Andersen Consulting Group, a worldwide organization, gives a short quiz to
see whether people re qualified to be "professionals." The questions are not
difficult.
The first one is:
How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the
door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly
complicated way.
The next question is: How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?
The wrong answer is: "Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant and close the
refrigerator."
The correct answer is: "Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the
elephant and close the door." This tests your ability to think through the
repercussions of your actions.
Here is the third question: "The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All
the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?"

Download 20060813.pdf
Download 20060813.mp3

Be forewarned: This time together today does not have a happy ending. Or,
perhaps I should say, a satisfactory ending. We are about to deal with the
toughest problem religion, theology or spiritual practice ever undertakes: the
problem of evil and suffering. These are not happy or satisfactory things.

We have spent some time talking about the first two points I've wanted to make
about developing spirituality with an attitude. The first point was about being
awake and conscious. The second point was about being conscious and compassionate. These are states of mind that we develop and work on much as
a musician works on mastery of his or her instrument. They practice.

Then comes the matter of going to the concert hall or to some other venue to
play. For us the concert hall is where we go to work, in our parenting, in
interacting with friends and loved ones and with the rest of the world.

Download 20060806.pdf
Download 20060806.mp3

I once began a time with you in here by asking you to "think outside of the box."
Today I'm going to ask you to "think inside the box." The box I have in mind in
your heart.
"Spirituality With an Attitude" is the title of the series of "life talks" I am currently
offering in here. So far the territory we have covered has focused on two things.
First, being awake and conscious. Second, being conscious and compassionate.
Being aware is not enough. We must also be conscious. Awareness and being
conscious are also not enough for developing spirituality with an attitude. We
must also be compassionate. I have mentioned facts about ourselves and the
world, tools and states of mind that we can use to develop a spiritual practice that
can help us, if we use them, to manifest as the creatures God intends us to be.

Download 20060730.pdf
Download 20060730.mp3

Last Sunday Richard Wingfield began our question and answer session by
asking how we can take a stance of love, compassion and inclusiveness and,
looking at what is going on in the world, not become cynical? This is an excellent
question and if we are going to live lives of love and compassion for ourselves
and for others we need to know how to answer it. Not just how to answer it
intellectually but how to answers it with our lives.

Most of us have a set of ready-made answers for all sorts of things. When
someone asks us where we live, what our name is, who our partner is, what we
do for a living we have answers. If somebody asks us if we are happy though, we
often have to stop and think about it.

One of the goals of this series is to help any who are open to it, any who want
to pursue the matter, to identify the inner conditions and practices that favor love,
compassion, peace, happiness, well-being and the like and to see what
conditions and practices hinder those things. Then we can use this information
for our advantage.

Download 20060722.pdf
Download 20060722.mp3