We Live In Many Worlds

• Living In Many Worlds

• Zen Of Coaching

• A Poem, Self-Compassion

• What I’m Reading

We humans live in many worlds. Two that I find most prominent and influential are the ordinary world and the extraordinary world. In the extraordinary world our sense of self and separation lessen, time takes on a more spacious quality, and there is a feeling of effortlessness. The more we can access the extraordinary world the more our awareness and experience of the ordinary world is influenced and transformed -- in leadership, relationships, and our lives. This, I believe, is the path of becoming the fullest person we can become, and to have the potential for the most benefit, during the short time we are here on this planet.

I just returned from five nights of camping and hiking in the eastern Sierras. Lake Ediza and Iceberg Lake are spectacularly beautiful spots. The 1.5 mile walk from Lake Ediza at just over 9,000 feet to Iceberg Lake at just under 10,000 feet was worth the effort…small creeks bubbling, wildflowers everywhere, tons of butterflies, a marmot, and a clear mountain lake surrounded by 12,000 foot cathedral-like cliffs.

I feel renewed and transformed, by the sheer beauty that surrounds us. I also feel the great privilege that I can take the time for such an adventure and that this body is able to walk on these mountain paths. All a gift.

Standing at the base of these cathedral-like cliffs was a profound reminder of the “other” world, the world outside of the ordinary, of accomplishment, the world of ideas of success and failure, of “it is” and “it isn’t.”

I’ve been turning this phrase for more than 20 years:

“Not being caught by it is or it isn’t

Do you have the courage to be at peace with it?

Everyone wants to leave the endless changes.

But, when you stop mending and fitting your life,

Just come and rest by the fire.”

This comes from Dongshan, the founder of Soto Zen who lived during the 9th century in China.

So much of our daily lives is concerned with - it is or it isn’t,- success and failure, joy or sadness; all important, and yet, what about the world or the plane without such distinctions, the world of wonder and appreciation, where everything is a gift.

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Practice

Shunryu Suzuki says “Don’t be a board carrying person.”

The practice is to put down the board on your shoulder that limits your awareness and let in the world of appreciation, love, and the sacred.

(Lake Ediza)

(Iceberg Lake)

Zen Of Coaching. An Online Course, beginning October 23rd

Zen of Coaching is a transformational program for executive coaches and leaders who want to deepen their presence, expand their impact, and build a coaching practice rooted in wisdom, not just performance. Blending Zen principles, mindfulness, and real-world leadership experience, this course—created by Marc Lesser, the Zen teacher and CEO who helped bring mindful leadership to Google—supports you in cultivating stillness, navigating complexity, and coaching with greater authenticity, clarity, and purpose.

A Poem, Self-Compassion, by James Crews

My friend and I snickered the first time

we heard the meditation teacher, a grown man,

call himself honey, with a hand placed

over his heart to illustrate how we too

might become more gentle with ourselves

and our runaway minds. It’s been years

since we sat with legs twisted on cushions,

holding back our laughter, but today

I found myself crouched on the floor again,

not meditating exactly, just agreeing

to be still, saying honey to myself each time

I thought about my husband splayed

on the couch with aching joints and fever

from a tick bite—what if he never gets better?—

or considered the threat of more wildfires,

the possible collapse of the Gulf Stream,

then remembered that in a few more minutes,

I’d have to climb down to the cellar and empty

the bucket I placed beneath a leaky pipe

that can’t be fixed until next week. How long

do any of us really have before the body

begins to break down and empty its mysteries

into the air? Oh honey, I said—for once

without a trace of irony or blush of shame—

the touch of my own hand on my chest

like that of a stranger, oddly comforting

in spite of the facts.

What I’m Reading

Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse - This is one of those books I reread every few years. It’s a great tale about the discovery and actualization of living on two planes. Short, beautiful, and quietly radical.

The Things We Never Say, by Elizabeth Strout - I just began reading this best-selling novel. Strout’s signature territory — the weight of what goes unspoken, the hidden lives inside ordinary lives. Listed for the 2026 Booker Prize

Warmest regards,

Marc