BLOG 24 You are a Brand

Blog 24:    27^th  Jan. 2010

You Are a Brand

-          Laibl Wolf, Dean, Spiritgrow - The Josef Kryss Wholistic Centre, Australia

One of the major marketing tenets is the significance and strategy of branding. The experts inform us that successful branding holds the key to marketability and sales. Two companies whose branding strategies are often cited as models are Virgin and Apple. Both are hugely successful companies. Virgin is noted for its adventurousness and flair, and Apple is associated with creative elegance and remarkable techno-prophecy.

Their success goes well beyond the efficacy of their products.  It goes to the core of our belief systems – our belief in these companies.  Branding launches beliefs. Once you have flown with Virgin you are hooked by youthfulness, jocular approach, cabin lighting effects and the Virgin touch in all on-board services.  Once you experienced the Apple Mac or i-pod, it is difficult to revert back to an ‘ordinary’ PC or a renegade MP3 player. Our belief in their legend is supreme. So when Apple notifies the market that a Mac Tablet is about to be launched, even though the concept is not new, the compelling belief that Mac does it right immediately guarantees a successful market launch.

Choose a leader whose ‘branding’ excites you and encourages you to place your beliefs in him or her. Not too many, right?  Obama exuded charisma that launched the Obama brand. Yet it has largely dissipated in the tatters of false hope and broken promises. The rhetoric outstripped real-politik and the brand tarnished in the dust-heap of economic woes and geo-political failures. Even a Nobel prize couldn’t resuscitate the brand. The Obama brand has lost its sparkle.  

Marxism, communism, and socialism were also once touted as political brands of their future. But the after-shocks of their human failures left belief in their brand in the coarse hearts of a few hardened radical leftists. The Palestinian brand of an oppressed and humiliated nation became undressed and naked through competitive self-aggrandizement, adoption of Goebbels’s lies strategy, and a culture of blackmail-induced European market countries handouts.

So what leadership brand inspires you? What political, philosophical, psychological , or religious brand compares to Apple and Virgin? Is that cynicism I espy in your eyes?

The answer: You have to become the brand.  You have the capacity for honesty, decency, consistency, and personal leadership.  You can overcome temptation and peer group pressure.  You can express your giftedness and abilities. You are a brand. You are Apple.  You are Virgin. But it takes an act of courage to believe in your own brand to the point that you actually live it.

Tomorrow morning, wake up with a sense of mission.  Allow the world to benefit and be inspired by your uniqueness, the image of your higher self. Your brand is much more powerful than Apple or Virgin. But for the brand to have reach you have to live a true version of you! Allow others to believe in you by living your brand – openly, courageously, and truly.

 

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight) 

    Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com                                                                                                                                                                      - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/                                                                                                      – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site    www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

 

BLOG 23

Blog 23:    21^st  Jan. 2010

A Spiritual Illusion

-          Laibl Wolf, Dean, Spiritgrow - The Josef Kryss Wholistic Centre, Australia

Kabbalah leveraged this message: all is One. We are in constant states of inter-relationship. There are no states of ‘separateness’. There are no gaps between concentrations of matter. These are filled with consuming energy. There are no gaps between the petals of a rose. These ‘spaces’ are dusted with a  cacophony of fragrance. There is no gap between you and me.  An ever-changing kaleidoscopic consciousness field embraces us.

Spiritual energy coagulates into concentrated forms: humans, animals, plants and things. These appear for the briefest sub-set of infinite time – for 120 years, for a few months, for a brief micro-second. All time is naught in the face of infinite. Sometimes the energy-space simmers and bubbles in the heat of estrangement and fear. At other times its soft undulating spiritual landscape stills, softly basking in the entrancement of love and connectedness.  

Words are so poor. How can I, a finite human being, begin to speak about the non space of Oneness? Trapped as we are in the consciousness fields of discrete moments, of an uneven but ongoing now, we can only stutter sounds of inner awareness – that all is One, that what our seemingly mundane and ordinary lives experience is really a spiritual illusion.

There is a treasure chest of insight entombed within the mortal heart. Words are poor containers for its expression. If it could be pried open our seeming separateness from each other would shimmer and disappear, like the entry of Stargate or when the voice says ‘Scotty, beam me up’.  So many people and nations smart from myopia – oblivious of their higher consciousness. In truth, we are projections from the same Source. We are brothers and sisters. If only we basked in the brightness of the other, then there would no longer be strife, quarrel, war and carnage. Nation would not lift sword against nation, nor would they practice war any more.

How can we part this curtain of illusion – the purposeful sleight of hand of the holy Magician? Through deep meditation and profound contemplation. The Chabad masters call this hitbonenut. Then could we carry the refined spiritual postures with us wherever we go.  At least we should strive to hear the echo of that meditation and recall the aura of that contemplation. This is 24/7 spiritual work of consciousness and awareness to arouse the sensitivity to mutual respect, profound appreciation, and deep love.

We must strive beyond the illusion of separation. We must allow the mind’s inner-knowing to overcome the veil of insecurity and fear of separation.

In the year 2448 of the Torah calendar, time stood still and space was undressed. We were rewarded with a brief glimpse beyond the veil of illusion. This experience was encoded onto our psyche. Since then that encrypted truth dominates the soul seeking its freedom. Free it and the tipping point of creation will have been reached.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight) 

    Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com                                                                                                                                                                      - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/                                                                                                      – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site    www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

 

 

blog 22

Blog 22:    14^th Jan. 2010

A Carpet of Snow

-          Laibl Wolf, Dean, Spiritgrow - The Josef Kryss Wholistic Centre, Australia

Being an Aussi, gazing at a snow covered mountain-side, close- up, is an exhilarating and rare experience. I am in Aspen, Colorado to deliver a lecture, but cannot help but stare at the majestic panorama and thank the Divine sculptor for the immense beauty of the cosmic handicraft.

From the distance, the glistening white carpet covers the cracks and fissures of architectural ineptitude. Our boxed houses often jar the undulating smoothness and curvature of a perfect landscape. But come the gentle snows and the white-covered roofs hide this disparity bringing a commonality with the gentleness of the white pure and pristine vista that meets the eyes here in winter.

In the same way, human misbehavior jars the beauty of human potential. Terrorism is a cancerous blight. Greed and envy are reflections of human ugliness. Self deprecation, a result of absent self-worth, is a vacuous cavern of emptiness. Sometimes however, the landscape of human frailty enjoys the purifying and uplifting cover of spiritual whiteness. These glistening crystals of whiteness sparkle through love, forgiveness, compassion, and profundity.

For the Jewish soul, the universal blanket of whiteness is viscerally felt on Yom Kippur (also notated in the plural as Yom Kippurim - the Day of Atonements). On this sacred occasion the soul is purified, stains are scrubbed clean, and a weight of darkness is lifted off our shoulders. Another time-zone is approaching that offers this opportunity again – Purim (the festival of drawing lots). Interestingly, both names have the common letters of Purim. At a Kabbalistic level this bespeaks a connection. But how could the gravity and seriousness of Yom Kippur at all compare with the seeming lightheartedness and raucous festivities of Purim? Therein lays the power of whiteness. When are we most profoundly at one with our soul?  When we are in a state of intense Deveikut (profound meditative state of connectedness with the All), but also when we are in a state ecstasy, totally in love with life, fully experiencing its moment of intense beauty. Purim reflects the glistening whiteness of joy. Yom Kippur reflects the intense whiteness of inner retreat.   

The physical and spiritual snows melt. The ‘reality’ of our daily lives fills the stage of our present tense. The working days of the week confront us with their urgency and necessity. Yet the truly spiritual person allows the ambience of whiteness to enter into the arena of the seeming ordinary and mundane.  The snow continues to reflect its whiteness in the exigencies of the daily events. The potential purity within all things can be opened, uncovered, and the core of whiteness perceived.

I watch the skiers gliding gracefully down the white velvet of earth’s carpet. And I think: how much easier life can be if we allow ourselves to glide upon the whiteness of positive disposition, joyful personality, compassionate nature, deep insight. These choices are always available for us to make. Do you have the courage to make this choice?  Do you have the commitment to glide gracefully through life? Do you have the dedication to train, practice, and focus on the goal?  I believe in you. You can do it!

   Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com                                                                                                                                                                      - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/                                                                                                      – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site    www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

 

 

blog 21

Blog 21:    7^th Jan. 10

Metaphors, Allegories and Analogies

-          Laibl Wolf, Dean, Spiritgrow - The Josef Kryss Wholistic Centre, Australia

The video game is where imagination merges with reality.  Life is where reality merges with imagination. Life is a fixed marker. Imagination is the variable.  Life is the stage upon which we, the actors, imagine our existence.

What a wonderful piece of dynamic art we are. One moment our consciousness draws meaning from the flower. Another moment it’s not the flower but the room that contains the flower. Might it be the imagination that contains the room with the flower.

We don’t see reality.  Reality looks through us. We are the filter. The creative products of our endeavors are the physical manifestations of our filter.

The sense of touch. Trillions of molecules interfacing with another trillion molecules. Replay on another stage: touch is exhilarating, adventurous, sensuous, and informational. So what do we have here? Collisions of objective particles that produce a flow of feelings. Tangibility meeting intangibility.

Perhaps there is no reality. It’s all interpretation, subjectivity – it’s about me, the ‘I’ within. Even pain is subjective. Prepare a person for pain and it will be felt more acutely. Our eyes see. Our ears hear. Our consciousness interprets. Would the real reality please stand up? Is it the eyes, the pain, or is it the awareness of sight and the feeling of pain?  Or is it consciousness interpreting reality?  

I pick the flower and hold it in my hand. It feels light. It looks intricate and beautiful. It lifts my spirits. It leads my thoughts and imagination in the direction of beauty and enlightenment. So reality does move the imagination after all. Or is my imagination changing reality? Or is my consciousness directing my imagination to create a new reality?

Are these just mind-games? Is this a semantic exercise? Is it a philosophical excursion? Or even mere musings of an intellectual wanderer?

I have chosen to believe that reality exists. I have chosen to believe that I am part of reality. I have chosen to believe that my perception of reality contributes to its evolving nature.  I have chosen to believe that reality is meaningful.  I have chosen to believe that I am meaningful.

I have chosen to believe.

I have chosen.

The waves of uncertainty collapse into a new moment of reality.

Life is not a video game.

 

   Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com                                                                                                                                                                      - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/                                                                                                      – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site    www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

 

 

blog 20

Blog 20:    31^st  Dec. 09

In Seven Days, Please

-          Laibl Wolf, Dean, Spiritgrow - The Josef Kryss Wholistic Centre, Australia

Design a world by mail order.  Provide specifications. Seek delivery within seven days. Here it is:

I would like a world that is an expression of dynamic art. Everything should be in a state of motion. ‘Everything’ should include the tiniest concentrated energy units – particles, and the macro shapes that create much larger constellations. Allow the particles to vibrate and inter-relate in their own worlds and orbits.  In fact I would like worlds within worlds.

Kindly allow a macro scale of this world to include variations of wavelengths that would produce colors. And also throw in scents, textures, tastes, and sounds. Perhaps it might be nice if this world would have the power of daily renewal, like being reborn each day. But write-in a daily variation within the program providing subtle daily changes.  

Let the world have an up and down. Perhaps the ‘up’ can have an infinite expanse and the ‘down’ have oceanic holes of peer-through material that can support floating and surface motion. Let this world also have three dimensions of space so that the colors, growth dynamics, and daily variation can be experienced viscerally.

You know what? Maybe the central element should be consciousness. I mean, something that could actually experience the wonderment of this art piece. Perhaps we could even have a series of different qualities of consciousness experienced by different sentient elements: by things that crawl along the lower axis, that move freely in the ‘peer-through’ material, that know how to negotiate the movement of air. What might be interesting is to have all these moving parts in motion faster than the rotation of the dynamic canvas. Better still, let’s include a sentient creature that can appreciate the relative changes, the variations, the relationships between all things on this canvas. Hey, that could produce another dimension of consciousness called time.

I have another idea: let’s share the development of the software program with a really high-capacity sentient being – let’s call it Human. Even allow the Human to make mistakes in co-writing the software so that it can grow and evolve through trial and error.

Wow! This is becoming really interesting. Just got another idea.  Allow this super-sentient Human to have a dual track of consciousness –mindful appreciation of the overall design, plus a dimension of feedback that can motivate it further, feelings.

And since you, the designer, know that ultimately every element of this art work is inter-connected and individually meaningful, allow this human to grope in the darkness of youth – say a maximum of 120 years, to slowly discover the power and ecstasy of Oneness .  

Most of all, I would like the created elements to have an inkling that you exist.  Keep it recessed deep within the software so that you need to be searched out.  Perhaps leave your signature in every element of the total design – a sort of hide’n’seek. There, but not there.  A potential for humility.

Do you think you can have this ready in seven days?

   Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com                                                                                                                                                                      - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/                                                                                                      – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site    www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org