This interactive panel discussion explores how to live life with awareness and to have your Rotaract Club achieve its potentials. Discover how to grow as a leader; spot opportunities; overcome obstacles such as fear; lead by example; do things from heart; and find balance. Facilitators: Cape Cod Community College Rotaract Club: Club Advisor: Virender Gautam, Ph. D; Students: Kyle Mazzur, Sabrina Gemborys, Alex Burton, James Mase, Jacob Bulman, and Corey Buzzell

1. Developing Awareness:
How to Have a Rotaract Club
Achieve its Objectives and
Reach Potential
Dr. Virender Gautam & students Kyle Mazzur,
Alex Burton, Corey Buzzell, Jacob Bulman,
Sabrina Gemborys, and James Mase
1
Metro Toronto Convention Center
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Presented by: Cape Cod Community College
Rotaract Club, Massachusetts, USA

2. Dedication
Rishi Gautam Ji
My Mentor and My Hero
• Sanyas is renunciation or giving up
of worldly life
• It is how one thinks and one acts or
responds to situations
• According to the Bhagavad Gita,
freedom from desires is the true
renunciation
• Created 40 schools (including 15
high schools, 3 colleges, 2 orphan
homes, 16 women’s development
centers and 25 yoga-meditation
ashrams)
2

3. The Two Worlds we live in
Outer World
• Doing
• Effort
• Goal
• Analyze
• Adjust
• Enjoy the effort alone
not the result
Inner World
• Non-doing
• Non-effort
• No goal
• No analysis
• No judgements
• No adjusting
• No expectation
3

4. Orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
4

5. International Service Projects
Haiti
• Water well for village in Saint Marc
• Clothing and shoes donations to
orphanage in Port-au-Prince
Nicaragua
• Lunch food and school education
funding for Children of the Dumps
project in Chinandega
• Soccer balls & hygiene supplies for
poor school children in Granada
5

6. Peaceful offering, Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, MA)
September 27, 2002 | by: Eric Williams
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/0F6FA0AFB8F6DB53?p=NewsBank
HYANNIS - Meditation met the mean streets last
night as the power and quiet of the inner world
resonated through the CHAMP House homeless
shelter.
Members of the India-based Vishvas Foundation
were on hand to distribute handmade goods from
the subcontinent and talk about love, healing and
the power of doing nothing.
Doing diddly? That can't be right.
"The key is, do nothing," said Virender Gautam, a
professor of economics at Cape Cod Community
College and the event's organizer. He gave a quick
primer on meditation and doing good deeds.
"Community service is a byproduct of meditation,"
said Gautam. "If I'm stressful, do you think I'm going
to do community service? I can hardly do my job and
be cranky all day.
"Meditation gives you the energy," said Gautam.
"You do nothing in the inside world. But in the outer
world work hard every day."
Former college president Richard Kraus is one of them.
"My daughter got involved first," said Kraus. "My wife
and I went over to India to see what she was doing. I
went very skeptically. We spent about a month there,
in the company of people who follow this kind of
practice, and we were just terribly impressed by the
levels of acceptance and love.
"I found that participating in the meditation on a
regular basis brought a really good inner feeling that I
had not experienced before," said Kraus. "Although
I'm not very good at it yet, I think there must be
something very much to it.
"I had been suffering from a great deal of stress," said
Kraus. "This has basically taken all of it away. I
So does Professor Gautam have big plans to keep
these miracles coming?
"We have no goal," said Gautam. "Whatever happens
naturally. Otherwise, there's tension."
really quite almost miraculous.“

7. The Paradox
• Our inner nature is not available to us by effort. We achieve so much
from effort, yet everlasting happiness, joy, peace of mind, tranquility,
love, harmony, bliss etc. cannot be achieved by efforts.
• The paradox is that you need to put an effort, but it is not going to
happen due to an effort.
7

8. Story of Rabia of Basra, Iraq
Losing a Diamond Ring
Rabia of Basra (born between 714 and 718 CE)
8

9. Moral of the Story
Buddha (born 563 BCE)
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10. Have No Expectations
• Do things from heart
• Put your best effort
• Have no expectations for the result
• It is by letting go of the desire for
the fruit of actions that a person
becomes a unattached to the
results.
• It means put an effort without the
expectation of a reward from it.
• It is a matter of attitude and
thinking. Enjoy the present
moment as it is unfolding.
10

11. Story of Student Running for
Public Office
May 16, 2005 | by: George Brennan
http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20050516/NEWS01/305169999
• SANDWICH -- Adam Chaprales
charmed a congressman from
another party into endorsing his
candidacy for selectman. He
charmed a college professor into
working tirelessly by his side on
the campaign. He charmed
2,910 voters, going door to door,
in what even his opponents
acknowledge was an exhaustive
campaign. 11

12. Letting Go
• We tend to hold onto things
with our minds.
• Let go of likes and dislikes,
attraction and rejection.
• Let go of wanting. We often
cling to self-serving hopes
and wishes.
• Let go of the past and the
future.
12

13. Story of a Farmer
from Meditation for Dummies

14. What is Awareness ?
• Most people live their entire lives in full
unawareness.
• We tend to have little awareness of the
constant and relentless activity of our
own mind, and how much we are driven
by it.
• It opens up channels of creativity,
intelligence, imagination, clarity,
determination, willpower, fearlessness
and wisdom within us
• Mind is an illusion – Munn Hi Maya
14

15. YouTubes
1. Skateboarding
Beyond thought (Awareness Itself)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHcOvPtYE08
2. Guy talking: Ask yourself, Is this
useful?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmRVz7baXG8
3. Song – by Logic
"1-800" Cover by Logic feat. Alessia
Cara & Khalid w/ Lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czd6zVeP4KU
4. Meditation Sword
Meditation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l-YYqjhVi4
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16. Gita’s Message
• Enjoy the efforts /
actions alone
• Do not expect the
result
16

17. Ego
• One of the biggest obstacles to
awareness is ego.
• When our ego gets hold of us,
we cease to see things clearly.
• All colorations of I, me and mine
are just thinking.
17

18. How Does One Develop Awareness ?
• Meditation
• Become a passive observer
• Welcome all thoughts
• Let go
• Surrender to Self
• Slow down
• No not judge
• Who am I?
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19. The Nature of the Mind
• Constant thinking
• Emotions
• Stress
• Negativity
• Defeat
19

20. Harvard Course Happiness Tips
• Give yourself permission to be
human.
• Keep in mind happiness is mostly
dependent on your state of mind,
not status or bank account.
• Simplify.
• Remember the mind-body
connection.
• Express gratitude toward others.
“Harvard's Crowded Course to Happiness,” The Boston Globe, March 10, 2006

21. Rich or Happy ?
21

22. People Who Meditate
• Steve Jobs
"If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your
mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but
over time it does calm, and when it does, there's room to
hear more subtle things - that's when your intuition
starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly
and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down,
and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You
see so much more than you could see before. It's a
discipline; you have to practice it.“
• Clint Eastwood
"I’m a great supporter of Transcendental Meditation. I’ve
been using it for almost 40 years now - and I think it’s a
great tool for anyone to have, to be able to utilize as a
tool for stress.“
• Mark Zuckerberg
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23. People Who Meditate
• Paul McCartney
McCartney has been meditating for more than
40 years! He met the founder of Transcendental
M, Marishi Mahesh Yogi, at a talk at the London
Hilton in 1967.
“I was personally not in a good place. I think I
was just overdoing it in the 60’s, so I was just not
very centered. And I was looking for something.”
• George Lucas
Star Wars director George Lucas began
meditation in the 1970s. Yoda is rumored to be
based on Transcendental Meditation founder
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
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24. Find Balance
24

25. Watching Thoughts
• Simply watch your thoughts.
• When we sit in meditation, we
are not allowing our impulses
and thoughts to translate into
actions.
• All these thoughts and impulses
arise in the mind and then pass
away. They have a life of their
own.
25

26. Become Non-Judging & Drop Fear
• Our mind is constantly evaluating
experiences, holding them against
expectations, and making
judgements.
• This happens out of fear that we
have inside.
• Cultivate a non-judging attitude
toward what comes up in the mind.
• Recognize thoughts without
condemning them, pursuing,
judging or stopping them.
26

27. Overcome Obstacles
• Often our underlying thinking tells
us that the reason for our troubles
lies outside us in location, in
others, or outside circumstances.
• But the problem is that we are
ignoring the real reason for our
problems.
• There is no running away from
anything. Sooner or later things
that we don’t want to deal with
will catch up with us.
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28. Love for one self
• Awareness is love for self and
every one else.
• Love for self requires you see
your fears and understand them.
• The willingness to harm or hurt
someone comes ultimately out
of fear.
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29. Physical & Psychological Benefits
• More healthy regulation of the immune system
• A reduced tendency toward premature aging
• Lower blood pressure
• Quicker recovery from stress
• Increased empathy
• Enhanced creativity
• Heightened perceptual clarity
• Reduction in acute and chronic anxiety
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30. 11 More Reasons to Meditate
1. Awakening to the present moment
2. Making Friends with Yourself
3. Connecting more deeply with others
4. Relaxing the body and calming the mind
5. Lightening up
6. Experiencing focus and flow
7. Feeling more centered, grounded, and balanced
8. Enhancing performance at work and play
9. Increasing appreciation, gratitude, and love
10. Aligning with a deeper sense of purpose
11. Awakening to a spiritual dimension of being
Meditation for Dummies by Stephan Bodian30

31. 31

32. Live Life Fully
• Live life with full awareness and
the ability to see opportunities
• Use positive psychology and do
things from heart without the
expectation of reward
• Lose fear, overcome obstacles, and
lead by example
• Develop cultural awareness and
awareness of others
• Find balance: Love yourself without
the pitfalls of the ego
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33. 33
Rotaract Preconvention
Toronto, Canada
Saturday, June 23, 2018