While the quality of the video isn’t fantastic, this is a great performance from my sister and her college acapella group. In this song, she is the primary singer, and she rocks it out! The song is called Fidelity, and is from Regina Spektor.

Hey, if you can’t post YouTube videos of your little sister singing on your blog site, than where can you?

In part I’m happy that Eckhart’s teachings are getting this kind of exposure. The Power of Now was one of the first spiritual texts I picked up and it had a major impact on me. I had a very real and direct glimpse of “being” while I was reading his work, and had a strong emotional connection with the goal of awakening that he was sharing. I also, at the time, largely agreed with his spin on things.

Later on I came to see that his teachings were a useful introduction to the spiritual path, but didn’t really have the sophistication that other traditions had–including maps, teachers (who are accessible), and developed practices. It’s very easy, and I’ve seen this with family members, to pick up Tolle’s work, read it, be impacted by it, and then just keep going with no impetus to follow up those openings with actual transformation (that sentence had a ton of commas!). The fact that Oprah, and the mainstream world, has picked up on his work is a testament to this fact. It’s probably no mass awakening, but rather many of the same people who read Conversations with God and The Celestine Prophecy a few years before–who in my more cynical moments–I think are just getting a hit of something and then moving on to the next spiritual fad.

And, actually, that’s fine with me. I think the work it takes to wake up to the ultimate nature of things isn’t for everyone–just like getting a PhD in neuroscience isn’t for everyone. And there’s plenty in what Eckhart teaches that is just basically helpful (like trying to learn to be present), and so that the fact that Oprah is getting it out there is probably good. But imagine if Oprah became a hard-core yogi and then started emphasizing things with a tremendous amount of depth. Would anyone listen to her?

I’ll admit, I make “weekend plans” with other couples. And I use Google Calendar to do it and have played Cranium with other couples. Why didn’t they just ask me to be in this film? D’oh. Thanks to Duff for the hat tip. Hey, what are you and Jess doing this weekend?

Two Months on Retreat – This year I spent well over two months on retreat, with a two-month retreat at the beginning of the year at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and then another two weeks at the end of the year. Retreat practice has been extremely important for my meditation practice this year, and at this point I’ve spent some 6 and a half months doing intensive practice. Hey, it takes thousands of hours to master something….

Two New Companies – Before the two-month retreat I helped launch Buddhist Geeks, my pet Buddhist podcast project. Afterwards, I again helped launch an online media project with Falling Fruit tv. I am now working full-time on that project, as it started with substantial funding and a phenomenal team. As of this year, we launched three new podcast projects, with several more on the way (including a couple in video).

Two Moves – At the beginning of the year Emily & I had moved from Boulder to North Carolina where we thought we’d be setting up camp. Soon after Falling Fruit launched and we were drawn back to Boulder (hey, I’m not complaining). I miss my family, who are back in NC, but it’s hard to argue with things when they come together in such a dramatic way. Needless to say though it’s been a difficult year, moving across the country twice, and living in a total of four different houses during that time. Ugh!

Three Years of Marriage – Emily and I celebrated three years of marriage this year. Emily has been the most phenomenal partner, supporting me with all my projects, going on retreat with me (yes, she did the two-month course too!), and all the while deepening on her own path. She continues to amaze (and sometimes confound) me. I love you honey.

And just as I finish a period of contemplation, with a blessing, I’d like to do so for this past year: May all the merit accumulated during this past year be giving freely toward the benefit and awakening of all beings everywhere.

And as a geeky side note: I couldn’t find my size in the store, so I took a picture of them (above) w/ the iPhone and then e-mailed it to myself so that I could find them online later (which I did). Geeky, consumer overkill or Geeky, intelligent super-meshworking global mind? I’m willing to argue it either way.

Along those same lines it occurred to me today, as it often does in different ways, that I really don’t know what this life will bring. More then ever I find that my view on life is that things are extraordinarily uncertain. My mother-in-law’s car dropped twenty feet just a few days ago, a fall that could have easily killed her. Fortunately she is alive, but she came out of the accident with a cracked collarbone and a lot of pain. Tomorrow I board a plane to go to a meditation retreat. I may not make it. I lost my wallet a couple of days ago, and then found it while cleaning up the backseat of my partner’s car. Nothing is certain, on either the macro or micro levels. Because of this fact, and because I’ve seen it so clearly on a moment-to-moment level I really don’t get to caught up in how things will or should unfold in this life.

At the same time I feel ever more compelled to live a life based on values and principles of awakening, and I love more then ever what I’m doing in life, the people I’m meeting, and the path that seems to have unfolded before my very eyes. I care tremendously about people, those I know and those I don’t. It’s not always easy to connect in with this caring, but it’s there, and it seems to drive this life.

What I’m trying to get at is that the movement of this life, largely motivated by contemplative discipline and a deepening of realization into the nature of things, has left me caring more while also caring less.

In this first half of our conversation we discussed the notion of a “scholar-practitioner”–one who unifies the domains of study and practice in their overall path. Since I consider myself to be a pseudo-scholar (at the very least I’m a geek) and a committed practitioner I found this topic very engaging. Check it out here:

• The Scholar-Practitioner - Joining Theory and Practice

Also, I showed up as a guest on Conscious Business this week (although I didn’t say all that much), in a talk with friend Matt Westgate. We talked about the virtual companies and the value of being small and great, instead of large and lumbering. It was a fun talk, and Matt is a fantastic dude. Listen to that talk here:

• Staying Small, Staying Virtual

nascent - Beginning to exist or develop; Coming into existence; emerging

The Nascent Edge is my attempt at creating a more lively expression to supplant the common common phrases like, “leading edge”, “cutting edge”, “bleeding edge” or even “frothy edge”. While I can’t fully take the credit for this phrase (it does have a couple pages of results on Google), it’s the first time I’ve personally heard it used.

The reason I started using it is because when one is trying to talk about something that is at the very edge of some new trend or is radically new, one generally has to resort to phrases that have been existence for a while, “like cutting edge”. The phrases, because they are relatively old, end up being antithetical to what they are actually pointing to, and it leads to a kind of semantic embarrassment. The other option, which I poked fun at last week, is to play with phrases in a way where you try and have them point beyond themselves using post- and trans- and then using the word a couple of times (ex. “She is a post-feminist feminist”). This seems kind of awkward to me, so instead I’m trying to invent and adopt expressions that are already well understood but are doing the same thing.

Why am I doing this? Why do I care? Well, in part because I have a passion and interest in language (and just get kind of geeky with words), but also because the language that we use is the main means by which we point to, or communicate our values, ideas, and perspectives. It’s down-right important. Words can be used to manipulate as well as to inspire, and that’s why I try to do my best to stay at the nascent edge of conscious communication. Care to join me?

Most of the time I have a fairly healthy lunch at work. It’s hard not to when most everyone at work are full-out “health freaks.” Our audio engineer Charles recently lamented over bringing in Root Beer, and admitted that he felt a little ashamed bringing sugar into the office. So it was with slight trepidation that I brought in some leftover Pizza for lunch (stuffed crust no less). While heating it up in the kitchen, to my absolute horror, one of the hosts of our new health show, Modern Immortal, walked into the kitchen. Marco stood and talked for a minute about the recent episodes that they had just finished recording, and how stoked he was about the material. As he continued to share his excitement I looked warily at the pizza that was heating up in the toaster oven, hoping that he wouldn’t notice the smell of hot grease that was beginning to permeate the air. But alas, the pepperoni pizza could not avert detection. The timer went off and the bell gave it away.

Without skipping a beat Marco changed the subject from Biochemistry, to how meat and cheese are the most common allergins and in many ways ingesting meat and cheese is equivalent to eating a cup of E. coli. E. coli!? Yes, apparently the body responds to large quantities of meat and cheese (pizza anyone?) much as it does a viral or bacterial invader. It begins to produce large quanities of cortisol (an anti-inflamattory) and wreaks havoc on the body’s system.

No sooner then he had begun expounding on the dangers of pizza—and he did in such a light-hearted factual way it was hard to be mad at him—he said “have a good lunch” and walked out the door. That’s the last time I get caught with pepperoni pizza at the office!

Conscious Business represents the leading edge of business innovation. This podcast looks at the emerging world of conscious business and examines the strategies, leaders, cultural conditions and new markets that are driving its evolution. Listen to dialogues on revolutionary topics with influential thought leaders in all walks of business and professional development.

We will soon be launching several new shows on a number of different topics, with our aim being to create a community of listeners who can appreciate a wide-variety of programming with the intent of using insights in any one area to apply directly to their areas of interest. If you haven’t already, check it out and then let me know what you think…