1.Introduction: Welcome to Wisdom Launch. I am Kaustav Chaudhuri (www.kcwisdom.com), the Founder. Wisdom Launch is a culmination of my experiences, knowledge and self-realization, so I am starting off by sharing my story so that it will provide you the context and values of this organization.
2.My Story: I was always drawn to the world of wisdom but did not know how to make a career out of it, so
I studied Human Resources and Organizational Behavior so that I could bring higher consciousness to the corporate world. I was fortunate to be part of the Dot com boom in Silicon Valley and after that, started really seeking deeper meaning in life and read a wide range of treatise from ancient wisdom to philosophy to psychology to theology to literature. I happened to get stuck on the 4th of July weekend at the Ritz Carlton in Maui in 2005 where I chanced upon an elaborate article in the Hotel’s in-house magazine, titled “ So you want to be a guru?” and I kept reading it again and again and it got into my head. Why not write a unique book and become a guru? People anyway tells me that I speak like Deepak chopra; besides, my recent experience of being one of the contributing writers for The First Mile(John Wiley), a seminal book on entrepreneurship, really gave me a good sense about writing books. In fact, the highpoint of that book was Peter Senge’s interview, where he said “In Western Cultures, we have almost externalized spirituality….. in the extreme form, we do whatever we do during the week and go to church to repent on Sunday….as Christianity is based on repentance and redemption……..while Asian cultures have more integral concept of spirituality….. that means it is not about what you believe, but it is what you practice…” –p 15
It was easier said than done, as it took me ten years to keep writing and re-writing SEE,FEEL,ASK,ACT (SFAA) to the point of perfection, but I finally managed to pre-launch it during SF Fashion Community Week and I am going to launch and start selling it during NORDIC SOCAP WEEK Conference 2016. You can download a free copy at .I have quoted from SFAA several times below.
3.Be your own guru: After ten years, I have realized that
“We are conditioned from childhood to rely on other people for most things; be it advice, motivation or support. Freudian theories say that such dependence is rooted in our early childhood experiences when we were hapless babies and we needed to be totally dependent on our parents. Hence, we became dependent or addicted to the opinions, theories and approvals of others. You need to realize that no person, however brilliant, can enter your mind and heart simultaneously and give you better advice than you can give yourself. So discard the illusion that you gain confidence from others, become your own guru, and learn to look into your own mind by beaming the light of attention to the hitherto dark areas” –p28,SFAA
Attending Wisdom Launch events and Conferences, both in-person and virtual, will enable you to access the knowledge and community and act as a catalyst of looking inwards and becoming your own guru. You will meet with other seekers and become mutual mentors in your journey of transformation.
4. Connect with Wisdom: Is a series of very successful events and seminars we put together. I am also writing another book based on my networking seminar entitled “7 Rules for Connecting with Wisdom”. Other events include, “How to get free PR for your startup and yourself”, conscious VC pitches etc
5.Access your spirit: One reason it took 10 years to write SFAA ( I don’t feel that guilty after I heard Echard Tolle say that it took him 18 years to write Power of Now) that I used to get easily distracted. I became an early Elite writer for Yelp and an early adopter in social networking in SF by taking over some Meetups which grew and grew. Now the Startup Mind Meetup communities have almost 10 k members in SF&LA and I have organized/supported/spoken at numerous tech, social, spiritual, PR and philanthropic events and conferences. I wanted to get on the Board of a meaningful charity and help create real change, so few years ago I got on the local Board of the Leukemia& Lymphoma Society(LLS), USA’s largest blood cancer organization which has raised over $ 1 billion since inception. Read more about my experiences the first time ………….. I screen, nominate and Mentor people to stand for Man and Woman of the Year, 10 weeks of extensive fundraising during April to June. In 2014, I was the Mentor of the Campaign of someone who runs a boutique law firm for designers and models and in 2015, I was the Mentor of one present and one former model, who jointly raised $ 100 k during the 10 weeks. On the flip side, now I have become Mentor to several other models and designers and I see how sustainable fashion can be a vehicle for social change and I am happy to add a bit of that and add a touch of conscious glamour to “Wisdom Launch”.
“While seeking wisdom for self-improvement and personal growth, make sure that you include wisdom which comes from awareness, love, celebration, humor and other deeper knowledge than what mere books and words can teach you. Give out a sigh of relieve, stretch your arms, be irreverent and laugh at yourself so that you can access the deeper wisdom of the spirit” --- p 219
: My experience with high end philanthropy has lend me the belief that the tech world is seeking for deeper fulfillment and bringing together charitable causes and philanthropies in front of them especially those who utilize the Green Carpet of sustainable fashion could be highly fulfilling and fun at the same time. Start by participating in charity and philanthropy, in small ways if necessary. Compulsory giving is a universal rule across every religion; Christianity and Judaism have tithing (in general, giving about ten percent of one’s income), Islam has Zakat (one of the five pillars of Islam made famous by the Hadith of Gabriel), while renunciation is woven into the fabric of Hinduism -----p 205, SFAA
6. Find deeper meanings and connections at Wisdom Launch:
“Secret esoteric knowledge from diverse wisdom traditions from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, to Tao, to Ta**ra, to Gnosticism, to kabbalah, etc., have always guarded the eternal truths and shared values of humanity like oneness and love. Islam also has esoteric implications and there exists a hadith from Mohammad which says that the Koran has seven layers of meaning. The Hebrew wisdom has three layers of meaning. The first layer is the Law given by Moses in form of the Ten Commandments. The second layer is the Mishna, or the soul of the law and finally, the kabbalah or the soul of the soul of the law” –p 218, SFAA
7. Access the Wisdom of your Self without pain with play:
“Wisdom comes from pain and reflection” ---Aeschelus, founder of Greek tragedy but it need not be so, if you learn how to access the wisdom of your body and Self through Meditation and other spiritual practices. Wisdom Launch will enable you to meet some of the best practitioners from various fields. Your self is a part of the ancient stereotypes of your personality called archetypes. In order to better understand your self, you need to understand some of its other components like your shadow, your persona and your masculine and feminine sides. We have talked about the shadow side of your personality several times earlier in this book. As your ego develops in your childhood, it starts dumping all the undesirable parts of your personality into your Shadow. Others can see only the desirable parts, often termed as your persona, which your ego is projecting as your personality. However there comes a stage in life when you need to deal with the dark side lurking in your shadow so that you can evolve into the next stage of your personality. A good place to begin is by making a list of things you don’t like in others since your ego projects onto others dark elements in you which you are in denial of. The journey toward unity usually begins when you undergo difficulties and struggles and the veneer of your personality breaks down. Such conditions of despair and darkness are ideal for the self to emerge since, in normal times, it is difficult to overcome our ego and really examine our shadow/unconscious area. So the quest towards unity can be better done socially where we have trusted partners with whom we share mutual feedback. When we manage to integrate our shadow and balance our male and female side, symbols and images of the self emerge in us, creating unity and wholeness in our personality. ----p 103, SFAA
Meditation empowers them to go
Deeper and deeper into consciousness,
From the world of words to the world of thought,
Then beyond thoughts to wisdom in the Self.
------Excerpts from the Katha Upanishad
