October 25, 2012 | 10:33 am

How to win a bar fight at a barmitzvah (and other business skills gleaned from Parsha Lech-Lecha)

Posted by Marcus J Freed

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Officially, Marcus is a lover, not a fighter. "But when the blast of war blows in our ears/ then imitate the action of a tiger"...

The unexpurgated title of this article is How to win a bar fight at a barmitzvah, or, how to overcome your current work challenges, enjoy success in the area of your calling and fight the good fight.

Nobody expects a genuine bar fight to break out at a bartmizvah party but that is what happened in the lobby of the banqueting hall at a friend's coming-of-age party. Someone had accidentally provoked partygoers from a Gipsy wedding that was taking place in the adjoining banqueting hall, and a ruckus broke out in the lobby.

The host immediately sprung into action, bowed his head low, spread his arms and ran towards the troublemakers, driving them back and knocking them off their feet. Another guest, an ex-serviceman who served two tours of duty with the British army in former Yugoslavia, immediately locked down the entrance to our party to stop any trouble getting in - or anybody getting out. Within minutes, the whole situation was quelled and the merrymaking resumed.

King Solomon taught ‘there is a time for war and a time for peace’ (1) and this often applies to our working life. Hopefully we are not literally at war with our colleagues, but there is a warlike quality that can be helpful when we want to get a job done. When we bring passion and enthusiasm to a project, we can overcome the negativity of other people. We can also battle against our own doubts, procrastination or non-productivity, and fight our own self-defeating behaviours.

The Kabbalists describe the patriarch Abraham as the embodiment of lovingkindness, but part of his ability was to know when it was time to fight. A lesser-known story is when his nephew Lot was kidnapped by neighbouring kings, and Abraham immediately mobilised a fighting force, executed a night-time raid, rescued Lot and defeated the enemy to great acclaim (2). What differentiated him from other vanquishers was that he refused to take unnecessary spoils of war; his focus was on completing the objective rather than gaining a selfish personal bounty.

Even the ancient yogis, the people who are most associated with peace and matters of the spirit, begin their key book The Bhagavad Gita with the fratricidal Mahabharata war on the battlefield. This is typically understood as the internal battlefield of overcoming one’s negative patterns, but nonetheless there is still a fight to reach inner peace.

When showing up for work we can be faced with unexpected challenges such as personality conflicts – the equivalent of the bar fight – but we can overcome obstacles when we commit 100% to the process. When we make the task about ourselves – ‘what can I get out of this?’ – we can use up unnecessary energy, but when we are focused on our objective and committed to positive outcomes such as helping other people, success lies within reach.

“When the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of a tiger…” Henry V, III:i.

Marcus J Freed
Marcus is CEO of boutique training company Freedthinking (www.freedthinking.com) and creator of Bibliyoga (www.bibliyoga.com). Buy his new book at www.marcusjfreed.com. My, that's a lot of URLs...

RESOURCES
How to apply this in the boardroom: Consider an area of work where you are under-performing. What is the key obstacle you are facing? Does it appear to be another person, your lack of interest, personal fear, or something else? Identify and list as many obstacles as possible, strategise how you can overcome them, and go for it! Here are five steps to work with:
1. Identify your obstacles
2. Identify your objective
3. Begin and commit 100% to the process…play to win!
4. Stay aware of how you are serving others rather than self-gain.
5. Complete the action, review what worked, rinse and repeat.

How to apply this on the yoga mat/meditation cushion: What are your inner obstacles? Which thought-patterns of behaviours are you holding back? Choose a positive intention and objective for your sessions and meditate on that topic for the coming month, e.g. "I am going to focus on the blessings that I already have so that I can be of better service to others’; the objective of your yoga/meditation is to focus on your blessings. Write back and let me know how you get on! For more yogish resources, www.bibliyoga.com.

FOOTNOTES
Based on Parshat Lech-Lecha.
1) Ecclesiastes 3:8
2) Genesis 14:1-24

October 5, 2012 | 7:33 am

How to Reincarnate in 3 minutes or Less (Kosher Sutra: Succot, V’Zot HaBracha)

Posted by Marcus J Freed

Whether the Presidential election is won by a man in a blue tie or a red tie, no administration lasts forever. Vanity of vanities, bonfire of the vanities... [Photo by Timothy Fielding].

I once met an old man who was fed up with life. He was 25 years old and had the outlook of somebody whose days were numbered. Life was too tough, he complained, the challenges were too great, and the circumstances weren’t in his favour.

For this, the final Kosher Sutra of the current cycle, we’re going to learn how to reincarnate and transform our life in three minutes or less. The short answer? Let something go, and let it die. The long answer? Read on. 

There are hidden secrets in the wisdom of King Solomon that can teach us how to find a youthful optimism at any moment.  He taught that “for everything there is a season, a time for everything beneath the sun”, and that includes both “a time to be born” and “a time to die” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).

If we are to move forwards in life, whether it is to attract the energy of a new situation or to reinfuse new life in our work or relationships, we need to let something go. Release the old, receive the new.

The festival of Succot (Tabernacles) takes place in the present moment. The laws of schach, the roof of the succah-booth, are such that the palm branches or foliage we use for shelter cannot be connected to a living plant. There are deeper reasons for this that we won’t go into here* but suffice to say that it has to be something that will soon be dead. Similarly, the four species that we celebrate with during the festival also have a brief lifespan and they are on the verge of withering away.

Some people see life is pointless. “What is the point of everything we do beneath the sun?” asks Solomon. “A generation comes, a generation goes, but the earth remains the same forever. All rivers run to the sea, but the sea is never full. The wise man will be forgotten along with the fool” (1:4-7). But rather than leave ourselves in a state of depression and futility – “Futility of futilities! All is futile” (1:2) – we can see a message of deep liberation within this.

Rabbi Rami Shapiro’s The Way of Solomon opts for a more Zen-Buddhist style reading of Ecclesiastes, concluding that even though our past work may be ultimately futile, and our names may be forgotten by our great-grandchildren, all we are left with is the present moment.

In other words, the past has gone. The future is irrelevant. All we are left with is the present moment. So what can we do? As the greeting cards say, See the Present As A Gift. The final Kosher Sutra of our yearly cycle reads: V’zot HaBracha – “This is the Blessing!” (Deut: 33:1). Right now, this moment, voila.

The way of the Bibliyogi is to experience each moment, free of past and free of future. All that is left is a joyful, present-moment experience. This certainly takes work and self-cultivation. My own work takes place on the yoga mat, meditation cushion, in prayer and in emotional cleansing and reflection. The ancient yogis taught the concept of samskara, the wounds that we all carry, that we are continually needing to heal if we are to move forwards. Release the old, receive the new.

Now is the time – this very weekend – that we can tap into the energy of the present moment. A three-minute meditation will be the perfect place to begin. Focus on this simple question: What can I let go of?

When we can truly release our past and release our expectations and demands of the future, we can be reborn in the present.

If a gardener wants to grow some fresh roses, she will first have to pull out some weeds or prune back last year’s overgrowth. The same principle runs throughout all of nature and our own lives. If we want to grow into a fresh and new experience, we have to allow something to die. There are two ways to do this: proactively start pruning (the short way), or wait for the whole organism to wither (the long way).

In her seminal novel Middlemarch (1871), George Eliot wrote “It's never too late to be what you might have been”. I’ll leave you with one question, and three minutes to find your answer:

Who do you want to be?

*The concept of being mekabel tumah, or the ability to receive ritual impurity; a concept too large for the scope of this sutra.

www.bibliyoga.com

Enjoyed? Then buy The Book of Marcus (aka "The Kosher Sutras: The Jewish Way in yoga & meditation)

*The concept of being mekabel tumah, or the ability to receive ritual impurity; a concept too large for the scope of this sutra.

BONUS RESOURCES FOR THE SERIOUS PRACTITIONERS..

Here are the resources for putting the Kosher Sutras into practice  - meditate on the sutra, do the exercise, experience Freed-Om!

Kosher Sutra: “This is the Blessing” (Deut 33:1)
Soul Solution: Self-realisation (and nothing less!)
Bibliyoga pose: Three minute meditation.
Body Benefit: Freedom from past and future; present-moment awareness.

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