Payback to Society

Pay back to society

  

Description

There is a profound saying “Rivers do not drink their own water nor do trees eat their own fruit”.  The society and nature provide us all the comforts. Is it not our responsibility to pay back to our society and nature?  Every successful person knows that one become successful because of how much value one gives to others. Giving without expectation is the key to make every relationship comfortable and successful.

Intent

To introspect whether we have been a taker or giver in the society

To understand society and nature provide us with all the comforts we enjoy

To be grateful to our society and nature by way of service

Questions

·         What all things we enjoy by the munificence of society and nature?

·         When we will have true fulfillment in our life?

·         What are the responsibilities of a citizen?

·         Why should we payback?

Have you ever cared for a stranger?

Pay back – Clues to facilitator to enable students to explore

Are you a taker or a giver? There are three steps involved in this.  For example, step I – parents provide everything to us – they are giver Step II – Children receive and enjoy – they are takers Step III – When children grow up they take good marks and look after their parents well, they pay back.

• Man plant a seed and watering - giver, seed takes becomes a tree – receiver, treed provides shade, oxygen, flower and fruits – pay back.
• Mother Nature - giver.  We all – takers. If we protect Mother Nature and free it from pollution – Pay back.

• When a student approaches a wealthy man for the support of his education and receives support - student is taker Wealthy man giver.  When students occupy position of power and serves poor and needy -  He Pays back

Forms of paying back

There are different forms of paying back to society and nature.  It need not only by the mode of money.  It can be best expressed by our care and concern for the betterment of society and nature.  The only criteria: Are we conscious of the things we use and enjoy and be comfortable with are all provided by the society and nature?  The moment we are aware of this fact, a feeling of gratitude flows from our heart in the form of service to others.

How we can express our care and concern towards our society and nature?

Story of Puppy

A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the 4 pups    and set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of little boy.

"Mister," he said, "I want to buy one of your puppies."

"Well," said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck, "These puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money."

The boy dropped his head for a moment. Then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer.

"I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?"

"Sure," said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle. "Here, Dolly!" he called.  Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur.  The little boy pressed his face against the chain link fence. His eyes danced with delight.    As the dogs made their way to the fence,   the little boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse. Slowly another little  ball   appeared, this one noticeably smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in a somewhat awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up....

"I want that one," the little boy said, pointing to the   runt. 

The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said, "Son, you don't want that puppy.  He will never be able to run and  play with you like these other dogs would."

With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers. In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe.

Looking back up at the farmer, he said, "You see sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone    who understands."

With tears in his eyes, farmer reached down and picked up the little pup. Holding it carefully handed it to the little boy.  

"How  much?"    asked the little boy.

"No charge,"    answered the farmer, "There's no charge for love."

The world is full of people who need someone who understands.

Is our mind a Monkey?

IS OUR MIND A MONKEY?

DESCRIPTION:

Mind is generally compared with a monkey because of the wavering qualities of the mind. Monkey is a good simile for the mind.  Minding our mind will lead to awareness and controls the Monkey nature of mischief and constant wavering.

INTENT:

To be aware of the monkey nature of the mind

To negate negative stimulus of the mind

To keep the mind steady

QUESTIONS:

Can you describe the activities of a Monkey?

Do you have any experience with Monkey?

Can we learn any lessons from Monkey?

Why our mind compared with Monkey and not with other animals?

Activity:  Keep silence for a minute. Let your mind think whatever it wants. (Then the students are asked to share their thoughts)

STORY : How to catch a monkey?

Once a man wanted to catch a monkey, he thought of many different ways. At last he came up with an idea. He took a glass jar with a long neck. Then he put a few red cherries in a jar and left it under a tree. The jar has a bigger base but smaller handle bar. A monkey saw the jar with the fruits and wanted to get the fruit. It eagerly put its hand inside the jar to take the fruits. But when it tried to take its hand out with the fruits in its closed hands, the fist could not be taken out. If it drops the fruits it could easily take its hand out. But the monkey did not want to let go the fruits. It kept trying to take its hand out with the fruits for long time and was caught by the man.

Glass jar

Why Monkey was not willing to drop the fruits?

Have you faced like this situation in the story?

What is the fruit in jar in our life? How to save ourselves?

Watching some TV shows and playing computer games –Fruits in the jar

Getting good marks—taking out the hand with out the fruits.

    

Smoking and drinking so some people ---Fruits in the jar

Getting a good name— Taking out the hand

Eating samosa and pizza —fruits in the jar

Want to reduce weight and take to diet—taking out the hand

STORY:

A man had trained a monkey to do all the household activities like serving food water etc. but after each activity he used to hit the monkey on the head with a stick.

Once he invited a friend for lunch. As usual he hit the monkey after every activity. The friend was very upset and stopped the man from hitting the monkey. The monkey realized that it was not being hit anymore. Its natural instinct to throw things arose and and it spoiled the entire lunch to the consternation of the friend.

What do you feel about the story?

Why Monkey behaved that way when it was not beaten?

Does the instinct of the monkey has any relation to our mind?

Application idea:

Spend sometime every day to watch the movements of the mind without attempting to control it any way.

Mind and Monkey:

The more we say, “I don’t want something”, that [thing] becomes the basis of our mind and starts to rule it.  Let’s do an experiment right now. Don’t think about monkeys for the next 10 seconds. Try it. Only monkeys come to our mind, isn’t it?

This is the nature of our mind. We can’t do anything head-on with our mind. We need to understand the process of our mind and see what to do with it. If we compulsively give up something, it will take shape in some other way.

Good Servant Bad Boss

Good Servant Bad Boss

Description:

Habits is an acquired by doing a particular action instilled by repetition.

Our habits serve us like a good faithful servant and also our habits rule over us like a bad boss. Habits are the ones which make or break a Person. We become what we repeatedly do. First you make your habits, and then your habits make you!

Intent:

To learn to imbibe good habits right from childhood

To keenly watch our life style and the role of habits

To make consistent efforts to overcome the weakening habits

Question:

When our habits become our servant when it becomes our boss?

Do we lose our peace because we have a "Habit" of saying something or doing something?

What we should do to uproot a not so good habit at an early stage?

How to find out the role of habits in our life?

Demo Idea:

A wealthy man requested a father to wean his son away from his bad habits.

The father took the youth for a stroll through a garden. Stopping suddenly he asked the boy to pull out a tiny plant growing there. The youth held the plant between his thumb and forefinger and pulled it out. The father then asked him to pull out a slightly bigger plant. The youth pulled hard and the plant came out, roots and all.

"Now pull out that one," said the father pointing to a bush. The boy had to use all his strength to pull it out.

"Now take this one out," said the father, indicating a guava tree. The youth grasped the trunk and tried to pull it out. But it would not budge.

"I – It's impossible," said the boy, panting with the effort.

Interaction…

"So it is with bad habits," said the father. "When they are young it is easy to pull them out but when they take hold they cannot be uprooted."

The session with the father changed the boy's outlook of life.

Application idea:

Five good habits you wish to cultivate.

Example: Folding the bed sheet, keeps the books in order etc. for next one month.

Experience:

Kumar, a student has shared his experience in forming habits. He suggests few tips to form characteristics to give a strong foundation for any healthy habit to grow and form.

Choose a simple, little habit: Example: Early raising, keep the house neat, regulating Face book time, exercise etc.

Take a little time to simply practice it: Regular practice and time allotment is necessary

Preparation to practice a habit:

Motivation: You need to have a strong motivation to change a habit of yours. If you are just trying to do it for fun, it is not going to last.

Goal: Why do you want to create the habit in the first place? In what ways does it make your life better? He said: ‘In my situation when becoming an early riser, I was able to work out, so that I could improve my sports results.’

Plan & Preparation: Do you feel that there is some preparation that makes it easier to form or follow your new habit? Do you need to prepare somehow?

Kumar said, ‘I knew why I had to wake-up early, because of my training program and I prepared myself for early wake-ups by packing my stuff the night before.’

Consistency: Which one of these scenarios makes the habit more probable to stick: doing it consistently on certain days at certain time or doing it whenever you feel to, randomly?

Kumar said: If the execution of my new habit would have been irregular, I wouldn't have it now. The consistency was the key here – waking up at 5 AM every day.

Persistency: When forming a new habit and a first setback comes, are you willing to hang on or quit? Kumar recounted: ‘Sometimes my new habit was tested. I didn't feel like waking up, but at the same time I knew that I wasn't able to succeed in my sports activities if I slept late. I was tested at times, like if I was serious about my new habit, but I passed the tests and the habit lasted.’

Accountability: Do you keep the information about the habit on yourself or do you let anyone else know about it? I was fortunate to have a strong motivation in place, which acted as my fuel for my habit. However, sometimes you may need to have an accountability partner, so that he/she will keep you in line with your habits.

In my case, I was accountable to myself, because I knew that if I didn't wake-up early (and exercise) I would feel bad about myself. I didn't want that to happen.

Picture for Discussion:  What do you think about this picture?