Retiring at the age of 35 gives one time to reflect on what is truly important. After successful ventures in business, politics, and education, I devoted several years to study, travel, and spiritual practice. Meaningful experiences came and insights arose. Further insights emerged through interactions with participants in seminars and workshops given over the last twenty years. One insight is this: We tend to compartmentalize our lives, thinking separately about relationships, finances, health concerns, spiritual matters, career, sex, values, passions, goals, political views, group identities, finding pleasure, aesthetic interests, and on and on. At the living edge, however, where life happens, all these currents mingle and merge. To find meaning and live a fulfilling life requires that we discover how these separate currents can be prioritized and harmoniously integrated. The core motivations we humans have felt through the centuries have not changed much. The challenge is, as it has always been, to discover and put into practice wise responses to these motivations. In ancient Greece, the quest for this wisdom was exemplified by the admonition of Socrates: "Know Thyself." Two thousand years later mathematician, physicist, and philosopher Blaise Pascal said, "It is an extraordinary blindness to live without investigating what we are." Continuing this theme in the 20th century, the humorist James Thurber advised, "All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why." Four of the most valuable trails through the wilderness of life's confusion are: (1) Engagement with science; (2) Creating and experiencing art; (3) Following a religious tradition; and (4) Undertaking a spiritual journey. Although different on the surface, these four are not so different underneath. As Albert Einstein succinctly put it: "All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree." This book explores these four branches of the tree of life: art, science, religion, and spirituality. Join me in an exploration of the commonalities between them and the guidance they each provide for a fulfilling and meaningful life.
About the Author: After selling my interest in two companies I started with friends, I began to actively explore the questions that had been hanging around in the background of my life: What is a meaningful life? How do I spend my time in a way that is worthwhile? How do I discover, and live, what is truly important? And how do I go about finding answers to these questions? Several years into this exploration, I began giving workshops to share what I had been discovering, and for 23 years have had the privilege of refining my understanding in the crucible of hard questions and active engagement with many bright and sometimes skeptical folks. In the process, I have developed several methods for helping those interested in the journey to think about and engage in the inner journey themselves. Sharing with others has helped me discover the weaknesses and fallacies in my own living and thinking. Additionally, it has become a primary practice in my journey, a way to shift my attention from personal concerns and desires toward care and concern for others. Finding the best way to interact with other people is one of life's most important tasks. For me, sharing what I am learning, especially when I can do so without expectations, is one of the primary ways I find meaning and experience my humanity.