OUR WORLD
whole movement would tend to water down the
ancient teachings from the East into nice accessible and palatable packages to be sold by corporate
mindfulness coaches.
ly considered to be bottom-line profit driven. And
further, had the corporate executive world come to
meditation or had practitioners outside the corporate world now penetrated the suits with demonstrated bottom-line value?
So I went. I participated. I focused with intensity.
And as the summit concluded on Saturday after
two days, I reflected on what had taken place and I
would like to share a few thoughts…Thoughts? Oh
no! Not thoughts. Let’s call them impressions.
This was not a dry, academic or intellectual banter
gathering. It was heartfelt and I had to chuckle at
times as I witnessed the suits, hugging each other.
The sessions were robust and well presented by the
likes of Mark Tercek, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, Rich Fernandez, Co-Founder of Wisdom Labs
and former Director of Executive Development
at Google, Congressman, Tim Ryan and more. In
the breaks and lunch period I mingled and met so
many leaders and learned that they were from diverse backgrounds.
I met people from the FBI, State Department, World
Bank, and the fields of psychology, healthcare and
education, and also those whose only credential
was that they sit in silence practicing mindfulness.
One question that arose often in my conversations with long time practitioners was whether the
These days there is a high-visibility of an industry that has grown around body, mind and spirit
awareness. Yoga studios have appeared in every
city. Fitness studios, hotels and spas offer it with
exercise; cruise lines have classes, and even one
airport I passed through recently had a time out
room for sitting. There are 200-hour teacher training events offered with certification.
Was, and is this the yoga of the masters, Patanjali, the mindfulness taught by the Buddha, or is this
just part of the evolution of consciousness raising
predicted by the likes of Paramahansa Yogananda
and earlier Eastern teachers visiting the West many
years ago?
What difference does it make? Who is to say how
this consciousness revolution is evolving or the
form in which it will manifest? This was the question we posed to ourselves. As those of us in attendance departed from the Artisphere convention
center where all had taken place, I knew many had
the same question. I knew as I said good-bye with a
big hug to the founders of The Mindful Leadership
Summit, Mo Edjlali and Eric Forbis, that we would
re