Benefits of Meditation for Your Mind #2
By Mr.
Anant Asavabhokhin (Thailand)
The Benefits of Meditation
Between 1998 to 1999
many problems beset me severely. My company lost money. Creditors dunned me to
pay my many debts. I was accused. I was deeply troubled as my child might not
be able to complete his education abroad. I was very depressed. I was so afraid
of not having money, being thought disreputable, and not being capable of
paying my debts. At that time, I felt that I could not do anything even though
I had millions of baht in my personal bank account. I thought of allowing the
company to go bankrupt. But l did not do it – I could not bear seeing the
company I could not bear seeing hundreds of my employees who had worked
together with me for years become jobless. I made the decision to fight. I did
not lay off any employees. However, under the pressure of so many debts, I
could not increase their salaries. I withdrew my own money and increased the
investment required to support the company. I negotiated with foreign lenders
to extend their limits. Over time, I resolved the problem one by one.
I can truly say that
I could pass through that difficult time successfully because of meditation. At
the time of troubles, I was so distraught because I faced problems in every
direction I faced problems in every direction I was so distraught because I
faxed problems in every direction I turned. It was good that I still had my
great teacher, Luang Phaw Dhammajayo, as my pillar and model. He always
reminded me to close my eyes, be comfortable, stay still, spread the loving
kindness, and then think of all the deeds of merit I had performed. It seems so
simple, but it is incredibly helpful. It is the key to the method which offers
a perfect solution.
Luang Phaw Dhammajayo
used to tell me that perfect wisdom has never come from the anxious mind.
Hence, Whenever I found myself worrying too much, I was determined to forget
about my troubles by meditating and
clearing my mind, I began to see that no matter how difficult my problems were,
the world would not end there and then if I could not solve them immediately.
CEO Thailand
Whenever I was under
pressure, meditation helped me control my emotions better. For example, I had
to negotiate the debts with my creditors. They complained to me a lot, but I
did not respond. I smiled, stayed calm, and did not say anything. I kept my
mind calm as Luang Phaw Dhammajayo taught Then, my creditors told me that I was
a polite and patient debtor. They did not know what I was thinking when I just
kept smiling without saying a word. They thought I was being clever. In fact,
what I was doing was meditating with open eyes. I did not think of anything
else.
">When I brought
meditation to my work life, everything changed. In the past, I always attempted
to perform at the level of 100 percent.
But when I spoke, I could accomplish only half of what I wanted; and when I
attempted to implement my ideas, I accomplished even less. But once I gained
control over my mind, everything changed. When my goal was to perform at
100 per cent, I was able to achieve
twice as much while talking, and far more in results.
">Previously, I often
had eight meetings a day and because of the many morning meetings, I had two
breakfasts on some days. Now, I work less and experience an increase in
productivity and am not so tired ad before. But the result is an increase in
production. What is amazing was that meditation helped me in being creative and
intuitive. One example was the Land and House Company’s “Ready-Before-Sale”
project. Another example was a price strategy for the Home Pro Company. These
ideas came to me after meditating. They did not occur to me at first. When I
cleared my mind during meditation, I thought of what I had never thought of in
the past. The answers came to my mind unexpectedly.
"> I could not think of
those at first. But after meditation, I cleared my mind and thought of what I
had never thought of in the past. The answers came across my mind unexpectedly.
Find your mind
After that, facing the problems became much simpler. The solutions were so
simple that I had never thought of them. When I tried to implement those
solutions, the results were far greater than the ideas I had brainstormed about
in meetings. Indeed, facing more problems became much simpler through
meditation.
In the case of the
Land and House Company, it became clear to me, after mediation, that the
company has been in the real estate business for 30 years and it needed to get
out of the cyclical ups and downs. Unlike industries based on intuitive
technologies such as microchip, biotechnology or nanotechnology, our business
was a boring one. The only technology we have is bricking and rendering, which
has been the same for a thousand years. Even though we constantly attempt to
create innovative styles for homes, within a week after completion someone else
will copy it,
">What occurred to me
from the meditation was how to keep a consistent quality. Let’s think of the
car assembly manufacture: car manufacturers have to finish assembling and
implement quality control before selling. In Thai real estate, it was a norm to
first build a few model homes and wait for orders before building the real
homes; which meant clients have the opportunity to walk into the manufactured
product, check the door, seat, etc. I decided that we must build all the
standard homes before attempting to sell them, like the method of the car
assembly manufacture. This idea occurred to me in 2000 to 2001. I called about
10 executives into a meeting and announced my idea. 10 executives into a
meeting and announced my idea. I told them that I would let go of the old way.
All the ten executives disagreed with my idea. I had to coerce them to do it
until, gradually, they started to believe in my idea. They, then, went on show
this method to hundreds of other employees.
"> Likewise, nobody
believed the effectiveness of this method and they did not want to do it.
Meditation for Beginners
My
company is reasonably liberal: I distribute the power to every employee to
allow them to have control over their financial future and I let them make
decisions to buy the land on their own. If their decisions benefit the company,
they will benefit the employees as well They were hence concerned that if they
followed my idea, the company might be in bad shape and they did not want to
implement it. It was difficult to get the employees to work on the project.
But, as time went on, the project yielded positive results. It turned Land and
House Company from a 45 thousand million baht loss into a profitable business.
The most profitable year was in 2003 when our profit went up to an
unprecedented 6,000 million baht. I received a dividend of 2,000. With half of
it, I managed to clear all debts. I also made charitable donations with a part
of the dividend. I also made charitable donations with a part of the dividend.
The Home Pro company, the affiliate of the band and House Company, has been
established for more than 10 years. I began the company because I wanted to
provide customers greater convenience. Previously, once customers bought their
houses, they had to go to different warehouses themselves to select their
furniture. In 1997, we had three branches. I wanted to open more branches but
the business only made a small profit. One day after meditating, I got an idea.
I talked to my manager: “Could we not expand the branches”?
He told me that it was difficult to expand as we made only one percent profit