Nithya Shanti and Fran Cherny share some hints for leaders about how to embody new learnings.
Transcription
Fran Cherny: One of the struggles I see most in let’s say, leaders or, you know, people in organizations trying to learn the difference between, yes, learning intellectually and really practicing. Do you have any hint or suggestion or tip on that? Know how to move from intellectual learning to make it happen?
Nithya Shanti: Sure. In fact, this is not a new challenge. This has always been around. In the ancient language of the Buddha Pali language they have three words for this: Pariyatti, Patipatti and Pativedha.
So, Pariyatti means to hear something, to get the theory of something, to intellectually grasp something. Like, for example, I explained to you how to ride a horse. Yeah, I think I understand that, but that is just Pariyatti.
Patipatti, is go and apply it. Now, how do you actually handle the horse, how do you actually come into sync with the horse, how do you actually get on top of the horse, how do you ride the horse? That takes practice. It’s not after just hear that.
Fran Chenry: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Nithya Shanti: So, hearing is one thing, but then applying it and practicing it, is called Patipatti. And when you do it enough Pativedha. Now, you don’t even think about it.
So, maybe back in the day, or maybe even nowadays, if you practice horse riding long enough, you won’t even have to think about it. You just walk all day, you get on to the horse and you can even ride for miles, perhaps, right?
I was watching a documentary yesterday on Robert the Bruce, you know, one of the Scottish leaders. And I was just seeing in this documentary how these horses, they would be ridden for miles and miles and miles. These people practically lived on these horses, right.
And that kind of relationship with your horse and like, when a man would move, the horse would follow the man, wherever he went. So, that is Pativedha, where it become a part of you. It’s destined to become a part of you.
So, it’s always like that. You learn something, you practice, practice, practice until it gets integrated.