In this episode we take on the question of what drives people like Tom Cruise who are so sure that their particular belief trumps all others.Links mentioned:

• Here’s the Tom Cruise video for the three of you who haven’t seen it.

• And Planet Unicorn (Heyyyyy~)

• More on Nichiren Buddhism from Wikipedia.

• And probably the most Un-Zen movie/book in the world, The Secret . And the Zencast Patrick talks about is Zencast 115 - What Can You Let Go Of?

• Plus, a listener sent me this link to a blog post that fits right in to this episode’s theme. Thanks Scott!

What’s the line between feeling down and being depressed? Should Patrick get on Prozac?

Links Mentioned:

• Here’s the Wiki entry on Blue Monday.

• And here is the Dooce article we talk about.

Wrestling with the choice to have kids or stay young, free, and selfish.

Links mentioned:

• Here’s the NYT review of the book that proposed that parents don’t have much influence on how their kids turn out.

• And an interesting breakdown of the data that show childless couples are happier.

• Gwen talks a bit about synthetic happiness, which is an idea championed by Dan Gilbert, and which you can watch a fantastic 20 minute presentation about at the TED talks site. Very Buddhist!

Journaling is encouraged as a healthy mental activity, but from the Zen perspective, it may not be the most skillful use of your time!

Books mentioned:

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. (Our review, if you can find it for 3 dollars in the back of a used bookstore, go for it, if not… eh….)

In this episode we actually got our hands on a real microphone for the first (and last) time. Maybe it was having a real mic, but something happened to us and we went into full blown self-help guru mode, sorry about that!
Links mentioned:

• Here is a short synopsis of the Harvard class that wrote down their goals and what happened to them. The whole thing sounds fishy but there is a nugget of truth in there somewhere.

• And here is a link to a NYT article on the finding that if you have fat friends you will be fat too.

Books mentioned:

• John Maxwell’s book on leadership.

• Barbara Sher’s book on not falling for the idea that you have to do just one thing in your life.