Michael Carroll is a Buddhist meditation teacher who had a 32-year career on Wall Street and publishing. He is the founding director of Awake at Work, a consulting group that helps organizations and individuals discover balance and well-being in the midst of everyday labors. For more information go to www.awakeatwork.net.
In his first book, Awake at Work, he presented 35 principles inspired by a classical Tibetan Buddhist text, The Root Text of the Seven Points of Training the Mind, and its transformative spiritual practice of using slogans called lojong. These handy sayings have been used for more than a thousand years to train the mind and enable people to reconnect with their inner wisdom, clarity, purposefulness, and authenticity.
In Fearless at Work, Carroll continues to use slogans as spiritual tools to deal with fear, anxiety, disappointment, and anger at work. They can also be used to stir the spirit to greater courage, resilience, and meaning. In the first section of the book, Carroll offers his wise explanation of "The Five Primary Slogans" which are:
1. Face the fierce facts of life.
2. No delight; no courage.
3. Recognize fear.
4. Discover the jewel of fearless abundance.
5. Command gracefully.
In the rest of this practical and thought-provoking book, Carroll explores the ironies of cowardice, taming the mind, establishing a fearless presence, and living a skillful life. Carroll gives credit to four traditions he was trained in over the past 37 years which have formed his spiritual emphasis on the practice of fearlessness.
The 38 slogans used in this paperback present a fresh approach to work, mindfulness, relationships, the emotions, and openness to all. Carroll is to be commended for his wise and relevant insights into the dangers and futility of keeping score, the challenges of speaking responsibly when we communicate with others, the need to trust our own experience in this uncertain world, the cultivation of the art of leaning in rather than pulling away from trouble, and the need to develop the gift of being "vividly present." He explains that the slogan "Take a straight dose" encourages us "to bravely savor life's delights and tragedies, paradoxes and marvels, pains and pleasures."
