The Buddhist & The Christian

Once upon a time a Buddhist & a Christian met on a path in the woods.

They told each other their struggles & here’s what happened.

The Buddhist told the Christian, “In meditation, you will find Nirvana.”

The Christian told the Buddhist, “God will answer your prayers.”

Each said in his own mind “That’s nice” and went on as before without much change.

“What we’ve got here, is failure to communicate.”

I learned from a mentor a while back that communication is not the words you say, but rather, the effect your words have on the person your endeavoring to communicate with.

We all have our own maps or models of the world and great communicators seem to understand this and work with (rather than against) those models to affect change.

This is why Napoleon Hill in his writings, used the term ‘Infinite Intelligence’ when referring to God.

A student asked him one time, “Dr. Hill, when you say Infinite Intelligence, do you mean God?”

“Of course I do,” he replied. “I realize that my students worldwide come from many different faiths (with different maps or models of the world) and therefore I use a term that can resonate with most all of them.”

This allowed his teaching to affect or reach the people it was supposed to affect or reach without sending them on their merry unchanged way as in the case of the Buddhist and the Christian above.

Conscious communicators and marketers strive to understand how others see the world, and work with those models in helping people reach their goals.