Mothers and Forgiveness

Tags

forgive, forgiveness, mother nature, mothers, mothers day

What often begins as an overcast morning doesn’t always remain so, particularly in the days were spring is transitioning into summer. This Friday morning seems like it’s going to be a day like that. As I head out on the ridge for my weekly walk around the lake. which I can barely see from a distance because all the trees leading up to it are now filled with leaves.

The bird song of the robins and the shrill calls of the blackbirds are alive on an overcast day like this. The middle of the lake is as clear as it could be, as all the overgrown algae has been swept to the shores which look like a green necklace around the water.  There are no geese in the lake today. The center is shimmering with the light that is emerging, and the slightest of ripples are traveling from one shore to the other other in the distance. At the far end sits the house that is reflecting the brightness of its green metal roof and its weathered wooden sides into the water.

It has been said that partly cloudy skies are  a photographer’s best friend, and that is the truth today. As is my routine, I pause and take some pictures of the reflections in the waters, before the clouds totally disappear and the fullness of the skies emerges. I begin to immerse in the blues and the greens and the whites and the sounds of the birds occasionally drenched by the roar of the highway traffic that builds up and dies down behind me. In the midst of all this, the flight of a young blackbird between groups of tall reeds along the shore before it settles down on a branch serves to bring peace after an unusually hectic week of life and living.

I sense that a blackbird is following me as a traverse the lakeshore, and now the sun is fully out from behind the clouds. The forest flower is getting lit up with life in patches by the light filtering through the trees. The long stretch that runs tangential to the lake seems almost unpassable today due to the wetness and mud. As I stand here, trying to figure out a path through the muck  without getting totally immersed in the mud, a broad swathe of flight shows me the way. A wild rosebush grabs my sweatpants as I brush past it, welcoming and saying goodbye to me in the same moment.

Such are the adventures of life — a life full of the giving and the forgiving. When I was growing up in India, particularly as a teenager, I always had a challenge with the idea or notion of forgiveness. More often than not I used to think that I was a ‘perfect child,’ or so I gleaned from those at home and at school. If there was any interaction with forgiveness for me, it was mostly as a giver than as a receiver. In my hubris, I would think that if I were not doing anything wrong, I had no reason to forgive  anybody, did I? Sound familiar? Of course, when one’s small world consists of school, teachers, friends, home and such, and by of being a good student, doing what you’re told, being the quiet and obedient one for the most part, it’s easy not to do much wrong in the eyes of your world. Seeking or giving forgiveness is a very small part of the world when your world is small. 

As I went to college and met a more diverse group of people from different backgrounds, different religions, different levels of academic and socio-economic range, my world expanded. I noticed that a lot of my limited circle of ideas grew, and with that growth came new biases and prejudices. Some of them even started getting ingrained in my life. The size of my world expanded dramatically when I decided to come to the United States for graduate studies. In this new melting pot, I went from a country where I was among the privileged majority to a world where I was part of the minority. This transition from majority to minority  totally flipped my idea of how forgiveness works, and the receiving of it started to become an important part of my life experience.

And then I got married, and for those few who have experienced that transition in your life, I don’t need to tell you much about the role of forgiveness in that phase of our lives. One step further and for those of you with children, you know that forgiveness become even greater part of the life experience. You may think that I’m talking about forgiving mistakes of our children and yes, we have to learn to do that. However, the surprise for me was how many mistakes I was making as a parent —  mistakes that were not obvious while I was making them.

Over time, my parenting mistakes became as clear as the waters of the lake today. I realize that I will probably continue to make mistakes as a Dad, for such is the nature of life. As a parent, I also realize that I am being constantly forgiven. I’m grateful, that in her own silent and quiet and smiling and patient and remarkably graceful ways, I know that I’m being constantly forgiven without even asking on a daily basis. A by-product of my own parenting process was that my relationship with my own mother changed. As I experienced being forgiven, and what it did for me, I decided to forgive.

When I decided to let the giving of forgiveness flow through me more than fifteen years ago, the result was transformational. The first step was to let go of my resentment at my mother’s decision to let me, the middle child, be raised in her sister’s family back in India from the age of seven to twenty one. (As it turns out, all my family in the USA over the past few decades, other than my wife’s family, has been the family that my mother’s sister was married into!) My life became a lot lighter with that simple decision to forgive and let go. I don’t know that it forgiveness was even mine to give, and maybe it is my ego taking ownership of the decision. Regardless, I know how and what I felt in those moments of doing so, and the lightness that accompanied the decision to forgive.

As Mother’s Day comes, like it does every year on the second Sunday of May, I remember the results of my decision to forgive. It allowed for a new friendship with my Mother, who passed ten years later, and a new chapter to be unfolded and written in my life. I share about forgiveness with you in case someone needs to hear this part of my story. Perhaps my story may give inspire you or someone you to know to make their lives a bit lighter through forgiveness.

Imagine. What could the energy of the flow of forgiveness create for us?

Kumud

Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday May 12 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India as we reflect on ‘Mothers and Forgiveness.’ All friends and family, new and old are invited to visit and share with us. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Nature is a great teacher of forgiveness… we are such great benefactors of spring…

On Humility and Beyond

Tags

graduation, humilty, surrender

I open the car door and the bird songs immediately greet me. In the far off distance the sun is currently hidden by heavy but light gray cloud cover. It doesn’t look like it’s going to rain, but I can feel the wetness on the back of my hand. I come upon some new blooms as I approach the lake which is as still as last week, except for some additional islands of algae which are floating today in the middle of the waters. They remind me a little bit of perhaps what the thousand islands by Niagara Falls must look like. Just when I think that the lake is actually empty, I come upon a couple of pairs of geese intermingled with the shadows being cast upon the water by the trees bordering the lake.

It strikes me that natured has figured out the best camouflage to hide birds from their predators — by simply blending colors of flora and fauna, and by playing with gradations of light created today by a combination of overcast skies and still waters. The entire scene is like a suggestion to me to stop, or at least pause at the wide-open clearing and take a look. I accept, and humbly start chanting the Gayatri mantra — four lines of eight syllables each, design for healing and prosperity, by paying homage to the sun. As I walk past the geese, I notice that the path to the geese observation enclosure near the lake, constructed this spring by faculty and students, has finally dried out. It looks so cleaned up and inviting that I decide to accept the invitation to check it out.

In order to enter the enclosure, which looks like a boxcar with a door in the middle, I realize that I need to navigate the one foot wide and four foot tall entrance at lake level. It strikes me that it so very appropriate that I have to bow my head and bend at the waist to actually enter. As I enter, it is almost as if I’m entering the inter sanctum of many an Indian temple, whose doorways are only high enough so that one cannot enter without bowling or bending. I cannot help but smile at the idea, that one has to humble oneself a little bit because I’m really close to nature sanctum too.

The project was created to have lower school and middle school children visit and come really close to the water, and safely observe and inhale the beauty of nature. The enclosure is lined with narrow benches along the walls, and there is room enough to fit about a half dozen kids and a teacher. The inner sanctums of temples also only have room enough for a priest, and a few visitors at a time.  I’m fortunate that I can sit here today for a few moments, and notice that the geese are swimming a bit more peacefully. Maybe it is because I am sitting down a little bit closer to the level of the lake, hunched and bent over a bit, in a position of humility, I am looking a little less intimidating to them?

As I sit there, I notice that my nostalgia about the fact that I may not be taking these walks that often, as the school year ends and my daughter graduates, has been replaced by a feeling of peace and a new reason to come visit. I realize that my work with the school is probably not yet done, and I can still contribute as a parent alumni of one who has benefited greatly by being in nature’s  playground over the last nine years. Time does not diminish nature’s gifts to us, as long as we are willing to accept them with a bit of humility. As long as we accept nature’s invitations with a heart full of respect, chant an occasional prayer, we are rewarded with peace, More so, if we are willing to go a step further and approach bow our heads, bend our knees and our waist, we may find our way into the inner sanctum of our own hearts and be filled with light and lightness. 

If a little bit of humility can bring us so much closer to awareness, to nature consciousness, what could happen if we were to go beyond humility? What lies beyond humility, you may ask? Perhaps a bit of surrender? But surrender to what, you may ask? Perhaps we can bend our ego a little bit towards all of that infiniteness which our finite senses cannot possibly comprehend? Maybe surrender will then follow?

Kumud

Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday May 5 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India as we reflect on ‘Humility and Beyond.’ All friends and family, new and old are invited to visit and sit with us. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

New blooms seen near the lake on the first Friday of May. April showers do bring May flowers!

On Making Big Decisions

Tags

Cho ices, decisions, journey, light, purpose

(the following is a largely unedited ‘live transcription’ of my ‘stream of consciousness thoughts’ spoken during my weekly walk on Friday, April 26 2024. feel free to skip to the last few paragraphs for the ‘making big decisions’ portion. Namaste.)

The beauty of the walk on Friday mornings around the lake never really gets old.

No matter what kind of week you’ve had or whether you slept well the night before or how the morning meditation was or how the weekly session with your coach on Thursday evenings was, the lake never disappoints you.

Today is no different. One would think it would be otherwise, after all these walks that have almost become a ritual at this point every Friday morning.

Somedays the sky is heavily overcast, deterring you, and you have to wear multiple layers just to keep the cold and wetness out of your bones. On other days like today, there is a warm welcoming crystal clear blue sky.

The sun is already almost cresting the trees as you look from a few hundred feet away across the water on your approach and the bird song is a crescendo already. The frost on the grass this morning is being slowly transformed into dew, and a cluster of daffodils are trying to match the golden hue of the sun with their yellowness. You get that familiar feeling in the heart that her arms are open again as if she saying — welcome back my son, a new day has begun.

So many trees are filled with flowers and various shades of whites and light pinks. Some have already fully bloomed and their blooms have already been blown off by the latest storm to become one with the autumn leaves that still linger in the wet soil — they become the new terrain and nourishment for those walk the land.

As I come around the old weathered house that lies about midway in my circling of the pond, I have a decion to make. Do I keep walking the circle, or do I head towards the tangential, narrow stretch that lies between two pieces of the forest? I look down and see very clear hoofmarks of multiple deer that must’ve earlier walked the tangential trail. The freshness of the tracks tells me they’re still around somewhere in the vicinity, keeping out of sight, keeping an eye on me.

I decide to follow their path and try verse the tangent of the terrain, my feet and shoes sinking into the mud, as I get distracted by a single flowering tree on the edge of the path as it is being lit brilliantly now by the sun that is fully cresting the trees. There is no breeze or wind today. There is a stillness both in the water and the air and on the land I stand upon. It is this very same stillness settles that into my heart as I reset my eyes back onto the trail in front of me. I have to walk the edges, no following where the deer walked on the leaves, as it provides better support than the center of the path. The deeper I get into the forest away from the noise of the highway, the quieter and clearer it gets. The birdsong seems to get hushed too. A lot of them must’ve seen me by now, or so I surmise, because they become quieter as I get deeper into the trail.

The bluejay seems to be the exception to the hush as he insists on announcing my approach to his friends and neighbors. As I turn another bend in the trail, I look left to see what is making the rustling noise in the forest. Sure enough, there is a group of three deer in all the whitetailed glory, dashing back towards the trail where I had seen their foot prints in the mud near the beginning of the trail. As I turn around to head back, I could follow them into the thicket to see where where they went, but I’m afraid it is going to be of no avail. I decide to reverse my path to get back to the lake and finish walking its perimeter.

I imagine that it all comes down to the small decisions we make that cumulatively help us make the big decisions. Sometimes by addition, other times by subtraction; sometimes by multiplication, other times by division, they end up contributing to our path. The experiences we have along the way depend on the cocoons we stay in or the broader universe we decide to explore. And so it goes.

Destiny is a big word. Faith is a big word too. So are love, honor, dignity, peace, joy bless, Nirvana and many more. A lot of big words and big decisions face us in life, or it seems. No matter the size and import of the words, we tend to forget that all these words consist of individual letters, small letters, like the small decisions we make on the path as we go.

Do I turn left, do I turn right, or do I stay in the middle. Do I want to work here, do I wanna work there, or do I want to be an entrepreneur? Do I want to change the world, do I want to change myself, or do I just want to walk the now and wait and see what happens? Do I want to ask for help, do I want to go it alone, or do I want to occasionally even tune into the wisdom of the world and the ancients? Do I want to sing out loud and let the intonations of the sounds and the vowels resonate through me as I release them into the world around me, or do I just want to hum them under my breath in response to the light that I feel in my heart?

So many big decisions can be made easier by viewing them as layers of small ones, yes? And so life goes on as we traverse time and space. The causation related to both of them immerses us. And then one day we are walking the trail, focused on the footsteps of those who walked before us , and out of the corner of our eye we see the brilliance of a single tree blooming, and its radiance and pure giving heart stills us.

We pause and wonder — what decisions did the tree make that led it to be where it was blooming and radiant? Or is all its beauty and peace and calmness a result of the decisions made for her by the elements that sustain and grow her? What will she do until the time comes when it is time for her to be one with the very elements that nourish her, and will eventually nourish the next generation of spring?

Kumud

A ‘decision tree’ reflects in the stillness of the waters on a beautiful late April spring day…

Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday April 27 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India as we reflect on Making Decisions. Tea, fruit and cookies will be served to help us decide on our answers. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Earth’s Giving Nature

Tags

celebration, Earth Day, giving, receiving

After the rain, there is a fullness under your feet and a fragrance in the air. You can almost feel the joy coming out of the ground through the roots of the grass, entering the soles of your feet. As you pause on your weekly Friday walk around the lake after dropping off your daughter at school, you make the turn around that bend where you’re standing directly opposite the old weather-worn house that’s casting it’s reflection under the gray skies into the water in the stillness.

The forest glen behind it has turned a marked green from the last time you were here a week ago, leaving the starkness of winter behind it. You can’t help but wonder where all this life emerges from and where does the joy and the bird song come from?

Where does this beauty that is seen in every bloom that holds it own raindrop aloft come from? And then, just like that, a young blackbird makes its way across the water and lands ever so gracefully on top of the tree greening right next to you. The lake, which seemed totally empty just a few minutes ago, fills up with the presence of three mallards floating into view over your right shoulder, as they make their way across the water towards the reflection of the house on the far shore.

Their approach is ever so gentle, as if they’re reluctant to disturb the beauty being cast by the trees blooming next to the house and the forest glen into the water. I silently watch the scene unfold from about a hundred feet away. The mallards actually seem to become almost invisible for a while, as they get really close to the lakeshore and merge in the reflections cast by their surroundings. And as I keep my eye on them, they choose to come to a standstill at the edge of the reflection being cast by a young flowering tree in full bloom.

It is as if they, like me, have paused because they too want to absorb it all, drink of it all in. After their paws by the tree, they set off again, heading back to the portion of the lake from where they had emerged. I notice that the two in the keep switching places with each other, to perhaps give the one in the middle an opportunity to draft. The peacefulness of the journey of the family of three seems to exemplify the unity that they must feel from the environment around them.

A dozen or so minutes have gone by and I’m still standing here wondering at the harmony of it all, and now they seem to take a position facing southwest – as if they’re going to takeoff into the incoming storm clouds. No, not yet. They’re not quite ready because back into the far part of the lake they go, returning from whence they came — slowly disappearing out of view over the right edge of my right shoulder. They are still moving at the same pace, with the same serene grace that they emerged with. I am grateful to them for giving me a reason to pause and experience a piece of Earth’s giving nature.

For the duration that they circled part of the lake and then disappeared, I remained paused and watched them glide. It was due to their peacefulness that I too could absorb the peace, the tranquility and the silence that had accompanied me on my midmorning journey. In standing still and observing nature at play for a little bit, it felt like I was imbibing the energy that Mother Earth is ever so willing to transmit and share so freely with us. As I resumed the walk, I remembered a piece of the lesson I was taught by the total solar eclipse a few weeks ago.

The lesson was that the gift of even the slightest sliver of sunlight after total darkness is enough to illumine our planet and sustain all of life here on Earth. I don’t think I will ever forget how quickly all our surroundings became lit up again when the smallest fraction of the Sun emerged from the Moon’s shadow. In spiritual terms, the message of the eclipse seemed to be a reminder that even a sliver of light is gift enough to remove all the darkness for all the beings here on Earth. And what does the Earth do with all that she receives from the Sun, and the universe at large?

She does not accumulate or hoard what she receives, does she? She simply turns around and gives it all away, doesn’t she? Spring comes, the grass is greened, the flowers are bloomed, the birdsongs are sung, and so much more is given to us by her every single day, whether we are aware of it or not. What will we do with her gifts to us? What will we learn from Earth’s giving nature?

Perhaps we will choose to give forward of Earth’s energy given to us, by becoming givers of joy, hope, goodness, gratitude, simplicity, lightness and more to all? Maybe every day will then become ‘EarthsGiving Day’?!

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday April 21 2024 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India as we celebrate Earth Day (April 22) and share on “Earth’s Giving Nature” in #Spiritchat. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Raindrops are held gently by flowers blooming by the lake shore… 

Life’s Unlikely Friendships

Tags

friemdship, friendliness, maitri, possibilities

As if to bring truth to the old adage that ‘April showers bring May flowers,’ the first few days of April have brought us more than our fair share of rain. My morning walks have had me dancing around hundreds of earthworms on the pavements, watching baby mourning doves playing in rain puddles while learn to fly, observing bluejay fledglings navigating their first storms as they flit among tree branches, and more.

The rain seemed to slow down enough by Friday morning to allow me to take my weekly walk around the lake and make some new friends. Spring time, after the rain, when the grass as wet as it can be but still be walkable, is a great time to make new friends. The shrillness of the blackbirds, the soft dual tones of the cardinals, the ascension in the calls of the robins — they are all invitations to make friends, even unlikely ones.

What are friends and friendships made from anyway? A pair of geese swam in the lake, with the male keeping watch and sounded the alarm to the female getting her fill of the algae by the shore as I walked by. I have heard it said that geese mate for life, and only death can end their pairing. If true, then this makes me believe that there has to be a significant element of friendship, however unlikely, in their relationship.

Common ground and a sense of kinship and belonging are elements than can create a lasting friendship. One of the people I made good friends with in graduate school was someone who I would have never probably even met, if we both hadn’t traveled seven thousand miles from home. Our upbringing, our areas of study, our hobbies, our ways of eating and dressing couldn’t have been more different. So, how. did an unlikely friendship of thirty seven years and counting develop among two people inspite of so many seeming differences?

If there is a current of peace, of harmony, of spiritual oneness felt in another’s company, then it becomes easy for us to focus on our shared humanity and this focus forms the seedbed of new friendships. On the other hand, if our interactions make us feel unease, angst or distress, then there can scarcely be a possibility for friendship, regardless of our commonalities, yes? 

Can you think of some unlikely but long-lasting friendships in your life? Is symbiosis necessary for unlikely friendships to be sustainable? What role has social media played in the forming of unlikely friendships for you? 

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday April 7 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India as we share on “Life’s Unlikely Friendships” in #Spiritchat. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

The friendship among flowers has a compounding effect on their growth…

P.P.S. In his recipe for inner peace, sage Patanjali has advised, “let us show friendliness towards those who are friendly towards us.” The path of totality of the Solar eclipse on Monday runs right over my home. Weather permitting, as I watch this phenomenon, I will be expressing gratitude for the unlikeliest of friendships or maitri between the Sun, Moon and Earth, and all that it helps sustain. Namaste. 

Life’s Color Spectrum

Tags

colors, colour, feelings, festivals

Living as we do on one of the five Great Lakes in the northern part of the country, we aren’t really done with winter until the first or second week of May. However, when the blackbirds start arriving in the backyard and the sunrises shift westward in the sky at later and later hours of the day, it seems like we might be in the full throes of spring. And then you wake up on a Saturday morning like today and there is a blanket of white all over the place. Winter returns to say, not so fast!

If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that nature was thumbing its nose at my decision to include the phrase ‘color spectrum’ in this week’s topic for the weekly twitter chat. As I stepped out onto the deck to take some photos of the whiteness, there was a stillness in the forest and there was minimal bird activity in the mid-morning coldness. And yet, from what seemed to be coming from the street on the other side of the woods, was the sound of the laughter of children at play. I surmised that a bunch of kids must be playing in the snow, making snowmen and such. 

As it turned out, I was only party correct about kids playing in the snow. They were all rollicking in the clubhouse parking lot next-door, taking part in the community Easter egg hunt in the middle of a couple of inches of snow! It was quite a sight to behold young kids and their parents, all dressed up in their winter-coats, scarves and gloves, opening colorful plastic eggs filled with candy on a snowy Saturday morning. The joy and delight on the kids’ faces transported me back to the ‘festival of colors’ that we neighborhood kids used to so look forward to in mid-March in India. 

Yes. Color has a special way of affecting our lives, doesn’t it? We all have our favorite colors and they manifest in so many different ways in our lives, don’t they? The clothes we wear, the decor and flooring and paints we choose in our homes, the cups we drink our tea or coffee in, the cars we drive, the foods and fruits we eat, the flowers we plant, and so on. In addition, a particular color can mean vastly different things in different cultures. White is the color of mourning in India, whereas the same white is often chosen by brides in the western world. 

Our choices in colors often seems to convey the individual energy signature of our lives. The color spectrum of our life often changes according to the season, whether we are at work or at home or on vacation, and so on. In some sense, white, the combination of all colors of the spectrum, is on one end; black, the apparent absence of all color, the perfect absorber and radiator,  is at the other end of the spectrum. In the vast expanse between white and black, as if emulating our feelings and emotions, life’s  color wheel is full of complementary and contrasting colors, isn’t it? 

If we want peace and harmony in our lives, perhaps we could be well served by learning to celebrate the spectrum of colors that represent different faiths, traditions, cultures, peoples and more in this world of ours. I invite you to share your favorite color with me. I also invite you to find out your neighbor’s favorite color, and celebrate it. 

Namaste, and happy Holi! 

Kumud

Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday March 24 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India as we share on “Life’s Color Spectrum” in #Spiritchat. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Many are the colors of the heart… and yet they all meld into One…

 

Ready? Q1. “Life’s Color Spectrum” ~ how does this phrase speak to your sense of sight, 
your heart in this moment? Do share. 🌈 #SpiritChat

Q2. Think of a favorite color (or color palette)... how does (or did) it manifest or 
show up in your daily life? 🌈 #SpiritChat

Q3. Consider one (or more) of these colors... how do they  affect you and your energy level... 
cyan? magenta? yellow? 🌈 #SpiritChat

Q4. ‘The truly wise person is colorblind - Albert Schweitzer’ ~ in what context(s) may this 
be true? why so? 🙏🏽 🌈 #SpiritChat

Q5. Life instance(s) where you paid attention to the ‘color of their heart.’ 
What happened next? What did you learn? 🌈 #SpiritChat

Q6. What may we learn from those who often tend to see life in 'black and white?' 
Do consider. #colors 🙏🏽 🌈 #SpiritChat

Q7. Complementary colors tend to create _____ ; and contrasting colors create _______ in a 
community's  palette. Do fill in the colors :) 🌈 #SpiritChat

Final Q8. Final Q8. Some individual actions that may be necessary... for ‘full spectrum color appreciation’ in our world... Do share. Namaste. 🌈 #SpiritChat

Searching for Peace

Tags

journey, origins, peace, search

As I sat in the front window soaking the Sun’s warmth in the early Saturday morning hour cupping a warm beverage in my hands while the household mostly slept, the thought of peace and its origins moved through my awareness. Peace is a five letter word that is perhaps the most slippery of eels in our lives. It often only takes a momentary lapse of reason or awareness for it to be there one second and disappear in the next, isn’t it so?

As if to prove this very slipperiness, the puppy who was fast asleep next to me on a chair in deep peace suddenly bolted straight up as if she had received an electric shock or so. The reason? Someone was taking their dog for a morning walk by our house, forty feet or more away on the sidewalk. Deep peace in one moment had been transformed into total pandemonium as she was barking at the transgressor with every ounce of strength in her vocal cords. Perhaps we humans are not much different?

One moment we are feeling the joy of inner peace brought on by whatever brings us peace and joy, and the next moment we read  or hear or remember something and our feeling of peace is ‘off to the races.’ How fragile is our peace, isn’t it so? Like trust, we work so hard to gather and build peace, and just like trust, it gets broken. What can we do to create a peace within us that is sustainable, that isn’t susceptible to the vagaries of the world around us? If we were to create such deep inner peace, how would it affect and reflect on the state of peace in the world around us? 

It is said that there is no need to ’search for peace’ because “all the peace that we need or want is already within us.” And yet we search for it anyway — perhaps because we are continually forgetful of what we contain within us. We often search for peace like the musk deer in the forest who are constantly wandering in search of the sweet scent of musk, not knowing that the scent is emanating from within them! What would our world look and feel like If only we were to awaken to the knowing that peace is our intrinsic nature?

If we were to deeply absorb our inner stillness and silence, even surrender to the peace within us, maybe our search for peace will be complete. We can finally allow peace to build a sustainable home within us. What could or would we do next with such peace? 

Kumud

Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday March 17 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India as we share on ’Searching for Peace’ in #Spiritchat. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Ready? Q1. “Searching for Peace” ~ how does this phrase speak to your mind, body and heart in this moment? Do share. #SpiritChat

Q2. The role of #peace in your life... how do you know you are immersed in it,  and vice versa? #SpiritChat

Q3. “Peace is the way...” and yet we often ‘lose our way...’ ~ how do you best find it again?  #SpiritChat

Q4. What may the ‘long-term investments’ in peace consist of? What may be the ‘returns’ look like?  #SpiritChat

Q5. “Seek and you shall find...” ~ is this true of ‘searching for peace?’ Or is the search unnecessary...  #SpiritChat

Q6. Some myths and misgivings about those who believe in, practice peace instead of its opposite(s)... #SpiritChat

Q7. People, mentors, guides, communities... that exemplify the path of peace to you... Do share. #SpiritChat

Final Q8. The connections between peace, prosperity... and prayer? Do explore. Namaste. #SpiritChat 

Reserve Q. To negotiate peace between nations, between religions... what may the first few steps even look like?  #SpiritChat

Matters of Trust

Tags

compassion, self-care, self-love, trust, truth

“Trust Yourself” is a phrase that all of us have heard often enough as well-meaning advice in our lives. We may have even heard it  to the point that we even tend to dismiss it as a cliché of sorts. One of the reasons the phrase may have become unwelcome is that our trust in others has often been broken, sometimes even on a whim. Oft-broken trust can make us skeptical and wonder about the value of trust itself. 

In order to perhaps restore the role of trust in our lives, the phrase “trust but verify” was coined in the recent past. The idea of this phrase seems to attach a condition to the use and development of trust in our lives. On the surface, this conditional use of trust may seem useful as a tool of emotional armor; but the idea of verification, in and of itself, is replete with challenges of its own, isn’t it? For one, how do we trust the sources that we may use for the purpose of verifying what we trust?

One way we may get around the idea of ‘verification’ is to develop our intuition as informed by our heart, which in turn is often  informed by connecting with the silence and stillness within us. In every instance that we use our intuition and it proves correct, we develop more compassion for ourselves, which in turn grows our trust within us. Intuition and compassion for our own selves are said to be integral parts of self-care and self-love. The more we include ourselves in the great circle of compassion, of care and of love, the more we can be compassionate, caring, loving and trusting towards others, can’t we?

Trust in our intuition isn’t really meant to be an insulator from life’s challenges, feelings and emotions. Trust can instead become a conductor, a medium for growth that helps us navigate our spiritual journey. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep / and I have promises to keep / and miles to go before I sleep / and miles to go before I sleep.” In order to navigate the lovely, dark and deep woods of our walk, to keep our promises along the way, to realize our true potential before we sleep, trust can become our good friend and guide. 

Trust in a friend and guide is what perhaps truly matters in the journey, isn’t it?

Kumud

Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday March 10 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India (one hour earlier than usual due to the shift to Daylight Savings Time in the USA) as we share on ‘Matters of Trust’ in #Spiritchat. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK 

Flowers tend to bloom best when they trust in each other…

Postscript: The questions asked during the hour of the live twitter chat, Sunday March 10 at 9amEDT.

Ready? Q1. “Matters of Trust” ~ what do you see, hear or feel... that inspires #trust 
within you in this moment? Do share. #SpiritChat

Q2. What is the role of #trust in our lives... what important ‘things’ are connected 
to trust? #SpiritChat

Q3. “Trust Yourself” ~ what are some ways that you build trust in yourSelf?  #SpiritChat

Q4. The seeds of trust are ______, the soil is ______, 
and its fruits are ______ #spring #SpiritChat

Q5. ‘“Trust but verify” ~ in what situations may this be useful? 
When may it get in the way...?  #SpiritChat

Q6. It happens. Our #trust gets broken because... what can we learn? 
what can we do next? #SpiritChat

Q7. To build a #trusting community... any particular recipe? 
any essential ingredients? #SpiritChat

Final Q8. The connections between trust and compassion, trust 
and (life) purpose? Do explore. Namaste. #SpiritChat 

Reserve Q. When you feel that you are trusted by others... what are some signs? 
What happens in such relationships? #SpiritChat

Spirituality and Purpose

Tags

heart matters, meaning, mind matters, purpose

The first day of March happened to be the day of the scheduled annual physical with my primary care physician of many years. As I sat waiting for the exam, I wondered about the purpose of this annual exercise and why it is strongly encouraged by so many health practitioners. If it is true that ‘prevention is the best cure,’ then the annual physical can surely serve as a bellwether for health indicators like glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure levels, and more. Timely detection of changes in these indicators can prevent long-term effects and disease. In addition, it has been said in a lot of spiritual texts that ‘a healthy mind resides in a healthy body’ and we cannot stress the importance of good mental health, can we? For me, these annual visits to the doctor also remind me to schedule checkups for my emotional, financial, relational and lately, my spiritual health. 

On the second day of March, I woke up to overcast skies and the lightest of rain on the deck. Opening the patio door invited a plethora of bird song and spring into my awareness. As I sat for the morning meditation, a question happened to arise in my mind: what is the real purpose of spiritual practice? Moving through relaxation followed by focusing on the source, I let go of the question in the knowing that it would be answered if it was meant to be so. The answer came in several fragments, which I pieced together in the journaling activity that follows the morning meditations. Let me share some of the fragments.

“The wandering mind, in search of reason and rationale, fed by the ego, frames the questions of ‘meaning, purpose, goals, progress’ and more.” “The heart knows only one purpose, and that is to stay connected with the divine source — the source of all peace, light, lightness and stillness.” During the post-meditation journaling, I realized that these answer fragments were reminders of the purpose of spirituality and spiritual practice, as set forth by Heartfulness. We practice with the intention to Acquire the condition of  peace and lightness, to Enhance said condition, then Imbibe it deep within ourselves. The purpose of acquiring, enhancing and imbibing peace and more? It is so that we can experience Oneness, and promote the kind of Unity among all kinds of spiritual practices which evoke the heart.

As long as breath remains, the propensity of the mind to ask knowledge acquiring questions will never end. That is perhaps the mind’s purpose of existence. But what is our heart’s spiritual purpose? What makes it glow with peace and light? If we were to remember to ask heart-related question, perhaps even once a year, and then surrender said questions to the universe, we could perhaps connect with the true purpose of our spiritual practices, yes? 

Kumud

Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday March 2 at 9amET / 2pmGMT as we share on ‘Spirituality and Purpose’ ~ Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Spring’s raindrops sit on ‘pussy willow’ blooms in the backyard… their purpose is clear… 

Our Spirit of Belonging

Tags

belonging, home, journey, remembrance

There are very few events that can replace a trip back to where you spent most of your childhood, where you went to high school and then to college. The reunion with some of your best friends, your immediate and extended family and more, all compressed into eight days and nights spent ten and a half time zones away, is the recipe for organized chaos.

Like I said to my cousin brother halfway through the trip, ‘being back home in India is a bit like going through a physical, mental and emotional tsunami of sorts!’ There are the moments and people who make you feel perfectly at ease, as if you never really were away, and that bring joy, peace and lightness to your spirit — one feels an unmistakable sense of belonging. Then there are moments and signs of ‘progress’ that add heaviness to your heart, give you a bit of ‘culture shock’ and make you question your sense of belonging. You begin wondering if the home you grew up in, but where you have now spent less than half of your life, has outgrown you. You ask yourself — where does the spirit’s sense of belonging truly come from?

On the return trip, sixteen plus hours at forty thousand feet, there is more than enough time to pause and process some of what you experienced. You ask for guidance and the heart nudges you to add energy to and imbibe all the serendipitous moments that uplifted you on your journey. It is said that the spirit truly belongs wherever the heart feels lightened, whenever the heart connects with and acknowledges the source. Time, space and causation are of the external, and hence of little consequence to those experiences which awaken our internal spirit of belonging. What say you?

Sometimes, one has to travel fifteen thousand odd miles through a tsunami to be reminded of the truth of where one’s spirit truly belongs. This traveler is grateful for said reminder. May I ask where and when and with whom do you truly feel a sense of belonging? How does that feeling of belonging influence your spiritual journey?

Kumud

Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday February 25 at 9amET / 2pmGMT as we share on Spirit of Belonging. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Flowers and candles floating in an earthen container; welcoming decor at a wedding event in India…