Know Yourself, Forget Yourself

Our brains seek order and resist the unexpected, inconsistent, and counterintuitive. But life is more often paradoxical than predictable - which is why formulas for fulfillment and success often fail. Instead of fighting the tide of contradiction and confusion, Marc Lesser asserts, we can learn to understand and even embrace them using the simple tools he presents in these pages. Readers learn to master five core competencies: Know Yourself, Forget Yourself; Be Confident, Question Everything; Fight for Change, Accept What Is; Embrace Emotion, Embody Equanimity; and Benefit Others, Benefit Yourself. The result is balance, a version of Buddhism's "middle way," which prompts understanding of what is required in any given moment and actions through which we skillfully "dance" with paradox in enriching and joyful ways. Bolstered by the latest in neuroscience, this guide is nuanced and direct, profound and practical.

Autorentext

Marc Lesser is a founder and CEO of SIYLI: Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a nonprofit company whose vision is creating enlightened leaders worldwide. Based on programs that Marc helped develop within Google, SIYLI accomplishes its mission by employing the tools of mindfulness and emotional intelligence to help leaders and organizations achieve more productivity, leadership, effectiveness, and happiness. For more than twenty years Marc has been integrating mindfulness and awareness practices with business, strategy, and leadership practices. He has been practicing and studying Zen for more than thirty years and is a Zen teacher in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi, author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Marc was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for ten years and in 1983 served as director of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen monastery in the West. Prior to his position with SIYLI, Marc was founder and CEO of ZBA Associates, a management consulting, coaching, and training company. Clients included Google, Genentech, Twitter, Facebook, as well as leading nonprofit organizations. Before founding ZBA, he was the founder and CEO of Brush Dance, an innovative publisher of greeting cards, calendars, and journals with distribution throughout the world. Marc has an MBA from New York University and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Rutgers University. He lives with his family in Mill Valley, California. You can learn more about Marc and his work at www.marclesser.net and www.siyli.org.