The heart of a lover
In the material world, we believe that whatever we give diminishes. First, is it true? Second, does the same law apply in the spiritual world? Here, MEGHA BAJAJ describes her...
In the Field, January 2019, VOLUME 4 / 03 Jan 2019
Heartful village life in rural India
PUNIT LALBHAI presents some of the Heartfulness initiatives that are being done in the villages of rural India, where the simple lifestyle, hospitality and open hearts are very conducive to heart-based meditation. Ram Trivedi will surely not fail to talk about the nights he spent at the village temple. He will not mention the discomfort of sleeping on the stone floor, but rather the long discussions he had with the temple Pujari – the discussions that paved the way to being accepted as one of the community. If you travel with Tribhuvan Singh in the villages around Jodhpur, he will ask you to follow his scooter as he leads the way to several houses situated remotely and far from one another. It will typically be late in the evening when the village folk have finished tending their fields. You will meet a family of four or five, who will probably be eagerly waiting for him to arrive and conduct group meditation. After the session, you are sure to be moved by the earnestness of the family’s request that you be their guest for the night. Amrita Trivedi and Jyoti Goswami are also full of stories about their work in the villages around Ahmedabad. They will tell you about how the women of the villages are taking the lead to bring their communities together to meditate. When you speak to these individuals who are bringing meditation to the people living in parts of rural Gujarat and Rajasthan, you will hear story after inspiring story of simple people, simple living and the beautiful connection between human hearts. Over a two-year period, these ‘village champions’ have introduced Heartfulness Meditation to more than 30,000 individuals, and of these more than 2,500 continue to meditate on a weekly basis. This has not been easy, as…
Be inspired, January 2019, VOLUME 4 / 02 Jan 2019
Yogic psychology
Have you ever thought to explore psychology through Yoga? It is a vast science of the subtle bodies and the soul, leading us to explore where consciousness stems from, and what causes changes in the field of consciousness. In this series of articles, DAAJI explains the fundamental basis of yogic psychology, with its foundation in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. He enlightens us on Patanjali’s codification of the human mind and the various mental imbalances, and he also gives us solutions to create mental well-being through yogic practices. In this first article of the series, he explores the first two of the mental deviations described by Patanjali. Part 1 – Pramana and Viparyaya Patanjali is famous today for giving us Ashtanga Yoga, the eight limbs that define the path of Yoga, and these are beautifully expounded in chapters 2 and 3 of his Yoga Sutras. But his Yoga Sutras contain so much more that is of great benefit to the world, and this is especially true in the field of psychology. Today many people are plagued by mental disturbance, anxiety and distress, as a result of our complex societies, urban lifestyles, breakdown of relationships, and unnatural way of living that is out of sync with the daily circadian rhythms that are hardwired in our physiology. Circadian rhythms determine our optimal sleep and feeding patterns. Even the metabolism of our cellular energy follows the rhythm of the circadian clock. If we don’t follow natural rhythms, our cellular energy levels decline as the mitochondrial network is impaired. Lifestyles with irregular daily rhythms have been linked with various chronic health conditions, such as sleep disorders, obesity, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder. Basically, we are swimming against the current, upstream, when we choose a lifestyle that is out of sync with natural cycles. Yoga…
Interview, January 2019, VOLUME 4 / 02 Jan 2019
Choosing life
When CELINE FRÉSARD started watching videos of THIERRY CASASNOVAS, her understanding of how the body works led her to draw a parallel between the body and the heart. To work well, the body needs to be cleaned – a cleaning of the cells through detoxification – and well nourished. And the heart, the seat of the soul, also responds to laws because the spiritual heart also requires cleaning and the nourishment of love. From this analogy, she learned that the body and the heart are gateways to deeper layers of Being. Here she interviews Thierry about his life, experiences and discoveries. Fasting is a bit like becoming wise, withdrawing, letting the inside act silently, secretly. Like a sacred space that is taking shape. Let the body do its work, do not hinder its regenerative work, have confidence, and let go. And to let go is to relax the mind, to put it at rest. This is also what meditation invites us to do, to calm down and to introspect. Q: Hello Thierry. Thank you for welcoming this conversation with such enthusiasm. Could you tell us in a few words about your life and the events that led you to become so passionate about life? TC: It is a fairly common story. As a child I was fine and I became an adult who was not well, to the point of almost dying at the age of 33. The prognosis was clear: there were only a few days left to live, and I was in a state of complete weakness, with tuberculosis, hepatitis and pancreatitis. I had put on 35 kilograms, didn’t assimilate anything anymore and threw up everything I ate. Then there was a surge of life in me. I suddenly wanted to know why I had reached this stage, and…
Focus, January 2019, VOLUME 4 / 02 Jan 2019
Living in the gift
Nature does not charge us anything for its abundance. Everything in nature is free, a gift. We are part of the same nature, so can we incorporate this principle in our own interpersonal relationships and interactions? CHARLES EISENSTEIN reflects on this beautiful principle through his story of Interbeing. Why does the sun shine? Is it a random result of coalescing gases igniting nuclear fusion? Or is it in order to give its light and warmth to Life? Why does the rain fall? Is it the senseless product of blind chemical processes of evaporation and condensation? Or is it to water Life? Why do you seek to pour forth your song? Is it to show off your genetic fitness to attract a mate, or is it to contribute to a more beautiful world? We may fear those first answers but it is the second that carries the ring of truth. Every culture, as far as I know, has something that I call a Story of the World. That story is a weave of myths, meanings, narratives, words, symbols, rituals, and agreements that together define the world. That story tells us who we are, how to be a man or a woman, what is important and valuable, what is real, what is sacred, and what humanity’s role and purpose is on Earth. Every culture, as far as I know, has something that I call a Story of the World. That story is a weave of myths, meanings, narratives, words, symbols, rituals, and agreements that together define the world. That story tells us who we are, how to be a man or a woman, what is important and valuable, what is real, what is sacred, and what humanity’s role and purpose is on Earth. The world’s dominant culture, the one called modern, has a story of the world…
Focus, January 2019, VOLUME 4 / 02 Jan 2019
Gift ecology
NIPUN MEHTA is one of the founders of ServiceSpace, Karma Kitchen, DailyGood, KindSpring and other organizations that successfully work within the Gift Ecology. From a young age, he was inspired by the need to serve others. Early role models like J. Krishnamurti, Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and Goenka further fuelled that urge so that it has blossomed into a life of joyful, cheerful service. He was the recipient of the Dalai Lama’s Unsung Heroes of Compassion Award in 2014, and appointed to President Barack Obama’s Council on Poverty and Inequality in 2015. Here Nipun explains his motivation and the principles underlying the Gift Ecology to ELIZABETH DENLEY. Q: Hi Nipun. Welcome. NM: Hello. Happy to be here. Q: Your whole focus with ServiceSpace, with Karma Kitchen, and all the other projects that you do is around service, seva, around volunteering. It is all about people sharing. What led you to this? How did it all start? NM: I was on the journey of success, because that’s what everyone expected of you. I mean when you go to high school, you want to go to a good college. When you go to college, you want to join an even better graduation program or get a great job. Once you have a great job, you want a promotion. Once you get a promotion, another promotion. And I was from Silicon Valley. So it was no longer good enough to just work at a job; you are supposed to start a company. Then, you know, big cars, fancy houses, parties and things – it just seemed endless to me. It was the narrative of accumulation. I remember in Silicon Valley, in the peak of the dotcom days, there was a billboard by one company that said, “He who dies with the most toys still…
January 2019, Taste of life, VOLUME 4 / 02 Jan 2019
The lifeblood of Publicolor
AN ART ESSAY & INTERVIEW Volunteers are the lifeblood of Publicolor. In 2000 we won one of our country’s highest honors, the President’s Service Award, from President Clinton for our work with volunteers in the community. Every year over 1000 volunteers join us as painters on Saturdays in under-resourced schools and community sites. We transform these sites through warm color and thoughtful design. Publicolor paints dignity, respect, inspiration and safety in low-income neighborhoods. Corporations love to send their employees to paint alongside our students as they see this as a great team-building opportunity. It’s also a special way for corporate employees to participate in their company’s philanthropy. Publicolor students consistently mention Saturdays as their favorite part of Publicolor, citing getting to meet new people as most special. They cherish learning about new job options and what it takes to succeed. Publicolor’s volunteers are treasured role models! Academic tutors also join us as volunteer leaders of our weekly career exposure workshops, and as mentors for our high school seniors and college freshmen. With the help of our volunteer painters, Publicolor has transformed about 500 sites. With the help of our tutors, 85% of Publicolor students enter college not needing remediation versus 19% of their school peers. Thanks to our mentors, 98% have stayed in college after their freshman year versus 66% at the City University of New York. Since most of Publicolor students are the first in their family to go to college, the encouragement and guidance they receive from our volunteers is invaluable. For all these reasons, Publicolor treasures our volunteers. We couldn’t do what we do without them! Interview with Ruth Lande Shuman, founder of Publicolor Q: Please share with us the mission of Publicolor. RLS: The mission of Publicolor is to creatively engage high risk, low-income students in…
Be inspired, January 2019, VOLUME 4 / 01 Jan 2019
Ultimate Gentleness Is the Ultimate Strength
NEGIN MOTAMED throws light on the beauty of the inner Self – its nature and its role in discernment. Many of us who are in the process of self-refinement are striving to become more and more gentle and loving; to respond in a state of love rather than fear-based reactions. Sometimes we are unsuccessful.. Later, when we review the events and don’t feel so good about them, we justify ourselves by saying that being severe is another godly quality that is needed, just as Shiva had both qualities. So is it just a matter of recognizing the right time for the right response? This complicates things – it brings the mind into the picture to decide on the right response, and the mind never seems to make it simple for us. Our task, as Rumi says, is to remove all our inner barriers against love; barriers that separate us from the Ultimate. Another approach is through the heart, where we develop Godly qualities. Our thinking faculty becomes a field to receive intuition, our intellect evolves into wisdom, and our ego becomes as subtle as possible, so that we are free from self-centeredness, and self-consciousness, and expand into the consciousness of Divinity. We see nothing but the presence of God, inside and outside. In this state, we are no longer driven by plans to be either gentle or forceful. We are in a state of utmost surrender and acceptance. If applying force is needed from our side, it happens in a natural and intuitive way, without us thinking or planning for it. It is not driven by our ego but by our higher Self in constant communion with the Divine. Love rules it, not defensiveness to protect our ego. Love sees no barrier and separation; love sees all as part of…
THIS MONTH'S ISSUE
Thought in action
The inevitability of pain
DR ICHAK K. ADIZES shares his perspective on the notion of wanting to be happy all the time, and balancing faith, fear and acceptance. We all want to be happy....
Focus
Living in the gift
Nature does not charge us anything for its abundance. Everything in nature is free, a gift. We are part of the same nature, so can we incorporate this principle in...
Be Inspired
Yogic psychology
Have you ever thought to explore psychology through Yoga? It is a vast science of the subtle bodies and the soul, leading us to explore where consciousness stems from, and...
Taste of Life
The lifeblood of Publicolor
AN ART ESSAY & INTERVIEW Volunteers are the lifeblood of Publicolor. In 2000 we won one of our country’s highest honors, the President’s Service Award, from President Clinton for our...
Interview
Choosing life
When CELINE FRÉSARD started watching videos of THIERRY CASASNOVAS, her understanding of how the body works led her to draw a parallel between the body and the heart. To work...
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