“When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.”

- Viktor E. Frankl

Excuse the somewhat goofy title. I am currently sitting at the Sheraton in Warsaw (my mother is Polish and I am here for her one-year wedding anniversary) and thought I would just say something rather simple, but important. It is a topic that has surfaced in conversations repeatedly during the last couple of weeks, so I might as well make it publicly available.

The topic is our agendas. It seems that we have this OCD-like tendency to always try to fill up every minute of every day. We measure our success and social status by how much crap we manage to cram into our calendars. We somehow manage to convince ourselves that we will thrive more in our businesses, find better partners, become more evolved and so on by constantly running around “doing stuff”. And how often is it that you ask someone what he/she is doing tonight and the person goes “Nothing – and I’d bloody well like it to stay that way!”

But alas, the need for personal time is ever more necessary for those who wish to evolve and grow. It is not about increasing your speed, but about calculated action base upon inner balance. If you take the time and space needed to cultivate inner growth – aka “sitting alone doing nothing in particular” – then you can go inside and make changes needed to further your life. Then the choices made and things done might actually make sense instead of being just another random way to “kill time” (what a gruesome term, by the way).

Be ok with not having every moment of your life filled with shit you think important. Be ok with space in our life – it might seem scary at first, but it will benefit you much more than constant distraction.

“If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre

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“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
― Oscar Wilde

Jeg har tenkt litt. Ikke at det alltid er noe å rope hurra for, men jeg tror at akkurat dette kan være av interesse for noen. Da jeg skapte Coach Craft, var tanken å både ha et coachingkonsept og en utdannelse som ikke primært dreide seg om penger. Poenget var å få ut kunnskapen og hjelpen til de som ville gjøre mest mulig nytte med den. Min erfaring er at det ikke er nødvendigvis noen kausalitet mellom formue/inntekt og evne til å gjøre godt i verden.

Derfor er det også viktig at kurset er økonomisk sett tilgjengelig for alle. Samtidig er det som jeg sier til de jeg lærer opp innenfor coaching: du må få igjen nok for din ytelse til at du ikke blir indignert/bitter når du gjør ditt virke. Energi ut på matche energi inn for at vi skal være fornøyde som mennesker.

Å prise et kurs er derfor en stadig “klø seg i hodet”-prosess. Etter en diskusjon med Sandra for litt siden, kom vi vel frem til at vårkurset til 20.000 kr er svært billig, og det er også noe som har blitt meg fortalt av “alle” (deltagere, mentorer, venner). Dette visste jeg jo dog, og jeg priset det lavt siden det tross alt er piloten – prøven på om dette er så bra som jeg håpet på.

Samtidig snakket vi også om at det å få tak i nærmere 40.000 nok for mange føles som en litt stor oppgave sammenlignet med 30.000 – som er en typisk pris for selv de mindre utdannelsene (eksempelvis NLP Practitioner som er et svært grunnleggende kurs).

Konklusjonen er da at jeg legger kursets pris til denne ganske rimelige standarden for at det skal være tilgjengelig for alle. Prisen på 30.000 kr har også naturligvis tilbakevirkende effekt på de som allerede har meldt seg på.

Informasjonsdokument om “The Arts” kan lastes ned her:

http://muene.no/Ressurser/The%20Arts_informasjonsdokument_v1-1.pdf

Kursdatoer og påmeldingsmulighet finnes her:

http://coachcraft.no/coaching_kurs.html

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
― Epictetus

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“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

Last weekend we completed the module known as “The Art of Truth” with the current group going through the Coach Craft course “The Arts”. The module is set up to teach the students about how to work with truth and help to find their own personal path. This is a somewhat tough task. As Helén, my Reiki Master, says: “it is about who you are, not about who you want to be”. I propose that you read that sentence a few times and have a think before continuing. As mentioned before in this blog, it is in fact the true meaning of ordination as described by Catherine Myss: the abiliy to help others find their truth. This presupposes the student being true with him- or herself.

The backdrop for the module, the metaphor at work, is the transition from neophyte used in old Egypt. Neophytes, young students aspiring for priesthood, were supposedly dropped into the Chamber of Chaos beneath The Great Pyramid (note here the link to emptiness/Ki and that “chaos” means the same thing – see “Finding God and the Paradox of Ki”). Here they had to avoid falling into the pit, and thus death, while attempting to access the narrow shaft leading out of the room and up to the Queen’s Chamber. All this was done in complete darkness and was in itself a metaphor for the tough task of throwing away all that which was not true – the sins according to the definition of the word by Eckhart Tolle.

Thus the work with truth is just as much a test of character as a lesson in how to work with oneself and others. In a lot of coaching the methods, approaches and underlying philosophies are very “nice”. They mistake love for always being the gentle tension-release that a lot of coaching offer the client. The healing effect of working with Gladius Veritas – the Sword of Truth – stands in stark contrast to these.

Truth quite often involves creating an uncomfortable, tension-building awareness that shows rather clearly the difference between your current life and the life your heart and soul yearns to live. In one way or the other, one is smacked around more than a little – sometimes there is just the really nauseating feeling that something is awry with the current situation that cannot be easily put into words, sometimes it is quite clear in words and cognition as well. Some even report there simply being “a lot going on” before/during/after such a portal. Crying a fair bit at some point in the process is normal (I did). Either way, feelings occur aplenty in this paradigm. There is friction, discomfort, tough choices, inner battles – you name it.

In this, the coach cannot really offer much in the way of soothing, but must instead stand ready with a solid push in terms of energy to help the clients/students through. And for them it is ultimately a test of character, a test of courage. No nifty little NLP pattern, cool exercises or bullshit firewalking will be of much use. Facts must be faced, burdens borne, choices made.

One might then ask: why do all this? Is this suddenly the masochist self-torture approach to coaching? Surely it is not what people-helping is about? Well, let us talk about pain and suffering for a second – it is such a happy topic.

In Buddhism one of The Four Noble Truths is that “life means suffering”. But as M. Scott Peck highlights: there is a difference between illegitimate suffering and legitimate suffering. The former is the suffering you go through as a result of being way off your true path in life. I jokingly say that the measure of “bad” suffering in your life is the distance from the path you should be on to the roadside swamp you are currently drowning in. Legitimate suffering is the stuff you encounter – the challenges – naturally involved in your true path. That latter aspect is also what Buddhism refers to.

The pain and tension involved in working with “The Art of Truth” (in all ways – not just in what I present during the course module) only collapses/heals as the student begins going through the pain involved in crawling out of the roadside swamp and back onto the road, the true path – also known as your Calling in Life ™. The crawl back to the road is the same one that the neophytes had to do out of The Chamber of Chaos, metaphorically speaking. It is beginning to live life as you are supposed to and dealing with all that is not right in it.

…or you can fall into the pit by allowing the distance to your path to remain or grow larger, with the measure of suffering increasing proportionally until you die without having fullfilled any real meaning in your life. Yes, that is a dramatic claim, but I would rather have you think about it now than on your death bed.

In conclusion: there is much healing in truth, but it is not the “mommy will pat you on the head and say everything will be allright” type of healing. It is more the kind where you get into a no holds barred swordfight with your inner and outer demons. On the other hand, you will feel about a ton lighter when things are getting sorted – which is what I like to call “The Purgatorial Process” (yes, I use the metaphor of the cleansing of Purgatory – it seemed appropriate when I set the course up). And you will stop drinking the steady stream of Kool Aid, so to speak.

I would also like to say the following to the coaches that make good money off of feeding their clients’ delusions: I hope you fall on Gladius Veritas ass first. It is also my prayer whenever I see evil in the world: Let truth be told.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
― Aldous Huxley, Complete Essays 2, 1926-29

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“If you have a mind at peace, a heart that cannot harden, go find a door that opens wide upon a lovely garden.”

Some of you have seen the pictures of me with my favourite Shiba dogs, Aiko and Imouto. I think the Japanese way of judging the value of a Shiba dog is rather beautiful. Apparently a Shiba should be perfectly harmonious like a Japanese garden. It is about the dog’s character and balance. Although this has been misunderstood sometimes among those in the dog business, the idea itself is wonderful. Looking into the eyes of such a dog should induce calm and harmony.

My Reiki Master Helén Løddesøl describes the way Reiki works in much the same way. It is about attaining inner balance and filling out that which needs energy in us with the intent of making us whole. The healing lies in this and not in fixing some superficial issue. Our lives are holy and should be tended to as Japanese gardens.

This work is very careful. Attaining life balance is a dynamic thing. Balance does not stand still, it is not static. You can never really master it as such since it demands continuous work and self-discipline. If you think you have attained it, you have not by definition. And, as M. Scott Peck so well puts it, self-discipline is love for oneself – when caring for your own good you make sure you uphold the routines that are good for you in all different facets you consist of.

However, when there is lots of work to be done, it is extremely tempting to do it in excess. I will be the first to admit to that – when the passion of my work is combined with a high load, time flies by and suddenly I have forgotten other things I should have done. Even eating and sleeping becomes optional. The same goes for other enthralling activities: training, meditation, building a new house, looking after investments… etc.

This is akin to giving all the nourishment to the prize bonzai tree center piece, but forgetting about the bed of flowers or the beautiful Japanese fountain that feeds water to the whole garden. It often takes much more inner work to break off what one is deeply into and maintain other aspects than just to keep doing that one thing.

There is more to the garden. There is the part about harmony. What does it mean that you can look at a beautiful place and deem it harmonious? What does it mean that you can look into a person’s eyes and be met with harmony? In addition to something being balanced, it must be clean. Weeds, rotten leaves and the like must be removed. Someone who is harmonious is at peace. There are no unresolved issues or unnecessary worries. The person has let go of that which does not enrich his or her inner garden. The eyes are calm, the face is smooth even when it is wrinkled, the body is at gentle ease even when there is tension.

Go tend to your garden and I will tend to mine.

“What is a weed? I have heard it said that there are sixty definitions. For me, a weed is a plant out of place.”

- Donald Culross Peattie

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“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.”

― Thomas A. Edison

It recently occurred to me that people have a kind of interesting and strange attitude towards affirmations. Sometimes it is used as some kind of self-delusion by saying things like “I’m super handsome”, “I kick ass” etc in front of the mirror every day. Other times it seems like people expect something out of “The Secret” where the universe will magically donate a bag of cash for you if you continually exclaim “I’m a millionaire”. I think both these assumptions and many more are “a bit off”.

A more healthy, realistic and less “halleluja” way of approaching assumptions is as a potential for growth. If you choose to sit down and write down something like “I, Anders, is the best marathon runner in the world.” or “I, Miriam, is living according to the needs of my soul.”, then it becomes a focus. If done with intent and power, you will begin to both notice opportunities to approach your wish as well as become challenged on it. If you truly want to become a marathon runner, then you will begin noticing places to train, see adverts for competitions, take an interest in shoes/outfits, perhaps start reading about nutrition etc. At the same time you will get challenged on your choice. Nudges will come your way to see that you truly are doing what is right for you – as well as challenges on whether it is this really part of your path. You will have to put in the work.

In short: you are given the chance to grow into your goal given that it is right for you. If not, it will eventually wither away. Nothing beats a good intuition and sense of truth in this respect.

Something that is useful to remember when doing this sort of thing, is that it is most often wiser to go for inner game affirmations that reflect what you wish to manifest in the world. Announcing to the universe that you want a car, a partner, a cool job etc is very short-term, small picture stuff that does not deal with your deeper needs. As such, it would be more interesting to look at the deeper level wish behind the previous goal of being a marathon runner. The running itself should ideally just be a physical expression of who you are, so to speak.

Also, one should be aware that setting up a certain type of growth potential does not mean you will become like other people who have gone for the same thing. It is not about stereotypes, but about finding your very personal route. This is one of the biggest flaws in contemporary self-development: coaches and speakers attempt to create spiritual gurus, relationship experts, millionaires, deliriously happy people etc according to templates. The huge hoax of the industry is that there is one millionaire mindset, one way to be a salesman, one spiritual path and so on.

This is not called inner growth – this is called mass suggestion (or perhaps mass hysteria?) and is more about herding sheep than helping someone attain individual greatness. It often strikes me that if everyone actually starts following the templates presented by these “masters”, then the world will go under in about a week.

Think instead of affirmations as something to be extracted with care from your inner truth for personal growth, followed with respect and meant to motivate a path that is unique to you and good for you. Stay away from the Cool Aid.

“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”
― Thomas Jefferson

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“Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? what could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.”
― Eckhart Tolle

I would like you to look at the tree in the picture above. We saw it as we walked around in Oslo today. It is a strange tree. It is now spring and it still has leaves from last year that are now brown and stale, preserved on the verge of rotting on its branches. We pulled out one of these leaves and it was hard to remove – the tree held on well.

It struck me that we humans are like this tree. We hold so tightly to what we have and what we think we are. Even when we know deep down that we are not doing what we are meant to do in life, we cling to the sedate and painful comfort in the strange hope that the world is possible to make static, that we can freeze things in place.

But the world is like the seasons, ever changing. When fall comes, it is time to let go and surrender what was. In winter we rest and make ready – for when spring comes there are new possibilities, new hope, new life. And when summer comes, the buds turn into beautiful blossoms and rich green leaves.

We are meant to surrender to the world, to follow the natural order and wisdom inherent in all life. But alas this cannot be done while holding on tightly. For then we are like the tree with its brown leaves from last year, stuck in the past while the world goes on. A quote from my friend Tormod comes to mind about our perceptions of the world: “have strong opinions, lightly held”.

Hold on ever so lightly and be willing to surrender in fall.

“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us. ”
― A.W. Tozer

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“Time is the longest distance between two places.”
― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

Jeg mistenker at jeg skriver dette innlegget mest for å ha et sted å gjøre av alle inntrykkene de siste dagene. Det virker helt umulig for meg at jeg kun har vært her en helg og at det i morgen er mandag og på tide å dra hjem til Oslo. På flytoget inn til Wien leste jeg ferdig “One Hundred Years of Solitude” av Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Sjangeren er magisk realisme. Om jeg skal velge et uttrykk for mitt liv de siste årene, så er det akkurat det: magisk realisme. Det føles som om hinnen mellom de mundane og det magiske i hverdagen blir til stadighet mer tynnslitt og det enkle og virkelige er liksom aldri det likevel. Når jeg minst venter det blir hinnen helt borte og jeg stirrer inn i noe annet. Kanskje det er mitt rom på mentalsykehuset jeg skimter på andre siden.

På fredag kom jeg hit i kveldens mørke. For flere måneder siden satt jeg i min nå fraflyttede leilighet, mitt lille slott på Skillebekk, og hørte på Vivaldi mens jeg skrev på boken som nå teller 196 sider akkurat nå. Jeg fikk det for meg at det å høre dette stykket “live” var noe som måtte skje en gang i min livstid. Og med tanken om at man aldri vet hvor lenge akkurat det kommer til å vare, begynte jeg å søke rundt og fant en konsert i Karlskirche i kulturbyen som står mitt hjerte nærmest. Jeg har vært mange steder, men ikke noe annet sted står det kulturelle så tett som akkurat her. Det oser av hvert hjørne, av hvert lystslott og konsertlokale, av menneskers pertentlige måte å gå på, av kafeer og kanalene som glir lik en lett vals gjennom byen.

Det var en nærmest uvirkelig følelse å sitte der på andre rad. Hadde jeg sittet stort nærmere, ville jeg måttet dele plass med mannen som spilte på klaveret. Til min overraskelse var jeg nesten mer fascinert av Ariene som ble spilt mellom De Fire Årstider med den nydelige stemmen av Nicolas Spanos i høysetet. Navnet til sangeren kom ikke som en stor overraskelse. Lik løven som kom gjentatte ganger til min oppmerksomhet rundt min reise til Paris før jul og i etterkant, har Nicolas som konsept, navn, helgen og symbol vært i min bevissthet siden min retur fra Aten.

David spurte litt spøkefullt på Instagram om jeg koblet til Source under konsertens gang. Jeg tror kanskje det er lettere å beskrive at det var en konstant tilstedeværelse og det å slippe seg inn i melodiene og la dem bære meg var noe helt unikt. Stemningen føltes intim og den lille gruppen musikere evnet å kommunisere noe et stort orkester nok ikke kunne favnet.

Lørdagen var en merkverdig dag startet ved kanalen på Schwedenplatz hvor jeg tro mot min sedvane startet dagen sittende på en benk med sol i ansiktet i perfekt vårvær med en mocca og et bakverk. Jeg tok en beslutning, kanskje ubevisst, om å ikke gjøre “den vanlige runden” til severdighetene jeg forbinder med Wien. Istedenfor endte jeg på Secession hvor jeg aldri har vært før og hvor de nederst i kjelleren hadde stilt ut Gustav Klimts billedlige tolkning av Beethovens Niende.

For meg dannet dette et veldig sterkt inntrykk. Historien forteller om hvordan menneskeheten lider og ber ridderen i skinnende rustning om hjelp. Han drar ut med sin ambisjon og sin omsorg for å finne lykken på vegne av alle mennesker. På veien må han møte “The Hostiles”, forskjellige menneskelige svakheter og fallgruver, som han bekjemper. På den andre siden finnes nøkkelen til lykken gjennom poesien og kunsten (“the arts”) bæres kunststykket til sin konklusjon som er “The kiss to the whole world” vist med en mann og en kvinne i omfavnelse med et englekor i bakgrunnen. Det trengs knappest verdens skarpeste evne til tolkning for å ta imot denne historien.

Søndagen i dag begynte med å gå i katolsk høymesse i Stephansdomen. Dette var rett og slett noe av det mest fantastiske jeg har opplevd i slik sammenheng. Om man sitter riktig, får man det fulle inntrykket av de mangefargede vinduene som skaper et unikt lys ut i rommet. Koret som brukes kunne like gjerne akkompagnert noe storslått på Wien Musikverein, men gjorde seg unektelig bedre i akustikken til den enorme katedralen.

Ved tilfeldighet endte jeg på det jødiske museet på Judenplatz og så på den andre avdelingen på Dorotheerstrasse. Min opplevelse, uten at jeg tror det på noen måte er tilsiktet fra museets side, var en indignasjon som ga meg tårer i øynene og jeg endte med å gå litt affektert ut til slutt. Jeg har med mine foreldre vært i Auschwitz, krigskirkegården i Caen, Yad Vashem og en rekke andre lignende steder. Det som gjerne vekkes i meg, er en stor sorg, men også et veldig rettskaffent sinne som uttrykker noe slikt som “hvordan våger de?” Den graden av manglende empati koblet med idioti og ignorans som må til er helt ufattelig. Selv om jeg bruker mitt liv omtrent utelukkende på å jobbe med mennesker, vårt potensiale og vår evne til helbredelse og altruisme, så kjenner jeg tidvis et misantropisk snev rundt vår rase – spesielt når organisert i større systemer. Vår evne til å legitimere og rasjonalisere alt fra drap av medmennesker til å ødelegge vår egen planet leder meg på en måte til å tenke at hvis vi skulle ende med å bringe en slutt på oss selv, så er har vi ingenting å klage på og innehar ingen rett til protest. Vi er på mange måter mestere på å grave vår egen grav. Vi kan muligens i vårt gravfølge resitere de siste to strofene i André Bjerkes “Amor Fati”:

Intet vil jeg anderledes. 
Intet ønsker jeg forandret.

På den annen og mer underfundig side var det også en veldig spennende utstilling i samme museum som belyste våre masker. Kunstnerens påstand var at vår sannhet var å finne verken foran eller bak masken – hvilket fikk meg til å tenke litt. Jeg er fortsatt veldig usikker på hvordan jeg stiller meg til dette paradokset.

Etter den noe tunge dosen følelser og tanker, gikk jeg til Albertina og dro fort forbi de noe traurige bildene i ånden til nederlandsk nasjonalstolthet og brukte Max Ernst sin kunst – en stil som grenser fra surrealisme til dadaisme – til å ventilere meg ut litt. En slik type galskap setter ting litt i perspektiv, mildt sagt.

Jeg måtte på dette tidspunkt ta meg en pust i bakken og sovnet på hotellet. Det hører med til historien at jeg fordøyer nok en forkjølelse som ikke uventet kom i overgangen fra 25 pluss i Aten til frysende temperaturer i Oslo. Men til gjengjeld ble jeg belønnet med en aldeles nydelig solnedgang fra en veldig kul og moderne bio-restaurant som ligger over kanalen ved Schwedenplatz. Det ble fairtrade kakao og et kakestykke – et passende gastronomisk punktum for min reise.

Og her jeg sitter på hotellet og snart skal krype til sengs for å evne å stå opp til flyet i morgen tidlig slår det meg at jeg selv etter min lange og snåle utredning her bare har beskrevet an bit av helheten som har pågått siden fredag kveld. Tid, kjære leser, er noe svært relativt, og i mitt hode kun en illusjon.

“The alarm in the morning? Well, I have an old tape of Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a perfectly transcendent version in Shubert’s seventh symphony. And I’ve rigged it up so that at exactly 7:30 every morning it falls from the ceiling onto my face.”
― Stephen Fry

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“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.”
― Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 7: 1966-1974

I can’t believe I’ve been here in Athens now for a month. It’s such a strange feeling. So many things happen in such a short time. A month feels like a year. I have a hard time remembering all that has transpired. By chance and by intent I’ve met so many people, had so many strange experiences and completed a lot of strange inner and outer work.

Today is a beautifully sunny day. It’s warm and I woke up at nine with a big smile and went for a great run at the gym. I’m just happy and I’m thinking back on how strange and wonderfully weird life is with its ups and downs. Having made a pact with life many years ago in that I’m willing to accept the lows to get the highs, things have been rather interesting. I think back on the trips I’ve made to Olomouc, Krakow, the US, India, Argentina, Russia and all the other strange places I ended up. I find it’s like life has these pockets of time – situations that offer those who wish a lesson in life over a period of time. It might involve more than a few inner fluctuations both ways, but then you come out the other side as a bigger person and bliss hits you. Clarity enters life and you see through the fog to the bright sun on the other side.

This seems to often entails some kind of inner death – something less noble often disappears to make way for the new. The inner war, the Jihad, is there and when you pull through, life expands in all directions. One gets an answer to the unspoken grand question one has brought into the voyage.

I guess this is very tightly linked to the idea of quests in coaching – something that has been pretty much neglected except among the more creative wizards. It is an old, but useful idea: when growth is needed and one wants to go deeper in understanding of life, you embark on a quest. This is something I have a great deal of respect for as there are many things that simply cannot be resolved in a session in an office. The old wise ones in fiction and history would rather, when appropriate, send their adepts on a mission to find answers to something truly important. It is the basis for most great epic stories and the kind of thing you want to tell your grandchildren about.

This might sound like kind of a hard piece of work – and in some ways it is. At the same time it is magical. Going somewhere and being part of a Story is something to be remembered for the rest of life. It is not the random trip to get away from everyday hassle, but rather a Holy Journey. As such, it also brings gifts of divine nature and the answers you get are like the gems hidden below the surface dust of existence. The journey might be a short one when one is looking for the quartz and garnet gems or a longer one when attempting to uncover the diamonds from far into the deep.

And so my stay in my new home town is coming to an end for now. Work awaits me in Oslo and when I return to Greece, full summer will be on its way. The questions that have been answered are many. In some sense I feel so much older after this one month – a plethora of new understanding sqeezed into one twelfth of a year – while my soul in some ways has rejuvenated itself and is humbly thankful for meeting new people on this walk through the landscape of life.

“Not all those who wander are lost.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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“It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”
― Philip K. Dick, VALIS

I have had this kind of funny discussion with Jana, Nicky, Sovik and some other people lately. So thanks for input and listening to my rants. Anyway, it strikes me as quite funny how people love to claim they are raional-thinking logical human beings. If one manages to go into meta-position for a bit, it’s kind of a riot to listen to. It is also quite interesting how environments that claim to at the very forefront of sound thinking, like academia, high-level business, politics etc, are often the most delusional at times. I have a kind of love/hate relationship to sitting down to lunch with intellectuals, in fact. In about an hour, you’ll hear all kinds of weird solutions to world problems that mostly fail to take into account any sort of human nature.

One a more general level, we might ask ourselves how rational the world is in general. We are served news that even owners of media companies admit is pure entertainment. We spend most of our time making money for other people while quite often being miserable. All things of spiritual nature pertaining to the meaning of life is scoffed and laughed at. People choose a “proper education” to make cash while they could have been exceptional at their passion. We listen to the people in government even knowing that most of them have no interest in our happiness or freedom. We follow lifestyles that quite plainly lead our planet to inevitable destruction. Choices are made from fear rather than looking at what would create greatness. The list goes on…

Who in God’s name came up with the assumption that we are rational, anyway? Anyone who’s bothered picking up a history book will see that we are anything but. The things that people have done and quite often done under the banner of sound thinking is macabre.

I find it quite ludicrous to attempt to be “rational” and “normal” in such a world. I think I’d rather live as insanely as possible without getting shut in a mental institution.

“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.”
― Aristotle

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It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

- Joseph Addison 

On the way to my gym here in Athens, there is a park. It’s not a big park. I’m not really sure it’s very beautiful either. Just around the corner there are much more impressive places. It’s even riddled at times with those God awful pigeons I dislike so much. But still the place gives me a strange sense of peace.

Close to it there is a bakery where no one speaks English apart from the most basic words. This is where I get my wonderful moccachino which I taught them to make. They don’t have it on the menu, but in goodwilled Greek cooperation they went out to get ingredients and now I always get what I want without having to ask. A few smiles, a few hand gestures and an odd mix of Greco-English vocabulary gets everything sorted… We know each others names and that is quite enough.

With my coffee comes always a sweet muffin or croissant. Sometimes even a chocolatey something-or-other to sate my always present love for the finer things in life. This I jokingly tend to put on Instagram with tags like #shredded, #workout and #muscle-meal to annoy those who take their workouts a little to seriously. Most often I end up there after having been to the gym, so this gives me some kind of perverse lopsided joy.

Today I went to the bakery and then the park. I have worked hard since even before I came to Athens and three key parts of my book “The Helper of Man” are pretty much done. Working with these concepts is something that demands a relatively tough kind of inner work – what I write about must always be properly rooted and integrated in me or putting it on paper feels hypocritical. And so the process of creating this is the process of creating me, in a way. Although it might be thought, from the outside, that my moving here is a kind of escape, it is not. This setting allows me to work harder and more focused. As Sandra said so well: the sun and easier lifestyle makes it possible to go deeper and even darker on the spiritual side of life.

Therefore I today gave myself the gift of a day off. When such a day comes along, I find that it is the little things that give me the most joy. I spent a long time simply on my back on a crappy bench with graffiti all over it looking at the sky, the sun shining on my face and my satchel serving as pillow. This imperfect moment of perfection gave me a kind of bliss. In fact, it makes me a little jittery when someone sets up situations that are supposed to be perfect. The perfect vacation, the perfect gift, perfect sex, the perfect partner, the perfect job, the perfect life.

I’d rather lay there on my broken down bench looking at clouds float by.

Perfection itself is imperfection.
- Vladimir Horowitz

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