So destruction seems to be an assertion of power, but it is actually an admission of powerlessness.

So destruction, whenever it is done, it appears as if the destructive person is very very strong. I can destroy that. But destruction is an admission of powerlessness, not an assertion of power.

So when we become externally directed, then if we feel that I am not in control, then the destructive impulse within us gets triggered. But if we look inwards, if we focus on what we are and what we can do, then the destructive impulse can be avoided. It can be corrected.

Can you go ahead? So creativity is not a competition. And I am now talking more about the reconceptualization of success. Success, as I said, can be defined in terms of specific markers.

Okay, who got the top grades in exam? Who met the deadline first? These are all markers of success at one level. But if you consider the major breakthroughs that happen in various fields, they are the result of creativity. And creativity is something which every one of us, with our unique combination of ideas, impressions, inspirations, information, we bring it forth.

The way my creative mind works is different from the way your creative mind works. And every one of us have our own creative capacity. So creativity, I am giving one example, that is not a competition.

If we consider creativity to be a competition, then no creative activity would actually come out, because everyone would simply be trying to do better than the other person. But with respect to creativity, it is the expression of one's own distinctive individuality. And when we want to express our individuality, there is no objective marker for comparison.

That doesn't mean no comparison is possible. But as far as our individuality is concerned, it is we who are expressing it. So in nature, at one level, we see there is competition, the survival of the fittest.

But on another level, we see that nature flourishes on its own. If you look at flowers, when they blossom, the flower is not concerned how much the other flower is blossoming. The flower is concerned, let me blossom to my fullest potential.

And if you look at a garden with a variety of flowers, the various flowers come together, and they actually bring beauty to the garden. So the flowers blossoming is an example of creativity in nature, where for one flower to blossom, it is not necessary for the other flowers to die. There can be different flowers to blossom in different ways, and they make a beautiful garden.

So this is how if we can infuse ourselves with a approach to life that is inward driven rather than externally driven, then we can move towards constructive success. Yeah, go ahead. So, focus on what we, each one of us can bring out.

Suppose we were given an inheritance, we came to know that somebody has inherited, has given a house for us. And okay, we go and look at the house. Yeah, it's nice.

It's a little old house. And we think, what should I do? I can't stay here. I'm just thinking about what to do with the house.

Maybe I should sell it off. But as we're looking at the house, we look at it from the surface. Okay, it's decent.

But then if we come to know that in the backyard in that house is a treasure that is hidden, then that changes our vision of it. Okay, where is the treasure? How much is the treasure? I want to find out the treasure. The house at one level is the same, but now our attitude towards that inheritance is not the same.

Because there's a treasure that we want to discover. Similarly, we consider ourselves, we are born into this world. And we all have various abilities, we have various potentials, many of which we don't tap.

So sometimes we conceptualise ourselves in a particular way. We think that I am like this, and this is what I possess. But if we become more focused on bringing out what is within us, not having the external as a reference point, then if I have an inheritance, and somebody else has an inheritance, oh, I see they have a bigger inheritance than what I have.

We feel compared and we feel disappointed. But how big the house is may pale into insignificance if we consider what the treasure in the house or treasure buried in the house is, buried in the backyard is. So similarly, every one of us has aspects to our being, which we do not know about.

And one resource within us, which we often don't tap is our spiritual resource. The spiritual resource refers to the core within us, which is beyond the ups and downs of the external world that we live in. Suppose it is extremely hot, it's extremely hot outside, you're sweating because of the heat.

And then how do I get relief from the heat? We come to a house and we find there's no air conditioning in the house. But the house is still very hot. Looking here, looking there, don't know what to do.

But as we are going through some deserted forested area, suddenly they stumble across the house. And as we get into the house, and we look here, look there, and after some exploring, we find there is one room, which is closed. We open it, and we find there's air conditioning there.

Now, as soon as we get into that room, we get relief from the heat. That room is somewhere in the back in a corner, which is not so easily visible. But we explore, we find that room, then we get relief from the heat.

Similarly, in life, we all have ups and downs. Sometimes things go right, sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes people behave reasonably.

Sometimes people behave very unreasonably. It's said that some people bring happiness where they go. And some people bring happiness when they go.

So, we all have difficult people in our lives. Some people, it's a joy to be with them. Some people, it's an austerity to be with them.

Working with some people is like walking through landmines. You don't know what is going to cause an explosion. So, working with some other people, it's a breeze, it's a joy.

So, this kind of duality is there in the lives of all of us. And the way we cope with this kind of binaries, this kind of dualities, is based on whether we have some security which is beyond these dualities. So, the weather may sometimes be very hot, sometimes it may be very cold.

And we would be vulnerable to the ups and downs of the weather. But if in our house, we had at least one room which had heating, by which we could either make it warm when it was cold or we could make it cool when it was hot, then that room would become like our retreat, where we would be comforted, where we would be strengthened. And then we could come out and face whatever vagaries the weather brought out.

Similarly for us, life when it brings its ups and downs, its dualities, we need a resource within us that will give us steadiness and strength. And that is our spiritual side. The spiritual side refers to the core that is the source of who we are, that is the source of our consciousness, that is the source of our personality, that is the essence of who we are.

And the idea of there being such a core which is beyond the ups and downs of whatever we go through, this idea is not all that, is not just a matter of some sentiment. Oh, there is a core to me which is unchangeable. This is something which can be experienced and which can also be analysed.

So, for example, if you consider, say, we are looking at the world around us and say you are looking at me, I am looking at you, some of you may just walk out after this talk, I will walk out. So, we see in the outer world around us, things keep changing. So, now I would like to do a small thought exercise.

So, you can close your eyes, just for a few minutes. Close your eyes and just take three deep breaths. Take it one more deep breath, please.

Now just let whatever is coming in your inner screen, in your mind's eye, let it just move on. When we close our eyes, we may stop seeing the things outside, but we all see something or the other inside. It may just be a confused pattern of colours, it may be some loud one, it may be some beautiful scenery we have seen.

So, we see various things going on in a parade on a screen inside us. As you see, whatever is there on the inner screen, try to take a step back and try to spot who is looking at that inner screen. You see various objects going on that screen, try to step back and look at whoever is looking at the inner screen.

Try it once again, whatever you are seeing, just try to look back and look at the seer. Take three deep breaths and then you can open your eyes. Yeah, you can open your eyes now.

So, actually observing this mental screen, the screen within us, you can see a wide variety of things, but you try to look at the observer, it's never possible. Why not? Because what we are looking for is what we are looking with. What we are looking for is what we are looking with.

So, we can just as we see with our physical eyes the outer world, in our inside we can see a screen on which many things are there, but beyond that screen that is there inside on which many different images come, there is a seer of that screen and that seer is different from the screen. That seer is the essence of who we are, that is the spiritual core. So, researchers have also done various experiments in this area to try to find out what is this core.

We are discussing this because our point was we look inwards to see what our contribution is and to understand what our contribution is, we need to understand what is it that we have inside us. Are there any resources that we have within us that we are not yet tapped? So, I did this thought exercise. Now, let's look at a scientific experiment which also points to something similar.

The way we try to observe the inner screen within us, researchers have tried to find out what is the centre of consciousness within us. Right now you are looking at me, I am looking at you. So, who is it that is looking and where is that I located? Last year when I had gone to Canada, I spoke at a centre which was dedicated to Dr. Milder Penfield and Dr. Milder Penfield is a Nobel laureate neurosurgeon.

He is considered the father of neurosurgery and he had done extensive research on the brain for almost four decades and he wrote several books. One of his prominent books, the last book that he wrote was The Mystery of the Mind and there he describes one particular experiment which initially baffled him but then which led him to a particular significant conclusion that made him revise his conceptions about consciousness. The experiment itself is very simple.

He had a subject and told the subject to do some basic physical actions. For example, the subject raised your hand and now we know that particular areas of the brain are connected with bodily functions. So, when he had sensors attached to the brain and when he got the subject to raise the arm, then the area of the brain which is connected with the physical movement of the arm, that got activated.

He asked the subject, what happened? The subject said, I raised my hand. Then he asked the subject to drop his hand, put his hand down. What happened? I put my hand down.

Then he told the subject to just observe and then that same part of the brain, he activated through electrodes. As soon as he activated that particular part of the brain, the hand went up. He asked the subject, what happened? He said, my hand went up.

Did you raise your hand? I did, you did. Then he deactivated that part of the brain. The hand dropped down.

What happened? My hand fell down. Did you put your hand down? No, I did, you did. Dr. Penfield wanted to know, where is this sense of I-ness? The I who said first that I raised my hand and then the I who said the second time that I did not raise my hand.

Then he repeated this experiment while activating different parts of the brain. And when different parts of the brain were activated, there were different stimuli that were triggered. Suddenly the subject said, oh, I am remembering my childhood.

I had gone to a park and played. Or I am remembering a phone call that I made 30 years ago and I can still hear the voice of the friend who spoke back to me. I am smelling a very sweet fragrance.

Various stimuli started getting triggered. Various kinds of memories started getting activated. But no matter whichever part of the brain he activated, Penfield could never get the subject to feel, I am raising my hand.

So to understand the implication of this experiment, say consider if next to this computer there is a printer and I have a print button on my computer. As soon as I press the print button, the printing head starts moving. And I stop it, I press it again, the printing head stops.

Now if you come here and I am observing and you press the print button, again you hold the print button, the printing keeps moving. Let go of the print button, the print stops. Similar is the case with respect to the brain.

We would say the brain, the brain centre which is connected with the motion of the hands, that is like the print button. So when the print button is pressed, the hand moves up. When it is released, the hand goes down.

So now in the second case, in that experiment, it was Dr. Penfield who came and pressed the print button. When he pressed the print button, the hand went up, the area of the brain was activated, the hand went up and then the hand came down. So now Dr. Penfield's question was, who activated the brain in the first case? Who activated in the first case? So after 40 years of study, he concluded that the source of consciousness is extra cerebral.

The brain is like a computer but it is programmed by something outside of itself. And this means that whatever ups and downs come in our life, people will sometimes respect us, sometimes insult us, the weather may sometimes be pleasant, sometimes unpleasant. Beyond it all, there is a core to us which is indestructible, where lies our greatest strength and from which we can bring out our fullest potential.

So becoming aware of this spiritual core of ours, that is the centre of our personality, that is the reservoir of our strength, that is key to moving from destructive competition which is centred on externals, what others are doing and shifting from the destructive competition to the internals, where I focus on what I am doing. So we have layers and levels of strength within us, just waiting to be tapped if we understand our spiritual potential. Understanding the spiritual potential means that when life's ups and downs, they shake us, we withdraw to our spiritual core and we find rest, rejuvenation and strength over there and then we emerge, re-emerge to bring forth our best.

Rather than getting threatened by how good others are, we withdraw within our core, understand our own potential and then re-manifest it. So the attitude of constructive competition is best fostered when we start with what is uniquely ours, what is our greatest resource. So our spiritual core which can give us stability and strength even amidst the greatest ups and downs in our outer life, that can help us to bring forth a contribution that is distinctively ours, that is not dependent on externals and this temperament, this unflappable temperament that we can develop by discovering and developing our spiritual core, this can give us an edge which does not have to push anyone else down.

This is an edge which only pushes us up. We all have certain talents which we all want to develop but along with the talents what we need is temperament. The temperament which doesn't get shaken, which doesn't get disturbed, which doesn't get irritated, which is not moody.

So when life's ups and downs disturb us, if we could withdraw to our spiritual core and rejuvenate ourselves, then we can bring a steadier temperament and through that temperament whatever contributions we are going to make, we can optimise them and thus our competition can become constructive wherein our attitude towards contribution can become constructive where others don't threaten us but they inspire us to go inwards and bring forth our best. So in tomorrow's session I'll be talking more about, today I talked about going inwards to look at competition positively. In tomorrow's session I'll be talking about how to look at the big picture and see our role in contributing to constructive competition.

I'll summarise what I spoke just now. So I spoke about the ethos of constructive competition as contrasted with destructive competition. So competition is inevitably a fact of life but it doesn't have to be the only fact of life.

Animals live according to survival of the fittest but what ennobles us humans the most is sacrifice by the fittest where the fit be they firefighters going to twin towers or rescuers diving into a stormy sea to save somebody drowning. Those are the actions that inspire us the most. So we are meant to be driven by something more than competition and whereas destructive competition is externally centred.

How good others are and whether I'm adequate or not as compared to them. Constructive competition is focused more internally. What can I contribute? What can I bring to the table? So we could have the vision of the world as a jungle where there is competition and destruction where one person's survival requires another person's destruction.

That is the scarcity mentality or we could have the vision of society the community like a body where the food everybody can get all the organs can get the food and all the organs can grow. So this abundance mentality is based on the understanding that there is enough pie for everyone but we have to discover it and discovering it means redefining success. If we think of if students think of success only in terms of who comes first in class then there is going to be the scarcity mentality but who comes first in class hardly ever correlates with who has a successful career who is actually successful in life.

So who has learned knowledge assimilated who has learned life skills who has assimilated values those are the people who succeed eventually in the long run in life. So therefore we conceptualising success not just based on certain visible external parameters but based on a holistic understanding of success that in a feast delicacies will what we talked about but there is much more that nourishes the nourishes us when we take the food. A building is not just how tall it is or how fast it is built but how well the foundation is.

So when we have this disposition towards success then we can have the abundance mentality and for that I talked about how we can go inwards and discover what all resources we have just like a inheritance in which there is treasure in a backyard buried like that we have resources within us talents within us which we can't discover if we are too externally obsessed and the one resource which we all have and we rarely use is a spiritual resource. There is at our core a shelter that we can get by which we can even in life's ups and downs get a steady temperament like a weather becoming very hot or very cold we have a heat insulated room. So going to our spiritual core calming ourselves and then bringing forth our best is the way by which we can contribute constructively and foster an ethos of constructive competition.

Thank you very much. So are there any questions or comments? Do we have a few minutes? Are there any questions or comments? Okay. So what do we mean by withdrawing inwards and getting strength to our inner core? All of us when we face problems we feel insecure as an aggression or destruction is not so much as acknowledgement of power as assertion or admission of powerlessness.

So if we feel that something is right we feel that everything is going wrong we crumble but to the extent we feel that something is right that gives us calmness and then we can set whatever is wrong right. If I'm driving a car and if I find that oh the clutch is not the gas is not working okay I can't go fast when I try to press the brake but the brake is also not working and I start becoming panicky then I try to turn the key and I find the key is not there and I try to move the gear and the gear is not functioning. So the more I see things going wrong the more I'll become panicky.

So in life things can can go wrong at any time and often they do go wrong. So we need some source of strength that is right. So when we withdraw to our spiritual core then that gives us a calmness yes whatever is out there wrong this is right things are things are stable there is security and then that calms us down that helps us develop the temperament by which with the calmness we can deal with the external situation better.

Now quite often when there are problems it is not so much the problem that is a problem it is our reaction to the problem that is a problem that is a bigger problem. If a snake comes and bites me that's a problem but when the snake comes and bites me if I get angry with the snake and start chasing the snake to beat it and that reaction is a bigger problem but okay the snake has bitten me what do I do now let me rush to a doctor let me get the poison out. So the external situations that come in our life are not in our control but our responses are in our control and for the external situations to not threaten and overwhelm us completely we need to have that sense that there is something right in my life and that sense of rightness comes through spiritual awareness and then whatever is wrong how best I can set it right or how I can deal with that wrong situation that we can thereafter.