In this series, Deepak Chopra shares his story about his mother’s encounter with the late Prime Minister Nehru and how he came to understand the meaning of ‘soul’ .
Leadership is the most crucial choice one can make—it is the decision to step out of darkness into the light.
Bestselling author and spiritual guide Deepak Chopra invites you to become the kind of leader most needed today: a leader with vision who can make that vision real. Chopra has been teaching leadership to CEOs and other top executives for eight years, and the path outlined in The Soul of Leadership applies to any business, but the same principles are relevant in every community and area of life, from family and home to school, place of worship, and neighborhood. “At the deepest level,” Chopra writes, “a leader is the symbolic soul of a group.”
View here on Deepak’s book, The Soul of Leadership.
Do Not Go Quietly is an extraordinary and important book for all Gen Xers (40 to 45), baby boomers (46 to 64), and elders (65 and older). It is also valuable for those under 40 who want to better understand and assist their parents, older friends, and relatives. Discover how to harvest the fruits of our past and turn them into gold we can invest in the present and future. Learn how to live with greater mindfulness in each moment so that we can more fully celebrate our lives, live our dreams, and heal any wounds that may encumber us. See how to chart a more harmonious, joyful, and successful course so that we’ll be able to say with pride, “We have run the course to the best of our abilities, and we will leave behind a legacy of genuine value.”
George and Sedena Cappannelli are popular authors; speakers; and co-founders of AgeNation, a digital-media company and social enterprise, and The Age of Empowerment,a nonprofit organization that supports people and organizations serving vulnerable sections of our aging population. They are experts on individual, organizational, and societal change and well-known consultants, coaches, and keynote presenters who have worked with thousands of individuals and hundreds of the world’s leading institutions in both the private and public sectors, including Boeing, NASA, The Walt Disney Company, Oracle, PepsiCo, the Los Angeles Times, U.S. Navy, and more.
George and Sedena have appeared on hundreds of television and radio programs during two national book tours and in conjunction with their other projects and programs, including their own radio talk show, Talk About Your Life, in Phoenix, Arizona. George is also an Emmy Award–winning film and television producer/director, and Sedena has been a member of the Screen Actors Guild since 1979, having appeared in numerous films, television programs, and theatrical productions. She is also the founder of About Life, Inc, a company she created to bring personal empowerment to women.
In addition, George was the co-founder of The International Integrity Program; served as executive director of The Sedona Institute; and was the director of The Society for the Advancement of the Human Spirit, an organization chaired by the Dalai Lama. He has worked on special projects with Golda Meir, Lech Walesa, Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, and other world leaders. In 1991, George managed Jerry Brown’s U.S. Senate campaign in California, and he served as a special strategist and consultant in the 1992, 1996, and 2008 presidential campaigns. He has also served as creative director and eventually chief operating officer for Allerton, Berman & Dean, a New York–based marketing and public-relations agency.
George’s political blog It’s About Time explores the themes covered in his book, I Dream of a New America. Together, the authors have written two previous books: Say Yes To Change: 25 Keys to Making Change Work for You and Authenticity: A Guide to Greater Meaning and Purpose at Work and at Home.
Do Not Go Quietly – Birth 2012 Special ver 1
AgeNation – Living Consciously, Aging Wisely
All our lives will be deeply impacted by our aging population and AgeNation seeks to draw on the inspiration, creativity & idealism that will help redefine what it means to live consciously & wisely in the 21st century. Our activities are centered around our AgeNation.com website which contains both our rEVO online magazine & AgeNation Radio podcast sites.
AgeNation also produces entertainment events, conferences, leadership workshops, consulting and are developing unique television, publishing and travel divisions to help to teach & learn about how to achieve our mission. We are the generations that need to save our world – we cannot wait for a future generation to do it for us. We need you to help us reinvest value, care and heart into a world that is so desperately in need of it.
We all yearn for clear-cut answers to life’s problems, yet we rarely get them. Formulas fail and contradictions mount. In Know Yourself, Forget Yourself, executive coach and mindfulness teacher Marc Lesser shows that understanding and embracing the points where life feels most confusing, most contradictory can lead us to more satisfaction and joy.
Lesser provides clear guidance and simple practices for embracing five central paradoxes in life and navigating them to increase our effectiveness and happiness. Influenced by the revolutionary mindfulness and emotional intelligence trainings he helped develop at Google, Know Yourself, Forget Yourself is a profound book about cultivating the emotional skills to understand the right path through difficulties and challenges.
Marc Lesser is the CEO, founder and serves on the board of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI). Marc is a long term Zen student and teacher. He is the author of Know Yourself, Forget Yourself,Less: Accomplishing More By Doing Less, and Z.B.A. Zen of Business Administration; How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work and Your Life.
He was the founder and former CEO of Brush Dance, a publisher of greeting cards, calendars and gift items, with spiritual themes and artwork. He spent 15 years taking Brush Dance from an idea in his garage to a multi-million dollar publishing company, with distribution throughout the U.S. and the world.
He facilitates retreats for CEO’s, business leaders, and management teams. Has been co-leading Company Time retreats for business leaders for the past 10 years.
He was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for 10 years and was former director of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He received his M.B.A. degree from New York University and his Undergraduate degree in psychology from Rutgers University. He is currently a board member of the Social Venture Network.
Being creative and successful in business and your personal lives requires that you be responsive and flexible as you move beyond your comfort zones.
Though it may seem paradoxical, all real change and creativity begins by facing and understanding the reality of your current situation.
Learning to see and respond with greater clarity is where the path toward change and growth begins.
What is that you are really doing? What are you doing that is extraneous? How can you bring more ease to and at the same time enliven your work and personal activities?
Learn how slowing down and looking deeply can lead to greater business success and personal satisfaction. Learn key practices that can help you:
Be flexible and responsive in the midst of change
Act with calm in the midst of intense activity
Relax in the midst of exertion
Gain clarity and insight in the midst of difficulty and competing demands
Increase creativity and problem-solving skills
Improve listening and communication skills
Improve focus and concentration
Increase work satisfaction
Lead and build teams
A Talk with Marc Lesser author of KNOW YOURSELF, FORGET YOURSELF
By Marc Lesser
What was your motivation for writing about practical ways to work with paradox?
Nearly everything about being a human involves paradox. One of my favorite quotes is, “If it’s not paradoxical, it’s not true!” I just did a Google search to see who said this, and what came up was…..Marc Lesser. How paradoxical! A paradox is something that appears impossible, but may, in fact be true. Isn’t everything in our lives like this? Especially things that really matter – like time, consciousness, birth and death, war and peace, how we came to be doing whatever we do, our most important relationships – anything we can say about these topics appears impossible.
I began to notice that a few core paradoxes were also core practices in my work and in my life outside of work. I noticed that more and more these paradoxes were becoming fundamental and important truths. I began writing initially to better understand how to work with these paradoxes – in the work that I do with my clients, who are leaders in business and non-profits companies, as well as in my own life.
The expression “know yourself, forget yourself” sounds familiar. Where does it come from?
Yes, thank you Dogen, the 13th century founder of Zen Buddhism in Japan, who famously said – To study the Way is to study the self; to study the self is to forget the self; to forget the self is to awaken with everything and everyone. I first encountered this statement when I was in my 20’s and have been working with it ever since.
Is there a way to practice – self-knowing and self-forgetting?
Yes, self-awareness practice and mindfulness practice are practices for both self-knowing and self-forgetting. Think of an athlete – a superior tennis play works diligently on all aspects of self-knowing – details of hitting a ball under multiple conditions, state of mind, strategy. Then when playing a match, these awareness practices have all been embodied and the focus is completely on being present, aware, with little or no focus on self. Self-awareness practices and mindfulness practice are ways to train ourselves to be more present, alive, skillful in our work lives and in all our relationships.
How can I fight for change and accept what is at the same time?
This is a core truth, a core paradox of being human – accepting ourselves completely and making an effort to become more aware and to help others. If we just accept what is, we can be lulled into indifference. If we are always fighting for change, without accepting ourselves and our situation, we can become both nearsighted and stressed. We can make an effort to practice and build our ability in both acceptance and in making changes, skillfully.
Help! My life is stressful. Too much to do and not enough time. What guidance can you offer to get off of this treadmill?
Many people are stressed and in search of an elusive sense of balance. Know Yourself, Forget Yourself presents another approach that addresses underlying issues and is more effective than conventional approaches. Instead of looking outside yourself for balance, find ways to take care of yourself, to take care of your mind. I notice that people looking for balance often try to add more things to an already overflowing life. Our cups are already too full. We don’t need to add more; instead we can change the way we see, broaden our perspective and not get caught by mistaken ideas about balance. And not be narrowed, and stressed, by mistaken beliefs about ourselves.
How can I be confident and question everything at the same time?
Confidence comes from knowing yourself – from accurate emotional awareness, deep listening to yourself and to others. The more confident you become the more you can engage with important questions. The practice of “not knowing” can be a powerful way to develop more confidence.
Marc Lesser, the CEO and cofounder of the nonprofit Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, lived at the San Francisco Zen Center for ten years and is the former director of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He lives in Mill Valley, CA.
Interview on New Leadership with Ervin Laszlo, Jean Houston and Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. Recorded live October 2012.
This interview is part of the Global Oneness Day Summit, a global tele-series that celebrates the oneness of life and where you can learn from some of the world’s leading spiritual thought leaders and musicians who share their deepest wisdom, insights, prayers, music and meditations in celebration of our oneness. View here for about an hour of Interview on New Leadership
With this effective, easy-to-follow guide, readers can develop the power of perception and imagination to live effortlessly and joyfully.
As our holistic view of the world grows and we become more aware of personal and collective energy, our level of perception is transforming from something singular—the physical form—to a greatly expanded awareness that includes intuition, past and present, right and left brain, and heart and body.
As our perceptive ability evolves, we must unlearn and relearn the principles of how we live, create, and grow in order to be successful in the rapidly transforming reality of the Intuition Age. Written with clarity and insight, Leap of Perception offers a comprehensive guide on how to adapt to an expanding paradigm of perception.
Building on her first two books, The Intuitive Way and Frequency, author Penney Peirce once again translates a powerful and complex concept into an effective life practice that is accessible to all.
Readers will learn to materialize the situations they want, resolve conflict in relationships, expand their creativity, reduce exhaustion and anxiety from multitasking, ease fear caused by the transformation process, develop new attention skills, and more. Leap of Perception is an amazing gift.
President Barack Obama is one of the calmest, coolest and most compelling political figures in modern times. Dealt a grueling first term of wars, recession, and bitter partisan attacks, he has remained even-tempered, level-headed, and downright Zen.
Obama’s appeal runs even deeper than the revolution his ethnicity represents. His rare combination of inner peace and outer passion, his mix of realism and idealism, are qualities that have made him an iconic figure around the globe. Extraordinary emotional intelligence is perhaps the prime quality that has drawn Barack Obama’s supporters to him through thick and thin.
In Obama Karma, Russell Razzaque analyzes key moments in the life of our forty-fourth president that reveal his depth and self-awareness, especially when confronted with challenges. While temperament is largely inherited, emotional intelligence can be learned. Through simple exercises included in the book readers can learn to improve their own life skills and interpersonal relationships.
Finally, Obama Karma helps make the case for the re-election of Barack Obama on the basis of his extraordinary leadership in a singular time in history.
Russell Razzaque, PhD, has been a practicing psychiatrist for over fifteen years. His most recent book Human Being to Human Bomb was a psychological examination of suicide bombers. He is an attending psychiatrist across several mental health and addiction treatment centers in London. Razzaque has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Independent.
Terrorists are cowards. Whenever terror has struck in any part of the world, we have heard people say it is an act of cowardice. A coward runs away from action but harbours all negative feelings and does it surreptitiously.
This is exactly what happened to Arjuna. Arjuna was angry, upset, sad and wanted to run away. In the Bhagawad Gita, Lord Krishna said not to be a coward. So, it is an antidote to terrorism. Shri Krishna said bravery is the way – face the war when it is inevitable and do your duty.
A terrorist is stuck in his identity – he hides it, has no rationale and inflicts pain. Whereas Bhagawad Gita helps one to transcend one’s identity, encourages reason and infuses wisdom. In this sense, it could be called the antidote to terrorism.
The duty of a policeman, a soldier or a king is to be impartial for the sake of the nation, whether it is their mentors or relatives. Terrorists are never impartial. A soldier is brave and a terrorist is a coward. A soldier is protecting and preventing violence and a terrorist is inflicting pain and suffering. The Bhagawad Gita is the scripture of bravery in both realms of physical and metaphysical.
Terrorism is deeply steeped in hatred. An act without hatred is what Gita propounds. The Gita epitomizes the correct action – of righteousness, of upliftment of spirit and an action or duty that ought to be performed even in the most compelling situation.
In the last 5149 years of the existence of the Gita, there is no evidence of someone becoming a terrorist after reading it. In fact, Mahatma Gandhi wrote commentaries on the Bhagawad Gita and it was an inspiration for his non-violent movement. The Bhagawad Gita is a unique scripture which caters to the entire range of human evolution, comprising every level of this vast existence.
Gita stands for poise and equanimity and for performing one’s designated duty. Krishna does not encourage everyone to take the weapons and fight but a soldier cannot sell bananas in the market. He has to take his weapon to bring security to his people. If Bhagawad Gita is a terrorist scripture then all military academies in the world are nothing but terrorist organizations. Doesn’t this sound strange? Would the courts ban Lenin, Marx and Mao Tso-Tung, who to stay in power inflicted terror on millions?
A terrorist or a coward hides and inflicts pain on others whereas a soldier sacrifices his own life to bring security and peace to people. They both may take the gun but their intentions are poles apart.
Gita encourages reasoning and dialogue while terrorists are blind to any reasoning and are closed to any form of dialogue.
Interestingly, in any military training all over the world, the soldiers are asked to see the enemies as dangerous objects which need to be eliminated. The psychology behind indoctrination of such an idea is that when they think the enemy is a human being the soldiers are unable to raise their arms. There are many such survival tactics where the army men are desensitized.
A similar situation happened to Arjuna. Lord Krishna went step by step to deal with Arjuna’s emotions, ego, mindsets and concepts. He finally touched on the nature of his spiritual being; revealing him the highest knowledge and making him realize his eternal nature. This brought him enormous strength and then propelled him to perform his worldly duties. A doctor cannot be taken as a dacoit just because he opens up the stomach of the patient.
Krishna says, no sin begets him whose intellect is unattached and free from cravings and aversions, even if he kills the whole world. Now, the condition of an intellect free from cravings and aversions itself counters terrorism. Terrorism is done when the intellect is deeply attached and is hateful. The metaphors and the high standards of humanism exhibited in the Gita are unparalleled.
Jesus had said, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.” In the Quran, there are many verses which talk about striking terror in the hearts of the infidels and cutting off their fingers. By these standards if you still call Gita a terrorist scripture then you have to precede such statements by Bible and Quran.
The fact is that it is not the scriptures that inflict terrorism; it is the mis-interpretation of an ignorant and stressed mind which justifies their actions quoting scriptures.
By Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
This article is to cater to the common man. This piece was written in December 2011, in the midst of a Russian court case against the Bhagawad Gita. The case ended with the Russian court rejecting the ban.
Pythia Peay- Author and writer on spirituality, psychology and the American psyche
Those who despair over the gap between their vision of a more environmentally sustainable, just and peaceful planet and the world as it is can find inspiration in Corinne McLaughlin’s call to become practical visionaries: Those activists, she says, who remain steady in their work over time by keeping their “eyes on the horizon, their feet on the ground, and their hearts on fire.”
McLaughlin, a spiritual and political activist who has taught politics at American University, is coauthor of “Spiritual Politics” with her husband Gordon Davidson (author of the forthcoming “Joyful Evolution”). They are as well founders of The Center for Visionary Leadership and The Sirius Community, and are fellows of The World Business Academy and The Findhorn Foundation.
The following is an edited version of my interview with McLaughlin on her recent book, “The Practical Visionary: A New World Guide to Spiritual Growth and Social Change”.
Pythia: I’d like to start with a simple question. What is your definition of a “visionary”?
Corinne: A visionary is someone who sees the future with both insight and foresight: Insight into the deeper causes and meaning of events in the world, and foresight, or an intuitive grasp of the big picture, such as the trajectory of politics and popular culture.
Pythia: You write in your book that you’ve seen many visionaries fail to manifest their inspiring visions. What do you find is the biggest obstacle most visionaries face?
Corinne: The problem I find with a lot of visionaries is that they’re too far ahead — perhaps their vision won’t happen for another hundred years. That’s why I like to help people focus on “next step” visions that are more doable.
Pythia: Why is being too far ahead of one’s own time a problem?
Corinne: Thinking that something that is far in the future can come sooner leads to unrealistic expectations, as well as rigid and dogmatic perspectives. It can also prevent visionaries from seeing what’s possible right in front of them. Our work is to translate what we might receive from a flash of insight into things that are useful today.
Take for example the recent uprising in Egypt. I could hold a positive vision of how this could all turn out, but I know it’s not going to be as simple as that. It’s one thing to get rid of a dictator. The harder part is to create a viable democracy that empowers people. But what I found inspiring in Egypt is how, during the revolution, the people organized their neighborhoods, created street clinics to help the wounded, and cleaned up after their demonstrations. These may seem like small things, but to me they are examples of practical, effective visionaries at work.
Pythia: You write that as a young woman in the sixties you were inspired by people in government and their dedication to public service — such as President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy — to enter government service yourself. You then went on to work at various Federal agencies, such as the Social Security Administration and President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development; you’ve even taught meditation to some government agencies. How did these first-hand experiences shape your development as a practical visionary?
Corinne: I believe strongly that social change isn’t just about demonstrations in the street against the wrongs in society. There is also the path of the social innovator who creates new institutions and the path of the reformer who goes within an institution and makes incremental changes. Based on my own experience, I learned that implementing a vision in an institutional setting involves working with conflict resolution and a whole systems perspective. It’s important, for instance, to have a multi-stakeholder perspective — in other words, you can’t just go charging in with your own ideas, you have to appreciate people’s different perspectives, then work to find common ground and bring the various parties to the table in a respectful dialogue.
Because I frequently encountered obstacles such as old, entrenched ideas, ongoing power struggles, or the lack of staff and money, I also learned to develop patience and detachment. In federal, state and local governments, administrations, philosophies, and policy initiatives change. If your vision aligns with the values of the current administration you’re working with, you can make some progress — but that could all change in four or six years.
Pythia: Together with your husband, Gordon Davidson, you’ve also taught the path of “Ageless Wisdom” for many decades. What has this spiritual perspective brought to your calling as a practical visionary?
Corinne: What I’ve taken from my spiritual study is the wisdom of living a balanced life. My spiritual path has also helped me to be more emotionally centered, to be more understanding of those that disagree with me, and to learn how to let go of some of my power issues so that I can be more effective and bring a sense of humility to my work — while still having the self-confidence to be effective.
Pythia: You write about how easy it is for activists to burn out, and list different ways that they can stay “spiritually sane.” What contemplative practices do you teach activists that can help prevent disillusionment?
Corinne: Many activists just see what’s wrong: they want to stand up to injustice and educate people about it. But I think it’s equally important for activists to hold a more positive vision of what’s right with their country: what’s going well, and what they’d like to grow or see more of. I also like to encourage activists to take some time each day to sit silently or take a walk in nature as a way to be in touch with their inner wisdom and peace — and to remember why they are on this path in the first place.
Pythia: Many people have the desire to bring about a better world, but don’t have an outlet for their visions or ideas. You say one place they can start is with their job.
Corinne: It’s important to keep in mind that we never know how something as simple as passing along an idea or asking an important question might impact someone. A first step on the path of being a practical visionary, for example, might begin by having conversations with co-workers, or by simply creating a better atmosphere at work. It could be setting up a brown bag lunch and bringing in speakers. For some people bringing spirit into the workplace means doing good quality, honest work, or finding a way to give back to their local community; if you’re the boss, it could mean finding ways to support your employees; for others it’s about protecting the environment.
If you’re not within an institutional framework, there are other things that you can do: You can begin by giving more support to those around you, such as your own family. You can bring more of your ideas and visions into your neighborhood and community, such as inviting people into your living room for a monthly dialogue. I did something like this around an area called “transformational politics.” I’ve also organized neighborhood gatherings where we’ve examined how we can better support each other, such as watering each other’s gardens during vacations, exchanging childcare or by borrowing each other’s tools.
I also encourage people to go on the internet and expand their vision by pursuing new ideas and learning what other people around the world are doing. These days it’s so much easier to find a support group around any idea you could dream of — just Google it! Inner work also helps by identifying those old attitudes that keep us stuck in the belief that there’s nothing we can do.
Pythia: Underlying everything you describe is the fundamental idea of inter-connectivity — that we’re all linked.
Corinne: Yes, at heart this is the spiritual perspective that we’re one human family, and at our core we all want the same thing: a good family, a healthy neighborhood and society where we can have meaningful work and pursue our dreams, and where we can have a sense of security. The media is making this sense of interconnection very tangible — it’s not some abstract idea anymore.
Pythia: Indeed in your book you refer to “the world’s that’s to come,” or the “new world that is being born.” Can you say more about what you mean by that?
Corinne: To me the “new world” is the world of practical visionaries creating solutions to the problems we’re facing today, whether it’s poverty, violence, environmental pollution, regulating corporations or the way we treat criminals in our social justice system. But it also refers to a set of common values, or “new world values”: This includes compassion; a sense that we are all in this together; the search for common ground and mutually beneficial solutions; a sense of a whole system and how each issue is interconnected with all the others; and honoring the good of the whole and the greatest good for the greatest number. There’s a sense of the value of long-term sustainability and prevention, versus fixing a problem after it’s occurred, like the BP oil spill. Over the years, I’ve found that when we examined what worked in all three sectors — non-profit, federal government or business — it was these kinds of values that contributed to an effective outcome.
I also describe these values as part of a “new world” because there is a sense of mutual recognition and support among people from different fields who share this common set of underlying principles, and who are helping to create these new solutions.
Pythia: You also write that one of the places we can catch a glimpse of this new world is in reruns of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek.
Corinne: The spiritual principles (in Star Trek) aren’t dated at all! For example, because of plots involving interspecies communication, the show dealt very cleverly with problems of racism, and different cultural customs around marriage and mating. The crew had to draw on principles like cooperation in order to accomplish things; they solved problems between themselves by using a mix of courage, patience and tolerance. There were episodes based on spiritual themes like loyalty, the willingness to sacrifice and to give support to the next generation. The writers also raised issues around psychic phenomena, and how some of these powers could be misused. In fact, it would be great if someone could categorize the lessons so someone could go directly to one of the episodes!
Pythia: Going back in time, do you believe the Founding Fathers were practical visionaries?
Corinne: Yes: They had a vision for a better world, and their visions have withstood the test of time. Indeed, when you say “the new world,” people usually think of America — it was even regarded as the new world at that time. The Founders also faced incredible obstacles, and had to be very practical politicians as well as diplomats.
Pythia: Do you have a favorite Founding Father?
Corinne: I would say Thomas Jefferson, for his connection to the earth and the way he understood the importance of the agrarian aspects of society, his sense of democracy and the way he challenged the established order, and his visionary writings that still inspire us. James Madison was also brilliant in the way he sought common ground among the Founders.
Corinne McLaughlin & Gordon Davidson speak with the Dalai Lama about Politics
Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson (Visionary Leadership Experts) speak with the Dalai Lama about Politics and Governance. This scene is taken from the DVD: “Dalai Lama Renaissance Vol. 2: A Revolution of Ideas,” which is the follow up to the Award-winning documentary film “Dalai Lama Renaissance” (narrated by Harrison Ford).
Dalai Lama: Inner Peace, Happiness, God and Money
The Dalai Lama (in an excerpt from the film “Dalai Lama Renaissance”) speaking about Inner Peace, Happiness, God and Money. http://www.DalaiLamaFilm.com. “Dalai Lama Renaissance” is produced and directed by Khashyar Darvich
Do Not Go Quietly is an extraordinary and important book for all Gen Xers (40 to 45), baby boomers (46 to 64), and elders (65 and older). It is also valuable for those under 40 who want to better understand and assist their parents, older friends, and relatives. Discover how to harvest the fruits of our past and turn them into gold we can invest in the present and future. Learn how to live with greater mindfulness in each moment so that we can more fully celebrate our lives, live our dreams, and heal any wounds that may encumber us. See how to chart a more harmonious, joyful, and successful course so that we’ll be able to say with pride, “We have run the course to the best of our abilities, and we will leave behind a legacy of genuine value.” 
We all yearn for clear-cut answers to life’s problems, yet we rarely get them. Formulas fail and contradictions mount. In Know Yourself, Forget Yourself, executive coach and mindfulness teacher Marc Lesser shows that understanding and embracing the points where life feels most confusing, most contradictory can lead us to more satisfaction and joy.
Marc Lesser is the CEO, founder and serves on the board of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI). Marc is a long term Zen student and teacher. He is the author of Know Yourself, Forget Yourself, Less: Accomplishing More By Doing Less, and Z.B.A. Zen of Business Administration; How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work and Your Life.
President Barack Obama is one of the calmest, coolest and most compelling political figures in modern times. Dealt a grueling first term of wars, recession, and bitter partisan attacks, he has remained even-tempered, level-headed, and downright Zen.
Russell Razzaque, PhD, has been a practicing psychiatrist for over fifteen years. His most recent book Human Being to Human Bomb was a psychological examination of suicide bombers. He is an attending psychiatrist across several mental health and addiction treatment centers in London. Razzaque has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Independent.
