How to Apply ZEN to your Home Business..even if you don't ride a motorcycle

How to apply ZEN to your HOME BUSINESS even if you don’t ride a motorcycle

First, what is the meaning of ZEN…it’s a Japanese word based on ancient Chinese and Buddhist teachings where enlightedment can be attained through medidation and being in the moment NOW rather than contemplating past and future experiences. For the best definition, read the description at the end.

The famous book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" describes this interesting scenario.

Your motorcycle breaks down. In order to fix it, you need to open a little compartment in the engine. The compartment is held shut by a screw whose threads have been stripped off. You are unable to open it because of this so called insignificant little 10 cent screw.

"Normally screws are so cheap and small and simple you think of them as unimportant. But now, as your Quality awareness becomes stronger, you realize that this one, individual, particular screw is neither cheap nor small nor unimportant.”

"Right now this screw is worth exactly the selling price of the whole motorcycle, because the motorcycle is actually valueless until you can extract and replace the 10-cent screw…”
This seemingly insignificant ten cent apparatus has suddenly become very important in the total worth of your motorcycle or your home business. So you better be willing to learn more about it.

So if Zen philosophy can apply to a complex motorcycle, how can you apply it to a profitable home business. There are a number of ways:

• Home business is a complex entity in its own right with several moving parts: products, customers, sales,costs, profits, advertising, accounts, service, time, ..just to name a handful. It is no wonder that so many home business entrepreneurs plug into large successful companies and help as their marketing arm. After all, why would you want to build a motorcycle from scratch when you can join a famous company and help promote their branded motorcycles?
• Sales and marketing are the fuel that runs any business..like oil and gas run a motorcycle. No sales..no gas..no go. In fact, they may be considered the most hazardous parts.
  Once you fill up, you start a sequential process that can last for days or months. Everything that happens between the introduction and the sale is 100% important. Anything that interrupts this process can be fatal to your business or on the road.
• Marketing tools may be compared to the screws that hold the various compartments together. They are typically the highest leverage activity in any business. Nothing happens until somebody sells something. In our special home business, they need to be as inexpensive and pratical as screws They are worthy of your devotion and dedication to use them correctly.
• Do due diligence in your education and investment in how to master motorcycle roadmanship and / or home business. Be`wary of distractions who may try to stop your mastery. Go wherever you need to go, buy whatever you must buy, seek advice from whomever can provide it, until you achieve this mastery. Remember even a simple program can open the doors to a home business worth tens of thousands of dollars.
• Be aware that sometimes "seemingly minor" aspects of marketing and sales are like that stripped 10-cent motorcycle screw: There can be one obstacle, one niggling thing that's driving you around the bend and standing in the way of a big breakthrough. In this special network marketing home business based on duplication of a simple business plan, this is a basic curriculum guide that democratic masses can use. Will you allow a $20 bill to stop your education and potential for an amzing journey?
• Last, it is about the dream. Always remember, that people don’t buy a motorcycle because of all the features and benefits and salesmanship ..these are bits and pieces of the total picture. But the real reason to ride a motorcycle is to take the road, away from a cooped-up office, daily routines..to smell the leather, feel the wind in your hair as you sail through a town of onlookers..the new horizons..the adventure, the new sense of freedom.
  The real reason people believe in a network marketing home business is the freedom, financial independence and hope it gives when you get to the top of the mountain.
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  Whatever, you do, don’t stay ignorant. If you've never had a close look at the network marketing home business, check out these generic, educational videos.

Your questions and opinions are important. What "small things" mean a world of difference to you?

Annemarie

What is the Meaning of Zen by Rafael Espericueta

The word Zen has become part of the English language, but what exactly does it mean?

It’s much easier to answer the question “When is Zen?”, for that answer would have to be “Now!”. The whole point of Zen practice is to become fully aware, here and now. To come home to the present moment; this is truly where we live.

Thinking verbally takes us far into the past, or into the distant future. But both past and future are fantasies, since the future isn’t known and our memories of the past are often quite distorted accounts of what really happened. Zen exhorts one to “Come to your senses!”, for when we get lost in thoughts of the past or future, life passes us by.

When one mindfully dwells in the present moment, one completely dissolves into whatever activity manifests. One becomes the activity. Most people have had peak experiences, which all involve being so totally involved with life that one’s sense of separateness dissolves into the experience. Very Zen.

Cognitive scientists tell us that it takes about a third of a second for our brains to start thinking about a sensory experience (meaning verbally interpreting it). A third of a second is a vast chasm separating one from “right now”. A Zen master once proclaimed:
Lightening flashes, sparks fly!In one blink of the eye, you have missed seeing.

Living fully and authentically in the present moment makes each instant of one’s life a peak experience. Each moment is filled with a profound peace and clarity. Each moment is perceived to have infinite depth and significance, charged with magic and mystery, infinitely precious. Zen brings us face to face with our true original nature, undefiled by cultural conditioning and painful neurotic tendencies.

Words and concepts can be useful, but mistaking them for reality is a big mistake. Concepts about reality are not reality. The menu is not the food. Dissolving all ones preconceptions, beliefs, concepts, and judgments about ourselves and the universe, can be a very liberating experience. What a relief to let go of all that baggage! (Most or all of it is not true anyway.)
Simplicity is often associated with Zen. And Zen practice is indeed simple, if not easy. Just practice being fully present, right here, right now. Perceive directly, without filtering perceptions through beliefs and preconceptions. Dissolve into the eternal now, and realize that the Universe itself peers out through your eyes, hears through your ears, and breaths each breath. Unity beyond all conception. If not now, then when?