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.

Way with change

"Change is a law."
- Dan Millman

Life is forever changing. Indeed I can say that life is all about change.

As an introverted soul, I always look forward to recharging my battery in moments of solitude and quiet. And when I sit still in a quiet room, it can seem for a moment as if my world comes to rest, without tiring changes. Then it turns out to be an illusion.

The antics of my own mind continue to create activity, and even late at night I hear a bus driver blaring his horn in frustration of someone else who blocks his way in speeding to the next stop.

It is difficult, if not impossible to be still and resist change.

I know how meditation can help me observe my mind and its endless flow of thoughts, but I also know the mind cannot be shut down. Within its own constraints of repetition and extrapolation, it keeps ever vibrant.

And outside my awareness, millions of cells in my body are regenerating all the time, and my heartbeat and breathing are continuing uninterrupted.

Meanwhile, all around me the earth keeps spinning at a dizzying pace, unseen to anyone but the scientists who monitor such movement.

How can I find moments of peace and freedom of action within such relentless movement and continuous change taking place all around and inside me?

Can I practice having little retreats while continuing to be a participant in this circus of movement and changes called the Universe?

A few weeks ago, I was looking forward to a long journey, expecting that the many hours of travel would offer a good opportunity for a soul retreat. Yet what I experienced was a non-stop sequence of moments and events, some more memorable than others.

Reaching the destination, I discovered that being surrounded by thousands of people for a week-long conference offered even fewer chances for solitude.

With my fellow traveler's ingenuity, we found that the only place for a quiet recharge during the daytime was to sit in the back row of the large auditoriums, like using a cinema to rest rather than seeing the movie.

As I write this, hundreds of people keep passing by the windows of the coffee shop, going from cinemas to shops and vice versa. Each of them living a life, with emotions, challenges, and changes to face. An amazing totality really, this Universe.

Every day, the world offers me new insights, new points of view, new challenges, and new opportunities. I feel immersed in it like in a fast-flowing river.

Hour by hour, day by day, I allow myself to float, to observe the changes, stopping myself from resisting the flow. Choosing to adapt to changes is starting to feel like a game I can play.

So what time do I really have to recharge my battery, to realize what my options are, to how to decide among alternatives, to take action, to enjoy passion, and to deliver results?

Since the past is already behind me, and the future continues to elude me ahead, I find myself enjoying to turn to zero, to the moment where everything is possible, where everything can be done, to the now, to the present moment.

As I reflect, I no longer cling to my mind's thoughts, to time, to anything really. Through my moments of passion and my times of living flatly, I find myself happy most of the time, either with or without a reason. I can smile.

To have more time later today, or tomorrow, to do what I dream of, is an illusion. There is no such thing.

There is only now, and my decision how to use this present moment. To consciously do something that brings me closer to realizing my life dreams.

Or to let myself wander farther off these goals. Or, to simply go with the flow with a sense of wonder, ready to discover something new as I move further along the river.

I can see now what made Dan Millman choose the title for his book The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, which he confidently subtitled saying that it would change lives.

I can live in the present moment with the peaceful heart of a mystic and a warrior's spirit of discipline. Working simultaneously with my logos or reason from the right brain, and with my mythos or intuition from the left brain. Thank you, Dan!

Photograph: Istanbul, witness to millennia of changes.

Spark me

"We shape the clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want."
- Tao Te Ching

It happened today.

After lying wrapped in a shiny yellow cloth high on a shelf in my apartment for more than a year, Atintya has now moved to adorn the wall of my bedroom, mounted on a slab of Philippine narra hard wood, courtesy of Noli, the owner of one of Manila's more famous art houses, Renaissance Gallery.

Everything has its time, but for Atintya to come out took much longer than I expected. I celebrated today, for this and other reasons. Who needs a reason, anyway? Life awaits my decision to celebrate any day.

Decorating my living place is important to me. I like to be surrounded by images that inspire me. What an opportunity it is to choose items to adorn my home! To see things that resonate with me and my dreams.

I read that relationships between life partners are bound to fare better if their home is adorned with their pictures. I have come to believe that this is true. Precious relationships need treasuring, and having visual reminders inspires me to do so daily.

It is no different in places of worship, I believe. Temples and churches present visual reminders of the invisible power of the universe, the keys to life. Asia is full of images of deities, so rich, somewhat like the catholic church with its plentiful images of saints. These all remind me of the magic of life, and inspire me to share this with others.

I have selected or consciously welcomed all pieces of art and decoration in my home to inspire me. All carry meaning to me. I try to celebrate them everyday, and to open myself to draw inspiration from them.

Atintya is special to me. Pictured in meditation and surrounded by flames on key parts of the body, the image is a representation of Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, the “one supreme unknowable God.” Atintya is said to have gained importance in Bali because he falls in line with religious beliefs that revolve around a single god, of whom all other gods are manifestations.

Atintya inspires me to be totally alive, from top to toe, to connect with the almighty universe. And to spark others around me to be similarly alive.

No less, and can't be more.

Photograph: Atintya.

We are social

Isn't it obvious? Everyone in the world is connecting with others. Yet to do it consciously, with awareness, is another story.

Inspired by Jim Paredes some years ago I started reading Ken Wilber, and have done so more often of late. Wilber helps people to increase there awareness to live in four realities at the same time. He maps them as quadrants, the interior "I" and "it", and the exterior "we" and "its."

Doing a quick "quad scan" several times a day helps to expand consciousness, to gain new perspectives on a situation, and live mindfully and "awake". I found that, at any time, I tend to live in one of the quadrants more than the others. When that awareness arises, it comes with a realization that I am missing out on quality experience in the other three, and on the synergies that a more integral awareness brings.

Quad scans are easy to do, I found. It just takes me a minute or much less. In terms of relating with other people, it helps me review a situation quickly when I am with someone. Whether it is at home, work, with friends, traveling, in a shop, or other situations, there are questions to ask myself.

Why am I meeting this person? How do I feel about meeting this person, right now? And how does he/she seem to be feeling about meeting me? What could be the purpose of the meeting, beyond the obvious reasons? What does the other person want to get out of the meeting? Can his/her views broaden my perspective? Is there an opportunity to make a win-win move with the other person, on the spot? What options do I have, and what action can I decide to take?

Such a scan of the "we" quadrant can be quick, very quick, like thinking and feeling on my feet, at the same time, with heightened senses and awareness, because I have decided to be awake to the relationship in the moment, on the spot.

In his Tapping the Creative Universe workshop, Jim told us to pay attention to "connections" when we show up to be present in each moment. Scanning my quads now starts to fascinate me, and I do it more often. I always believed in synchronicity and serendipity, and I realized that it takes me to switch on my antenna to get the benefits, and hopefully bring some benefits to others on my path.

I am flying from Ho Chi Minh City to Manila as I write this, and reading the English daily in Viet Nam often inspires me with some interesting life stories, most of which with a positive view.

Today I read about Nguyen Son, once a poor boy pushing a cart to sell coal on the streets of Hanoi, now a well-known architect and director of his own bureau. The story recounts how he lately realized that his passion lies with music, supplemented with painting and poetry. His songs are now favorites with young Vietnamese.

I read how Laurent Habrard, a vigneron in the Rhone valley of France is coloring his business green, conserving water use, insulating the farm buildings, using alternative sources of energy. Cutting out middlemen, he has taken to direct online marketing of his wines. He sends samples of his produce in vacuum glass tubes through regular mail (the mailman goes anyway, no extra CO2 produced) to anyone who wants to taste them.

Another article describes how the city of Paris is drilling holes to tap geothermal hot water to help provide hot water to homes and reduce energy costs.

For all the shocks that we are experiencing in the global economy today, the world is still full of stories of people moving forward with a positive attitude, with creativity and courage. I expect that stories like these in Viet Nam News can inspire people anywhere into action to write the next chapter of their life story on the blank pages that are waiting.

It certainly works for me, and I will start writing my 53rd chapter on the blank pages from tomorrow, enjoying to live in the now, practicing to scan my quads, and letting myself be inspired socially by people around me, close and far.

Photograph: Social at the village temple in Cham island, Viet Nam.

Daily nerve

"Last good nerve of the day."
- my daughter

There is no other way. Life restarts every morning around the world. In nature and over the vast bodies of water that make up our blue planet. In rural and urban homes, from hovels to apartments and palaces.

In company offices, healthy, financially troubled, or simply unsure of what 2009 will bring. In stock exchanges and regulatory offices. On the work floors of factories, still thriving or getting eerily quiet.

For those who are focused on restoring financial security, and for those who press for using the opportunity of the financial crisis to halt climate change and create a sustainable world with new paradigms.

Life starts anew every day, and for every one. Grand visions of a better life and a better world are still achieved through journeys of daily steps, each of them involving personal choices and smart work to overcome the odds.

To make ends meet for loved ones in challenging times continues to require a daily journey of perseverance, seeing and using opportunities, and making smart personal choices in many moments throughout the day.

In sum, these daily journeys are about taking personal responsibility for life, and for consistently doing the small things that add up to big results which in turn build, or rebuild, our life dreams. Blaming others can feel great, but doesn't help at all.

This early in the year, getting organized to turn my resolutions for 2009 into results is important to me. I need to feel confident that I keep making progress on my journey, that I walk on the right path, and avoid getting stuck in dead-end side roads.

So I have been focusing these past weeks on how to make small steps consistently, which continues to challenge me daily. I need to keep creating and sticking with good habits. Having done well yesterday amounts to little when the new day arrives. I need to nurture and reinforce positive habits on a daily basis to get the results I want!

This year, several of my new year's resolutions have made it into a nifty little application called Joe's goals that I discovered "accidentally" on the internet. It allows people to jot down their intentions, positive ones to reinforce, and negative ones to get rid off. Daily achievement is tracked by simply clicking on the ones that were "done." A simple click is all it takes for a nice green tick to record the good result.

I read years ago that when people manage to keep doing something new for 30 days, there is a high chance that they will continue doing it out of habit. It is human nature to do so. I will test this hypothesis in this 1st quarter of 2009!

Yet for all the planning I can do and improvements I can make, life continues to surprise me with unexpected turns and messy situations, and I have decided to welcome that too.

Last week, I dropped my notebook computer on the floor, and the screen's backlight stopped working. Not something to make into a habit, for sure. Thankfully, I found that I could get the hard disk swapped easily into another unit by the ever helpful IT colleagues in my office, even during the weekend. What a relief!

It made me think that I need to get better organized with my computering this year, especially for my personal stuff, which is now stored on the same computer I use for work after my old Pentium IV home PC broke down a year ago.

I decided that I want to graduate to a Mac for my personal use. I realized that I prefer a simple computing environment with programs that look after my needs with minimum fuss. Mac works that way, and I will keep my notebook PC for office. I'm now waiting for Life 09 to be bundled with Mac, which will hopefully happen this month.

In another area of life, after almost of two years of study in my free time, I graduated from my life coaching course just before the new year. It marks a big milestone for achieving one of my life dreams, which is to help people around me live better "now."

At the end of the day, I now enjoy tabulating the results of my good intentions in Joe's Goals. They are all personal, and they matter to me, like my daughter savors what she calls her "last good nerve of the day."

Photograph: An observing bird in Bali zoo.

Blooming revolution

“People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?”
- Thich Nhat Hanh

The air entering my home is unexpectedly cool, as if to remind that a fresh new year has started. The urban horizon is surprisingly clear too, its pollution blown away by a steady breeze from the north.

The tail of China’s winter has come to touch Manila, with temperatures indoors dropping to a low 25 degrees. Although I wear as little as possible, I appreciate that my clothes are keeping me warm today, rather than just dressed.

Two themes have been on my mind as I reflected on the coming year 2009: simplicity and strength.

Several friends in Japan reminded me last month how they are used to treasuring simplicity in their life, as a central part of their culture.

One has recently returned to his home in snowy Niigata prefecture after living more than 2 decades in tropical splendor abroad. He described to me how he built a retirement home that “looks like a small hut.” He anticipates spending time for hiking, playing saxophone, and gardening.

Another hinted at the power of simplicity as she explained how foreign royalty visiting Japan are often mystified with the simple unadorned lifestyles of the members of its imperial family, who devote much time to scientific study and to dialogue with experts on the development issues that are facing today’s world.

A third has retired from a long and influential public life, and now spends time researching the life of a famous monk from Kyoto in the 16th century to write a book, and also continues his long-standing practice of writing haiku in both Japanese and French.

As I reflected more, I realized that on the flip side of simplicity lies strength. It actually takes strength, and building on strengths, to keep things simple and effective.

It is a Japanese proverb that says that “no branch is better than its trunk.” When a tree nurtures the vital strength of its trunk and roots, it can use that strength to grow healthy branches that bear fruits.

Rather than in Japan, though, it is in neighboring China that a remarkable shift has taken place in recent years that is very much about building on strength.

Back in the year 2000, according to bestselling author Marcus Buckingham in an interview with Business Week, only 24% of the people he surveyed in China thought that leveraging their strengths would be a better way to improve performance than improving their weaknesses.

By last September 2008, however, that percentage had almost tripled to an astonishing 70% of the people he surveyed. This is a much higher proportion than anywhere in Europe and northern America.

Marcus has characterized this movement of focusing on strengths as a revolution. And it certainly seems that this revolution is now blooming in China, perhaps inspired in equal measure by the country’s amazing performance of staging the 2008 Olympics as by its persistent challenges to deliver quality products to the world’s market place.

It comes as no surprise then, that people around the globe have been discovering that they have a choice to build on their strengths. “It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths in stead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor,” wrote Timothy Ferris in his book The 4-Hour Workweek.

So when I considered how to invest my time and effort in the new year, I asked myself what would be a more effective way of writing my new year resolutions for a happy and successful 2009.

Should I push myself harder to do “good things” even if I don’t really enjoy doing them, like writing technical reports, coordinating other people’s work, and managing budgets?

Or focus on getting better at things I am not very good at, such as writing detailed action plans and then implementing them step by step?

Or would it be more effective, and fun, to focus in stead on the things I am really good at and enjoy doing, such as spotting and formulating new ideas and approaches, seeing the big picture of a situation, and reaching out empathetically to others to map out new approaches that will inspire their mission and maximize their performance?

While this choice was not so obvious to me earlier, it became much clearer now, and I decided to join the revolution and build on my strengths in stead of trying hard to improve my weaknesses.

I spent a few nice days reflecting how I could carve out roles and chances to use my talents more often in 2009, and to work on perfecting them with knowledge, skills and practice.

But what about working on improving weaknesses then, what seemed to have been a favorite focus in some of my earlier new year resolutions? Since these weaknesses are still with me, won’t they continue to need my attention as well?

On reflection, I was reminded that every person has a combination of strengths and weaknesses that is truly unique. People’s talents, and individual sense and perception are not common at all.

My talents and how I view the world around me are different from other peoples’ talents and views, in their make up and nuances. And my weaknesses are bound to be another person’s strengths, and vice versa.

So rather than working harder this year on fixing my weaknesses, I decided that it will be more effective and fun to find better ways to manage them. To put my strengths to work to cover some of my weaknesses, and to minimize other weaknesses by seeking contributions from other people whose strengths are complementary to mine.

I realized that by building on strengths, including my own and those of others, I have a better hope of decluttering my activities at the start of the new year, to bring more simplicity into my life, and to experience more great times and results in 2009.

Master Thich Nhat Hanh has, in fact, been spreading that revolutionary message for a long time as he encouraged people to touch their talents and make them bloom.

Photograph: Blooming flowers in Shu coffee shop, central Tokyo.

Sleepless in Solo

"The more you can dream, the more you can do."
- Michael Korda

Sleeping giant Lawu lies to the East, and Merbabu and Merapi, two active volcanoes are visible when the clouds have cleared in the West.

It is said that the city never sleeps, and I wondered if I would find out the reason during my short visit last week.

As the plane descended after the short hop from Jakarta, the sprawling provincial town of Solo came into view, bounded by verdant rice paddies and a muddy Bengawan Solo, Java island’s longest river.

Not an ordinary city by any means, for Solo has been ruled for centuries by two royal dynasties, one in the larger palace of the Susuhunan or Sultan, and another in the smaller palace of the Mangkunegara. The grand titles of the rulers in the sultan’s palace, Paku Buwono (Center of the World) and Hamengku Buwono (Upholder of the World), are testimony to the city’s world view throughout much of Javanese history.

Solo's god-king was traditionally regarded as the most powerful ruler in the land. Although all kingdoms and local principalities have been subsumed by the Republic of Indonesia, the dynasty has in fact continued.

Not long ago, the succession of the 13th ruler of the dynasty was marked by intense rivalries, showing that the royal family of Solo, although nowadays endowed with far fewer resources and temporal powers, is still vital in Java’s society. The city’s quest to dispense power to the world still lives on.

What kind of power can be so enduring? In Divided Royalty (2005), Mark Forbes gives some hints. He quotes a princess of the palace of the sultan saying that spiritual strength emanates from the palace. And he goes on to explain that “aside from three wives in the physical world, the Sultan is also betrothed to the spirit-queen of the sea, climbing a tall white tower inside the Kraton (palace) each year to service her needs in a private bedchamber.”

Clearly, then, there is more to Solo’s power than can be observed in daylight. It is very much a round-the-clock affair.

On a slightly more modest scale, princes in the second palace go by the title of Mangkunegara (Holder of the Country). This beautiful small palace was established in 1757 and is today the ancestral home of the ninth prince of the dynasty.

One of the rulers, Prince Mangkunegara IV, lived from 1853 to 1881 and was a famous poet. His lines are still recited to musical accompaniment of gamelans across the island, and they can even be heard by extraterrestrials outside our solar system.

Puspa Warna or A Variety of Flowers is one of the well known poems penned by this Prince for a male singer to be accompanied by the traditional Javanese gamelan orchestra, in the pentatonic slendro manyura style. It is said that the piece would be performed for the entrance of the prince.

The text refers to 9 different kinds of flowers, each symbolizing a different rasa or “emotion inspired in an audience by a performer.” They are the kencur (resurrection lily), blimbing (starfruit), duren (durian), aren (sugarpalm), gedhang (banana tree), jati (teak tree), jambé (betel palm), kapas (cotton plant), and pandan (pandanus). The flowers are thought to refer to his favorite companions.

Here is the Prince’s first stanza inspired by the resurrection lily flower:

“Flower of the kencur plant
always talked about with admiration,
her body is well-shaped

and her movements graceful,

she is so charming in speech

that one feels carried away.”

A recording of Puspa Warna was included by Robert E. Brown on the Voyager Golden Record, which was sent into space in 1977 with the Voyager 1 as a greeting to whatever extraterrestrials may find it.

And here is another example of Javanese poetry set to music, a stanza from the rarely performed ladrang Sekar Gadhung, a central Javanese song of unknown origin, again about a flower, and also played on the slendro manyura style gamelan, this one with a female singer.

“Tip of the fingerbone

of a coconut leaf

sweetly, sweetly,

to be in your power
is in fact a remedy.”

One of the most famous gamelan sets in the country to accompany such potent poetry is the Kyai Kanyut Mesem (Drifting in Smiles), which can be enjoyed in the central pendopo (audience hall) of the Mangkunegaran palace in Solo. While smiling and drifting to music and poetry, the appreciative audience can glance up to see the eight-colored painting on the high ceiling.

Each of the eight colors symbolized a power to ward off a variety of sins and disasters. Yellow helped to ward off sleepiness, blue guarded against disaster, black against hunger, green against desire or frustration, white against lust, rose against fear, red against evil, and purple against evil thoughts. The palace offered plenty of inspiration to keep the listeners awake.

Meanwhile, out in the maze of streets and alleys, Solo is famous for its eateries. A variety of delicacies seem to be available around the clock. Eating nasi liwet is a local favorite that attracts visitors from around the country and beyond. The meal of rice cooked in coconut milk, salt and aromatic leaves and mixed with chicken or other meats, can be enjoyed from a folder banana leaf in a street-side restaurant without chairs. Such warungs stay open until late into the night, another reason not to sleep.

An intriguing mix of powers then, is my guess for the reasons why the city is reported not to sleep. Mystical powers that keep Solo placed at the center of the world. Musical powers to celebrate emotions that are inspired by artful composers and skillful performers. And sensual powers nurtured by cooks serving up local delicacies around the clock. And the island’s longest river to carry the city’s name, its name the inspiration for the well known song Bengawan Solo.

I found a place to work and dream. And keep dreaming. The more we dream, the more we can do.

No time for sleep.

Photographs: Sleeping giant volcano Lawu watches Solo from the West (top). The 8 colors warding off sins and disasters, on the ceiling of the audience hall at the Mangkunegaran palace (bottom).

Matters of choice

“Always be a beginner.” - Lou Paget

“Take the ball early, regular, or late, it is your choice,” Coach Rey told me today during my tennis session. I started following his advice and hitting the returns earlier, while the ball was still on the rise. “Whenever possible, step in, don’t step back”, he said, “take the benefit from coming in early.”

Last night I bought an audio book on the topic of living with passion, from a famous American personal development guru. A few days earlier, two management coaches had remarked on my passion during a discussion about introducing the use of stories to get important messages across in our work. So when I saw the title of the audio book in the shop, my curiosity was aroused to find out more about living life with passion.

I won’t mention the name of the book’s guru because it turned out that I found it hard to appreciate the vocal delivery. Thankfully there are no such problems when reading people’s books. However, the message was interesting. He explained about people having the freedom of choice to turn any experience into a good or a bad one, or anywhere in between, on a scale from -10 to +10. Sounds logical, but in fact it is an extremely valuable concept for daily practice.

And he illustrated this message with …. yes, stories, a host of them. Enough stories, in fact, to fill one CD with just this message. Still, I am going to listen to the other CDs in the package, because I am interested to discover and use more concepts and tools that work, for myself, and in helping people I meet on my path.

I chose to take yesterday off from the office to refresh myself, to sharpen the saw as Covey called it in his classic on the habits of effective people. I spent a delicious sunny morning and cloudy afternoon reflecting on life and work, and I read and wrote about it. A good choice, I realized.

Books are always a source of inspiration for me, so I keep reading and buying them. They open my door to a rich variety of messages, which seem to come to me according to my needs and my readiness to learn something new at any particular time. I rarely finish books. With the whole universe at hand to be experienced from within, I found that I can tap into useful messages as I choose. Books do the trick most of the time. Meeting inspiring people also helps.

A friend remarked recently that relationships and money seem to be central in people’s lives. The second topic is getting more headlines during this time of financial crisis, with this week’s edition of The Economist proclaiming “All you need is cash – Managing in the downturn,” and underlining that there is “No time to waste” when it comes to making choices about American fiscal policy.

I spent more time reflecting on the first topic, that of relationships, and the enduring mysteries of attraction and love between people. And I chose to open a book that I have had on my shelf for years; apparently it was the right time. In it, author Sarah Litvinoff defines four types of people: romantic, sensual, imaginative, and emotional. She explains that people are more or less hardwired with a specific outlook and way of relating with their partner, according to these types, or a combination of them.

Once we know our dominant type and that of our partner, she reasons, we can understand better about the choices we can make in daily communications to inspire the relationship. Somewhat to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the types, discovered my own combination, and gained more clarity how I can apply this new-found knowledge in my life.

Each time I realize the freedom of choice, it brings me forward to square one, and I feel as if I am liberated.

“Always be a beginner,” Lou Paget wrote in one of her famous books about relationships.

I agree, with a passion.

Photograph: Nice choice of views, Puncak, Indonesia.

Without chasing

"Excitement is the more practical synomym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase." - Timothy Ferris

Another day has passed, and half the evening is what I have left of this month of September. I have set myself to write, this blog post, and then some comments on an interesting country report for my daytime job.

Yes, my daytime job… I figured out (again) that I need to reduce the hours I work for that job. Should I try the incremental approach, or a dramatic one?

Timothy Ferriss in his book The 4-Hour Workweek suggested that we escape 9-5, live anywhere, and drastically reduce the number of hours we work from 40 or much more to much less.

Income is relative, Ferris wrote, to how many hours you work for it, and he went on to explain how he loves to spend time traveling around the world and mastering new skills. He called these mini-retirements, and he claimed that he has one for every two months of work projects. A paradigm shift, for sure.

I like many elements of his approach, and reading his book is in many ways like holding up a mirror. It helps me to see my situation and options more clearly. Good books can do that for me, or more likely “the right book for the right time”. A bit of both in this case.

It’s a good start if you know what you are good at and enjoy doing, and I have made lots of discoveries in this area over the past few years, so I feel much better equipped in that way. If you can feel excited about what you do, you are much more likely to do your task well, with positive energy helping you along.

I guess that means working on outsourcing the things I am less keen on, and not very good at. Ferris is on the same wavelength, as he wrote that “it is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths in stead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor.”

Making sure that the readers got his point, he added that “most people are good at a handful of things and utterly miserable at most.”

I still have 3 chapters to read before I get to the outsourcing part.

Last week I had the good fortune to attend the opening of Jim Paredes’ new photo exhibit called Skin. And as always when confronted with his artwork and his personal genius, I came away feeling stretched and inspired.

Seeing Jim’s work, I reflected how an artist’s struggle (in this case for nude photography) results in the loss of ego which opens up the space to convey something which needs no description.

And I remembered Gail Sher in her One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers where she quoted John Ashbery as saying that “I think that any true work of art does defuse criticism; if it left anything important to be said, it wouldn’t be doing its job.”

Jim’s art spoke to me in silence as I listened.

Having worked for seven years on the project, I felt as if the exhibit was at once a celebration of Jim’s achievement and a door to exploring new artistic challenges. Completing and moving on are key ingredients in living well, I realized, as I sat watching the exhibit from behind the white curtains drawn discretely over the gallery’s windows.

I imagined myself cocooned for an eternity moment in an inner part of life’s temple. No wonder Jim chose the aptly named Renaissance Gallery to host his exhibit.

Just a few days later, I found myself floating through the lamp-lit corridors of my daytime workplace after practicing on stage after work for the annual charity show. And I realized it was playing music that was lifting me up, as literally as I could imagine.

Another experience to feel excited about, even without chasing for happiness.


Photograph: Lifted up, but still the shorter of the two blues brothers.

Mud bath

“A man who values individuals above his own integrity is a wretch, not a free thinker.” – Steve Pavlina


I didn’t know that George Washington was a swindler before turning into a great and altruistic leader.

For most of his life, as Chi-ning Chu wrote in her book Do Less, Achieve More, Washington struggled to gain status and wealth by any means, selfish and at times dishonorable. His many character defects left him with a low reputation among fellow generals of the wannabe republic.

Yet we see his image on dollar bills today, long after he has died. His legacy in helping to found the USA is unparalleled. He became an icon who lives on until today. How could this happen?

Chu explained that the metamorphosis came after destiny caught up with him and his situation had become “so hopeless and desperate that Washington had to consider the possibility of running out west to hide”. He wrote to his brother “I think the game is pretty near over.” At that point, he acknowledged defeat, turned inside and realized the burden of his vanity.

In his dark night of despair, he was able to relinquish all the symbols of status he had collected over the years through personal effort, and he discovered the true meaning of honor and recognition. Chu pointed out that this was the moment that he “merged with his destiny to become the Father of the Nation.”

It turned out that the great hero Washington had “as many human flaws and carried as much emotional baggage as anyone else”. Even more than some, from what I read. The remarkable lesson is that by surrendering to his fate, he discovered and learned about the true nature of his situation and defects. Through that dark night, he evolved into “a heroic man of destiny” in Chu’s words.

I was touched by Chu’s explanation that desperation is a necessary step before surrendering to “Heaven’s will”, as she put it. Despair can bring us to a point where we learn to detach, to acknowledge a state of “I don’t care so much” after all. At that point, a door opens magically to a life of thriving rather than surviving.

After turning inward and surrendering and admitting defeat, Chu said that we can embrace our true destiny. We no longer need to win on a personal basis, as Washington discovered, and this became the turning point for success to come with unexpected grace.

I remember that my history teacher in high school liked to quote the Dutch reverend Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis who said in 1885 that when the churches were made of wood, christians were made of gold, and when the churches were made of gold, christianity became wooden. It was the quality and integrity of the people that mattered most.

In Eastern traditions, great teachers have long reflected that the lotus flower, that supreme symbol of human evolution, doesn’t grow in a nice pot but straight from the mud below. Deep inside that yucky mud something special happens that fertilizes growth and spouts beauty and achievement.

To become a rainmaker like the great George Washington, anyone could make a good start by realizing that he wasn’t so great to begin with―in fact he was a rather poor role model―but that he fell into the mud where the integrity was forged that inspired his leadership and legacy.

What an extraordinary story for someone with so many character defects and ill-gotten wealth to become such a great and respected leader. If that could happen to him, it seems that no one should feel excused from embracing their own grand destiny of helping themselves and those around them.

It can all start with a mud bath.


Photograph: Scaled human sculpture by Ah Xian.

Shake the tree

“If the whole world praises him, he is not elated. If the whole world condemns him, he is not beaten. In a word, praise and blame cannot change his conduct. Such a man possesses true virtue. As for myself, I am still among those who are influenced by the opinions of others, like the wind moves the waves.”
- Chuang-tzu


I regularly rediscover the need to keep some distance from my likes and dislikes. When I get too close, confusion easily arises about what is the right and wrong course of action, and with emotions mixed in I can no longer see my path clearly.

From a human point of view, stepping back from praise or condemnation is neither logical nor easy. Attaching and engaging in such emotions with like or dislike comes more naturally to me.

During the past weeks I found myself focusing on the practice of giving. I gave special attention to my kids as we spent our holiday together. And I realized the need to give up on attachments that could actually block my way forward. I made a point of surrendering to situations I found myself in, without judgment or hasty conclusions.

Just giving, to take time to pay attention to the other’s needs. My holiday was a good reminder to practice this talent. Or giving back, to those who have generously shared with me from their material treasures or valuable experience.

Giving over, handing responsibility to someone close rather than holding on regardless of what might happen. Giving away, to share treasures with our loved ones. I saw my parents, who are no longer able to go out shopping, give their grandchildren presents from their personal trove of valuables collected over decades, including heirlooms.

Giving up, on ambition but never on my dreams. This is a difficult thing to do, but it can work miracles when it comes to making space for something new that is better suited to my needs. It is a matter of believing that the road ahead can indeed lead to riches. The solution and reward often lie “just around the river bend.”

Giving in, to avoid unproductive arguments with a smile and stay the course flexibly when dealing with all kinds of people around me. On a larger scale, I pondered on surrendering the second game of my life’s match to the universe after battling hard to win the first game through personal effort.

“Correction is regeneration,” said Chuang Tzu. I may need to give up on something today for something better to come my way tomorrow. Once I have figured this out, giving will become a more natural thing to do.

As I left the compound of the D’Omah ("at home") bungalows in Ubud, Bali in the early morning to start the return journey to the Philippines, the receptionist walked over to a frangipani tree and shook it, causing a shower of freshly fragrant flowers to land on my outstretched hands. One shake was all it took when you know that the place from which you give is rich.

Photograph: Giving a silver pill box from generations ago.

Fragile moment

“We are always at the beginning of things, in the fragile moment that holds the power of life. We are always at the morning of the world.”
- Francois Cheng

Every moment, with awareness of now, brings a new beginning. There is no reason why today should be like yesterday, or the next hour like the last. It is only the mind that extrapolates from the past, because it cannot know the future. The mind is a great and helpful instrument, yet the power of creation and the choice of action lie deep in my soul, where I feel guided by an alchemy of intuition and integrity.

There are times that I feel tested, like a sword being put into a fire. It is not a pleasant feeling, for sure. The past weeks of high pressure at the work place have inflicted a toll. My attitude and response-ability under stress showed up, as if someone was holding a mirror in front of me and I could see the cracks and impurities clearly. There was no one else to blame for the situation than myself. Yet I realized that reflecting on victim-itis has always been an exercise in futility.

I took a step back and looked at the whole mirror, not just the cracks. I thought of Jim Paredes’ rules of tapping the creative universe, starting with Show Up, and Pay Attention, and then to observe the “dots” connecting in ways not seen before.

At that point, a friend sent me a link to Steve Pavlina’s post How to Be a Man. I found the piece of exceptional value and a joy to read.

Steve’s first point is about men understanding and respecting the power of choice. “He lives a life of his own creation.” And his third point also held a reminder for me: “A man grows more from failure than he does from success. Success cannot test his resolve in the way that failure can. Success has its challenges, but a man learns more about himself when he takes on challenges that involve risk.”

These points certainly applied to my pressure at work, which was of my own making by taking on a challenging project with little time to complete preparations. And I realized that this had been the right thing for me to do, and that I would not be put down if the project or a part of it would not succeed.

“When a man plays it safe, his vitality is lost, and he loses his edge,” concluded Steve.

I got a kick out of that, as I realized that courage and persistence are two of my most valuable allies, and that I could choose to apply them in any fragile moment to unleash the power of life.

PS: Steve Pavlina's sequel How to Be a Woman was written by 52 women.

Photograph: Sun in Intramuros, Manila.

Writing down

“He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.”
-- Lao Tzu

Where does that leave a writer? Writing is a quiet business, done at my table, away from the action. Showing up for writing is different from opening my mouth.

Paying attention to writing is to translate quietly what happens in and around me in words. I work to characterize a bigger scene by focusing on a fewer pieces that make it up, using these to capture a bigger picture in words that will hopefully be spell binding in simplicity.

Like in many other things, the pursuit of perfect can be the enemy of the good in writing too. A friend reminded me last week how important it is to just keep writing. Even if one third or only one tenth turns out well, it takes writing all of one hundred percent to get there, by showing up and keeping at it. When I aim for perfect, it seems to hold me back and limit my output. There is no short-cut to perfect. It is a journey.

I found that writing is also anticipating what wants to happen, and letting myself be an instrument. I look for the bigger picture of a universe that steers things positively. The stories of human fragility and suffering in the calamities in China and Myanmar also showed what extraordinary things people can do in solidarity to relieve suffering and make things better for their fellow humans. It made me realize that for every day that I am alive, I can decide to live positively and contribute to living better now, for myself and the people around me. In every situation I can ask myself how I can make it better.

Where does this start? To help others, I need to be driven by my own program, my potential, my goals. Strangely, I found that I cannot sacrifice my own goals that I have to live by. Love your neighbor as yourself, Jesus the Christ said 2,000 years ago, implying that self-love and appreciation must take precedence as the starting point.

I need to renew this every day, even several times during the day. It is about self-awareness. Practicing Neru cultivates non ego as I realize that the universe manifests itself in me like it does in all other people. Self-love without ego can be the hardest of all to practice, yet it is an ever-present force as I become more familiar with the ties that connect me to the universe. For as long as I do not get blinded by ego, that illusion that I could live as a separate entity disconnected from the others around me.

As I feel more of the force within, I can afford to speak less, and enjoy quietness and writing more.

Photograph: A powerful flower.