Businesses Thrive on Harmony, Not Competition

Lessons from my 10-day meditation retreat

Perhaps good business doesn’t come from competition, but from simply making good stuff. Image created with Leonardo AI

I’m back. I’ve experienced the perhaps calmest and most serene moments I’ve ever had in my life during a 10-day meditation retreat. It was a Vipassana retreat, a practice taught in the tradition of the Buddha.

It has a way of calming the mind and allowing deep ideas to bubble up to the surface.

Vipassana means “seeing things as they really are.” Basically you just sit and you observe your body and mind without reacting, for long periods at a time.

When your ear itches, you don’t scratch; you just say “there’s an itch” and let it be. When you leg starts hurting, you keep sitting and just say “here’s a painful sensation, let’s see how long it lasts.”

Over the hours of meditation you realize: Automatic reactions often just keep you agitated without helping dissolve the problem. The itch doesn’t go away because you scratch it, and your legs actually don’t stop hurting when you start moving them.

And then you realize something else: Peace of mind is always available to you. No matter how uncomfortable your body and the outside reality seem to be. You just need to stop agonizing and running after every thing you like and dislike. Just… be.