Water for Thought

I've been telling people about the be line for a couple of years now, but recently several people have referred to the work of Masaru Emoto after seeing the be shirts for the first time.

Masaru Emoto is a Japanese researcher who is known for his books which document the effects that words, thoughts, prayers, intentions and even music have on the molecular structure of water. His experiments include highly magnified photographs of water crystals taken after words such as love or hate were taped onto containers of water. Exposure to positive words such as "love" created beautiful crystal patterns in the water (as pictured here) and, conversely, exposure to negative words created fragmented and distorted patterns.

I have known about this work since watching the movie What the Bleep Do We Know? The movie's main character, played by Marlee Matlin, is staring at an exhibit of Emoto's photographs, taking it all in, when someone next to her says “Makes you wonder, doesn't it? If thoughts can do that to water, imagine what our thoughts can do to us.”

Since our bodies and our earth are made up mostly of water, this is a very provocative question. The message of the be line is: we all create our lives and our world from the inside out. When you allow yourself to be, you gain access to your true essence which is love, peace, grace, vitality, power, brilliance, joy and more. Create your life from there. The words are printed on the inside of our products as a reminder and a reflection back of who you really are. If wearing those words close to your body are positively altering the structure of water inside, then that is the icing on an already sweet cake.

Masaru Emoto's work has struck a chord with millions of people. It is no surprise that it has also generated skepticism among some people. I'm not one of those people. It passes my gut test, which is not an official scientific method, but it works for me every time.

A New Earth - Chapter 1

How could I not write about Oprah and Eckhart Tolle's book club discussion of A New Earth? It is all about why and how to "be the change" - my favorite topic of conversation. Call me a geek, this must be what football fans feel like when their favorite team is in the super bowl, but my excitement lasts for 10 weeks.

I first read A New Earth three years ago and I am reading it again now. If you are not one of the millions of people participating, let me fill you in: you can sign up on Oprah.com to join the worlds largest on-line book club. For 10 weeks, Mondays at 9pm EST, Oprah and Eckhart Tolle are discussing A New Earth one chapter per week. Supplemental exercises and worksheets are provided for each chapter and if you cannot watch live, you can watch on demand starting the next day. I subscribed as a podcast through iTunes, so it automatically shows up in my library each week, a choice of audio only or video. The whole experience is an impressive use of technology and is very thoughtfully and thoroughly executed.

I'm already a little behind, but my plan is to summarize each week as it relates to the subject of being. So here is week one:

A New Earth's main purpose is to "bring about a shift in consciousness." Overall, the book asserts that as a species humans have been creating primarily from the level of our egos, a dysfunctional behavior that "if continued unchecked, can only result in their own destruction." The good news is, the remedy is within each one of us, if we will allow ourselves to be (Hallelujah!) which Tolle describes as "realizing a dimension within yourself that is infinitely more vast than thought."

More good news is that it won't take years to undo years of conditioned behavior. We need to find, in each day, ways to access the power that is only available in the present moment. Tolle offered some concrete suggestions for getting started such as :

1. Ask yourself the question "Am I still breathing?" The moment you become aware of your own breath you enter presence.

2. Perform mundane tasks consciously. For example, when you wash your hands, focus on how it feels and smells. Using sense perceptions in this way brings you into the present moment.

3. As much as possible ask yourself "What is my relationship with the present moment?"

It's been said many times in many different ways - all we ever have is the present moment. Since we spend so much energy focused on the past or the future, it's hard to grasp that statement, but Tolle said it in a way that made sense to me. He said we need to "become friendly" with the present moment because if we're not, then we're not friendly with life. And if we're not friendly with life, life cannot support us.

Perhaps the boldest statement he made during week one was that the Old Testament quote "be still and know that I am God" contained "the entire wisdom of religion in those few words." Wow, I need to think about that for a while. My favorite thing that he said was "you don't need a definition of what sacred is, because sacred is who you are."

The session ended with a "vital question" for all of us: "Am I ready to be still?"

ok, I'm inspired

I've recently become aware of a school in Iowa, The Maharishi University of Management. This is an official university with traditional arts, sciences, business and humanities undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The difference is that they offer "consciousness based education" and all students and faculty practice TM (Transcendental Meditation) because it "boosts learning ability and creativity, optimizes brain functioning, and reduces stress." After just a quick glance at their website, there is a lot more that I want to know about MUM, as it's called.

What's got me so inspired now is a video clip on their site titled "Peace from the Quantum Level." It features the filmmaker David Lynch who is a trustee and Professor John Hagelin who seems to be quite the smarty pants. Anyway, I love when David Lynch says that world peace is not just a nice "little old lady" idea, but that PEACE IS REAL and we need more peacemakers in the world. I'm running upstairs to put on my be peace shirt and my promise to the world is that I'm going to be a peacemaker today. Here I go...

Walk the Talk, Literally

As my excitement about developing "be U" grows, so does my anxiety and confusion. I'm feeling the self-imposed pressure. "How am I going to make this a robust and valuable experience for people?" is what my inner drama queen sounds like these days. So I decided to take my dog for a walk in the woods. My plan was to use that time to think, hard. And that's just what I was doing as we started down the path. I was thinking really hard about being when it occurred to me that maybe I should, I don't know, be instead. Walk the talk.

The moment I stopped thinking, I heard the sound of the leaves as I walked. I felt the sensation of the solid ground below, supporting me. I could hear the jingle of my dog's collar up ahead, such a comforting, happy sound. The fallen trees looked like sculpture and an owl's hoot reverberated right through me. It was all magic. Even the cool air on my face felt invigorating when earlier I was annoyed by it, wanting warmer weather to get here fast.

I don't know that any tangible result came from my walk, but I think that's the point. It's less about the results, and more about the experience. And the experience was so so good.

Gandhi Started It

I first encountered Gandhi’s quote “be the change you wish to see in the world” 11 years ago. It was painted on a wall at the Greater Boston Food Bank where I had just spent two hours sorting canned goods that would be distributed to local shelters. The volunteer coordinator thanked us all for our efforts that evening and for “being the change.” Maybe I had heard that quote before, but this was a galvanizing moment. This time I got it. My body, mind and spirit came to attention, and I heard something I had been waiting to hear. More likely, I heard something I had known all along: if I want to change the world, I have to be the change.

What does it mean to be when we are so used to doing? Who and what am I being in this world? Who do I want to be? Who do I have the potential to become? And how do I just be and allow it to perfectly unfold? I believe these are the most important questions anyone can ask and I believe the asking is as powerful, if not more, than finding the answers. It’s starting to sink in that, if I let them, the answers will gently, easily and with impeccable timing, reveal themselves to me on a need-to-know basis. Seriously, what more could I ask for?