A very good lesson learned from my mother was to have the wisdom to do many things at the same time – not like multitasking – but rather having different interests, and then having the intuition to apply the knowledge learnt on all fields of our lives!

Well, example, she used to work on a pathology lab, and always complained that, for cooking, she could never have the exact measures, then she started to buy “beckers” and other lab pots for measurement to cook – she found her precision on her kitchen, a kitchen which shelves looked more like as a lab !!!!

Well, lesson learned – during turbulent times during my work, with mergers, acquisitions and many changes on the management I was having yoga classes, and as usual, I did not get enough of the classes and started to study a lot the philosophy and main concepts of yoga, and it turned to be the best thing to improve my professionalism and my leadership style!

The main threat to any company or business is also what brings it to a higher level – the quick increase of business, coming along new rules, new people, new thoughts and new way of working – for the ones who are working well and successfully before this period, this means changes – that many times are perceived as negative…

…And why this? – For a single reason, this might take them from their comfort zone, to do things differently and not to know if this will bring them the same success…

Here comes the magic portion – “not knowing”…. This is the main reason for all the problems that bring us to have to manage the changes in order to deal with people’s suffering and then be successful in business…

Let us come to Sanskrit – Wikipedia

“Avidyā is a Sanskrit word that means “ignorance“, “delusion“, “unlearned”, “unwise” and that which is not, or runs counter to, vidya. (LB – Avidya is not knowing something – not intellectually, but just not knowing)

What keeps humanity captive in Samsara is this avidya. (LB – what keeps people in earth and not going to the “next level” in Hinduism) This ignorance is not lack of erudition; it is ignorance about the nature of ‘Being’ (Sanskrit: Sat). It is a limitation that is natural to human sensory or intellectual apparatus. This is responsible for all the misery of humanity. Advaita Vedanta holds that the eradication of it should be humanity’s only goal and that will automatically mean Realisation of the Self (Sanskrit: atman).

Root of suffering

Avidyā plays a key role in Buddhism and Buddhist doctrine and is the primary cause of suffering in saṃsāra.

Uprooting avidya

The antidote to avidyā is “wisdom” (Skt.: prajñā; Pali: pañña). This is achieved by practicing awareness/mindfulness (Pali: sati, Skt: smṛti), patient endurance (Skt: kṣānti; Pali: khanti) and meditation (Skt: dhyāna), all three of which are incorporated in the pan-Buddhist practices of the Noble Eightfold Path and thepāramitās (“perfections”).”

Simplifying all and using to our “Western” Style of life…

The not knowing something will always bring to human being suffering, since when something new will come or is happening, the outcome will never be known, even if it can be good, we tend to fear it, we’d rather keep the not so good known than to accept the not known…

In actual times, when all the speed is increasing and evolution and development of business is essential, bringing the concept to our organizations that Avidya should be worked through can be the easiest solution;

Let us put this way – it is important to clarify with the organizations that not knowing what will happen might not be bad, if there is something that we do not know, then we should practice the full awareness of this and just concentrate on what we do know and what we can influence in order to bring our knowledge and expertise as part of the successful outcome!

There will be thousands of aspects in our lives that we will not know for sure, but if we concentrate on these points, we will be paralyzed, as our business will be – the best is to accept that changes are main part of evolution and development and will always bring something very good to us all – so let us be part of this so we can enjoy the successful outcome, rather than be against and then see the success from outside, not being part of it!!

Avidya – not knowing – the biggest cause of suffering in the world – but also the key to our freedom and realization, through Avidya we can learn to go through “Samsara”, common lives and world, to a superb life and world – where success with peace is just part of it!!!