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<channel>
	<title>Daniel Batten</title>
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	<link>http://daniel-batten.com</link>
	<description>keynote speaker</description>
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		<title>Krishna&#8217;s birthday</title>
		<link>http://daniel-batten.com/krishnas-birthday/</link>
		<comments>http://daniel-batten.com/krishnas-birthday/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 20 Aug 2011 10:32:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>danielbatten</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://daniel-batten.com/?p=94</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Today is Krishna&#8217;s birthday.
Coincidentally its also mine. </p>
<p>I don&#8217;t know a lot about Krishna.
Coming from the West, I know a lot
about a middle-eastern master called
Christ, but not as much about some of
the far-eastern ones. </p>
<p>I do know that Krishna was one of the enlightened
masters who walked the face of the earth.
This was many many centuries ago. <span style="color:#777"> . . . &#8594; Read More: <a href="http://daniel-batten.com/krishnas-birthday/">Krishna&#8217;s birthday</a></span>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Today is Krishna&#8217;s birthday.<br />
Coincidentally its also mine. </p>
<p>I don&#8217;t know a lot about Krishna.<br />
Coming from the West, I know a lot<br />
about a middle-eastern master called<br />
Christ, but not as much about some of<br />
the far-eastern ones. </p>
<p>I do know that Krishna was one of the enlightened<br />
masters who walked the face of the earth.<br />
This was many many centuries ago. </p>
<p>He was also a trickster. </p>
<p>Today was full of &#8220;tricks&#8221; too. Things didn&#8217;t<br />
go as planned. My wife had a playcentre training<br />
all day. I backed the car into a wall. And my mother<br />
fractured her wrist. </p>
<p>Yet all was bliss. Perhaps Krishna&#8217;s vibrations were<br />
looking after me! </p>
<p>The car was, remarkably, unscratched. I spent the day<br />
weeding the garden in the sun. And I experienced one<br />
&#8220;great-things-about-being-a-dad # 138: hand made<br />
birthday cards. This one was from my elder daughter<br />
Sophie. It was amazingly good, and brought one of<br />
many tears of gratitude to my eyes. </p>
<p>My wife Claire got home at about 4.30pm &#8211; and so<br />
we immediately drove to Bethells (a 30 minute drive)<br />
to pick up my mum and take her to the emergency<br />
clinic to have her hand assessed. </p>
<p>Afterwards we went to &#8220;satsang&#8221;. If you are not<br />
familiar with this &#8211; think of it like a singing,<br />
dancing celebration designed to bring all the<br />
minds in the room into a single frequency &#8211; and<br />
with chants that raise the energy sky-high through<br />
carefully calibrated crecendos, increased tempos and<br />
increased pitch as each song progresses. </p>
<p>Its 2 hours since it finished &#8211; and I&#8217;m still completely<br />
intoxicated.</p>
<p>So today, I feel very grateful. I feel grateful to be alive.<br />
I feel grateful to have such an amazing group of friends<br />
- men and women &#8211; around the world. I feel grateful<br />
to have 2 beautiful daughters, and a gorgeous wife who<br />
spoilt my rotten on a clothes-shopping expedition last night.<br />
Most of all &#8211; grateful that despite all the little obstacles and<br />
tricks of lord krishna, the buddha, the Christ, and all the other<br />
masters who have walked upon this earth &#8211; as each day goes<br />
by I am learning more to accept every thing that happens and<br />
truly go with the flow. </p>
<p>Most of all, today &#8211; right now &#8230; feeling very grateful to a lovely<br />
soul called Catherine Gow who innocently suggested I went to an<br />
introductory talk for this thing about I thought sounded wierd at the time<br />
but ended up having one or 2 very minor benefits like<br />
- ending my panic attacks<br />
- eliminated the grief I&#8217;d had for the loss of my firstborn child 7and replaced it will joy for the life I&#8217;d shared<br />
- grounding me<br />
- giving me the confidence to start a company (which did ok)<br />
- giving me more energy<br />
- making miracles the norm in life<br />
- introducing me to dimensions i did not know existed<br />
- making bliss a daily norm<br />
- getting me over my anger issues<br />
- bringing me within weeks to a place of deep peace with my father&#8217;s premature passing away<br />
- helping me drop resentments from the past<br />
- allowing me to transform the environment around me, rather than getting brought down by others energies<br />
- creating a life where every day feels like a birthday<br />
- helping me be useful at serving society in some small way, rather than think about me all the time<br />
- substantially lessen my feverishness and get me to be in the present much more<br />
- stay much less affected when others say things that would have pushed my buttons<br />
- giving me the confidence to discover undiscovered talents including singing and dancing<br />
- manifesting that incredible Instant Kiwi ad<br />
- taking me to India not once but five times<br />
- eliminating the lead-poisoning from my body<br />
- helping me to see the true nature of reality<br />
- helping me to see the bigger picture about the era we are living in right now, rather than simply get depressed about the damage we are doing to earth<br />
- take action to prepare and prepare others for the turbulent, yet transformational, time ahead<br />
- getting me to inhibit a strange and unfamiliar &#8211; yet truly rocking &#8211; new world where increasingly little of my happiness is dependent on anyone or anything else</p>
<p>Ultimately, as someone a million times wiser than me said, we must drop even gratitude &#8211; because if you feel grateful, that implies a separation and a lack of oneness. When you merge with infinity there is no other to feel grateful too. While I don&#8217;t think &#8220;merging with infinity&#8221; is likely tomorrow, I am starting to get what that means. </p>
<p>So without gratitude and in oneness &#8211; bless you all, who are me, who are it, who are divine anyway.<br />
Thank you for being a part of my life, joy, and journey. You are special to me &#8230; </p>
<p>Daniel @ 41.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>&#8220;Today we have declared world peace&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://daniel-batten.com/today-we-have-declared-world-peace/</link>
		<comments>http://daniel-batten.com/today-we-have-declared-world-peace/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:36:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>danielbatten</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://daniel-batten.com/?p=75</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Hi dear ones,</p>
<p>-  just returned from the World Cultural Festival in Berlin.</p>
<p>Feeling something very significant just happened, not just in my life, but in European history.</p>
<p>Will talk candidly about what shifts happened energetically, as well as on a physical level &#8211; as I think the time has come to be much more open about what is now <span style="color:#777"> . . . &#8594; Read More: <a href="http://daniel-batten.com/today-we-have-declared-world-peace/">&#8220;Today we have declared world peace&#8221;</a></span>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi dear ones,</p>
<p>-  just returned from the World Cultural Festival in Berlin.</p>
<p>Feeling something very significant just happened, not just in my life, but in European history.</p>
<p>Will talk candidly about what shifts happened energetically, as well as on a physical level &#8211; as I think the time has come to be much more open about what is now an undeniable part of life.</p>
<p>A story a traveling teacher told us recently comes to mind. Some years back in 1989, Guruji was conducting a Silent Meditation Course in Germany. On the final day of the course, he offered said &#8221;You have all done very well &#8211; your sadhana has helped to bring down the Wall.&#8221; At the time, most disregarded this &#8211; both because it seemed unlikely that meditation in a group could have such an effect, or even that the Berlin Wall would fall any time soon. Within a year there was a united Germany.</p>
<p>On 2 July at the Olympic Stadium, Sri Sri Ravishankar talked of the significance of choosing the Berlin Stadium for the world peace event.</p>
<p>He described Berlin as &#8220;the place where the walls came down between people&#8221;. He also talked of the stadium as the physical place where Hitler declared war on the world. &#8220;Today&#8221; He said &#8220;We are declaring peace&#8221;.</p>
<p>The sheer quality of the acts, and the diversity was amazing &#8211; the St Petersburg Ballet, many pop stars from across Europe, and dancers and drummers from across the world. What was truly different from any other event I&#8217;d attended was that this wasn&#8217;t just a new-age/ world-music/ alternative event &#8211; this was a mainstream embracing of the critical importance of spirituality in creating world peace, and in everyday mundane life.</p>
<p>Dignitaries including a number of former prime-ministers, a member of the Saudi Royal Family, a prominent jewish Rabi, and leaders in all walks of life came out of the closet to declare peace, brotherhood, and the importance of ancient wisdom in solving modern problems.</p>
<p>The weekend of the event it pelted down with rain, and a cold chill that rivaled a bad winters day in Auckland. Atypical of the normally hot Berlin peak-summer month of July. In fact, both other major events that weekend, including the Berlin philharmonic, were cancelled. It made it even more moving to see the unreasonably high commitment of all the performers to perform in torrents of freezing rain and a puddle-rich stage &#8211; even when doing some challenging dance manoeuvres. Can you imagine a top Russian ballet company performing in the rain, in puddles?</p>
<p>The most moving performance for me though was around 500 people all performing yoga on the central field in unison to<br />
the tune of ancient sanskrit shlokas. As the rain started to pour from my own eyes watching this I started to become conscious<br />
that each performer was performing with such love, that was having a transformative effect on everyone. In a place built for war,<br />
progaganda, and competitive sport &#8211; to see the human body used to move in unison, beyond competition, for the betterment of<br />
all was profound.</p>
<p>The vibe of the whole event was incredibly feel-good, undoubtably drenched in more love than rain. It showed me the power of music and the arts to unite and bring people together.</p>
<p>But nothing could compare to the meditation that occurred on day 2. Can you imagine an entire stadium of people having come from 151 countries, being lead by an enlightened spiritual master?</p>
<p>It was unlike any other meditation I&#8217;d had. I lost consciousness of time and then felt a shockwave go through me &#8211; and everyone &#8211; at high speed, eminating outwards in a circle or oval shape like the stadium itself. Afterwards I tried to describe my experience. All I could say was that it was like an atomic bomb had been set off, but the shockwave that accompanied it was not one of hate, but of love, and as it went out with great speed, it left everyone in its path changed in some way.</p>
<p>Later I wondered whether I&#8217;d imagined this, and began to doubt the experience. Then, I found myself talking to Manu and Awhitea. They are highly intuitive Maori (Hawaiian and NZ Maori respectively) who&#8217;s work includes purifying and clearing the energy of people and the land. Manu told me exactly what happened during the meditation and why it rained.</p>
<p>He told me that the energy in the stadium and in the land was disturbed before the event. Something I&#8217;d sensed too as I first was the powerful imperial stadium built by the 3rd Reich. Constant rain was needed to cleanse the entire environment, he said. Also, the cold of the first day was needed to make sure that the energies locked under the stadium in the ground did not escape &#8211; but rather could be transformed. Once this had occurred, then the weather heated up again on the second day. And the second day of rain was blessing us all. Indeed, it was soft &#8211; like the hands of the divine falling on us all. Guruji also described the rain as a blessing. And it arrived again on queue in one final flurry as the event was closed.</p>
<p>Manu then said that during the meditation, what had happened was that a very high column of energy had gone from the ground right up to the sky, and that had been concentrated and concentrated, then at the critical moment unleashed outwards in a circle at high speed.</p>
<p>Hmmm. I guess that put my doubts about my own experience were put to rest.</p>
<p>We also realised that there was something significant in bringing people together from the world over, creating this experience, so that those people could all go back and contribute in whatever way the essence of the seeds that were sewn in Berlin with 151 corners of the world.</p>
<p>After the event, the shift in energy was highly apparent. Feli &#8211; one of the organisers &#8211; talked of how she&#8217;s always felt guilty about being German because of their history &#8211; <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDBXUee2MTQ" target="_blank">but now she felt nothing but happy</a>.</p>
<p>I felt a shift internally too &#8211; to do with a lot of my own feverishness to want to &#8220;do big things&#8221; being replaced with a state of utter desirelessness, and a simple urge to live fully and happily in each moment. It was a lifting of a great weight.</p>
<p>We stayed a few days afterwards in Berlin, and after a third day of rain, the skies lifted into brilliant sunshine and we explored the city, as well as attending a course and satsangs in Guruji&#8217;s presence. Being a techno fan from way back, I was elated to get to groove with the &#8220;<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_uT3VsRgsg" target="_blank">So-What&#8221; project &#8211; from Argentina</a>.</p>
<p>They raved while Guruji was onstage and started to groove himself! Another experience to behold.</p>
<p>The last day of my trip, I got the icing on the cake. As was usual, Guruji was followed by crowds wherever he went &#8211; yet this time I was in such utter contentment, I couldn&#8217;t move from my spot. Then without warning as I waited for a friend upstairs after one of the sessions ended, he took the upstairs exit back to the Hotel room and ended up walking right past me, looking me in the eye, recognising me and saying Hello, after touching the rose he was carrying to my head. I felt 1 &#8230; 2 &#8230; 3 &#8230;. 4 waves of energy pulse through my whole body from the head down and instantly had to sit down and went into a state of deep meditation. Apparently, everyone around me went into meditation too. When I resurfaced, Manu smiled and said &#8220;that was nice!&#8221;</p>
<p>After a &#8220;day off&#8221; being 100% tourists exploring the city with several of our beautiful kiwi Art of Living family &#8211; Will, Bindi, Manoj, Awhitea, Manu, the irrepressible Josefina and our amazing guide from Dresden/Christchurch &#8211; Feli &#8211; we were all feeling thoroughly treated and the following day the journey home began.</p>
<p>Many other stories to share &#8211; but they are best shared in person.</p>
<p>Machts gut,<br />
Love to you all</p>
<p>&amp;</p>
<p>Jai Gurudev!!!!</p>
<p>Daniel</p>
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		<title>India&#8217;s Winning Secret &#8211; Exposed</title>
		<link>http://daniel-batten.com/india-should-not-have-won/</link>
		<comments>http://daniel-batten.com/india-should-not-have-won/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:24:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>danielbatten</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://daniel-batten.com/?p=58</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Whichever way you cut it, all the history and stats said an Indian
win was not possible. Especially after the Sri Lankan innings.</p>
<p>So what secret did they have to achieve the impossible?</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll come to this, but first lets look at the overwhelming reasons
why winning would &#8211; under normal circumstances &#8211; have been next to impossible.</p>
<p>1. No team <span style="color:#777"> . . . &#8594; Read More: <a href="http://daniel-batten.com/india-should-not-have-won/">India&#8217;s Winning Secret &#8211; Exposed</a></span>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Whichever way you cut it, all the history and stats said an Indian<br />
win was not possible. Especially after the Sri Lankan innings.</p>
<p>So what secret did they have to achieve the impossible?</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll come to this, but first lets look at the overwhelming reasons<br />
why winning would &#8211; under normal circumstances &#8211; have been next to impossible.</p>
<p>1. No team in cricket has EVER won a World Cup at home.<br />
Whereas in rugby and football, playing at home can give a hometown<br />
advantage. Not so in cricket. Cricket is more to do with your state of<br />
mind than any other sport. In a final, you have to perform for 4-6 hours,<br />
not just 90 mins. Unlike rugby and football, one mistake means you leave<br />
the field.</p>
<p>2. Teams batting second in one-dayer finals generally lose. Especially<br />
when they have a poor start &#8211; as India did &#8211; 2 wickets down after 6 overs.<br />
Out of 10 previous tournaments, only 3 teams batting 2nd have won. You may<br />
think 30% is still a reasonable statistical chance &#8230; but it got unreasonable<br />
when Sri Lanka batted first and set India the biggest ever target for a World Cup final.</p>
<p>3. India weren&#8217;t just at home, they had the pressure of 1 billion people wanting<br />
victory and demanding no less. As the Brazillian football team will tell you, this<br />
sort of pressure often leads to underperformance not over-performance.</p>
<p>So how did they pull off the impossible?</p>
<p>It turns out that India chose to look within the tradition of their own country<br />
for the tools that gave them the edge.</p>
<p>You may be thinking &#8220;India won because they were the most talented team&#8221;.<br />
Talented they are. But talent is not the most important ingredient for winning World Cups.</p>
<p>If if were, the All Blacks would have won 6 Rugby World Cups.<br />
and Brazil would never have lost a Football World Cup since 1970.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a sporting truism that when talent is roughly equivilant<br />
(as with India and Sri Lanka), the team with the superior mindset wins.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s why NZ&#8217;s Black Caps and All Blacks have between them been eliminated<br />
from an incredible 11 semi-finals. That&#8217;s the exact point in the tournament<br />
where mindset becomes more important than ability.</p>
<p>It turns out that the Indian team, who faced the most overwhelming and enormous pressure<br />
and prevailed, had together undergone training to help them overcome enormous<br />
pressure and prevail.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not the standard sports psychology stuff &#8211; now that everyone is using that, this<br />
no longer provides a team with an advantage.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m talking about something much more powerful.</p>
<p>It turns out the entire Indian cricket team did something that other Indian sports teams<br />
did not. They looked to their own tradition and learnt a combination of yoga asanas,<br />
meditation, and breathing techniques speficially formulated to increase performance<br />
under even extreme stress, while raising base-line mental toughness and mental and<br />
physical health.</p>
<p>Of course this might not be the reason they won. It could just be a coincidence. That<br />
stuff couldn&#8217;t possibly work could it? India will certainly be hoping that other cricketing<br />
nations choose to view it as coincidence and not worth investigating for their own teams.</p>
<p>But they may not be so lucky. Western Nations are not as quick to<br />
dismiss mindfulness techniques as they once were. Only last year,<br />
the US Marines, recognising the importance of mindset on performance, started<br />
teaching their troops Yoga Nidra (one of the techniques taught on the same course<br />
the Indian Cricket team did).</p>
<p>So congratulations to India &#8211; deserving winners, both in talent and the wisdom<br />
of their approach. You have made your countrymen proud around the world.</p>
<p>I can only imagine how unassailable the All Blacks would become if they did the course<br />
the Indian cricket team did. And as a kiwi, I&#8217;m very pleased that India don&#8217;t play rugby. </p>
<p><em>Daniel Batten is a serial-entrepreneur, corporate trainer and (disclosure of interest)<br />
Art of Living teacher. </em></p>
<p>PS: the course the Indian Team did was called the &#8220;Art of Living&#8221; course. And whether<br />
you want to perform on the sporting field, the corporate world, or in life generally,<br />
it has been proven around the world with every culture, from prisoners to CEOs to<br />
movie stars to cricketing legends to drastically increase mental toughness, performance<br />
and as a nice side-effect: happiness.</p>
<p>You can find out more about it here <a href="http://www.artofliving.org">www.artofliving.org</a> or www.artofliving.org.nz<a href="http://www.artofliving.org.nz"></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Dan&#8217;s update for the last 3 weeks</title>
		<link>http://daniel-batten.com/dans-update-for-the-last-3-weeks/</link>
		<comments>http://daniel-batten.com/dans-update-for-the-last-3-weeks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:12:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>danielbatten</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://daniel-batten.com/?p=50</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Hello dear one, </p>
<p>Firstly sorry this is a blog entry in a public setting &#8211; I would much prefer to connect one on one and in person with you &#8230; there has simply been so many things happen in the last 3 weeks, that it would take me weeks to tell all the news in this <span style="color:#777"> . . . &#8594; Read More: <a href="http://daniel-batten.com/dans-update-for-the-last-3-weeks/">Dan&#8217;s update for the last 3 weeks</a></span>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hello dear one, </p>
<p>Firstly sorry this is a blog entry in a public setting &#8211; I would much prefer to connect one on one and in person with you &#8230; there has simply been so many things happen in the last 3 weeks, that it would take me weeks to tell all the news in this manner with all the people that seem to want to know more.</p>
<p>However, if you have found your way here, it&#8217;s likely it was no accident. So I shall attempt to serve you by at least writing with all the personal touch of a handwritten letter, which you may even like to imagine yourself finding in the letterbox, opening and holding in your hand as you sit in a comfortable chair. You should be forwarned that this entry contains the &#8220;S&#8221; word (spiritual), the &#8220;D&#8221; word (Divine), the &#8220;A&#8221; word (Ashram), and the &#8220;G&#8221; word (Guru), so if you have any problem with any of these words, do not read on. </p>
<p>As you may or may not know by now, last year I had a health shock: diagnosed with heavy-metal poisoning. And I don&#8217;t mean the type that happens when you listen to too much Led Zepplin as a teenager, though I was guilty of that too. The source of the poisoning is still a mystery &#8211; but my Lead levels were 20x higher than the upper extreme of the permissible range. I also had a lot of a metal called &#8220;Thallium&#8221;. I tried telling people this on the phone but after a couple of &#8220;What &#8211; you&#8217;re full of valium?&#8221; responses from people who had genuinely misheard over the imperfect telephone that makes all consonants sound the same &#8211; I thought better to write this one down. </p>
<p>In December, I was part of a performance called &#8220;Birds of Paradise&#8221;. The performance was a lot of fun, however it also took a further toll on my already depleted health. The combination of late nights, changed bio-rhythms and huge adrelinine infusions that happen each evening when you perform at night live left me completely exhausted. In fact my natropath &#8211; testing my body&#8217;s ability to absorb minerals again after the show &#8211; became sufficiently concerned that she suggested I get some checkups I don&#8217;t even want to mention here. </p>
<p>Nonetheless I was feeling grateful that I knew the likely root-cause of my low energy. I had been completely bamboozled &#8211; I mean, I was doing meditation and pranayamas and kriya every morning, eating lots of high-energy organic food, and raw juices &#8211; and I should have been feeling amazing (like I did about 5 years ago when I first started doing this regularly) &#8211; so I knew something wasn&#8217;t right. </p>
<p>I took 3 weeks off before and after Christmas to be with family at Bethells Beach &#8211; and didn&#8217;t touch a computer during that time. In fact the 2 occasions I tried to use one</p>
<p>1. it crashed and<br />
2. the Internet connection failed instantly</p>
<p>I got the message &#8211; and didn&#8217;t try again. </p>
<p>After the natropaths assessment of me in late December, I also knew I had to go to India. </p>
<p>It was just the strongest intuition. It wasn&#8217;t a straightforward journey there. For starters, the only flight that was affordable went via Dubai &#8211; a 30 hour long haul journey). Secondly I didn&#8217;t get onto my Indian visa application quickly enough &#8211; and as a result on the Thursday I was due to fly out &#8211; I had no visa. I rang my travel agent to say he would need to rebook my tickets for another time. Turned out he knew someone at the Indian embassy and after a couple of phonecalls, my visa arrived from Wellington at 4pm, and I literally picked it up, went straight to the airport and got there just in time to grab my flight that left at 6.15pm. </p>
<p>On the plane I had plenty of time to write a simple one page in a 3B1 notebook. I wrote down 7 intentions for the year. That was it. Then I put it aside. 6 of the 7 intentions were about service it turned out. One was to teach a whole lot more as a volunteer Art of Living teacher than my energy levels had allowed. Another was to help organise a big Art of Living course from 22-28 Feb to share more of what the world needed with a broad range of people. 108 people came up as the number of people who should attend. Another was to use the knowledge of how to heal/bless people that I&#8217;d been taught over a year ago but wasn&#8217;t using. I decided I wanted to gift 108 people blessings during 2011. </p>
<p>Then I put the paper away and got some broken sleep. </p>
<p>Strange things started happening the minute I set foot in India. I somehow got to the Ashram through the Bangalore peak-hour traffic in only 1&#038; 1/2 hrs and just in time for dinner. As I sat down, who should I see but Tata &#8211; who had done the October 2011 Part1 Art of Living Course with me &#8211; who I had been thinking &#8220;I need to contact him&#8221; immediately before getting on the plane.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Shram&#8221; means &#8220;effort&#8221; and &#8220;a&#8221; means &#8220;without&#8221; &#8211; so an Ashram means a &#8220;place where you drop all effort&#8221;. That was already starting to prove the case. Guru simply means teacher. Sadguru means a teacher of the highest spiritual knowledge. And I knew as I sat in the Ashram next to Tata that I also needed to meet my Sadguru.</p>
<p>I had also come to do a course to learn to chant a very specific and powerful &#8220;pooja&#8221;. What is pooja ? Well, as my teacher puts it &#8220;Honouring is a sign of divine love, and that honouring is called Pooja. The ceremony of pooja indicates what nature is already doing for you The divine worships you in so many forms. In pooja you offer everything back to the Divine.&#8221; </p>
<p>I had always known that feeling grateful to God/nature was a good idea &#8211; but had never experienced what deep gratitude was to quite the degree I was to in the next few days. There was something magic in the pooja that took me very deep &#8211; and for the next week, there was not a day that went by that I wasn&#8217;t sobbing with profound gratitude for everything I had in my life &#8211; not the cathartic sobs of some process on a course &#8211; this was tears of pure gratitude and they didn&#8217;t stop. They are welling up right now as I write to you. </p>
<p>I wanted to share what had happened with my wife Claire, but calls cost a fortune from a NZ mobile. No sooner had I pondered this than I hear a familar voice say &#8220;Hey Daniel!&#8221; &#8211; I look up and for a second I do not recognise my friend Ankit with his shaven head. I met him in India one year ago when I was there with Mira and Claire. The next minute he offers &#8220;I have a spare Indian SIM card by the way &#8211; would that be of any use to you?&#8221; It got better &#8230; it occurred to me that I didn&#8217;t have the particular &#8220;pin&#8221; that apple design to remove a SIM card &#8211; and as I think that, I put my hands in my pocket and find that my Apple &#8211; Pin was right there. I still have no idea why it was there, or how it got there.</p>
<p>I was also to experience some discomfort &#8211; for truly opposite values are complimentary. It turned out that Phase II of the pooja course was not going to happen at the time I&#8217;d been assured by someone reliable that it almost certainly would. I felt disappointed that I&#8217;d be unable to complete my training and fulfil a big part of the reason for my trip. About 20 mins later my mood changed and I thought &#8220;there must obviously be something else I&#8217;m supposed to be doing in India&#8221;.</p>
<p>It was time to get lunch, so I went down to get my food from the International Dining area and sat down at a free plastic table, as most of the people around me (in the middle of a silent retreat doing another course) said nothing. A young Danish chap sat next to me and started talking. As he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped, and looked me straight in the eye and said &#8220;Do you know how to bless people?&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;Yes&#8221; I replied. </p>
<p>He nodded his head. &#8220;Good &#8211; because we have been asked to go into the city of Bangalore and bless people in the slums, colleges, schools and hospitals&#8221;. There are 3 of us, but we need one more &#8211; do you want to come?&#8221;</p>
<p>I didn&#8217;t need to be asked twice. The next day we went into the city and each of us blessed well over 200 people. The experience was humbling and profound. People who were initially skeptical, after receiving blessings suddenly beckoned to us to stay and raced inside to harry their entire family (sometimes extended families) to come and received blessings too. All around us was some of the scenes you normally only see on National Geographic &#8211; and we were in the thick of the sights, sounds and smells of the congested urban Bangalore poor areas. Goats, cows, sheep, dogs and people lying wherever there was space. A pig going through rubbish piles for food. </p>
<p>People and cows lying down asleep on busy street corners. Most 6 month-olds being held by 4-5 year olds. We encountered people with all sorts of ailments, we were invited into homes, we drank the tap-water they offered us (after blessing it), and we felt no hunger, thirst or discomfort throughout as we continued our journey through the streets. I remember on the first day one man after receiving a blessing rushed away &#8211; then 2 minutes later with tears in his eyes insisted that he give my 10 Rupees. </p>
<p>I refused, and when he shoved it into my hand after much jostling, I immediately put it into the pocket of his shirt and hugged him as he put his hands together and said something in Kannada (the local language) and I said something in English. </p>
<p>In the next 5 days, we each blessed thousands upon thousands of people. One time, we split up into different areas, and 2 of us blessed an entire school of 780 pupils standing in line waiting &#8211; and then blessed the teachers and principle. </p>
<p>Each time was exactly the same &#8211; the entire time &#8211; no discomfort, only a feeling of it being one long walking meditation, and on the long trip back each day we almost always sat in complete silence. I have heard it said that after blessing many people, other things start happening to the blesser themselves (good things) &#8211; and I started experiencing this firsthand also. This was too moving and too personal to write about here even &#8211; but I hope to share this with many of you when I see you in person next. </p>
<p>After the 5th day of blessing, I had a chuckle at my &#8220;intention&#8221; to bless 108 people in a year. Truly, our small mind is limited in the things it dreams to ask for &#8211; compared to the enormity of consciousness, and the enormity of what the Divine is able to manifest for us when we do the things that allow it to flow through us. </p>
<p>It between these blessed days of blessings, other little things continued to happen &#8211; daily and sometimes hourly. One anecdote of what has now become the norm, I meet a person who says that fresh coriander is good for removing heavy metals. Thinking no more of it I go to mealtime and see fresh coriander (those that know the ashram will know that this never happens &#8211; I have never any fresh herbs of any description in the 100s of ashram meals I&#8217;ve had). And yet coriander was there at breakfast, then again for lunch.</p>
<p>Later on, after the pooja course phase I finishes I start thinking about Bindi Chouhan &#8211; the wonderful soul from Titirangi back in New Zealand that inspired me to take the pooja course &#8211; and feel a sense of overwhelming gratitude towards her. That night at satsang I feel a tap on the shoulder. Who? Bindi of course and her brother Jaypal &#8230;who are  stopping by for just a couple of hours in between a train trip from Gujarat and a return flight to NZ. </p>
<p>It turns out that the man himself &#8211; Sri Sri Ravishankar is there in person and gives knowledge every evening. Many times answering exactly the question I had in my mind &#8211; leaving me empty of questions and full of wonder. At last I feel I need to meet Sri Sri (Guruji as we call him) in person. It happens very easily and the next morning I find myself in front of him. </p>
<p>So are you well? &#8211; he asks. I am taken aback, those who have met him will know that he always asks &#8220;Are you happy&#8221; &#8211; not &#8220;Are you well&#8221;.</p>
<p>I had been all flustered thinking &#8220;How am I going to answer him when he says &#8220;Are you Happy&#8221; so as to let him know I&#8217;m happy without sounding like I&#8217;m complaining about my health?&#8221; </p>
<p>Well &#8211; as always, he cuts through all my small-mind thinking and shows it up yet again to be completely unnecessary.</p>
<p>I answer him by showing him the chart and saying that 2 months ago I was diagnosed with some heavy metal poisoning. He remarks &#8220;thallium high?&#8221; &#8211; then tells me what is and where thallium comes from &#8211; gasoline and also in aeroplane fuel. I chuckle to myself that I studied chemistry &#8211; but he is educating me about even this subject. We talk a little more about lead and thalium, and he recommends a very specific part of the banana tree as part of my treatment. Then he pauses and says &#8220;this will cleanse very quickly&#8221;. </p>
<p>With that, he gets a twinkle in his eye, and then reaches to his right where there is a large bunch of those delicious mini-sized Indian bananas. He carefully breaks just one off, looks at me, and spins in through the air in a spiral-pass that Justin Marshall would be proud of &#8211; and it comes to rest in the palm of my right hand. </p>
<p>I smile and he waves goodbye. &#8220;Aha &#8211; the Doctor has given some medicine&#8221; I reflect to myself. I savour every mouthful of that banana &#8230; once I have come back down to earth that is (no matter how grounded you are you tend to get completely spaced out after being in the same physical space as Sri Sri).</p>
<p>Ever since, something has changed and I have felt my energy-levels back at the level I have not experienced for a long time. Back where you would expect them to be for someone doing breathing exercises &#8211; kriya and meditation each morning.</p>
<p>There is much more grace to share, but I&#8217;ll convey the essence of an experience rather than a comprehensive almanac of the trips serendipities &#8211; which would require too many pages for a single sitting.</p>
<p>May your year be filled with many blessings, and of course if you ever want to receive a blessing from me (either in person or by phone) &#8211; just let me know.<br />
I know I&#8217;ll be seeing many of you on the 22-27th Feb Art of Living course I&#8217;m teaching (first 6-day course in ages &#8211; can&#8217;t wait!) so please remind me, and I&#8217;ll share some more of the things that happened which are not so easily shared over email &#8211; then. </p>
<p>All my love &#8211; may the breath of the divine flow through you always, in this physical world, and in the worlds you move, work, love and play in. </p>
<p>Daniel</p>
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		<title>FREE Seminar: How to Grow a Hi-Growth, Hi-Fun Hi-Green Startup 7-9pm, Mon 20 Sep</title>
		<link>http://daniel-batten.com/free-seminar-how-to-grow-a-hi-growth-hi-fun-hi-green-startup-7-9pm-mon-20-sep-2/</link>
		<comments>http://daniel-batten.com/free-seminar-how-to-grow-a-hi-growth-hi-fun-hi-green-startup-7-9pm-mon-20-sep-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:15:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>danielbatten</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[keynote speaking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presenting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://daniel-batten.com/free-seminar-how-to-grow-a-hi-growth-hi-fun-hi-green-startup-7-9pm-mon-20-sep-2/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>If this is not directly relevant to you , or you won&#8217;t in Auckland NZ, why not see this as an opportunity to think about and forward to someone you know who stands to benefit from this &#8211; maybe a friend, colleague or family member.
&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-
What: Startup Seminar: 7pm-9pm Mon 20th Sep
Date: 20 September · <span style="color:#777"> . . . &#8594; Read More: <a href="http://daniel-batten.com/free-seminar-how-to-grow-a-hi-growth-hi-fun-hi-green-startup-7-9pm-mon-20-sep-2/">FREE Seminar: How to Grow a Hi-Growth, Hi-Fun Hi-Green Startup 7-9pm, Mon 20 Sep</a></span>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If this is not directly relevant to you , or you won&#8217;t in Auckland NZ, why not see this as an opportunity to think about and forward to someone you know who stands to benefit from this &#8211; maybe a friend, colleague or family member.<br />
&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<br />
What: Startup Seminar: 7pm-9pm Mon 20th Sep<br />
Date: 20 September · 19:00 [...]</p>
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		<title>Me as an MC</title>
		<link>http://daniel-batten.com/me-as-an-mc/</link>
		<comments>http://daniel-batten.com/me-as-an-mc/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:15:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>danielbatten</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[keynote speaking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presenting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://daniel-batten.com/me-as-an-mc/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I recently was MC for Sri Sri Ravishankar at Trusts Stadium where 4000 gathered to hear ancient wisdom and to meditate.
If you saw me as MC &#8211; I&#8217;d love to know your honest reflections on how I came across.
I thought that &#8220;putting it out there&#8221; to you all would be a more authentic way <span style="color:#777"> . . . &#8594; Read More: <a href="http://daniel-batten.com/me-as-an-mc/">Me as an MC</a></span>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I recently was MC for Sri Sri Ravishankar at Trusts Stadium where 4000 gathered to hear ancient wisdom and to meditate.<br />
If you saw me as MC &#8211; I&#8217;d love to know your honest reflections on how I came across.<br />
I thought that &#8220;putting it out there&#8221; to you all would be a more authentic way to [...]</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>“And then… in the middle of the keynote… I forgot what I was going to say”</title>
		<link>http://daniel-batten.com/%e2%80%9cand-then%e2%80%a6-in-the-middle-of-the-keynote%e2%80%a6-i-forgot-what-i-was-going-to-say%e2%80%9d/</link>
		<comments>http://daniel-batten.com/%e2%80%9cand-then%e2%80%a6-in-the-middle-of-the-keynote%e2%80%a6-i-forgot-what-i-was-going-to-say%e2%80%9d/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:15:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>danielbatten</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[presenting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://daniel-batten.com/%e2%80%9cand-then%e2%80%a6-in-the-middle-of-the-keynote%e2%80%a6-i-forgot-what-i-was-going-to-say%e2%80%9d/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Pausing is powerful and practical at the same time.
If you had been with me in summer of 2005 &#8211; you would have seen something surprising that caused my accidental discovery.
I&#8217;d been invited to open the conference as a keynote speaker at this beautiful resort on the edge of Lake Taupo. They even paid for <span style="color:#777"> . . . &#8594; Read More: <a href="http://daniel-batten.com/%e2%80%9cand-then%e2%80%a6-in-the-middle-of-the-keynote%e2%80%a6-i-forgot-what-i-was-going-to-say%e2%80%9d/">“And then… in the middle of the keynote… I forgot what I was going to say”</a></span>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Pausing is powerful and practical at the same time.<br />
If you had been with me in summer of 2005 &#8211; you would have seen something surprising that caused my accidental discovery.<br />
I&#8217;d been invited to open the conference as a keynote speaker at this beautiful resort on the edge of Lake Taupo. They even paid for my [...]</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>How to taint a brand</title>
		<link>http://daniel-batten.com/how-to-taint-a-brand/</link>
		<comments>http://daniel-batten.com/how-to-taint-a-brand/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:15:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>danielbatten</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[presenting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://daniel-batten.com/how-to-taint-a-brand/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I recently was sent a link http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/mining-quick-submission to comment on proposed legislation changes that would open the way for mining of various New Zealand National Parks.
I decided this was worth commenting on. To be honest, I didn&#8217;t  think that the default text written there was useful. Starting with &#8220;I strongly disagree&#8221; is not the <span style="color:#777"> . . . &#8594; Read More: <a href="http://daniel-batten.com/how-to-taint-a-brand/">How to taint a brand</a></span>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I recently was sent a link http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/mining-quick-submission to comment on proposed legislation changes that would open the way for mining of various New Zealand National Parks.<br />
I decided this was worth commenting on. To be honest, I didn&#8217;t  think that the default text written there was useful. Starting with &#8220;I strongly disagree&#8221; is not the way [...]</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>How do you identify and remove areas of drag on your business?</title>
		<link>http://daniel-batten.com/how-do-you-identify-and-remove-areas-of-drag-on-your-business/</link>
		<comments>http://daniel-batten.com/how-do-you-identify-and-remove-areas-of-drag-on-your-business/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:15:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>danielbatten</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[presenting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://daniel-batten.com/how-do-you-identify-and-remove-areas-of-drag-on-your-business/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>There is a simple way to identify and root out drag on a business in next-to-no-time.
Start by asking these provocative questions of yourself.
&#8220;Are you risking rejection every single day?&#8221;
Every day, there is a conversation with your customers that you are either having or not having- or there is a conversation with your prospects that <span style="color:#777"> . . . &#8594; Read More: <a href="http://daniel-batten.com/how-do-you-identify-and-remove-areas-of-drag-on-your-business/">How do you identify and remove areas of drag on your business?</a></span>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There is a simple way to identify and root out drag on a business in next-to-no-time.<br />
Start by asking these provocative questions of yourself.<br />
&#8220;Are you risking rejection every single day?&#8221;<br />
Every day, there is a conversation with your customers that you are either having or not having- or there is a conversation with your prospects that you [...]</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Do you use these connection-breakers when speaking?</title>
		<link>http://daniel-batten.com/do-you-use-these-connection-breakers-when-speaking-2/</link>
		<comments>http://daniel-batten.com/do-you-use-these-connection-breakers-when-speaking-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:15:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>danielbatten</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[presenting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://daniel-batten.com/do-you-use-these-connection-breakers-when-speaking-2/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>There are two words you can eliminate from your language in order to double the amount of information people can take on board from you.
&#8220;er&#8221; or &#8220;um.&#8221; : -
Technically &#8211; these are not words at all.
When spoken, those two sounds are known as &#8220;fillers&#8221; or &#8220;unwords,&#8221; because they have no meaning.
Remember this mantra when <span style="color:#777"> . . . &#8594; Read More: <a href="http://daniel-batten.com/do-you-use-these-connection-breakers-when-speaking-2/">Do you use these connection-breakers when speaking?</a></span>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There are two words you can eliminate from your language in order to double the amount of information people can take on board from you.<br />
&#8220;er&#8221; or &#8220;um.&#8221; : -<br />
Technically &#8211; these are not words at all.<br />
When spoken, those two sounds are known as &#8220;fillers&#8221; or &#8220;unwords,&#8221; because they have no meaning.<br />
Remember this mantra when you [...]</p>
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