Happiest Man In America Meets The Dalai Lama

"Fear develops frustration; frustration develops anger; anger brings violence."
The Dalai Lama, Hawaii, April 2012

Okay, thought I mention one of the Dalai Lama's humbling and simple yet enlightening message he gave to the people of Hawaii, and probably throughout the world.  His message of nonviolence and compassion was very moving, and he left the state with a nice energy of goodwill, hope and aloha.

A week ago the Dalai Lama came to Hawaii, sharing his words of wisdom not only to the leaders of the state, but to school age children as well as to two big crowds at the Stan Sheriff Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  One of the individuals in attendance was Alvin Wong.  You may have heard of him, and if you haven't, well then, he's the "Happiest Man in America."  You can read about how he was selected as the "Happiest Man in America" on the ABC News site.

According to the StarAdvertiser newspaper article, "Still The Happiest Man in America?" (Thursday 4/19/12 edition), Mr. Wong shouldered the burden of holding such a distinction for a year now, being bombarded with questions about his keys to happiness whenever he attended social functions, and with the responsibility to share something meaningful to all interested parties.  I guess after a year, you can get a bit philosophical, and begin to question things.  That's sort of what happened to Mr. Wong.  But that all changed when he attended one of the Dalai Lama's presentation at the Stan Sheriff Center.  When the Dalai Lama told the crowd of 9,000, "Don't take yourself too seriously", Mr. Wong had an "aha" moment.  In fact, it reinforced his key to happiness.

Mr. Wong has always maintained humor in his life, and "never stressed out about things and not been serious."  The Dalai Lama's words of wisdom resonated with Mr. Wong and his belief that "being serious causes stress" and that "you can't be happy if you can't laugh at yourself."

Here's a funny video ... it's from a Japanese TV show (with English annotations).  I hope you'll get a nice laugh after viewing the "antics" of that little owl ...

Carpe Diem!

Can Meditation Really Make You Smarter?

Well, it's common knowledge that meditation offers a way to keep you calm, and that it provides stress reduction.  And in recent years, research has found that meditation also helps with mental clarity.  In addition to that, there are findings that suggest that it enhances your attention span, focus and memory.

Meditation And Your Brain

Research has found that meditation appears to change the structure of your brain, especially in the area where attention, decision making and memory related cognitive functions occur.  It is suggested that performing meditation for 40 minutes a day appears to thicken areas of the cerebral cortex, which as we age, those gray matter layers starts to get thinner.  And thus, it helps boost our brain power, as well as slow down the aging of our brain.

Breath meditation is a simple but effective form of meditation.  You will first need to get relaxed, clear your mind of negative thoughts, focus on being in the present moment while concentrating on your breathing, as the air your breathe passes from your nose all the way to your toes.  Practicing this routine seems to target that part of the brain that gives us the ability to pay attention.  And as our teachers used to say, unless you pay attention, you'll never learn!  And so, meditation enhances our ability to learn.

Other Cognitive Benefits Of Meditation

Meditation is known to also restore your energy.  Think a midday nap without its after effect ... that is, without the groggy state when just waking up.  Restoring your energy levels appears to enhance your so-called "emotional intelligence", helping you to work more harmoniously with others.

With such a positive effect on cognitive functioning and overall productivity, big-time businesses are offering meditation sessions for their workers.  Would you believe Google?  Well, yes.  Google is one of many corporations jumping on the bandwagon of the benefits of meditation, in hopes of maintaining an army of sharp and productive employees.

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If you're interested in getting into meditation, a nice reference source is "PM Meditation" by Maritza, a world renowned teacher of yoga and meditation.

Check-out >> PM Meditation << today.

The Master & Grasshopper - Being In The Present Moment

I received an interesting email from a friend who wanted me to clarify "what the heck being in the present moment" meant. He was definitely interested, but couldn't grasp the concept of being in the present moment. A nice teaching moment ... I thought ...

Being In The Present Moment

Some may think it's some kind of deep spiritual thing or some magical trick, however, it is a rather simple concept but hard to follow. I guess one of the reasons why this concept may be hard to grasp is due to how society is structured today, and moreover, we have a brain that is constantly chattering. Some more than others have way too many conversations with the mind.

I then proceeded to explain the concept of "being in the present moment" to my friend using an example. In my reply email to him, I posed a situation to him, saying, "Imagine if you will, having two coffee cups filled pretty much to the brim, and you had to walk from the kitchen to the dining table without spilling one drop on the pristine floor. What would you be thinking about"?

Instead of emailing me back, my friend called back saying, "That's obvious! You have to make sure you don't spill any coffee on the floor"! And I emphatically said, "Exactly"! Then there was a bit of silence and my friend said excitedly, "Oh, I get it"!

Real Life Application Of Being In The Present Moment

After that "aha" moment from my friend, he started to "apply" his new found knowledge, saying how a lot of people are just out of touch today and need to wake up. Then for some reason, the conversation turned to restaurants and waiters! I was a bit surprised at how the conversation took a tangent to something off the wall. However, my friend brought it back, and passionately expressed that if some waiters used the concept of being in the present moment, they would do a better job serving their customers and focus on giving them a good restaurant experience.

It appeared my friend had an interesting experience at a restaurant. And sure enough, he did. He did mention about a waitress who was serving him and his wife at a particular restaurant, and expressed with a sigh how she was more concerned about her break period and meeting her boyfriend, rather than taking down the correct order and not being hasty about things. Okay, I think he got the concept, and I'll leave it at that.  ;-)

And this concept influences how we run our lives, how we deal with issues and problems, how we manage our business, etc. If we focus on being in the present moment, our priorities should be clear, and moreover, we're able to use our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energies more efficiently to function effectively and optimally in that moment. So in the case of the waitress, the task at hand was to serve her customer. Unfortunately, those events which have not even occurred yet (i.e., the break period and boyfriend) took precedence over what was occurring at the moment, and thus, she provided less than desirable customer service. If she was functioning within the present moment, she would have served her customer with the best of her abilities, ultimately resulting in a satisfied customer, good energy for the restaurant, and perhaps a generous tip.

As we were ending our phone call, my friend thanked me for clarifying what "being in the present moment" meant and for making it simple to understand, and said, "Thank you master sensei". I replied back, saying, "Well done, Grasshopper. Live long and prosper". We had a laugh and hung up.  :-D

Eckhart Tolle ... he's my man.  Check out his book "The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment".  You will get an in depth view on his perspective of being in the present moment.

Okay, I'm no "master sensei" or some enlightened guru ... but I believe we'll enjoy life a little more if we somehow learn to embrace and apply the concept of being in the present moment.