In part one of the Art of Radical Inclusivity, the Blue Sky was presented as a metaphor for the idea that we are all united, and all equally entitled to the same opportunity to grow and flourish.  Just as you can’t separate one piece of the blue sky from another (in spite of the illusion the clouds create), we truly cannot be separated from each other.  And in the same way that the blueness of one part of the sky is equal to the blueness of another, everybody’s right to grow and flourish is also equal, in spite of the apparent in-equality created by our collective tendency to cloud the issue.

So what’s part 2?  What could be more radical than this idea?

What’s more radical is what happens when we dedicate our life to realizing this idea, for ourselves, so we can support everyone – without exception in also being liberated from the limitations which prevent them from growing and flourishing.

In the spirit of the Boddhisattva vow – where the spiritual aspirant seeks enlightenment not just for their own ends but so they can guide others to their own liberation – we can dedicate our own growth to a similarly higher purpose.

This is the ideal conveyed, perhaps deceptively simply, in the All-Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness.  The All-Seeing Boy learns to remember the blue sky of happiness for himself, so he can wish the same happiness on others.  In so doing he realises he is never apart from other people and always has the means to affirm that at our core, we all share the same True reality.

We don’t need to be of a Buddhist persuasion, or any other religious denomination, to make such a commitment.  All we need is a simple heart felt wish, to make the lives of those around us better.

Of course, it’s quite possible, that we won’t achieve the ultimate goal, of helping every human realise the truth of who they really are, within our lifetime, and yet, that possibility is not a reason to choose for a more limited goal.

When we align our thoughts and actions, no matter how small, with an all-inclusive goal like this, it gives our thoughts and actions more power.  This is because, the blue sky as a metaphor for the unity of the human family, cannot be divided, and therefore provides a solid foundation for our mental health and the likelihood that this stability will be transmitted to those we are serving and supporting to grow and flourish.

There is no lesser or greater blue sky – there is only the endless pristine expanse of blue sky.  Try and take blue sky away from blue sky, and blue sky remains.  The blue sky is indivisible.

Are you ready to give your life a new purpose in 2012, and align your thoughts and actions with a greater ideal, which includes everyone?

At first blush, the idea of the blue sky of happiness seems to reject the possibility that clouds might be beautiful too.  After all who wouldn’t want to celebrate the beauty of clouds like this one in the same way as the pristine blue sky?

Image courtesy of Melissa Merideth, Urban by Design

I agree, to experience life in all its richness we must be willing to embrace all of our experience – our thoughts (clouds) and our true nature (the blue sky of happiness).  After all we are capable of having beautiful thoughts, just like this cloud.

However, distinctions can be useful, and that’s why in the book the All Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness, the ruby coated hobo Jason Carper, instructs the All-Seeing Boy that the key to happiness is knowing that happiness is ever present, just like the blue sky is always there behind the clouds – whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

His point is that we begin to suffer when we choose to focus on our clouds (thoughts) to the exclusion of the blue sky of happiness (true nature).  This is especially so when we focus exclusively on our sad grey cloud thoughts.

So what happens when you focus only on the blue sky of happiness?  If you are willing to try, you may find that the effect is the opposite of focusing on your thoughts (clouds).  The reason for this, is that unlike THE clouds (your thoughts), the blue sky (your true nature) is in fact like the screen on which a film is projected, which means the clouds,

from the ominous:

to the magical and whispy:

and this funny little dumpling of a cloud,

represent the drama/entertainment/wyrdness of human life unfolding in front of it.  Just like when we go to the cinema, we remember that the images before us, are being projected onto a screen.  Our laughter (comedy) tears (romance) or fear (horror) doesn’t change the fact it’s a film.  We remain firmly rooted in the Truth that we are in a cinema.

The blue sky of happiness is of course a more useful metaphor for our true nature, than a movie projector screen, because it’s awe inspiring, pristine, unbroken, and big enough to encompass us all.

If you have been focusing on your clouds too long, perhaps to the exclusion of the blue sky, then you might want to remember this simple formula.

zmescience.com

1st: Trust the blue sky. Why focus on the Blue Sky first?  Because sometimes the clouds are so dramatic, perhaps frightening in our lives, like this one, that we forget that the blue sky will still be there, once the clouds have passed.  Of course learning to trust the blue sky (our unbroken true nature) is a process that takes time.  As described in the book The All Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness, one of the best ways to remember our own True Nature, is to remember it for others through the simple practice of sending (cloudless) blue sky thoughts, to other people.

2nd:  Love your clouds. Once we are firmly rooted in the awareness of our true nature, i.e that we understand it will always be there, is unbroken and shared by everyone (like the blue sky), we can begin to better appreciate, or in the words of Co-active Coaching ‘be with’, the clouds when they appear in our life.  Sometimes they will be awe inspiring, other times innocuous or even boring, and sometimes, challenging.

Whatever form your clouds take, the more you trust the blue sky as your true nature, the more you’ll enjoy them.  And, each time you forget, you’ll delight each time you remember, and choose to fill yourself with the blue sky again.

Thought for the day: What would your life be like, if you stopped comparing your so called good thoughts (fluffy pink clouds) from your bad thoughts (slate black clouds) and focused on the blue sky instead?

Repeat (i.e send loving intentions to others on a regular basis).

The word ‘practice’ means to perform something repeatedly until its skill is acquired.  So, having experienced sending Loving Kindness to others for whom we care (step 4) to really affirm that our true nature is shared by everyone, and is not an exclusive experience, we need to repeat the practice of loving kindness often.

After sending loving intentions to people we love; we can turn a ripple of loving intention into a wave by sending loving thoughts to people you don’t know and have little chance of meeting – including those in the public eye who have perhaps been vilified or harshly misjudged.

In the book the All Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness, the story ends when the All-Seeing Boy realises his experience of sending ‘blue skies of happiness’ (loving kindness) to other people, was not a one off experience.  He realises he can practice it anywhere and at anytime.

The practice of loving kindness is especially powerful for anyone who has experienced the hunger to belong to a wider group or family.  If you have ever felt like an outsider, or that you don’t belong, there is no faster way than the practice of Loving Kindness, to open your heart, and become re-enchanted with the world again.

Indeed, when we send loving intentions to others, and experience the joy that comes from remembering that our true nature is not exclusive, we realize that we were never disconnected in the first place.

To practice the Blue Sky Of Happiness meditation now, click here.

Thought for the day: Feed your hunger to belong, by sending loving intentions to others – both those you know, and those that don’t.

Practice actively opening your heart, by visualising others experiencing their true nature: the blue sky of happiness.

Having remembered our true nature  and that our experience is not exclusive, (step 3) we then take a leap of faith, by actively sending loving intentions to others so that they may too re-connect with their true nature.  (Whether we believe they will feel our intentions or not).

There are many ways to do this, both within the Buddhist tradition such as the Metta Bhavana meditation, as well non secular techniques, such as the Blue Sky of Happiness meditation described in the book The All Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness  – described here.

However we practice, what’s important is that we begin with someone for whom we care.  This helps us more easily recognise the feeling of ‘metta’ the clear vibration of loving kindness – that liberating feeling of letting go, we experience when we give up our excessive self-scrutiny, or focusing on our intrusive thoughts and despair.

Thought for the day: Through sending loving intentions to others, our sense of isolation begins to dissolve, and sense of belonging blossoms.

Practice actively remembering your true nature so you can feel it more keenly for others.

Having understood the reason why we suffer (step 2) we realise the practice of Loving Kindness is not about placing others above or below us.

The practice of Loving Kindness instead invites us to recognise that we all share the same true nature. In the same way that we all dwell under the same blue sky, no one owns an exclusive right to be happy at another’s expense.  And, indeed, no one’s pure, unbroken and whole Self, is better or worse than another person’s, pure, unbroken, and whole Self.  My blue sky is your blue sky, is everyone’s blue sky.

In the book, The All Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness, the All-Seeing Boy learns this when the Ruby coated Hobo, instructs him to remember his own True Nature, as the blue sky, so that he can feel it more keenly for others.

This is ultimately why, we don’t exclude ourselves from this great spiritual Truth.

So, we begin our practice by first remembering our own true nature: unbroken like the blue sky on a summer day.

Thought for the day: The degree to which you remember your own True Nature, is equal to your ability to recognise It in others.

Understand the reason for your own and others’ suffering.

Having first cultivated a heartfelt wish to see others free of suffering (step 1), the second step to practicing Loving Kindness is to understand the reason for our own and others’ suffering.

In the story, The All-Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness, The All Seeing Boy learns that we experience sadness when we forget or ignore our own true nature. Our true nature is that we are not our thoughts.  As the All-Seeing Boy’s mentor, Jason Carper Esq says to him: ‘The grey clouds of sad thoughts, are just like curtains covering a window. Just because it can’t be seen doesn’t mean it is not there.’

At all times, in the same way, the blue sky is always present behind the clouds, our true nature remains unbroken, pure and whole.

We only experience sadness and its subsequent suffering, when we choose to identify with our sad thoughts, and ignore or forget our true nature.  This then is the second step to practicing loving kindness. 

We begin to accept that our suffering is the result of forgetting that our True Nature of Self, is as simple, clear and expansive as the blue sky.  It’s always there, even when we forget.

Thought for the day: Consider how your life would be, if you accepted that your True nature was as uncomplicated as a clear Blue Sky free from clouds?

Loving Kindness as it is practiced in Buddhist tradition is the art of consciously sending positive intentions to others.  What sometimes makes the practice of Loving Kindness distinct from actual acts of charity, (which may arise from the practice of Loving Kindness), is the way in which the person practicing views the recipient of their loving intention.

Instead of pitying the recipient of our loving intention, we instead consciously choose to see, or visualise them, as unbroken, whole and complete.  In so doing, the sender of loving intentions not only helps to alleviate the recipients suffering, but also helps them remember that they too, the sender, are intrinsically unbroken, whole and complete.

When we remember that how we see others is actually how we see ourselves, it is easier to open our hearts, and become re-enchanted with the world.

The first step in this process is a simple wish that others be happy.  In the book The All Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness, the All Seeing Boy’s quest begins with a simple, heartfelt wish to help lift the spirit of the people he loved, for no other reason than to see them free of suffering.

In the same way, it’s important that we also engage in the practice of Loving Kindness for the right reasons, i.e not just for our own ends, but rather to see others liberated.

A good way to do this, is to begin the actual practice of Loving Kindness by considering the suffering of people close to us.  When we empathise with someone’s suffering, it is natural to want that suffering to end.  In so doing we begin to experience the ‘connection’ between ourselves and others, which is the ultimate outcome of the practice of Loving Kindness.

Thought for the day: Empathising with others suffering, is not an end point, but instead the first step in wishing great happiness for someone else.

3 WEEKs to go..

MARK January 24 2012,IN YOUR DIARY..

HELP ME MAKE ‘THE ALL-SEEING BOY AND THE BLUE SKY OF HAPPINESS’

AN AMAZON.CO.UK BEST SELLER

‘ON 24TH JANUARY, 2012, I WILL BE INVITING UK READERS AND FRIENDS OF THE BLUE SKY OF HAPPINESS, TO PURCHASE THE BOOK FROM AMAZON.CO.UK, TO HELP RAISE ITS PROFILE AND SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT LOVING KINDNESS GLOBALLY.

I WILL BE GIVING AWAY FREE COACHING SESSIONS AND OTHER FREE RESOURCES TO PEOPLE WHO PURCHASE THE BOOK ON THE DAY.

MAKE A NOTE OF 24TH JANUARY IN YOUR DIARY.   OR SUBSCRIBE TO MY EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR FURTHER UPDATES

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER IT NOW.

My journey to publication..

It’s been over 5 years since I first wrote The All-Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness, for my godson, and the journey to publication has been a long one, with many lessons learned.

Not least the importance of being willing to promote what you have to offer.   The gremlin of false modesty has shown it’s face many times, and held me back from being more direct in promoting my work.

However, every time someone who read the original e-book (now withdrawn) or a review copy of the new print edition published by Snow Lion, told me how moved they were, or simply that the Blue Sky of Happiness meditation was fun to do, my belief in the story’s message was renewed and I recommitted to share it as widely as possible.

The World Today Needs Loving Kindness

In dedicating a specific day – JANUARY 24th 2012 – as the launch day for The All-Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness, I’m asking you for your help, in spreading it’s message of Loving Kindness still further.  If enough people buy the book on the same day from Amazon, that in turn will make it even more visible on their site, and will result in more people in being exposed to the idea of loving kindness.

In a world where our economic woes are increasingly shifting our concerns to focus on our own worries and fears for the future, the message of Loving Kindness becomes more important than ever before.  When we send loving intentions to others that they be happy and fulfilled, we lift not only the spirits of the people to whom the intention is directed, but also by placing our attention away from our own woes, we lift our own spirits too.

“His Holiness is happy to have a copy of your e-book “The All Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness. His Holiness liked the story and hopes it will help to spread the message of loving kindness among the readers. His Holiness sends his appreciation and gratitude to you and your colleagues for this wonderful piece of work.”

Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The All-Seeing Boy and the Blue Sky of Happiness, provides readers young and old alike, with a profoundly simple metaphor – the blue sky – to help them embrace the timeless wisdom of Loving Kindness.  It’s a classic psycho spiritual tale, which resonates across religious denominations.  It also includes a profoundly simple meditation with which to practice mindfulness and compassion, that children and adults can use anywhere.

Click here to pre-order the book now.

For every copy sold, both myself and the illustrator Serena Sax Hallam, will also give a percentage of our fee to Tibetan Children’s Villages charity, which helps raise and educate Tibetan refugee children.  If you feel moved to donate to TCV yourself – then please click here.

If the idea of the blue sky of happiness as a metaphor for the full potential of the human mind -  clear, creative and expansive – is to be taken literally, then how should we imagine those who society has deemed to be – perhaps – less than clear, creative and expansive,  such as those people with ADHD?

It all comes down to what we choose to focus on.

Do we decide to judge people with ADHD just because they are wired differently, or do we decide to see that their ‘wiring’ is in fact an expression of their potential?

This is not to say that we ignore or deny that living with ADHD doesn’t have it’s challenges.  It does.  Coach, change agent, and inspired parent, Elaine Taylor Klaus co-founded ImpactADHD to help families deal with those challenges which at times can have a powerful impact on those living with ADHD.

In the same way when we meet someone who is low because the clouds are grey in their lives, we don’t deny that the clouds are grey.  That’s their experience, we meet them where they are.  We empathise with their suffering, so they feel seen, feel heard.   Indeed, empathising with someone’s suffering is always the first step in cultivating the desire to see that suffering alleviated.

It’s what we do after we meet people where they are, that matters.

If we identify an individual’s suffering as an expression of their potential, we not only limit who they are, we actually make it more difficult for them to grow beyond their suffering.  Our pity boxes them in, in other words.

The blue sky of happiness eschews such boxes, and invites us to image the best in others, whatever their wiring.  The blue sky as a metaphor for the potential of the human mind, is expansive enough to include everybody’s unique expression for good.  And it’s clear enough to see that being wired differently is not a limitation; if we are willing to welcome those who are wired differently as an opportunity to learn another way of seeing the world.

Indeed, as world-renowned education and creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson points out, ADHD is an opportunity for us to rethink how we educate our children. As he says, instead of aneashetising our children, shouldn’t we be looking for an opportunity to stimulate their senses in a way which allows them to express what is inside them?

Who’s potential might you be boxing in with your thinking?

In my earlier blog on radical inclusivity and the blue sky of happiness, I noted that participation is an integral part of creating a more inclusive world.  As the burning man manifesto says, we join the party when we make the world real through actions which open the heart.

With this perspective in mind, it may seem that the Occupy Wall Street movement, some how feels excluded, or otherwise they wouldn’t be campaigning against the 1% of wealthy people on the planet, whose lack of action has caused such an in-balance in the distribution of the worlds wealth. Amongst which we find the financiers and bankers who have, some claim, wildly and irresponsibly speculated on commodities markets originally designed to stabilise food prices, and so forcing millions of people into food poverty.

I have another perspective however.  I don’t believe the Occupy Wall Street Movement (the 99%) consider themselves victims of the 1%, and here’s why.  I believe the movement has been mobilised because the 99% have begun to realise that the well being of the whole cannot be dictated by a small minority, and in realising that, are reclaiming their own power to change the well being of the whole.  They are beginning to see beyond the grey skies of powerlessness, and so claim their right to visualise and affirm a better future for all.

And, by the same token – albeit less evident – there are those amongst the 1% who also recognise this.  Obviously we can point to Bill Gates and Warren  Buffet as key examples here, and yet it was this photo (source: Electrical Audio website) taken at the Occupy Wall Street campaign which stood out for me.

Her (I don’t know her name) placard reads, “I inherited money at 21. I have had health and dental insurance all my life. I want to live in a world where we all have enough. I have more than enough. Tax me! Rich kid for redistribution! I am the 1% and I stand with the 99%.”

In short, in realising their intimate connection to the 99% , some of the 1% are recognising that their true happiness is limited when it excludes the 99%.

The Blue Sky Of Happiness offers us the same perspective. We simply cannot separate ourselves from the rest of humanity, because our true Self is intimately connected to the rest of humanity.  The 1% is not separate from the 99%, in spite of their best efforts to maintain this illusion.

Whether we consider ourselves part of the 1% or the 99% doesn’t matter.    We are all born and we all die under the same pristine blue sky.  What matters in the time between birth and death, is whether we are willing to take responsibility for ensuring that the impact of our actions are, where possible, inclusive of others.

Beneath the blue sky of happiness I imagine the 1% experiencing an outpouring of compassion for their fellow man, woman and children.