The Internet to the Inner-net

A New Year has dawned.
So has new hopes. It’s also time for new resolutions and new experiences. And this is my first post in 2017.

This New Year day saw me travelling from Kochi back to my workplace in Dubai. And when I am in airports, book shops are my cynosures. My racing thoughts and unbridled longing for books put me in a fix. What to buy and what not to buy? My quest was on. And my eyes hitched on an orange book. The title – The Internet to the Inner-net. Five ways to reset your connection and live a conscious life. And the writer? Gopi Kallayil. Now I was quite curious to read the biography of the author in inner back book flap. Hmm. Interesting. Google’s Chief Evangelist for Brand Marketing. The back cover had excerpts from reviews of the book by Chade-Meng Tan (whose book Search Inside Yourself I found both delightful as impactful) and Jack Kornfield, the famous Buddhist teacher, among others. I just opened the introduction and there was something more that held my attention. Gopi is from Chittilamchery – which is about 10 kilometres away from my hometown, Pallavur. I picked up the book.

In this interesting book, Gopi speaks of five ways to reset our connection to the Inner-net that will help us lead a conscious life. Using computer parlance, the titles are most apt and meaningful.

Part 1 Log in. How else will you establish the connection? Definitely not by checking in once in a way. For staying connected one has to ‘log in’.

Part 2 Clear out the inbox. I am reminded of the story of the wise Zen master and a student who came to learn from him. The student wanted his mind to be opened to enlightenment. However, from his conversation with the student, the Master realized the youth was quite opinionated. The Zen master invited the student to discuss matters over a cup of tea. When the tea was served the master poured his visitor a cup. He poured and he poured and the tea rose to the rim and began to spill over the table and finally onto the robes of the young man. Finally the visitor shouted, “Enough. You are spilling the tea all over. Can’t you see the cup is full?” The master stopped pouring and smiled at his guest. “You are like this tea cup, so full that nothing more can be added. Come back to me when the cup is empty. Come back to me with an empty mind.” Unless there is space, how can we add on information? So, clear your inbox.

Part 3 Optimize your system. Without system optimization, no ware – hard or soft – will ever function efficiently. What are the practices I can use as anchors to optimize my inner-net? Meditation? Vipassana? Mindfulness? Yoga?

Part 4 Just Google it. From a Google evangelist, this is just spontaneous. It speaks about trusting the Universe and ‘know the right resources will show up.’

Part 5 Thank you for Subscribing. The power of technology and our inter-connectivity is amazing provided we use it to harness peace – both inner and out peace. Out peace is just a manifestation of inner peace. This then is all about being grateful, embracing possibilities and signing up for life itself.

This book has given me a sense of direction regarding my chosen path. One of which is seeing His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. I hope I will be able to fulfill this yearning in me, come summer break.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. 5 stars for such a delightful read.