Cool Mind Warm Heart

The Most Accomplished Person on Earth Has Nothing on Us

The rest of us may not be able to jump underwater on a pogo stick in the Amazon for three hours and forty minutes, but we recognize that what it takes to do so is no more than what it takes to meet each moment of our day with love.

the essay

This Bug May Be Healthier Than Apple

 

On many levels, Apple is one of my favorite companies.  I’m a sucker for excellence that aspires to serve both mind and heart.  I love people who strive to be outrageously good at something or die trying.  I applaud those who presume to guide the world’s understanding.  I celebrate anyone whose heros include elegance, simplicity, intelligence, intuition, playfulness, love and depth.  At this very moment, however, a client of mine (no bigger than a bug compared to Apple) just might have a better chance of fulfilling its aspirations over the next decade than Apple does.

the essay

Not Malicious, Just Nuts

I’m so glad I plan to live to be a hundred and fifty.  I’m such a slow learner.

At age 68, with nearly 23 years of sobriety, it was only a few days ago that I realized, not intellectually, but in my cells at a new depth, that I’m not a malicious person, nor have I ever been.  I’m just nuts.

the essay

 

The Root of a Lot of Laughter and Forgiveness

Some smartypants, who heard me pontificate that how we define our world creates our world, recently asked if I could define myself.

If I’d thought about it, I would have said what my beloved Yogananda once remarked: I’m a tiny bubble of laughter in the sea of mirth.  Thankfully, instead of searching for poetry, I simply opened my heart and found myself blurting, “I am a very gifted person.”  By that I didn’t mean talented, as many do when they use that adjective.  I meant, literally, a person who has been given gifts––in my case, beaucoup.

What's Worth Saying?

Arresting, emotionally powerful, meaningful, memorable––those four terms may define effective communication, but they don’t mean much until we’ve decided that the idea in our noggin is actually worth banging our gums on.  So how do we do that?  What filter, if any, might we wish to place between the phantasmagoric smorgasbord within our cranial vault and each sound that pops out of our mouth?

Creating Your Identity 1.0

My son the builder (known to those who love him as master of the physical universe) needed a new identity.  Not the Jason Bourne 16 different passports with matching mustaches kind of new identity, but the kind that comes from starting a new enterprise.

The essay

 

Dignity, Beauty, Absurdity

Here’s a little something, if you care to try, I’d love to hear your experience.

The request was, “In a place you frequently frequent, take a quiet look around.  From whatever you see, create a story you’ve never told before that captures the essence of who you are.”

Founders of Civilization

When tillage begins, other arts follow.  The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.
~ Daniel Webster

 

 

Creating From The Heart

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.
~ Marc Chagall

The Only Dance There Is (Maybe)

The devastation and danger in Japan in the wake of the recent earthquake is distinct in its excruciating magnitude, but it is as ordinary as the sunrise in what it requests of each of us.

Essence of a Noble Aspiration

I’ve been privileged to help a rather special CEO bring forward a vision for his company that is among the most powerful statements of common intention I’m aware of.  Should you, dear reader, have an interest in such things, I would gladly mail you a copy of the foundational brochure we produced.  It’s titled, The Seed: Essence of a Noble Aspiration.

Without Resentments, What the Heck Are We Going to Talk About?

You’ve probably heard of Irish Alzheimer’s: “You forget everything but resentments.”  Much as I love the joke (being born with Guinness in my DNA), it’s hard to imagine that any tribe, even those from the isle of saints and scholars, has the corner on resentments.  The way many of us behave, you'd think we couldn't live without them.

Thought Number One for 2011

When the avatar, Paramahansa Yogananda, was about to leave his body in 1952, he was asked how his work in the world would continue without his physical presence.  He said, basically, when I am gone, only love will take my place.  I’m sure this sentiment isn’t unique to Yogananda or anyone else who’s on a first name basis with the ultimate nature of things.  After all, even for us chickens, what more rewarding (if occasionally terrifying) practice is there than to embrace every life experience as a gift to grow love?

By the way, for those who enjoy my drawings and/or photographs of my stone sculptures, a variety of them are now available for purchase in my website’s gift shop (A Place To Buy Love).  Among other items is the 21st Century Coloring Book: Playful, Loving, Deep.

 

 

We're All Kings of the World, Whether We Know It Or Not

Most holidays are sneaky.  Their purpose is way deeper than how we commonly think of them.  Thanksgiving, for instance.  It reminds us that, gender notwithstanding, we’re all kings of the world.

Lightening the Load of Taking Ourselves Seriously

A story of fresh juicy blueberry pie, even when told by the likes of Shakespeare or Beethoven or Picasso, is a long haul from the experience of actually smooshing our face into one, noshing away to our tummy’s content.

My bet is that even the most articulate among us––beginning with whatever fabulous communicator you admire most––lives with the cool understanding that there is a grand canyon between what’s in their mind and heart and their ability to express it. 

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How To Tell When We're Approaching Sainthood

Among my favorite spiritual practices is asking myself strange questions.  A recent one was: “What is the world’s most powerful mantra?”  You know, that bumper-sticker phrase some people repeat continually and silently throughout the day as a means of shaping their consciousness in helpful ways.

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The Myth of Hard Work and the Gift of Baloney

“It can be a dangerous thing to marry someone’s potential,” a friend remarked about her relationship with a former partner.  That four-star piece of wisdom has saved my fanny a number of times.  As has the advice of a college art instructor who used to zip around the studio squawking: “Don’t marry your effort.”

More

Fried Grasshoppers on the Road to Enlightenment

One of my favorite cowboy movies is “Lonesome Dove.”  I especially like the scene where trail bosses Woodrow and Gus are interviewing a prospective cook and the cook offers them a sample of his handiwork.  Woodrow puts something unrecognizable in his mouth and says, basically, “That’s tasty, what is it?”  And when the cook says fried grasshopper, Woodrow spits it out as if were snake poop.

Read On

Don't Knock Down Jesus In Your Hurry To Get To Church

Three mornings ago I was bustling to get an early start to several days of travel to “important” gatherings when my inner guides said Yo!  Heading off can wait.  Gather your camera, welcome this particularly splendid day.  The voice of one of my late mothers chuckled: “Don’t knock down Jesus in your hurry to get to church.” 

These images are a few of the gifts that awaited.

 

Managing Performance Anxiety

A singing coach friend recently asked for any insights I might have to help one of her students who is being challenged with performance anxiety. 

One of my sons calls me the well-adjusted agoraphobic.  Small talk is beyond me, but when it comes to the stuff of the heart I can speak at ease to anyone, single ear to the population of most phone books.  Among the reasons is my one and only speaking coach, Charlotte Fitzpatrick, the woman who, 50 years ago when I was in 12th grade, made me the American Legion speaking champ in my county.  Never mind that the achievement was helped by the fact that only I and one other kid competed for the prize, since ours was the least populated county in the state.

Mrs. Fitz asked me how I felt whenever I saw someone make a poor public presentation. I said I hated it.  She said what do you wish for that person.  I said I wished they would be wonderful.  She said remember that, remember that's the way everyone in your audience is feeling about you.  They're rooting for you to be great.  Feel their support, and let it serve you.

Creating a Vision

New essay: Creating a Vision

It's A Blessing To Be A Drunk

Imagine the universe lovingly putting a gun to your head and saying, “Change or die, sweetheart.” 

Talk about an offer you can’t refuse, though sadly many of us do.  We’d rather the familiarity of misery than the unknown of new life.

Still, I know a lot of recovering drunks (me among them) who will tell you that’s precisely the message they needed to hear before they were willing to commit themselves to being alive rather than being a dead man or woman walking.  And since being dead but still able to fog a mirror isn’t unique to drunks, addicts at large, or pretty much any other category of human, to receive such an unmistakable invitation is a blessing.

Communicating As Beautifully As Our Dreams

A word about the power of exceptional communication and what it takes to create it: Communicating As Beautifully As Our Dreams.

God's Weight Loss Program

An expert of some kind on a recent PBS talk show said there was “no way” a connection between my lucky hat and the good fortune I enjoy whenever I wear it (as I am seen doing above, 20 years ago, with my daughter).  At the heart of that seemingly sensible certainty is a form of delusion that causes so much of the harm we humans inflict on one another.  It is the delusion that “our best sense of things,” is, in fact, “the truth.” 

The Buddha's Two Cents

Do not believe anything on mere hearsay; do not believe traditions because they are old and handed down through many generations; do not believe simply because the written  testimony of some ancient sage is shown to you; never believe anything because presumptions is in its favor or the custom of many years leads you to regard as true; do not believe anything on the mere authority of teachers or priests.  Whatever according to your own experience and after thorough investigation agrees with your reason, and is conducive to your own weal and to that of all other living things, THAT accept as truth and live accordingly.

~ Gotama, the Buddha

Living In A Playful Universe Takes Practice

Einstein said that the fundamental question facing humankind is whether the universe is a friendly place.  We each have our own answer.  That the Easy Rider rifle rack on my pickup holds an umbrella and the truck’s vanity license plate is YESS suggests mine.

I’m of the tribe that finds the universe endlessly loving and deep...in a playful sort of way.

Playful includes the irony that governs our inner happiness and worldly journey, an irony that applies to individuals and institutions alike: Life is completely an inside job, yet the more we think about ourselves the less alive we are.

The Ultimate Joy Ride

 

The universe is so damned accommodating.  It gives us what we ask for.

When I finally did more than bang my gums about my life’s purpose and actually committed myself to living it, I awoke duct-taped to a shooting star.

How Do You Want People to Feel?

My friend, the artist Bob Conge (who drew this handsome fiddler), is a member of the steering committee of the Fiddler’s Fair in Springwater, New York.  Recently he sent me an email saying he wanted to help the committee “define our guiding principles and what we want our fair to be.”  To that end, he asked if I would forward to him “some of those daunting questions you present to your clients in search of who they are?” 

Because these are considerations that shape many a noble ambition, here’s the nut of my reply.

❦

Made by Belief

Man is made by his belief.  As he believes, so he is.
~ The Bhagavad Gita

When Our Real Parents Die

He said, “I used to meditate for two things.  But today my parents died and I am in sorrow, so I’m not meditating.”  His language was entirely mystical.

I said, “Your parents died?  You’re a swami.  You have nothing to do with parents.”

“No, no,” he said.  “You also have parents.  When they die you will understand.”  He continued: “Attachment was my mother, and anger was my father.  They both died, so I have nothing to do....”

~ Swami Rama

Pennies for Prejudice

[useful absurdity for a peaceful heart]

My latest idea to save the world came, as usual, while wearing glasses that prompt a view of life that is playful, loving and deep.  How else do you find an idea named  “Pennies for Prejudice”?

It begins with a little gizmo to be invented by a roomful of ruthless saints doubling as computer wonks.  It ends by serving anyone who wants to grow a more peaceful heart while also generating the heavy green needed to bankroll a bunch of those honorable initiatives the world cries for?

Developing a Strong Mind

Meditation, the company of saints and intelligent, mentally powerful people, good books, introspection, creative work in art, science, literature and business––all further the development of a strong mind, receptive to the wisdom of the soul.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

The Spirit of You

Here’s a rewarding way to spend every minute, whether as an individual or an institution.  Be on the lookout for the “spirit of you,” the spirit of who you really are, whenever and however it may appear.  A joke, a song, a photograph, a pizza, the caress of a shirt on your skin, a gracious memo, the way someone rakes the lawn or walks their dog––every smidgen of existence is a potential expression of that distinct vibration of beauty that is you. 

Maybe all there is to creating a healthy life or a healthy enterprise is identifying the spirit of our true self, and doing our best to make choices hand-in-hand with that spirit.  And the more open we are to discovering (or tripping over) that spirit in the world around us, the easier it is to spot when we look within.

...Vermont sunlight in September, Cirque du Soleil’s collaboration with the Beatles, the architecture of Antonio Gaudi, the part of a clam shell that forms a heart with wings, offerings by crazy quilt artist Allison Aller....

My heart smiles, “Hey, that’s me.”

Clear Vision

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.  Who looks outside, dreams.  Who looks inside, awakens.
–– Carl Jung

PORTABLE PEACE

As someone who needs all the help he can get, here’s a practice I find useful in growing a more peaceful heart.

A Few Good Funerals

“Divine perversity” (a term I made up) is when the universe asks us to teach that which we most have to learn.   If that weren’t bad enough, the best teaching can take place only with a few good funerals.

Since all we ever teach is ourselves, teaching the “real” us requires the death of whatever masks we wear.  Such as my old standby, Mr. I’ve Got My Shit Together.   Letting go of masks can be like the passing of a dear friend.  It’s tough for anyone, perhaps  especially those who play the role of leader in a world where image is everything. 

But that difficulty is actually a blessing, so far as I can tell.  It is the universe encouraging us to become more and more aware that, in every moment, with every choice, we are answering what some consider to be life’s most important question: “Who am I?” 

You can read more on the topic in my recent essay, Divine Perversity and the Death of Masks.

How...is everything

How we define our world actually creates our world.

–– Danaan Parry

Kissing Professor Gates

The universe certainly gave professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. of Harvard a big smooch.

It arrived at his doorstep dressed as a police officer.  Of course it wasn’t really a police officer.  It never is.  It was, rather, metaphysically speaking, a mirror.  Its purpose was to show the well-honored professor a part of himself that, should he choose to pay attention to it, would grow his self-understanding, and thus his compassion.

“Oh, youhoo, professor Gates,” said the universe, “you have at least one pretty big belief that’s weighing you down, you beautiful creature.  Here, let us show it to you; maybe you don’t need to hold it so tightly.”