Inner Space
Transmitting values
An ethical will is a good-bye letter that sums up your life's aims. You write this will in order to pass on your values instead of your valuables. It is not legally binding. It is not a living will, either, which is no more than an final care directive. An ethical will, instead, is closer to advice. It is a re-statement of the lessons you learned in life. It's an ancient practice; the earliest examples are 3,000 years old, and not uncommon among some Jewish communities. In the days of illiteracy, the deceased's will was read aloud for all concerned to hear. Why not annex one little last sermon for them since you had a captive audience at a moment when they are really paying attention? What began as a supplement to a legacy will is now enjoying a role of its own. As you age, you set down your values, stories and other intangibles you wish to pass onto others. This letter says the unsaid, clarifies the mind, stretches across generations. For many families, this missive may become the most valuable thing you leave behind.
You don't need this book, Ethical Wills, to figure out how to write one. Any style or form is fine; the more uniquely personal, the better. The book has collected some modern and traditional examples of ethical wills, which is what I found most useful. It lays out the reasons and steps to begin if you need encouragement. I've begun mine (it should be a work in progress) and have discovered that one of the best reasons to do it is for my own sake. Like journal-keeping, it's an act of self-discovery. Unlike diaries, the total effort may be as short as one sheet of paper. I find it motivational to contemplate this possibility: how wonderful would it be if I could read the ethical wills of each of my grandparents and their parents? I find few things as thrilling as passing on values that might be replicated for generations.
Neither this book, nor any of the other related books and websites that I've read, have mentioned an intriguing alternative to a written ethical will: a short video. Many people who are not comfortable writing would be comfortable talking. Video cameras are cheap; you could do some really powerful statements of your values and perspective that might speak to future generations. If you go this route, use a common format so there is a chance someone can view it a century from now.
When you die you'll leave behind a long trail of textual bits scattered over the world, but what you should leave is a distilled succinct package, a one-page, 5-minute testimony of you being you, so that if the rest of your recorded self should disappear, at least we'll know what you thought was important. And I can promise you this, you'll learn something doing it.
-- KK
Ethical Wills
Barry K. Baines
2006, 217 pages
$11
Available from Amazon
Sample excerpts:
Thirteen years ago, I first learned about an ancient tradition for passing on personal values, beliefs, blessings, and advice to future generations called an "ethical will." At a subconscious level, I must have remembered the custom, because when my father was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1990, I asked him to write a letter about the things that he valued. About a month before he died, my dad gave me two handwritten pages in which he spoke about the importance of being honest, getting a good education, helping people in need, and always remaining loyal to family. That letter -- his ethical will -- meant more to me than any material possession he could have bequeathed.
*
Ethical wills were particularly advantageous outlets for women, since society's rules usually precluded them from writing a legal will or dispensing property as they wished. Historians have found examples of ethical wills authored by women during the medieval period, usually in the form of letters or books written to their children.
*
This will was written in the earlier part of the twentieth century. It has a very interesting history. In the pocket of an old ragged coat belonging to one of the insane patients at a Chicago poorhouse, a will was found after his death. According to Barbara Boyd, in the Washington Law Reporter, the man had been a lawyer, and the will was written in a firm clear hand on a few scraps of paper. So unusual was it, that it was sent to another attorney; and so impressed was he with its contents, that he read it before the Chicago Bar Association and a resolutions was passed ordering it probated. It is now in the records of Cook County Illinois.
*
ITEM: To lovers, I devise their imaginary world, with whatever they may be need, as the stars of the sky, the red roses by the wall, the bloom of the hawthorn, the sweet strains of music, and aught else they may desire to figure to each other the lastingness and beauty of their love.
ITEM: To young men jointly, I devise and bequeath all boisterous inspiring sports of rivalry, and I give to them the disdain of weakness and undaunted confidence in their own strength. Though they are rude, I leave them to the powers to make lasting friendships, and of possessing companions, and to them exclusively I give all merry songs and brave choruses to sing with lusty voices.
Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:
Trace Your Roots
The 5-Year Journal
Radio Journalism Production Tools
Radial thinking
MindMaps are a tool for thinking. Instead of arranging your ideas in a sequence -- as a list of words -- you draw them in an arboreal fashion, radiating out from one starting notion. Mindmaps use pictures instead of words, radial branches instead of linear lists, starfish instead of ladders, and associations instead of priorities -- and as a result you think different. The visual trees you generate as you mindmap mirror the dendritic nature of our brain, and seem to flow more organically and (after practice) with less effort than the rigid discipline of making 1,2,3 textual notes.
They are easy to doodle. Anyone can make them. Kids and CEOs as well as creative types. I've come to employ this style of radial association in my own note taking and personal brainstorming. You don't need this book to do it, but the book will help you refine your style, and it will help you expend its use. The authors, who've been perfecting and evangelizing this technique for decades, offer advice on how to use mindmaps to teach, as a form of diary, and most importantly, as a group exercise, say in corporate brainstorming sessions.
There are software programs for mindmapping (which I have not tried), but for me the intensely kinetic mode of drawing ideas (if even on tiny scratch paper) is a great part of the technique's ability to produce new and different perspectives.
-- KK
The Mind Map Book
Tony Buzan with Barry Buzan
1996, 320 pages
$17
Available from Amazon
Sample excerpts:
Mind Map by the well known film and video producer Dennis Harris, summarising an entire programme on Memory.
*
Always use a central image
An image automatically focuses the eye and the brain. It triggers numerous associations and is astoundingly effective as a memory aid. In addition an image is attractive - on many levels. It attracts you, it pleases you and it draws your attention to itself.
If a particular word (rather than an image) is absolutely central to your Mind Map, the word can be made into an image by using dimension, multiple colours, and attractive form.
Use images throughout your mind map
Using images wherever possible gives all the benefits described above, as well as creating a stimulating balance between your visual and linguistic cortical skills, and improving your visual perception.
*
Variation in size is the best way of indicating the relative importance of items in a hierarchy. Expanded size adds emphasis, thereby increasing the probability of recall.
*
In order to develop a truly personal Mind Mapping style, you should follow the '1+' rule. This means that every Mind Map you do should be slightly more colourful, slightly more three dimensional, slightly more imaginative, slightly more associatively logical, and/or slightly more beautiful than the last.
*
Progression of noting a 'very unhappy afternoon' in which application of the Mind Map laws brings the noter much closer to the truth.
Standard phrase noting, which at first glance appears adequate, but which contains dangerous inaccuracies.
Note the full Mind Map guidelines, which allows the noter to reflect a more comprehensive, true and balanced picture of reality.
More...
Environmental Sound
[When Cool Tools subscriber James Tierney recommended an audio CD that supposedly "balances and focuses the brain," I was skeptical. My skepticism deepened when I visited the publisher's web site and found additional CDs that supposedly induce lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences. With minimal expectations, I ordered the "Concentration" CD. When I opened the package, the picture on the front of the jewel case looked like a throwback to the 1970s, and the "brain-wave maps" on the back seemed totally spurious. Still, when I played the CD the phased synthetic sound was quite pleasant. "It sounds as if we're sitting in an airplane," one of my coworkers remarked when she walked into my office. I did find that it is a highly effective mask for environmental sound, and helped me to ignore distractions in a noisy office. I asked James if he had tried any other products from the same source. --CP]
They sure have a lot, many of which sound like hokum, but "Concentration" is the one that works for me, and has been reliable over the decades. Long ago I tried their music CDs purporting to increase creativity and didn't find them helpful. Their cat-napper has been a reliable tool for me over the decades: sometimes I am low energy and just need a catnap to re-energize. Within half an hour it gets me to sleep and wakes me back up, alert and full of energy.
-- James Tierney
Concentration
$20
Available from New Mind
Manufactured by New Mind
A essential life skill
Most people take journaling either way too serious, or not serious enough. For such a key life-skill it should be more like you -- expressive, idiosyncratic, unique. This tiny chapbook is the best guide I know of to get you started in journaling, and keep you going. Hand drawn with inspiration, it properly emphasizes the value of graphic thinking in the examined life. It is wise, brief, and fun. I've given one copy to each of my kids. Although it does not mention blogging, and assumes you'll use a notebook, I think every blogger and blogger-hopeful should read it.
-- KK
How to Make a Journal of Your Life
Daniel Price
1999, 116 pages
$10
Available from
Amazon
Sample excerpts:
*
*
Quick intros to Hindu classics
The Vedic texts of the Hindus were among the first texts ever written down, and some of the longest. The Mahabharata is the keystone epic and it goes on an on, an endless soap opera of gods, kings, loves, feuds, monsters, wars, good and evil, and spiritual lessons. The hundreds of long Indian names can exhaust a westerner's patience fast. While I lived in India I found the easiest way to get into these stories was via the cheap comic book versions sold on every newsstand. Bright colors, action-packed, simple story-line and in English, these are the same comics that tens of millions of Indian kids also start with. The true classics are published by Amar Chitra Katha, the Marvel of Vedic literature. You can purchase these graphic novels online from the importer below. Some students have scanned the entire Ramayana comic online to give you a sense of what you have been missing.
-- KK
Amar Chitra Katha comics
$2.50 per episode
From
Vedic Resource, importer of Vedic, Hindu, and Indian culture books and artifacts
The Ramayana, full scan of Amar Chitra Katha comic book
Amar Chitra Katha, Publishers of Indian comic books
Pocket parables
Zen riddles. No answers. A tiny "big joke" book.
-- KK
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
By Paul Reps
$6.30
Amazon
Sample excerpts:
A Cup of Tea
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"
*
The Moon Cannot Be Stolen
Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing in it to steal. Ryokan returned and caught him. "You may have come a long way to visit me, " he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift." The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away. Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, " I wish I could give him this beautiful moon."
Muddy Road
Tanzan and Ekio were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.
Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.
"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.
Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself.
"We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"
"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"
Calling Card
Keichu, the great Zen teacher of the Meiji era, was the head of Tofuku, a cathedral in Kyoto. One day the governor of Kyoto called upon him for the first time.
His attendant presented the card of the governor, which read: Kitagaki, Governor of Kyoto.
"I have no business with such a fellow," said Keichu to his attendant. "Tell him to get out of here."
The attendant carried the card back with apologies. "That was my error," said the governor, and with a pencil he scratched out the words Governor of Kyoto. "Ask your teacher again."
"Oh is that Kitagaki?" exclaimed the teacher when he saw the card. "I want to see that fellow."
Teaching the Ultimate
In early times in Japan, bamboo-and-paper lanterns were used with candles inside. A blind man, visiting a friend one night, was offered a lantern to carry home with him.
"I do not need a lantern," he said. "Darkness or light is all the same to me."
"I know you do not need a lantern to find your way, " his friend replied, "but if you don't have one, someone else may run into you. So you must take it."
The blind man started off with the lantern and before he had walked very far someone ran squarely into him. "Look out where you are going!" he exclaimed to the stranger. "Can't you see this lantern?"
"Your candle has burned out brother," replied the stranger.
The Zen of Islam
Sufism is the mystical third eye of Islam. The late Idries Shah, master sage, collected esoteric stories circulating among ancient Sufi communities, translated them into very fine English, and offered them to the world in this now legendary book. Half fairy tale, half parable, half koan, these sacred wisps of wisdom can still make one shout in the desert.
-- KK
The Way of the Sufi
An Anthology of Sufi Writings
By Idries Shah
$10
Amazon
Sample excerpts:
The Dance
A disciple had asked permission to take part in the "dance" of the Sufis. The Sheikh said: "Fast completely for three days. Then have luscious dishes cooked. If you then prefer the "dance", you may take part in it."
*
The Five Hundred Gold Pieces.
One of the Junaid's followers came to him with a purse containing five hundred gold pieces.
"Have you any more money than this?" asked the Sufi.
"Yes, I have."
"Do you desire more?"
"Yes, I do."
"Then you must keep it, for you are more in need than I; for I have nothing and desire nothing. You have a great deal and still want more."
*
A Tree Freshly Rooted
A tree, freshly rooted, may be pulled up by one man on his own. Give it time, and it will not be moved, even with a crane.
*
The Test
It is related of Shaqiq of Balkh that he once said to his disciples: "I put my confidence in God and went through the wilderness with only a small coin in my pocket. I went on the Pilgrimage and came back, and the coin is still with me." One of the youths stood up and said to Shaqiq: "If you had a coin in your pocket, how could you say that you relied upon anything higher?" Shaqiq answered: "There is nothing for me to say, for this young man is right. When you rely upon the invisible world there is no place for anything, however small, as a provision!"
*
Efforts
Tie two birds together.
They will not be able to fly, even though they now have four wings.
Best modern translation
Despite what has been said, the United States is not at war with terrorism in general, but with militant fundamental Islam; a clash of civilizations. At the heart of Islam is the Quran, and at the heart of the Quran is very difficult to translate oral poetry. Indeed Muslims often declare that the sheer beauty of the original Arabic verses is evidence of its divine origins. Translations of any sort are thus suspect, and so the English world is without great Quranic texts. Among the older, stiffer, and formal English translations, I have been unable to find a version with extensive annotations, a concordance, or even a decent modern paraphrase. For a book influencing current events to such an extant, this vacancy is a deep loss.
Your best bet to encounter the Quran -- an effort I believe is essential these days -- is via a recent translation by Thomas Cleary. Straightforward, unadorned, yet vibrant, this is the best modern English translation of the Quran to date.
-- KK
The Qur'an: A New Translation
By Thomas Cleary
$13
Amazon
Sample excerpt:
81: The Rolling Up
In the name of God, the Benevolent, the Merciful
1. When the sun is rolled up
2. and when the stars fall lusterless
3. and when the mountains are blown away
4. and when the pregnant camels are neglected
5. and when the wild beasts are herded
6. and when the oceans are flooded
7. and when the souls are matched
8. and when the infant girl who was buried is asked
9. for what offense she was killed;
10. And when the pages are opened,
11. and when the sky is stripped
12. and when the blaze is fired up
13. and when the garden is drawn near
14. each soul will know what it has brought about.
15. Yes, I swear by the planets that recede,
16. run, and disappear,
17. and the night as it darkens
18. and the dawn as it breaks
19. that this is the word of a noble messenger,
20. endowed with power, his rank established in the presence of the Lord of the Throne
21. obeyed and faithful there.
22. So your companion is not insane --
23. he saw him on the clear horizon.
24. And he isn't grudging with the unseen;
25. and this isn't the word of an accursed devil.
26. So where are you going?
27. This is a message to all peoples,
28. for any of you who want to be upright.
29. But you won't want to unless it is the will of God, Lord of the universe.
Cool Bible translation
At least once in your life you should read the Bible all the way through because it does not say what you expect it to say, no matter what you expect it to say.
Here is the translation of the Bible you want to read: The Message. This new street-wise paraphrase is looser than a translation and so irks purists. But it is storming Christian campuses and youth groups with its boldness, readability, and strong vernacular. Translated by one amazing guy, it's as far from old King James as one can imagine. For those who find the Bible warmed-over old news, The Message is like reading it for the first time.
-- KK
The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language
By Eugene H. Peterson
Available in various editions, among them: Small paperback, New Testement only, least expensive and a good start. Old and New in unorthodox design, The Message Remix, aimed at the MTV crowd. The one I would recommend is the full Bible in hardcover:
$27
Amazon
Also available as an audio book in several formats
MP3 CD, 75 hours
$40
Available from Oasis Audio
Sample excerpts:
Genesis 1
First this: God created the Heavens and Earth -- all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
*
Song of Songs 3
Restless in bed and sleepless through the night, I longed for my lover.
I wanted him desperately. His absence was painful.
So I got up, went out and roved the city, hunting through streets and down alleys.
I wanted my lover in the worst way!
I looked high and low, and didn't find him.
And then the night watchmen found me as they patrolled the darkened city.
"Have you seen my dear lost love?" I asked.
No sooner had I left them than I found him, found my dear lost love.
I threw my arms around him and held him tight, wouldn't let him go until I had him home again, safe at home beside the fire.
Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem, by the gazelles, yes, by all the wild deer:
Don't excite love, don't stir it up, until the time is ripe -- and you're ready.
*
Matthew 6
Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or -- worse! -- stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion -- do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
If God gives attention to the appearance of wildflowers -- most of which are never even seen -- don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Stress-free productivity
Getting Things Done is a thoroughly practical method of handling the little things that over time comprise the big things in life. I've been chronically disorganized as long as I can remember. Within a month of following Allen's advice - actually, within a few weeks - I was making better use of my day, getting far more done, and feeling happier and less anxious.
Allen's not-so-hidden agenda in getting people organized is not simply to turn us into highly efficient bureaucrats. With a clearer mind, we can focus on our meaningful, long-term goals in a more creative way. I'm not sure if I've achieved Allen's favorite state of "mind like water," but I'm feeling a lot more fluid nowadays. This book is full of tricks to help you get things done, but it also offers an underlying challenge: Just what is it that you want to do?
-- Marcel Levy
This is the third recommendation I've received for this book. It's pretty good. On the blogs there is a lot of chatter about Allen's system and its effectiveness for nerdlike people. I would have posted a review of the book earlier if I had actually practiced what it preached.�
-- KK
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen
2001, 267 pages
$9
Amazon
Sample excerpts:
Why Things Are On Your Mind
Most often, the reason something is "on your mind" is that you want it to be different than it currently is, and yet:
* you haven't clarified exactly what the intended outcome is;
* you haven't decided what the very next physical action step is; and/or
* you haven't put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust
*
Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because the doing of them has not been defined.
*
Give yourself permission to capture and express any idea, and then later on figure out how it fits in and what to do with it. If nothing else (and there is plenty of "else"), this practice adds to your efficiency - when you have the idea, you grab it, which means you won't have to go "have the idea" again.
*
In mind-mapping, the core idea is presented in the center, with associated ideas growing out in a somewhat free-form fashion around it.
*
The big problem is that your mind keeps reminding you of things when you can't do anything about them. It has no sense of past or future.
*
Most people don't have a really complete system, and they get no real payoff from reviewing things for just that reason; their overview isn't total. They still have a vague sense that something may be missing. That's why the rewards to be gained from implementing this whole process are at least geometric: the more complete the system is, the more you'll trust it. And the more you trust it, the more complete you'll be motivated to keep it. The Weekly Review is a master key to maintaining that standard.
How to live
The wisdom held in this brief book now informs most of what I do in life. Its key distinction--that there are two types of games, finite and infinite--resolves my uncertainties about what to do next. Easy: always choose infinite games. The message is appealing because it is deeply cybernetic, yet it's also genuinely mystical. I get an "aha" every time I return to it.
-- KK
Finite and Infinite Games
A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
James P. Carse
1986, 180 pages
$7
Ballantine Books
Amazon
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.
*
Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries.
*
To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.
*
The death of an infinite player is dramatic. It does not mean that the game comes to an end with death; on the contrary, infinite players offer their death as a way of continuing the play. For that reason they do not play for their own life; they live for their own play.
*
I can be powerful only by not playing, by showing that the game is over.
*
Infinite players do not oppose the actions of others, but initiate actions of their own in such a way that others will play by initiating their own.
*
Evil is the termination of infinite play.
*
No one can play a game alone.
*
There is but one infinite game.
The perfect nag
Life Balance is just a to-do list, computer enhanced---an extremely smart to-do list. It is to normal to-do lists what word processing on a PC is to writing on a typewriter. The cynical, ultra-critical nerds at VersionTracker rain praise and thanks on the program--- "cannot recommend enough;" "superb;" "elegant and ingenious;" "it's a way of life."
The "life balance" part comes at the start of using the software. You define a half dozen or so major life activities within which all your activities and tasks can be hierarchically outlined. Mine happened to be: Consolidate Long Now; Expand Long Now; Earn money; Keep fit; Maintain home; Explore. Then you break everything down into projects, tasks, and subtasks. The program keeps a tally of what you actually do (ie. check off your lists) and keeps you informed how your overall balance is developing. That's fine, though to me it's the least interesting feature of the program.
What's interesting is how dynamic and nuanced the whole operation is. Tasks can be defined as repeating, with definable lead times. Relative importance is definable; so is relative difficulty. Subtasks can be made sequential (so only one at a time appears on your daily to-do list). Location is assignable, so you don't trouble with home or shopping chores while at the office. Date-specific items appear on your calendar. And so on.
I thought at first that the program was too fussy. Now I think it's just fussy enough. I make use of nearly all the features. The instructions with the program are rich and terse, worth reading closely. For instance, one is advised to define subtasks that take no more than an afternoon's work.
Life Balance synchs happily with any Palm OS device, so I do the chore checking on my Treo 600 as readily as on my Mac. (The software works on Windows 98+, Mac OS 9/X, and PalmOS 3.0+)
It's a fair amount of trouble to maintain a detailed to-do list like this. Is it worth the trouble? Probably not for everybody, but it sure is for me. Several malfunctions in my work life instantly got better. I no longer have to derive and re-derive what I should work on next. That's huge. Also my desks got totally cleared, because I no longer need the piles as reminders of things I'm supposed to work on. That's even huger---those piles were oppressive to the point of inspiring arson. I now can clear all sorts of backlogs---incoming email, pocket written and voice-recorded notes, unexamined new books, etc. just because I have daily check-offable items like "Clear day's email."
I do more and stress less. Can't ask for more than that.
Writing this review was on my sequential subtask list for Kevin's Cool Tools. I might not have gotten to it if it weren't there. Now I can go check it off. One less thing in my head; one more thing in the world.
-- Stewart Brand
Life Balance
$80, downloadable, one free trial month
Llamagraphics
|
