Our Attitudes to Freedom

Tags

attitude, balance, freedom, harmony, spirituality

There is an Indian dessert called the gulab jamun. It is like a donut hole of a very soft consistency, that is deep fried, and then immersed in a vat of sugar solution. It is ideally eaten warm, so that the sweetness of the solution thoroughly pervades the senses. In the ideal gulab jamun, there is very little to distinguish the solidity of the “donut” from the liquidity of the solution that it is immersed in.

Our lives are a little bit like the gulab jamun. We are immersed in the sweetness of our attachments and desires. And yet, we claim “freedom”, even celebrate it on an annual basis, while we continue to get more and more entangled in the web of our own creation. Our social and work commitments, our hobbies, our networks seem to keep expanding. The result is that we keep finding ourselves starved for time and energy for (inner) growth that can lead us to real freedom.

So, perhaps this Independence Day (July 4th in the USA), we can choose to re-examine our attitudes towards real freedom. We are all born with certain attitudes, qualities (gunas) and energies. These are the attitudes (or aptitudes) of activity or aggression (rajas), of lethargy and heaviness (tamas), and of purity or lightness (sattva). Our overall attitude in life at any given time, can be said to be a dynamic mixture of the proportion of these three energies within us.

It is when the attitudes of individuals (and societies) trend towards agression, overactivity, and heaviness, that we tend to move away from freedom. Our inner core of softness starts to melt away, and our attitude trends towards accepting less and less freedom. We rationalize to ourselves that this state must be the “new normal”. But it does not need to be so!

A true celebration of independence means that we make a decision to change our attitude towards freedom. We decide to balance our commitments, and discard those which further enslave us. We commit to those actions that tend to increase inner purity, lightness, softness and kindness, or sattva. It is in becoming receptacles for grace, by lowering the heart’s barriers to love, that freedom can come home to us.

Yes, warm gulab jamnun, like apple pie, is one of my favorite desserts. And I have discovered that it is particulary good when eaten over ice-cream, with moderation. This new attitude is unfolding the path of freedom dessert-sattva for me. How is your path unfolding?

Namaste,

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly chat, Sunday July 1st at 9amET / 630pm India in #SpiritChat ~ I will bring some gulab jamun and ice-cream to share, and we shall share some stories about real freedom… Namaste.

Attitudes to Freedom – Pausing and Celebrating on the Path

Energy Balance and Equanimity

Tags

balance, energy, equanimity, spiritchat, spiritual

Immediately following our live chat on ‘Energy of the Heart’ last week, I had the opportunity to be part of a ceremony with a group of more than two hundred people. The chanting of ancient mantras (seed-words) is combined with offerings into a ‘sacred-fire’, and is called a homa. The sound-vibrations created by the mantra various chants led by two priests, who train from childhood in the traditional methods of chanting, raised the energy level for all present in an unprecedented way.

I felt very fortunate to be part of this energy-raising and energy-balancing experience of the homa. On further research of some of the mantras used in the ceremony, it became clear that the energy-shift that I felt while being in that energetic-space was real, not imaginary. As Wikipedia suggests:

The Sanskrit word mantra- (m.; also n. mantram) consists of the root man- “to think” (also in manas “mind”) and the suffix -tra, designating tools or instruments, hence a literal translation would be “instrument of thought”. -Wikipedia

Why do I share this story with you? For one, it seemed to be relevant to the theme of ‘energy’ we have in #SpiritChat for the month of June. The energy balance created by the combination of sound, fire, heat, aromas (created by the fire offerings), and the food shared at the conclusion – it still resonates strong within me, almost a week later. The impromptu sense of community created by the sharing of vibrations by people from different backgrounds, color and age groups created waves of energy renewal that perhaps reached far beyond where the sounds faded to virtually nothing.

As I reflect some more on the necessity for restoring energy balance in our lives, I wonder – where does imbalance arise from? It is perhaps because we live our lives in a world of opposites – we want to gravitate towards joy, good health, happiness and wealth – away from sorrow, illness, pain and poverty. When the pendulum of life swings away from our preferred direction, we immediately seek balance towards the center.

But the center is a tough place, which once attained, to be able to remain in. We are not trained to remain in the center. Many of us feel more alive when we are strongly for- or against- something. Anything. Equanimity is such a transient state in our ‘normal’ lives that we are like ‘deer in the headlights’ when we do face it. What if we were to create a spiritual and emotional life where equanimity is our default state? A state where opposites disappear – where we accept both joy and sorrow – as one. As Osho says – true balance is a state where we do not merely immerse oursleves in the ocean, we dissolve into it, become one with.

It is in that balance wthat we shall truly know the ocean, won’t we? Be the water. Be the salt. Be the waves. Be the shores. Know That balance.

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

Join us in #SpiritChat on twitter – Sunday, June 19th at 9amET/1pmUTC for a conversation about ‘Energy Balance’. We will talk about personal energy balance, what affects it, how we have disturbed nature’s energy balance and how to restore it. I look forward to feeling the community’s energy and vibration. Namaste!

Spiritual Energy – An Evaluation

Tags

balance, energy, evaluation, renewal, spirituality

Energy is a funny thing.

We pay a lot of attention to it when we don’t have it, and we often fritter it away frivolously when we have an abundance of it.

We assume that we will always have enough of it when riding a wave of good health, and we wonder if we will ever be able to fully restore it when we are sick or in chronic pain.

We look at those who seem like supercharged energy bunnies in their actions and wonder why we can’t be like them – whereas they are wondering why they can’t be easy-paced like us?

No matter which way we look at it, energy – or lack of it – runs our lives. In its many forms – physical (P), mental (M), emotional (E), financial (F) and spiritual (S) – the state of health of our energies is vital to our actions and purpose.

So, let us begin by taking inventory of our energies. Some forms of energy like P and F are easy to inventory, while others like M and E may need a bit more of an in-depth exam. As for spiritual energy – how do we inventory it? How may we measure the state of our spiritual health?

Once we have inventoried the various health states, the next step is to discern what actions or inactions – of our own, or of others – leak our energy reservoirs? Conversely, what is it that fills our energy reservoirs? This self-evaluation – or evaluation guided by the gentle, loving assistance of a trusted friend or advisor who can encourage you to explore those energy corners where you would rather not go by yourself – can reveal a lot of hidden strengths and cracks in our energy continuum. Pull out a piece of legal size paper, make two columns, and take inventory. Leaks energy vs Fills energy. Do it once a week for a month. Observe the patterns. What will emerge?

Now that we have an understanding of our energy ‘leaks’ and ‘fills’ (I really want to call it ‘fillers’ but that just sounds ‘wrong’ :)), what next? We may be ready to begin rebalancing and renewing. Or even rebirthing. We are ready to ‘plug’ the leaks because we know where they exist in our energetic life. But know is not enough. We need to take concerted action to plug the holes. But ‘I am too busy to plug these leaks’, you say? Well, small leaks in a garden hose may be okay at low pressure, but a pressure surge or temperature change of life’s waters may leave you without a healthy energy conduit. Result? An unscheduled trip to the nearest garden store’s emergency room for a replacement conduit!

Some may ask. And what if we (or our advisors) deem that the container is so full of holes, that it is beyond repair – unpluggable? Well. That may be the best news of all. For that may mean that we are ready for an energetic transformation. Not just a change. But a complete transformation with a brand new energy container. But, I digress by taking about ‘death of the old energy’.

So, we plug and then we fill the reservoir again, to restore to that level which will support our higher purpose in life. Yes, our old habits will cause us to spring new leaks, so the work is to find new, energy-filling habits for the old, energy-leaking ones! After refilling, there is one more step.

We may need to put some filters in place. We may have worked hard to ensure that our inner and outer worlds are pure and pristine, but the reality is that pollution exists. Filters can ensure that our intakes, thoughts, words and actions retain the level of purity that we desire to establish and maintain. The good news is that we can choose the filter size – coarse, medium or fine – for the different energy components of our life. Now that some filters are in place, what’s next?

How effectively do we use our energy reservoir? Energy efficiency – how much ‘useful’ work does our energy reservoir do for you and for others? What kind of resistance comes into play during energy conversion? How do we balance the feminine and masculine aspects of our energies? What role do tools and practices like meditation play in energy creation and conservation?

These are a few questions that we will answer in our #SpiritChat conversations in the month of June. We kickoff the month on Sunday, June 5th (9amET/1pmUTC on twitter) with the topic of “Spiritual Energy: An Evaluation”. Join us for an energy health check-up!

Kumud @AjmaniK

On Truth and Balance – by @GregMarcus2

Tags

balance, mussar, spiritchat, spirituality, truth

On Truth and Balance, by Dr Greg Marcus (@GregMarcus2 on twitter)

We continue our weekly Sunday morning #SpiritChat conversations on Sunday, September 20th 2015 at 9amET/1pmUTC with our special guest, Dr Greg Marcus. Greg will share with us as co-host, and I am excited to be hosting him in our live weekly hour on twitter.. Greg will discuss the subject of “Truth and Balance” with all of us, bringing his unique perspective from his cultural heritage. Please join in for what will be a unique discussion in #SpiritChat. Do read and enjoy Greg’s post below, and welcome him in the comments with a brief note. Thank You! – Kumud

This week’s Spiritchat is inspired by the Jewish Spiritual Practice of Mussar. Mussar teaches how to balance various Soul Traits in order to live a more meaningful and values driven life. Soul Traits are things like Humility, Patience, and the subject of todays discussion, Truth. Having too much of a Soul Trait is as bad as having not enough. For example, too little Patience and you are a jerk; too much Patience and you are prone to staying in bad relationships or negative work environments.

Mussar is a practice, meaning that we act and not just think. We practice a particular Soul Trait for two weeks, and then move on to another one. The day begins with a mantra, to frame our day. For Truth, the mantra is “Distance yourself from falsehood.” As we go through the day, we observe how Truth is impacting our decisions. And, we pick one small change to bring ourselves towards balance. For example, if we are prone towards exaggeration, we focus on not exaggerating, even trivial things. Finally, at night we journal about our experiences over the course of the day.

Mussar draws on thousands of years of Jewish teachings in writings. For example, there is a famous argument between two Rabbis about whether one is required to tell a bride that she is beautiful on her wedding day. Rabbi Shamai argued that if the bride is unattractive, it would be inappropriate to be untruthful. Rabbi Hillel, on the other hand, argued that a bride is always beautiful for two reasons: The bride’s husband presumably finds her attractive, and that it would be unkind to hurt someone’s feelings on her wedding day.

In addition, Mussar teaches that we all have our unique “spiritual curriculum,” meaning that we all have our issues, and unique challenges to overcome in order to achieve balance. Thus, balance is personal. We all have our own vision of what balance feels like, and stress arises when we discern that we are ‘out of balance’ in our lives. Mussar teaches that external imbalance arises from a spiritual imbalance, because we make choices based on the state of our soul. Mussar offers a framework to build a balanced and loving internal world.

Truth is also very personal. One person’s truth can be another person’s untruth or unbelief. When we try and share ‘our’ truth with others, we can create an imbalance in their lives if they are not ready to receive or accept what we envision as the truth. Or, we may be perpetuating an imbalance in ourselves if we are pushing a versionof the Truth that does not take into account another’s point of view.

– Greg

Bio

Dr. Greg Marcus teaches both secular and spiritual balance through a thousand-year-old Jewish practice called Mussar. He is the author of Busting Your Corporate Idol: Self Help for the Chronically Overworked available on Amazon.com. His next book on Mussar is due out in the fall of 2016. To learn more about his forthcoming website Americanmussar.com, or the American Mussar App, please visit http://idolbuster.com/americanmussar

On Breath and Balance

Tags

balance, breath, meditation, spiritchat, spirituality

On the first Sunday of 2015, we discussed the topic of Awareness and Action in our weekly #SpiritChat conversation. One thread that emerged from that chat was related to the connection of (proper) breathing, and how it can create better awareness for us. We will explore this connection further in this week’s (Sunday, January 11th 2015) twitter chat.

From a biological perspective, we are all aware that the act of breathing sustains life. We may lose all our other physical and sensory capacities, but as long as breath remains, so does our mortal body. We often take our act of breathing for granted, because it is an involuntary action that our bodies mostly perform regularly, without our direct intervention or attention. For the most part, this works in our favor – it keeps us alive when we are sleeping or busy running around in our daily lives. The oxygen exchange of every breath enables cellular activity, the firing of neurons, the purification of blood, and much more.

From a mental perspective, breath, and the act of breathing is important too. If we break up the single cycle of breathing into four parts – inhalation, retention (or pause), exhalation, preparation (or pause) – each part of the cycle has a role in how it affects our mind. Being in awareness of the retention part of the cycle, which is the pause after we inhale, is said to directly affect our mental clarity. It is in that pause of retention that we have the ability to still the thought waves that constantly traverse our brain. Hence, awareness during breathing can lead us to a deep silence, the silencing of thought, stillness of the mind.

From a relaxation or “meditation” perspective, we are often advised to “take a deep breath” and then follow it up with a deep exhalation. In the first part, the inhalation, we can create the awareness that we are filling ourselves with goodness, with plenitude, with prosperity, and such. In the exhalation, we can practice the awareness of self-surrender, of humility, of giving back and such. Hence, awareness of inhalation, and the subsequent exhalation, can create a higher awareness – of balance. This balance is facilitated by the pause of retention, the pause that brings mental clarity.

So, the connections between breath and balance are manifold. When we are stressed, we often feel that we are “out of breath”. When we are physically unwell, our erratic breathing is often a symptom or manifestation of our unwellness. I am sure that you can think of many more connections of our lifebreath to our life and its actions.

“For all This is fixed to lifebreath, as spokes are fixed to the hub. Lifebreath proceeds by means of lifebreath, gives life breath, and gives to lifebreath ~ Upanishad

Our challenge is to pay attention to our breath. If we watch its motion, listen to it, even for a few minutes everyday, then, over time, we will learn to recognize the healthy, balanced pattern of our breathing. This awareness of balanced breathing, will then help us to apply “corrections” when we are not in balance. By practicing listening, we can create balance and wellness in every breath cycle.

I appreciate your reading, and wish you all the best of balance in every breath. If you have comments, suggestions, questions or corrections, please do share. I also invite you to share in our #SpiritChat on twitter – Sunday, January 11th at 9am ET / 2pm UTC.

Namaste,

Kumud

The questions asked during the live hour…

Ready? Q1. "Take a deep breath in. Hold. Exhale. Hold." Repeat. What do you feel? #SpiritChat 

Q2. When we are highly inspired, we say, it "took my breath away". Who/what makes you feel that way? #SpiritChat 

Q3. Awareness. Which part of your (physical) breath cycle are you most aware of? Unwaware of? #SpiritChat 

Q4. What would you like to breathe into your life? Breathe out of your life? #SpiritChat 

Q5. We mostly breathe from a 'shallow' place. How can we 'correct' this? Why should we correct it? #SpiritChat 

Q6. On balance. Can breath-awareness help to create outer and inner balance? Why or why not? #SpiritChat 

Q7. "All growth happens when we are out of balance". If so, then why is balance even important? #SpiritChat 

Q8. What is the connection between breath, balance and stress. Please share. #SpiritChat 

Q9. Take a deep breath. Send a message about life and living to the world... Thank you! #SpiritChat 

Final Q10. Take another deep breath. Send a message about balance... Thank you again! #SpiritChat 

Storify Summary: https://storify.com/ajmanik/on-breath-and-balance

The Balance of Being and Doing

Tags

balance, being, doing, spirituality

This week’s #SpiritChat conversation idea, cover-post (below) and questions come to us from my good friend on twitter, Panteli Tritchew. Some of you may know him as an energetic participant in many chats, including #SpiritChat. Panteli will co-host this week’s chat for us. Please read his very well-thought post on the topic. Thank you.

The Balance of Being and Doing – Panteli Tritchew

It has been said that we are human beings, not human doings. But what does that mean exactly? Why is it that Being and Doing seem mutually exclusive? What is the duality? What are the tensions? And why is finding a balance so difficult?

We know that we are spiritual beings (or consciousness’s) that reside in physical bodies. So right from the womb, we are faced with a duality and a built-in tension. As spiritual Beings, we seek To Be. At the same time, as physical beings, we need To Do, to earn our daily bread, to have shelter, to survive. We can say that this duality or tension is hard-wired, and we face the tension between Being and Doing daily. Trying to balance these tensions, we find ourselves pushed and pulled by friends, family, colleagues, supervisors, employees, the media and by world events. Sometimes we push-back. Forces and vectors collide. The tension between competing desires is nurtured, renewed, and invigorated, even if we are not. We have a name for this internal cacophony. Stress.

Many of us are caught between the duality of Being and Doing, some of us daily, some of us hourly. Do I go for a walk, or do I check my email? Do I go to yoga or do I tackle the next item on the To-Do List? We all keep To-do lists of various kinds. Submit performance evaluation. Check. Meet with client. Check. Prepare and submit agenda for meeting. Check. Live consciously in the moment and be purposeful. Hmmm… The “check” doesn’t flow quite as easily. Why is it that we keep To-Do lists and not To-Be lists?

When overwhelmed by our daily responsibilities, we often seek solace in silence and solitude, whether it is walking through the woods or meditation or yoga practice. Many of us schedule down-time, a time to do nothing, a time to recharge. Suddenly, magically, mysteriously, our time to do nothing, our Time To-Be becomes a Thing To-Do. Living the simple life is immensely complicated, it seems. One struggles to miss the irony.

When we speak of tension or stress, we refer to mental or emotional strain. In physics, tension is defined as the act of stretching or the state or degree of being stretched, and is usually taught using a string or a rope as an example. Like a rope, when we are under too much duress or too much tension, we can “snap,” or reach our “breaking point.”

When we speak of balance, we refer to mental, emotional or spiritual stability. In physics, balance refers to an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady. When we are under too much duress or too much tension, we become “unbalanced.”

Trying to balance our spiritual and our material life, our Being and our Doing is like trying to balance the old double-pan balance scales, with Being on one pan and Doing on the other pan, as they see-saw back and forth over the pivot point in the center.

In physics, a system is in equilibrium (at rest) when the sum of all forces is zero. That is completely different from there being no forces (or no stress). Unfortunately, many people seem to equate balance as the absence of stress or tension. First of all, that isn’t balance, that’s a vacuum. Secondly, living a life free of stress is a chimera, an illusion.

The key to balance, it seems, is our ability to maintain and sustain tension between the competing forces in our lives, our inner desires, wants, and needs, and the constant push and pull from the outer material world, from family and friends, from colleagues and community.

We live in uniquely challenging times, and we are bombarded with more data, more information and more choices more quickly and more frequently than ever before. In the midst of this noise and turbulence, and the challenges of our everyday crucible, what are some of the strategies and techniques we can share to resolve the duality and tensions between Being and Doing?

Panteli Tritchew

Panteli Tritchew on Twitter
Panteli Tritchew on LinkedIn
Panteli is a “Communications & Entrepreneurial Leadership Faculty, Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Venn Thinker: Communications, Innovation, Leadership, Creativity, Learning”, and resides in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He is “passionate about writing, teaching and communications: an experienced educator and communications professional, equally at ease in the classroom or the boardroom.”

Please join us Sunday, October 19th at 9amET / 1pm UTC in #SpiritChat on twitter, and share your thoughts on this wonderful topic. I am very excited and energized about the fact that Panteli Tritchew will co-host the conversation. Thank you, Panteli!

On Balance and Benevolence

Tags

balance, benevolence, spiritchat, spirituality

The week leading up to the Sunday had been busier than usual. In addition to the regular busy-ness that seems to happen with the approach of a big holiday (Christmas, in this instance), I had been preparing for my big “test” on Friday the 20th over the past few weeks. The intensity level had been stepped up during the training sessions, extra drills were being performed, and all of us preparing for the “test” were keyed-up for the big day.

For no matter how much you prepare physically for a martial-arts “black-belt” test in your own dojo, it is very tough to prepare for the mental and emotional challenge of “testing” in front of fifty or sixty black-belts who have over five-hundred years of experience between them. It becomes a battle of the body, a battle of the mind, a battle of the spirit. And that is what our style of karate emphasizes – the conquering of those three battles – with the correct blend of balance.

The Spirit of true martial arts has to be benevolence. That is the only way to practice it. – Confucious

So, emerged the theme for our Sunday morning #SpiritChat as I drove back home after my test – the importance of balance in our (spiritual) life – what affects it, how to correct it, how to improve it. However, there is one more integral principle of our style of (Isshinryu) Karate that may come as a surprise to the casual observer, who considers martial artists as “violent”. That principle, which emerges from the tenet that “we pledge to always offer peace first”, is benevolence. The combination of balance and benevolence grounds us, and enables us to focus on the three battles – of mind, body and spirit.

Our twitter chat on December 22nd became a celebration of these two vital traits in our lives – balance and benevolence. I am grateful to all those who participated and contributed – here is the hand-crafted storify summary for the chat – Enjoy!

Kumud

P.S. And yes, I did pass the test – we must have prepared really well, thanks to our 8th Dan coach and mentor, Master Dennis!

Here are the extempore questions asked during the chat – two questions were contributed by the participants – Thank you!

Q1. Here we go. What comes to your heart and mind when you contemplate on #balance #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/414759518866653184

Q2. How do we “know” when we are out of balance" Any specific mechanisms for detecting it? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/414761678245732352

Q3. When Is a lack of balance a “negative”? When is it not…? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/414763299834576896

Q4. Moving to Benevolence. What does that word invoke or evoke in your heart and spirit? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/414764856261476353

Q5. Why do we need both balance & benevolence? v/@CreateLiveBe #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/414766430463463424

Q6. Too much of a positive can become a negative. Agree or disagree? Why? v/@GregMarcus2 #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/414767916567912448

Q7. How can balance and benevolence move from our spirit to our actions? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/414769738548383744