Posts Tagged ‘matsumura yasuo’

Flexible Focus #67: A-Chart vs B-Chart

by William Reed on September 1, 2011

In this series we have introduced two levels of focus for the Mandala Chart, the 9 frame A-Chart 3X3 Matrix and the 64 frame B-Chart 8X8 Matrix, developed by Matsumura Yasuo, the founder of the Mandala Chart Method. You might compare them to two different levels of magnification in a telescope or a microscope, where the shift of focus instantly transports you to a new world. Only in this case the same lens can take you to either the microscopic or the telescopic view, in any mindscape you can imagine.

Moreover, like the longitude and latitude lines we impose on the earth for navigation, the Chart can help you get your bearings and understand the relationship of the parts to the whole. Without this you are like a mariner set adrift at sea without compass, map, or sextant. No wonder so many people are lost in life.

The difference with the Mandala Chart is that instead of a GPS (Global Positioning System), it serves as an LPS (Life Positioning System).

Lessons in Flexible Focus

Most people have great difficulty with flexible focus, perhaps because they lack such a tool. The history of civilization is filled with fascinating examples of people who were unable to see or appreciate new points of view. Sadly, the response has all too often been destructive, leading on a mass scale to war and genocide at one extreme, and intolerance and redundancy at the other.

Racism clings to a single and arbitrary view of other people, as if to say that one frame in the square is right, and all of the others are wrong. The only perceptions that are allowed in this limited view are those which reinforce the bigotry. The two sides are reduced to a black and white view that allows no room for color. Against that background read the fascinating research, Genetic Studies Show that Race is Not a Scientific Concept. The genes which affect our external appearance amount to a mere 0.01%. Under the skin we are 99.99% the same.

While hindsight is 20/20, foresight appears to be almost legally blind, particularly among experts and people at the top of their field. This has been true in the fast evolving world of computers, where people have made some embarrassingly short-sighted predictions, such as the Chairman of Digital Equipment Corporation saying in 1977 that,

“There is no reason that anyone would want a computer in their home.”

Guglielmo Marconi, pioneer in the invention of radio, was thought by some to be mentally unstable for suggesting that voice could be transmitted through the air over great distances. Decca Recording Company rejected the Beatles in 1962 saying that,

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”

Read some of the laughable bad predictions experts have made in the past. And yet predictably even ten years from now people will laugh at what today passes for common sense. So it has always been.

Why Stop at 64 Frames?

Clearly the Universe doesn’t stop at 64, so why should the Mandala Chart stop there? Theoretically you can drill down forever, but you will find that the deeper you go the more you return to the 3X3 Matrix view at that level. Mentally, it is similar to the process of juggling. It is easy to toss one ball between two hands, but more of a challenge to toss two three balls between the right and left hand. Only a handful of professional jugglers can to juggle as many as many as 8 or 9 balls at a time. Apparently in juggling the human limit breaks down quickly past the number 8.

The I Ching, or ancient Chinese Book of Changes, also starts with 8 Trigrams, which are combined into 64 Hexagrams, reflecting the same structure of the Mandala Chart. Wealth Dynamics, which is based in part on the I Ching, is also based on 8 Wealth Profiles, which combine into 64 possible partnership patterns. And of course the Mandala itself stems from the Buddhist description of consciousness, using the same number of frames. Apparently as in juggling, our consciousness reaches its limits past that number, and tends to revert back to the simpler Matrix view when pushed past the limit.

A-Chart eMandala

B-Chart eMandala

There are also time limits in working with the Mandala Chart. An A-Chart can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to fill out carefully, and a B-Chart Mandala can take up to 90 minutes. Beyond that it becomes impractical from the time management perspective. Nevertheless, in contrast to the unidimensional view of inflexible focus, a 2×2 Matrix or 3×3 Matrix already has 4 to 8 more degrees of freedom, and is well worth taking the time to explore.

As an exercise in expanding your awareness of the many dimensions to a task, try taking the time to complete a B-Chart Mandala. A good place to start is with the Template for a 100 Year Life Span. It is easier to do when the subject is you.

Flexible Focus #46: Lens on Consciousness

by William Reed on March 24, 2011

In the last eight articles we have looked deeper into the realm of the mind, looking through the lens of consciousness to see our life from higher, bigger, and deeper perspectives. And yet even from vastly different perspectives, it is all in the context of our daily familiar existence. Revisiting these articles will help you re-explore the territories where we have been, and see also how they fit together. These selections also correspond to the primary eight categories covered in the series, so this review provides an overview of one trip around the wheel, and also reflects the amazing range of topics possible to address with the Mandala Chart.

The images are assembled in the Mandala shown here, referenced from the articles and downloads below. In the conventional Mandala fashion, they are marked A (bottom center), B (left center), C (top center), D (right center), E (bottom left), F (top left), G (top right), F (bottom right).

Here are a few notes to set your thoughts in motion. For easy reference, and to trigger new insights, download the Mandala Charts and review the original articles from each of the links below.

MIND MANDALA BODY (From Flexible Focus #38: Flexibility without Forcing)

Out of your comfort zone…into freedom

Many people like the idea of flexibility more than the practice of it. This is understandable, for if the experience takes you out of your comfort zone, you may prefer the familiar to the flexible. When your body is stiff, then physical stretching can feel more like pain than gain. A similar thing happens mentally when your values or beliefs are forcibly stretched beyond their limits. The key to expanding your comfort zone is to have more degrees of freedom. A brittle stick has no degrees of freedom, so anything which bends it, will break it. The fear of breaking causes many people to retreat into their comfort zone when stretched, but rigidity is ultimately a zone of discomfort. When you have more degrees of freedom in your mind and movements, then you experience flexible focus in action!

A NEW MODEL FOR COACHING (From Flexible Focus #39: The Principle of Gratitude)

You are not the only one in trouble…Make the world a better place

One of the hardest lessons of flexibility is letting go of the ego’s attachments. Pride prevents you from achieving flexibility, because it insists on being right, being first, or being better than others. It’s companions are alike, inflexible, stubborn, righteous, and condescending. These attitudes have ruled and ruined empires as well as personal relationships throughout history, and of course are equally evident today. The ancient Greeks called it hubris (hybris), excessive ambition or pride leading to a fall, or to total ruin. In Asian tradition, pride is like the brittle stick which does not bend, but only breaks. The inflexibility of mind, also known as the hardening of the attitudes, is ultimately the cause of the problem. It is better to be flexible, like bamboo.

A NEW KIND OF NATION (From Flexible Focus #40: The 8 Frames of Life: Society)

Social Media is a classless…and virtually free territory

What is your place in society? At one time, and still in many countries, this was a not a question which you were permitted to answer or control. Rather, it was a matter of birth, circumstance, good or bad fortune, and your place in society was largely determined by people and circumstances beyond your control. Throughout history in various times and places, individuals and groups of people have raised this question, and asserted their right of self-determination, the right to determine their own role and mission in society. Now due to the momentum of such movements in the past, and the amazing impact of technology to connect people and facilitate communication, these questions are being raised widely around the world, not just in the traditional style of political movements, but in a brand new style of personal movements.

YOUR ENTIRE LIFE IN A MANDALA PERSPECTIVE (From Flexible Focus #41: Your 100 Year Lifespan)

The past can be changed…and the future is fixed

You periodically encounter popular sayings that life ends or begins at 30, or at 50, depending on the attitude and experience of the person saying it. It is a poor and arbitrary perspective really, and let’s face it, sour grapes living produces sour grapes sayings. Yet there are many people who lose the plot of their life somewhere along the way. If you look closely there is a plot, and although life’s drama unfolds differently for each person, there are underlying themes that are remarkably consistent in a meaningful life. The originator of the MandalaChart system Matsumura Yasuo created a framework using the 8×8 B-style Mandala Chart, called the 100 Year Life Span. He said that, “The past can be changed, and the future is fixed.” How can this be? Commonsense tells us that you cannot change what has already happened, and that no one can say for sure what is coming. However, using the Mandala Chart you can reframe what has happened, and you can pre-frame what is coming.

PUTTING TIME IN A NEW PERSPECTIVE (From Flexible Focus #42: Time Lapse as a Mandala Movie)

The Mandala Chart takes you out of conventional time…gives you a new perspective

The 3×3 framework of the Mandala Chart lends itself well to showing the relationship of the frames as a visual Gestalt, a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts. The bird’s eye view gives you a 3-dimensional perspective. But what about the 4th dimension, that of time? Most discussions about the 4th dimension focus on its abstract geometry, trying to visualize what it would be like to be 90-degrees perpendicular to the 3rd dimension, in effect looking at the transformation of a 3-dimensional object over time. This is not so difficult to imagine if you look at the effect you get in time-lapse photography, where you can watch a flower grow, or see a full day of cloud transformations in the span of a few minutes. Time-lapse in real time – it is even closer at hand than that, because we all experience transformation moment to moment.

WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GET (From Flexible Focus #43: 8 Levels of Consciousness)

The central premise…is that our thoughts create our world

As central as the number 8 is to the Mandala Chart and the original Buddhist framework of Wisdom which it is based on, it is not surprising then to find that in this framework there are 8 levels of consciousness. The first five are quite familiar. We call them the five senses: Visual, Auditory, Olfactory, Taste, and Touch, which are how we perceive the world, through our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and touch. The sixth is Ideation, our conscious thought, referred to in Buddhist thought as the Monkey Mind, because it is typically unsettled and constantly chattering. The first six levels of consciousness then make up the conscious mind, the part that we are mostly aware of. What gets interesting is when you delve into the subconscious mind, which has two layers; the Mana (Obscuration/Shadow) consciousness, which we refer to as the Ego, and the Seed (Storehouse) consciousness at the core.

A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF BALANCE (From Flexible Focus #44: Lessons in Life Balance)

How many things are juggled already in perfect balance…without any effort or interference on our part

The common word for it is Work-Life Balance, the challenge and stress of giving proper attention and time to both work and family. Part of the challenge is that every individual’s situation is unique. No one pattern fits all. Sometimes the stress is generated not so much by the situation, as by the person’s thoughts and attitudes in responding to it. Particularly stressful is the effort to give equal attention or equal time to everything. This cannot be done, though you can work yourself into a frenzy trying. At the end of the day, what really makes for Life Balance is not how you juggle the parts, but whether or not you maintain a calm center.

ABUNDANCE IN 8 AREAS OF LIFE (From Flexible Focus #45: My Cup Runneth Over)

Gratitude grows into giving…and is a principle seen everywhere in nature

In our pursuit of prosperity, we tend to take for granted the blessings that we already have in abundance. A Greek myth which made a big impression on me as a child was the story of King Midas and the Golden Touch. The King was granted a gift to his greed that whatever he touched would turn to gold, but the gift was a curse because he petrified everything and everyone he touched, turning it into a golden object devoid of life. Gold is as perennial in our culture as greed itself. While we talk about a heart of gold, good as gold, and the Golden Age, we often find that gold can bring out the worst in human nature, from gold diggers to Goldfinger. It is often taken as a symbol of wealth, the gold standard. But it is seldom seen as a symbol of abundance. Let your helping hand be one of Kindness, not a golden touch.

NOTE: The articles in the Flexible Focus series are updated with graphics, links, and attachments on the FLEXIBLE FOCUS Webbrain, a dynamic and navigable map of the entire series. It has a searchable visual index, and is updated each week as the series develops.

Flexible Focus #41: Your 100 year life span

by William Reed on February 17, 2011

The timeline of life

You periodically encounter popular sayings that life ends or begins at 30, or at 50, depending on the attitude and experience of the person saying it. It is a poor and arbitrary perspective really, and let’s face it, sour grapes living produces sour grapes sayings. Yet there are many people who lose the plot of their life somewhere along the way.

If you look closely there is a plot, and although life’s drama unfolds differently for each person, there are underlying themes that are remarkably consistent in a meaningful life.

This has been summarized by various philosophers in the past. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living, suggesting that the way to find worth or value is through deep reflection. Confucius described the timeline of life as embarking on studies at the age of 15, gaining knowledge and skills by the age of 30, removing all doubts by the age of 40, knowing your Mission or Heaven’s voice by the age of 50, following your intuition by the age of 60, and gaining full mental freedom by the age of 70. He died at the age of 72, so presumably there may have been more to the story.

Many cultures establish rites of passage at different ages and stages. Let’s look at the full picture using the Mandala Chart.

Your entire life in Mandala perspective

The originator of the MandalaChart system Matsumura Yasuo created a framework using the 8×8 B-style Mandala Chart, called the 100 Year Life Span. He said that, “The past can be changed, and the future is fixed.” How can this be? Commonsense tells us that you cannot change what has already happened, and that no one can say for sure what is coming. However, using the Mandala Chart you can reframe what has happened, and you can pre-frame what is coming.

Starting wherever you are, you can place your life in the perspective of a hundred years. It is certainly possible to live to be 100. There are estimated to be around 450,000 centenarians living in the world today, and a UN Demographic survey predicts that by the year 2050, the world will have over 2.2 million centenarians.

Of course the value of a life is not measured merely in its length between birth and death, but rather in the quality of the dash in between, an idea immortalized by Linda Ellis in her now world famous poem, The Dash.

However, despite your best efforts to make the most of each moment, until you take the 100 year perspective, there are some things that you simply cannot see clearly. The 100 Year Life Span Mandala Chart can help you gain clarity from that perspective.

It takes a good 90 minutes to several hours to thoughtfully fill it out, but that is a small investment of time compared to the perspective it gives you. Think of it as climbing a mountain to the summit of your life, and getting the view of everything below. You owe it to yourself to go there at least once, and if possible at least once a year.

Approaching the 100 Year Life Span Mandala Chart

There is a method for approaching the mountain of your life. We begin by defining 8 periods of life, the DREAM Years (0~19), TRAINING Years (20~29), CREATIVE Years (30~39), REFLECTIVE Years (40~49), MISSION Years (50~59), DEDICATION Years (60~69), REALIZATION Years (70~up), and FULFILLMENT Years (100). These can be interpreted as you like, but largely correspond to the stages of how we find and follow our path.

You do not gain perspective by filling it out like a linear timeline. Instead you start where you are now in your life, making notes in key words and phrases for the 8 fields of life (Health, Business, Finance, Home, Society, Personal, Study, and Leisure), for your current age and stage of life.

In other words, you start in the middle, not at the beginning. Next you go back to the beginning DREAM Years (0~19) and do the same from memory for the 8 fields of life in each stage up to your current age and stage. Then you fast forward to the FULFILLMENT Years (100), and fill out the key words and phrases from the 100 year perspective. Lastly you work back by filling in the stages in between, which will take you from your present stage to the stage of FULFILLMENT. In this sense, you begin with the end in mind, and pull yourself toward it, based on a full appreciation of where you are now, and where you have come from.

Whether you start this process young and unsure of your future, or mature and with greater perspective, pursue this process with hope and enthusiasm. It will help you navigate and appreciate your life in full flexible focus.

The purpose of this process is not just to record the biographical details and make commonsense projections. Instead, it is to radically review and comprehensively revive your life in 8 fields and 8 phases. If that seems overwhelming, it will be less so once you have taken the first step, and done it for the 8 fields of life in your current 10 year phase.

Help yourself then help others

The world is full of people trying to save others, when they cannot even save themselves. Physician, heal thyself. If you want to help others with this process, first learn to help yourself. You will understand the process better, and be better able to give others appropriate and useful advice.

If you know someone who has lost the plot of their life, or has ended up in deep trouble in one or more of the 8 fields of life, then chances are it is partly because they have never taken the time to gain a balanced perspective, or really consider the consequences with flexible focus. It may not be easy to sort things out, but improvement in one area will have a significant and positive effect on the other areas of their life as well.

And if you want a boost in gaining the energy and attitude to live your 100 Year Life Span in a healthy, passionate, and prosperous way, read Dr. Eric Plasker’s The 100 Year Lifestyle, and The 100 Year Lifestyle Workout. Ultimately it is our lifestyle, the choices we make and the processes that we pursue every day which makes everything come out in the end. If you think, choose, and act wisely, then you will not only lead a higher quality life, but the legacy you leave may well last beyond a hundred years.

SPECIAL NOTE: If you are an iPad User, the current version of the MandalaChart for iPad App is now available for free in the App Store under Apple iTunes, and I have created a 100 Year Life Span B-Chart for this App in English, for which you can e-mail me to request a copy with the words [100 Year Life Span Mandala Chart for the iPad App] in the subject line. Otherwise you can download it here as an Excel Chart

Flexible Focus #5: The Mandala Business Diary

by William Reed on June 10, 2010

Life and business have a lot to do with how we navigate. Where you go, who you meet, and how you spend your time, makes an enormous difference in the quality of your life and your legacy. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a compass to guide you where you want to go, rather than drifting with the tides and currents?

In The Dash Poem, Linda Ellis speaks of the value of a life not being measured in the dates on the tombstone, but by what happened in the dash between those years. With its reminder of the urgency and opportunity in life, this poem has touched millions of people.

The Mandala Chart gives you a flexible focus framework for looking at that dash, and for doing something significant while you are in it. We have already looked at the Principle of Interdependence in the 8 Frames of Life, Health, Business, Finance, Home, Society, Personal, Study, and Leisure. At the same time, each of these frames is actually a stage for a drama that unfolds over time. Whether you think of time proceeding on a linear timeline, or in repeating cycles like the seasons, you might agree that time is not a noun but a verb. It flows like water, flies like an arrow. It heals all wounds, and wounds all heels.

What you do with time, and how you engage with it makes all of the difference. Time is amorphous like an ocean. As long as time remains a subjective sensation, it is very easy to get lost at sea, as many people are. To get your bearings in life, it helps to have a compass and a map. The function of the Mandala Business Diary is to apply the power of flexible focus to the passing of time. This tool is designed to help you become a power user, learning and applying all of the principles of the Mandala Chart in the process of life work planning.

Although it can function as an ordinary day planner, containing a calendar with the weeks and months of the year, as a tool for the Mandala Chart it has far greater potential. Your skill in using the tool will improve with your understanding of the Mandala Chart.

The Mandala Business Diary was developed in 1979 by Matsumura Yasuo, founder of Clover Management Research and of the Mandala Chart Association. It has a popular following in Japan, but is different from other day planners in several important respects.

Mandala Chart format

It begins with a Personal Planning Chart containing the 8 frames of life, and a Mandala Chart for your business or working goals. Each week is laid out in a Mandala Chart format, with the central frame for Weekly Objectives and Results, surrounding frames for the 7 days of the week, and the 8th frame dedicated to a Review of Weekly Progress. There is also a MEMO section for notes and illustrations.

Multiple entry process

Whereas many day planners have you make an entry once, checking off To Do items as you go, the Mandala Business Diary has you make entries of the same information in several different places. The reason for this is to track your activities with flexible focus. The significance of an item becomes clearer when you can view it alternatively in the context of a day, a week, a year, or even a lifetime. There are also ways of tracking whether or not your goals are integrated synergistically in the 8 frames of life. This prevents you from falling into typical goal traps based on short-sighted vision or outside pressure.

Flexible time frame

The Mandala Business Diary contains a Year Planner, a Monthly Schedule, Weekly Activities, and a Mandala Chart One Hundred Year Life Plan. There are pages for Checklists, which enable monthly measure of your progress toward chosen objectives, as well as pages for free note taking. There is also an expanded Mandala Chart for looking at the bigger picture of 8 x 8, or 64 frames.

The Mandala Business Diary is published annually in a bilingual format, in Japanese and English, and of course the calendar year is in common use. There are a few pages of tips in Japanese, but not as much detail as found in this column. It is published in Japan, but can be ordered through Amazon.co.jp. Don’t be thrown by the appearance of Japanese characters on the Amazon site. Just follow these instructions, and while international shipping rates apply, Amazon ships products all over the world.

Although the process of using the Mandala Business Diary is not complicated, it does take practice to master it as a tool for flexible focus thinking and planning. The force of habit has a strong and unconscious grip on your thoughts, attitudes, and behavior. Without understanding the reason for the design of the Mandala Business Diary, it is easy to skip certain sections and revert to using it as a simple day planner. What we do with our time is what we do with our life. Ultimately, that is what determines the quality of the Dash that connects the years in between.

The Mandala Business Diary fits in your pocket or briefcase. It is a great way to capture insights and observations in one place as you plan your life work. However, if you don’t have the Mandala Business Diary, I have created a makeshift version of the Weekly Activities Mandala, which you can download to get started.

There is no problem starting the Mandala Business Diary mid-year, because in any case it can takes months or years of practice to fully integrate the process into your life work planning, and to fully engage with the 8 frames of life. Just start where you are, and create good habits by using the Mandala Chart in your daily life. Then watch the power of continuous improvement begin to work its magic over time

Imagine if your view of the world was restricted to what you can see in front of your face. This was the case for much of human history. It is hard to fathom to what extent technology has changed our view of the world, giving us zoom access to the outer reaches of space, the microscopic world, cameras transcending time and space, and the web connecting our world.

What if there was a tool that acted as a zoom lens for your life? What if you could step away from the fray to see the big picture, zero in for analysis or action, without losing track of how everything is connected? The Mandala Chart is just such a tool, acting as a viewfinder with flexible focus. In all periods of history, the people with flexible focus have been able to dance circles around the rest.

The biggest room in the world…

My personal belief is that the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. This is compatible with the philosophy of Active Garage to be always experimenting and implementing to improve. Increased access to ideas hidden in foreign languages and cultures offer opportunities for a new magnitude of improvement.

Until now, the vast majority of knowledge about the Mandala Chart and its development has been hidden from view behind the wall of the Japanese language. The purpose of this column will be to cross over that wall, and make this knowledge available for the first time in English. I have lived for much of the last 4 decades in Japan, working in my own business as an entrepreneur, in a career as an author, speaker, martial artist, and calligrapher, experiencing Japan from the inside.

We live in a fascinating reality, in which history repeats itself, and at the same time the future is unpredictable. Generations learn the same lessons under entirely different circumstances. We live in a world in which actions speak louder than words, and yet the pen is mightier than the sword. Proverbial wisdom comes in opposite pairs.

One reason for this is that the view changes depending on where you stand. Where we get into trouble is when we assume that our fixed view is absolutely right, and all other views are wrong. If wonder is the beginning of wisdom, then flexible focus is how you sustain it.

A tool for all times

The word Mandala comes from Sanskrit meaning essence of the universe. It is Hindu and Buddhist in origin, and for thousands of years has been used in Eastern religions as a means to enhance spiritual teaching and meditation. It was introduced to Japan with Esoteric Buddhism in the 8th Century by Kūkai, who studied the Mandala teaching in China, and it similarly spread to all of the cultures of East Asia.

Thanks to the work of Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875~1961), the mandala has come to be known as symmetrical charts or geometric patterns that represents both the human subconscious and a microcosm of the universe from our perspective. Jung found mandala patterns to be fairly universal, ranging from the rose windows of the Gothic Cathedrals in Northern France, to the Navajo sand paintings of the American Southwest.

Its origins in religion, applications in psychology, and appearance as cultural archetypes are widely known. But there is one less-known evolution of the mandala in Japan, the Mandala Chart, which over the last 30 years has developed into a powerful tool for life planning, idea generation, project management, and continuous improvement.

The Mandala Chart was developed by Matsumura Yasuo, founder of Clover Management Research and of the Mandala Chart Association, who describes it as the practical framework of wisdom, without the external aspects of religion. It has evolved into a marvelous tool for flexible focus, with a popular annual Mandala Business Diary, a series of books in Japanese on its applications for life planning, eMandala Chart software, and a Mandala Chart Association to spread knowledge of its personal and professional uses.

Mastering the matrix

The Mandala Chart works like a multi-layered matrix. The word matrix means the field from which something originates or develops, and derives from the Latin word for mother. It is also connected to the word master. The matrix is the key to mastery, because it allows us to flexibly frame and reframe our world. It has been used throughout history in many forms, from the artist’s grid viewfinder for making accurate drawings; to the Golden Ratio and Rule of Thirds in photography; to navigational grids and mapping.

The frames in the Mandala Chart matrix can contain text, images, or links, each of which forms a window on the world, empowering you with greater vision and mastery of your own space and time. The fun begins as you start working with the tools and templates, and the applications are abundant.

It is no surprise that the Mandala Chart developed in Japan, a culture which has mastered the process of kaizen, or continuous improvement, almost as a way of life. The Mandala Chart is a lens through which you can see the big picture, the small detail, and the connections all at once. In future articles I will show how this works, and ways you can use it to make continuous improvements in your personal and professional life.

The Mandala Chart is a tool for applying practical wisdom from Japanese and Asian culture to solving the problems of modern business and living. This series will run weekly, and in future installments we’ll explore:

  • The Art of Flexible Focushow to gain clarity and flexibility of mind
  • The Framework of Wisdomhow to practice the principles of wisdom in daily life
  • The 8 Frames of Lifehow to gain comprehensive life/work balance
  • Mandala Toolshow to give structure to your ideas and schedule your dreams
  • Japanologycool themes on ways of wisdom from Japanese culture
  • Thinking Inside the Boxconnecting your consciousness to the roots of creativity
  • The Temple of Templatescool templates to get you started and facilitate the process
  • Art of Abundancehow to get in flow and leverage your value

For a visual preview of what is to come, download the PDF Mastering the Mandala Chart.