East Eats West

Fantastic Chateau Chambord

The Loire valley, southwest of Paris, is a UNESCO heritage region famous for its many magnificent castles. Clearly a must-see destination is the fantastic Chambord castle. Originally a hunting castle it had many illustrious occupants, Louis XIV one among them. It is also rumored that Leonardo da Vinci, who lived and died nearby in Amboise, had a hand in its strictly geometrical design. The most spectacular side of Chambord are its many chimneys and little turrets, lending the castle a fairy-tale, almost fata-morgana-like, appearance. It is set in a wonderful forest and well worth a visit. Website: www.chambord.org

 

At the market in Paris

Yes, it is possible to have a bad dinner in France, it happened to me. However, one of the easiest ways of tasting the fabled French food is paying a visit to the local market. I did exactly that in Paris near the Arc de Triomphe. Not only were the bread, cheese and Foie Gras (goose liver) bigger than anywhere else, the tasting portions were also generous. A very enthusiastic market vendor chopped off a generous chunk of cheese and goat liver for me to try. Just amazing! He then moved on to sausages and small, round goat cheese (crotins). I ended up trying not only cheese but also bread and many fruits. Amazing!   

Rapid bike lane in Paris

I recently made a trip to Paris by car. While having breakfast in Dijon, halfway to Paris, a German couple said that I do not have to worry about other cars in Paris but instead should worry about the bikes. They were spot on. Between the very left and second left lane there is an unofficial bike lane. The ‘lane’ or rather the space in between these slowly moving or standing cars is used by bikers. And the bikes can be anything from a three-wheeler scooter up to a full-sized Harley-Davidson. Every Parisian knows to be extra careful when crossing this lane as bikes approach at break-neck speed. And should you switch lanes not fast enough, you can be sure that impatient bike-riders would disapprove by honking and gesturing very explicitly!

How studying Buddhism for 25 years in Tibet made someone wealthy

Buddha might be an unlikely management guru. However, Geshe Michael Roach of the “The Diamond Cutter” book fame exactly thinks that. Geshe Michael is an American who studied Buddhism in Tibet and eventually became a “Geshe”, a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks. After studying for 25 years he had to proof his understanding of the ancient Buddhist principles by working in a business. He did so very successfully and wrote a book about it (The Diamond Cutter). Nowadays he travels the world and teaches “karmic management” to people from Moscow to Zurich. I attended one of his first lectures in Zurich and was impressed by his simple explanation of the Buddhist idea of karma and how it can be applied in business and life in general. 

Geshe Michael’s story was simple. Life is about planting seeds, again and again. Those seeds will grow into a tree and die again. Therefore one has to continuously plant seeds. Seeds are thoughts and actions. He told us the story of an architect of Chinese origin who wanted to find a life partner. She wanted to know from Geshe Michael if she would find her husband in a club or on the internet. After contemplating for a while he told her that she would find her future husband in the elderly home. That startled the woman as she was in her mid thirties. Geshe Michael explained to her, that in order to find companionship she had to be a good companion to someone who is lonely. So she went to the elderly home every other week until one day, in a yoga class, she bumped into her future husband. It was love at first sight. Six months later Geshe Michael married them. After the marriage he asked them how the woman from the elderly home was doing and she told him, that she was too busy with her wedding plans to visit her again. Geshe Michael told her, that she continuously has to plant seeds of companionship, otherwise her marriage will not last.

Geshe Michael also explained, how the same Karmic principle can be used for a successful business. At the end the recipe is as simple as foreign to us: give others what you want and you will be given in return. Or isn’t it that unfamiliar?

Learn more about his teachings here: http://www.diamondcutterinstitute.com  

Box-houses everywhere in Switzerland

I sometimes share an office with architects who make virtual rendering of architectural projects mostly in Switzerland. Whenever I pass their desks I see the same type of homes again and again: boxes with big windows. Everyone who builds houses nowadays seems to go for box-shaped houses with floor-to-ceiling windows. It is deemed to be the most efficient house structure as it maximizes space and presumably light. However, whenever I pass such boxes I see curtains drawn and shades shuts. Isn’t that surprising? Why would you want big windows if you block the view?

My theory is that people buy into the idea of maximizing space and light. And architects like designing such simple structure. The problem is that those boxes are designed from the outside, not with the view of someone living on the inside. With increasing density of urban space this obviously leads to conflicts of privacy versus light.

A current exhibition titled “Learning from Tokyo” tackles this conundrum. It shows clever, ingenious and homely examples of houses in the super-dense Tokyo area. And how architects cleverly make use of space, public areas and privacy. It is all about interesting angles and views, but planned from inside out; boxes are made by architects but people have to live in it. Anyone considering building a house should visit the exhibition!

Learn more here: http://www.learningfromtokyo.ch/

Pharmaceutical lighting

Sometimes you happen on something that feels very familiar, very soothing, like it has been around for a very long time. I had exactly this feeling when I first saw the limited edition Apotheca lamps by the Zurich based interior designers Mia Kepenek and Nicholas Frei. They salvaged sixty antique brown pharmaceutical glass containers from a pharmacy renovation and transformed the thick brown glass bottles into an amazing ambient light, only adding a carbon filament light bulb that is custom-made in Switzerland. Each light is therefore absolutely unique and radiates a very soothing warm orange light. Should you be interested in purchasing one, better hurry up, as the Italian furniture giant Poliform bought almost all the remaining lamps, using them at their Milano furniture fair!

Hurry up and contact Mai Kepenek at [email protected]

Burn-out business

Sometimes the tenants of Buddhism pop up in unexpected circumstances, most likely unknown to the persons involved. Here is a little story I was recently told.

A businesswoman with a successful career decided one day to stop working and dedicate her life fully to her two children. She wanted to be the perfect mom. She gave her best and labored hard every day, showering her children with love and care. Until one fine day, when she couldn’t ignore the fact anymore, that her unruly and wild children drove her crazy. She sat at home, lacking motivation, asking herself why she was doing all that. The answer hit her in the face: she didn’t care anymore. It was all the same to her. She had a burn-out.

Shortly after she admitted herself to a facility specialized in burn-outs and started with therapy. Slowly she recovered and started wondering, what she should do now. She knew that setting high goals would lead her directly back into the facility again. She wouldn’t want to go into her old job again. So she decided to do whatever she wanted to do, without purpose. At the same time she wondered how her experience could help other people. One thing led to another and she nowadays talks to people about ‘burn-outs’ and depressions, giving courses at big banks. Her problem became her business, her new meaning in life.

She discovered the core tenant of Buddhism: Mushotoku; doing something without aim, for no gain, without desire. Just doing. She learned that giving without wanting something in return made her whole again.

What works in friendship works in business, surprised?

How do you know if someone is your friend?  There might be many definitions but I am sure you agree with me that a person is only a friend if she or he helps you out if the going gets tough. A friend is someone who stands at your side, backing you up. This is what a good friend does. A friend helps you move apartments, listens to your problems or encourages you in life. And he or she does it without asking something in return. Right? I assume most people would agree with those statements. So friendship works because you give and help without asking something in return.

Interestingly, people also believe that in business exactly the opposite is true. It is about competition. One doesn’t help each other. One goes against the competitor. It is about Darwinism or survival of the fittest. It is about you or me, not you and me. So the universal principle of helping each other apparently doesn’t apply in business, for some strange reasons. What if success in business can be achieved by helping your competitor? This is the very core idea of Geshe Michael Roach, the American Tibetan Buddhist master who teaches about Buddhism and business. He strongly believes that helping your competitor to be successful will make yourself successful. A very outlandish idea, but maybe he is just stating the obvious?