As I approach the completion of the combined projects of the new book, tradeshow booth and web site I’m looking forward to things getting back to normal which will include reading a good book.
In advance of this goal, I purchased Deepak Chopra’s Life After Death which seems to align with the economic crisis that the media is trying to convince us that we are in. I believe that there will be life after the death of the current economic situation.
I’ve barely started Deepak’s book and I’m already intrigued by this excerpt from the introduction:
• The afterlife is a place of newfound clarity
• The afterlife isn’t static. We continue to evolve even after we die.
• Choice doesn’t end with death; it expands.
• Earthly images carry us into the after life ( we see what our culture has conditioned us to see ), but then the soul makes creative leaps that opens new worlds. – © Deepak Chopra 2006
This coincides with my beliefs that no matter what happens with the economy and the market; I am not my business, car, clothes, home or money. Even if these things all die, there is life after their death and I know this having already experienced losing everything in this life time. There will be life after death. There always is. All we have to do is to let go of the current form of our perception of the world. Focus on becoming very comfortable with death and creating a brand new world, your world.
I suppose the economic system is already dead and it is going through its last gasps like a ball loosing its bounce going up and down with the ups and downs becoming less and less until flat line which is what some believe we are at right now. As Peter Sellers’ Chancy Gardner said in Sellers’ last movie Being There, “there will be growth in the spring”.
It is Saturday morning, October 25, 2008 and I’ve just come back from Starbucks and you would not know there is an economic crisis as the line up went right into the street.
Then again, Canada’s situation is a lot different. While we are all in for rough times, to quote our finance minister: "The point is Canada’s better positioned to endure the difficult times than other western industrialized countries." Another headline reads “The drop in Canadian home prices in September may not be as severe as it seemed, TD Securities said on Wednesday, bolstering the case that the country is not headed for a U.S.-style housing meltdown.”
Then again, now that some have been scared into not buying big ticket items like cars and houses, are we buying small ticket items like a nice tie, quality make up and Starbucks to satisfy our addiction to medicating ourselves with the outside niceties of life, to avoid the reality that we are scared shitless about what might happen?
Am I satisfying some sort of addiction with my Saturday morning trek to Starbucks? Not so much. I enjoy going to Starbucks to sit in the white noise to blog, empty my mind, journal, review my goals and give thanks. My day always begins with deep mediation and deep breathing exploring my mind and body delving deep into whatever negative emotions and beliefs that may be lingering and adding the light of day into the darkness.
With an empty heart and mind that is no longer consumed with the material things and survival, I then look to fill my space up with quality feelings and/or information to join with everything else that I have been reading.
I always enjoy Douglas Todd’s articles in the Weekend Review section of The Saturday Vancouver Sun.
Behold the title of his Saturday article to coincide with what else is on my mind; In Dying, Philosophers Teach Us How To Live.
The article is subtitled; We should all try to figure out death before we, well die.
Having said this, to thrive in this new economic world; “We should all try to figure out fear before it contributes to the death of the economy. Thoughts are real forces and we have to focus on the economy that we what to realize”.
Then again; "Whatever does not kill me strengthens me." – Friedrick Nietszche
Todd’s article talks about British philosopher Simon Critchley’s new book; The Book of Dead Philosophers (Raincoast/Granta) that explores what 190 philosophers have said about death.
Todd goes on to write “Critchley wisely suggests meditating on one’s death is a route to spiritual freedom. He quotes the Roman Cicero: "To philosophize is to learn how to die." He also appreciates Montaigne’s, "He who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave."
I believe that in order to live, one will find business, personal and spiritual freedom by learning how to face and release their fear. My new book Curing The Unmet Needs Disease contains an excellent process on how to eliminate fear.
"There is no better test of a person’s authenticity than the correspondence (or lack thereof) between what he or she believes about dying and how he or she departs this mortal coil. When it comes to death, you can’t fake it." – Douglas Todd
Even in last Monday’s passing of our poor dog Chase, he left us with a demonstration of his character. The embolism caused his heart rate to sore to 200 bpm from his normal 70 bpm and Chase kept his composure even though he was in agony. Laura’s love helped him to stay grounded through the ordeal.
Here are five more excerpts from Todd’s article that lead me feel no fear about the so called economic crisis because with death, there is life … the economy was apparently broken and now it will get fixed one way or another.
1. Even though it’s easier said than done, I agree with Critchley that in learning how to die we are learning how to live.
2. There is no more famous philosopher’s death than that of the ancient Greek, Socrates, who, the story goes, accepted being condemned to death for his politically incorrect ideas. Socrates welcomed death, in which he said two things could happen: We could be annihilated, or we could experience a "migration of the soul from this place to another." We do not know, Socrates taught, which one is right.
3. Buddhists die in interesting ways. You can’t help but be impressed by Eisai (1141-1215), one of the founders of Zen. "[Eisai] went to Kyoto to show people how to die," Critchley writes. "To this end, the monk preached to the crowd, sat still in the Zen tradition and died. But when his followers complained that his death had been too sudden, he revived and died in exactly the same way five days later."
4. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80), the French existentialist and political reformer, was thick about the Big Sleep, saying, "Death? I don’t think about it. It has no place in my life."
5. Then there was Alfred Jules (A.J.) Ayer (1910-89), whose analytic philosophy still dominates western academia. Ayer devoted his career to aridly separating philosophy from life. But the doctrinaire atheist was in for a surprise when he "died" in 1988 and had a near-death experience. Ayer wrote that his NDE provided "rather strong evidence that death does not put an end to consciousness."
As we consider the birth of a new and better economy consider the death and new life that you have experienced:
• AM and FM radio may give way to satellite radio
• Beta gave way to VHS
• Bias ply tires gave way to radial tires
• Cash is giving way to ATM
• Carburetors gave way to fuel injection
• Desktop computers gave way to laptops
• Direct mail gave way to e-newsletters
• Driving to the office has given way to telecommuting
• In store shopping has given way to online shopping
• Motivational seminars gave way to personal coaching
• Oil dependant automobiles are going to give way to electric and hybrid automobiles
• Overwhelm is giving way to virtual assistants
• Pay phones gave way to cell phones
• Roadmaps are giving way to GPS
• Single glazed windows gave way to double glazed windows
• Shotgun marketing is giving way to niche marketing
• The business card has given way to the web site
• The cassette gave way to the CD
• The leisure suit just plain gave way
• The six o’clock news gave way to 24 hour cable news
• The vinyl record gave way to the eight track and cassette
• Transatlantic steamship travel gave way to jets
• TV antennas gave way to cable TV
• VHS gave way to the DVD
• Voice mail gave way to e-mail
It is all about eliminating fear and learning how to reinvent you.
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