The Prince and the Sharpest Knife

There was once a butcher...

...the butcher had worked in the kitchen for Prince Wen Hui for many years where he was famous for his ability to cut up an ox without ever sharpening his knife.

Oxen after oxen he butchered and yet his knife, almost magically retained the razor sharp edge it started with. He would move his shoulder just so and the meat would simply fall away from the bone. Smooth and effortlessly.

Again, swish, swish… He moved his knife smoothly and rhythmically; it was as though he were conducting a fantastic symphony and all the while meat simply dropped away from the bones.

“Entranced, Prince Wei asked the butcher the source of such mastery.
”

The butcher laid down his Cleaver and looked at the prince. “It is simple my Lord, I am a follower of the Way in everything that I do. When I first began to cut up an ox all that I could see was the part of the ox in front of me. It took me 3 long years before I was able to see the entire ox in one glance. I no longer see it with my eyes but with my spirit."

Tracing his knife down the oxen, the Butcher continued, "In this way I am able to let the knife itself follow the grain of the meat on its own. I let the knife slice its own way through the hollows of the ox, never touching the tendons or ligaments, much less the bone."

A mediocre butcher hacks and chops at the meat and needs to sharpen his knife every month.

A good butcher cuts forcefully through the meat and needs to sharpen his knife every year.

A Master Butcher adheres to the natural way (The Tao), letting the knife do the work on its own. 

My knife, on the other hand has not been sharpened in 19 years ago. And it is as sharp as the day I adopted The Way as a Master Butcher. There are spaces in the ox that the thin blade can cut through as if through air. There is plenty of space there for the blade to enter and move freely. This is why my blade is still so sharp after cutting up thousands of oxen.

Sometimes I come upon a difficult cut. Instead of wielding my blade harder I stop completely and meditate upon the situation. I look very closely at the joint and move my blade very, very slowly, using no force, until the meat falls freely to the ground. Then I stop and look around me to see if I am still in accord with the Way. If I am, then I am happy. Then I wipe my blade very carefully and put it away. Finished.

The Meaning of this parable to Me

The first time I ever heard the famous story of Prince Wei’s butcher I was attending a retreat with Wendy Palmer. Her work uses the concepts of Aikido to train and expand your energetic capacity (simply put).

She uses this parable to lay the conceptual framework for her practices. A system of training focuses on developing primordial energy and self-cultivation by several techniques that I call movement meditations, and it wasn’t until recently that I heard this story again and found out that it is a famous Taoist story.

"The work of Wendy Palmer uses concepts of Aikido to expand your energetic capacity."

Wendy Palmer Wisdom 

Inside the parable of the ox butcher… the meaning

First, the story reveals the 3 stages of development on the Taoist path, seeing the parts, seeing the whole and seeing with spirit or energy. It also is a fantastic vivid example of the Taoist concept of effortless action (wu-wei).

Sometimes in order to move through difficult obstacles in our lives we could be more effective by applying  this principle of no force. Then just like the meat falls away form the bone for the master butcher, our own obstacles fall away before us when we are able to see the whole, be the Way…

The story also tells us that this practice can take some time to cultivate. It took the cook 3 long years before he was able to look at an ox, not with his eyes, but with his spirit or energy. Anything of great value can take a long time of practice and cultivation to attain. It is impossible to gain mastery in a weekend seminar or by simply reading a book on mindfulness.

Several years of practice leads to self cultivation, and continual practice is the Way. Over the years I’ve tried dozens of mind body integration practices. They’re useful in suspending my normal conceptual framework in order to be more open to what is possible.

I would love to share some of the practices that I have learned over the years from Wendy Palmer through her books, personal instruction and the application to every area of my life over nearly 2 decades.

DOWNLOAD A GUIDE TO BASIC PRACTICE HERE

It was amazing and humbling to see this famous story again nearly 2 decades after hearing it for the first time. Wendy’s teaching was my first experience with serious mindbody training and I am forever grateful to have experienced her work.

Was the story about an actual butcher masterfully cutting up an actual ox? I love to kid around with metaphor. Is the story about the man who built his house upon a rock about an actual man building an actual house on an actual rock? I think it is, or is it?

Stories, myth and metaphor are such powerful ways of learning new concepts. I love this story, and I am reminded of it every time I carve up a piece of meat. I think about the art of mastery and wonder why I sometimes have to hack and chop when serving others with gratitude.

I have searched relentlessly for spirit with my mind, and I’ve only experienced glimpses of it through my body.

Would YOU like to learn more about these mind body practices?

• Spiral Breath Meditation
• Centering Practice
• Masculine / Feminine Energy Exercise

The Law of Time and Money I Learned The Hard Way

The 8 Steps To Financial Freedom I Learned The Hard Way

When I was about 19 or 20 I worked for residential construction company in Sacramento. I was going to school at Sac State and working full-time. One day one of our subcontractors asked me on his way out the door, “Hey, do you ever listen to business tapes?”

I was like, “Hell yeah!” and I was also thinking to myself, “What the f*** is a business tape?”, but my curiosity and driven personality made me feel like I really wanted to check out the tape.

The tape made me feel so curious about it, and excited, that I listened to it that night on my way home in the cassette player of my S-10 Blazer. If you don't know what a cassette player is f****** Google it. They were awesome.

The title of the tape was,”The Law of Time and Money,”  and it explained how good business models don't depend on trading time for money. It also gave a very general outline and description of a specific business opportunity that was currently available and recommended that I contact the person who gave it to me if I wanted to learn more.

Quite honestly, it seemed like at the time that I had miraculously found the fast-track to the promised land of huge and immediate financial success. Bart, the landscape contractor followed up with me, and we had about a 30-minute meeting going over a 3-5 year plan of building a business that would generate $5,000 a month, working about 10 to 15 hours a week or less.

“He used Ray Kroc in his example. Ray Kroc was a milkshake machine salesman who saw an opportunity, and convinced the McDonald brothers to expand their business. Ray Kroc didn’t invent the hamburger, but he understood how the process of duplication could sell a shit load of hamburgers. You can now see the whole story on Netflix. It’s pretty cool.”

The following week Bart and I had another meeting. I think it was a one-on-one but it could have been 8 to 10 people invited to someone's house. Coffee and cookies were served, but no booze! I can't believe I fucken signed up. No booze? But I did.

They waited till the very end of that third meeting to say that it was Amway because I guess everyone knows that Amway is a scam where everybody at the top is making all the money (that’s not true by the way). At the time, I was so stoked I didn’t give a shit. I was committed.

I did it for a year or so, and never made any real money, but I became immersed in their system of training. They had a bullet proof, (no, not butter in your coffee, but that would have been cool), system for building a business based on duplication similar to the way Ray Kroc sold hamburgers with McDonalds.

It was an 8 step system for success. The 8 steps were on these little pink index cards and I don't remember them all exactly, or the order that they came in. Here’s the quick Hiddle-Haddle version:

1. Hand out those fuck'n tapes (prospecting)
2. Show the plan (business building) (GOALS?)
3. Use the product (integrity)
4. Work with your sponsor. F****** Bart! (mentoring)
5. Sell some product (retail) (reward)
6. Read self-help books and listen to tapes (personal growth)
7. Attend seminars (more growth and exposure to other successful people)
8. Associate with like-minded people (network)

It seems like goal-setting would have to be in there. I think maybe books, tapes and association were all one step, and goals was on there somewhere. I don't remember. Even though I never made shit as an Amway distributor, those steps provided a blueprint that I’ve modified over the years to build businesses and help other people start and build businesses.

My real point of this article isn't the steps. They deserve their own article. The point is the methodical process of how the opportunity was introduced. The business (prospecting) tape strategy was awesome. It helped identify who wanted to learn more.

The 3-5 year plan weeded out some more, and you didn’t end up spending an hour showing every Tom, Dick and Harry the full Amway sales and marketing plan with a call to Action.

Online marketing uses a similar process. First you are offered something for free which isn’t really free because you have to “opt-in”. Depending on the company, once you opt-in you will get hammered weekly, daily or hourly to buy and introductory level product. And boom! They’ve got you.

Some people have said that the Amway sales and marketing plan is misleading. You find this unbelievably awesome business opportunity, and then you find out and go, “Ahhhhhh this is fucking Amway????” I don’t want to agree or disagree about whether it’s misleading or not. I would like to share my own unique perspective about Amway and this type of marketing in general.

Everything in my mind, body and soul wanted to hear what was on “The Law of Time and Money”. Every part of me wanted to see the 3-5 year plan, and by the time it came down to paying $100 for a start up kit (it would be $97 if it was marketed today online) and signing up for Amway, I was IN 110%.

Here I was 20 years old, sophomore in college and part of a billion-dollar global company with 300 manufacturers, and a proven training system. How rad is that? I sponsored a few people right away, and I thought, ”This is so cool. I'll be an Amway Diamond in 3 years living a financially free lifestyle on the beaches of the world!”, but at some point it got hard.

I stop passing out the tapes and showing the plan because I was getting a sinking feeling that Amway sucks. It was because most people think that, and I honestly, I didn't have the emotional maturity to ignore the social pressure. And hugely it was because I was more focused on vaulting myself into financial success and personal freedom than in helping others do the same. The true success of Amway is based on helping others achieve their dreams.

There's another very good reason that I failed (fucken learned some great lessons) as an Amway distributor. The bullet proof plan has 8 steps and I was consistently and persistently doing 6 out of 8.

So I don’t feel like I was mislead because if Bart would have walked up to me and said, “Hey fucker. Wanna join Amway? It’s really cool and you can get rich.” I would have said, “Ha-ha. Good one.” and some other 4 letter words.

The true value and what I learned from the experience is immeasurable. I read something the other day that went along the lines of; I never fail. I either succeed, or I learn, and that was definitely the case here. The 8 steps do work when it comes to creating a business that you are not trading time for money. I’ve lived that over the last 2 decades applying what I learned to my current businesses.

When it comes to online marketing of self improvement, success systems or business opportunities, there are some great opportunities out there. And technology has made it possible to deliver a tremendous amount of value at a very low cost.

And at the same time the Internet has also made it possible to sell a shitload of pure crap like a drug dealer pushing cocaine and delivering baby powder or smashed up aspirin if you’re lucky. At least you’ll get some type of buzz off the aspirin.

Personally, whether you are an online consumer or an online marketer (I am both), it’s important to be able to buy the right product (consumer) and market your product (marketer) through a sales funnel that is progressive in nature like the Amway business tape example.

Whether it’s deceiving or not depends on the value of what’s provided. When you choose to get involved in a program you will know for a fact if it’s shit very quickly if your honest with yourself, and any decent program will offer a full refund if you’re not satisfied.

So if you’re a consumer and you want to purchase a transformational product or business system, do your homework, and it’s usually best to get some testimonials. It’s even better yet to try something that someone you know has experience with.

And if you’re a marketer and producer of online products, rock your sales funnel unapologetically, and don’t try to sell crap. We’ll figure it out pretty quick and then you’ll have to do it all again! Don’t send so many fucken emails. Scarcity creates value in this case. Give people an honest opportunity to opt out after 60-90 days. I honestly believe it will help, not harm your business. Find a creative and resourceful way to ask for referrals.

And please, for the love of God respect our privacy.

“It’s much easier to fool someone than to convince him that he’s been fooled.”

 -Mark Twain

Click here if you want to learn more about the 8 steps

“My real point of this article isn’t the steps. They deserve their own article. The point is the methodical process of how the opportunity was introduced. The business (prospecting) tape strategy was awesome. It helped identify who wanted to learn more.”

The Tao of Victory

A few weeks ago I watched a gut wrenching video of Tony Romo officially step down as the starting QB for the Dallas Cowboys. You see I’ve been a cowboy fan since 1975 (Insert “I feel sorry for you” jokes here) which means I’ve witnessed a few QB controversies.

The first was between Craig Morton and Heisman trophy and hall of fame hero Roger Staubach. There was also another controversy between Staubach and Clint Longley which was short lived after Staubach kicked his ass in a locker room scuffle.

Tony Romo speaks to the media about the decision to step aside for Dak Prescott...

I actually met Staubach about 15 years ago and played in a flag football game against him in Newport Beach, CA. He was 63 at the time, and outclassed and outplayed all of the weekend warrior ex-college players involved. Pro football is some serious shit.

The only other QB controversy I know of in Dallas since was between Danny White and Gary Hogeboom. Yep, that’s right. I’ll bet no one’s ever heard of Hogeboom. Heck. I’m not even sure that’s how you spell it, but the White-Hogeboom controversy was legit.

And now it’s Romo v. Prescott. Romo has had a great career plagued with mishaps and playoff blunders, losses and recently frequent injury. People have said things like, “He can’t win the big one.” They are totally right and totally wrong at the same time. Only Peyton Manning has passed for more yards than him in the past decade.

You see a football team is 45 active players and 8 inactive players plus a practice squad and a legion of coaches. Each person on that team is accountable to winning championships. He can’t win the big one. Right? No ONE can. It’s a team game.

Tony played much of his career behind a shitty offensive line. Every year I can think of they had crappy defense as well. And Patrick Crayton dropped an easy TD in the division game against the Giants who went on to beat the undefeated Patriots in the Super bowl. That’s his fault too? or the Dez non-catch against Green Bay a few years ago? Shit! Don’t get me started.

I have to admit that as a fan, I have drifted into the Romo can’t win the big one fallacy, but for the most part I’ve seen his heroism, passion for the game and will to win under any circumstance as a great gift to the Cowboy Nation.

He’s played a career packed full of comeback victories, elusive scrambles in the pocket to create plays on his own and shear toughness. He’s been knocked down, knocked around and has always found ways to come back and win games. He is 15-4 in his last 19 games, and this year, lost his job to a rookie.

Dak Prescott started this year as the 4th string QB as a rookie 4th round pick who might not have made the team if it weren’t for the Romo injury and the season ending injury of Drew Henson the 2nd string QB. Prescott has won 10 of his first 11 starts behind a solid line excellent running attack and opportunistic defense.

In an age of sports where a lot of players are creating distractions for silly reasons and hurting their teams and offending fans, Romo impressed me more than he ever has with his approach to this situation. When it was sure that he was healthy enough to start a game, and coach Jason Garrett informed him that Prescott would continue in his role as starter, Romo spoke at a press conference.

Pressing a Story

Press conferences are full of reporters trying “create” a story, and there is no better way than a legit QB controversy in Dallas. Romo knows that, and he came to the conference prepared. He had a speech prewritten and he read most of it except for a few important lines that you could tell came from his heart.

It was obvious that he read it versus winging it because he opened himself up and honestly shared the heartbreak of this season. His message was clear that while he was personally shattered, the team’s goal of winning a championship comes before all individual needs.

Instead of reacting in anger or trying to blame the coaching staff or circumstances creating a distraction which is often the case in professional sports especially among elite players. Romo made himself vulnerable in an extremely valuable way to his team and fan community.

At the end of his speech he referred to two battles. In life you have one with the man across from you, and one with the man inside of you. If you control the one inside of you the one across from you doesn’t matter. That hit me the hardest. It’s so true, and at the same time hard to admit.

We all have that battle going on. The internal critic, self-doubt and that little, (sometimes overwhelming) voice in your head that says, “You suck! How can you do that if…” The internal battle is real for everyone. As humans, it seems that we are almost always our own biggest obstacle.

...AND that is tough to admit and that is why I so moved by Romo’s speech. The honesty, humility and sincerity help me admit and confront that internal battle and take responsibility for focusing on my own internal personal journey of growth and self-understanding.

The Struggle is Real

In the past year I’ve experienced growth in many areas of my life. Part of that has been a writing practice, and I’ve struggled with what the fuck am I trying to say? And this is it. The battle is always within. Find and develop the resources, support and systems to win.

Men, especially athletes are expected to be tough. If you are making millions of dollars and represent a national brand it’s even more intense. Why should we feel sorry for this guy, he’s making millions to sit the bench? I don’t feel sorry for him, and I don’t feel sorry for myself.

What I do understand and appreciate is a man’s guts and the balls to say, “I’ve put everything on the line to try and accomplish my goal. Hell, I’ve had my bones broken multiple times, and worked hard to recover from those injuries to return to battle for myself, teammates and (often fickle) fans again and again.

And, now I have to humbly step aside and watch someone else do it instead. It hurts, my heart is broken, but I am still proud, happy for my successor and teammates, and I am at peace with myself because I know that I laid it ALL on the line”

I am going to share 5 take aways from Romo’s speech and the process of writing about it. I would love to hear any feedback from you as well.  Use the form below to get Tao of Pizza delivered to your inbox or get in touch!

Cheers.

Thanks for the photo above  https://www.theodysseyonline.com/tony-romo-is-an-elite-qb

The Why For The Tao of All Things

I always apologize for my lack of knowledge in these things because I know of the Masters who have studied and embodied these principles over the last few thousand years. My understanding may not compare to that of a guru or sage, so, humbly I’m attempting to follow in their quest to understand the Tao.

I feel strongly though, that I have been on the same path of self-discovery my whole life, and a fairly long time studying western and eastern spiritual practices such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity +++. Some of the time I didn’t even know it.

For example I have taken workshops in qi-gong and incorporated it into my more western Christian meditative practices only recently to find out qi-gong practice was developed from Taoism. Still, I respectfully consider myself a dilettante (amateur).

This is an overview of what Tao means to me in a few layers. The first is how I would describe it after studying it and practicing some of the exercises over a significant period of time. Then share some of the quotes and texts of the experts on the subject including excerpts from the Tao Te Ching and other important works of Taoism.

The first and one of the most challenging things I know about the Tao is this, “That which can be called the Tao is not the Tao.” In other words it refers to a primordial force that is so expansive, infinite and all-inclusive that it escapes the grasp of language and human concepts.

Ok, great, that means it doesn’t mean shit right? Wrong. To me it means that is something you have to feel, to experience and to experience the Tao, or the primordial force of the universe is very real and profound just impossible to completely reduce to words, reason or concepts.

That might seem scary in the Western culture at a time when our scientific methods and instruments are so developed and accurate at measuring the physical world. Surely everything can be reduced to a chemical or quantum formula. Simply put, it can’t.

My last simplification of the Tao is that it is the energetic force of nature that makes plants and trees grow, humans develop and every aspect of our intricately woven ecosystem that connects everything to everything. It is eternal, non dualistic and ever present in all things.

From The Inner Chapters and The Tao Te Ching:

               “The Tao that can be talked about or put into words is not the eternal Tao.”

So begins the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu. “I do not know its name,” he says, “so I will call it Tao. To describe it I call it vast active and moving in great cycles.”

How then to describe the indescribable? How to fit into words that which is indescribable? The Tao can only be pointed to or referred to, say the ancient sages. It cannot be held, only experienced. It cannot be touched, only felt. In cannot be seen only glimpsed with the inner eye.

Lao Tzu describes the Taoist as the one who sees simplicity in complicated and achieves greatness in small things. Chuang Tzu another legendary Taoist author describes the Taoist as follows:

“Those who seek for and follow the Tao are strong of body, clear of mind and sharp of sight and hearing. They do not load their mind with anxieties and are flexible in their adjustment to external conditions.”

Pizza on the other hand can be sliced up and passed around at a party. It goes really good with beer too, especially for Monday Night Football. Get where I’m going here? I want to play with the idea of how we look at the world. Or our cosmology.

The Tao is an undividable whole where more can be less, and the concepts of more and less are included in each other as an undivideable whole. One of my favorite symbols is the taijitu or yin-yang symbol.

My first exposure to it was the Town and Country surf design logo, and I loved it even though I had no idea it was one of the most powerful symbols in the world representing how opposite forces, light and dark, male and female are two sides of one principle and each contains the seed of its opposite within itself.

So in contrast to pizza, The Tao can’t be divided up into slices. It represents the wholistic power and energy source of nature. I don’t know if it goes good with beer. No, wait a minute, everything goes good with beer.