Felix Dennis and 'Telling it as it is'
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to meet a Buddha or a Jesus now. I mean a fully awake human being. I'm sure most people would envisage them to be an embodiment of sweetness and light, but I beg to differ. I think they would pretty soon be regarded as dangerous people and end up getting busted by the establishment.
You see, people who recognise the truth are just plain troublesome. They just see things as they are and then tell it as it is.... without giving a flying monkeys' who they upset. They shatter illusions, make a mockery of our fearful little plans, expose our mealy-mouthed pretensions and hypocrisies, and then cut through our most cherished beliefs to expose the falacies we build them on. This is so not nice. And all in the name of Truth itself. Tough love indeed.
Have you ever met someone like this?
They are so uncomfortable to be with. They see straight through you, there really is nowhere to hide.... and yet somehow it is so refreshing. You feel simultaneously assaulted, exposed and renewed... and you just have to love them for it.
Felix Dennis is one man who has a wonderful way of cutting through the pretence and bullshit that still festers in much of the corporate world. Like many people who live their lives following their own rules and being true to their own inner guidance, his magic touch seems to shine in many ways. As well as creating a huge publishing empire (Maxim, Stuff, Personal Computer World...) he is an amazing poet. But what I find most endearing are his honest-to-God, no-holds-barred insights:
In his latest book "How to be Rich" he says,
Companies should foster a spirit of entrepreneurialism, not team spirit. They should be “ruthless meritocracies”. Team spirit, he says, “is the glue that binds losers together."
and of those who watch TV
you look in their eyes and it’s like dead fish. They’re lying in their everyday graves."
and the poem 'Place a Mirror by a Tree' from his book 'A Glass Half Full'
Place a mirror by a tree;
Tell me now, what do you see?Which of you will feed the earth?
Which of you contains more worth?Which of you with sheltering arm
Keeps a thousand things from harm?Which of you is nature's bane?
Which is Abel? Which is Cain?Which of you is God's delight?
Which of you a parasite?Place a mirror by a tree;
Tell me now - what do you see?
I think there's something inherently freeing in speaking our truth......it has no past or future, it just 'is', and that's redeeming. But it's definitely not for the feint of heart.
Thanks to David Tebbutt for the link.
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