Spiritual Magazine | Wellness Magazine

February 2020, Taste of life, VOLUME 5 / 02 Feb 2020
Being with berries
LESSONS FROM THE GARDEN ALANDA GREENE is picking blackcurrants in her garden. Reflecting on the nature of these tiny fruit helps her see the importance of valuing everyone and everything, of being in tune with Nature, of interconnectedness, and of Mitakuye Oyasin. The cycle of seasons has circled again to the blackcurrant bushes where berries have turned from green to bronze to glossy blue-black. And again, in this steady and rhythmic process of picking, these berries offer understandings. My mind quiets enough to be receptive to insights. My tendency is to move along quickly with tasks. The garden cares little for my inclinations about efficiency and speed. It requires that I adjust to its rhythm. It is much wiser than me. This morning, with a twig broom, I swept the stone patio and was reminded of Zen monks tending the gardens around temples in Japan. I used to think the slow care with which they swept was about their practice, like the walking meditation where each moment is attended to in awareness. The sweeping probably is about this, but today I understand that they also sweep slowly because this kind of sweeping just doesn’t work if done quickly. When I try, which I did repeatedly today, feeling time pressure and wanting to get this patio cleaned and get on with other things that need doing; when I try this way, the pine needles, the dried catkins, the cones, the papery leaves just get stuck in the cracks and in the broom. The debris that covers the gravelly parts gets mixed with bits of gravel itself, which is not what I want. Sweeping slowly and lightly allows the ends of the twigs to nudge the bits of litter along without carrying a lot of what needs to remain. Like the currants…

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Be inspired, February 2020, VOLUME 5 / 02 Feb 2020
A user’s guide to living – part 2
The science of creating a daily meditation practice DAAJI continues his series on daily living and human transformation. In this second article, he takes us through some of the essential aspects of a self-development practice, and introduces us to the first principle of the user’s guide – the science of creating a good meditation practice. It may surprise you to know that at the time Babuji wrote his book on the ten maxims in the 1940s, there were just a handful of books published in the area of self-help, including the hugely popular Self-Help by Samuel Smiles, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Babuji was the first author in this era to give us a comprehensive guide to living by incorporating the five key elements of self-development: an effective practice, essential values, regulative behavior, leadership, and continuous improvement (see diagram 1). Within those five elements there are also ten principles. Even today, only a handful of books offer such a rich and all-encompassing road map to a fulfilling life. THE FIVE ELEMENTS AND TEN PRINCIPLES OF SELF DEVELOPMENT Diagram 1 The ten principles for living follow a daily cycle and inherent sequence, which unfolds like a flowering. At the center of this unfolding is the practice. It is the practice that triggers the flowering of consciousness. And it is the first thing that we do in the morning, preparing us for the day, setting the tone, and centering us for what is to happen. As consciousness expands, and purity and simplicity emerge, we are able to peek into our essential nature and start relaxing into our inner being. Our thoughts and actions are then guided by the essential values of the…

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February 2020, Interview, VOLUME 5 / 02 Feb 2020
Roots of empathy – part 1
MARY GORDON was interviewed by JUDITH NELSON at the Spirit of Humanity Forum in Iceland in 2019. In part 1 she shares her worldview on the importance of empathy in human relationships and how it forms the foundation for the program she runs in schools on developing empathy in schoolchildren, called Roots of Empathy. Q: Thanks for joining me Mary. Can I ask you first about empathy, as your work is especially with empathy? Can you tell me a bit more about your work? MG: Well, my understanding of empathy is the ability to feel with the other person, not just to understand how they feel, but also to have the capacity to feel with them. And I think that empathy is the number one attribute of being human, and we have too little of it in the world, and it’s a shrinking commodity. But I also focus on empathy because when you have cruelty, when you have racism, when you have violence, when you have genocides, when you have any of the big horrific things in the world, the common ingredient is the absence of empathy. Empathy develops in the first year of life, in the loving relationship between parents and babies. My work is informed by that conclusion, which I came to a long time ago, and also the conclusion that empathy develops in the first year of life, in the loving relationship between parents and babies. And so, our work is about increasing empathy in childhood. And we do that by bringing the relationship between parents and babies, during the first year of the child’s life, into the classroom. The Roots of Empathy program has the schoolchildren sit around a green blanket, with the mother and baby and an instructor. There is a curriculum, which the children don’t…

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February 2020, Thought in action, VOLUME 5 / 02 Feb 2020
The heartful strategist – part 1
RAVI VENKATESAN starts a new series for 2020, exploring the role of consciousness in developing strategy, and how to actively develop this potential through the expansion of consciousness. As a student at business school I found Strategy to be the subject fascinating beyond all others. It carried the potential to provide highly transformative skills. The study of strategies and strategists seemed to indicate that the major shifts and changes in human civilization were, in many cases, caused by those men and women who advised the kings, generals and leaders of their times. These strategists were the best thinkers, the best analysts, the best visionaries, and the ones who had the highest intuitive capacity and access to inspiration. Though they came from various fields, most strategists were traditionally military and political advisors, like Sun Tzu, Kautilya and Machiavelli. In ancient traditions these strategists were thought to have mystical powers and access to sources beyond traditional knowledge, for example, the shamans of tribal cultures. In modern times, strategists are also common in the business world, in addition to politics and the military, and the role of Chief Strategy Officer has assumed significance in the last three decades. In a Harvard Business Review article, “What Makes a Great Chief Strategy Officer,” the authors describe a few archetypes of strategists. These provide a great perspective on the role: Architects look for industry shifts and understand their organization’s source of advantage. Visionaries know how to forecast trends and innovate. Surveyors look for trends for long-range planning and have their eyes on the horizon. Mobilizers drive alignment across the organization. Fund Managers optimize the organization’s investments. What is common to all these archetypes is the concept of synthesizing available information and insights and making optimal choices. This raises a big question: For whom are these choices optimal? The…

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February 2020, Focus, VOLUME 5 / 02 Feb 2020
The myth of the fragile heart
SHAI TUBALI helps us understand the value of keeping the heart open, vulnerable and willing to experience whatever challenges life gives us, without becoming defensive and closing the heart. Your mind cannot tell the difference between “vulnerable” and “breakable.” It thinks it is obvious that if you are vulnerable you are also breakable. Since this sounds logical enough, your mind chooses the strategy of remaining invulnerable as much as possible. Of course, your mind only wants to protect you, as its main role is to keep you safe in a world full of dangers. It registers moments when you were vulnerable and, as a result, became deeply disappointed, rejected, betrayed, or abandoned. This left you not just with an unbearable pain but also with a profound sense of weakness. We are all afraid of being weak. It is a survival instinct: we must not show that we are powerless and defenseless in a hostile and overpowering environment. To conceal this weakness, we put on armor, a thick layer of protection with which we defend our vulnerable heart. This is why we become hard and sometimes react quickly to insults or criticism with anger, hatred, and vengefulness, and harbor grudges. Your mind strives to become so strong and impenetrable that you will never be harmed or feel pain. To achieve this impregnable condition, it surrounds the heart with a protective wall. This wall is not just a metaphor – you could easily sense it in your chest as a thick layer separating you from the environment and protecting your fragile true being. This wall is not necessarily such a bad idea. If you have no coping mechanism for intense emotions and profound disappointments, it is perhaps wise to keep a thick protective layer around your heart. However, in light of our…

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THIS MONTH'S ISSUE

It changes everything

Kindness and vulnerability

in February 2020, It changes everything, VOLUME 5

DONNA CAMERON explores the beauty that vulnerability brings and its connection with kindness. She also shares her own personal experience of vulnerability and how it has changed her life for...

Where history intersects with myth – part 2

Cooking with love

Thought in action

The heartful strategist – part 1

in February 2020, Thought in action, VOLUME 5

RAVI VENKATESAN starts a new series for 2020, exploring the role of consciousness in developing strategy, and how to actively develop this potential through the expansion of consciousness. As a...

Love and relationships

Heartful communication

Focus

The myth of the fragile heart

in February 2020, Focus, VOLUME 5

SHAI TUBALI helps us understand the value of keeping the heart open, vulnerable and willing to experience whatever challenges life gives us, without becoming defensive and closing the heart. Your...

Intuitive science

Love alone can save the world

Be Inspired

A user’s guide to living – part 2

in Be inspired, February 2020, VOLUME 5

The science of creating a daily meditation practice DAAJI continues his series on daily living and human transformation. In this second article, he takes us through some of the essential...

A hierarchy of consciousness

A user’s guide to living – part 1

Taste of Life

Interview

Roots of empathy – part 1

in February 2020, Interview, VOLUME 5

MARY GORDON was interviewed by JUDITH NELSON at the Spirit of Humanity Forum in Iceland in 2019. In part 1 she shares her worldview on the importance of empathy in...