Mundamutti Mastery

“Real Living”

The wisdom of blending instinct [knowing] with learned technique

How amazing is the fact nothing has inherent colour, that colour is not a property of objects but of the light that falls upon them, reflected back.  It is our frame of reference that gives the world its vibrancy, beauty and wonder.  We give little thoughtfulness to this and live as, “this is just the way it is”.  Unaware, the quality of attention we pay something or someone actually determines our reality and experience and, is a reflection of “who” we are.

So, pay attention

Stop kidding yourself that you are happy with your life

What is stopping “me” from stepping outside my habitual crap?

Despite sincere, repeated promises and hopes for the future, I can’t seem to get rid of the shackles that interrupt and bind.  What is it that keeps me bound and captive, showing up, time after time, basically the same?  Working really hard, aspiring to be the best version of myself – but no matter how much I try or effort I make, I can’t get beyond, myself.  I’m still me

The maze of madness grows out of control.  Getting lost in our heads.  Run, run, run, fast-track fuddled-sprinting.  Worried harried-eyes.  Befuddled-hinting.  Giving rise to this way and that, to stuff that really has no meaning.  Supposedly full-on purposeful, sophisticated thinking.  Round, round, round.  Back and, forth.  Faster, faster.  Think, think.  More and more complicated and, confused.  No way out.  Trapped.  Tired?  Stuck?  Convincing no-one that you’re really living.  You’ve gotta be kidding

The story of life turning-out to be a stale tale of the same basic mind readdressing the same problems in the same already discredited ways – over and over again

My mind, my small, limited mind –  “my kingdom, my kingdom” for a fresh start.  A new mind.  Wouldn’t that be great.  Peace and quiet, freedom from it all.

Imagine what life would be like if lived with joy instead of will?

We grasp at being right rather than truly understanding – the situation, the context, the motives and vulnerabilities behind our actions, beliefs, emotions and behaviours

Growling beneath it all is a lack of awareness and an aversion to our own imperfections – we would rather turn away and pretend all is fine-and-dandy, when deep down we know it isn’t.  Telling the truth, to ourselves, let alone anyone else, is a challenge most of us, never live-up-to

With nothing to hold on to, no prop to lean against, no belief to worship or follow, no opinion to be nurtured or presided-over, what remains?  When you also peel away law and order, society, and values, putting those constructs to one side – left standing-alone who is “me”?  Who are you?

Who am I?

The hardest state for a human being to achieve, let alone sustain, even for a short time, is being open

The scary part is once you cross this rubicon there is no turning-back.  You have to be brave and responsible – and, come to the realisation that will alter your life in ways you can’t imagine.  Or, face the only other option, of continuing along the same safe path, living out the rest of your days drowning in familiar security.  While at night your dreams are filled with chance you have never taken, and love and adventure you have never tasted nor touched

In a world pocked by cynicism, finding joy for oneself is nothing less than an almighty act of courage and resistance.  It is not a matter of denying reality — it is a matter of creating a reality where joy is a central and valid way of being, whatever comes your way.  To live in this space is to live enchanted with the wonder of world, rather than beneath the frightful stories we tell ourselves and listen to

We know deep-down that challenge and uncertainty are the sweet nectar of life.  Yet in our longing for safety and control, we keep propping ourselves up from real living, on the rickety-wooden-crutch of conviction, will and opinion, while glumly trying to hide our dry enthusiasm and dead eyes

The trouble with who we have become is that it island’s us in the stream of life, cutting us off like isolated-spooks from the joy and gaiety of playing and, the deep truth of being human

There is a reality, the genuine one, we lose sight of at an early age.  This other reality keeps sending us hints, most of which, despite our best intention, we can’t receive or come to know.  We sense them though, by the self-doubt and subtle resignation that follows us

We eventually realise, if courageous enough: that the best way – the only way – is to end our mechanical approach and create things new.  Like you used to do when you were a small  < sigh >  if only you could remember?

It’s never too late to be the person you might have been

George Elliot

Then, try this on

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The Big Challenge

“To be nobody but yourself – in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight”

E E Cummings

Are you up to it ?

Oscar Wilde doesn’t think you are:

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation”

Nearly two centuries after Baudelaire observed that “genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will”  and, a generation since Dylan Thomas insisted “children in wonder watching the stars, is the aim and the end”  we think, firmly wedged in tiny mammalian-skulls (this includes you), spewing-forth private and self-centred “la la lands” that we’re makin’ progress.  Seriously?  Are you really better than you were?

Rule  # 1

The person who consciously creates their life discovers the domain of mastery and, that which lies beyond suffering

Rule  # 2

(There are no other if you can master Rule # 1)

We live out of the deep seated illusion that we need to be, or must be, a particular way.  The more we are aware of this (our tiny selves) the greater our attachment to our opinions, entitlements, and fears diminish and, we are empowered, and able to consciously, and responsibly, create our life

However, like addicts, we get caught-up in a relentless urge to feed our habits, and bathe in the pain that’s ultimately fueling them.  Stubbornly wedged in a mindset colouring complacency, we end-up grappling with, and living with, a very limiting, and lukewarm, status quo

Huh?      

Try as we might, despite best efforts, our false selves keep getting in the way.  Wary and on guard, acting like small narcissistic trolls twitching into life in response to the slightest touch of reality

Striking bold protective poses behind exotic masks of creeping insecurity, our painted faces betray a naked existence of thinking not good enough, making excuses, blaming, procrastinating, and avoiding taking responsibility

Satisfaction and peace of mind have long taken wing, happiness and freedom too.  Life dipped in the constructed-science of fine, getting-by, holding-on and making-it with people, when once there was the sweet artistry of adventure.  This scenario playing-out over, and over.  Our very own groundhog-day and, perambulating human conditionSatirist and cultural commentator Michael Leunig captures vividly the complex world of angst and frustration we have created, as well as the caring, innocent question being poignantly asked of the dark, anguished collective – “who have we become for ourselves”?

Had enough?

You’ll be amazed at what is possible

Elite training  &  self development

 But, first

A few home truths

  • Most of the time we cruise through life on automatic pilot, gliding across the thin ice of denial.  Spinning and turning with desired perfection – using habit, pretence, self-image – as a means of trying to avoid the still black water of disappointment, inadequacy and fear that sit below.  But it doesn’t work, or not for long
  • We get into a spot of bother.  Becoming fixated and rigid, stilted, wooden to the point of petrified-unnatural, firmly set in our ways.  And suffer.  Pretending that we don’t, deep-down knowing that we do
  • Life taking-on a beige pastiche of getting-by and trying not to fail.  Working hard at eliminating, diminishing and camouflaging our inadequacies.  Needing to be careful, else small slip-ups might trigger weaknesses into view, shaming, leaving us exposed.  Efforting manages to dull the vulnerability, but not making it disappear
  • Unwittingly also, destroying the top, our unrealised higher potential, by replacing with a tepid, average-middle-zone.  Personal upper and lower control-limits put in place, acting as self-imposed boundaries, to live within.  Cautiously staying in between, cocooned, in an intimate pod of fortified-protection, supposedly keeping us safe, and secure
  • It takes something significant to shake us from this malaise.  Usually something cathartic like a divorce, death of a loved-one, loss of a job, major setback or health scare can ‘unwelcomely’ jolt and catapult awareness into view
  • But who we are for ourselves remains doggedly fixed; and, linked to an underlying and persistent sense of not being good enough.  Amid the constant humiliation, the natural thing to keep doing is deliberately shrinking our world, playing small, withdrawing, eliminating close relationships, and making ourselves separate, and alone

Second

Growing new versus going through

  • Taking a walk on the wild side, Mark Twain captured wonderfully well, the unheralded shortcomings and frontier-foibles of our rudimentary-view (life) – “when we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained”
  • An interesting take on what Shakespeare might not have meant by ‘to thine own self be true’  nonetheless, right-on-the-money.  And, it doesn’t just end there; as our ‘madness’ comes with close related ties
  • For, only by realising the extent to which we are driven by the sibling vanity of our endeavours, smallness of our attachments, urgency of our aversion, can we free ourselves from our walled-constraints, and the “stuckness of our situation”.  Ceasing the mindless chatter, needless action, mirage-like daydreaming, of seeking a more comfortable, controlled way, of skating through life
  • We can awaken to self-knowledge and, a sense of who we are, through the relentless practice of observation
  • Self-awareness is not analysis; nor meditating silently under a tree or, needing a mindfulness retreat to reach higher ground; it is simply noticing what we think, how we react, and what our subtle, over-used strategies for coping are
  • If we notice, notice, notice; observing ourselves objectively – that is, without judgment – we can begin to see clearly our limited ideas of how we are supposed to be, how others are meant to behave, how life should turn-out

Third

What you need to know

  • Only for discerning, and critical thinkers, interested in getting to the “nub of the matter”.  Those not wanting to be part of Maslow’s sleepy-majority and, very humbling and deeply concerning “98”
  • Tested, challenged and refined over more than 30 years, into an unsurpassed learning experience
  • Uniquely targeted at the who and why.  Then, what and how.  Socratic personal development first and foremost, followed by appropriate action
  • Two carefully crafted modes of delivery – one on one or small group process.  Structure and content are similar, equally effective.  You choose
  • If you’ve ever wondered…. “I want to do something really special for me; worth my time and effort; personable, informal, professional and highly sophisticated; exceptionally well-credentialed and world-class; guaranteed to have impact and lasting results; focused on potential (‘even at my age’), capacity, happiness and output, but doesn’t take months or meetings to finalise; not out-there alternative or “fluffy”; something that is value for money, and outstanding, with strong effect on improving key relationships and outcomes”?

Then,

Stop wondering

 Looking back it has been a fantastic journey and this is the first time in years I feel motivated and energised”

Key senior player with mojo back

“It’s the best development program I have ever done (and I have done a lot).  It has made a significant difference to my work and home life – people who have known me for years have noticed the difference and my connection with my teenage son has improved as a result”

“Person of the world” making a difference

“For so many years it was like I was waiting for something (for what exactly, I have no idea).  Hoping everything would somehow get better or, all turnout and fall into place.  My real life would start soon.  Things were fine, no real complaints but, being honest now, not really fulfilling.  Not really me.  Not anymore!”

Organisational Leader – absolutely flying

You are invited to consider  Mundamutti Mastery