The Focused Leader and the Milky Way

REDUCE THE NOISE OF THE WORLD…

It’s the end of summer, in the evening. The sky is clear and, in certain regions, where there is not too much light (which is becoming rare…), the stars are clearly visible.

To attenuate the noises of the world, the Focused Leader contemplates the Milky Way.

Ever since he has been practicing Focus, he has been trying to unravel the mystery of “contemplation”. Because Focus practice is to arrive at a perpetual contemplation. Beware, contemplation in Focus practice is not a waking dream, it is on the contrary an extremely living presence, “illuminating” (hence our base line at Ways & Lore: “Illuminating the Leadership”), radiant, full of strength. He concentrates, he concentrates, he concentrates, and then, suddenly, without warning, contemplation occurs.

(…) he concentrates and then, suddenly, without warning, contemplation occurs.

THE UNCERTAINTY ZONE

The Focused Leader knows how to concentrate, but he does not know how “it” happens. There, for example, while he is concentrating on the Milky Way, he knows that he is contemplating. There was a “switch” shortly before and his gaze changed. He can now “contemplate” the vastness of the sky without focusing on one or a group of stars.

He doesn’t know how this happens. But isn’t the important thing is that it happens? This is called the ” uncertainty zone “: we don’t know what happens, or how it happens, but it happens nonetheless. The Focused Leader thus realizes that she or he does not need to know everything, master everything, or control everything in order for something to happen.

This is especially true when we talk about the Milky Way. Impossible to control one’s gaze to fully grasp it in the sky. We are obliged to let our vision “melt” in space to be able to observe everything in a single glance.

Of course, the Focused Leader immediately makes the connection between his night experience and his daytime life. He realizes that he needs this gaze, this contemplation, in his life: to take a step back, to open the field of possibilities, to try to embrace everything in one glance, to see the connections between phenomena, planets…

THE DIGITAL CONTEMPLATION

This is even critical for him now, in the digital age. Information is everywhere, information is everything, information goes everywhere. The only problem: how to avoid being flooded by retweets, repetitions, false information, second-rate facts? How not to drown with the number of passwords (for the bank, social security, taxes, websites, school reports for the little ones to look at on the private school website…) that you have to remember? How can we not get overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge needed today to “hold the lead”, where Greek and Latin are obsolete notions?

This non-mental way of observing the world (…) led him to directly perceive the information at its source, the one he needs.

The Focused Leader knows this now: through contemplation. This gaze that is not on anything, that sees everything, and that is not controlled, he has learned to reproduce it again and again. This non-mental way of observing the world and its phenomena, of concentrating both on the immensely vast and the infinitely small, has led him to directly perceive information at its source, the one he needs. He does not need to spend the whole day being connected. A single glance is enough. He does not saturate himself, he does not constrain himself, he is not afraid not to control because he has experienced the right action, without control and without fear. On the other hand, he knows that he must maintain what he has been given.

So he simply remembers to contemplate the Milky Way… all day long.