A Reflection on my Novels and What They Reveal

I’m editing the final book in my series of philosophical fiction, set in Egypt in 1934 and 1935. As I’ve said here many times, the stories simply came to me as a mental movie, playing in my mind’s eye and ear for five years, with all the dialogue and details already there. The story chose me to tell it. It was out of the blue. My job was just to write what I was seeing and hearing.

And yet, somehow, mysteriously, the books are all about me. I hope they’re also all about you. But I just came to realize that they’re about my deepest hopes and dreams and values and aspirations. They’re about my fears and joys and uncertainties and suspicions. They’re about weakness and strength, wisdom and virtue, friendship and animosity, uncertainty and hope, life and death.

The stories are all quite particular, but the lessons are universal.

And I’m bringing these tales into the world very differently from the vast majority of my books. Instead of contracting as I have for my nonfiction books with a Doubleday or Penguin to publish many tens of thousands of copies and place them into bookstores nationwide, announcing them in big circulation newspapers and magazines, as well as on radio and television, I created my own imprint, found the right people to help in this endeavor of love, and have published them in the new format of print on demand for paperback and hardcover, with the two basic ebook formats also available. That has allowed for something I’ve never been able to do before.

First, I have total control of what goes into print, including the great cover art done by my daughter. And there is something else. After the prologue to the series, The Oasis Within, was available for about the first six months, I realized I wanted to re-edit it. And I was able to, right then. I didn’t have to wait years, until 20,000 or 50,000 copies of the original edition had sold and that many people had bought less than the best I could do. I could make the improvements right away. And the same thing happened with The Golden Palace. Less than a year into its life, it got a new paragraph on the first page, and dozens of small changes throughout that enhanced it immensely. I had never been able to do that with a book before. And as readers have written me about their experience with these novels, their insights have helped me in editing subsequent books. There has been a feedback loop I’ve never had before. And it’s made the books better. This should be a universal experience for writers and readers.

The one problem is that I don’t have a national promotion and marketing machine behind these books. So they have to find their readers on their own. And they are, but very slowly. My workout partner told me today that he just finished The Mysterious Village and really loved it. I was so glad to hear and told him that he’s probably the fourth person to get that far in the series! I was exaggerating a little. But just a little. It will have been worth the seven years of work so far, and the rest of the eight years I anticipate, for them to have a few great readers whose lives are enhanced and maybe even transformed by the stories. And of course, it would be even more gratifying to see even more people enjoying and using the books for the renaissance of understanding about wisdom and virtue, life and death, that they can potentially provide. They’re about success and failure, struggle and victory, defeat and persistence, and the power of committed partnerships along the way. They’re about leadership and love, and staying on your path even when it’s hard, and giving others what they need as you also discover your own deepest needs and gifts. The stories are about so much. And they reveal so much.

In all my philosophy, business, and life nonfiction books, I tell stories from my own experience. You get to know my kids, my wife, as well as friends and neighbors and both the silly things and the deeper things that I’ve encountered along the way. And in the novels, there are no stories about my life. Yet, somehow, they’re the most autobiographical of anything I’ve ever done, the most deeply revealing, and if I had written nothing else ever, I would want to leave them for my kids, and grandkids, and anyone who might be interested in the experience of a philosopher meandering from the mid twentieth century into these first days of the twenty-first, and trying to get his bearings for making the world a slightly better place with the ancient wisdom that’s exactly what we need now.

For the series, go to www.TheOasisWithin.com.

Misplaced Loyalty: Ego Centered Leadership and Its Demise

There is a phenomenon that we see around some corporate leaders and others in high social leadership positions in our time. An ego driven personality can weave a web of promises and appeal to the real values of good people in a way that's wholly deceptive and ultimately self defeating. His or her rhetoric and promises create a loyalty in others who then seek, in the classic mode of confirmation bias, to retain their belief and hope in the face of ongoing and disconfirming evidence, but can manage it only for a time. Then the truth prevails.

In about 2015, the Muse gave me a part of my epic novel series that will be published in October. In the forthcoming book, The Magic Ring, there is an immensely greedy and power hungry man named Santiago who has inspired his followers with his lofty claims about greatness. On page 396 we begin to see misgivings form in the mind of one of his top followers, a Miguel Abad, as he begins to ride into Cairo, Egypt on a hot day in 1935, with a few others on camel. He is thinking about his leader and teacher.

<<Miguel had been attracted at first to the man’s brashness and lofty rhetoric about what the world needs. And then he had been sufficiently enticed and lulled into acquiescence by promises of greatness that he had long ignored the small warning signs and feelings of ambivalence that continued to crop up in his heart. Like all men, he was a master of self-deception and rationalization, and had long deceived himself, as Santiago had sought to deceive him. In fact, he had been living proof for years that no one else can fool us unless we are willing first to fool ourselves. And that’s how we become fools, indeed.

Deep down, Miguel knew that there was instability in his teacher, and basic untrustworthiness, but he had long masked this knowledge from himself, pretending that everything was fine and that the glories of their collaborative triumph in the future would make all things right. But the thefts of the animals had deeply bothered him. And now, many things cumulatively had been troubling him about the current mission of revenge they seemed to be pursuing. Where was this taking them? What was the outcome to be? How would any of this benefit the followers who had entrusted their lives to this man who now ultimately seemed to care about no life other than his own?

Miguel was still going along, and to all outward appearances seemed loyal. But inwardly, he was experiencing a combination of doubt, anger, and a growing sense of rebellion against what he had been caught up in.>>

For the books in the series leading up to this one, with an extended adventure about leadership, go to www.TheOasisWithin.com

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A Blessing

I'm halfway through the editing of my next novel, The Mysterious Village, and just came across this passage that expresses wishes and blessings that I want for us all. In the midst of travel across the desert, and at a special Oasis, Walid is in the presence of a mysterious lady who seems to have special knowledge not available to most. He asks about the future. She's reassuring but elusive. And this happens.

She reached out her right hand and spread her fingers wide, pointing her palm toward Walid but not touching him or even coming close to him. She spoke several words in a language he didn’t know or understand, and in a strange tone, both softly and quickly, with her eyes closed. And then she opened her eyes wide and said, “May you and your friends be richly blessed as you move on deeply into the adventures that now await you. May a firm faith and a resilient hope be with you and in you at all times. May you persist with courage and prevail through any difficulties you’re called upon to face. And may you then be able somehow to share the story of your journey with future generations. Great blessings will go with you and be on you, enduring blessings to you and your friends and all who learn of you, my golden young man of the kingdom. We are blessed to have you with us for this short time, Prince Walid.”

For information on the series in which this will appear, early summer, go to www.TheOasisWithin.com.

A Work of Hope

Most businesses cater to either our realized needs, our desires, or our fantasies. And of course, these three categories are connected in various ways. Some businesses cater to our fears, and a few, to our hopes. Commentators have told me over the years that one reason my talks and books are successful is that they bring people hope. They display the wisdom we need to spark and ground our hopes for a better future. And today, I've realized for the first time that this may also be true of the new novels I've been writing.

I've enjoyed or benefited from various types of dystopian literature at times in my life - from Orwell's books to The Handmaid's Tale to The Hunger Games and the Divergent series. And in troubled times, people often turn to such books as needed cautionary tales, and as instructive explorations into the dark side of human nature. After the Arab Spring of 2010 and 2011 worked out so badly, at least in the short run, writers in North Africa began a sudden turn toward darkness in their own poems and fiction. I certainly understand that. But there's a big part of me sensing now that what we most need in turbulent times is a literature of hope, well grounded, thoughtful, responsible hope. And as I deepen in that realization, I come to see that this is exactly what I've been writing and editing for the past six years—an epic adventure series of books, set in Egypt in 1934 and 1935, that explores the best in our nature as it responds to the worst. Issues of courage, friendship, love, and the power of the mind weave through the books and cumulatively create the elements of a very powerful worldview, anchored in ancient thought and yet responsive to the best of modern science. Without realizing what I've been doing—other than writing as fast as I could to get onto the computer a vivid movie I was seeing in my head each day—I was bringing into the world precisely the sort of literature I think we now most need, in our nation and globally. And that gives me a new sense of excitement and personal adventure about continuing to bring these novels into print for their growing audience. After being told by my agents repeatedly that I'm a nonfiction writer, not a fiction guy, even without looking at the fiction, I decided to create my own imprint and a business to bring these new books into existence in our time. And a new publishing imprint unconnected from the major New York houses that I've worked through in the past gets no publicity, but then provides many distinctive gratifications. And, again, as I've said here before, I deeply appreciate those of you who are reading and writing me your impressions of these books. May we together launch something very new into our time. www.TheOasisWithin.com

The Two Keys To Great Leadership

Today, I want to share a word on what makes for great leadership. I've discussed this topic before in the book If Aristotle Ran General Motors, but it comes up in a quick distinctive way in a novel of mine that's to be published next fall, The King and Prince. This is to be the fourth book in the series Walid and the Mysteries of Phi, which have recently been seeing publication after the prologue, The Oasis Within.

The students from the palace school in Cairo are on a class trip down the Nile to visit Alexandria. They're about to come into sight of the Mediterranean Sea. Thirteen year old Walid speaks.

“Uncle Ali, I mean, Your Majesty, we were just talking about the fact that the sea we’re about to glimpse and shortly to set sail on for at least a brief time is big and yet, at the same time, relatively small in comparison to other oceans.”

 “Yes, you could say that,” the king replied. “But it’s just as true to say that the various named oceans and connected seas are all part of one vast ocean encompassing the globe, and that when you see one of its parts, you’re seeing it—whether your vantage point is at the edge of the Mediterranean, or the Caribbean, or perhaps the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, or Arctic Oceans, as they’re called. But in reality, there is simply one ocean spread around the world, in addition to many smaller bodies of water that are in most ways bounded by land. And yet, even they are indirectly connected with the larger expanse.”

 The students were all impressed with this perspective and listened intently as the king went on to add, “There is an ancient saying from the Tao Te Ching that captures this singularity, and more. The text says that the ocean is the greatest of all bodies of water, because it’s lower than all the rest. They empty themselves into it.”

 “That’s pretty interesting,” Mafulla commented.

 “Yes. And this is, of course, alludes to the keys for great leadership.”

“What do you mean?” Mafulla asked.

 “The best leadership requires a vital combination of nobility, which is a sense of greatness and vision, with humility, a counterbalancing proper sense of self that maintains a deep respect and eager openness to others. These are two qualities that must be cultivated together in all our personalities.” He paused to let this idea register properly, and then went on. “The Taoist wisdom is a wonderful statement about leadership. The ideal leader combines the nobility of the ocean with its humility, or open lowliness. Others are drawn by both these qualities to feed their time and talents and commitments into the projects that the leader with such balance brings to them. The leader’s followers are those who help make the leader great, as he or she in turn guides them to worthy pursuits of excellence and their own forms of greatness.”

Walt Whitman, Democracy, and My New Novels

There's a wonderful short essay today about Walt Whitman and his views on American democracy, at the always insightful website Brain Pickings.

Whitman believed that having an idealistic literature would be crucial to our survival and flourishing as a democracy. Reading him, I became aware anew of how the novels I'm now publishing exemplify eactly that in their tone. They even feature an enlightened Philosopher-King preparing his people for the demands and opportunities of democracy. There are criminals and power hungry men and revolutionaries, as well, but we see in the stories what it takes for the best people to stand up to the worst and prevail.

Whitman thought that a nation's literature ought to show the deepest resources of human nature by which we can deal with our toughest challenges. And that again brought me up short, with a realization that this is exactly what my new stories do. And so, as their readership grows, day to day, I hope they'll make a difference in our time that would make Walt proud. I didn't realize until this morning that they have been written over the past six years for exactly our time. We have plenty of dystopian tales in our bookstores and libraries. We need more inspiration and wisdom for the path we're on. For more on the new books, go to:

www.TheOasisWithin.com.

For more on Walt and his message:

https://www.brainpickings.org

Simple Can Lead Into Deep

When I was a professor, a reviewer of one of my academic books wrote of the "deceptive simplicity" of my writing style. That made me smile. I've always worked hard to get to the masterful sort of simplicity on the other side of complexity, fighting for the core essence of truth. And now, I'm glad to see early readers of my short novel The Oasis Within talking about the deceptive simplicity of it. 

One prominent author wrote me that his intellectually advanced and quite literary teenage son had started the book, read the first couple of pages, and put it aside, saying it was "too simple." I was sorry.

Then a man named Bruce, who was reportedly a longtime reader of deep spiritual books, bought The Oasis Within and began it. He emailed me and said that the opening pages couldn't command his attention and that it was probably too simple a book for him. I urged him to read on. Days later, he wrote back to say that it had become one of his favorite books of all time, and that now, he's given dozens of copies to friends, and has continued in his enthusiasm at the books of the series it begins, The Golden Palace and The Stone of Giza. 

Bruce recently told me that he had given a copy to a lady he knows and that she had called to tell him what she thought of it. He wrote me this:

<<Effusive has to be the word.

Gail called. She is the lady who is renting my daughter’s house. I had given her a copy of Oasis suggesting she might like it. This afternoon she called and said she started to read it last Thursday night when her husband was watching Football. She explained that she just couldn’t get much out of it, but decided she would just push on. I figured to mention that there are some books that may just not appeal to everyone, but before I spoke, Gail continued.

Soon she found she could not put the book down and that it might well be one of the most meaningful books she had ever read. It captures all of the important values that could make our lives better, and yet it is not religious. She feels every youth should get and read this book early in their teen years. But more; they should be encouraged to reread it every year to engrain and refresh this wisdom as they mature. She says her grandchildren are too young for the book as yet but will get a copy for each one as they move into their teens.

I told her I will loan her a copy of The Golden Palace so she can see how a more story-based theme can carry the message in a new way to younger people.

For me, it is so encouraging that more people are seeing the inherent truth and worth within these writings not even knowing the underlying reality of how they have come about. Though the ultimate medium for the Walid materials seems almost certainly somewhere in the video sphere from which it emerged, the value must rest in the written form for now. We can be grateful it is now available to all. Many different movements will be necessary to make this a better world and this can be a true step in the healing direction.>>

I was deeply gratified. Then, I got a note from the reader herself, addressed to me and her friend:

<<Good evening Bruce and Mr. Morris,

I truly feel blessed to have read "The Oasis Within". I know that I will read it again. And perhaps again and again!!

Bruce, you very eloquently summed up both my reaction and my response to this book. The beauty of it is that it offers much in its simplicity. Yet, although it is simple, it is not at all simple. One must read it to know what I mean.

Thank you, Mr. Morris, for writing this in such a way that it makes me wish I had had this book to read and learn from many years ago. I hope many people, both young and old, hear about your book and read it. It is a guide book one can refer to throughout life. In my mind, it is a classic.

Sincerely,

Gail G>>

One CEO has told me that pages 5 and 6 of The Oasis Within changed his life. But he had to get through the "deceptive simplicity" of pages 1-4 to get there. Then he saw what was really going on. 

I had a similar experience. These books all came to me unexpectedly, as something like a movie playing in my head, or as what Mary Shelley once described as a “waking dream.” The opening scene was of a man and a boy sitting in the sand under a palm tree, talking. Their conversation was simple. And yet, it provided a doorway that, since I was willing to walk through it, brought me into an unanticipated land of deep wisdom. And that’s the way the best simplicity can work—as a doorway to depth. But it’s up to us to use it. 

If you haven’t yet had the experience of The Oasis Within, The Golden Palace, and The Stone of Giza, I hope you will soon. Then, The Viper and the Storm will be available this spring, as the latest installment in the series. One book reviewer said recently that it’s The Temple of Doom and Dan Brown, and The Hardy Boys Meet Aristotle, and that when reading, he felt like he was thirteen years old again. I felt that way when writing them. I had no idea how a simple story would bring me the greatest deep wisdom of my life.

The Oasis Within and Self Examination

I'm so grateful to everyone who's been writing me about my short novel, The Oasis Within and the series it begins. I'm getting two sorts of emails: (1) "I wish I had been able to read a book like this years or decades ago" and (2) "This book has come into my life at the perfect time." I'm sure there are also people with the response (3) "This is an extremely odd book for Tom Morris to write," but so far they're not emailing me or posting perplexed reviews on Amazon. Many readers are asking how I ever came to write such novels at all, set as they are in Egypt in 1934 and 1935. 

I've just come to understand the role that relentless, deep, and difficult self examination played in freeing me up for this great adventure. 

If you had asked me ten years ago about my childhood, I would have sincerely said, "It was great." But that was because I was blocking a lot of the real truth, which was that I had an attractive, young, emotionally damaged mother who had been raised in an orphanage and was determined to live out her frustrated ambitions through her only child, who therefore could not possibly please her. Such damage is never confined to one generation. So if, as a child, I brought home less than excellent grades, war ensued—a scorched earth spiritual Aleppo campaign against the loudly delineated deficiencies of a frightened bewildered little six or eight or ten-year-old. And so I lived for decades unaware of the engines of need buried deep in my psyche. Nothing was ever enough. I couldn't write one article, I had to write fifty. I couldn't have one fountain pen. I needed twenty. Imagine how expensive this could get with BMWs. Until I was one day able to face up to the fact that my constant need for achievement, my continual rushing about, my never being satisfied, might all be due to something that desperately needed attention, and perhaps healing. 

Socrates stressed the importance of self-examination, and when I decided to do it relentlessly, and even with a measure of courage and great pain and glimmers of hope, it cleansed me and freed me from so many inner obstacles that I had not been aware existed. 

And then my mental movie started to play. it was showing me in living color and surround sound Dolby X the great lessons of life wisdom that went beyond anything I had ever felt or thought. I met young people in Egypt in 1934 and the adults in their lives, and I fell in love with them to the extent that the criminals and revolutionaries who were their enemies caused me great concern for their safety as I wrote and wrote, typing as fast as I could, while the scenes and stories and insights poured over me—the inner visions that, so far, have resulted in eight novels of over a million words, with the first three now in print: The Oasis Within, The Golden Palace, and The Stone of Giza. And I'm already excited about the next installment just months from now, The Viper and The Storm. But I truly can't wait until the one after that, The King and Prince, that taught me some of the deepest lessons of my life. And still the very deepest is in the last that's now written, a book called The Ancient Scroll. There I learned the most powerful lessons about redemption and personal transformation.

I tell you this short and ultimately happy story in case you may have hidden, deeply buried obstacles in your own psyche that need your attention. A program of honest and relentless self examination may just be the thing to free you for your own next adventure, which as I've experience, can be a joy you could never otherwise have even imagined.

www.TheOasisWithin.com

Our Blindness

We're all blind to something. This election year proves it anew, in case you ever doubted it. But what we're blind to varies, all over the map. We're each self deceived in some way, and we're all vulnerable to the deceptions of others in a related manner. But it all starts within. We're masters of tricking ourselves through the subtle diverting of attention, that easy assumption, a longstanding resentment, an unexpressed hope, or the righteous indignation toward others that often masks our true need to rectify and reform ourselves.

The most self deceived person of all is the one who sees deception only in the lives of others, and never in his or her own heart and mind. To be blind to your own blindness is a most dangerous state indeed.

Our inability to see damages our relationships, our families, and our work. It fractures our communities and threatens our nation, as well as our world. The insight and empathy so desperately needed for a situation just may not be available when something deep occludes your vision.

But our blindness can be healed. And in every case, it's at least at bottom, a spiritual matter. Spirituality is all about depth and connectedness. It's liberated from the superficial or the alienated. It has counterfeits, of course, that are just in the thrall of other things. But true spirituality is free from such blockage, free from the worst forms of blindness, and therefore free for attaining healthy forms of unity. It's connected with others through kindness, compassion, love, and understanding. Jesus taught its necessity. And so have many other great individuals whose lives we most admire.

Plato urged us to leave the dark cave of delusions and dim appearances to journey in search of the light we need. And so did Pascal. In our time, we need their wisdom more than ever.

Amen?

The Peace of Mind From Living Deeply

Here’s a short conversation I want to share because of its relevance in our current political season. It’s a sneak preview from page 106 in my next book, The Stone of Giza, that’s due out soon, in November. The setting is 1934 in Cairo, Egypt. Thirteen year old Walid and his best friend, the younger but precocious Mafulla, are having breakfast together and talking. You may or may not yet know these characters from the previous books, The Oasis Within and The Golden Palace.

The boys have been talking about the Greek philosophers and their insights about life. The topic of superficiality has come up, and by contrast, what it’s like to live more deeply than just skimming the surface of life.

Walid is in mid-thought when he says:

“I had a talk with Uncle Ali once when he said that maybe life is toughest on the surface and much less difficult for those who live more deeply. It’s like what people say about the ocean.”

“What?”

“That there can be huge waves and churning on the surface, but deep down it’s calm.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. The storms happen on the surface, but not far down below.”

“Oh, yeah. Ok. I see what you’re saying. Maybe people who live more deeply feel the troubles of life less and so have less need for trivial relaxations.”

“Yep. That’s what I’m thinking.”

“So it’s living superficially that wears people out because that’s where all the turbulence is.”

“Yeah.”

“And whenever the surface dwellers do confront anything hard or challenging and try to understand it, however little time they end up spending on that philosophical quest, they just don’t do it right—they don’t know how to because they’re out of their depth—and even a little bit of that sort of thought wears them out completely. And then they go running to something really trivial or superficial for rest.”

Walid pondered this for a moment. “I think you’re right. People who don’t ordinarily live life deeply can get all worked up about the least thing when they’re talking religion or politics or philosophy or life. They get all stressed and emotionally wear themselves out for no good reason. It’s like they think they have to protect themselves by either pushing away the issues or else really defending their opinions, whatever they might be. They get all resistant and hostile, and that’s always exhausting.”

Mafulla nodded and said, “It can get emotional pretty fast.”

Walid continued, “People who act that way just don’t realize that you sometimes have to relax into the search for truth, open your mind, and be ready to embrace a new sense of reality.”

“Good point.”

“There’s no reason to be afraid of new perspectives and new truth. Living in the truth is the best protection of all, the safest thing there is. And anyone who can help me do that, maybe by opening my eyes, or helping me change and correct wrong beliefs or attitudes—that person does me a great favor. And I can’t benefit from others in this way unless I relax a little and listen and really open my mind.”

Mafulla replied, “Yeah, it’s a bit like what Masoon says about judo and using energy in a fight.”

“What do you mean?”

“When someone comes at you, sometimes the best move is to relax and lie back and let the blow develop—don’t resist it, don’t meet it with more force, but let it play out, and then see what’s next. People often debate deep issues in religion and philosophy like they’re fighting for their lives and they’ve got to be tense and forceful, or they just get mad and walk away.”

“That’s true.”

“The strange thing is that it would often be best for them not to do any of that at all, but to be open and allow the new ideas to come, and let them develop and play out and then see what’s next.”

“Yeah. And there’s another thing about the Greeks and us.”

“What?”

“Lots of people, at least as adults, just seem to have no genuine curiosity about the world. The ancient Greeks were wide-open curious about everything.”

“You got that right, my very curious friend and fellow philosopher.”

“Thanks. If people would just let us, we could set them all straight real quick.” Walid looked serious and then grinned.

The Unconscious Mind: From The Golden Palace

In my new book, The Golden Palace, Chapter 16, there's a discussion of the unconscious mind that's been revolutionary for my own recent thinking and work. I'd like to share it here. The setting is a beautiful sitting room in the royal palace in Cairo, Egypt. The year is 1934. King Ali Shabeezar is speaking to his nephew, Walid, and Walid's best friend, Mafulla.

Ali leaned back on the sofa cushion. He said, “Something just occurred to me. Have you boys ever heard of the unconscious mind?”

“Not really,” Mafulla said, “I mean, I know my mind’s unconscious when I sleep, and sometimes in class.”

“Maybe I’ve heard the expression once,” Walid said, as he smiled at his friend.

“Well, there are many things stored in our minds, like information learned in the past, of which we’re not at this moment consciously aware. It’s in our minds for retrieval, but is not now conscious. There are also habits and dispositions that exist in the mind beyond our introspective self-awareness. You can consciously gaze within and not see them. And this is true of many other things that we take in about the world around us but that remain beneath the sweep of full awareness. We have huge resources in the unconscious mind that are not always quickly or easily available to consciousness.”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that, but this makes sense,” Walid said.

“What’s most important to realize is the perhaps initially surprising truth that the unconscious mind represents the vast majority of our mental possessions and abilities. Our conscious experience is like the very top few stones of the Great Pyramid. The rest of our mental ability is like the remainder of that huge structure, except that, in reality, the difference in the size and scope of those mental areas is much, much bigger.”

“I’d never really thought about that, Your Majesty,” Mafulla said. The king nodded and continued.

“Many things go on in our minds that we never consciously realize. There are patterns and indications picked up by deep processes of recognition within us that may or may not enter our explicit thoughts. But we can train ourselves to be more open to this deeper part of our mental activity. We can get to a point where we allow those otherwise hidden thoughts and hints to flow upward. That way, we become aware of much more than most people ever realize. Inventors do this. So do all great explorers and artists and scholars, and athletes. The most innovative scientists are very good at it. The best warriors like Masoon rely on it. Creativity in any walk of life requires it.”

Walid spoke up. “That’s connected to what we were talking about so much in the desert—the power of our minds.”

“Correct. And, Mafulla, in case you and Walid haven’t spoken of this, he and I talked much about the mind on our trip across the desert. Most people live in a terribly constricted and reduced circle of being. They’re in self-imposed exile from the best that life has for them. They can’t make the right decisions or even see the true possibilities that our world offers unless they access this deeper level of the mind. Exiles from their own greatness, they choose unhealthy relationships, pursue the wrong paths, and generally end up living in various levels of either misery, or emotional deadness. They exist on the most basic level as human beings, but they’re not fully alive.”

The king went on, as he looked over at Walid. “I’ve talked with you a great deal about the power of the mind. But it’s not just that our normal conscious awareness can be powerful. In fact, if it’s cut off from the deeper sources of thought and feeling, it will not be powerful at all. Only when we allow the deep parts of our minds and hearts to percolate upward into consciousness, and also directly touch our actions, can we tap into our true power. And only when conscious thought resonates with these deeper resources will it have its proper impact.”

He sat for a moment in silence, then said, “We have to get beyond the superficial chatter of our normal consciousness. We need to access all that’s available to us beneath the clutter, beyond the chattering voices and distractions of normal thought.” The king smiled. “We need to experience what I like to call the thought beyond thought. That’s where the deep power is.”

“How can we do this?” Walid asked.

“We calm our conscious minds. We relax our bodies and release whatever ordinary thoughts or feelings might be impinging on us. We then become open to allow deeper insights to appear. And they’re always near us, available to us, if we’ll just notice them and take them in. We’ll talk more about this in days to come, but for now, learn to listen carefully to any small thoughts that might seem to play about beneath the surface of your normal consciousness. When one appears, invite it to linger and develop in your mind.”

“This is what you do, Your Majesty?” Mafulla asked.

“Yes, it is. All the time. I want you boys to do this as well, to be sensitive to your inklings and feelings about the situations that develop around us. Never just dismiss these hints that sometimes fleetingly appear from the realm of the unconscious mind. Pay attention to them. They’re worthy of your notice. And then tell each other and me. That way, we can work together powerfully to resist and restrain those who have given in to the downward pull of evil. And that way, we can also make some very good and creative things happen.”

“Ok,” Walid said. “This sounds really important.”

“It is.”

“We’ll try to do exactly as you say.”

“Sure thing, Your Majesty,” Mafulla answered.

“As you seek to tap into your deeper potential, you’ll progressively grow in your ability to do so. It’s like any skilled behavior.”

“I’m sure you’re a master at it, Your Majesty,” Mafulla said.

“It’s very natural for me, and has been for many years. Just remember this. What we can know goes far beyond what most people suppose. And what we can do is just as vast.”

The Golden Palace, Ideas, and You

I keep getting emails from friends and clients asking me whether The Golden Palace is available yet in print and as an e-book. The answer is YES!

People are having to ask because we've only done a "soft launch" of The Oasis Within and The Golden Palace in the past nine months. That means I haven't been on any national book tour for signings at retail bookstores everywhere, and haven't yet done any national print, radio, or television publicity for the books. My speaking schedule this year just wouldn't allow that, and yet I wanted to get these books in print and available to my circle of philosophy friends and enthusiastic audience members as soon as they were ready. Thus, the soft launch.

These are my favorite books I've ever written. And the early feedback on both books has been amazing! Thank you so much if you've emailed me about these books or posted a comment on Amazon or any other online book site! I've never had such positive feedback for books! It's deeply gratifying. These two books launch a series of at least eight books, now all written and being edited, that are about a 13 year old boy in Egypt in 1934 who is learning some deep life lessons as he accompanies his uncle on a path of action, adventure, mystery, intrigue, and profound and practical philosophical ideas.

In case you haven't yet seen The Golden Palace, let me show you just two recent comments. On Amazon, a prominent American philosopher wrote:

5 Stars! Let the Series Begin! An Amazon Customer.
What would you get if you locked Indiana Jones, Plato, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in a room and asked them to write a rousing tale of intrigue, adventure, wisdom, and suspense? Probably something a lot like this book! A lead-off home run to what promises to be the most exciting series of philosophical novels of our time.

An Australian reader just posted on Twitter these words:

The Golden Palace by @TomVMorris is Philosophy 101, Indiana Jones, and The Da Vinci Code all rolled into one.

It's very nice to be mentioned in such good company! Another philosopher has said,

The Golden Palace is a rich feast, baking the ancient wisdom of Plato and Aristotle into the timeless adventure of Lawrence of Arabia. Tom Morris serves up that wisdom in a coming of age story as contemporary as Harry potter, but with this intriguing twist: the true instrument of magic is not a wand, but the mind.

I wanted to blog about this today because I just finished editing what will be the next book in the series, The Stone of Giza, another tale of intrigue and wisdom, carrying on the adventures of the cast introduced in The Golden Palace. That book should be available in a few months. But the summer is a great time to start in on The Oasis Within if you haven't read that prologue to the series yet, or to get a copy of The Golden Palace, Volume One of the series, if you've already sampled the prologue and are eager to read more.

I'm also meeting with book groups on these books, for the first time ever, so don't hesitate to ask!

Gisele and The Power of Positive Energy

The New York Times just ran a remarkable piece on the Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen. As she was reflecting on her early days in modeling, Gisele says:

"In the beginning, you know, everyone told me, 'Your eyes are too small, the nose is too big, you can never be on a magazine cover."

Then she adds:

"But, you know what? The big nose comes with a big personality."

The experts were completely wrong, as experts very often are when faced with something new. Gisele's net worth as a model is now estimated to exceed 300 million dollars, and Forbes puts her daily income at around $128,000. She's also appeared eleven times on the cover of American Vogue. The Times reporter is surprised when she says, "My career was never based on pretty." But then the designer Angela Missoni explains:

"With Gisele, there is something different, her energy. Of course, she is super beautiful, but she has this charisma, this presence, this very sexy normality."

Gisele herself attributes her extraordinary success to her energy, hard work, and innate positive attitude that finds the best in any bad situation. Others comment on her grit and ability to rise to the occasion, whatever the circumstances. And it could very well be that the very "imperfections" or "flaws" that everyone complained about at first were actually among the secrets of her success. She had a new and different look. And her inner spirit lit up all the cameras that were turned in her direction.

Of course, there are numerous lessons in such a story. First, that the experts and gatekeepers in almost any industry or walk of life are probably among the least likely to see and appreciate something new and great that comes their way. In politics, fashion, and almost everywhere else, the experts are often among those most baffled by the next new thing.

Second, the inner is more important than the outer in almost any quest for success. Energy, grit, hard work, and a positive attitude can take any of us far.

Third, those things that other people consider to be your flaws might just be important stepping stones to future success. My friend Dave Rendall has a very good book on this called The Freak Factor, and is busy traveling the world explaining to people the strange and yet common alchemy of turning weakness into strength.

Many people are writing recently to tell me about passages early on in my new book The Oasis Within that are helping them greatly to deal with the sort of negativity and obstacles that Gisele initially faced in her career. I'm so happy to hear that the conversations of my characters are making a difference with wisdom people can use! If you have had a good experience with the book but haven't yet let me know, please write me through the website TomVMorris.com and share your story!

It's a Wonderful, Spooky Life

It’s a wonderful life, and good-spooky, sometimes.

If you’ve been reading my blog recently at TomVMorris.com, you know I’m super excited about the publication of the new books, The Oasis Within and The Golden Palace. Almost every day, I get some nice affirmation that I’ve spent the past five years well, in writing the big series on Egypt that these books together launch. If you're a regular reader, you’ll also know that all this came to me as an inner vision, a movie playing in my head—something that I had never experienced before. An older physician friend asked me the other day, “Did it ever feel scary?” 

I had to smile. I said, “No. It was sort of spooky in its radical difference from anything I'd ever experienced before, but it all came to me with a tonality of goodness and benevolence, and a sense of joy.” Sometimes I think that life has more strange and cool stuff waiting for us than we ever might imagine.

Today, a shiny new black sedan was waiting for me outside my hotel in Philadelphia. I had just spoken to a group of CEOs and CFOs in The Lincoln Financial Field, where the Eagles play football. The driver took my bags and I slid into the comfortable backseat. I asked him how his morning had been so far. And his accent was interesting, sounding a little like some friends who are from northern India. So I said, “Is your accent Indian?”

He said, “No. Egyptian.” I instantly had one of those little spooky moments where you sort of can’t believe what you just heard. 

I said, “I’ve spent the past five years of my life writing a series of novels about Egypt, set in 1934 and 1935.”

He said, “My father was born in 1932.” Ok then. I had hit the jackpot here. So I told him the whole story, the movie in my head, and the feeling that I shouldn’t do any research on Egypt but just write what came to me. But I explained that I had also Googled stuff after writing it, just to see if there was any connection between my mental movie and reality, and that I was amazed at how much stuff had checked out to be true, even though I knew that my stories were about a re-imagined Egypt. I then told him that my main character is a boy named Walid.

He said, “That’s my name.”

“What?” 

“My name is Walid.”

I said, “That’s amazing.” The man pulled out his wallet and handed me his beautiful business card. Walid Omar. I was curious. “Could you pronounce your name really clearly for me?”

“WaLEED,” he said.

“Wow. That’s great. That’s exactly the way the people in my mental movie say the name. And my wife has been dubious. She’s thought I’m surely mispronouncing it, because a lady I know from Morocco had said it differently, as ‘WA-Lid.”

“No. It’s WaLEED. It’s spelled W-a-l-i-d but pronounced WaLEED.”

“Thank you so much for confirming what I heard in my movie.”

“You’re welcome.”

We continued to talk. He’s from Alexandria. And one of the books to be published will feature some events in that ancient city. I almost never carry my own books with me, but on this trip, I had a copy of The Oasis Within inside my computer bag. I was planning to re-read it on the flight home. But at that moment, I was overcome with a very strong conviction that I was supposed to give it to my driver, Walid. So I did. A book about Walid for my new friend Walid.

It’s a wonderful, spooky world in which we live, and a wonderfully spooky life we can have when we open up and step out and talk to people about things that mean something to us—and then listen.

May your day and week and upcoming month be wonderfully spooky, as well.

The Joy of the Deeper Mind at Work

Joy awaits us all. When we work with the ordinary levels of our mind, everything's harder that it could be. When we clear away the clutter and get beyond the chatter of the normal conscious mind, joyous magic can happen.

I recently posted on social media that I had, a few days ago, finished the final major editing of the eight books that now exist in a series of novels that I've been working on for five years, since February 2011. It's the first experience of writing where I wasn't working hard in my conscious mind to think and compose. It was all a gift of the deeper mind, a layer of mentality or soul, if you will, that we all have, but that we don't often enough draw on, day to day.

These books and the stories they convey came to me, as I've said before, like a movie in my head, a translucent screening of an action and adventure story far beyond anything I could ever have created out of my ordinary operating resources. In fact, when I first started reading the manuscripts out loud to my wife, she interrupted to say, "Who are you and what have you done with my husband?" It was all that different from my nineteen previous books, all non-fiction.

One reviewer of the prologue to the series, The Oasis Within, suggested that a series of conversations between people crossing the desert wasn't that big a stretch for me, and not that far out of my comfort zone as a philosopher who is always talking about life wisdom. And he was right. But there are all these little details and plot points in Oasis that I never would have thought to develop. And there's a reason that The Oasis Within is a prologue to the new series and not a numbered volume of it. It's mostly great conversations. It prepares one of the characters for the action that's to come. And it prepared me for it, as well. But a younger reader, or a reader who just loves action can start with Book One of the series, Walid and the Mysteries of Phi, the book that's now recently out by the title The Golden Palace, which is full of action, adventure, mystery, and intrigue and brings us philosophy in an entirely new key. And all the other books are like that one in this regard, too. It's like slowly walking up to a door, and opening it, and what's inside takes you completely by surprise and launches you into an adventure that just won't stop.

Early in the process, when I learned to calm my conscious mind and just relax and release, the magic would happen. With the deeper mind at work, you feel more like a receptacle, or a conduit. I've mentioned here before, I think, Elizabeth Gilbert's new book Big Magic, where she tells several stories about this remarkable kind of creative experience. It's joyous and practically effortless in its level of self-perceived exertion. How often can we say of our job, paradoxically, that "It's the hardest I've ever worked" and "It's the easiest thing I've ever done" and "It's been pure joy" all at the same time?

This is a hallmark of the deeper mind at work. There is amazing persistence of accomplishment and a sense of ease, and an overflowing of joy to match. The joy is wondrous, deep and high, wide and focused, inner and outer somehow at the same time. It animates everything else you do. It's remarkable, and it's maybe meant to be our most natural state—when we've peeled away all else, all the accretions of consciousness and contrary emotion, when we get down, deep to our most fundamental resource, one that's both natural and transformative at the same time.

I heartily recommend working from your deeper mind and experiencing the joy that's there awaiting you. I'm hoping that another book will also come to me the same way. After a million and two thousand and five hundred and more words, I feel like I'm just getting started. And isn't that the way our work should feel?

A Sunday Reflection on Religion and Faith

I've been away from blogging for a couple of months. I first took a break in honor of the holidays. And then I got busy editing my new series of novels for a quicker than normal schedule of publication. I hope you've already seen the prologue to the series, the book The Oasis Within. It's been out for a few months. And just this week, the first numbered volume in the series Walid and the Mysteries of Phi, The Golden Palace, appeared on Amazon. In two or three months, I hope to have volume two out as well, The Stone of Giza. 

I'm almost done in my editing of the eight books I've already written for the series. And today, Sunday, I want to share a passage I just edited. Even though the books are set mainly in Egypt, certain things happen in faraway places, like Tunisia, or Berlin, or New York City. This passage comes from a story line in numbered Book Seven, The Ancient Scroll. The setting is New York City in 1935 at a Methodist Church. The minister, Bob Archdale, is working on a sermon. We get a chance to see into his head and heart as he makes notes. I hope you enjoy this passage.

Bob at the moment was in his office preparing his sermon for the next morning. He was planning to talk on the nature of faith and how it’s more about perception and values and commitment than just belief. He had decided to use as his biblical text the famous meeting at night between Jesus and the Jewish Rabbinical leader Nicodemus, as reported in the Gospel of John, chapter three. At a time when most of the religious establishment either disliked or feared Jesus, this prominent teacher had gone to see him at night, when, presumably his visit would not be public knowledge. He approached the controversial figure and actually said, “Teacher, some of us know that you were sent by God, because no one could do the things you do without divine support.” And then Jesus, rather than acknowledging the scholar’s rare open-minded reasoning and remarkable belief, says something instead that can be very puzzling on more than one level. His words in response were: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus is of course perplexed and says, “How can anyone return to the womb and be born a second time?” And then Jesus answers in such a way as to indicate that his entire ministry and mission aren’t primarily about reasoning and belief, but personal transformation into what’s really a new life, with new perceptions, values, and commitments.

Bob knew that, at almost any time, many of the people in his church were showing up, week-to-week, to make a deal with God. They would believe whatever they needed to believe, and do whatever they needed to do, in order to gain divine favor and everlasting life. Some were likely just hedging their bets and maybe living out the famous Agnostic’s Prayer: “Oh God, if there is a God, please save my soul, if there is a soul.” They were there in an effort to perhaps improve their lot and maybe defeat death. But God wanted them there to defeat spiritual blindness and deafness and idolatry and selfishness. He wanted to see them born anew, raised from the death of alienation and separation and selfishness to a new life of union with him and each other. He wanted an eternal life for them now, which was more about quality than it was about quantity. 

He really wanted to get this point across to everyone who showed up for the service. The faith they were being called to embrace is about new life, new values, and new commitments lived all day, every day. He wanted them to understand that when the insistent felt needs of the untutored ego can be released, its real needs can be met. And then, we can experience the genuine power of humility, compassion, and deep faith. The reverend was hoping to get all this across in a persuasive and illuminating way, so that at least many of the members of his congregation could perhaps see the issues of faith in a new and richer light.

When people approach religion for what they can get out of it, they ironically make it nearly impossible to get the most out of it. It becomes a tool—an instrument the ego is merely using to enhance its own interests, whether those interests are healthy or not. That’s why we’ve had so much war and violence and oppression in the name of religion throughout history. These things have nothing to do with true spirituality, but are perversions or deformations of what faith and the quest of the spirit are supposed to be all about. We often come across people pursuing their own greed, with their own ambitions, and superstitiously seeking to assuage their worst fears under a false patina of religious language, ritual, and sentiment. And this wasn’t just a danger for other times and places, Archdale knew, but it’s a temptation for any of us unless we can come to a true understanding of spiritual things.

Some Good We Can Do Together

I'm hoping you'll join me to make something good happen.

The New Book

Ever since I left Notre Dame in 1995 to pursue the unusual job of being a public philosopher, I've wanted to write a book full of ideas that had been transformative for me and that would also be genuinely life changing for readers. After 19 nonfiction books, I think I've finally managed to do so at a new level with the new novel, The Oasis Within. 

It arrived as the biggest surprise of my life, and as the doorway to - so far - seven other much longer novels that are also now completely written and just awaiting a final edit and publication. The Oasis Within is a prologue to this series of longer books. My granddaughter christened the big series "Walid and the Mysteries of Phi," featuring the name of the main character and a Greek letter that in this context names both a mathematical ratio and a secret society that's unlike any group of people ever written about, and that's profoundly relevant to how we understand our own lives. I've learned more about life and its possibilities from the characters in these stories than I ever would have thought possible. I've also come to love the characters as if they were real: and in a way, they are.

You've most likely heard me tell the story. The first scene came to me uninvited, as a strikingly unusual, vivid daydream one morning in February of 2011. An old man and a boy were sitting in the sand under a palm tree, talking. They were in the desert in Egypt. It was the summer of 1934. I ran upstairs to my study to write quickly what I was seeing and hearing. I continued to transcribe this mental movie for four and a half years, never consciously devising a scene or plot twist or character. I just watched it all unfurl and did my best to describe what I saw and heard.

A Fellowship of the Mind

There's a concept in The Oasis Within that's become especially important to me - the idea that there can be a "Fellowship of the Mind" in our world, a loose collection of people who are fully open to discovering who they most deeply are, and what they can truly do with their talents and energies – kindred souls who help each other learn to see deeper patterns in events and to draw on otherwise neglected powers for creative accomplishment that can make a difference for their own lives and in their broader communities. I have an audacious hope that if this book gets into the right hands, all the stories in it and the subsequent series may help bring readers together into such a fellowship that can be uniquely powerful. 

Our world is full of tangled problems that no one seems capable of solving, and of intransigent politics that rarely appear to rise above the level of schoolyard taunts. We need something superior to what we're already doing. And in a time when more people than ever are telling me they want their lives to really matter, we all need the right ideas and inspiration for the best path forward. 

My Proposal

Here's what I've realized and now want to act on: You, dear reader, know many people I'll likely never meet. You have a sphere of influence that I could never duplicate. If you've read The Oasis Within already and it's touched you, or even if you haven't yet, but are willing to, and you then find it so resonant that you're moved to go even farther and use it to touch the lives of the people around you, I have a proposal.

I want to get this new book into the hands of as many good people as I can. I don't care about Amazon rankings or bestseller lists or author royalties at this stage. I just want this book to have the impact it's capable of having. And the challenge is now mine, since to get it into the world, I've left the realm of established publishers and have "gone rogue" and created my own imprint for all these books. They were too "different" for the literary agents I've worked with in the past. They couldn't be put into an easy genre box for mainstream publication. Or so I was told. And I knew I wouldn’t change them from being what they are. I believe in them exactly as they’ve come to me. So, I've launched my own publishing initiative, in such a way that allows me to offer you a proposal.

If you can commit this month to buying at least 25 copies of The Oasis Within to give to friends, family, and associates, I can provide them for you at a cost of $7 a book, including shipping, for the beautiful paperback that retails for $14.99. Anyone who orders 50 or more at this price will also get, as a gift from me, the first long novel in the subsequent series, a book called The Golden Palace, which will be fully edited and ready before the New Year. Some friends who’ve ordered 25, 35, 50, 65, 100, or even 200 copies of the book to give away as gifts within their own circles sparked this idea. They were excited to pass the book on to their clients or friends, or to others they come into contact with in the course of their daily lives.

What You Can Do

Here's what you can do, if you'd like to partner up with me in this way. By sending an email to TomVMorris(at)aol(Dotcom), let me know how many copies you'd like to order to give to others. It could be 25 or any number above that. Include in your email your best mailing address. I'll place the order for you right away and have the books shipped directly from the printer to you. I'll then email you an invoice that you can pay by check. If your order includes copies for a book club, let me know and I'll make myself available for a short email of Q&A for the members, or even a brief Skype time with them. I've never done anything like this before. But I think the time is right.

During the holidays, you'll likely be giving presents to people you care about and who make your life better. I hope you'll join me in spreading philosophy by giving The Oasis Within to some of those people, inviting them into a fellowship of the mind and heart that can enhance their lives and perhaps even the world around them a little more than would otherwise be possible.

It felt as if the characters of these books chose me to bring them and their lessons into the world. If you can help me share them in your own part of the world, it would be great. If you've already ordered lots of copies, or in case that's not possible right now, or even if you're just not at all moved to join me in this way with such an endeavor, I hope you'll simply help the books find their mission in the world by mentioning them to others. There's a lot of work for them to do in our time.

Thanks so much for considering this distinctive form of partnership! 

The National Launch of The Oasis Within

Tonight is the official national launch of my new book and first novel, The Oasis Within. If you live near Wilmington, NC come to Barnes and Noble in the Mayfair Town Center at 6 for the celebration! I'll be donating a portion of each copy sold to The Teacher's Fund, a great local philanthropic outreach to area teachers in the elementary grades, to provide for supplies that are much needed. 

It's been nine years since I did a bookstore event, and I'm excited about tonight's opportunity. If you live anywhere other than Wilmington, NC, first of all, visit when you can. But second, you can join us virtually tonight by going to your favorite online bookseller and grabbing copies of The Oasis Within for friends and family. You can even write me about sending you signed bookplates for the books, for any order of 5 copies or more! 

If you live nearby, I hope to see you tonight. It will be a meaningful time for me. The writer's life can be a solitary endeavor. But bringing a book into the world can be an act of social outreach. This book is so chock full of ideas I can't wait to share! And early readers are sending me such gratifying emails! Let me share two or three here, and then I'll be quiet. The first is from an old friend, a company founder and president who just lost his adult son, suddenly, not long ago. The second is from a neighbor I met the first time on a plane to Charlotte the other day, an accomplished artist who lost her husband not long ago, and then her only son. We live in a world of great gifts and great losses, of gains and challenges, and possibilities for deep growth. Then I'll end with a man in town who did a nice Facebook post for the event tonight. Here are the sample reader reactions:

Hi, Tom! The Oasis Within is breathtaking. At times while reading I actually gasped at the beauty of the writing and the clarity of such profound and life changing ideas. Virtually every page of your book is now covered in highlights. I was particularly taken with your perspective on uncertainty. Like so many folks, I've often resisted uncertainty, or even feared it. I now have a new tool in the toolkit. 

I also loved your description of goals. In my career I have focused on goals and talked about goals and obsessed about goals. But I never really saw them as a new path of concentrated, consistent and committed action. How I use goals in my life will never be the same.

Your discussion of the fire of positive energy, and for me, the idea that tough times can become fuel is inspiring and so very useful right now.

I could go on and on, but I do want to thank you specifically for one other insight - the roles of nobility and humility. After 30 years and hundreds of AA meetings that revolve around humility, I still didn't have a good way to think about the dichotomy of those ideas in life. Now I do.

I was captured by Ali and Walid. And I was taken by surprise by the plot twist and revelation. I can't wait to see what happens. Tom, this is a remarkably important work, one that I'm certain will benefit thousands and thousands of people. Thanks for sharing and thanks for your friendship.

Jack H.

___________________________________

Hi Tom: I’m home from Naples and I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed THE OASIS WITHIN! I was hooked from the opening chapter……underlining, highlighting, making notes and ‘WOW”s in the columns………

Full of chills……one in particular…….When I got to the chapter entitled ‘WISDOM BUCKET’…..for some odd reason, I drew a heart around those words………I read those two pages…..turned the page and read the line…..”My wisdom bucket is in my heart”……..chills up and down my spine….. I was definitely meant to read this book………….so, AGAIN……THANK YOU. Hope to make it to the book signing……already have a list of friends who will receive them for Christmas!!! And definitely will share with my book club!

In the last 8 years, I’ve watched my husband succumb to cancer…….and then my only child succumb to ALS………. Since I’ve been searching……which I guess is pretty normal……trying to figure out what’s next for me and trying to be open to those answers, directions, signs, etc. This book arrived in my hands in a totally random way… (Thank you Universe). MY book is now full of “highlighting”, notes, “Wows”, answers……One I will read over and over and over….It’s THAT GOOD! And so now, I’m on this new ADVENTURE with Uncle Ali and Walid…….and can’t wait to continue the journey……. Thank you Tom Morris!

With gratitude, Anne. (Anne Cunningham, Metal Artist)

___________________________________

From Facebook:

I’m compelled to stump for my Wilmington friend and philosopher, Tom Morris. If you haven't yet stumbled across his absolute gem of a book, "The Oasis Within", then please check it out. It is the most meaningful book I've read in years, possibly ever. Book signing this Friday evening at Mayfaire's Barnes & Noble.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1668042616770164/

Tom Hackler, Duke Energy

Friends! This is Tom Morris again. If you have a chance to read the new book soon, please write and let me know what you think!  TM

Humility, Nobility, and Leadership

There was a great article in the New York Times the other day, with an eye-catching title:

“A Humble Pope, Challenging The World.”

The Times ran this teaser and explanatory line under the title:

“Francis, the first Latin American pope, has drawn from his life in Argentina to try to create a humbler papacy, albeit one with lofty ambition.”

It’s not often that we see humility and lofty ambition mentioned together. And that’s too bad, because they’re perfect partners. In fact, lofty ambition is closely connected with a fundamental quality that is, together with humility, crucial for great leadership. The best explanation I know of has come from the mouth of a character in my new book, The Oasis Within. He’s seventy years old. His name is Ali. And he’s just said something about humility and nobility to his thirteen-year-old nephew Walid, as they sit and talk under the stars in the vast desert of western Egypt. The year is 1934. The boy wants to understand what nobility and humility really are. Ali explains it all better than I can, so let me quote this short passage. Ali speaks.

“Nobility is a sense of your own greatness, and the true greatness of what you rightly value, along with the importance of what you’re doing in this world. Nobility comes from inside you. It arises in your soul. It’s an attitude and a sensibility that you bring to everything you do, every action, by caring about little things, knowing they’re actually big, and attempting big things, knowing that they’re never bigger than your calling, your quest, and the adventure for which you’re here.”

“That’s a good answer.”

“Thank you.”

“So: What about humility?” The boy was entranced by these ideas and suddenly found himself wanting to understand more.

“Humility is a sense of our smallness in the vast sweep of things, and a recognition of the greatness in other people, along with a realization that we need each other in order to accomplish our best dreams. Absolutely anyone and anything can teach us, as I’m teaching you on this marvelous night.”

“I see. This makes sense to me. But it’s also strange. I’m big and I’m small.”

“Yes. And so are we all. Each of us is of inestimable importance. None of us owns all the wisdom and virtue of the world. You need others. And they need you. Humility recognizes our wonderful limits. Nobility embraces what is also ours and is limitless.” This was a lot for Walid to take in all at once. But he could feel that these words resonated with truth.

The old man continued. “Humility means being open to learn from everyone and everything that crosses our path. The camel can teach us. The storm can teach us. The viper can teach us. Our mistakes can teach us. The stars can, too. If you’re humbly open to learning and growing, then you can become everything you’re meant to be, in the fullness of your inner nobility. In addition, a proper humility allows you to serve others eagerly and well, and there is nothing nobler than that.”

“So, nobility and humility go together.”

“They’re meant to walk arm-in-arm. But, unfortunately, each of these qualities often wanders along without its intended mate. When they work together, there’s magic, and there’s tremendous power for good. Combined, they lead to extraordinary things.”

This was important for the boy to grasp well. The old man thought for a moment, and then continued. “The greatest kings and leaders on earth are both noble and humble. One who is noble and not humble is presumptuous and arrogant. One who is humble and not noble is hesitant and lost, and never in possession of his full power. To be the great regent you’re here to become, you must embrace both these qualities, my friend. Nobility and humility together form the path of true greatness.”

This is important for us all to remember as a new presidential political season gets underway. It’s not just the Pope who benefits from blending these two great qualities. Any leader should embody them, and keep them in proper balance.

There's a lot more on this topic and related issues in the new book. If you have a chance to read it soon, I hope that it speaks to you, and that you will enjoy it deeply. Please let me know what you think. It always helps me as a philosopher to hear the perspectives of other thoughtful people.

For more, go to www.TheOasisWithin.com.

A Most Remarkable Book Signing

I recently had the great joy of speaking to nearly 600 Indiana judges, hosted by their Chief Justice and the Indiana Supreme Court, pictured above. After a lively hour of philosophy, a lot of the honorables stood in line during their lunch hour, trading food for philosophy, to buy a copy of The Oasis Within and have me sign it. The conversations we had as a result were amazing.

Judges confront daily the most troubling problems of our society, and most often the people causing those problems. They face difficulty, tragedy, and the entire range of human emotions played out in their courts. It has to be emotionally exhausting. And the workload never lets up. They don't have a hard week followed by a light load. It's endless. And the wonderful irony is that, surrounded by the greatest threats to societal disorder, they play such a crucial role in maintaining the order that allows for a flourishing culture. And, as you can imagine, it's never an easy job. Then, in their spare time, as if they have any, they do volunteer work in their communities. I was inspired just being with them.

One man recalled having heard me speak 21 years ago. He said the meeting occurred at the lowest period of his career and life, and that the hour had been just the inspiration he had needed. And now here he was, all those years later, flourishing and loving his work.

Another remembered that same event, all those years ago, and thanked me for in that talk having gotten him excited about philosophy, which he has read now for over twenty years. He works with addicts and tries to impart to them the best wisdom for living. He snatched up a copy of the new book as perhaps just the thing he needed to share with those he counsels.

The judges' enthusiasm for the new book was great to see. The Oasis Within is about inner resilience, outer results, and so much of the wisdom we need in navigating a challenging and often gratifying world. I look forward to hearing from the judges as they begin to read, ponder, and use the ideas in the book. It's a rare book signing where you see so many new books go out the door with so many avid readers who are in a position to use its ideas for great good in their communities and in their lives.

If you have a chance, thank a judge for all that they do! I sure took the opportunity I had to do so.