The freedom to Choose or Freedom to See?
Choice presents itself when there is a conflict between virtue and confusion. Choice would never present itself in a mind that is virtuous. When there is a need to choose, meaning we need to choose right, or wrong, positive or negative, make a list of pros and cons and choose the one the has more pros, is thought not also present in choice?
Is Prayer A Waste Of Time And Energy?
The question is: Is prayer a waste of time and energy??
GC: Oh dear. I wish you wouldn’t ask this question. This may not be a popular inquiry because we have been so well taught that prayer has some deep and sacred energy; that it’s associated with the spiritual world or reserved only to the Gods. So before we inquire, we must for a few moments put aside all of our pre-defined definitions of it. If we don’t untangled the meanings of that word with that activity itself, we will stumble. We will be blocked. We will resist it, or it will in actuality resist us. So can we put aside for a few moments, all the correlations about prayer in your own mind, and ask this question openly, and neutrally just to see if something interesting comes up but without expectations - it may or it may not. Can we do it?
Workplace Dialogue: Is there any Value Aligning Personal and Company Values?
Every month, the Silent Leadership Institute runs a “LEARNING WEEK” in Japan (Osaka, Tokyo) where we deliver a number of talk sessions at the customer site. In June, one of the sessions requested was regarding workplace engagement. Here is an excerpt from that session (printed with permission)
The questioner asked: "How can one find alignment between personal values, the work of the organization, and employee wellbeing?"
GC: I wonder if you can.
You can't let things go!
You hold on to your beliefs, your knowledge, your perspectives, your personal needs and goals, your desires, the things you like and don't like - all as if you were holding on to a baby.
You can't let that baby go.
A Dialogue on “The Importance of Sleep” with Company Directors, HR Staff (Yokohama Japan, 2023)
[A Dialogue on Sleep with Company Directors, Yokohama, 2023]
On the topic of sleep importance (from the third dialogue: Workplace and Individual Wellbeing)
GC: Why have we put such an extraordinary amount of emphasis on sleep? What does it mean to be asleep? And what does it mean to be awake? Are we awake right now?
Participant: Yes, we are here talking and concentrating together.
GC: I mean, when are we really awake? Is it when my wife calls me and tells me the baby is sick and I take immediate action to go home, pick them up and take them to the hospital? Is it when my boss calls me into their office and tells me I’m fired? Is it when a relative calls me and tells me there has been an accident? Do you see what I mean by awake?
Is violence “out there” different from me?
Switch on the TV, read the newspaper, social media report it, people talk about it - endless information and news on discrimination, violence, wars, economic problems, crimes, climate crisis. No matter what it is, there is always an abundance of news out there to fill our days with fear and terror. Seems we humans just can get any peace at all. The tragedy of it all is that we are too engulfed in our own little separate lives that we fail to see the relationship we have with the world and each other….
Ikigai is wonderful, but is purpose needed at all??
Questioner: I just spent 3 hours in a wonderful workshop on Ikigai, and now you're telling me purpose in life may not be necessary. Who the f#%k are you?
GC: I'm no-one. Done. Next question. [Audience laughs]. No need to laugh everyone, really, I can’t prove I even exist. Who knows - you might have even created me just for the purpose of this discussion!
Questioner: How can one live without purpose in life? There is no meaning to existence. I just go through life and become depressed. Why do you say that life needs no purpose?
Reward and punishment - two sides of the same coin
Seems to me from the moment we are born, we are born into a world of control. And, if we are able to realize it later in life, we realize that we have lived a life in constant conflict, constant battle. I’m not at all surprised that mental health issues have escalated; racism and violence has escalated; we still have wars despite humankind’s endless efforts to prevent them; we have authoritarian societies telling people what to do and when…
Is Self Improvement the greatest deception ever invented by humankind?
For the love of life...
We are experiencing an unprecedented focus on self improvement, self love, self care and so forth. It is important not to judge whether these activities are "good" or "bad", but to be aware of what they are doing! So I’d like to question the reason/s why we are promoting so many “self” activities at a time when we need to think about the wellbeing of the entire world. We have so many entities of it:
Is there a way to look at this world without the interference from the past?
Looking at the world without the interference of the past (or when the brain is absolutely quiet) does something to the brain chemically and psychologically. But many people turn this "quietness" into an intellectual exercise, meaning they merely become quiet with the intent to achieve something, which itself cannot be quiet since intent is a derivative of thought.
"What if I don't wake up tomorrow?"
I had a tremendous fear of falling asleep and not waking up from that sleep, ever. I am sure this is not uncommon and I have heard that is also happens to some after long periods of meditation. Now, I could simply label this as sleep anxiety or something like that, take a few pills and get some shut-eye, and deal with it again tomorrow. But for me taking any medication is a last resort as it only blankets truth. I could also opt for a nice strong alcoholic drink but obviously that has potential risks for something worse to deal with (and besides, I don’t drink).
Diversity does not exist in this world
Participant: Could you kindly go into diversity - what is it and how can we bring more acceptance in this world.
GC: Diversity. What is it? Diversity, as a word, means to be different. In Italian, diverso implies different. Fast forward to today and the word diversity has become a very important aspect of corporate culture, and in society. And it’s not just about being different but accepting these differences. There are many efforts to change people’s mindsets to accept more diversity. At work, diversity can be the engine for a more innovative culture under the right environment. And therefore, this is seen as good for business as ideas can converge, often bringing about a uniqueness that gives organizations a potential competitive edge…
AI Will Create Tremendous Havoc in the World
It is pretty incredible that technology is progressing at a pace never imaginable to humans. I don’t think anyone really realizes just how rapid the progress will be in the next few decades. Technology has transformed the way humans are living today, and will continue to do so at an incredible rate. I don’t think anyone can stop this.
Can I meditate for silence?
As the founder of the Silent Leadership Institute, I receive this question A LOT and understandably. However, I must say that silence cannot be “forced”. It cannot be sought after. And it cannot be brought about by thought. Therefore, I am sorry, it cannot be meditated upon. End of blog.😆
When silencing the mind comes from the pursuit of something, or some motivation…
And War Continues
A war in the world does not take part between particular countries. It takes part because there is war in your consciousness.
We are all responsible for wars. We are responsible for there being an oppressor, and the oppressed. We watch the TV screen and sympathize with those injured, those who no longer have basic human needs to survive, those who are killed, and we pray for them our of sorrow. In addition, we criticize and blame the oppressor as being terrible, and barbaric without accepting that they are us. Without accepting that the oppressed, out of defense, are also murdering human beings. We are happy to judge and divide the “good” and the “bad”, but we rarely accept looking at the “ugly”. That is, the ugly nature of how we all support a world that is divided.
Is your idea of relationship hindering love?
What do we mean by relationship? Relationship here meaning the alignment between you and me, or you and another. Together, we create society. That society in which we live is not separate from you and I. In your own teams, the relationship you have with another creates the team, the organization, the society.
The Unthinkable Silence - Why Most People Are Afraid of It
Most people are actually afraid of silence. Let’s explore the nature of silence.
What is silence? Is it some mystical power? There is silence between two sounds. There is a silence between two thoughts…
Who the hell do you think you are?
I received an interesting email recently from a listener of the podcast I produce. In the email, they stated that they listened to my podcast episode on “Will a spiritual life make me happy” and how they enjoyed the insight. They then went on to listen to the episode on “The end of war” to which the email goes on to say, quite angrily, that I did not know what I was talking about and demanded to ask me who the “hell” I was giving out all this false information and advice.
Are you sure it's human nature?
The nature of humans. Whenever I am discussing a topic with a friend or client, and it comes time to accept a change, I often get the reply of, “that’s human nature”, implying there is nothing they can do about it. Sounds more like an excuse to avoid what is to me, so today, together with you, why don’t we question, what is human nature?
Don't waste your time on meditation
My findings on meditation and mindfulness meditation (from an EX-practitioner of 20+ years)...
The current methods of meditation, mindfulness, etc are "practices" and routines which actually have nothing to do with what meditation really is. To plan on spending 10 minutes a day sitting quietly and then going back to your disruptive ways does not sound so appealing to me.
The problem is we set-out to "become" still/quiet instead of being about to understand the whole beauty of meditation is to be free from all thought. But most of the "stuff" that is being taught out there, whether in the east or the west, teaches you to use thought to "focus" on something - like concentrating on a book. Or they teach you to "watch" - observe your feelings and notice that you are "experiencing" something, ultimately detaching yourself to... what exactly?