Commentary

The answer to making money in the markets can be given in one sentence: Buy low and sell high. This can also be applied to managing our egos. We would be better off if we managed the ego the same as our retirement account.

Ever try to kill your ego? Come on, all of us seekers after truth have probably tried to kill the ego at some point. It’s kind of similar to killing a cockroach. While we are sitting in the dining room, perfectly poised at a formal dinner party in our home, from out of nowhere, a cockroach appears.

It’s a new year and a new time for reflection on the spiritual search. Will 2010 finally be the year that we obtain that elusive enlightenment?

Emanuel shares his thoughts on transformation during his "Shift Happens" lecture in the Chicago Center for Performing Arts October 28, 2009.

Mindful Metropolis, a magazine connecting Chicago's conscious community, features Emanuel in the October 2009 issue. 

Want more information on The Magic of the Mind? Click here to read Emanuel's full outline.

With the advent of change on the horizon in society, we too can harness that energy within ourselves. With simple changes in our lifestyle, we have the ability to transform.

Imagine what the dawn of consciousness was like for early humans, when we first learned to speak and use words. Little by little all the emotion and intuition that had been left unexpressed burst into life. The new ability to use linguistic terms as symbols for objects and ideas must have been an amazing experience, especially when it was used to identify ourselves.

Suddenly we could give our self a name and a sense of individuality. We could conceptualize past and future, and slowly thoughts came into focus. It was the birth of the mind.

Transformation occurs when any process comes to its turning point, whether it is something as simple as the rhythm of our breathing or the grand cycles of civilizations.

And judging by the many indicators of exponential change we face today from the growth of population to the disappearance of our natural resources - we are now living in the midst of just such a time in human history. Our current civilization, which began about 13,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, is now approaching a bifurcation point which forces us to make a choice.

These are extraordinary times - as is clearly evident in the daily headlines. Climate change, diminishing resources, burgeoning population and cultural conflict are but a few of the challenges facing post-modern civilization. It will take extraordinary solutions - the transformation of our personal lives and many of our social institutions--to overcome the obstacles we face, but it can be done and the rewards will be great.