Here is a link to the beautiful chalet we stayed in. Renee posted a picture of me and the kids on a park bench by the lake. Shara posted some pics of Dad’s 70th at Lake Tahoe, including some I took. And someone offered to take the group photo of us on a dock, which I cropped for this post. Nathanael took a picture of me making a birthday wish. This early photo and quote of Maharishiwas posted on Facebook by Mona Kägi-Causemann, which Renee forwarded to me.
MUM Professor and Student Duo Win IMA Carl Menconi Ethics Award
Fairfield, IA (PRWEB) April 18, 2014
Tara Barker, from the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), announced the Best Case Study for the 2014 Carl Menconi Ethics Competition went to a paper co-authored by Dr. Andrew Bargerstock and Ye Shi, faculty members in the Department of Business Administration at Maharishi University of Management (MUM) in Fairfield, Iowa. The article about the case study will be published in the July issue of Strategic Finance, a monthly journal from IMA that focuses on professional practices in management accounting and finance.
The case developed by Bargerstock and Shi spotlights the dilemma of a fictitious Melissa Parks, an XBRL specialist at a company that manufactures large-scale water purification systems that are sold to government and private institutions, primarily in third-world countries. One day on her way to work, Parks hears a radio report about a large multinational corporation receiving a $250 million fine from the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. law that forbids financial payments to foreign officials for the purpose of procuring a business contract. This prompts Parks to recall a conversation she overheard recently at work, which at once makes her suspect that her company also might be engaged in practices that violate the Act. Parks must then decide what to do with her knowledge – perhaps at the risk of her own career advancement.
“The case really looks at the ethical decision an employee must make to ‘do the right thing’ when the easiest, and most convenient, path is to do and say nothing,” explained Bargerstock.
The overall goal of the Menconi Case Competition is to develop teaching cases around ethical issues affecting management accountants and finance professionals. The IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice acts as a valuable resource for guiding professional action. Through the Menconi recognized cases, published by the IMA, accounting educators get the opportunity to explore with students, the path to proper action in professional accounting activities.
According to Dr. Bargerstock, Director of MUM’s MBA Programs, “In this post-Enron era, both educators and accounting professionals understand the importance of a heightened level of discussion about when and what to do when they are faced with a moral dilemma. The Menconi case studies series provides a springboard for undergraduate and graduate-level thinking about ethical behaviors for our next generation of accountants. Instructor Shi and I feel fortunate to have contributed to this dialogue.”
This accomplishment continues a pattern of recognition from the IMA for the accounting faculty and Ph.D. students at MUM. In 2009, Dr. Bargerstock was named Excellence in Lean Accounting Professor at the Lean Accounting Summit. In 2011, Manjunath Rao was named Lean Accounting Student of the Year and shortly, thereafter, he received a research grant from the IMA for his PhD dissertation research completed in 2013. Bargerstock and Rao published two articles in the IMA’s quarterly academic journal, Management Accounting Quarterly in 2011 and 2013. In October, 2013, Ye Shi was named IMA’s Lean Accounting Student of the Year for her work in teaching and writing case studies while pursuing her Ph.D. at MUM.
Maharishi University of Management (MUM) in Fairfield, IA is a private university featuring Consciousness-Based℠ Education. The accredited traditional curriculum offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in the arts, sciences, humanities, and business, but also integrates self-development programs. Innovative aspects include the Transcendental Meditation® program, one course at a time, and organic vegetarian meals. Visitors Weekends are held throughout the year. For more information, call the Admissions Office at 800-369-6480 or visit http://www.mum.edu.
For those who have been following Jerry Seinfeld’s award-winning online series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, his latest guest was Howard Stern. (See The Last Days of Howard Stern.) Jerry and Howard talked for several hours about a wide range of topics, including how their over 40-year TM practice has impacted their lives. Because of time constraints that section had to be edited out, but Jerry gave us permission to share this 6-minute segment for everyone’s enjoyment! Thanks guys.
See another blog post where Howard Stern talks about TM on Letterman. Embedded there is a video of Oprah and Dave talking about meditation. He reveals that he and some of his staff have been doing TM. They learned it from Meditation Bob, who happens to be the same person who taught Oprah. A year later, Lindsay Lohan is on Dave’s show and they decide to call Oprah. They mention Meditation Bob, which is Bob Roth’s Twitter name. The Washington Post described the three of them as a Comedy Dream Team.
I’m not young enough to know everything. ― Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
By the time you’re eighty years old you’ve learned everything. You only have to remember it. ― George Burns (1896–1996)
Two kinds of knowledge
There are two kinds of knowledge: Youth knows it all, without having lived; And having lived and learned, Old Age Soon forgets what it’s come to know.
Then there’s the wisdom Of knowing you know nothing; But knowing your Self.
― Ken Chawkin (1944–still learning)
The Coming Of Wisdom With Time
Though leaves are many, the root is one; Through all the lying days of my youth I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun; Now I may wither into the truth.
― William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
― Socrates (469–399 B.C.E.)
Know thyself.
― Ancient Greek aphorism on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi
Those who know others are wise; those who know themselves are enlightened.
Later added: These two famous quotes from an older more mature place in one’s life hold much wisdom.
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. — Abraham Joshua Heschel
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ― Maya Angelou
Listen to today’s (March 27, 2014) Iowa Public Radio report on how Iowa Veterans have been historically treated for what is now known as PTSD — from lobotomies, to drugs and therapy, to finally a more benign approach, that of meditation, specifically Transcendental Meditation.
Iowa Public Radio correspondent Rick Fredericksen produced an impressive historical report on the subject. Early attempts to deal with this misunderstood medical problem were crude and frightening. Introducing TM as a viable option shows you how far we’ve come in dealing more humanely with Veterans suffering from PTSD!
It aired twice this morning with a third broadcast on All Things Considered this afternoon at 4:50pm CST. You can listen to the 7:30 minute report online http://bit.ly/QjMY00, where you can also see a 3-photo slideshow, and link to the Wall Street Journal investigation.
Marine veteran Daniel Gannon meditates in the IPR studios.
Interviews with meditating Iowa veterans include Luke Jensen, Afghanistan veteran; Vietnam veteran Daniel Gannon, Iowa Dept of Veterans Affairs; and Jerry Yellin, WWII veteran, and national TM advocate for veterans.
Rick Fredericksen did a fantastic job! What a testament to TM, and boost for MUM, gearing up to welcome veterans as students!
Doug Llewelyn, left, interviewed Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy, center, and Fairfield Iowa Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Rustin Lippincott last week in Los Angeles for the television show, “Moving America Forward.” The two men were interviewed as part of the show’s episode on Fairfield’s entrepreneurial spirit. The episode will air later this year at a time and channel to be announced. Llewelyn is perhaps best known to television audiences for hosting “The People’s Court” with Judge Joseph Wapner.
In the past few years, Fairfield has been in the national spotlight as numerous television programs and magazines have publicized what makes this town such a great place to live.
This year appears to be no different. That’s because Fairfield will be featured on a television show called “Moving America Forward,” hosted by William Shatner. The show will focus on the town’s entrepreneurial spirit and how this affects the residents’ quality of life.
Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy and Fairfield Iowa Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Rustin Lippincott flew to Los Angeles last week to be interviewed for the show. Their interviewer was Doug Llewelyn, who is most famous for hosting “The People’s Court” with Judge Joseph Wapner, which aired from 1981 to 1994.
The episode about Fairfield will air on YouToo TV this spring. After it airs on television, viewers can see it on the website YouTube.
Lippincott said he and Malloy chatted with Llewelyn for a few hours before taping began to give him an idea of what Fairfield is all about.
“We touched on what it’s like to live in Fairfield, and we covered the areas that make us a great place to live,” said Lippincott.
Fairfield will be the first town “Moving America Forward” has featured on its show, which normally highlights the accomplishments of individual business owners rather than whole cities. Lippincott said the show’s producers heard about Fairfield through the Smithsonian Magazine, which in 2013 named Fairfield the seventh-best small town to visit.
“Fairfield was recognized for fostering the environment that helped these businesses grow,” he said. “What makes this a unique recognition is we have 9,000 people but we have accomplished so much. That is, at its core, why we were recognized by ‘Moving America Forward.’”
Malloy said he began talking to the show’s senior producer Ruth Collins last year, who informed him Fairfield was a candidate for a spot on the show.
“She said they had done some research on our city and they found it fascinating, with all these different elements such as the entrepreneurship, sustainability and arts and culture,” he said. “She said, ‘We’d like to know more,’ so we sent them links to some of our websites.”
Collins said Fairfield was chosen from a pool of 70 candidate cities.
Malloy said Fairfield is often referred to as “Silicorn Valley,” a play on “Silicon Valley” near San Francisco, for the numerous technology and computer companies that were born here. He said many of those businesses were started in the late 1980s by software engineers educated at Maharishi International University, now known as Maharishi University of Management.
“Everyone who came to study and wanted to stay had to bring their own livelihood with them,” he said. “Because there were so many people who had a background in computers, there were a good dozen to 20 companies that were developing software. It became a phenomenon that these companies were originating from a small town in Iowa.”
Malloy said a financial journalist was doing a story about the entrepreneurial boom in Fairfield at the time, and referred to this technological enclave as the country’s “Silicorn Valley.”
During their interview with Llewelyn, Malloy and Lippincott mentioned not only the town’s strong IT sector but also its many other strengths such as manufacturing, tourism, education and agricultural economy.
The taped interview with Llewelyn lasted 15-20 minutes. Although Shatner is the host of the show, he was not on set for the interview. He introduces the clips and provides commentary throughout the show.
Malloy was filmed answering a set of questions about Fairfield. Shatner will be filmed asking those questions, and the two clips will be spliced together to make it appear Shatner is talking directly to Malloy.
Lippincott said the answers he and Malloy gave to the questions were not scripted, although the producer had an idea of what they would say from talking about their town with Llewelyn that morning.
In addition to the interviews with Malloy and Lippincott, the segment on Fairfield will include still photographs and silent camera footage of noteworthy places and events in town to be shown during the interviews. Malloy said he and others submitted videos to the producer, and the producers will get more video footage on their own later.
Even if residents miss the opportunity to watch the episode when it’s broadcast on television, chances are they will be able to view the video later. That’s because three Fairfield entities pooled their resources to purchase the video to use as a promotional tool once “Moving America Forward” is done with it.
Rights to the video cost $11,700, and the three entities who chipped in to purchase it were the city of Fairfield, the Fairfield Economic Development Association and the Fairfield Iowa Convention and Visitors Bureau. The three entities will own the video collectively.
Malloy said he felt the asking price to purchase the video was a bargain. He said he is glad the city will be able to show the “Moving America Forward” segment on the Fairfield Media Center’s public access cable channel, FPAC–9.
Reprinted with permission from The Fairfield Ledger
Related articles on Fairfield, Iowa’s entrepreneurial spirit:
Enjoy this interview with author Craig Pearson, PhD and his latest book, The Supreme Awakening: Experiences of Enlightenment Throughout Time – and How We Can Cultivate Them. If you click on the links you’ll read more about the concept and structure of the book. See the website for The Supreme Awakening book here, where you can read comments by David Lynch, Norman Rosenthal, and others, chapter headings, and the first chapter, Moments of Awakening. See a mailer for the book.
Here is an interview that took place last Friday on a popular KRUU FM radio show in Fairfield, Iowa called Writers’ Voices. Monica Hadley and her mother Caroline invited Dr. Pearson to discuss his book The Supreme Awakening. Craig is truly an inspiring speaker! Click here to listen: Writers’ Voices – 20140221 – Craig Pearson. Monica writes on her blog:
This week on Writers’ Voices, Monica and Caroline welcome MUM Executive Vice President Craig Pearson to discuss his recently released book, “The Supreme Awakening: Experiences of Enlightenment Throughout Time – and How We Can Cultivate Them.” The product of research Dr. Pearson did for his doctoral dissertation, this book allows the reader to share the enlightened experiences of people throughout history. By gathering these many stories from across history, from saints and mystics, writers, world leaders, even athletes, Dr. Pearson provides a unique perspective on what is obviously a universal experience.
Many of the people profiled within are expected, people who are well-known for their spiritual experiences – Buddha, St. Teresa of Avila, Thoreau, Rumi. But there are many surprises here as well – Anwar Sadat, Einstein, Plato and many more. I was most fascinated by these stories. It made me realize that the accomplishments of many great persons may have been a direct result of their experiences with other states of consciousness.
Craig Pearson was also interviewed on The Alan Colmes Show on FOX News following Writers’ Voices on Friday. Another interview aired on KHOE’s A Chat With The Dean by Dr. Cathy Gorini on the new book. You can also listen to a presentation Dr. Pearson gave in Dalby Hall on the book, which was recorded for broadcast by KHOE.
Here is a video of Dr. Pearson’s recent presentation on his book, The Supreme Awakening, in Dalby Hall on the MUM campus seen on the MaharishiUniversity channel.
The Voice of the Cape’s after five Drivetime Show has a national and international flavor focusing on issues making news where the biggest story of the day or week is analyzed. South African host Shafiq Morton interviewed American Dr. David Leffler this week, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014, on a unique solution to the growing violence in Kiev.
David R. Leffler, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS) at the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. He spoke on IDT, Invincible Defense Technology, as a viable solution to the rising crisis. Dr. Leffler explained how increasing stress levels erupt into opposing factions, violence and war, and how group practice of Transcendental Meditation and its advanced procedures can defuse such collective stress and prevent war, softening the atmosphere for people and groups to more harmoniously discuss solutions to their problems without resorting to violence.
I was so impressed by Morton’s questions and responses to Leffler’s informative answers, I posted this comment:
When Marconi said we could communicate through the airwaves they thought he was crazy. He was just using a technology that was able to take advantage of the electromagnetic field that was already there. Invincible Defense Technology similarly uses an advanced procedure to allow our minds to collectively enliven the all-powerful, all-nourishing Unified Field, the source of all the force and matter fields, the home of all the laws of nature, for the good of society, and the world, depending on the size of the group. Thank you for exposing your listeners to this hopeful and intelligent out-of-the-box proven approach to creating world peace!
The editorial piece referred to in the interview was co-authored by Dr. Leffler and Dr. Mykola Didukh, National Director for TM in Ukraine. Titled, “Proven Strategy to Prevent Turmoil in Ukraine,” how Invincible Defense Technology could be implemented to solve the crisis, the Op-Ed was published earlier this month in a number of locations: NEPAL: Review Nepal; WORLD SERVICE: The Common Ills; UNITED STATES & CANADA: Times of Earth; INDONESIA: Sigma News; and UKRAINE: Evening Lugansk, which was also published in Russian and Ukrainian.
FAIRFIELD, IOWA — Prospective students from various states and even countries made the trek to Fairfield on Friday for Maharishi University of Management’s Visitors Weekend.
The three-day event began Friday and ended Monday with various educational sessions by professors throughout the weekend.
“So they really have a chance to come here and not just get a two-hour campus tour and there’s our fancy buildings,” said Brad Mylett, Dean of Admissions. “But to really go deep into every facet of Consciousness-Based Education and what M.U.M. has to offer.”
Such sessions included a creativity, digital media, and the future presentation by Gurdy Leete.
“We’re seeing this huge, amazing change in the world of media where the formerly, separate silos of media–like print media, broadcast media, film media, music media–all those boundaries are disappearing,” said Leete. “Many of the old companies are dying and being reborn in new form.”
Visitors were also treated to a modern physics lecture by renowned physicist Dr. John Hagelin.
Beth Stone made the trip from Orlando, Florida and was particularly intrigued by Dr. Hagelin’s knowledge and experience with Transcendental Meditation.
“I practice T.M. myself and was looking for a program that is more complete,” said Stone. “That’s focused on learning and not just giving information out.”
Graduates of M.U.M. even come back to help coordinate the weekend and share their experiences to the prospective students.
“It prepares you not only for the real world, but for yourself,” said graduate Elisabeth Fowler. “And it helps you to understand who you are as an individual, and allows you to become prepared for any experience that comes your way.”
Visitors Weekends like this see much success with 60 percent of prospective students enrolling in the next academic year.
M.U.M. holds visitors weekends ten times a year, one in every month except January and August.
For more information visit http://www.mum.edu or call the Admissions Office at 800-369-6480.
Sunflower Publishing sent Susan Kraus to Fairfield, Iowa to write a travel piece for one of their magazines, Lawrence Magazine, the premier quarterly magazine for Lawrence, Kansas.
Their Spring 2014 issue includes an article on Fairfield, Iowa filed under Journey by travel writer Susan Kraus. Titled, The Spiritual Sister City, the description reads: With a little meditation in the heartland, a rural town in southeast Iowa transforms into a cultural and educational center.
Susan timed her visit last summer to take in a First Fridays Art Walk. Besides exploring Fairfield, she also toured the Maharishi University of Management campus, and learned about Transcendental Meditation, Consciousness-Based Education, and Sustainable Living. She brought her husband, who, decades earlier, when he was a university student, had learned TM.
Susan is also a social worker and her husband works at a university in the video department. They had lunch with Ken West, also from Kansas, who had done some photography in an area Susan was familiar with. They shared a lot about the Kansas and Iowa landscapes, and used some of Ken’s photos for the piece.
Susan wrote an accurate assessment of what she found here in such a refreshing way. You can read her story by clicking on this PDF: Lawrence Magazine spring 2014 for MUM.
See a related article by Des Moines Register editorial columnist Rox Laird. His Sunday Opinion piece features the collaborative civic-minded town of Fairfield and Maharishi University’s Sustainable Living Center. Fairfield defines community action: Jefferson County town shows how to ‘manufacture dreams’ through civic collaboration. MUM obtained permission to make this wonderful article available as a reprint. You can see it beautifully laid out on their website link.mum.edu/GreenFF.
The Uncarved Blog 