In Making Things Happen Ken talks about four foundations of success. And he begins by talking about what success means from a spiritual point of view...
Success (from MTH02 00:03:33.00 - 00:06:33.00)
(download into iTunes)
Success (from MTH02 00:03:33.00 - 00:06:33.00)(download into iTunes)
Success--well, I've just used the phrase, worldly success--is defined by the eight worldly concerns. Some of you are familiar with these: happiness, unhappiness; gain, loss; fame, obscurity; respect and distain. So that a person who is happy, wealthy, famous, and respected, we usually say this is a success. A person who is unhappy, poor, obscure and disdained, we usually say is a failure. These are the criteria for success and failure that are defined by society. It's why we have the wonderful phrase in Buddhism, the winds of the eight worldly concerns.
There's a lovely story from China about that, about the chan master who went to see a professor who loudly proclaimed wherever he went that he was free from the winds of the eight worldly concerns. So he went to his residence, knocked on the door. He wasn't home. He went in, took out a piece of paper and wrote an exquisite calligraphy (we'll call the professor, Professor Lee), "Professor Lee is a fart," and left it on Professor Lee's desk. Went back to his place, which was on the other side of the Yangtze River.
Well, Professor Lee arrived home, saw this, and could tell immediately who wrote it by the calligraphy. Stormed out of his house. Went down to the Yangtze River, and rented a ferry, got across. Stormed into the chan master's house and said, waving the piece of paper, "How dare you write this? Don't you know who I am?" And the chan master said, "Yes, certainly I've heard of Professor Lee, the great Professor Lee who is free from the winds of the eight worldly concerns. But it seems he's been blown across the Yangtze River by a little puff of air."
Success, in the way that we're talking about here, is simply the ability to implement your intention. In other words, to bring what you want to see happen into being. Now this is very important from a spiritual point of view.
