Andy's Mind

Once upon a time there was a young monk who lived in a small, old temple in the mountains studying with his old master, Tetsu-Jin. The temple was indeed old, poor and not properly maintained. It was cold in winter, hot in the summer, the roof leaked and the food was limited. The young monk didn’t like his temple, he felt sorry for himself and other monks that they have to practice in such misery. But though unhappy he never divulged his feelings to other monks or his old master. (more…)

Wintry weather, especially the wave of extreme cold we experienced in Central Europe recently made me reflect on flexibility, adaptability of our race. Humans live everywhere from sweltering heat of equatorial jungles and deserts to bitterly cold sub-arctic Canada and Siberia. (more…)

A week ago I was walking down the street in Warsaw from a popular flower market. I’ve just bought some beautiful roses for someone very close to my heart and was heading back to my car passing other people, everyone preoccupied with their own business. Two guys immersed in a conversation passed me and in that short instant just those few words reached me: “people are dying every two seconds”.

I don’t know what they were talking about. Maybe they were talking about starvation in Africa or human rights abuses in China or maybe about just a computer game or an action movie. But this short reminder about impermanence and karmic bounds didn’t upset me, it just made me enjoy my living seconds more that day.

Communicating with people is the most important part of my work now. Encouraging, forcing, charming, coercing, negotiating, inquiring, judging, establishing rapport, motivating, reprimanding, understanding, directing, coaching – you name it. It means being in contact with many egos, some of which create the collective “ego” we call “our company” or “our team”.

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