This week, we explored the connection of self
efficacy with wellness and performance with a small group in one of Tuscany’s
thermal hotels. In Bandura’s opinion self-efficacy
is trust in our own capacity to achieve a specific goal or adopt a specific
behaviour. Our personal experiences are the key source,
but so are the vicarious experiences of others; we can foster trust in our
ability to do something by seeing others succeed.
Everyone
has something to teach us. Some people
however take our learning to a deeper level; they are our positive role models;
they hold mastery in what they do; they have characteristics we want to
emulate; they have knowledge we want to learn.
They come in a variety of forms.
Sometimes with a big label, sometimes cleverly in disguise. They can be our loved ones or famous
strangers. We can find them everywhere
but to recognise them we often have to get rid of our own prejudices and question
our own beliefs and behaviours.
S.N.Goenka,
meditation teacher and responsible for popularising Vipassana around the globe,
who passed away recently, was one of those positive role models for me, and
undoubtedly millions of others.
I never met Goenka, my experience of him is
listening to his chants, instructions and perspectives via recordings. I remember hearing him chant and how it made me at first feel physically ill; I wanted to get up and run from
that meditation hall. Obviously in experiencing such a strong reaction, I knew it was someone I needed to pay
attention to. I had to learn to sit with
what was uncomfortable, to accept whatever what was arising, to let things come
and go, to not crave or reject.
Vipassana as taught by Goenka offers the
simplified and direct version of Buddha’s teachings. For some it is “like the extreme sports version”
of meditation, which perhaps as a ‘kiwikid’ coming from the extreme-sportsmad
NZ is part of the appeal. Aside from his
teachings, which continue to provide a significant challenge and curiosity for
me, he is also a role model for combining a depth of knowledge with application
of practice; of applying patience and persistence; of embodying what it means
to serve; of humour and humility and with his astute business mind, provides an
example of how to expand internationally whilst keeping the purity of one’s product/service,
if I can call it that.
It took me 20 years from when a dear friend first
told me about Vipassana, to finally turn up at a 10 day retreat at Dhamma Atala
in Italy.
As the saying goes “when the student is
ready, the teacher will appear”
Who are you ready for?
Notes:
Bandura,
Albert (1997), Self-efficacy:
The exercise of control, New York: Freeman,
'extreme sports' reference: Gilbert,
E (2006), Eat Pray Love: One Women’s Search For Everything, Bloomsbury
Publishing Ltd, Great Britain, pg 181
Image: Andres Kudacki/Associated Press as
posted by Vivid Greeting Cards on Facebook 9 August 2013.
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Thanks
with arohanui, Rach.
Other
related Goenka inspired postings:
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