Unbecoming

Prafulla Raval, Vasant Raval

Description

This book helps you think about life invested in service of others - a goal achieved through unbecoming. Most biographies, such as Michelle Obama’s "Becoming," normally leave this life-goal unaddressed.
An outlier in many ways, this book focuses on what is typically not observed, nor consciously searched in our lives. We know more about becoming, however, more significant in life's enrichment is the unbecoming. While the former shapes a self-oriented life-style, the latter emphasizes other-centric behavior. You can pivot to a better life, lasting peace, tranquility, and satisfaction with your life-goals if you practice unbecoming. Unbecoming provides the most rewarding life style and satisfaction with how you are invested you life for yourself and for the good of others.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Spirituality
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press
• Date de parution: 02 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798765230039
• Langue: English

Extrait

UN BECOMING
 
FROM THE VISIBLE, TO EXPERIENTIAL, TO EXISTENTIAL
 
 
 
 
 
 
VASANT RAVAL and PRAFULLA RAVAL
 
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2022 Vasant Raval and Prafulla Raval.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
Balboa Press
A Division of Hay House
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.balboapress.com
844-682-1282
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3004-6 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3002-2 (hc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3003-9 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022911318
 
Balboa Press rev. date: 07/28/2022
CONTENTS
Preface
 
1.       Life Is A Journey
2.       Blueprint Of Me
3.       Nature Of Me
4.       The World Around Me
5.       Now That I Am Born . . .
6.       Cards I Am Dealt . . .
7.       Choices I Make
8.       Righteous Living
9.       Becoming
10.     Iolo: I Only Live Once?
11.     Unbecoming
12.     Mindfulness & Meditation
13.     Sustaining Communities
14.     Nurturing Generosity
15.     Am I There Yet?
 
Bibliography
PREFACE
Ever since we published our first book on spirituality, Finding Soul in Work and Life, we have been thinking: What next? Feedback from the readers of Finding Soul was that of curiosity, seeking more information. We felt motivated to do more. Book writing can be a long, arduous task, especially while you are researching, which never seems to stop. All your clippings and notes, together with foundational, epical writings on the theme come together, the former more as current illustrations and the latter, as the glue that binds. We found that the pace of writing was never quite steady, with other short-term commitments intruding on the amount of time we could put in toward the book. Sometimes, when we returned to the book project, we found that much of what we had thought as “final” had to be revised to make more sense. At a minimum, it improved readability and reduced repetition. The chapters seemed to come together over time.
For us, book writing is usually a social endeavor. Many people we approached willingly shared their thoughts, provided feedback on the written material, and challenged what can be written in a better way to make it easier for the reader to grasp. Some provided thoughts, questions, arguments, and religious bent to the topics. Others cheered us on to keep going and finish the work. Joyce Coogan carefully edited the entire manuscript; it is a massive effort which took hours of time and deep interest in helping the project. Without her input, the book would have had less impact on readers. Veronica Shukla read the entire book with care, pausing frequently to ask if there was a better way to present the material. Her comments prompted meaningful revisions to an earlier draft of the book. Both Joyce and Veronica helped advance the book substantially in terms of clarity and accuracy.
People of different religious beliefs and diverse cultural and educational and career backgrounds helped us in shaping the book. Ed Morse has been a mentor for us, cheering us on with this project and providing support along the way. Maorong Jiang and Asian World Center at Creighton University have been great supporters of our research and writing on spirituality. Janakbhai Dave, Kishore Jani, Mahesh Vora, Hemanshu Vora, Rupal Thaker, Deepak Acharya, Alka Adatia, Andrew Gustafson, and Greg Dyche took interest in the book’s development and provided guidance and encouragement. We deeply appreciate everyone’s dedicated help and interest in the book project.
We believe the purpose of this book is to continue with the dialog on unbecoming . We hope that readers will contribute generously by sharing their thoughts, posing questions, or seeking more information. Indeed, we would appreciate your thoughts.
Vasant and Prafulla Raval
DEDICATION
With lots of affection, love, and good wishes,
we dedicate this book
to our darling granddaughter
Sonia
1
LIFE IS A JOURNEY
For I spend all my time going about trying to persuade you, young and old, to make your first and chief concern not for your bodies or your possessions, but for the highest welfare of your souls.
Socrates
L IFE IS A JOURNEY. DOTTED by an origin and a destination, every journey has a purpose. We are used to taking the road or traveling by air. For air travel, we buy a ticket, pack our bags, go to the airport, and take the flight. At the destination, we do everything in a different order. There is no Transportation Security Administration (TSA) requirement that you need to meet, except perhaps that you need to keep your facemask on until you leave the airport. You pick up your bags from the baggage-claim area, and travel from the airport (by train, bus, taxi, etc.) to the destination. If you are traveling by car, the procedure is simpler. You have no reporting time for the travel, and no security clearance requirements. Just drop your luggage in the trunk of your car and take off, making sure that the car is fit to travel, has enough gas, etc. Broadly, these are all visible components of our journey.
It helps, however, to look at each journey as a bundle of experiences. For example, along the way, you meet people (or bump into them!). It all happens as if it is a chance event. If you are traveling by air, you do not get to choose your fellow travelers, or the airline flight check-in staff, the captain, and the flight crew. Sometimes, you run into people and feel as if you have known them from the past! You feel so close to them, so quickly that you wonder why that might be. They show their unconditional and selfless love for you and assist in any way they can to make your journey comfortable and successful. You also meet people you do not particularly care to engage with and will probably forget soon after you meet them. Regardless, people you meet along the way may have a very short duration of exposure to you, drifting away in a hurry and never again crossing paths. Either party may not take the initiative to re-connect and the relationships and experiences become part of the archives. You wonder who sent them to run into you and why were they so helpful, despite the absence of direct quid-pro-quo . All you are left with is the experience.
Life’s journey is usually several decades long. In this rather long trip, you collect experiences with a variety of different traits. Some experiences are short lived, while others have a much longer life. Some are more impactful than others, and some may dislodge you from your chosen path, while others solidify your confidence in the journey. A significant differentiating factor across these experiences is the degree of impact it has on how you live your life. This is where we set aside visible components of our journey and instead focus on their effect on the end goal of the journey. In sum, the journey is essentially an aggregation of experiences along the way.
Destination
It is so much more fun to talk about the details of the journey than the destination. We can talk about how a cold, and perhaps dated, mushroom soup that the flight attendant offered on the overseas flight to Atlanta caused food poisoning. Or how an unlabeled box, found unattended at the Mumbai airport, was examined thoroughly by a bomb-squad, only to find that it had about a dozen raw mangoes in it! Recently, we heard about passengers who revolted against the requirement of face-covering in-flight and thus created the degree of chaos and uncertainty that is unnerving to others. There is just no dearth of experiences, although not all of them are as interesting or life-changing. While we forget some, or just laugh out loud in sharing them with others, there may be other experiences that have a lingering effect on our life; we may, for example, process each to understand why it is important and what we must do in similar circumstances in future.
In the excitement of taking on the journey, what is often forgotten is the destination. Where am I going? How did I choose to go there? Why am I going there? How does the journey help shape my overall life-goal? Short duration trips may have purposes that can be articulated better, but even in these cases, does the trip lead to anything long-term? Or is this just a one-time shot with nothing intended for the lifetime? We may be living every mome