A Zoom Lens for Your Life
by William Reed
Illustrations and Cover design by Hugh Purser
Calligraphy and drawings by William Reed
Published by EMC Quest Corporation
Copyright 2011 EMC Quest Corporation, Tokyo Japan
Adapted from the Flexible Focus Series, originally published on www.activegarage.com
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-936539-80-2
Smashwords edition
Dedicated to Matsumura Yasuo Sensei, the Founder of the Mandala Chart Method, whose long journey to share the Mandala Chart has become our shortcut to practical wisdom and a fresh start.
Foreword by Roger C. Parker
Over the 10 years I've known Will Reed, he's never failed to deliver. Will is a life changer; one of those rare individuals who not only asks the right questions, but also provides the tools others need to achieve positive change as painlessly as possible.
This book is an excellent example of Will Reed's ability to explore age-old questions and provide new, actionable, ideas and tools...ideas and tools that can help you become more happy, productive, and--most important--balanced.
Balance is the biggest challenge business and creative people face in today's always-on, connected world. “What's the best way to balance business with home, health, and happiness?”
For decades, Will Reed has been exploring balance. Balance in the physical realm (martial arts, tap dancing) and balance in terms of mental acuity combined with the discipline needed to turn ideas into reality.
For the last 2 years, I've been looking forward to Will's latest ActiveGarage blog post. Now, however, you can access Will's latest thinking--updated and assembled in one convenient location. Enjoy the journey!
Roger C. Parker
www.publishedandprofitable.com
Endorsements
From the Founder of the Mandala Chart Method...
A Zoom Lens for Your Life is an excellent introduction to the Mandala Chart, providing multiple windows on the method, and inviting readers to explore more. This work is just the beginning, as he has also prepared additional publications and programs to teach and coach people how to achieve life/work balance and abundance using the Mandala Chart.
Although I have been teaching the Mandala Chart Method for over 30 years in Japan, this is the first book ever published that focuses on the Mandala Chart Method in English. Moreover, it is designed to be of practical value to readers, and to make a positive difference in their lives and careers. The book is well structured, like a Mandala Chart itself, making the content all the more accessible and easier to understand.
I heartily endorse William Reed’s publication, and look forward to future projects from EMC Quest Corporation, which will help make the Mandala Chart available to people beyond the borders of Japan.
Matsumura Yasuo
Founder of the Mandala Chart Method
Mandala Chart Association
Author of the Mandala Business Diary and many original publications in Japanese on the Mandala Chart
From the Founder of the Idea Marathon System...
A Zoom Lens for Your Life is an exemplary model of how William Reed has taken and absorbed the best elements of the method and articulated them in his own creative way. This is a practical book for business people, and contains many nuggets of wisdom from Japanese culture. It can also serve as a navigational compass, helping you chart your own path in life.
Higuchi Takeo,
Director of Idea-Marathon Institute
Director of Japan Creativity Society
From the author of Living in More than One World...
“William Reed blends counterintuitive and holistic ways of looking at life that will help you understand your current reality in a sharper way. A Zoom Lens for Your Life will help you prepare for an uncertain tomorrow, the only kind of tomorrow most of us will face.” – Bruce Rosenstein
Author, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life, Berrett-Koehler, 2009
http://www.brucerosenstein.com
From the Director of Cambridge University Press Japan...
As a photographer who has published his own book of “pictures”, in addition to having sold or let others be used in other publications, I fully appreciate the need for “flexible focus” in the use of a camera.
What William Reed brings to us in A Zoom Lens for Your Life is a checklist, of sorts, on how to make the most of each day at work, at home, at play. And he accomplishes this through the use of the age-old Mandala. The idea of “interdependence” surfaces again and again – but not just in how “one” relates to “others”. It is also the key to achieving balance in one’s own life – understanding how the parts fit together to make the whole.
This is not a book to read and set aside . . . it is a book that offers insight into these “parts” and helps the reader examine them slowly and consciously. Which is why it is probably a good thing to savor this little gem by pacing yourself, using the recommended Mandalas, and meditate on/contemplate, in the context of your own “self,” the concepts which are presented.
Mark Gresham
Director of Cambridge University Press, Japan
From the President of a Bilingual Video and Film Production Company...
Frequently when reading this book I had that "ah ha!" moment. A statement or a concept that I instinctively knew to be true and which I could readily identify with. Yet I had never seen it so simply explained before. Each and every chapter goes on to illuminate more and more of the real pearls of wisdom in life that influence our thinking, our behaviors and which shape our life journeys. William Reed writes with simplicity and clarity. His masterful use of proverbs and metaphors are a powerful way of making concepts easy to understand and to identify with.
Dermot Killoran
President of Calderwood Productions, Tokyo
http://calderwood-productions.com
From the President of the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan...
For personal development to really work, useful reference material, clear thought and a simple framework to measure results are key elements you need. This short but pithy book is one such tool that fits the bill in an interesting and stimulating way. The Mandala approach offered by William Reed in A Zoom Lens for Your Life outlines the how and why this ancient chart can be used to great effect in realizing the goals we set ourselves in our ever-growing technology driven lives.
Philip T Gibb
President, British Chamber of Commerce in Japan
http://www.bccjapan.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Biggest Room in the World…
Are Goals Traps or Opportunities?
The Principle of Interdependence
Six Steps to Continuous Improvement
The 8 Frames of Life – Business
The Shift to Positive Engagement
8 Steps to Getting Your Ideas on Paper
Opportunities Come in Critical Moments
Learn from Others with a Better Perspective
Words of Praise for ZOOM LENS FOR YOUR LIFE...
INTRODUCTION
Inside the Mandala Chart
Imagine if your view of the world was restricted to what you can see in front of your face. This was the case for much of human history. It is hard to fathom to what extent technology has changed our view of the world, giving us zoom access to the outer reaches of space, the microscopic world, cameras transcending time and space, and the web connecting our world.
What if there was a tool that acted as a zoom lens for your life? What if you could step away from the fray to see the big picture, zero in for analysis or action, without losing track of how everything is connected? The Mandala Chart is just such a tool, acting as a viewfinder with flexible focus. In all periods of history, the people with flexible focus have been able to dance circles around the rest.
The Biggest Room in the World…
My personal belief is that the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. This is a proactive philosophy of always experimenting and implementing to improve.
Increased access to ideas hidden in foreign languages and cultures offer opportunities for new magnitudes of improvement. Until now, the vast majority of knowledge about the Mandala Chart and its development has been hidden from view behind the wall of the Japanese language.
The purpose of this book will be to cross over that wall, and make this practical wisdom available in English. I have lived for much of the last 4 decades in Japan, working in my own business as an entrepreneur, in a career as an author, speaker, martial artist, and calligrapher, experiencing Japan from the inside.
We live in a fascinating reality, in which history repeats itself, and at the same time the future is unpredictable. Generations learn the same lessons under entirely different circumstances. We live in a world in which actions speak louder than words, and yet the pen is mightier than the sword. Proverbial wisdom comes in opposite pairs.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Better safe than sorry.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Actions speak louder than words.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
One reason for this is that the view changes depending on where you stand. Where we get into trouble is when we assume that our fixed view is absolutely right, and all other views are wrong. If wonder is the beginning of wisdom, then flexible focus is how you sustain wisdom.
A
Tool for All Times
The word Mandala comes from Sanskrit meaning essence of the universe. It is Hindu and Buddhist in origin, and for thousands of years has been used in Eastern religions as a means to enhance spiritual teaching and meditation. Kūkai, who studied the Mandala teaching in China, introduced it to Japan with Esoteric Buddhism in the 8th Century and it similarly spread to all of the cultures of East Asia.
Thanks to the work of Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875~1961), the Mandala has come to be known as symmetrical charts or geometric patterns that represent both the human subconscious and a microcosm of the universe from our perspective. Jung found Mandala patterns to be fairly universal, ranging from the rose windows of the Gothic Cathedrals in Northern France, to the Navajo sand paintings of the American Southwest.
I
ts
origins in religion, applications in psychology, and appearance as
cultural archetypes are widely known. But there is one less-known
evolution of the Mandala in Japan, the Mandala Chart, which
over the last 30 years has developed into a powerful tool for life
planning, idea generation, project management, and continuous
improvement.
The Mandala Chart was developed by Matsumura Yasuo, founder of Clover Management Research and of the Mandala Chart Association, who describes it as the practical framework of wisdom, without the external aspects of religion. It has evolved into a marvelous tool for flexible focus, with a popular annual Mandala Business Diary, a series of books in Japanese on its applications for life planning, a Mandala Chart app for the iPad, and the Mandala Chart Association to spread knowledge of its personal and professional uses.