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Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 20:45:37 -0700
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From: Julian Gresser JGresser@LogosNet.com
Subject: LOGOS TRAINING ALERT-MAY 1, 1999
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LOGOS TRAINING ALERT-MAY 1, 1999

To: Artful Navigators
From: Julian Gresser
Re: Some Recent Discoveries
Date: May 1, 1999

These past weeks have been full of discoveries. Here are a few.

1. Out of nowhere a rogue developer appears and applies to build a colossal monstrosity next door to my house. Twenty-five years ago I was a pretty swift environmental lawyer, but the years have passed and this old bull is out of training. Yet, there I found myself last week in the Marin Law Library, sheapardizing cases and preparing a brief. My neighbors and I believe the project is dangerous and violates several state and local laws, plans, and policies. Below are the three Discovery Questions I presented in my letter to the Planning Commission. They seem to have given the developer pause, for he has asked for a continuance; but I have this odd sense we are re-enacting Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and the brigands are preparing their next assault.

a. Who will be responsible if there is a serious accident?

b. What is the legal responsibility of the City to be fully informed and to require the applicant to mitigate and abate all risks?

c. What recourse will the neighborhood have if there is a serious accident or damage to property and the developer, as is often the case, is judgment proof?

2. I am continually reminded of the value of preparing a simple Negotiating Plan in each important negotiation. Based on your mission, the Plan captures in a line or two the essence of the encounter.

3. These past weeks I have been practicing the "move" of not-holding-on-to-results, which is another way of describing No Expectations. Worrying over any contingency is a really a negative expectation. It is no easy task to give up our attachments to results. But when we can, you sense a remarkable new freedom, and you discover so much time! We really do have ample time, it seems, after all.

When we learn to detach from results, at that moment, you discover an extraordinary power within yourself. Here is an unusual case.

Long ago a cruel and evil king decreed that all the Buddhist monasteries in India would be destroyed and the monks driven away. Then he took a sword and went to visit the Venerable Simha. " Have you mastered the emptiness of no-results?" the king demanded. "I have" the master replied. " Have you abandoned life and death? " the king continued. " I have already abandoned life and death" the master responded quietly. " "Then you must donate your head to me" the king told him. The master replied, " Since the body is not mine, how can I begrudge the head." So the king swung his sword and decapitated the master.

Who of us would not begrudge the head? Not I. Yet what an interesting goal to strive toward.

4. This week the Artful Navigator suggested I practice the Principle of Increasing Fun and Play, which is why I quoted Woody Allen's famous Address to the Graduates in my last e-mail. In the Navigator there is also a wonderful passage from the Masters of Huainan, which goes:

" Take the world lightly and your spirit will not be burdened. Consider everything minor, and your mind will not be confused. Regard life and death as equal, and your heart will not be afraid.

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