Dear Friend

I wonder how this week’s Letter finds you? I hope in good spirits, and in the middle of a transformational year for you… haha!

Here in Chiang Mai we are in the midst of a very wet rainy season. Some parts of Thailand have suffered some spirit-sapping floods, in particular Chiang Rai, which is like the little sister of Chiang Mai, 200 kms north-east of us. So far we are okay, and the River Ping—which flows through the town and along the valley floor southwards towards the big Chao Prya River, which splits Bangkok before reaching the ocean—is holding its banks. Chiang Mai’s last big flood was in 2005, the year I met my wife!

Having your house flooded, and then when the waters recede finding yourself left with a whole load of mud, creepy crawlies and perhaps snakes is no fun!

I have seen footage of horrific floods in many countries in the last couple of years, and how it’s Thailand’s turn. Flooding is part of living here, but usually they are flash floods from rain so heavy and concentrated that the drainage system can’t work fast enough. These rarely cause a problem for houses.

Better late than never!

This week’s Letter is late, but instead of skipping the week entirely, I have a much reduced length of Letter for you. But I hope it will still carry a powerful message of value and inspiration. Perhaps its shortness will be its sweetness…?!

I am working hard on so many fronts to get my venture into the ‘action stations’ phase of its journey, with so much keeping me occupied. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

It means ‘putting my business hat’ on, something I feel I’m probably gifted to wear (my Dad was an excellent businessman, and very successful), but which I have spent, thus far, my entire life studiously avoiding!

(I much prefer my creativity hat, my teaching hat, and my content generating hat.)

Until I began this new mission in my life, I had always placed much more emphasis on earning time rather than money, because for me spending time on enjoying life is more important than acquiring money. We only get one life, there are no dress rehearsals, no dummy runs, no second goes, this is our lot.

I have noticed a basic default in human life: you can be rich from inheritance, corruption and/or robbery, or working 80+ hours each week as an entrepreneur (or corporate slave!), week after week after week. This leads to burn out.

Well, I am working a lot, but after my time-honoured life I’ve led I will never do that many hours! Perhaps you can when you are in your 20s, but not when you’ve passed the half-way mark…! I also value my relationships with natural living things—people, animals, nature, music, art—and do my best to keep them all in my new busy life.

I do feel that the universe has led me to this poin; leaving a comfortable rewarding situation in life and starting new challenges seems to have been a feature of my life. However, undoubtedly this is the most challenging mission of them all. That said, I feel I’m making progress and I will never ever give up. It’s really simple: I want to see education in schools and universities transformed into something which encourages, empowers, enables and emboldens children to love learning and living.

But first this needs parents, educators, leaders and all world helpers to educate and empower themselves. How can adults empower children while they themselves are still disempowered from their own schooling?

Which leads nicely to my main message for this week… short but sweet.

The true leaders in our human world

What is the role of mentors, gurus, role models, soul rebels, and heroes in our human world?

Who are they, and how do they do their work? Can you be one?

They encourage, motivate and inspire others to learn from them, to empower themselves, and to make enduring changes and upgrades to their life.

They are the true leaders because they lead with open minds and hearts. They are the true teachers. They are enablers and facilitators, not tellers, compellers and yellers. The upliftment and joy of others is the source for their own upliftment and joy.

Everybody is a winner with a true leader.

Their currency, their stock in trade and way of being, is courage, compassion, camaraderie, connection, contribution and conscious living.

The mentor will be a guide for right action and pure truth, the guru a source of wisdom, the role model an embodiment of human values and morals, the soul rebel a unique yet unified expression of being human, and the hero courage and selflessness in action.

The spiritual warrior is the mentor, guru, role model, soul rebel and hero all rolled into one being.

When we get spiritual warriors overseeing and delivering education in schools and universities, our human world will enter heaven on earth, with no more need to wait until we are dead.

Why don't you become a spiritual warrior? All human beings can be one. You just need to sort out a right intention, open your mind and heart wide, empower yourself, commit to being a lifelong learner, and never stop taking action. When learning is central to your life, so is fun, joy and meaning.

I call this process A Spiritual Revolution. My mission is to teach it to adults. A Spiritual Revolution will lead to the healing of humankind from the bottom up…

Next week I shall endeavour to be on time, and we will be looking at the role asking questions plays in the life of a lifelong learner and spiritual warrior.

All the best

Philip