Peter Otoole

My good friend Pete Otoole is an awesome artist.

We first worked together when I was trying to make it as a musician (a good 6 - 7 years ago). He designed the front covers for my demos, and when I eventually got signed he designed covers for the EP releases.

After talking to Pete I'm always left with a huge amount of determination, focus, excitement and creativity.

I always tell people, 'Follow your passion and money will become a byproduct.' Pete is a perfect example of this.

He quit his job and became a full-time artist.

He's always been focused and determined to make a living out of what he loves doing, which is anything to do with art.

Learn from this guy.

Use him as an example for having the guts to go for what you want in life. And when you get knocked down, you get back up again and learn from it. Grow from it.

We're going to start a new project; a book on an adventure to find the self.

Watch this space.

Check out Pete's site:

http://www.peter-otoole.co.uk/

Form - Formless

It's easy to say that death and dying causes suffering. It definetly looks like that on the surface. But what if that's not the case?

Maybe it's our attachment to forms (people, pets, material possessions - our own physical form etc) that causes the suffering.

Forms belong to the world of forms and therefore are in a state of flux.

Clinging to 'things', whether it's to a person or a pet, or a house, or your body, will cause you to suffer at the moment it gets taken away.

Why cling to something that will one day be 'unclingable'?

To not cling is not being cold.

If anything, it's being warm.

'True love is letting go', as the saying goes.

The formless world that exists behind all forms - now there's a wonder.

Little Fly

I was making a cup of tea and I saw a fly land on the wall next to me.

I asked it, 'What happens when we die, little fly?'

And it flew off.

Fail to Live

A guy who I deliver to came to the door with his arm in a sling. He said he had had an operation on his elbow and hadn't been to work since just after Christmas.

'I'm bored stupid, I want to go back to work,' he said.

'Get a hobby!' I said.

'I like diving, but can't go 'coz of this thing,' he said, pointing to his sling.

'Why don't you read a book,' I said, enthusiastically. 'Or write your memoirs!'

He laughed.

'What could I write? Was born - went to school - worked - retired. I could fit the entire thing on a postcard!' he said.

I thought how sad this was. This guy lives to work. He told me he loves his job, which is fine, but then he said that he's not looking forward to retirement.

What a shame how he lives to work.

When his work is gone, will he fail to live?

I grabbed hold of him and shouted in his ear for him to wake up, then I threw his letters at him and ran away like a girl.

Didn't really.

Zen

"All the causes, all the conditions of satori are in the mind; they are merely waiting for the maturing. When the mind is ready for some reasons or others, a bird flies, or a bell rings, and you at once return to your original home; that is, you discover your now real self. From the very beginning nothing has been kept from you, all that you wished to see has been there all the time before you, it was yourself that closed the eye to the fact. Therefore, there is in Zen nothing to explain, nothing to teach, that will add to your knowledge. Unless it grows out of yourself no knowledge is really yours, it is only a borrowed plumage."

D.T. Suzuki

An introduction to Zen Buddhism

(This has just blown my mind. It makes so much sense and rings a bell with what I've experienced.)

Anybody want a lift?

I asked my dog this morning if she wanted to go to the supermarket with me. Her ears pronged up, her head tilted  side to side and her tail began to wag.

'I take that as a yes,' I said.

Now, I started to debate whether to take her out for a wee first.

'I'm not going to be that long,' I said. 'Sod it.'

Something inside me was saying 'Let her have a wee', but foolishly I ignored this.

In the supermarket I bumped into my old Gung Fu instructor, then I bumped into my uncle.

20 minutes later I go back to my car to see my dog going mental in the back seat, then the front seat, then the back seat. 'Your back! Your back!' she seems to be saying.

I sit down behind the wheel, tell her to get on to the back seat and calm down and that's when I see the dark patch. The massive dark patch. I dab it with my finger - yup she's pissed everywhere.

Great.

Always listen to that inner voice!!

It seems to know what it's talking about.

Happiness

I'm always saying how my girlfriend watches too much TV, but sometimes I have to admit it pays off. This morning she saw something on the BBC News about happiness that she thought I would be interested in.

She was right.

Check out the link below.

I think it's proof of the uniqueness of the times we're living in that something like this is being advertised in the mainstream media.

Superb!

http://www.actionforhappiness.org/?success=true