Business Speaker in the Now
To be a powerful business speaker you must be present and live in the now. Zen masters use the word satori to describe a flash of insight, a moment of total presence. I have been fortunate to have experienced this when I was quiet and alone, surrounded by nature. I often prepare my business speeches outside on my patio at my Los Angeles home. The great Zen Master Rinzai asks: “What, at this moment,is lacking?” A similar question in the Zen tradition: “If not now, when? In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle delves deeply into this subject.
The Buddhists tell a story of a man running from a ferocious tiger. While the man is fleeing the tiger, he falls off a very steep cliff. Just beyond the edge of the cliff, he grabs onto a single vine. Dangling dangerously, just moments from his death, he looks up and sees a tiger above him. He looks down and sees the jagged rocks, hundreds of feet below. At that very instant he also notices a big, juicy, ripe strawberry
growing from the vine he’s holding. He grabs the strawberry, begins eating it, and smiles…as he falls.
Wow! That’s living in the now! It seems like people are usually obsessing about their past
regrets (creating depression) or constantly worrying about the future (causing anxiety).
Most people spend their lives somewhere other than where they are in the present moment. When we’re home, we’re thinking about work. When we’re at work, we’re thinking about the errands we need to run. When we’re on vacation, we’re thinking about the projects piling up at the office.When we’re at the park with our kids, we’re thinking about the ball game we’re missing on TV.No wonder we’re exhausted!
Try living in the now, and experience the freedom! Living in the present moment holds the key to being free – to be able to live in the now, without guilt or expectation. Did you ever notice how you can be thinking and thinking, trying to come up with an idea, and then you forget about it for awhile – and later the idea just comes to you? You’ve got to be still in order to be creative – and by “still,” I mean your mind must be clear and peaceful. Live in the now and as a Business speaker I will speak in the now-fully present.
“Yesterday is ashes. Tomorrow is wood.
Only today does the fire burn brightly.”
– an old Eskimo saying