Update
I’m working on some additional content to help law students after they have read the book. I’ll be announcing those opportunities in the next few weeks.
The book will be officially available to everyone sometime in March 2009, and available for pre-purchase and bulk purchases prior to the official release date. Keep checking back for info.
Have a great Thanksgiving.
ideas ideas ideas
I’m working on a bunch of cool ideas for extra products/services to support law students – going above and beyond the book.
Of course I’m open to ideas from any of you too.
Blog Series – Secret #2: You have the power to Create.
Secret #2: You have the power to Create.
First published for public audiences in 1912, The Kybalion is the most powerful (yet one of the shortest and most accessible – see my book recommendation widget at the right of this page) book of creative principles and esoteric knowledge I’ve ever read. And, I’ve read hundreds esoteric books. Citing an ancient, very secret book or oral tradition, The Kybalion is dedicated to Hermes Trismegistus, thought to be the greatest teacher of ancient Egypt and the founder of secret, “occult” (which simply means “secret”) teachings.
Why does this book stand out? First, because it is very short and doesn’t take long to digest. It’s kind of like the Tao Te Ching in that it takes only a little time to read, but will take a lifetime to master. Second, because it boils things down into only seven key principles. Our short-term memory can hold between 5 and 9 items. Seven seems to be my maximum. I can recall a principle from this short list in an instant when a situation comes up in my life, so having just seven items on the list makes the list very memorable and useable to me.
Two of my favorite sayings from the book are “When the ears of the student are ready to hear, then cometh the lips to fill them with wisdom.” And, “The lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the ears of the Understanding.”
These rules have certainly been true in my life. Whenever I’ve needed a teacher or a mentor, that person has shown up in my life, and I’m honest enough to realize that many times I would not have even liked the person, much less been in a place to learn from the person if she would have shown up a moment earlier. The same is true in my law practice. In the early stages of a lawyer-client relationship, I am usually in the role of the “teacher.” Often I have the pleasure of reversing, or at least balancing this relationship over time, but I can tell right away when a new client has the “ears of Understanding.” By the time most people come to a lawyer, except in the case of receiving notice of a lawsuit, they are in a place of actively seeking counsel and so I’m happy to give that counsel. Other times, people are obviously not in a place to listen to what I (or anyone else) will say, so in those cases, I just keep quiet and listen. When the time is right, and they are ready to hear and understand, I’ll communicate my thoughts on the matter.
The core of the book explains “The Principles of Truth are Seven; he who knows these, understandingly, possesses the Magic Key before whose touch all Doors of the Temple fly open.” As a Freemason, I’m familiar with the concept of the “Doors of the Temple” being another way of saying “the path to wisdom.” We are all seeking “truth” and the “Doors of the Temple” are nothing less than a happy and successful life, consciously lived.
The Principles are:
1. The Principle of Mentalism
2. The Principle of Correspondence
3. The Principle of Vibration
4. The Principle of Polarity
5. The Principle of Rhythm
6. The Principle of Cause and Effect
7. The Principle of Gender
I’ll not reprint the book, but each of these principles deserves some attention now, so that you will have a foundation upon which to base the references made to these principles throughout the remainder of the book.
Blog Series – Secret #1: We are here to create.
Secret #1: We are here to create.
Life is about allowing creation to flow from the field of spirit into physical existence. Some people call this the “quantum field,” or the “zero point field,” others call that field of spirit the “Tao,” “the Great Architect of the Universe,” or simply “God.” To do this one must understand certain metaphysical and spiritual principles that govern the world and the creative process. But understanding isn’t enough in our secular society. In addition to the spiritual and metaphysical principles, one must also master the rules of business and become familiar with the laws of intellectual property. It’s hard enough to come up with or recognize a great idea, but to make that idea manifest and successful in the physical world takes mastery of both sides on the spiritual and metaphysical divide.
This series of posts will help you become adept on both planes. We’ll discuss why we create, how we create, and what we do to balance the sharing and protection of our creative product.
Ask 100 people and I’ll bet you’ll hear 100 different answers to the question “why create?” Some will say they feel a calling. Some will say it gives them joy. Some will say they can’t avoid being creative. Still others will say it’s how they make a living. When you reduce all those answers to their essence, you will find a spiritual motivation. Humans create because it is our purpose on Earth, in this lifetime, now. There is a divine spark every human fueled ONLY through creativity. It’s the driving purpose in each human life to fan that spark into a roaring flame – to co-create with God the world in which we live. Hopefully, we’re filling the world with better things, experiences, products, services, and people.
We create. We co-create. But no creation happens in a purely human experience. There is always a touch, glimpse, or feeling of something greater coming into the world through our creativity. There’s a great story about a garden in an inner city that was a trash heap until one man sought to transform the area. This man turned ugliness into beauty. One day a priest walked by and said “Bless the work God has done here.” To which the gardener responded, “Yes, God had truly done miraculous things in this place, but you should have seen it when he had the whole thing to himself.”
Nothing happens in the lives of humans that has not been co-created by ourselves or Nature in connection with the almighty Maker.
This idea is not new. It’s at the core of every spiritual tradition. For example:
• Christ said, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
– Matthew 5: 14-16
• Solomon wrote, “The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.”
– Proverbs 16:9
• The Tao says in Chapter Forty Two:
“The Tao begot one.
One begot two.
Two begot three.
And three begot the ten thousand things.
The ten thousand things carry yin and embrace yang.
They achieve harmony by combining these forces.”
What does all this have to do with a book about creativity?
Everything.
Humans have always created. First we created more humans. We created small communities and the infrastructure to sustain those communities. When we had successfully mastered the arts of mere survival and needed more advanced creative challenges, we created tools, language, writing, methods of transportation and building, advanced rituals, and the arts of storytelling. We continue to challenge ourselves by creating and solving more advanced problems. Creativity is so engrained in our lives that it’s very easy to lose our consciousness of the process. In fact, this loss of awareness is at the core of many of the problems of today. We create “lack” when we create systems that operate on a model of scarcity or hyperactive competition.
We create paintings, songs, plays, performances, dances, comedy routines, poems, books, rituals, businesses, and babies. If we are consciously fueling our sparks of divinity, these creations can’t help but advance our culture. When we are unconscious of what we’re creating, there’s a good chance we’re creating entropy, or destructive outcomes.
How do we gain or regain the conscious awareness of our creative power? By simplifying our approach and engaging in each step of the process mindfully. It’s not easy. It takes work and stillness in equal measure, and stillness is an ability often lost in the “advanced” world. Stillness wasn’t appreciated during the enlightenment or ennobled by the Protestant Work Ethic. Stillness wasn’t encouraged as a value in my Iowa farm-boy childhood. Stillness wasn’t even offered as creative methodology in my fine art undergraduate degree programming. Perhaps this lack of conscious stillness can be attributed to its relatively short, but un-proportionate importance in the creative process.
Before Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich, before Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People, before all the business gurus and self-help coaches, before What the Bleep Do We Know, and The Secret; there was a little book that summarized the great thinking of the ancient masters of the Western Hermetic tradition, and incorporated the foundation tenets of the Eastern traditions of Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism at the same time. Titled The Kybalion and authored anonymously by “The Three Initiates” the book introduces its readers to the powerful tools needed to master both the spiritual and physical planes.
What it’s all about folks….
http://charterforcompassion.com/
This is what it’s all about – lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, internet marketers, desingers, writers, plumbers, parents, kids…
LEADERS
Compassionate Leaders…
How can we help?
How many people do you know that are not having any fun in their jobs? How many people have no passion in their life? How many people do you know who are chronically depressed, passing their days in a state of quiet desperation? We all know people who are affluent, but not happy. Racing around all day chasing one’s job is not fulfilling. People want a way to live while they’re alive, yet many feel trapped. They don’t know how to create the happiness they believe they deserve. What a waste. What a shame. What a tragedy.
We can’t let this continue. We have such potential. YOU have huge potential. Are you reaching it? Why are we here in this lifetime except to reach our full potential? Yet we know so many people how haven’t engaged in their lives yet. There is no way they can reach their potential if they can’t even recognize that they HAVE potential. It’s painful. But how can we help?
How can we help?
There is one POWEFUL way to help, and that is through helping people recognize and fueling the spark of divinity within each of us. We fuel that spark, build that passion, in one way, through creativity. Creativity is the process of making the world a better place because we were here. Small improvements count. Creativity at any level, making the world just a little better is still a divine act. And, huge success comes from helping a lot of people be a little bit happier.
Creativity is the most powerful force on earth. If you believe Dan Pink’s hypothesis in the best-selling A Whole New Mind, then you subscribe to the theory that creative, intuitive, right brain thinking will be the primary competitive advantage for American business in the coming decades. I believe that reality is already upon us.
I’m blessed to be a counselor and attorney to creative people. My clients include among others a woman who channels an archangel, fine artists, musicians, advertising agencies, internet gurus, authors, publishers, design studios, architects, consulting groups, apparel companies, software companies, and biotechnology companies. The common thread through all these clients–the filter through which they have to pass before we match up as attorney and client is one thing: creativity. My clients know they are creating something good. They’re bringing something valuable into this world and they are graciously asking my help with the business and intellectual property aspects of their projects. The fact that I earned a fine art undergraduate degree in graphic design and spent over a dozen years working in and with branding campaigns attending law school adds to my credibility and approachability in the eyes of my clients.
I tell each of them that my purpose and commitment is to help as many people as I can to recognize the spark of divinity within them, which is ONLY fueled by creating something good and positive. People interested more in profit than in progress need not apply, and people who say they are trying to do good, but in the end are really only in it for the money usually select out of my client pool.
When we embrace the creative spark within each of us, we embrace our purpose in life and figure out why we’re alive and on this planet. I’m compelled to write these posts to help the people with great ideas understand the business and intellectual property aspects of making a living by fueling that divine creative spark. I’m compelled to write these posts to help people who are in danger of having that spark suffocated by their cubicles break out of the dead spot and fuel their spark by bringing more creativity to their current work, or empowering them to embrace their creativity and bring it to the world in some other manner.
I hope people who these posts will find hope that they can escape the feeling of being trapped. I hope they will find the tools to escape, the knowledge to engage, and the confidence to take action.
This series of posts combines my background as a spiritual seeker and teacher, artist, designer, marketing executive, entrepreneur, and yes – lawyer. It has elements of entrepreneurial business, spiritual inspiration, motivation, and self-help. Please feel free to engage in dialog about these posts by posting comments.
CSU Pre-Law Club Talk Tonight at 7:00
[ November 11, 2008; 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. ] I’ll be giving a talk Tuesday, November 11 at 7:00pm (short notice – I’m sorry) to the CSU Pre-Law Club. It’s on campus at Colorado State University. Building Clark C, Room 337
Why?
I just got back from a short hike with Tobin and Merrick (5 and 3). I took along Deepak Chopra’s little book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (you can find that in my Amazon widget at the right) and within a few minutes was inspired to write a few lines…
I’m calling this a “Creative Manifesto”
1. The purpose of life is to create – or at least co-create with God and our fellow humans.
2. In order to fulfill this purpose we need:
- Some freedom from worry about the hand-to-mouth burdons of living – some material weath. We can’t be expected to be creative and fulfill our full potential when we’re starving or homeless.
- Time to be creative (which is maybe part of the above discussion).
- Confidence and the Self-esteem/image to share our creations in the face of potential criticism.
- Knowledge (personal or through a team) to enable us to have the freedom and prosperity that provides that time and confidence to create and share our creations.
—
This is what many lawyers do – provide the space, time, and confidence for people to find and fulfill their creative potential.
—
(c) & TM Workshop @ SBDC
[ November 6, 2008; 8:30 am to 12:00 pm. ] Join my (c) and TM workshop at the Small Business Development Center tomorrow morning. Downtown Fort Collins in the Key Bank Tower from 8:30-12noon. $40 goes to the SBDC.
Book Recommendataions
Polls
Loading ...Random Quote
You may come to see that any distress you experience in the face of difficulty is a measure of your courage as you move outside your comfort zone.
— , The Energy of Money
About Kevin
Kevin E. Houchin is an attorney, artist, teacher, author, and principal of
Houchin & Associates, P.C. , a copyright, trademark, arts & entertainment,
business development, and branding firm located in Fort Collins, Colorado.
To schedule Kevin for keynote speeches, workshops, or seminars, call 970-493-1070
or email
kevin.houchin@houchinlaw.com.
Tags
