Translator: Tanya Cushman Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
Conscious capitalism.
Make it count.
Ten years ago,
I was a chaplain and miserable.
My life was spiraling deeper and deeper into a darkness that had no bottom.
I was scared all the time.
I'd be with patients that were dying,
and after they died, and the family left,
and before the undertaker came,
I'd sit with the body.
And it became so clear that this body will be like that body,
sooner or later.
Between now and then,
what's important?
So, I didn't have a strong answer to that question.
But eight years later,
I'm sorry - eight years ago,
I was in Dharamsala, India, practicing with the Tibetans,
doing a three-month long retreat
reciting a mantra that's 100 syllables long,
100,000 times.
That's a lot of work.
Eight to ten hours a day.
So, it's towards the end of this retreat,
when I have about 82,000 mantras on my mala,
18,000 to go,
when we have a small audience with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
And one of the first things he says is "I did this same retreat as you.
Only 60,000."
(Laughter)
Mantra is not so important.
What is important is to transform your mind.
I heard that so clearly,
like a bell ringing in an empty sky,
all my energies marshalled and galvanized behind that idea,
and I would go to meditate
because I knew that's what it meant for me to transform my mind.
It wasn't drugs and it wasn't psychotherapy
and it wasn't sex and it wasn't community service.
Maybe meditation would help.
So I heard that Burma was the place to go.
I was set; I was ready.
Where's Burma?
7.8 years ago,
I was doing intensive practice in the monasteries of Burma,
and I realized I need help.
Practicing meditation intensively was the best thing I'd ever done.
It was becoming like the pearl of great price for me,
but it was hard.
And I thought that becoming a monk might help me with this process.
So I took the robes,
and I abided by the 227 precepts,
as best I could.
I remember meeting a Vietnamese monk who had been around my age.
He'd been a monk for over 20 years,
and he said, "I'm not a very good monk,
(Laughter)
but I'm a happy monk."
I said, "Me too. That's it. That's me, that's me."
Because I was already learning that a thought is just a thought,
and that a negative mindstate is just a negative mindstate;
it's not reality and it's not who I was.
More and more, as the negativity dissolved,
the sense of joy and peace became more and more apparent.
Four years ago, I was sitting by the window
at three o'clock in the morning
listening to the crickets sing.
They were singing a love song.
The trees at the edge of the meadow were waving in the breeze,
and I could feel the trees smiling.
The starlight was coming down;
I could feel it touch my body,
and it was the light of love.
The whole universe was appearing to me
like one great flow,
one great stream of love,
of goodness that had no opposite.
Of goodness that included bad.
I felt like I was connected to all the shamans and all the holy people
and all the people who knew what's truly in their heart,
throughout time and throughout cultures.
And I felt the invitation of the universe to join this process,
to contribute to this good-ness and flow.
Accepting that invitation was the happiest moment of my adult life so far.
Two years ago,
my father was dying.
I didn't want to leave my hermitage.
But it felt, perhaps, that this is the call back:
Return to the world!
So one year ago,
I realized that being a happy monk,
being a happy hermit,
was no longer the challenge.
The challenge for me is to be an ordinary man
with lovingkindness,
with joy,
and bringing forth the things that I learned in the cave,
in the hermitage and in the monastery.
So eight months ago,
I met the Chairman of the agency that won "The Advertising Agency of the Decade,"
Crispin Porter + Bogusky,
not too far from here, in Gunbarrel.
Alex Bogusky was concerned
that what was happening in advertising wasn't good.
There's a whole quality of intention that could be uplifted,
and he thought that bringing mindfulness into the agency
would help the employees work better together
and be part of the message that it gave out to the world.
Because after all, CPB, Crispin Porter + Bogusky,
is a billion dollar a year loudspeaker to the world.
It has an effect,
and Alex wanted to use that effect well.
So a week ago,
I found myself seven months into working with the different students,
or the different employees,
at Crispin Porter + Bogusky,
helping them learn to listen.
Helping them learn to quiet and calm their minds.
Helping them learn to open and enhance their hearts.
Helping them learn to respect their bodies.
This is news for some of them.
Some of them desperately need it,
and many of them are finding some more ways to be happy
and let that happiness ripple out to others in their workplace.
So ten minutes ago,
I'm standing in the corner, a little nervous
because I feel like I have a message for you
that's so dear to my heart
that I want to present it in a way that you will hear me.
I want to help bring mindfulness,
bring awareness of our bodies and our minds and our hearts,
into the classrooms,
into the workplace,
and into the corporate boardrooms,
where decisions are made that affect all of us and our planet.
The more we can be in touch with ourselves,
the more we'll be in touch
with that basic goodness that has no opposite,
and we will make decisions that are good for all of us.
When?
This world is a beautiful place.
There's so many opportunities
to explore and offer your kindness.
Who knows how long you'll be alive.
Find out what's important and follow through.
When?
Thank you.
(Applause)