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Hello and welcome,
Just a reminder that the SNAPSHOT is coming up on Saturday 28 May and the topic will explore how we so easily get surprised that people have such a different view on circumstances, events and how life is that sometimes we wonder if we live on totally different planets. Love to see you there...
For new members to this publication, the Principles in Business Message Board is about connecting with clients, friends and followers. One of the ways we seek to achieve that is through our monthly Feature Article... one of many existing and future ways in which we intend to share, educate - and provide a source of personal reflection about the human condition.
Having said that, it is just as important to us that readers are able to share their experience of life with the intent to deepen the collective source of reflection and learning. So to that end, we will soon introduce other features (blogs, twitter, etc.) where people can contribute, and have their reflections be a learning path and a source of reflection for themselves and others...
In the meantime, enjoy the following features:
Podcasts: a wonderful medium that allows us to communicate ideas to millions of people at one time. With podcasts, we learn again to really listen and absorb the spoken word (and in my experience at least, really listening is a dying art). Each month there will be a new podcast, each representing an eclectic array of views on this year's theme: our human experience. Some will be science-based while others will be philosophic in tone. Some will provide perspectives that challenge the Three Principles stance - some will amplify the listener's understanding of the Principles.
Guest Writers: a section where readers are prompted to reflect on any aspect of the Three Principles, or how they have grown "from the inside out". If you would like to share your insights and experience for publication you are most welcome. Before you do, please read the contributor guidelines.
ViP Membership: a special invitation to become a VIP Member and enjoy extra benefits and offers throughout the year (for further details, see the sidebar below).
As always, to those who have sent messages of encouragement, comments and reflections since I began this Message Board; and who have also encouraged others to join - many thanks. I deeply appreciate your support.
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The Message Board Feature Article
THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE Part4:
the Illusory Nature of Happiness
"Frank let's have a coffee today at 3pm" says Rose, passing his desk. "I can't. Got too much on." snaps Frank without raising his head. Rose pauses, "Frank..." No response. Again, she repeats his name. And again, before he looks up and says "Sorry, what is it?" Their gazes lock. "What about some coffee now?" she says. Frank sees that this is not a request but an invitation that he can't refuse.
"Can you remind me what your insight was when you went camping four weeks ago? You remember, the one that had such a powerful impact on you?" says Rose, as they find a quiet table near the rear of the cafe and place their orders.
Irritated, Frank replies "What!?" Rose gently gazes back, unperturbed by his offensive attitude. She seems compassionate rather than condemning; and Frank relents just a little...
"I'm sorry," he says "I just don't have time for coffee and pleasant philosophical chats at the moment."
There is an uneasy pause. Frank bows his head, fists clenched, not so much resentful of Rose's questions, but at his own disquiet. In truth, he finds the subject confronting, even painful.
Rose takes his hands in hers, saying again, "What did you see so clearly?"
"Maybe it was an illusion" he responds quietly. He is unused to being touched but cannot seem to draw his hands away.
"What was the illusion?" she asks.
"Oh I don't know. Maybe our desire for happiness is just an illusion. Maybe it is all just a joke, an idea in our heads, mocking us."
"What did you see so clearly about yourself? No... about LIFE?" repeats Rose.
They sip coffees in silence, Frank in contemplation. Finally, he says lightly "Maybe I need to go on an inner hike. What do you reckon?"
"You already ARE! We ALL are! Maybe you're on the hot sweaty part of your hike and you'll come out of your tent, lay back on the cool damp grass and experience the unity of the cosmos once again. Maybe you'll realise what is real and what is illusory then." says Rose.
Wholeness Revisited
Have you ever been where Frank is? Have you come back from a powerful life-changing experience and within weeks seen it evaporate; relegated to the past? Do enough of these types of experiences and you can become disillusioned, or find yourself hot to trot to the next event. Off to the next camp, the next conference or the next life-changing event in search of contentment and happiness.
"Alas! If the principles of contentment are not within us, the height of station and worldly grandeur will as soon add a cubit to a man's stature as to his happiness."
That somewhat confronting reflection from 16th Century Anglo-Irish novelist Laurence Sterne is as true now as it was in his day. Yet what are the principles Sterne is talking about?
As human beings, we have a powerful capacity to create our personal life experience. Like Frank and Rose, we experience our daily lives. Like Frank, we sometimes get lost in our own State of Mind, our own thinking, our own pressure. We lose connection with ourselves and others. It's as though we don't appreciate 'THAT we think' - we are too busy with 'WHAT we think' - the inner principle that Sterne eludes to: our capacity to create our own content or discontent.
Rose was not confronting Frank (he was doing this very well all by himself). She was asking him to remember his insight. To become aware, not of his experience, but what he realised about his inner world and what he saw as a truth. And another principle is being conscious or self-ware of our experience moment to moment - understanding its genesis. Frank was unaware, his feeling of connection, being whole on that hiking trip, lost in the maze of days and weeks that followed. His feelings were trying to awaken him. Rose could see it. Yet Frank was unable to SEE why his life was so stressed.
Via Rose, Frank had an opportunity to reflect, calm down and be refreshed by his spirit. Yet, he needed to invite himself back to commonsense and clarity of mind. Each of us has a 'Rose' inside, reminding us of our feelings. An exuberant LIFE is. We are simply required to pay attention and listen deeply to our own consciousness...
The Human Experience Pt.5 continues next month...
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© David Bodman 2011. Permission to copy for personal use is granted.
 Comments on this article? Email me here
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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Calendar Events for 2011
Recently, I was in conversation with a friend who said "I sometimes wonder if I'm on the same planet as other people. I don't really know why we all interpret the world so differently. When we talk, it's as though we're talking about a different event entirely. We are worlds apart - living in some weird parallel universe..."
Does his dilemma sound familiar? This SNAPSHOT provides time to reflect, share insights and better understand the reasons why we all see life so differently - and how that influences us for better or worse on a daily basis. Bring a friend or colleague and join us on this wonderful journey into parallel universes!
Join us, Saturday 28 May
I Wonder if I Live on the Same Planet as Others
Audio Podcasts
THE INS & OUTS OF HAPPINESS
(Windows Media - 24.7mb)
Rachael Kohn from The Spirit of Things explores what it takes to be happy. Over the years I have listened to this program and found it thought provoking; sometimes with views I don't share and at the same time, always cause for reflection. I hope you have time to listen and enjoy...
What's your experience?
Did you like this podcast?
Guest Writer: Allan Flood
I am unhappy (discouraged, actually) and, ironically, find myself writing about happiness. But at least I'm awake to the underlying cause of my discouragement and I would rather be unhappy and aware than happy and asleep. Both states would change sooner or later but my understanding of the real cause of my discouragement enables me to keep a perspective until my unhappiness passes.
So, what's the underlying cause of my discouragement? At one level it's the "reasons" I would tell you, the life circumstances, what's happening to me, what the world is going through, this and that. At a deep level I might say that it's just my insecure thinking being brought alive in the moment. But the first reason simply isn't real enough at a level to be truly helpful and the second reason is true but unreachable by most of us when we're in pain.
Fortunately there's a third reason for my unhappiness that I've found to be of great practical value and deep enough to transform my unhappiness. That reason is that my core, deeply held human needs for purpose and sustenance are not being met and my thinking around those needs is causing me to be unhappy. Human beings share core needs and when they're unmet, we have negative feelings.
The irony is that, right now, as I become aware of those core needs and hold them closely in my heart, I am peaceful again, happy and awake. The awareness of core needs, self-forgiveness and acceptance of these fundamental values heals.
Links to Allan Flood:
Perfect Misfortune
(Kindle/Revised)
www.allanflood.com
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"You are all things. Denying, rejecting, judging or hiding from any aspect of your total being creates pain and results in a lack of wholeness...."
WE ARE WHAT WE DO
Over the years I've attended my share of retreats, courses, journeys and treks into self-understanding. Being a member of a catholic religious group for many years I was afforded many opportunities to 'look within'. Taking part in annual 8 to 10 day retreats, daily prayer and meditation, monthly meetings with spiritual mentors, attending courses and personal development workshops laid a powerful foundation.
Much of this looking within was reflecting on 'what I think', in the form of attitudes, values, beliefs (and to some degree) 'my sinful life'. Desiring and 'doing' something to change was the focus. Yet much of the doing was from an agitated State of Mind - a mind disconnected from wisdom.
It wasn't until I understood the powerful principle 'that I think' (the principle of THOUGHT), the ability in me to create my attitudes, my values, my needs, my beliefs, the moment when (my feelings showing any form of distress) I became more ready to calm down. Feelings became meaningful. Anger, shyness, stress, apprehension, fear, arrogance and overwhelm all indicated an unsettled and cluttered State of Mind; not a defective spirit.
LIFE IS; no matter how we create it. Be it Chi, God, The Dreaming, Holy Spirit, Allah, The Great Spirit, The Life Force, Wisdom ... there is no connection to LIFE without letting go of 'what we think' (the imperfect form of what is) and open ourselves up to the creative formlessness energy of the next NOW, the next MOMENT.
The only 'doing' is not doing, by calming our inner hearts and minds. It can be a 'hot and sweaty' lesson or a lesson we avoid or a lesson we open ourselves up to each day. It is a choice when we SEE the true meaning of our feelings. The noble feelings of gratitude, love, compassion, joy are gifts of a mind and heart at rest; not something you can acquire by mental stealth.
'Be still and know I am God' (Psalm 46).
...David |
