When Oprah read, "The Seat of the Soul," she was so moved, she called up the author. Although Gary Zukav had written international bestsellers, he was living in a cabin in Mt. Shasta as a "secular monk". And he hadn't watched TV in more than 20 years, so had never heard of her. It turned out that Oprah's life was transformed by Gary's ideas and she invited him on the show in 1998 (and 35 times thereafter!) to discuss ideas like cause and effect, consciousness, and intention. More than that, it paved the way for such memes to be shared on mainstream media.

This afternoon, Nipun and I were delighted to have lunch with Gary and his "spiritual partner," Linda Francis. Rather spontaneously, one of the first stories he shared was about meeting an uncommon teacher named Master Hua. He shared many touching stories and quotes by him, like: "Even for 10 thousand ounces of gold, I would not sell the way. But I would give it for free, right at the crossroads, if you could just hear my sound." And Gary mentioned being inspired by two monks (yup, Rev. Heng Sure and Marty! :) who had undertaken a "three steps and a bow" pilgrimage -- so much so that he immediately felt compelled to practice it himself on that day. I continue to be amazed at how interconnected our world is!

Linda and Gary both have such beautiful messages for the world, in who they are and how they tread in this world. After having been influenced by The Seat of the Soul in my early years, it felt like a privilege to have such an open and heartfelt dialogue with them. I could probably write an essay about all the stories I heard in our conversation today. What was even more humbling was to hear how they were so resonant with the work of ServiceSpace, and are now planning few experiments in "gift ecology". As we left, we tagged 'em with little heart pins and ended up with this happy selfie!