The Heart of the Matter
August 27, 2011
The Creative Impulse

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Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)

August 26, 2011
The Table of Contentment

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Ta da! I am in the process of publishing my third book of (love/devotional/longing) poetry and want you to know.

Below is the table of contents -- a kind of poem in itself.

If you already are committed to buying a copy, please leave me a comment. I'm trying to get a sense of what the interest is out there. And if you are willing to help me spread the word, let me know that, too. Thanks!

1. This Thirst
2. Sometimes Late at Night
3. The Falcon and the Falconer
4. The Great Mystery
5. Watercolor

6. Some Might Call It Dancing
7. Give Everything You Have
8. I Share My Poetry Too Soon
9. Rumi and Kabir Bowling
10. The Paradox Supreme

11. My Poems Are Like a Persian Rug
12. Prisoner of Love
13. When You Walk Into the Room
14. The Seed Once Sown, the Rune
15. Speechless

16. What Moves Us All to Dream
17. Day Job
18. I Want to Tell You About My Master
19. Silenced
20. The Real Drowning

21. This Nothingness
22. Helpless
23. Golden Nomad of Ecstasy
24. Where I Live
25. Open

26. How to Listen to the Master
27. I Used to Write Love Poems
28. Moon Volcanic Leaper
29. May I Stay Here Forever
30. What We Really Want

31. How Many Poems Live Inside Me?
32. A Thousand Rivers of Love
33. Does Anyone Really Understand the Work of a Master?
34. There Is a Poem I Will One Day Write
35. The Impact of a Great Master

36. The Beautiful Sadness of Longing
37. How Can This Be?
38. I Was Walking Down a Country Road Today
39. I Pray at the Altar of Your Lips
40. There Is a Poem Within This Poem

41. Every Breath Is a Prayer
42. The One for Whom You Create
43. There Is an Infinite Amount of Poetry
44. What Is This Strange Forgetting?
45. The Wheel Turns

46. Water to Wine
47. The Beautiful Diamond
48. There Is a Fabulous Underground Club
49. Here's What You Did
50. Why Am I Always Waiting?

51. Dashboard Light
52. You Tune Me Like a Violin

I'm hoping that the WOPG store will carry it.

Cartoon

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2011
VIDEO: The Rhythm of Life

When words fail, dancing begins!

Thanks to John Dellasalla for the heads up!
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Creators on Creating

Inspiring slide show of quotes by breakthrough thinkers, innovators, and other assorted wizards. View full screen for max impact.

Idea Champions

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2011
DAYA: Neverending

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August 19, 2011
Be Who You Are

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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2011
"Inside, I Am a Good Man"

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Here is an inspiring article, from the Words of Peace Global website, about the impact of Maharaji's message of peace in a South African prison. Thanks to San Francisco Jim for the heads up!
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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2011
The Impact of a Master

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Friends sometimes ask me what the impact is of a Master, or, in my case, the one people know as Maharaji -- also called by his given name, Prem Rawat -- "Prem" meaning love.

Every once in a while, in response to their question, I try my best to quote from one of his talks, not wanting my words to be interpretations of anything he said, knowing how easy it is to confuse the ones I love with my own translations.

There are other times, however, when words, even his, will not suffice -- when the feeling is so absolutely radiant, all encompassing, and grand, that I am taken back to the time before language, the time when not even a single song has yet been sung.

This is the time I feel best about sharing what I know to be true. And one of those times happens upon seeing Maharaji speak at one of his events -- the most recent one being the Shrine Auditorium in LA.

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There, I see people -- many people -- having traveled great distances to see this man -- see, feel, and listen to what it is he has to say. They have put everything in their lives, on hold, to be with him, which is, really, the only place for it, especially now when nothing else is needed but self.

These people are being lifted by something lighter than air, unseen. After hearing this man speak, they do not want to rise from their seats. They just sit there, beaming, breathing, beholding something sacred that is oh so easy to feel.

They have nothing to say. They have nothing to do. They have nowhere to go, having already arrived.

If it wasn't for the house ushers, on the evening shift, they might still be there, smiling, soft eyes focused on nothing in particular.

I watch them stand and walk, eyes to the ground like divining rods tracking an invisible current of love. Others kind of bob their heads and feel their way forward, slowly adrift, it seems, in some kind of all-pervading buoyancy.

They are not so much moving as being moved.

And while they clearly notice others moving to the exits, they are not engaging in the usual conversations. Why speak of 9-5 when you are, though no effort of your own, now in the timeless?

Out the door they go, into the night, surrounded by friends, known and unknown, equally enjoying the gyroscopic center of every dervishes' dance since the beginning of time. Home base. The alchemist's stone. The sword. And the rock from which the sword was unsheathed, scented with the perfume of God.

Much laughter. Huge embraces. A hearty round of ordering something everyone shares, remembering a word, a phrase, a story, told just minutes before -- a word, a phrase, a story that continues to reverberate, at such a rate, that at least one waitress -- the one with the beautiful smile -- wonders aloud why the drinks she is carrying to her guests in a tray above her head all seem to be swirling from the inside out.

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August 16, 2011
SOUL BIOGRAPHIES: Charananand

Sweet video of Charananand talking about life, appreciation, & the beauty of turning within. Produced by Nic Askew. (Great work Nic!)

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 05:14 AM | Comments (1)

August 13, 2011
Kim O'Leary CD Just Released!

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If you are a fan of Kim O'Leary, the fabulous Australian singer/songwriter and former lead singer of One Foundation, you are in for a big treat.

Big, as in very large.

If you are not a fan of Kim O'Leary, you are also in for a big treat.

Kim has just released a new CD, Dreaming Up, which is, a sheer delight.

So log on to Kim's site, matey -- and do that download thing. If you're not sure, you can sample most of the songs.

More music! More dancing! More fun! More love!

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 06:27 PM | Comments (0)

Here's What I Know

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The sky is blue,
the grass is green,
my eyes are brown,
the God we are looking for
is looking for us,
the pilgrimage is the pilgrim,
there is nowhere to go,
nothing to say,
no seed to sow.
So why am I writing this?
Because
it can be no other way.

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

How Can This Be?

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How can this be?
There are decades of my life
I can barely remember, but moments with you
that remain indelibly impressed on my heart
like some kind of rock 'n roll rosetta stone
no one can decipher.

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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 06:10 AM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2011
I Was Walking Down a Country Road

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I was walking down a country road today,
absolutely sure you were just about to
appear around the bend,
moving like summer wheat towards me in a breeze
both of us could feel.
You would be smiling,
eyes on fire,
carrying the ancient message as you were
as if I already understood.
This wasn't a dream I had. No.
It was more real than the ground beneath my feet,
who I am when all thoughts cease
and the only thing left
is the kind of spaciousness grand enough
for all beings to move in perfect orbit
around the sun you are.

More

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2011
I Am Moving to a Blog Cabin

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Here is a link
to the most
recent
blog
posting
on
Words of Peace Global --
an upbeat rant
about
the need
we all have
to connect
to something
real inside of us.
(PS: Not just virtual friends).

WOPG.org
Illustration: Sara Shaffer

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:20 AM | Comments (0)

August 04, 2011
WOPG Launches its Online Store

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Words of Peace Global (WOPG) has just launched its online store -- a simple way to download music, videos, documentaries, WOPG TV episodes, and other goodies that delight.

Here's how WOPG describes its new venture:

"Before now it was nearly impossible to find those special, one-of-a-kind videos that were shown before Maharaji took the stage. Music would be released only to fall into obscurity... if you even heard about it in the first place. And you could only watch Words of Peace TV episodes at the times listed in your local TV schedule.

No longer. With the opening of the WOPG Online Store, you can find all of these materials and many more -- some of which have never been seen in any other context."

WOPG
Illustration

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)

Inside/Out Culture of Innovation

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If you are a member of an organization that wants a "culture of innovation" -- you have two basic choices: outside/in or inside/out.

Outside/in is the most common approach. It assumes that re-engineering systems or processes is the way to go. You know, crank up the rewards, have more brainstorming sessions, increase cross-functional collaboration, buy idea management software and so forth.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you, but it's often just a slick way of moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic. It looks good. It's promising. You feel like you are doing something, but the ship is still sinking.

The other approach -- inside/out -- is far less common. Understandably so. And why it's less common is because it's slower and, to a lot of left-brained business people, borders on voo doo.

The inside/out approach doesn't so much aim for "organizational change" as it does individual change (working on the premise that an organization is nothing more than a collection of individuals).

In the inside/out approach, each person commits to -- as Mahatma Ghandi put it -- "be the change you want to see in the world."

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Ah, personal responsibility! Personal accountability! The place where the buck stops. You! Me! And every person you work with.

It's not about re-engineering. It's not about new initiatives. It's not about processes, acronyms, websites, or whatever.

It's about mindset -- as in the "place" every single person in your organization is coming from.

The fact is: every single person in your organization already knows what to do in order to have a culture of innovation. They do. They really do. It's common sense.

Consultants like to make it mysterious, of course, but it's actually very simple.

Does your organizations' longstanding history of imperfection get in the way of each individual operating at their highest potential? Of course it does. Will refining systems and processes help? Of course they will. But the real deal is NOT a "program". The real deal is each and every person bringing their innate wisdom to the table every single day. Their highest self. Their best self.

If you can find a way to get a critical mass of people to be committed to inside/out change, you're 90 percent of the way there.

Simple.

Simple, unfortunately, is not the same thing as "easy" -- especially these days where so many of us worship at the feet of complexity.

Your thoughts?

Idea Champions
Illustration

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:45 PM | Comments (1)

Welcome to Mitch Ditkoff's blog about what's really important in this life: Peace, gratitude, love, joy, clarity, and the effort required to wake up and smell the roses. Enjoy!

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