Intro to Jeffrey Gitomer & Sample Chapter from "Teal Book of Trust"

Sai Ram,

Either New Year started to you or starting (by the time you read this mail).  Here is a book you can look for and read in 2009. 

For 2009, I thought of introducing Jeffrey Gitomer to you.  This guy is a very funny writer (at the same time conveys the ideas and strategies which are useful or meaningful in life).  Thought of passing this sample from his new book to you.   All his little books, especially, Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude,  are worth reading if you are in business or interested in dealing with sales (who is not doing selling in their life?  Selling which shoes to buy to a kid or wife, selling what to eat that day, selling where to visit, etc.), his books are excellent source and easy read.

His presentation style is hilarious.  May be in your next presentation or talk with friends you can give 4.5 points on why you like a book or a movie.  All his points are 4.5 or 7.7 or 10.3 or something like that.  Very creative comics in between and powerful quotes.  Enjoy the free sample.  This book is released on 4th Jan.  If you like to buy on Amazon, here is the link.  Little Teal Book of Trust.

http://www.gitomer.com/products/samples/Teal%20Book%20Pages.pdf

For 2009, I will be posting more books to read in my blogspot.  If you like to get notification, please go to my blogspot and enter your e-mail there.

Cheers.

Nagaraj Tanguturu
http://ntanguturu.qhealthzone.com/

Why Is God Laughing?

In the months of November/December time frame, I had a saga of Deepak Chopra. It started with "Budda: A Story of Enlightenment" Audio CD's, then "Power, Freedom and Grace: Living from the source of Lasting Happiness" (another excellent book). I will write my review for these books later.

Then I listened to "Why is God Laughing?" audio book by Deepak Chopra. I really liked the way story was written. It was written in a novel style, however, there are messages for us to implement in life. This is a short and sweet story of a person who don't believe in God and how he gets a coach or guide out of this world, how he guides him to overcome his fears, how he learns his life lessons, etc. are covered in this book. Audio is 3+ hour duration. So, its a easy read book. Go get it and read. You can get the book from library or from Amazon. If I get hold of the book again, I will update this post with the poem about fear from the book.

Happier Than God

Namste!!!
Long time, I didn't post any blogs. For last one week, I was reading the book, "Happier than God (aka HtG)" by Neil Donald Walsch. Here is the link to the book details on Amazon.
Happier Than God: Turn Ordinary Life into an Extraordinary Experience

It is a very simple, yet profound book. I do recommend for both kind of people, one who believe in God and the other type, who don't believe in God. Before this book, this author was famous for "Conversations with God" book series. Present book (HtG) is written by him. He starts of by presenting points to both theists and atheists. He builds the tempo and gives wonderful information (most of which chimes with Indian Vedantic tradition, even though Author doesn't mention about it. Wait for my review about Deepak Chopra's book, "Power, Freedom, and Grace", which is about Vedatic philosophy). Author wrote this book after the famour "The Secret" movie to support and also to elaborate the missing pieces in the movie. After giving or covering lot of topics like, negative thinking, tools, miracles, change, worry, belief, freedom, true nature of human beings, etc. in a step by step manner, he gives 17 principles to keep in mind. Those principles are gems. Some of the easiest one are: smile (minimum 5 times a day), sing (minimum while one takes bath), give others every experience you seek, everything is unreal, stop arguing with life, Mechanism of Manifestation, etc. Each is a masterpiece by itself. If you don't have time to read the entire book, read this chapter (17 steps to being happier than God). He also covered wonderful books in the middle of the text. That is one of the drawback of the book (no bibliography of books he mentioned in the text, for that case, not even his own books are not listed in the book). Here are the some of the books he highly recommended (I am listing here for my own reference:
Handbook to Higher Consciousness
Smile for No Good Reason

I will add more when I go through the text one more time (because I highlighted already).

Here are some of the wonderful statements to keep in mind from the book"

"Don't oppose, compose & Compose what you Choose"
"Personal creation is always working"
"The way to move out of judgment is to move into gratitude."
SATAN -- Seeing Any Thing As Negative (I love this).
"The meaning of everything is the meaning I give it" (I heard this through numerous sources, like Course in Miracles and other self development courses of books).
Every act is an act of self-definition.

Read the book which is very easy read and one can finish in less than 3-5 hours.

To end the review, I love the following prayer (which is Author's favorite prayer).

Thank you, God, for helping me to understand that this problem has alrady been solved for me.

Cheers.

Nagaraj

If you Could Hear what I see - Wonderful book

Hi,
After long time, I am posting another book review. This is about a book called, "If You Could Hear What I see" by Kathy Buckly. Even though it was written 2001, I came across this book through Mark Victor Hansen's recommendation. So, I thought of checking it out.
I got it in the library and started reading first chapter and didn't able to put it down. Excellent journey of the author from childhood with hearing disability (which is not detected) with lots of labels put on her (dumb, stupid, slow learner, etc.). On top of this, she doesn't have anyone at home who can communicate with her in all the life challenges. Brother teases her all the time and ready to send her to their mom as the one who started the trouble in the first place. Mother doesn't communicate, father is available whenever she is in crisis, etc. She narrate her childhood experiences, which are amazing and eye opening. For example, when she was 6 year old, she was sent to special requirements school. There she thinks one of the kid is on purpose coming one hand only. She fights with him everyday until one day his mom explains to her about him being born with one hand.
On top of it, when she was around 18 years of so, she was run over by a jeep. She gets kicked out of home by her mom, she gets cancer, etc. With all these labels and challenges, she comes out and complete her Massage Therapist certification in California (away from home state, Ohio), starts her career as Comedian (First for the sake of children, then she turns it into career). She helps Physically challenged children, street kids, parents, etc. She also challenges societies myths and dogmas.
Visit her website and watch five or six minute intro about her shows: www.kathybuckley.com
Cheers,
Nagaraj

Indian Spiritual Leader Brings Peace to Iraq!!!

WATCH the AMAZING video of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar addressing people in Red Zones in Iraq. He spreads the message of non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi that peace can be brought about in a non-violent and democratic manner. Iraqis are provided with the opportunity to do the "Art of Living" program which is bringing about a peaceful transformation.

read more | digg story

Soul of Money

Hello everyone,

After long time, I am posting another blog. Recently, I read a book, "Soul of Money - Lynne Twist". It was wonderful book and big eye opener. In this book, she narrates lot of her stories while working with "Hunger Project". Her childhood heroine is Mother Teresa. She narrates her story how she met with her and how she was agitated when a couple didn't show respect to Mother Teresa. Lynne writes a letter about the incident to Mother and receives a reply from Mother in which Mother mildly admonishes Lynne. Here is the extract:

---------

The vicious cycle of poverty, she said, has been clearly articulated and is widely known. What is less obvious and goes almost completely unacknowledged is the vicious cycle of wealth. There is no recognition of the trap that wealth so often is, and of the suffering of the wealthy: the loneliness, the isolation, the hardening of the heart, the hunger and poverty of the soul that can come with the burden of wealth. She said that I had extended little of no compassion to the strong, the powerful, and the wealthy, while they need as much compassion as anyone else on earth.

“You must open your heart to them and become their student and their teacher,” she said in her letter. “Open your compassion and include them. This is an important part of your life’s work. Do not shut them out. The also are your work.”

--------------

Lynne also mentiones three toxic myths about Money most of the people have: 1. There's not Enough 2. More is Better 3. That's the just the way it is.

Another quote worth repeating here is about a lady from Harlem told her in one of her fund raising event.

"To me, money is a lot like water. For some folks it rushes through their life like a raging river. Money comes through my life like a little trickle. "But I want to pass it on in a way that does the most good for the most folks. I see that as my right and as my responsibility. It's also my joy."

Read the book to see beautiful ways how we can contribute to this world and how we don't need to get attached with material comforts, etc.

Until next time,

Nagaraj

Divine play and how we react...

Hi,

Last week, I attended a seminar, "Radical Forgiveness" in San Diego, CA. Its a wonderful class. I wrote an intro to "Radical Forgiveness" in Sept 6th 2006 and sent it to my friends who might be interested about it. Now I thought of posting it here. Enjoy.
===========

Yesterday, I mentioned to one of my friend about how we attract each person or situation into life. Asked him to see what lesson he needs to learn from that situation. I also mentioned that if life is a drama, as told by Swamy, then all the persons in life also playing a role. As soon as their work is complete, they may move away or change for the better.

Today I picked up Jill's story in "Radical Forgiveness" book. I was in bliss when I read that story because it directly explains about events which happen to us in daily life and how other souls (unconscious to them) bring the same injury in different forms so that we can heal. Here are some of the quotes to arouse the curiosity. Read the story online or download the pdf and read it. Lots of people got healing just by reading it. (Story is about Author's sister and how without even knowing what Author is doing, which is just asking questions, she was able to save her marriage).

• What if your two souls were doing the same dance but to a wholly different tune? What is the dance was about you healing? What if you could see this as an opportunity to heal and grow?
• ... Beneath the drama we call life lies a whole different reality. Believe me, there's nothing to be frightned about. When you see how this works, you will feel more trust more secutiry, and more peace than you ever thought possible. You'll realize how well we are being supported by the Universe or God, whatever you want to call it, every moment of every day no matter how bad any given situation seems at the time".
• Looked at from a spiritual standpoint, our discomfort in any given situation provides a signal that we are out of alignment with spiritual law and are being given an opportunity to heal something. It may be some original pain or perhaps a toxic belief that stops us from becoming our true selves.
• If we don't heal whatever needs to be healed, we must create more discomfort until we are literally forced to ask, 'What's going on here?' Sometimes the message has to become very loud, or the pain extremely intense, before we pay attention. A life-threatening illness, for example, provides a loud message.
• Life will always prove your beliefs right.
• We always create our reality according to our beliefs. If you want to know what your beliefs are, look at what you have in your life. Life always reflects our beliefs.
• Radical Forgiveness: Its purpose lies in seeing the truth behind the apparent circumstances of a situation and recognizing the love that always exist there.
• You must choose whether to heal and to grow--or to be right.
• 90% of the healing occurs when you become willing to let in the idea that you soul has lovingly created this situation for you. Willingness to see the situation differently is the key to your healing. In becoming willing, you let go of control and surrender it to God. He takes care of the other ten percent.
• We experience an event and make interpretations about it. Then, we put these two pieces together to create a largely false story about what happened. The story becomes the belief, and we defend it as if it were the truth.
• You attracted people into your life who would confront you directly with your own pain and make you re-live the original experience through them.

Enjoy and start healing if you have any pains in your life, however small it might be.

http://www.radicalforgiveness.com/content/jill.asp

Have a wonderful day.

Divine play and how we react...

Hi,

Last week, I attended a seminar, "Radical Forgiveness" in San Diago.

Yesterday, I mentioned to one of my friend about how we attract each person or situation into life. Asked him to see what lesson he needs to learn from that situation. I also mentioned that if life is a drama, as told by Swamy, then all the persons in life also playing a role. As soon as their work is complete, they may move away or change for the better.

Today I picked up Jill's story in "Radical Forgiveness" book. I was in bliss when I read that story because it directly explains about events which happen to us in daily life and how other souls (unconscious to them) bring the same injury in different forms so that we can heal. Here are some of the quotes to arouse the curiosity. Read the story online or download the pdf and read it. Lots of people got healing just by reading it. (Story is about Author's sister and how without even knowing what Author is doing, which is just asking questions, she was able to save her marriage).

• What if your two souls were doing the same dance but to a wholly different tune? What is the dance was about you healing? What if you could see this as an opportunity to heal and grow?
• ... Beneath the drama we call life lies a whole different reality. Believe me, there's nothing to be frightned about. When you see how this works, you will feel more trust more secutiry, and more peace than you ever thought possible. You'll realize how well we are being supported by the Universe or God, whatever you want to call it, every moment of every day no matter how bad any given situation seems at the time".
• Looked at from a spiritual standpoint, our discomfort in any given situation provides a signal that we are out of alignment with spiritual law and are being given an opportunity to heal something. It may be some original pain or perhaps a toxic belief that stops us from becoming our true selves.
• If we don't heal whatever needs to be healed, we must create more discomfort until we are literally forced to ask, 'What's going on here?' Sometimes the message has to become very loud, or the pain extremely intense, before we pay attention. A life-threatening illness, for example, provides a loud message.
• Life will always prove your beliefs right.
• We always create our reality according to our beliefs. If you want to know what your beliefs are, look at what you have in your life. Life always reflects our beliefs.
• Radical Forgiveness: Its purpose lies in seeing the truth behind the apparent circumstances of a situation and recognizing the love that always exist there.
• You must choose whether to heal and to grow--or to be right.
• 90% of the healing occurs when you become willing to let in the idea that you soul has lovingly created this situation for you. Willingness to see the situation differently is the key to your healing. In becoming willing, you let go of control and surrender it to God. He takes care of the other ten percent.
• We experience an event and make interpretations about it. Then, we put these two pieces together to create a largely false story about what happened. The story becomes the belief, and we defend it as if it were the truth.
• You attracted people into your life who would confront you directly with your own pain and make you re-live the original experience through them.

Enjoy and start healing if you have any pains in your life, however small it might be.

http://www.radicalforgiveness.com/content/jill.asp

Have a wonderful day.

King - Seven sons - Fish not get dried - Spiritual Meaning of the story

I am not sure whether you heard this story or not. In India, this is very popular story. I listened to it lots of times and also told my children. Until I heard the talk given by Sri Garikapati Narasimha Rao garu, I was not aware of the spiritual significance of the story. You can listen to it in Telugu language from www.surasa.net/music/purana website. For people who don't know Telugu, I typed the story as far as I can. I gave the regular story first and the spiritual significance later.

Read and enjoy.

Story: Once upon a time, there was a king who had seven sons. One day they went for hunting and came back with seven fishes. They let them dry in the sun. One of the fish didn't dry. When they asked the fish why it didn't get dry, it said "Hay stack blocked it". When they asked why Hay Stack blocked the sun, it replied, cow didn't eat it. When they asked cow why it didn't ear the hay stack, it replied: "cowherd didn't allow it to eat". They go ask the cowherd, why he didn't allow cow to eat the grass, he replies that mom didn't fed him. They go to mother and ask why she didn't fed cowherd, she replies my little son cried. They again go to little boy and ask him why he cried, he replies ant bit him. When they ask ant, it says it bit him because he put his finger into the nest.

Garikapati garu says, when we question the first part itself, story doesn't';t hold any basis because King's sons went to hunt and came back with fish? He says, 7 fish are our vices (pride, avarice, Envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth). He said, the one which didn't dry is our Kama (direct meaning is lust, but he elaborated it to include all our desires). To get rid of it, we need Knowledge and haystack is the obstruction, which is our ignorance. To get rid of ignorance, we need knowledge, which we can get either by burning the haystack or remove it one at a time. Just like cow eating one straw at a time, each of our exposure to knowledge, we are removing one straw at a time. So to get this knowledge, we need a GURU (teacher). Teacher didn't give us this spiritual knowledge because mother of education (Saraswathi, Goddess of education) didn't tell him/her to give that to us. Mother of education went to take care of the child who is wailing to see her (he gave example of Ramakrishna, Indian spiritual saint). Ramakrishna was wailing for her darshan, and he was not looking to experience this Maya (iillusion- Ant) which tries to put this Material world on the person who puts their finger into it (Ant hill).

He also mentioned that just like Vivekananda, who was asking every saint about God and whether they can show him God. So someone refers him to go and visit RRamakrishna There were thousands of people waiting to see Ramakrishna. Vivekananda was waiting outside the Mandir/Temple. But Ramakrishna, who was inside sent his people to fetch Vivekananda to show him God. This is the example of Mother Goddess telling GURU to give knowledge to her child.

Conch Bearer - Childrens novel

My daughters recommend lots of books to me. Some of them I do read and some don't. Until now, I loved following books to read with them or read aloud to them, etc. These are from last year, 2007.

1. Wizard of OZ (100 years back, author dreamed about tin man - similar to robot today)
2. Sara, Book 1: The Foreverness of Friends of a Feather
3. Sara, Book 2: Solomon's Fine Featherless Friends
4. Sara, Book 3: A Talking Owl Is Worth a Thousand Words!
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald, Dahl
6. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Lot more. Any books by Roald Dahl are wonderful. Same goes with Frank L Baum books.

Now to the book I read this year, 2008. My daughter highly recommended me to read "Conch Bearer" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. She said, her teacher read this book to her in her 4th grade (now she is in 6th grade). So, I thought lets see what Indian writer wrote and what attracted my daughter. I was not able to put the book down and finished it during the weekend. Very nice story about a poor boy and his way to his dream.

Anand is a poor boy in Kolkota area. His sister goes into trans like state after she watches a murder on the street. A old man comes and cures her and asks for Anand to go with him. Anand used to dream about magical powers, etc. Old man says he choose him as the conch bearer. That's how his journey starts and meets with another girl. Trio set forth to Himalayas and evil force try to snach the conch from them. How old man protects, guides these two kids along the way and what Anand learns, all this info is very interesting. Also conch guides him when he is in trouble. Here is one of the interaction between Conch and Anand.

Conch: "Relax! Don't worry so much. But perhaps to ask a human not to worry is like asking a fish not to swim!"
"Ananda, what do you want most to do?"
I want to help people, to make them happy, he thought.
"That's a mistake right there. You can help all the people you want, but you can't make them happy. Only they themselves can do that."
At least I don't want to cause them unhappiness--especially my family. I don't want to be the reason my mother cries and doesn't eat her food.
"Ah," said the conch. "Wait on that thought for a moment, and move to another question. If you really want to help, where do you think you can help more people? Here, after you develop your gifts, or at home with your family?"
I might be able to help more people here, Anand thought, but they're not my own people, not in the way my family is. I owe my family more.
"Another mistake," the conch said with a sigh. "All this talk of mine. Never mind. You're still young. But if there was a way for you to help your family from right here--more than you could help them by being there in person...?
But how can that be? Anand asked. What my mother needs is for me to be there.

It goes on... Very nice story.

Read and enjoy.

Life's Golden Ticket

Last week I went to attend a seminar in San Diego, CA. I will write a different one on the conference. While traveling I started reading the book, "Life's Golden Ticket" by Brendon Burchard.

This is a wonderful novel with lots of life's learning. It starts with a person who's wife was missing for last 40 days. They find her and when she sees her, she is in ICU and requests him to visit a place which was closed for last 20 years. Fun and learning starts once he visit that place. Lots of our life mistakes, assumptions, beliefs, etc are challenged. I was not able to keep the book down except due to the class. Basically, author informs how we miss or avoid our life's dream with all kinds of excuses, beliefs, blames, etc. Very informative and captive story.

One of the quote I got from the book:

"Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished:
If you're alive, it isn't." -- Richard Bach

Its a good reading for anyone. Complete story is set in an amusement part and all life issues are compared to different rides, actors, sellers, tight rope walkers, lion tamer, elephant tamer, etc. Get it from library or bookstore and enjoy.

It's OK philosophy - The Silent Language of Peace

Hi,

I came across a website where website owner, Heather Macauley, giving her CD for free. I really enjoyed the CD and also the "OK philosophy". According to her, when we tell someone not to do, we are indirectly telling them that they are doing wrong. So, they defend their action with all their might. Instead of that, if we tell them, its ok to do that action, however, these are the side affects of the action, it will be much easier for them to choose the action which is better for them. Its really true. Go to her website, http://www.aspaceoflove.com/index.html and click on free downloads. Get the free CD, "The Silent Language of Peace" and listen to it. Learn and grow.

I also had a wonderful one hour session with her. She is all smiles in her talk and lots of information. I really enjoyed the session.

Cheers,

Nagaraj

Stop Giving Yourself away to Peace thiefs

Hello again.
I have lots of thoughts to share and getting postponed to post them there. Today, I had a wonderful quote from Guy Finley and I shared it with five people already who loved to read the full article from his website. So, here it is (for further reading click on the link):

Stop Giving Yourself Away for Nothing

Real success in this life is not something achieved through winning the good opinion of others about us, but rather is found by freeing ourselves from any concern at all over how others see us. -- Guy Finley

In the full article, he asks us to write answers to following subject: "Known or Possible Suspects Who Are Stealing My Peace." Read the three thieves who are stealing the peace in the full article.

More later

Nagaraj

Self Improvement Vs. Self-Correction

Namaste!
Lots of thoughts flew by in the last week. However they didn't compel me to update here. Yesterday and today I am mulling over above subject. I never paid attention to second part until I read a chapter from "The Secret of Letting Go" book. All along I was thinking and doing lots of self-improvement. Never thought about self-correction (consciously). Here is the summary of the section (Self-Correction is Self-Elevation) from third chapter (How to Defeat what's defeating you) of the book.

Guy Finley, Author says, "On one hand, each of us profess to be concerned with growing, and self-developing while, on the other hand, none of us ever wants to be wrong." This itself takes long time to digest. He also says, "The whole idea of modifying ourselves, of slowly improving through time, is born out of our reluctance to be wrong." According to him, we add different skills to our arsenal based on our choice and what we think will help us to grow. So, this is a process of self-addition though which we acquire new knowledge, skills, behaviors and beliefs.

Author also says, "Denying any problem makes you its guardian and leaves you chained to being wrong." & "Being wrong is not the problem. Defending the life-level that produced the wrongness is where we make the mistake." & "Pride is the middle name of the false self".

Also according to him, we are not tied to our past mistakes unless we decided to tie ourself and that's what the false self wants and tricks us to do. As I told before, he uses wonderful metaphors. Look what he said about false self when it tries to sell the past mistakes with guilt, anxiety and shame, etc. He says, false self continue to sell anchors that look like life vests. :-)

I will close this post with couple of more paragraphs.. According to him, "all personal difficulties are born out of a lack of understanding. By trying to hide the problem from yourself, you shut the window on the possibility of looking into your current life-level, which is the only world where real correction can take place".

Through out the book, he gives lots of powerful lists and questions. Here is 5 out of 10 questions he gave for "Self Wholeness".

1. Instead of always asking yourself why things had to go this way or that way, learn to ask Why is the way I feel always determined by external conditions?

2. Instead of always asking yourself what to do about tomorrow (or the next minute), learn to ask Can there ever be intelligence in anxiety or worry?

3. Instead of always asking yourself why so-and-so acts this or that way, learn to ask what inside of me that wants to hurt itself over how anyone else act?

4. Instead of always crying out "Why me?" learn to ask Who is this "me" that always feels this way?

5. Instead of always asking yourself how to get others to approve of you, learn to ask What do I really want, the applause of the crowds or to quietly have my own life?

It never ends. So, grab the book from Amazon or any other bookstore and read it. Here are the book details.
The Secret of Letting Go by Guy Finley

Have a terrific day.

Nagaraj

My very first blog

Sai Ram!!!
Today while checking my mails, I got a mail about a blogpage from SV Swamy who wrote number of book reviews and also offered free service to authors and readers. I was surprised and thought of starting my own blog spot to post my thoughts everyday from the books I read.

So, here I am. As of now, I am reading following books (most of the times, I read more than three books at a time, so don't get surprised to see the list).

1. Happiness Now -- Robert Holden
Wonderful book. I read only three chapters and he put so much information there. I love it.

2. Parents Effectiveness Training -- Dr. Thomas Gordon
I am reading this book out of my own interest to develop new tools to interact and understand my daughters. I believe in this quote, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. -- Abraham Maslow", and intend to improve my tools every day. So, this book is adding lots of tools like, who owns the problem, active listening, etc.

3. The Secret of Letting Go - Guy Finley
Excellent book about false self or ego and how to let go of it. He uses wonderful metaphors to make it so clear to the reader. "The false self is fueled by negative emotional reactions, which, in turn, are maintained by habitual incorrect thinking" -- Guy Finley

4. Sai Sandesh - Sai Gems for Healthy Living by Anil Kumar Kamaraju
Another excellent book and Prof Anil Kumar summarizes lots of different Swamy Discourses into topic specific so that we can get lots of details at one point.

I will add book summaries later in the month. From now on, I will add quotes, stories, etc from these books to my blog so that you can also enjoy them.

More later,

Cheers.