Understand before making it stick.

Last we weeks we were working with BST/KST kids on presentation skills. The discussion moved to and centered on how to make the concept of maya stick. We noticed first that we need to understand the concept ourselves. Many of the younger kids said all stuff was maya (somewhat true). We discussed if our phones were maya and they said yes. What if we lost our phones and it did not bother us at all - was the phone still maya? So the discussion went back and forth. The conclusion was that the attachment to stuff was really maya, stuff was just stuff. The key take away that everyone had was that we had to know our stuff before we made our stuff stick.

When we give presentations in sabha we are fortunate to have a syllabus. The most important thing that the syllabus does is give us concise knowledge. We need to read it and understand it so that we know our stuff on whatever the topic is.

Once we know our stuff, then we can try to make it stick (simple, unexpected, stories, emotions, credible and concrete). The syllabus might help with this part, but really it's on us to get that done. Once we have the knowledge and know our stuff, the syllabus has done its main job.

How can we make the concept of maya stick. Going back to the our phones, here is a great article that shows that the we love our phones. Literally love our phones. By imaging the brain (using fMRI) the researchers discovered that the same areas of the brain that signify love were lit up when people were shown pictures of their phone. Now that's maya.

Making Katha Stick - the metaphor

A few insights from a fellow Sabha.ologist. After listening to several talks from P. Mahant Swami he noticed they stuck with him. He started to look at why and found the following gem.

One way he [makes hist talk stick] is by giving simple analogies that everyone could understand. Here are just a few of them I picked up from his visit:

How can we become connected with Swamishri? By simply following his agna. Swamishri is like a kite and his agna is the string. When the string is cut you no longer have a connection with the kite. Similarly, if we disobey Swamishri's agna we will be disconnected from him. Let us always follow the commands of our beloved guru, and please him to the best of our ability.

Out of the 365 days of the year, these 5 days are considered the best. Out of these 5 days, Diwali is the "king". The same way, out of all the janams that we take, this manushya deh is the most important. 

We have to realize the importance of Bhagwan, Sant, and Haribhaktos (gun grahak drashti).

Happy Diwali

Shubh Diwali!
Nutan Varsh na Abhinandan!
Happy New Year!

Everyone here at Sabha.ology prays that the New Year brings many opportunities to please Maharaj and Swami and earn their blessings - especially by making really great talks and presentation.

BST ppt not for Me?

In the past we have examined the pitfalls of powerpoint. (this applies to keynote and prezi as well). Putting these suggestions to practice is many times much easier than we might think. We are fortunate to have a starting point many times with the ideas already in the presentation. The ideas are the hard part. Sprucing up the presentation is usually much easier. The following is from a packet on presentation skills - something we have been thinking about for awhile. The first PPT was great, because the ideas were great. With a half hour of tweaks we wound up with this second version. Small things make perfection but perfection is no small thing.

Version 1

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Version 2

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