Annotated Summary of a Presentation at the WHIS Talks Meeting Gorton Monastery, Manchester UK

November 3, 2017

 Julian Gresser, Chairman Alliances for Discovery/ International Counsel– WHIS (www.alliancesfordiscovery.net)

Albert Einstein famously observed:

“We can’t solve today’s problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

How might we creatively apply Einstein’s axiom to community problems of burnout, drug addiction, mental illness, despair, homelessness, and hopelessness that are today crippling lives here in Manchester and also in many other cities in the UK and around the world?

I wish to offer a new way of tackling such seemingly unsolvable (so called “wicked”) community challenges. My presentation is organized around these basic questions:

• Why?
• What?
• How?
• When?

Why?

Many communities in the UK like Manchester and around the world are confronting a systems challenge—a constellation of problems that are closely linked or coupled. For this reason, piecemeal approaches to these challenges will not succeed. They must be part of an integrated strategy. Of course, we can find leverage in specific advances and will build from there. I am a great believer in “base hits,” to use an American sports metaphor. I will focus my presentation on one immediate step—a first action– in breaking the impasse: restoring vitality from burnout. Once we cultivate the power of vitality—in the meaning of harnessing deep creative life force—we will be able to cope with many other of life’s challenges. In this sense vitality is strategic. (* See Julian Gresser, “Inventing for Humanity—A Collaborative Strategy for Global Survival” )

What?

The hero of my story is the Heart. The Heart offers a powerful largely unrecognized capability that when combined with the power of the Brain and Mind offers, in my view, the best practical pathway through the chaos and troubles of life. My non-profit organization, Alliances for Discovery  is developing a body of empirical practice we call “Big Heart Intelligence (BHI)” that enables individuals, teams, organizations, and entire communities to deliver measurable, replicable, and verifiable beneficial results in extremely short time periods. 

• • When I refer to “Heart” I mean not only the heart as a physical pump, but rather as an energy field centered in the chest which transfuses, transmits, and transforms two distinct forms of subtle energy in addition to conventional electro-mechanical energy. * (See Stephen Harrod Buhner’s The Secret Teachings of Plants 2004 for a remarkably clear statement of the unique dimensions of the physical heart.) These subtle energy forms are qi in the Chinese language (ki in Japanese, prana in Sanskrit) and love. We will have more to say about the unusual economic properties of love in a moment.

• • BHI can be immediately and directly experienced simultaneously as: a heighted sense of vitality, relaxation, empowerment, connection, joy, compassion, balance, flow, and love; when we open the heart to love, it is natural to feel a deep sense of gratitude for the gift of life. (See Julian Gresser, Laughing Heart—A Field Guide to Exuberant Vitality for All Ages—10 Essential Moves/www.alliancesfordiscovery.org)

• • The communication between the Heart, Brain, and Mind represents an exciting new scientific frontier examined in a recent BBC broadcast (See Heart versus Mind)

• • There is a considerable body of research on psychoneuroimmunology, psychoneuroendocrinonology, and neurocardiology that is advancing our understanding of the heart/brain/mind connection.

• • One fascinating example is the work of Professor David Paterson of Oxford University’s Merton College. Professor Peterson’s experiments indicate that there is a detailed neural network in the heart which is independent of the brain’s descending sympathetic and parasympathetic control.  (cited by Arthur G. O’Malley in his The Art of the Bart 2015; Mr. O’Malley was in the audience and kindly introduced me after my presentation to his important.)

• • The physical heart also produces its own hormones that can assist in the fight against pancreatic cancer.

• • The Heart lives at the core of the wisdom traditions of virtually all indigenous peoples. Egyptian embalmers retained the heart while discarding the brain and other parts of the deceased. The Heart was thought to assist the Soul in its transition to the next world. (See O/Malley, above.)

• • BHI’s Unique Value Proposition and Algorithm. There is an increasing body of practice seeking to integrate Easter meditative practices with new fields of exploration in the West, including mindfulness, positive psychology, emotional intelligence, and other emerging disciplines—all focused on enhancing personal health and wellness through caring and compassion for oneself.  In parallel there is a body of practice based on the principle of “paying forward” including volunteerism.  But the two bodies of exploration and knowledge are generally not in close dialogue. BHI’s algorithm integrates these two practices—caring for oneself and caring for others– with a third, the universe caring for us. Using our algorithm and process we are able to explore the discovery that the universe under some circumstances “listens” and is disposed to care for us, especially when we dedicate some of our creative energies to caring for others, and if we can attune our sensibilities to detecting the signal. We can learn to read and interpret these “patterns” of communication from the universe. The signal often arrives as a powerful image, a dream, or in as a synchronicity, in other words an apparently chance event that appears to be deeply meaningful. Enhanced pattern recognition modulated through the heart and mind has broad and practical applications in every sphere of business, especially in corporate leadership, wise decision making, strategy, and risk assessment.

• • Collaborative Innovation. WHIS’ community asset building model offers a marvelous application for BHI principles especially in building strategic trust within Collaborative Innovation Networks (Heart-COINS). In the last section I will explain how BHI and the WHIS model in combination can deliver an effective antidote to the challenges of burnout in local communities such as Manchester.

How?

In our busy and impatient world where the attention span of most people is extremely limited, the benefits of new ideas and practices must be immediately palpable and delivered and experienced instantly.

• • So, let’s try. How about 15 seconds? Please explore Move # 1–“Quieting the Heart”.  I am attaching the first Practice Note so you can track and measure your progress.

• • What about two (2) minutes? One of the most poignant and powerful BHI practices has been developed by my friend, Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk living in Austria. It is called “Stop, Look, Go!”

• • To enjoy this wonderful practice, you needn’t do anything special except to savor this unique fleeting moment and to allow space for gratefulness: you are actually here and ALIVE! In the concluding lines of Henry V Shakespeare writes: “Small time but in this small most greatly lived.” Now is our vital moment, whatever its form, shape, or color.

• • Enhancing Our Immunity Through Love (5-10 minutes)  There is compelling medical evidence that receiving love, and especially giving love enhances immunity and longevity.

• • It is perhaps easy to love your child, your spouse, or dog. But what could happen if we expand the ambit of love? The practice of cultivating love becomes even more interesting when we challenge ourselves, not from any moral or religious imperative, but rather, in the spirit of adventure, recognizing that love is the most powerful source of energy.

• • Here is a 5-10 minute exercise: 1. Simply notice the portals of the senses through which you experience love—sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing, or some creative mix of these. If you primarily experience love through one dominant sense—sight or touch, for example, ask yourself how might love be experienced by sound? There is a famous Chinese poem, “Little Jade, Little Jade” he called to her, not because he wanted anything, but simply to hear the sound of his lover’s voice.”

• • There is so much rattle in the world today that our senses are becoming dulled and our emotions are atrophying. This exercise opens us to the subtly and richness of our feelings and emotions which is closely tied with enhancing vitality and life force.

• • A next step is to expand the field of love to people we might ordinarily not associate with love—for example, a business partner, a customer, or perhaps a perfect stranger. Can we connect at the level of heart with them? Again, we needn’t label this a “spiritual” or “religious” practice. It is simply an opportunity to explore and to discover.

• • Paying Forward and the Multiplier Effects of Love. The most powerful way to interrupt patterns of negativity or the downward spirals of life is to hasten to pay forward the bounty of the world, however and whenever it appears in our life, without asking anything in return.  And the most powerful means of enhancing paying forward is to imbue it with the consciousness of love.

• • Love has five interesting qualities in economic terms. 1. Love is a “free good.” Similar to qi, universal love is omnipresent and inexhaustible 2. The smallest tincture of love conveyed in a singular moment can change a person’s life forever. 3. Love is undiminished and increases by giving. 4. Love immediately changes the value of money. When embodied in tangible actions that alleviate pain or enhance the quotient of joy of others, love can produce powerful Heart/Mind effects across within distant communities.

When?—An Immediate Antidote for Burnout

Burnout is a complex $ 300 billion global problem affecting many professions, trades, and industries, and millions of people. It is multifaceted. A major cause of burnout is massive relentless stress in life-depriving environments. Burnout’s symptoms include a profound loss of energy and life force, a spectrum of neurodegenerative and other physical illnesses*, a loss of joy (anhedonia), purpose, direction, and meaning in life, and in some countries like Japan, it causes sudden death (karoshi). Professor Christina Maslach and other scholars have pioneered a Burnout Inventory to detect, assess, and measure burnout. Yet an effective remedy for this complex syndrome has not to date been available. (*A correlation has been observed of burnout and “compassion fatigue” among caregivers with dementia of both patients and caregivers).

• • If devitalization lies at the core of burnout, the logic of my presentation is Big Heart Intelligence, perhaps in combination with other protocols, may provide an antidote for early detection, prevention, and restoration from burnout.

• • One immediately available program, presented by three allied organizations, Adventures in Caring (AIC), WHIS, and Alliances for Discovery is Oxygen for Caregivers: A Toolkit to Guard Against Burnout, Build Resilience, and Sustain Compassion,is available online for rent or purchase.  Four other titles in the library will be available by November 15. It is now possible for instructors and team leaders of health professionals and first responders in the U.K. and around the world to have immediate access to high quality instructional tools for teaching compassion and reducing the risk of burnout. This early app can immediately be useful to instructors and leaders in hospitals, hospices, nursing schools, medical schools, emergency services, chaplaincy programs and schools/associations/groups of all other allied health professionals.

• • WHIS and Alliances for Discovery are pioneering a unique multi-city pilot collaborative to introduce a twin app package based on the combined AIC Oxygen for Caregivers and BHI methodologies. The twin apps will be supported by Visual Matching Engine that will connect all members of a community by degrees of interest and affinity. The apps will be made freely available to several thousand initial users in these pilot cities. The analytics and data produced in the pilots will be shared freely among the participating cities.

• • This project well illustrates and advances the new field of “high impact investing,” drawing upon BHI principles. It promises to deliver simultaneously two measurable benefit streams: 1. a superior financial return and 2. a specific and measurable social return (SROI) at an extremely modest financial investment. We hope this initiative will appeal to “venture philanthropists”, CEOs and board members of visionary foundations, and the leadership of corporations who recognize that creating shared societal value is a key to competitive advantage. See, also, “Beyond Shared Value—Character as Corporate Destiny.

• • Celebrating BHI (Laughing Heart) Advantage. When individuals, teams, organizations, and entire communities embody BHI principles, a Heart/Mind field effect is produced –we call this “BHI (or Laughing Heart) Advantage”– that creates community social capital and abundance. BHI is a skill that can be acquired by entire communities. At the end of this Summary I am attaching a Technical Note that shows how this phenomenon can be expressed mathematically.

• • What might be a practical way for the Gorton Monastery to test this proposition in a specific sector of greater Manchester? We welcome Gorton Monastery to join the WHIS confederation of cities committed to delivering an immediate antidote for burnout. When is the most auspicious time to begin this collaboration? Now is our noble chance.

• • Nobel Laureate Albert Camus expressed beautifully the power of such a single decision. He wrote:

“Great ideas, it has been said, come into the world as gently as doves. Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we shall hear amid the uproar of empires and nations, a faint flutter of wings, the gentle stirring of life and hope. Some will say that this hope lies in a nation; others in a man. I believe rather that it is awakened, revived, nourished, by millions of solitary individuals whose and works every day negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history.”

Thank you for your consideration.

Technical Note: Laughing Heart (Big Heart Intelligence) Advantage in Organizations and Local Communities–A First Mathematical Expression

In light of the blog, “Reflections on the Multiplier Effects of Love in Enhancing the Health and Wellness of Local Communities”

I believe the mathematical expression in the above link should be refined to include love as one of its essential elements:

Compounding BHI Effects in a Smart Collaborative Innovation Network (S-COIN) (Initial 90 day trial) leading to Community Wide BHI Advantage.

∑=(f) (BHI_p1(Δ+) x BHI-p_2(Δ+)…… x BHI p_50(Δ+) X (OSE Δ) X PFM (Pay Forward Multiplier) BHI Platform Effect X S (Synchronicity) X L (Love) where (t)=90…. n.

In this formula:
∑ = sum
(t) = 90 refers to the initial period of the experiment, i.e. 90 days
BHI Δ = each explorer’s BHI which is continuously increasing.

Open System Energy Increase = (OSE Δ) = where positive energy, in particular the subtle energy source of qi within the Explorers Community is continuously increasing.

PFM (Pay Forward Multiplier)–where each explorer passes on a part of the benefits he or she is receiving without seeking reward or recompense.

BHI Platform Effect—where the Platform itself becomes increasingly intelligent and interacts with and supports the individual and collective explorers journey(s) in many ways. (See Section V.)

Synchronicity—an increase in seemingly chance but meaningful events. It is not certain whether Synchronicity is simply an expression or a contributing cause of the Laughing Heart/BHI Effect or both.

Love—where the multiplying effects of love are dynamically at play, including its influence on how a community’s money and other assets are valued and used.

Further notes:

• The concept of a BHI Collaborative Innovation Network (COIN) delivering community-wide advantage based on the multiple of the above elements builds upon the core principle of Metcalfe’s law which states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n²).
• BHI COINS are ripe for monetizing volunteering through the use of blockchain and cryptocurrency. It is estimated that the yearly value of volunteering in the UK and the US alone is in the $ billions.

Attachment: Basic Course Move 1

© Copyright Julian Gresser and Big Heart Technologies, November 2017. All Rights Reserved.

A Conversation with Master Li Junfeng and Master Li Jing Conducted in the Summer and Fall of 2015, as updated in May 2017

© Copyright Julian Gresser, Li Junfeng, and Li Jing

Abstract

Qigong Grand Masters Li Junfeng and Li Jing explain that winning at the level of Olympic sports is not just a matter of extraordinary skill. At this level every player is superbly qualified. The extra critical ingredient is Big Heart Intelligence. In Master Li Junfeng’s experience in coaching China’s women’s wuxu teams to over 100 gold medals BHI principles become interwoven as a way of life in the network of sport’s culture—in interactions with players, coaches, fans, sponsors, team owners, financiers, and the community at large. Ultimately, as Li Jing points out, victory depends on flow, which is the very essence of BHI.

JG: Master Li, along with your friend Wu Bin you spent fifteen years coaching and guiding China’s wuxu teams to an unprecedented record of gold medals and other laurels that brought great honor to your country. What are some of the secrets to your success? How does Big Heart Intelligence create advantage in sports?

As we were driving to San Francisco you said something in the car that I thought was quite an interesting observation. You said if you enjoy the sport and you enjoy the competition, you immediately have an advantage.

LJF: Big Heart, of course, good for anything. For sports, number one, “What’s the purpose of sports? If we understand the main purpose, already we have an advantage. Sports afford an opportunity for exercise and to enhance our health; second, it involves competition; but not only for competition; sports is also for happiness. But now competition has come to dominate. But here, also, Big Heart helps us to understand: what is the purpose of competition?” Competition is actually a game. Competition makes people more interested and engaged. Because people are more interested, they can become happier. Big Heart helps you understand what is the purpose; how can I enjoy the practice; how can I enjoy the competition. For example, take tennis or basketball. Tennis is played one on one; basketball is a team sport. However, the principle is the same. If you have Big Heart, you can enjoy the practice, enjoy the competition. If the other side skill not so good, you may win but you really don’t enjoy the competition very much. If the other side’s skill is very strong, very high, actually you enjoy the competition much more and you learn more. You play harder; you must be more alert, so you enjoy more. The competition provides the stimulus and incentive to train your skill to a higher level. This is the purpose. It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose. Even if the other side wins and you lose, you still can enjoy the practice very much. When the competition is intense, you say to yourself, “I really enjoyed this!” Actually, you also win, because you learned so much!”

JG: That’s really interesting.

LJF: We don’t care so much about the result. We pay attention to the development of our skill. The more you think and train this way, the more rapidly you go to a higher level. If you always win, actually it’s not so good; your skill can’t grow up. Even if you win for a long term, you are not winning in the way I am trying to tell you.

JG: I understand what you are saying. There is a famous movie Chariots of Fire which won many Oscars. It is about the Olympic running competition just after WWI. The British team was headed by two star athletes, Eric Liddel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Liddell) and Harold Abrahams.( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Abrahams) At least as portrayed in the movie, Abrahams was a truly great runner. He became the elder statesman of British sports. But Liddel was even greater. Although he was a fierce competitor he seemed to be guided and driven by a higher destiny, even higher than winning. It was his devotion to the sport itself, and also to his God; he was a devout Christian missionary, and actually later died in China. On the day of the competition Eric Liddel went over a welcomed the American Team which itself was headed by two star athletes, Jackson Sholz(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Scholz) and Charles Paddock (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Paddock). He wished them success. He understood the competition would drive the British team to even greater levels of performance. In the movie Jackson Scholz passes him back a note in which he wrote, quoting from the New Testament “He that honors me, I shall honor.” Eric Liddel and Harold Abrahams went on to both winning gold medals.

LJF: If you say, “I must have the gold medal.” you limit yourself. Only one person can receive the gold medal; what about everyone else? Does that mean the happiness of thousands of other people does not matter? If you cannot receive the gold medal, then you can no longer be happy? This makes no sense.  One thousand people watching but only one person can enjoy?  This is not sports; this is opposite from the main purpose of sports. If you have Big Heart you understand the purpose of sports and of competition. Through sports you can make your body healthier. Through sports you can enjoy the process. You practice two hours and you’re very happy. But if you have small heart and practice very hard, you don’t really enjoy the practice; then what if you lose?, you suffer very much. This is not good for the emotions, and, of course, not good for your health.

This is why when we speak of “competition” one key word, “friendship competition.”

JG: You mean friendly competition?

LJF Yes, friendly competition. When you have Big Heart competition is always friendly. If small heart, it becomes like war. We say in the Chinese Army, “You die, I live.” (Ni sy, woo huoh/你死我活着),; sports becomes like war. So this is about Big Heart and small heart. If I have Big Heart I want to win, but if you win, I learn from you. Congratulations! If I have small heart and you hurt your body, I am happy because you can no longer compete. But in fact you are not truly happy. You become a smaller person.

JG: I have an American example of what you are saying. A few weeks ago the great Hall of Fame All Star basketball player Magic Johnson came to Santa Barbara and led a marvelous evening “together” with about 1,000 fans. I was in the audience. He shared his philosophy on the “Magic of Winning” in sports and business. There can be no doubt that Magic Johnson is a determined winner. “Winning is a mindset” he said, “You must have the powerful will to win. In basketball it starts in practice…I was the hardest worker on every team that I played on, but it started in practice.” Magic told the audience that he carefully,  ever so carefully, evaluated what it would take to win; what are his weaknesses, and the strengths of his opponents, and he would plan out precisely what it would take to win; and then he dedicated himself, body, mind, and soul to this single purpose. There seems a deep honesty in evaluating oneself accurately and modestly. . “Self-evaluation is the hardest thing when you have to really examine yourself and be honest with yourself,” Johnson told us. “What are you strong at, what are you weak at, what do you need to work on. So I wasn’t afraid to say I needed to work on some things to get better.” Despite his fierce competitive passion, there can be no doubt that Magic loved the sport, he loved the competition, and he loved the challenge to continue to enhance his performance. Larry Bird, his great rival on the Celtics, pressed Magic into even higher levels of performance, just as you are describing from your experience with China’s wuxu teams.

JG: It seems that Big Heart applies not only to the players but also to the coach, and his or her relationship to the players. And perhaps there are subtle differences, although I believe you are correct in observing the basics are the same.

LJF: When the coach has Big Heart he knows how to train the players. Makes the players enjoy the practice and enjoy the competition.

JG: How does the coach do that?

LJF: Do not give undue pressure. This is very important. Actually, when I was the coach I never told the players, “You must win a gold medal.” From very early in my life I already understood this. For example, when I train my players in practicing with the regular sword and the broad sword, I help them catch the distinctive flavor. When you know the flavor, you know the reason you enjoy the practice. I tell them, during competition do not think that you are performing or presenting to the judges. If you do this, you will become nervous. I tell my athletes during the competition, show your form to me; I am the coach. During practice my players always present to me. It is no different in competition. I tell you how to do it correctly. You can make sure. You tell me how you do it. Don’t think you are presenting to the judge. In this way you are less nervous and you can enjoy more.

JG: Yes, that makes sense. You have established a relationship of love and trust with your players. They love you, and you love them.

LJF: Yes, if my player receives a gold medal. Very good. And if she obtains a silver medal, also very good. Oh, you already are at high level! Congratulations. Now we can take your skill to the next level. Another situation. Even if a player wins a gold medal, her skill during that competition may not be so good. You may be #1, but you are much lower than normal. Still not good. For example, in the past she jumps 2 meters. But today, only 1.95; even if she wins the gold medal, still not so good, because you are not realizing your true potential; you can do even better. So, don’t always think #1 or #2; you ask yourself, “Am I doing my best?

JG: A guess another way of putting the key question is how do you define Big Heart success? It sounds to me you are suggesting there are different ways to define success in sports. The conventional way is simple: you win. But it seems there is another way…..

LJF: Yes, when we are training you, you already do your best. That is success.

JG: Yes, that seems to be the point. Suppose for example you set a goal in jumping at 2.0 meters. Does that mean if you do 1.9 it is a failure?

LJF: Even if # 1 still not good because you might do even better. Actually, you lost.

JG: This seems a different, certainly unconventional way of defining success. You are defining success to mean you do your best…..

LJF: Yes,

JG: And not only that you are enjoying your practice. Do you care about the other side, or is that not a part of our success?

LJF: Let’s take football. If the other side gets injured and you win, this is not good, because it is not the purpose of the game, which is to enhance your enjoyment of the sport and to enjoy your life.

JG: Another interesting aspect of what you are saying is that sports– I suppose increasingly like everything else in this world– is becoming a business. Sports, particularly professional sports, but even collegiate sports are increasingly supported by people who have money. They want the team to win, so they can make money; better advertising and so forth. You see this everywhere. In my profession, the legal profession, in the old days lawyers would join partnerships and they would build up the business in a spirit of collaboration. Now all this is changing. The legal profession is changing rapidly. Partners who have served their firms faithfully for 40-50 years are being thrown out because they are not bringing in the same level of business as the younger partners. In the old days, if you bring in new business, “Oh, congratulations, how wonderful” is the reception you might receive in the old time law firms. In today’s firms the first question on everyone’s mind, I suppose because of the compensation structure, is how can I find a way to cut into your business or even steal your client. If I can steal your client, I can make more money for myself and be promoted.

LFD: Yes, everything for business, for making money; this becomes small heart. Small picture, only think yourself. What you describe is not only small heart, but poisonous and dirty heart.

JG: Coming back to the most basic question—how do you define success? What is the role of the team, and what is the role of the player? The really interesting question, it seems to me, is can we show that if you are a Big Heart player you can be even more successful, as the term is conventionally defined? So far you appear to be saying that even if you win but you have a small heart, in a fundamental sense you will lose. But what of the opposite condition? Can we say that thanks to Big Heart you will have a winning advantage in the conventional sense of winning?

LJF: Yes, this I also has been my experience. If you simply enjoy the competition and always do your best, you will be less nervous; then thanks to competition you will exceed the normal. (insert Chinese). So when you have small heart, I must be #1 I cannot be #2, usually you are nervous, have pressure, easy to have a big miss.

JG: This is very fascinating. Because what we want to show is that these principles of Big Heart apply in many situations. It makes sense when you consider what we have been discussing from the perspective of energetics, which is another way of describing the flow of qi that is closely tied to flow and power. Of course your performance will improve. And, if you couple your Big Heart to the mission, to an intelligent intention, your power and performance will increase by even greater degrees. And the more you’re relaxed and powerful, of course the chances that you will do better are greater.

LJF: I will tell you a story. When our team was making strong progress, our group political leader always wanted to address the team and commend them for their performance. He wanted to give a speech to encourage the team. “You are doing very well. All of Beijing City is proud of you. You cannot afford to lose.” If my team players heard these words, immediately they would become nervous, and then it was easy for them to make mistakes. So this is why I would not listen to the leader. The leader said, “I want to give a speech.” I said “No.” “Today, you simply relax; you enjoy a movie; we just do normal. You cannot give a speech. By giving a speech you will press your team, telling them they must win; that is small heart. Small heart, usually very selfish; small heart with selfish, always nervous, the Mind becomes narrow.

LJF: So far we have discussed the player and the coach. Big Heart also applies to the fans, to the audience. If Americans are watching the Olympics, of course they want their national team to win. But they also want to enjoy the competition. If the American side wins, everyone says, “Oh, very good! You played very well.” But they also want to say this about the opposite side as well.

JG: There is another famous movie, The Natural about a baseball pitcher with unusual talent. In that movie a fan was so filled with competition and hatred, he actually injured the hero of the movie (played by Robert Redford) so that his team would win.

LJF: You will find many such examples in all walks of life.

JG: I have a personal story to tell you. My mother was nine times U.S. Women’s Chess Champion. During the competition her chief opponent also a women’s champion used to sit at the other side of the table beaming hatred at her in order to unsettle her Mind. It was actually the opposite of what you are saying. How can I destroy the other woman? That is all they would think about. This is actually how women’s chess was practiced in those intense competitions. Perhaps international chess championships have changed. I believe the present world women’s champion is from China.

JG: Let’s discuss for a few moments the link between Big Heart, health, and sports. For example, what do you think about the use of steroids?
LJF: Steroids are about unfair competition; they are not sports. They are not good for health or sports or really true competition.

I would like to repeat what is the meaning of Big Heart. Big Heart means to see the Big Picture and the Long Term. If you want to see the long term benefit, Big Heart also means to purify the Heart.

JG: OK, so here’s an interesting question. You have Big Heart, you see the Big Picture. Now you have a sports event. It is very easy with this view to see how the proceeds of this event might be recycled back to society.

LJF: Now we go to the main point.  Most sports today already head in the wrong way; only for business. This is why the role of the coach is central, because he or she knows how to train the players–so they are healthy, enjoy the practice, and enjoy the competition. It is easy to win under these circumstances.

JG: In our conversation today we have mentioned three distinct participants—the player, the coach, and the fans; but there is also the producers, the financiers, and the community, society. I think today very few people who are engaged in sports say to themselves the purpose of sports is to enrich the community or society at large. Few people, it seems today, think in these terms at all. But if you have the Big Picture you will be concerned about enriching the health and happiness of the players and the fans; and of course this will naturally have positive ripple effects and become a force of convergence of Big Heart for the community as a whole. If the people who finance sports understand that sports are at least, potentially, a wonderful vehicle to create value for society, then the players and coaches will have this sense as well. Naturally, it might follow that a significant part of the proceeds under this model might be returned or reinvested in communities themselves.

It seems that once people begin to think about the Big Picture all sorts of new possibilities come to mind. For example, think of how this Big Heart model might be applied in the context of U.S.-China relations. One might envision Big Heart sports event where all parties hold the Big Heart Big Picture. One might even conceive multinational teams including both Chinese and other international players. Once the perspective changes, the unimaginable becomes possible.

JG: Yet in reality in most competitions there are elements of Big and small heart combined. The Big Heart player can see the field better, understands the situation better, is more intelligent because she or he understands and feel from the heart and therefore is more adaptive; such a player for this reason will often have a decisive advantage. Because if you know what is happening in the field; you know who is strong, who is weak, where there is leverage; you can see stereoscopically; you see the whole picture with a Big Heart.

LJF: The coach wants you to see everything; but many players cannot. We train players and their coaches to open their hearts so that naturally they are able to see the Big Picture.

Li Jing: From our point of view when we get to the professional level, we don’t really speak that much about or train at the level of skill. Rather, we train at the level of a state of flow.

JG: Let me write down precisely what you just said, because it is very interesting. What you are saying is at the highest level, it is no longer just a matter of skill; it is a competition over a state of consciousness.

Li Jing: Yes, in other words, it not only about psychology but really the state of flow.

JG: I would like you to watch this video for a few moments of Magic Johnson when he was at his prime. He is in what appears in a perfect flow state for his team but also with the competition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Qbo0WqvOI

LJF: Wait a moment. This is very difficult to explain. In Sheng Zhen Big Heart practice we speak of returning to the origin, this is a state of joining: you join practice, you join the competition.

JG: What you are saying, as I understand it, is that once you reach a very high level of skill, victory is decided by the flow state. Of course, you must of high skill. But there is something else. It is clear in Chariots of Fire that Eric Liddel understood this. He was a natural. And we are not surprised that he trained close to nature, by running in the Scottish Highlands, breathing in the healing balm and bounty of the nature.

There is a professor at the University of Chicago Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and he has written a bestselling book Flow—The Psychology of Optimal Experience. But even he assumes this flow is the product of the Brain and the Mind. He seems to ignore the primary role of Heart.

The key insight which you have provided to me today is that Big Heart and Flow are very closely related. Is that correct?

Li Jing: Yes, that is so.

JG: So, finally, what is the secret of how we can get into a state of flow, from the perspective of Big Heart? Can you express it in the fewest words?

LJF: First, you know how to synchronize your movements, how to help each other. When you know how to synchronize, you understand that you cannot focus your Mind on one point, and forget other points. This is the main point. If you focus only on one point, you cannot flow, because your Mind stops at that point. For example, if you are focusing on point # 1 and then bounce to # 3, how can you connect these points and also with # 2?

JG: It seems to me this process of “knowing” is not only with the Head?

LJF: If only from Mind, your Mind will demand proof–proof by numbers. But with Heart you can know without proof. Your Heart can feel. Maybe there is no proof but you can understand instantly, because you can feel. The Mind will insist on numbers. But the Heart knows by feeling without numerical proof.

JG: So it seems you are saying that the process of true “knowing” is not in the Head, but in the Heart. And that the Heart can feel and know. It is the consciousness of the Heart.

LJF: Yes.

JG: There is a very famous essay, The Unfettered Mind, by the Zen Master Takuan Soho on his Advice to the Swordman, Miyamoto Musashi, who was not only one of Japan’s greatest sword masters but also a distinguished artist, painting under the name Niten. The main question he addressed in this essay is: Where should the Mind be in combat?

He wrote: “When the Mind biased in one place and lacking in another, it is called “one sided Mind”…Not allowing the Mind to stop in one place is the discipline. Not stopping the Mind is object and essence. Put nowhere, it will be everywhere. Even when moving the Mind outside the body, if it is sent in one direction, it will be lacking in nine others. If the Mind is not restricted to just one direction, it will be in all ten. It is like a ball riding a swift current; we respect the Mind that flows on like this and does not stop for an instant in any place.”

In martial arts when a warrior’s Mind focuses only on one thing, he or she is dead.

LJF: Actually, martial arts reflect a basic principle of Mind. It is the same in sports and many other applications.

JG: A closely related question which has a direct bearing on flow is the place of fear. In combat, martial arts or sports, how do we deal with fear or anger? Where is the Mind at the critical point(s)?

LJF: If your Mind is at peace, it is easy to win. When you are in a state of peace, this means you are relaxed. Your Mind is clear. When you are angry the Mind is not clear, the qi already murky. You will make the wrong decision. In the Chinese Army, if the leader is angry, we know that it s easy to make big mistakes, to do the wrong thing. Thus the peaceful Mind is also brave Mind (勇敢) Yǒnggǎn). The Chinese Army is always training this fundamental quality of character.

JG: So the last question is how do you deal with fear, which can be the main disruptive influence of flow?

LJF: In Chinese culture we say, “If your skill is high, you will not be afraid.”  This is why training the student is fundamental. When you have this skill, you know all is not lost.

JG: In Japan there was another famous dialogue between the warrior/shogun (chief general) and the Zen teacher Bukko.

Tokimune: “Of all the ills of life, fear is the worst. How can I be free of it?”

Bukko: “You must shut off the place where fear comes from?”

Tokimune: “Where does fear come from?”

Bukko: “It comes from Tokimune.”

Tokimune: “How do I abandon Tokiumne?”

Bukko: “You must cut off all thinking.”

Tokimune: “How do I cut off all thinking?”

Bukko: “You must plunge yourself into meditation and forget yourself.”*

LJF: In Chinese culture also many teachers tell their students to “cut off the fear.” But for me, this is not that helpful. Everyone believes this teaching is useful. Students, grandfathers, grandmothers; they all seek to cut off the fear. But the problem is how to cut off fear?

JG: The answer in some schools of Zen is you simply acknowledge and are present with the fear, and it will eventually subside and dissolve. Personally, I have not found this instruction that helpful, especially in situations where you must take immediate and effective action. Your answer seems to be you open your heart. In Japanese culture……

LJF: Not only Japanese culture; in China as also. Even the coaches tell their players in this way. “Don’t have fear! Cut off the fear! Don’t be nervous! And what happens? The player becomes more nervous and more fearful. It easy to lose your balance. So we say, “open your heart” and naturally the fear dissolves.

JG: In sum, it would appear the state of flow is also a state of no fear. When you Open Your Heart, you dissolve your small self; and when your small self dissolves, your fear that feeds on a limited view of the world, subsides. When you Open Your Heart, you connect to your original source of power. You are going to the root– the essence–at the emotional level, the energetic level, and the spiritual level. Things then naturally come into balance.  It appears this is what you are calling “flow.”*

References:

• Grand Master Li Junfeng—was the chief coach of the national Chinese women’s wuxu teams, guiding them to over 100 gold medals. His coaching skills were recognized as a national treasure. https://alliancesfordiscovery.org/guide/laughing-heart/conversations-with-li-junfeng/
• Sheng Zhen–http://shengzhen.org/
• Grand Master Li Jing taiji sheng gong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaordGcPGOc
• Chariots of Fire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSav51fVlKU
• On Magic Johnson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9BH7C49WEI
• The Natural— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXbSLuKSk08
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXIeFJCqsPs
• Takuan Soho, The Unfettered Mind: Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0088Q9RRK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
• * Trevor Legget, Zen and the Ways https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Ways-Routledge-Library-Editions/dp/1138659045
• * A close equivalent in Chinese culture of a pure state of flow is wuwei (無爲), the natural uncontrived way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei

Experiencing

• How to experience Laughing Heart consciousness in 15 seconds?
• Why does Laughing Heart instantly change our powers of perception?
• How to think like a genius at 94?
• Why is BHI a key to exuberant vitality in our older (50+) years?
• How is it possible for a 78 year old qigong master to get off a 15 hour plane ride from Tokyo to New York and dive into conducting a two day training program without even being tired?
• Why is Beauty as source of exuberant vitality?
• How to open the gates of experiencing Nature to receive and to comprehend the “signals” from all living things?
• What is the connection of Laughing Heart to creative life force and vital power?

Exploring

• Why will Laughing Heart temper grandiosity and provide a balance to the excesses of a soaring sense of vitality and exuberance?
• What are some exciting new scientific frontiers and domains of exploration involving BHI, neuroscience, and neurocardiology? And quantum physics? What are some immediate practical applications of these insights?
• How does BHI enable us to “feel” the Future?
• How does BHI enable us to “change” the past?
• Why are music, qi, love, and healing intimately related?
• In what specific ways does Big Heart IQ extend and enhance the body of work on emotional intelligence?
• What are some exciting parallels between BHI and quantum physics?
• Why is Scrooge’s transformation a model of increased Big Heart IQ? What caused it?
• Might it be possible to “download” the creative energies of history’s great musical geniuses into our living cells and enhance their metabolism and vitality?
• What is “intertidal” thinking; why is it useful and how can you cultivate it most enjoyably?
• How are Big Heart IQ, sustainability, and the management of the contagion of stress and acute busyness inter-tidally connected?
• What are some of the most interesting intersections between BHI and the creative arts? What new and interesting forms might a new genre of “emergent” art take?

Applying

• How to Create Your Own Luck? Why do we become more powerful and alive the more we give away the bounty of our good fortune?
• Why is “Seeing the Big Picture” enabled by BHI intimately related to risk assessment? How can BHI enable us to spot the deeper patterns and trends that are usually filtered out by our brain-centric tools and analytic intelligence?
• Why is BHI the foundation for “strategic trust” in all major long term collaborations; how practically can you build strategic trust?
• How to measure Laughing Heart Advantage?
• How to go behind the mask in negotiations?
• How to negotiate artfully with the “shadow” players?
• How to predict the Great Florence Earthquake and prevent western civilization’s greatest art treasures from collapsing in rubble?
• How to turn our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh in dealing with the most serious challenges facing the world today?
• What is the relationship of Big Heart IQ and IP portfolio development?
• How can Big Heart IQ help financial portfolio or wealth managers?
• What are some of the most practical intersections of Big Heart IQ and commercial, social, and public innovation?
• How might Big Heart IQ measurably enhance the effectiveness of mediators and others involved in conflict management?
• What is the most urgent decision you face right now requiring wisdom and good judgment, and how might even a modest increase in Big Heart IQ help you?
• What is the most practical way to integrate Big Heart IQ into the Global Reporting Initiative sustainability accounting procedures?
• How can you best measure Big Heart Advantage? How can the proposed mathematical equation for BHA be refined?
• What is the smartest way to gamify Big Heart IQ by analogy to Lumosity?
• How can Big Heart IQ be most effectively presented to the captains of the 100 most imaginative and far sighted companies and non-profit organizations in the world?
• What profession is in greatest need of a Big Heart IQ uplift?
• What are implications of Big Heart IQ in enhancing our political discourse?

Expanding

• How can BHI principles and Big Heart IQ become part of the DNA of sustainable cities of the future? How might BHI enrich our definition of “sustainability”?
• How will linking the systematic development of Big Heart IQ with economically “strategic” technologies and industries create massive new jobs and stimulate economic growth?
• How can Big Heart IQ provide fresh insights in dealing with poverty, cruelty, ignorance, fanaticism, illiteracy, peace keeping, climate turbulence, loss of biodiversity, fear, loneliness, loss of meaning, and all the other forces in the world today that divide us?
• What is required to reach a BHI inflection point to stimulate a cascade of self-reinforcing virtuous circles?
• What are other exciting questions that we must add to the list?
• What must we do to inspire every person with a generous heart and noble idea to join forces with us?
• What might our world look like in five years if BHI becomes part of a global meme? If we were to “backlight” this alternative future, starting from the year 2022, what are the critical milestones that have enabled this sea change?