Aswath Krishnan

It's the start of a new year - a wonderful and optimistic time where we start off with a clean slate, lots of hope, goals, and resolutions. The general practice is to set lofty goals to read 25 books, pursue 3 hobbies, travel to 5 places, etc. My story below might make you consider an alternate approach of aiming to do less.  I think I read only one book in 2019. It wasn't even a big book. It was ~100 pages on the Buddhist Eightfold path.  The book had 8 key chapters and each chapter had 4 activities. I was reading this as a part of the program organized by Insights Meditation center. We read one chapter a month, then met for a group session, and practiced one activity per week, before moving to the next chapter.  The group sessions were usually 1-2 hours long. The experts leading the program would give an hour talk explaining the summary and nuances of the topic covered in the chapter. We'd break out into small groups a few times to share our opinions and experiences on ...

December is the reflective time of the year. In December 2020, I spent 3 days in this beautiful cabin, scribbling down many thoughts - old and new - that eventually became  this post on peace and joy . During breaks, I indulged in short walks and drives around the beautiful Olympic National Park, and studied a Buddhist book on the Eightfold path and the Almanac of Naval Ravikant. I have hugely benefited from this "inner work" that's helped me understand my existence and what I want to do with it. That elaborate exercise, weekly check-ins, and the resulting clarity have kept me grounded and led me to make some bold and positive changes over this year.  Inner work sounds like a suspect Indian guru term, but I think it’s quite apt. It is "work" because it takes systematic effort and the subject of the work is largely your mind.  Beliefs, habits, needs, environment, triggers -> Thoughts and actions -> Feelings and outcomes.  We have all developed beliefs, thou...