This article is excerpted from Dr. Rao Kolluru’s latest book, BEGIN ANEW: Re-setting Your Mind’s Odometer [00000].   Dr. Kolluru has been a writer, teacher, and consultant for more than three decades.  He is also the author of River of a Thousand Tales (Cosimo Books).  For more information, please visit www.BeginAnew.info.

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NOW THAT WE ARE AT THE BEGINNING, HOW DO WE FIND “THE WAY?”

Our quest in life unfolds along two paths: one to seek, the other to see. On one path, we have destinations to reach, milestones to measure progress, and fruits to pick. On another path, we travel with no intent, no demands of any kind, nothing to do but see and experience what is along the way.

What wonders lie ahead? What might you discover or rediscover? It is in these moments that quantum leaps in perception occur.

Find Your Beginning…

The Buddha said: Go to the Beginning to find your Way.

A famous yogi, Sukhabodhananda, said we have to learn the art of living and the art of dying – learn how to die to our past - and how to be present to the present.

A not-so-famous Rao Kolluru (that’s me) says: BEGIN ANEW: Re-setting Your Mind’s Odometer [00000].

But, how? In a car, you’d simply push the trip odometer button to clear the past trips and start over. In the same way, what if there is a “0 Button” you could click to initialize your mind?

Well, there is: daily dose of Mindful Vitamins. You can get them through the Timeless Time Machine™. In contrast to fictional time machines, this one brings you from the past and the future into the Present.

Here it is. Try it now. No time like the present!

Ready?  Let’s begin…

* Sit (or stand) upright, feet on the floor, hands resting on the lap.

* Look around, being aware of your presence here in this space.

* Now pay attention to your breath as you inhale slowly and consciously, through the nose, pushing down the diaphragm.

* Hold it 4 or 5 seconds.  Feel your lungs fill all the way down to the bottom.

* Exhale slowly through the nose.  Pause.

* Take a second deep breath; hold it 4 or 5 seconds.

* Exhale slowly—then, relax.

* Tense up body—then, relax.

* Say the word “relax” silently.  Let body and mind come to rest with an inner smile.

* Now, pay attention to your body.  Feel the weight of your body on the floor or chair.  Feel the gentle touch of your clothes on your skin.

* Now shift attention to what is in front of your mind:  see colors…shapes…space. (Simply notice, but don’t comment.)

* Now, turn your attention to sounds.  Hear the sounds from near…and far.

* Listen to the silence beyond the farthest sound — edge of space.

* Take a deep breath.  Let go.  Let it be.

* Pause here.

Body is here + Mind is here = I am here.

Is the monologue of the mind quieter – opening up space for what is to come?  Feel free to try this at home.

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The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust has taken note of new Cosimo publication Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative, by Thomas Croft:

Croft’s book includes a special section profiling worker-friendly investment funds in the U.S. and Canada whose portfolio investments have yielded “not just good returns-on-investment, but also collateral benefits for working people and the environment.” The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT) is included in this “Field Guide to Responsible Capital” and is described by Croft as “one of the nation’s earliest and most experienced socially-responsible investment funds.” The guide also profiles the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust (BIT) as another model of responsible investing. Using actual case studies, Croft demonstrates how worker-friendly funds such as the HIT have a significant impact on the projects, regions and economic sectors in which they invest….

AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka, in a forward to the book, praises the efforts of “visionary labor leaders to re-claim workers’ capital, the immense sums of money that represent the deferred wages of millions of workers across this country,” through responsible investing. He goes on to call Up from Wall Street a “helpful and hopeful manual that shows we have the capacity to rebuild our economy and infrastructure, reinvigorate our cities, and create those highly-anticipated green jobs of the future.”

A featured speaker at the book launch in Washington, D.C., in October was United Steel Workers International President Leo W. Gerard. “Up From Wall Street is a guide for those who care about pension fund investment,” Gerard said. “It’s about applying the right set of values to the investment of workers’ pension funds.”

Cosimo books are available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

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Danny Schechter, author of the Cosimo book Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, appeared recently on “The Keiser Report” to discuss the book. Schechter’s segment begins at about 16:55 in this video:

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After watching an encore presentation of Frontline’s The Warning, I rather boldly e-mailed the White House on their web site hoping to catch the attention of President Obama.  I suggested that he and his current economic henchman watch this Frontline program and shared my concern that I think the President has two key tools to help bring about change to this dreadful crisis: his eyes and his ears (or is that four tools?  Hmm…)

Get an inside look at how the country’s key economic powerhouses could have possibly missed the opportunity to help avert the largest financial debacle since The Great Depression.  It’s well worth the time to witness the sheer hubris of the players at the center of America’s financial downfall and, more importantly, to contemplate Washington’s complicated economic politics in The Warning.

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Looks like Cosimo’s newest author, Tom Croft (who’s an international expert on innovative capital strategies), is not only busy traveling around the country to appear at conferences and standing center stage at his successful book launch for Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative, now he’s guest blogging at HuffPo.

Essentially Croft implores: Mr. President, remember the anger you expressed so freely on the campaign trail about the deplorable economic situation we find ourselves in?  Well, you’ve been in office nearly a year already and it’s time to push for real economic change to rebuild the nation’s economy!  Read more of the author’s sage advice for our Economic Commander-in-Chief @ One Year After…

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Cosimo is proud to announce that our November book of the month is Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative, by Thomas Croft.

In 2008 we watched as trillions of dollars vanished before our eyes, enveloped in the crash and burn of Wall Street’s bottom line. As working Americans and retirees awake from the aftermath, we’re searching for answers and alternatives to the reckless loans and dicey short-term bets that ravaged our savings and retirement assets.

Up From Wall Street makes the case that there are strategic and socially responsible investment paths that have the capacity to rebuild our economy and infrastructure, reinvigorate our cities, and create the highly-anticipated green jobs of the future.

Through real-life stories and case studies, Croft illustrates how the responsible investment of savings assets, pensions, insurance funds, and other trusts can generate positive social, economic, and environmental benefits — along with financial returns. Included in the book is A Field Guide to Responsible Capital, which contains descriptions of investment funds that are together managing over $30 billion and provides a detailed analysis of some of the firms and projects in which they invest.

Dr. Tessa Hebb, author of No Small Change: Pension Funds and Corporate Engagement, says:

Anyone with an interest in making sure their savings are put to work in a manner that strengthens our economy must read this volume.

David Wood, director of The Institute for Responsible Investment, says:

Up From Wall Street offers a path towards, and real life examples of, investments in private equity and real estate that create value for investors by producing sustainable wealth for businesses, their employees, and communities alike.

Kirsten Snow Spalding, California director of Ceres, says:

This study captures a rising wave of progressive investment activity that will define the ‘prudent investor’ standard for all investors in the future

Richard L. Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, says:

I hope that … many of the people who pushed for change in Washington, D.C. across America and our neighbors to the North will read this book.

Read Robert Kropp’s review of Up From Wall Street at Social Funds.

THOMAS CROFT is an international expert on innovative capital strategies and jobs-oriented economic revitalization policies. He serves as Director of the Heartland Network (www.heartlandnetwork.org) and Executive Director of the Steel Valley Authority (www.steelvalley.org) and has authored or commissioned vital new perspectives on alternative pension investment strategies and a fair economy.

Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative is available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

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