Creativity. Clarity. Compassion.
BODHISATTVAS, BOOKS & BRILLIANCE.
This WAS a Bookclub.
Now it’s simply mastermind-candy for you to digest at your leisure. Or Bibliotherapy, if you like.
If you can make time for a book a month, I seriously recommend you read them!
This curated list of my favourite tomes will help visionaries, educational revolutionaries & corporate freedom fighters help others create a better future, faster.
The links will take you straight to Amazon, but no, I don’t earn anything from them.
what I’ve Been reading
May IT also be yOUR INSPIRATION!
‘The Talent Code’ is a keeper for the next generation and the starting point for ours! Why ? Well, the author’s ‘talent hotbeds’, which are centres of a certain kind of excellence, might as well be ‘innovation hotbeds’ or ‘meditation centres’ by a different name. There’s tonnes of fantastic stories here, like why the best female golfers come from Korea, the best soccer players from Brazil. And overall, Coyle puts together a recipe for the biological, psychological, sociological & altruistic factors that do and must co-exist, for talent and creativity to thrive in hidden corners. One insight alone is worth the price of the book - that our brain can biologically time travel to enable creative miracles to happen, when it has been given enough discipline and nurture to support them.
I could read this book over and over. And I do! Everyone knows Gladwell is a master storyteller. But how does it help us understand creativity? Well, because it’s about the exceptions to the norm - the bits of the bell curve of life that everyone ignores until they change the world. ‘Outliers’ might as well be a synonym for disruptive innovation. But what we can thankfully learn from Gladwell is that changing the world is not just about individual luck, talent or perseverance. We need to be born in the right environment, at the right time and place, and in a culture whose values profoundly inspire us to act. And if we can take account of these, it might turbo-boost our courage to change things & give us serenity to persevere in the face of inevitable disappointments.
This is the perfect followup to ‘Outliers’. For here we can see all Gladwell’s principles in action - and in one case, prove him wrong. This is a wonderful human-centred account of what it takes to grow a creative enterprise from the ground-up, before anyone believes in it, through management nightmare to the kind of community everyone loves to love. Pixar’s president & book author, Ed Catmull, doesn’t gloss over the challenges of making that happen. The book includes plenty of actionable gems and my favourite insight into the legendarily persuasive Steve Jobs, who is tellingly impacted for the better as a human being, through being involved in Pixar’s evolving culture. This is the ‘Gone With The Wind’ of business non-fiction, a must-have inspiration for anyone who wants to lead their own creative technical community.
![FLOW - THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE [or ENGAGEMENT WITH ORDINARY LIFE]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55c77a9ae4b0760916a638b9/1573379015753-S82OALR2SW2CURTMM7QE/4_FLOW.jpg)
This book, on ‘The Psychology of Optimal Experience’ [and Csikzentmihalyi’s two related works, ‘Flow - The Psychology of Happiness’ with the white cover and ‘Creativity - The Psychology of Discovery & Invention’ with the red cover] is an absolute classic. I chose it for our club because as far as the author is concerned, happiness, creativity & ‘flow’ [a word Csikzentmihalyi invented, by the way] are totally interrelated - plus this is the easiest of his works to read. So what do you need to know about Flow? It’s where we want to be, permanently. It’s ‘the zone’ or magical state of mind where we’re so completely absorbed in a challenge at the edge of our ability, that nothing else seems to matter. And it’s where our experience transcends the rules and we feel like a game has nothing to do with us, as if a tennis ball hits itself over the net. This is the book that lays out all the rules for how this happens in our daily lives merging both discipline and a gameful attitude.
Now on to the deeper question about why we have any motivation to create or recreate or innovate at all. This book is our first, simple pointer to an answer - compassion. Both by Buddha’s and Kukk’s definition, it’s because we care about someone else’s pain and make a commitment to help that we become greater than we currently are. Indeed, Kukk provides plenty of scientific evidence to prove that ‘looking out for number one’ is not the secret to success. By acting from a position of abundance or surplus and putting the needs of others first, we don’t become doormats. Rather we receive intrinsic & extrinsic benefits ranging from increased resiliency to failure, to improved relationships, to higher intelligence. In wanting to help others, we’re better able to see the right problems to solve, better able to avoid dead ends, and better able to find the best answers together.
This is the first heavyweight in our club, just in time for the Aussie summer. It takes our understanding of personal responsibility to the next level, defining empathy, compassion, altruism, heroism & love not as poetry or theory, but firm, proven neuroscientific fact. The book is, on the one hand a plea - to not only make a choice to ‘walk in the light of creative altruism rather the darkness of destructive selfishness’ [as Martin Luther King Jr. put it] but to actually cultivate altruism as a skill. Happily, as Ricard adds Buddhist wisdom to the picture, it becomes possible to do this and see his compelling global vision for the 21st century. As said, this is not a super easy read but, I believe, a necessary one for our club, so we can help the ‘Altruism Revolution’ that’s already started in the world to flourish and sustain all the innovative economic, political & environmental solutions we find, in the long term.
Buy as ‘The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and The World’ on Amazon USA
After we know the grand scale and science of compassion, we still need to put it in practise and must start where we are. Without the benefit of religious insight, our best bet is probably this one - being courageously vulnerable. Brene Brown’s newly famous work reminds us what it feels like, for many people, to start from the opposite end of compassion, the place where we cannot be open to help others because we’re too scared to be seen ourselves. I would call this ‘not daring to be fully human’. And that keeps us from our dreams because we feel as if we are failures, not just that we have failed. This title links nicely with our previous books, for allowing human imperfection and vulnerability in ourselves and others is also the place that allows us to achieve our dreams as leaders - vulnerability is perhaps nothing other then the ability to be compassionate with others as a result of feeling our own perpetual suffering.
Simon Sinek’s new classic is another must-read. For if we want to change the world, we need a strong direction and a large vision and we need to state both clearly. Sinek points out that this has been true of leaders throughout history. And because our bookclub is here to support creative leaders, not just creativity, we need to pay fresh attention. This title is focussed on business, but there is no reason just to treat it as business. After all, in a century where Western education has focussed on churning out scientists and business people who can apparently explain all ‘what’ exists in our lives, we have created an epidemic of depression because people do not know the deep reason ‘why’ anything really exists in their lives. Sinek’s Golden Circle framework is a good reminder to reframe our lives from that point, ‘from the inside out’ instead of the outside in.
Enchantment has always been a favourite word of mine. And the way Kawasaki uses it in this book, it’s not tarnished. For he argues that in business and personal interaction, the goal should not be to manipulate or merely get what you want but to evince a voluntary, durable and delightful change in others. It sounds like magic, that people might do our silent bidding, and fulfil our secret wishes, doesn’t it ? And yes, Kawasaki is a businessman and the book is about business, in the end. But still, as Bodhisattvas, we can read a quasi-spiritual truth in it, where by being likable, kind and trustworthy, and by explaining our own cause in a way that shows others they’re already on the same journey inside the same dream, we can stop wars [yes, he tells a story of this], help more Davids slay more Goliaths [more stories] and generally change hearts, minds, and actions for the greater good.
Another Daniel Coyle book - because his first was so good ! In this one, he turns his investigation inside out, to ask what supports teams & cultures, instead of individuals. And true to the latin origin of ‘cultus’ meaning ‘care’, he tells us that a sustainable culture results from leaders creating a container for three critical skills that prove they care: [1] Safety— showing enough overt signals of bonding, belonging & shared identity that others feel they can be vulnerable [2] Vulnerability— sharing as a mutual risk that drives trusting cooperation and produces a positive feedback loop [3] Stories of shared purpose, goals & values [‘A Why’] that bridges safety and vulnerability. These points are well-hidden in another bunch of great stories, so we can again learn and remember by example not theory.
If you’re working with my Inspiration Cards or Innovation Map, you might think you don’t need any more creativity tools. But we can never have enough tricks up our sleeve to help clients get the results they pay us for! Besides, they’re fantastic brain training for you too. If my memory serves me correctly, Michalko collected this set while he was working for the US military, and they’re still the most comprehensive kit on the market. I surveyed each and every one of them in my original research on the fundamental patterns of creative thinking and this book covers almost the whole spectrum of thinking styles. When we get here, I’ll give you a taxonomy of tools to put this lot together with my Innovation Map and your powers of creation will be unstoppable!
We could say that ‘Loonshots’ is a competitor to Malcolm Gladwell’s fantastic ‘Tipping Point’. But it also adds something extra - the perspective of a physicist, management consultant & biotech entrepreneur, obsessed with organizational structure - and that’s in the person of the single author. Suffice to say, Bahcall’s perspective is simultaneously interdisciplinary and radically myopic. But his point is, that innovation is too - and I agree. So here we are, with a book that confronts us to find the non-dual balancing point that enables both efficiency and execution [which are bad for innovation] and intrinsic messiness and inefficiency [which is, vice versa, disruptive to the status quo]. For me, the most important insight of all is that we must ask the right questions of the right person in the right situation to find that point.
AND don’t forget These!
for Bodhisattvas in hiding …
The heroes in this book are ordinary people like you & me, who want to be consciously, deeply involved in taking care of themselves & others. They first fervently wish, both ideally & practically, for everyone in the world to have lasting happiness and be protected from all the causes of unhappiness. Then they choose a lifestyle & way of thinking that focusses on enhancing kindness & compassion. Jigme Rinpoche is the Yoda of applying these teachings to daily life - and this handbook is his own sweet & often witty take on the traditional texts, with simple exercises that help us face the difficulties we encounter on the way.
This is not Pema’s easiest read. But it is her own beautiful, modern & personal, clarification of Shantideva’s 8th Century text on developing a heart dedicated to alleviate suffering for others [see that one further down this list]. Since Pema lives by this code, her explanations are simultaneously insightful, simple and motivational - a great start to help you make your own world a better place.
Zen teacher Norman Fischer is also a poet - hence this inspiring & simple re-imagining of the six ‘perfect actions’ of a practising Bodhisattva. He suggests the original teachings are designed to help us reframe what we find uncomfortable about reality and keep moving forward, in a way that benefits the whole world, not just the one we personally we live in. With heaps of imaginative exercises to try out, this ancient spiritual practice turns into an accessible guidebook for our uncertain times.
This is THE definitive, detailed guide all Buddhist schools use [and have used for centuries in India & Tibet] to refine their practise of love, compassion and all the other necessary qualities that lead to enlightenment. Beware, it’s not the easiest starting point for beginners - the 37 actions required to get really good at helping others are presented in ‘verses’ of Shantideva’s personal meditation and reflection. But there is also a lovely forward and preface by the translators and Dalai Lama, which helps us understand the context in which all that detail will make sense.
The enlightened beings in Mahayana Buddhist teachings are neither gods nor superhuman. They are archetypes of wisdom & compassion, showing us our highest potential. Here we meet 7 of the most important ones and explore their psychological & spiritual backgrounds. Then the authors show us how universal this behaviour can be - finding aspects of the archetypes in famous westerners including Muhammad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi, Bob Dylan, Henry Thoreau, Gertrude Stein and Mother Teresa.
Meeting a Bodhisattva [or ‘Enlightenment Being’] in art or meditation is supposed to be a very personal encounter, that brings our ‘list of enlightened qualities’ to life. We get to touch and perhaps even viscerally feel their state of ‘ultimate union’ of the divine with the rest of life. And so we can also come to understand why they work endlessly to help others - because they want everyone else to experience the same joy. If you want to meet some of these brilliant & beautiful beings, this is one of the most beautiful sets of stories you’ll find to start, with Avalokiteshvara - the Lord of Compassion, Tara - the Rescuer of all Beings & Manjusri - the Master of Words or Gentle Glory of Wisdom, to name a few.
Now, we’re getting into details! This one, by Chökyi Dragpa [a disciple of famed 19C Tibetan master Patrul Rinpoche] gives quotations and direct instructions from a number of realized sages of the past. Reading stories like this from great masters is of course a lazy but wonderful way to prepare the mind for meditation. And that makes this book actually accessible to newcomers as well as insightful for serious, longer-term practitioners.
The Seven Branch Prayer [of Padmasambhava] is one of the best-known invocations in Tibetan Buddhism and directly related to the practise of The Six Perfections [listen to our podcast or download the Experiments in Gratitude checklist to find out how]. This particular commentary is a rare ‘mind-treasure’ which presents hidden meanings of the symbols that will deepen our understanding, gratitude & awe.
This is the heaviest book in the list! A masterwork from approx 1100AD, which still provides the complete foundation for study and practice in the Karma Kagyu Lineage, from zero to Hero. It’s a magic pudding of a book. You can read it over and over, and the more you learn, the more you find still to know in here. Fledgling Bodhisattvas should start with just the 5 chapters that cover impermanence, karma, cultivation of bodhicitta, development of the six perfections and the ten bodhisattva bhumis. That might keep you going for a few years…
Stories collected & translated by Mathieu Ricard, himself a ‘4th generation’ practitioner in this lineage [his teachers heard stories from Patrul’s students]. This is not a set of teachings but a hagiography particularly important for us - not just because the subject was one of the best-regarded lamas of his age, nor merely because Patrul wrote one of the most important books available to Westerners today - ‘Words of My Perfect Teacher’. Most importantly, it reveals how a highly realized being lives without expectation, simply & authentically transmitting the Dharma in everything he does.
Mingyur Rinpoche beautifully describes his own personal journey of leaving the "royalty" of his Tibetan Buddhist lineage and living in total poverty in India. While he uses the context of bardo teachings rather than the Six Perfections to frame his story, it is nevertheless an example of the total vulnerability required on the Bodhisattva path according to Vajrayana Buddhist Teachings. The only resource he always carries with him is the constant transformation of heart and mind that result when his practice and study become his life.
This is more a philosophy book than a practise manual, but worth looking at, if you want an academic viewpoint. It’s main point being that Buddhism is not about brainscans showing happiness patterns or a feel-goodness philosophy and Bodhisattvas are not the ultimate spiritual do-gooder. Instead it argues as many Lamas do, that Buddhism aims at human flourishing and practising to be a Bodhisattva is a rich, responsible path for finite material beings living in a material world, that is actually compatible with the rest of Western knowledge.