From Strands, Avnet, Focus on Presence, and Tony Robbins helped get me the job at DMHS

From almost 20 years (1983-2002) I carried my little Geodex binder with me everywhere I went. The company logo was a Venn diagram of three overlapping circles. The principle was to balance the three areas of your life: Personal, Work, and Relationship. For me that meant formal zen practice, my job, and relationship with wife and family.

I didn’t realize until after I started this website project that I unconsciously chose the Strands organizing principle based on the Geodex work I had been doing for all those years, not just the five Buddha families. The SpIrituality, Livelihood, and Relationship families of the mandala I chose to organize this website align with my Geodex areas of formal zen practice, my job, and relationship with wife and family.

And what were the other two families in the Peacemaker Mandala? Study and Social Action. Perfect! These are definitely major strands in my life. So organizing this site by the five families of a Buddhist mandala is not nearly as artificial as it might seem. I was already consciously working on balancing three of the elements. Expanding the project to balancing five elements is a reasonable challenge. The Five Tathagatas adds a transcendent  dimension to aspire to.

Digging deeper, I actually started using 3-Circle Venn diagrams six years before I saw the Geodex,