Optimize With Brian Johnson | More Wisdom In Less Time

We talk a lot about the futility of arguing with reality.   As Byron Katie so perfectly says, “When I argue with reality I lose. But only 100% of the time.” (Hah.)   Today we’re going to take another look at that wisdom from a slightly different angle.   We’ll invite a couple of modern Zen Masters to the party: Joko Beck and Phil Jackson.   We’ll start with legendary basketball coach Phil Jackson’s wisdom. In his book Sacred Hoops, he tells us: “In Zen it is said that the gap between accepting things the way they are and wishing them to be otherwise is ‘the tenth of an inch of difference between heaven and hell.’ If we can accept whatever we’ve been dealt—no matter how unwelcome—the way to proceed eventually becomes clear. This is what is meant by right action: the capacity to observe what’s happening and act appropriately, without being distracted by self-centered thoughts. If we rage and resist, our angry, fearful minds have trouble quieting down sufficiently to allow us to act in the most bene