It's a Leopard - run away!

I am currently uprgrading my Macbook Pro to Leopard the exciting new operating system. This is probably quite a daring thing to do as there are mixed reviews of success and I am delivering training two days this week. One of these days is tomorrow and if it had failed I would have been a little short of material.

Change is a strange thing. Today it was more exciting looking forward to the prospect of new capabilities and resources than sticking with the safe, same old Mac OSX I already had. The reality is that some things are MUCH better, more intuitive and more usable. Somethings are not working as well as they were before.

It is much the same in the real world. We sometimes are compelled to change, sometimes we are excited by change. Of course change does not always give us all the things we want. The real challenge is what we do then. We can focus on the things that did not work out or we can look for solutions or even more resources to get a better outcome the next time we move forward.

As Tony Robbins says, you get what you focus on.

Was this by James Dean or about James Dean?

I came across this recently and cannot think of a more succinct philosophy of life.

"Dream like you'll live forever;
Live like you'll die today"

A Prosperous Mind

I am launching an event in 2008 - A Prosperous Mind.

Come and explore your emotional and spiritual relationship with money and find out what it really means to you. Even better find out how you can improve this relationship and make it resourceful and powerful.

Check out The Freedom Factory website - Upcoming Events

Right?

We all like to be right. It's in our nature. Even if it does feed the ego.

We all get stuck at times too. Next time you get stuck it might work to ask a question. Asking a question might just make that difference.

The question that I like is - Is it better to be right, or is it better to be resourceful?

I think therefore I am more important than you

I am, I really am more important than you.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever felt a tension or suffered from a problem?

Perhaps I can help you. Have you ever felt cut up in traffic? Argued with a partner, a child, a friend? Hogged the remote control? Noticed someone push in front of you in a queue? Damn queue jumpers.

Or felt envious? Or desired something because someone else had it? Or generally felt a sense of scarcity? Or been on the wrong end of a bad deal?

If you have said yes, or even considered thinking that you might have said yes to any of these then there is a solution. With the thought and feeling of any of these tensions or problems inside of you, look a little deeper. Deeper down, lying underneath all of these feelings is a single thought, 'I am more important than you'.

My journey is more important than yours, my time in the queue is more important than yours, my television programmes are more important than yours, my views are more important than yours. Of course!

Maybe next time you feel the tension, a problem arising, notice this. Firstly notice the feeling of, 'I am more important than you'. Look for it until you find it, it will be there somewhere even if it is in disguise.

Secondly, ask yourself one of these two questions, ' Who will be I be without that thought?'; or, 'How can I cherish you more?'.

The truth is,
The truth is,
The truth is,
None of us are more important than you.

Sleep

Someone I do not know and it is unlikely I will ever meet lost his baby this week. He and his wife are young, it was their first and the cord got knotted. It reminded me of two things which I wanted to share in this moment, a moment which is brief and I am going to watch Phoenix sleep. A time when he is truly at peace.


For Joseph

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awake in morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there...


The second thing I wanted to share is taken from one of the most powerful and moving stories I have read, the story of Treya Wilber. Ravaged with cancer, her spirit was soaring and as strong as ever, even stronger, "Because I can no longer ignore death, I pay more attention to life".

Is it time that we all paid more attention to life? If we knew that today was our last day would we really want to spend that extra hour on Facebook or watch the Eastenders omnibus that one last time.

If it was your last day, what would you do? And what is stopping you from doing it every day?

Buddha and the Orange Cake

I am sure that if Prince Gautama was sitting with me in earthly form he too would have enjoyed each crumb of the most delicious orange cake I have ever tasted. It was possibly the best cake full stop. True manna manifest!

It may have been the surroundings, it may have been the cake. The surroundings were a small lodge set in the gardens of a magnificent Georgian manor on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds near Pocklington. This manor is the home to a Buddhist retreat in the New Kadampa Tradition, a tradition that is a little less than traditional according to a certain Mr HH The Dalai Lama!

Nevertheless the orange cake was stunning. Each mouthful moist without being wet, crumbly without being crummy, sweet without being cloying, tart without being acidic. A perfect balance. A balance to be enjoyed each mouthful at a time. The initial bite and fullness in the mouth. Each movement of teeth and tongue releasing new flavours, new textures. The crumb of the cake, the soft sandiness of the buttercream, the tartness of the orange jam, the sweet smoothness of the orange glaze.

A cake in perfect balance. A cake in the Buddhist tradition.

The teaching at the retreat is everything you might expect from a Buddhist scholar and yet it is more. It is a vibrant teaching with humour, spiritual and secular, mindful and worldly, a curious invitation to utilise what they believe to be a true solution to suffering. One of the four noble truths of Buddhism, that there is suffering. Fortunately for us a second noble truth of Buddhism is that there can be a relief to suffering.

The day was presented as a retreat for Loving Kindness and the opening teaching was to share with us a heart warming story. When Venerable Lodro was a student he was to be taken out for a birthday treat. A special visit to the secular to contrast the spiritual. The journey was apparently a short one as they went to a local hospital to visit the mortuary and to speak to the mortician.

A lesson was learned, the most valuable lesson. To make any transformation in our lives be made truly lasting we must accept that death is certain and the only uncertainty is that the time of our death is uncertain.

With acceptance of this knowledge we can truly free our minds and live a liberated life. The only thing worse than fearing death is not to fulfil our lives because of it.

It was a truly magnificent orange cake.