Year of Ganesha

The happy start of 2010 finds me in Ubud still, writing my journal and scribbling intentions with the help of my nifty new sidekick called Attractor Genie, who joined me since yesterday to help me in my transition to achieving bigger things in the new year.

During this visit to the cultural hub of Bali, several new things got attracted into my life. My project to develop a home here took several paces forward. My circle of Ubud friends became significantly larger. And my understanding of how things work here got a bit deeper, as it has done during each visit.

I might have gained a world record too, for collecting the largest number of Ganesha images in two weeks. This friendly Hindu god was attracted big time into my life during this visit. Unlike the others god in the Hindu pantheon, he appears in all sorts of different forms. Dancing, reclining, standing and sitting in different positions, made from limestone and bronze in different finishes, and coming in various sizes, each image of the Lord of Thresholds and Remover of Obstacles is attractive to me in its own way.

It struck me that Ganesha's demeanor is quite similar to Osho's notion of Zorba the Buddha, which I had become familiar with in earlier years and have applied in my own life. Osho liked to match the life enjoying and street-smart Zorba the Greek with the spiritual qualities of the Buddha, implying that people need a combination of both of these outlooks to live a good life.

I found that Ganesha's popularity over the centuries may well have something to do with his powers to project similarly complementing qualities into people's lives, from big-picture spirituality for life to the enjoyment of living wisely in the moment, and seeing new doors open every day. Of course Ganesha, like other gods, is really a dimension of my own spiritual reality created in my mind, to help to guide and nurture my soul on its path.

In dynamic Bali, where Ganesha images can be found anywhere and anytime, I observed during this visit that the people I met all seemed to be adept at sharing something, whether it was news, information, services, and products, and more often all of these. People seem to enjoy engaging in different activities simultaneously, and many are happily multi-tasking their way through life.

One person I met is a part-time curator for exhibitions, writer for a newspaper, and translator in literary gatherings and in court cases. Another is a master photographer and head of the rental department of a real estate agency. A third person I observed owns a famous restaurant and enjoys standing in a market stall during weekends to cook well-known delicacies by hand for regulars and tourists alike.

While such multi-tasking may for some be explained by practical needs to make ends meet, for others it's not primarily a matter of income, and friends shared with me that Bali's society can offer people more flexibility to pursue different interests, passions and hobbies in parallel, which might be more difficult for people with full-time jobs in other places in the world.

So Bali can be seen as a conducive place for people to explore their dreams and attract the necessary changes into their lives to realize them. And the great thing is that there are so many other people around who are doing the same thing, thereby providing more inspiration. No wonder there are so many Ganeshas in Bali observing how good intentions are attracted and manifested in people's lives.

Photograph: Ganesha and Attractor Genie.

Attraction works

"What you hold in your mind with energy and focus will tend to be created in your reality." – Joe Vitale

Staying in Ubud is invariably a pleasant experience. More than I saw elsewhere, people in their daily life seem to be keen on living harmoniously with themselves (or God or Universe), their community, and the environment. This is what the Balinese call Tri Hita Karana, which is their philosophy for keeping balance in life.

Just like anywhere else on the globe, the universe in the island of the gods moves rapidly and is ever in flux. Deeply aware of this dynamic, the Balinese people have over the centuries reflected it prominently in their culture of dance and music, which move with great energy and speed and thereby underline the need for keeping a balance as a continuous challenge in everyday life.

Meanwhile, the end of 2009 is drawing near, like a door closing slowly but surely. In preparing to cross the threshold, I like to reflect with appreciation on what the past year has brought, and then to anticipate with intent and curiosity what can come my way in 2010.

Such musings have been a private pastime for me for years, and I tended to keep to myself around the end of the year. In fact, my friends may not remember the last time they got a Seasons Greeting card from me in December - it just wasn't my thing to do. However, I feel that the time has come to adopt new habits.

Today, I started sharing some year-end reflections with my circle of friends, as a life sign and update to them, and with a warm thank you for enriching my life in 2009, either through our meetings face-to-face or through another communications we had in our shared universe.

What new things entered my life in 2009?

• Leadership coaching
• Integral theory and life practice
• Mind-mapping
• Spiral dynamics
• Facebook and Linked-In
• Building 2 new teams
• Attractor factor
• Ganesha
• Hair stylist
• This end-of-year message!
• Read on…

How did I move closer to my life goals this year?

Coaching. I reached much closer to my goal of being a 'successful leadership and life coach.' After completing my coaching course last December 2008, I received my diploma at the start of 2009. In mid-year, I expanded my knowledge and skills with a short training on the leader as coach. And after signaling my intention to the universe to increase my coaching practice while still holding my job as water adviser, I got the idea to start a leadership coaching program for water colleagues in my office. So I designed a program with options for a one-time 'orient' demo session, a 1-month 'discover' program, and a 3-month 'change' program. I got the proposal approved as part of my work plan for the second half of the year, and the announcement went out in October. Some colleagues expressed interest right away to start the program!

Advising. I moved forward in my role as 'respected water adviser,' and enjoyed working directly with clients and partners in several countries across the Asia-Pacific region, and with colleagues in my workplace. I was involved in building a team of regional experts and together we developed a guiding vision for water security in the region, supported by measurable indicators. I also supported the development of a team of water experts in my workplace, specifically to address water management challenges in river basins. As part of this work, I learned more about using the power of vision and examples to motivate people to embrace change.

Creating. I walked further on the road of growing into an 'accomplished writer and musician,' and developed several good concepts for future use in websites, books, and e-learning courses. However I didn't write as much and as often as I wanted, and am looking for ways to make it flow better, to find my style and my writing 'zone.' Well, I know the prescription: nothing else to do but write, write, write, and.... write! I also didn't play music as much as I thought I should, however I did take the chance to play my sax on stage again with a good band last October, including a solo rendition of Santana's Oye Como Va (see picture). I also realized my long-time dream to own an electric guitar. Now onwards to learn playing it in 2010!

What has helped me live forward this year?

Strength-based Leadership. I spent time in the first part of the year reviewing what my talents and strengths are, guided by books of Marcus Buckingham and the online strength-finder test of the Gallup Organization. Buckingham describes a strength as "consistent, near perfect performance in an activity", and as something that makes you feel great while you do it", something that makes you strong! Working this out has helped me a lot this year, and I am now paying attention how I can leverage my strengths in my work and other life dimensions. So I focus less, and am less concerned with fixing weaknesses which will never turn into areas of excellence. Working with my strengths is more productive, and using my strengths makes me stronger!

Mind Mapping. Around mid-year I started mind mapping to replace my boring to-do lists, and as a creative outlet for exploring new ideas. After trying out various software programs, I settled on Xmind. I also took to carrying a small notebook and a four-color ballpoint pen to draw small mind maps by hand anytime, anywhere. After a few months, mind mapping has become an enjoyable routine, with more things to explore and plans to update every day. I love to use mind-mapping now!

Integral Theory and Life Practice. I discovered how integral theory focuses on the synthesis of different perspectives and methodologies, starting with a perspective that everyone is right, in the sense that everybody has some important pieces of truth, and can make a useful contribution to the integral whole. Drawing on both Western and Eastern traditions of psychology and meditation, integral life practice promotes balanced growth involving body, mind, shadow, and spirit. Prompted by my new friend in Soest, the Netherlands, I started reading about the work of integral philosopher Ken Wilber, and then delved into Wilber's books directly with a view to improving my own integral 'operating system' for work and life. It resonated with me! And Don Beck's writing about Spiral Dynamics added further perspective by explaining how individual people and societies can evolve in a positive spiral of 'memes' towards an integral level.

Attractor Factor. Some of the powerful messages in the 2006 book The Secret revisited me in the fourth quarter of the year, and I understood anew how important it is to focus on 'being' rather than on 'doing.' The law of attraction says that we experience what we think, and that what goes on in our mind is therefore critically important. As Joe Vitale captures it in the Attractor Factor, "what you hold in your mind with energy and focus will tend to be created in your reality." So I realized more profoundly that I will always attract more of what I think and focus on, and I questioned myself about what I have been attracting, what my mind has focused on. I have now started working on thinking and visualizing even better and bigger things, so that they can get attracted into my life and become reality, starting immediately. I'm having fun doing this!

What symbols did I use to guide me this year?

• Ken Wilber's four quadrants for an integral approach
• Positive spiral for adaptive management
• Ganesha as the lord of thresholds and remover of obstacles (see picture)

What did I discover about myself?

• My top 5 talents, from Buckingham's Now, Discover Your Strengths
• My signature strengths, from jotting down my likes and dislikes while 'on the go'
• That I should partner with people who have complementary strengths to mine
• That I still don't smile enough, according to two friends in Ubud

What books did I enjoy reading?

• Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham
• A Brief History of Everything, by Ken Wilber
• Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion, by Frank Visser
• After Dark, by Haruki Marukami
• The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

What movies did I enjoy watching?

• How Art Made the World, by BBC (old)
• This Is It!, Michael Jackson's last work (new)
• Several nice movies, but why can't I remember their titles now?

What music did I enjoy listening to?

• Dreams 3, by Café del Mar
• The Best of Act One, by Anthony Warlow
• Spirit, by Leona Lewis
• Didn't spend enough time making music myself

What surprised me?

• Portrait of a Russian boy who looks a lot like me (see picture), in the Hermitage
• Encounter with a sheep (see picture), in my friend's country home in Belgium
• 'Zorba the Buddha' and Ganesha symbolize the same ideas for life

What made me laugh?

The laughing head given to me by a friend at a Christmas party (see the picture). The grass started growing after a week of watering. What a nice inspiration for the new year!

What made me proud as father?

• See my older daughter take charge of her studies with good results
• See my younger daughter take steps to pursue her dream of acting

What were some of my favorite places to spend time?

• Balcony of my Manila apartment overlooking the Makati Sports Club
• Fully Booked bookshop in Manila's Power Plant mall
• Outdoor shower in Ubud, Bali (see picture of leaves on wall)

What new places made an impression?

• The new Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam
• Yudongxia Gorge in Guiyang City, People's Republic of China
• The labyrinth of waterways in Gold Coast, Australia
• The rustic Beukenhof hostelry in Oegstgeest, the Netherlands
• Restaurants in Madrid, the capital of Spain

What were my favorite things to do?

• Making presentations
• Coaching people
• Mind-mapping
• Preparing smoothies
• Traveling and connecting

What else was new in 2009?

• Mr. Anjo, my new hair stylist who gave me a new look
• Understanding spiral dynamics, introduced by Don Beck
• Facebook and Linked-in, which I joined in a modest way
• Rapid manifestation, putting the Attractor Factor into play

What will I aim for in 2010?

• Attracting my life goals by positive intent, being clear, and letting go
• Spending even more quality time with my loved ones
• Having a great time in coaching and team building
• Connecting and celebrating more with my friends
• Seeing my place in Ubud develop (see pool picture for inspiration)
• Further expanding my horizons

If I had to sum up this end-of-year reflection into one sentence, it would be Joe Vitale's statement that "what you hold in your mind with energy and focus will tend to be created in your reality." Since I can practice this several times in a day, the challenge of keeping balance in life is getting to be much more fun than before!

PS: Some friends have already replied that they felt attracted into making similar end-of-year reflections and writing down life goals.

Photograph: End-of-year reflections.

Better view

“People are different.”
– a fellow traveler

That seems true enough on the surface, yet it inspired me to see if they really different at a deeper level, and if so, in what way?

As I watched the first two episodes of the BBC series How Art Made the World this week, I was struck by the startling evidence of similarities in the perspectives of people across time and space.

In art, we are taught that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. And this made me wonder if the differences between people could be largely dependent on the beholder’s perspective too?

Take a look at how the Egyptians depicted humans in their visual arts, unchanged over thousands of years during their civilization. Such consistency is unthinkable in our rapidly changing world of today. The Egyptian way of visualizing people was carefully crafted and uniformly maintained with great discipline. Time passed, the perspective stayed the same.

Then watch the similarities in how our ancestors painted animals on cave walls across historical Europe, and how close these resemble the rock wall paintings in South Africa made just a couple of hundred years ago. They might have painted for similar reasons, as the documentary suggests, showing what they saw in their mind as they traveled in and out of the spiritual realm during altered states of consciousness that were induced by spending time in dark and narrow spaces.

When Picasso explored the famous bull paintings in the Lascaux cave in France in 1940, he declared that “we have learned nothing in twelve thousand years," attesting to the enduring similarities in art and artists over such a long time.

And observe how the chubby, impersonal “Venus” statuettes from prehistoric times, discovered in many places across Europe and beyond, look remarkably similar. Yet there is no indication that the communities who made these images were not in touch with each other, so how could they produce such similar visions of people? The documentary suggests that the perspective was determined by the tribes’ shared view of their existence as hunter-gatherers. Different places, same perspective.

Jump in the time machine and switch for a moment to today’s global challenges and the politics to address them…

When President Bill Clinton spoke in June 2009 to promote global cooperation for the survival of mankind, he urged people to focus on their similarities. “We are genetically 99.5 percent the same,” he said, yet “from time immemorial, people have fought over identity rooted in that (half percent). We should have spent more time thinking about that other 99.5 percent of ourselves.”

And summing up the prospects for success, he concluded that “if we have a chance, it has to begin by people accepting that they can be proud of who they are without despising who someone else is.” Such messages are now broadcast in electronic images, across vast distances.

Focusing on similarities has a compelling logic, yet unlike in the Egyptian and early European times, in today’s world it seems difficult to do. Even if people might be similar in many ways, they seem to be hard-wired to look for their differences in their continuous search for meaning and creative expression, and as they work hard to make money from products and services that have to stand out from others to be marketable.

Meanwhile, wars and conflicts keep filling news stories, showing that plenty of people around the world are still committed to despising each other because of perceived differences.

And yet, look around and observe that globalization trends continue to diminish or wipe out diversity, as illustrated by the phenomenon of Starbucks and other global brands. While people keep focusing on differences, diversity and uniqueness, increasing numbers end up drinking the same coffee, wearing similar clothes, and using the same computer software and other accessories.

What more is there to discover about similarities and differences? Turning back to history, the BBC documentary points out that people did go through very dramatic changes in their societies, which altered their outlook drastically and made them look at themselves and their fellow humans in a totally different way.

For example, when the Egyptians became exposed to the Greeks, a new way of visualizing people emerged synergetically in art, which was soon to inspire people across their lands, and later spread from Greece to other parts of Europe and even across the world.

And the hunter-gatherers who created the Venus statuettes and cave paintings stopped doing so rather abruptly around the same time as they evolved into societies organized around agriculture.

While spending time in these musings, I also continue my exploration to understand integral theory and wonder how it might be applied to stimulate personal growth and foster sustainable development in today’s world.

From reading philosopher Ken Wilber’s A Brief History of Everything, I am discovering how his AQAL model of integral theory suggests that the development of individuals and of societies can be compared to climbing a ladder. The components of his metaphor are the ladder, the climber, and the different views that appear when climbing the ladder.

Wilber argues that as people grow and societies evolve, they can negotiate higher levels in development, much like climbing the rungs of a ladder, and that the process of moving from one level to another is both challenging and a one-way street. Once a higher level is reached and inhabited, the view of self and the world changes into an expanded version, which becomes less and less egocentric and narcissistic.

He refers to three important stages of development (for individuals and their cultures) as being egocentric, ethnocentric, and world-centric, and he quotes research results claiming to show that roughly two-thirds of the world’s population today still live in egocentric and ethnocentric stages.

Wilber also explains that a smooth journey upwards on the ladder is by no means assured, and that as they grow, people and societies tend to leave dismembered parts of their identity behind “in the basement,” from where these “shadows” conspire to reduce the energy for further growth until they are faced and re-integrated.

As a result, greater depth (moving higher on the ladder) comes with lesser span (fewer people reaching, and living from these higher levels).

If it is true that a majority of people are still living in egocentric and ethnocentric stages of development that focus predominantly on their individual needs and those of their groups, it might well be very difficult for the world to respond to the challenge posed by President Clinton to look for what people have in common rather than their differences.

As I continue to read about higher world-centric and integral stages of development, with their changing and ever wider views from the higher rungs of the ladder, it seems that while science and art show that people throughout history have always shared much in common, the differences between people today remain huge in their own eyes and in the prevailing worldviews of the egocentric and ethnocentric “membership” societies they live in.

A piece of good news seems to be that all through history people have found it possible to climb up the ladder of expanding consciousness, where they discovered more similarities and greater depths of existential experience. And Wilber claims that the number of people living today with integral worldviews, while still very small, is growing rapidly.

Throughout human history, art has always been an important channel of expression for the mystics who climbed the ladder and transcended their own society’s worldview, from cave paintings to sculptures, from the writings of Thomas à Kempis to the poetry of Rumi, from the writings attributed to Lao Tze to the koans of zen masters over time, from the questioning and deconstructive prose of Osho to the lyrics and humming in a universe “written on air” by Jim Paredes, and in countless other artistic expressions around the world.

It seems that, when seen from higher rungs on the ladder of consciousness, people’s similarities as well as their different worldviews can come into a clearer perspective. Climbing that ladder may allow people to see that they are not so different after all, but that their worldviews are. And the different worldviews of these “beholders” are what largely inspires their perceptions, actions, and art.

As I continue climbing, I find that the view keeps getting better.


Photograph: Better view at the end of war. Liberation monument commemorating 5 May 1945 in Wageningen, the Netherlands.

Integral discipline

"Read everything he writes. It will change your life."
- Deepak Chopra

Stirred doesn't quite describe what happened, shaken is more like how I felt, an almost rude awakening. And the shaker?

On a typical day he gets up between 3 and 5 in the morning in his house overlooking the mountains around Boulder, Colorado. After an hour or two of meditation he works until early afternoon. This is followed by an hour of weightlifting to keep him grounded in his body. The afternoons are for chores, and after a meal around 5 pm, he spends his time watching a movie, visiting friends and reading something light. In the biography Thought as Passion on the life of Ken Wilber, Frank Visser wrote in that the world-renowned philosopher leads a disciplined life.

Listening to Wilber give his 4-day interview on Kosmic Consciousness to Tami Simon of Sounds True, I heard a master story teller clarifying profound dimensions of science and spirituality with ease and empathy, always speaking in a light-hearted manner full of jests about himself and his accomplishments. Discipline remains invisible below the surface.

Over the past four decades, Wilber's integral philosophy has changed the lives of millions of people. He is quoted by www.integrallife.com as the internationally acknowledged leader and preeminent scholar of the Integral stage of human development, which continues to gather momentum around the world, and as the most widely translated academic writer in America, with his 25 books translated in some 30 languages. He has also been called one of the most controversial and profound thinkers of our age, and is the first psychologist-philosopher in history to have his collected works published while still alive, and at the time he was only 48.

Behind the success and smooth presentation of philosopher and story teller Ken Wilber lies a fascinating and inspirational story of determination to overcome challenges.

After trading in an all-American image and dropping out of Duke university, Wilber took a job as dishwasher to support himself in writing his first books in the seventies. He talks about a personal transition and decision to “get into interior growth”, and then experiencing a strong burst of it. After graduating from another university, his first book at the age of 23 became the foundation of what was later to become his integral theory. However, The Spectrum of Consciousness, after completion in 1973, was only published in 1977 after having been turned down by numerous publishers.

Once published, the book made him famous overnight as a leading thinker in the fields of psychology and philosophy. To write the book, he had labored in thought for three years while doing his manual job, and worked on reading and research for about ten months, wrote Visser. This was followed by a month or more of tortuous 15-hour bouts of typing, supported by a gallon of milk and naps on the sofa.

In later years, Wilber kept up his production of books with ever wider scope of application, and spent more and more of his working life in self-imposed isolation, serving time in solitary research and writing supported by a vast collection of books and videos.

Interspersed with these productive years were periods where Wilber was forced to deal with intense personal challenges, which led to pauses in his writing. Talking about the years of caring for his partner Treya Killam Wilber, who died of cancer in 1989, he remarked that “the pain, terror, agony was so horrible – either you really just committed suicide or come out on the other side, with a quantum leap in growth.”

The suffering was further complicated as he found himself affected by a little-known enzyme deficiency disease that crippled his work for while. Talking with Tami Simon about these periods of affliction, he said that “if you’re lucky enough to deal with them, you can accelerate growth, and if not, you can really go to hell.” In retrospect, he considered this time to be the most important transformative period in his life.

After passing through these dark valleys, he resumed his writing and shared what he had learned through these tribulations in Grace and Grit, which was published in 1991 and attracted many new readers.

Wilber encountered further torment at key stages in the development of his integral theory. The birth of his masterpiece Sex, Ecology and Spirituality in the mid 1990s was intense, he told Tami Simon, and the subsequent period involved a trying period of “dying to my own Ken Wilberness.” Later he would suffer frustrating flare-ups of the enzyme deficiency disease, causing a down-period of more than half a year.

He is remarkably transparent about the evolution of his integral theory, and how he made corrections in later years to his earlier model. In his interview with Tami Simon he describes these periods of retrospection and failing forward as extremely hard and disturbing emotionally and physically, and “plutonium intense.”

While his books map out what seem to be continuously positive evolutionary paths (and spirals) of development from pre-personal to personal, trans-personal and nondual stages, he doesn’t restrict himself to a positive lens. Instead, he underlines that each evolutionary stage actually comes with new challenges and chances to mess it up on an ever grander scale, individually and as societies.

Hence, he explains, we experience not only breakthroughs in health, education, economic development and spiritual empowerment, but also Auschwitz, continued destructive wars, 9/11, environmental degradation, and global warming.

To deal with these choices and challenges that the evolution of human consciousness brings, he underlines the importance of will and personal discipline in a recent interview on the website of the Integral Institute he founded with friends. “To have some muscle to exercise your will, your volition, your capacity to make these choices in the midst of what reality hands you, is absolutely crucial. Since we have so little emphasis on discipline and will, basically you're just at the mercy of your whichever will speaks loudest.” Wisdom grown from personal experience and choices, no doubt.

I was first introduced to Ken Wilber and his philosophy by my teacher Jim Paredes during the Tapping the Creative Universe workshop in Manila in 2003. However it took until this year for me to get immersed in Wilber’s integral theory and to explore its meaning for my life and work.

As Wilber explains about his now-famous 4 quadrants of the subjective “I”, the objective “It”, the intersubjective “We”, and the interobjective “Its,” it is all too easy to limit oneself to live in any one of these four perspectives. Reading integral theory should therefore not remain an exercise in the objective realm of “It”, so I started my own travel into the subjective interior by reading and listening about Wilber’s trials and tribulations on his own internal journey to “integral.” I have also started involving others around me in exploring integral theory, to allow me explore “We” dimensions together with them.

Of my integral journey so far, I found Wilber’s mountain-top views breathtaking, and I am most impressed, indeed shaken, by the example of his own travels and the part that discipline and will have played in the life of this master storyteller.

Deepak Chopra was right to say that reading Wilber can change your life. I keep reading him.

Photograph: Balloon over Flanders.

Counting in Three

"The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature."
- Joseph Campbell

Three is a magic number for understanding what is important in life. Most religions have trinities.

In local Balinese communities, I found that life is supported by beliefs that are surprisingly straightforward and relevant for the world today. In popular terms, the Balinese trinity, or Tri Hita Karana, goes as follows.

First, to live in harmony with God or "the most supreme". Second, to cultivate mutual understanding and help each other. Third, to care for the environment, recognizing that the same life force is present in all beings.

Each of these three life supports are connected and follows from the others. Together, they become like a circle, without end or beginning.

Seen by Balinese people as a holistic foundation for everyday life and celebrated in numerous community festivities throughout the year, the application of this trinity seems as profound as Bhutan's concept of pursuing gross national happiness.

In these two places, matching the beat of one's nature with Nature is both a commitment and a daily opportunity.

Photograph: To the cremation, Ubud, Bali.

Touched in Bali

"Life is entertained only through the phenomena that constitute our experience."
- Roger Ames and David Hall

My forehead rested on the wooden plank as the sun shone intensely warm into the upper floor of the bale.

I could feel a trickle of sweat gliding down to the floor, like children on a slide in slow motion. My arms resting behind me, palms open, I surrendered to the moment.

Feeling directly intimate with one's experience, the teacher from New Zealand said, is the heart of yoga. No need for seeking of some-thing, no need for traveling to reach some-where, no need for depending on some-future, but to enjoy what is already manifest in our unique self.

Wizened yet flexible and full of vitality, Mark Whitwell captured our attention and intent as if he held us all in the palm of his hand. There is a yoga practice for everyone in this room, he promised us, telling us not to adapt any commercialized yoga style. In stead, let yoga adapt to you. Find the yoga that is for you, he said, and do your yoga, every day. Do your yoga…

And I did, this morning, merged with my Dao practice. I look forward to another yoga class on Wednesday. As I rediscover myself in Ubud this week, my senses are alert to find out what is waiting to touch me as I walk the next steps on my path. I am tapping my creative universe.

According to Roger Ames and David Hall, creativity is always reflexive and is exercised over and with respect to "self." In their magnificent interpretation of Daodejing entitled Making This Life Significant, they explain that in the cosmology of Dao, people who tap into creativity and "have their stuff together" change the world around them. In the Dao, developing integrity "is a co-creative process in which one shapes and is shaped by one's environing circumstances."

This is what I set myself to experience now, to shape and be shaped by the influences from my environment, with heightened awareness.

From opening my body in sweaty stretches to enjoying delightful meals and taking in the cool breeze and verdant greens surrounding me, I learn to entertain life through these phenomena here and now.

Photograph: Verdant green in Ubud.

Real sin

"There is only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but the second-best."
- Doris Lessing

How to stop missing the mark? Is that what the sin question is about?

Most religious traditions talk about sin as something that people do that goes against certain morals or rules, and is therefore prohibited or considered wrong in society. Some Christians have gone beyond that to refer to sin as a life-long condition or state of mind.

Followers of Christian traditions have for millennia been warned against seven deadly sins, named as extravagance or lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. To oppose and substitute for these sins, they were reminded to practice seven holy virtues of chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility.

Some protestant Christians went as far as saying that, due to original sin, humanity had lost any and all capacity to move towards reconciliation with God.

In Islam, religious scholars have over time compiled as many as 70 major sins, which are described as acts rather than states of being. Many other traditions hold similar views of sin, with a focus on the notion of wrongful acts.

In an interesting recent update, the Vatican in 2008 added a warning against what it called seven modern social sins, including environmental pollution, genetic manipulation, obscene wealth, infliction of poverty, drug trafficking, morally debatable experiments, and violation of the fundamental rights of human nature.

As with so many things in life, one can also explore and adopt different perceptions about sin. The prevalent one has been to focus on the quality of the act, and its consequences. You do something wrong, and this is what will happen to you. If you repent, here is how you can atone for the sins you have committed. And, of course it is better to avoid doing wrong in the first place.

There is, however, another perception that is quite opposite, which is to regard sin as missing out on something. Remarkably, the ancient Greeks regarded sin as "missing the mark" or target, like in archery. And the biblical Hebrew word for sin had the same meaning. Their perception was about something that is missed, and how to do a better job of hitting the mark next time, like an archer honing his skills.

Interestingly, some early definitions of the concept of the deadly sin of sloth took a similar perspective when they called it the sin of sadness, of apathy, depression, joylessness, uneasiness of the mind, an absence or insufficiency of love. All these terms refer to a human condition of missing out on what is good.

In Dante's Purgatorio, penitents for sloth had to run continuously to make up for what they had missed in life.

In recent times, the more prominent perception of the sin of sloth has been as a failure or indifference to utilize one's talents and gifts. As Wikipedia puts it, it is more a sin of omission than of commission.

This notion of missing out may be what Doris Lessing referred to when she put the now famous words about sin and second-best in Anna Wulf's mouth, in The Golden Notebook. Her relentless focus was on choosing to do the best.

Commenting that laughter was by definition healthy, Lessing found herself very much on the positive side of human endeavor. "Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so," she said.

While the traditional black-and-white doctrines of sin to mark things to be avoided are still prevalent in today's world, my sense is that more and more people choose to focus on the positive side, to get better at setting and hitting their marks and enjoying a fulfilling life.

No longer held back by popular religion's dire warnings of punishment for sinful wrongdoing in this world or the next, the new notion of sin as "missing the mark" is inspiring me and many others to live "integral" lives and let go off fear and the sin of accepting second-best.

Perhaps that is what the spiritual leaders of ancient times had in mind too.

Photograph: Passage in Topkapi palace, Istanbul.