Traditions
“Traditions are the guideposts driven deep in our subconscious minds. The most powerful ones are those we can’t even describe and aren’t even aware of.”
–Ellen Goodman (American Newspaper Columnist, 1941-)
Your Intuition: Contacting, Listening and Acting
“By learning to contact, listen to, and act on our intuition, we can directly connect to the higher power of the universe and allow it to become our guiding force.”
–Shakti Gawain (American Writer and Teacher on Human Potential, 1948-)
Guidance On the Path
“Trying to do good to people without God’s help is no easier than making the sun shine at midnight. You discover that you’ve got to abandon all your own preferences, your own bright ideas, and guide souls along the road our Lord has marked out for them. You mustn’t coerce them into some path of your own choosing.”
–Saint Theresa of Lisieux (French Carmelite Nun and Saint, who died of tuberculosis when only 24 years old, 1873-1897)
Inner Guidance
“Nothing is impossible when we follow our inner guidance, even when its direction may threaten us by reversing our usual logic.”
–Gerald G. Jampolsky (American Psychiatrist, Lecturer and Author, 1925-)
An Extraordinary New Book
Regular readers will know that I sometimes review books at Amazon.
I only review around 10% of the books that I read, and they are ones that I think are consistent with my aims of improving the quality and quantity of our lives. I belong to the “If you cannot say something nice, say nothing” school, so I don’t review a book unless it is special and brings something new to the table. Unless somebody has written something that is just plain wrong!
A few months ago I was at a meeting in New York and met a man named Kurek Ashley. I have met more than my fair share of people from every continent, and it is not often than someone impresses me: Kurek did. Not because he was a larger than life person, but because of his heart and soul. I asked to have a look at his book, which at that stage was not published. It really surprised me, and I read it twice in once weekend while shuffling to and from the West Coast.
The book is published today as How Would Love Respond?: Imagine If You Were Given a Gift So Powerful That You Knew You Had to Share It with the World, and I was so impressed that I helped with the launch.
Here is what I had to say in my review,
“When I was first asked to examine this book several months ago, I was not sure what to expect.
I had been told that Kurek Ashley was a kind of antipodean Tony Robbins. Nothing wrong with that: I have a great deal of respect for Tony’s work. I then heard that Kurek had been in movies, held a record for fire walking and had helped a volleyball team to an Olympic gold medal, as well as propelling forward the lives of countless other people in all walks of life.
So I thought that I knew what I was getting: some sort of high-energy motivator. Then I met the author and discovered something very different. Certainly he is passionate, highly energetic and always positive. But there was another quality to him as well: he had a completely unexpected humility and clarity about what he wants to do for other people. I don’t often meet someone with such evident integrity. He told an amazing story of being involved in the most terrible tragedy in which his best friend was killed. But then the dead friend reappeared to him and asked for his help. I had wondered whether he might have had some kind of breakdown. Instead I found a man who is remarkably level headed, and who has absolutely no reason to tell a story that could have damaged his reputation. Far from having had a breakdown, he had experienced a breakthrough. So for all these reasons I was eager to read this book and discover more of the story and Kurek’s message.
I only review a small number of the books that I read, and I am not given to hyperbole, but Kurek’s book is magnificent! The fact that I read it twice is unusual enough in itself. The book begins with an amazingly candid story of hardship and tragedy, and of the incredible series of experiences that ultimately transformed Kurek into someone very different. He becomes a shining example of what can happen to someone who opens his or her heart and mind. Though he became known as a motivator, as you read the book it becomes clear that he now inspires people to transform themselves in the most extraordinary way. This is a not just another feel good book. It presents a precise map for creating a different kind of life, and one that is in the reach of most of us. I really do believe that it will change many lives.”
I would also suggest that you have a look here.
As part of the celebration of the launch, experts from all over the world who have read and been moved by the book have contributed gifts and bonuses. They are all interesting, and many will likely to of value to anyone reading this. I have offered two eBooks and a set of audios.
This is a bit of blurb that was written about my piece:
A Cutting-edge Course in Integrated Health
First there was “folk” medicine. Then there was “alternative”, then “complementary” and finally “integrative” medicine. What comes next? The answer is Integrated Health.
Robert Stuberg – the well-known expert in personal development – had this to say about Integrated Health, “It’s not every day that a new program comes along that covers new and uncharted territory. If you have enjoyed any of Deepak Chopra’s material, you are going to love this. It’s the next step.”
Richard G. Petty, MD is a world-renowned physician who has spent more than 35 years working with thousands of experts throughout the world who are creating a scientifically credible blend of the best of modern medicine with traditional and natural methods of healing to create a new science of health and well-being.
Professor Richard Petty is a biochemist, endocrinologist, neurologist, psychiatrist and advisor to the Prince of Wales’ Foundation for Integrated Health. He is also a recognized expert on nutrition, acupuncture, homeopathy and herbal medicine who has taught at many major universities on five continents.
During the thirty years that he was in full time clinical practice, people in all walks of life, including royalty, politicians, captains of industry and many famous musicians, dancers and artists – as well as other healthcare professionals – sought his opinion. After watching a popular show on television, a grateful patient recently described Dr. Petty as “The real Dr. House!”
For this launch Dr. Petty is – for the first and only time – making available a very special Course in Integrated Health. It contains a completely revised special deluxe version of his latest sixty thousand-word masterpiece, Healing, Meaning and Purpose. It also includes a full study guide with session summaries, questions and answers. In addition, the Course contains a set of full color illustrations; over eight hundred references, scores of carefully selected websites and over an hour of specially recorded audio files that have been described as “incredibly powerful” and “mind blowing.” The Course is complemented by a collection of five hundred extraordinarily profound and inspirational messages to illustrate and amplify the core material. Dr. Petty has carefully selected them from his personal collection of over 48,000.
Until today, this entire Course has only been available to Professor Petty’s private students. This will be the only time that this whole package will be offered to members of the public. It is hard to calculate its value, but if sold separately it would be priced at $297.
In addition, the first 100 people who take advantage of this very special offer will also be given free access to participate in one of his group coaching sessions. These last for one and a half to two hours. Though most sessions are accompanied by a set of handouts, this time together is a great deal more than an information download: many people describe them as unique and even life-changing experiences. Students normally pay $97 for each session, and many people have waited for more than a year to study with Dr. Petty.
Feel free to have a look and see what you think.
Living in Balance
“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together . . .”
–William Shakespeare (English Poet and Dramatist, 1564-1616)
I have a favorite scene in one of my all time favorite movies, Chariots of Fire, in which the China-born Scottish missionary Eric Liddell is told that the world may be ready for a “muscular Christian.”
I’ve spent more than three decades in the company of holistic practitioners, ecologists and other people working toward a better future. But over the years I’ve had many friendly debates with people about the way in which so much of their activities are all about love and peace, turning the other cheek, and activities that I can only describe as “Really, really Yin.”
On one level this is all fine: we live in a world that has spent at least six thousand years extolling the virtues of Yang energy: Action, fight, conquest, domination of women. The list is a long one. And it has got us into a mess. But does that mean that becoming totally Yin is the answer? Yin, the “female energy” that grounds, takes in and stabilizes can really only act in the presence of Yang energy. Whether we are looking at individuals or at the relationships and society that we create, we need to balance the two forces. I worry that the anodyne approach to personal development, that insists that we should all be quiet, passive and yielding, may not be the best approach to balance out our lives to help us help the planet.
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
–Dante Alighieri (Italian Poet and Philosopher, 1265-1321)
“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”
–Paulo Freire (Brazilian Educator, 1921-1997)
To use the terminology of spiral dynamics, if we get stuck in the Green Meme, with no spark of the creative, strong Red Meme that gives us the strength to fight to defend ourselves, how will we get
things done? What will propel us to setting out to perform heroic acts, rather than just staying at home doing the laundry?
In no way am I suggesting that you need to become a violent or aggressive individual. But if you have been moving toward your calm center, the Yin aspect of life, or the Green Meme, how will you be able to help the world in time of crisis? How will you be able to form dynamic relationships based on partnering rather than domination?
Are you living in balance, or have you allowed yourself to be sucked into mawkish New Age sentimentality that may not serve you in times to come?
One of the essential principles of integrated (a.k.a. integrative) medicine, is to re-establish balance in a person’s life. Could any problems that you are facing be a result of having your Yin and Yang out of balance? Or your center of gravity being totally located in the Green Meme? Could you have no motivation or energy because you’ve got out of balance?
I urge you to use intuition and introspection, to seek inner guidance to see if you are missing out on something very important in your life and in your relationships.
“The sage grasps the universe by the arm. He blends everything into a harmonious whole.”
–Chuang Tzu (Chinese Philosopher, c.369-286 B.C.E.)
“Unless the wisdom of the East and the energy of the West can be harnessed and used harmoniously, the world will be destroyed.”
— George Gurdjieff (Armenian-born Adept, Teacher and Writer, c.1873-1949)
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