On Sustainable Living

Tags

compassion, discipline, ethics, giving, sacrifice, self control, sustainability

Sustainability. It was the central theme of the annual Aerospace conference called SciTech that happened this week. I attended virtually, along with thousands of other professionals, academics, students, policy makers and more. Five days of new ideas and conversations about how to create sustainable solutions for earthly aviation and beyond-earth exploration.

New technologies, new vehicles, new fuels, new investments. These were all proposed, to meet the challenges that climate change presents to the (aerospace) world. It did not take long for me to ask the question – what sustains, what creates sustainability for the humans creating the sustainable solutions?

I had to wait till Friday evening for the answers to emerge. As is often my wont, I return to the library upstairs, pick a book from the ‘spiritual’ section, and open it to a random page. I landed in the middle of a chapter titled ‘Ethics’, and the author was speaking to the three core virtues of a life of value.

Self-control (or dama) is the first virtue that sustains us. It is when we offer resistance to our desires that we develop strength, discipline and resilience. Each act of resistance adds another layer of sustainability to our spirit. Solitude and silence are two practices to develop self-control. “Progress in silence is progress to realization by connecting us to the creative power of the divine.”

Self-sacrifice by letting go (or daana) is the second virtue that sustains us. Letting go is the practice of giving or providing assistance to those in need, and also freedom from greed. What is the sustainable way of letting go? “Give with faith, do not give without faith, give liberally, with modesty, with sympathy.”

Compassion (or dayaa) is the third virtue of sustainable living. Compassion is the practice of being at peace, of forgiveness, of avoiding ill-will and cruelty. “It is through compassion that we can overcome selfishness and develop patience and forbearance.” If we can tune into the extent of suffering in the world, we can remember to live a compassion-first lifestyle.

Self-control, self-sacrifice through letting go, and compassion — three sustainability keys given to me — and I share them with you. Sustainable and simple habits are easier to integrate into our lifestyle, aren’t they? With sustained practice, we can transform our heart to a kinder, gentler, lighter, quieter, and healthier version of itself. With a transformed heart, we can discover a well-spring of love to create a brighter world for our life here on earth and beyond.

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly twitter chat, Sunday January 9 at 9amET / 730pm India in #SpiritChat. We will gather and talk about sustainability on our journey ahead. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Ref for the ‘three keys’: ‘Ethics – An Idealist View of Life,’ by S. Radhakrishnan, The Hibbert Lectures, 1929.

Harmony with the elements… a key to sustainability

A Spiritual Return to Work

Tags

calmness, clarity, compassion, contentment, courage, spirituality

It had been almost a year since I had the opportunity to walk some of my favorite nature trails close to my workplace. The work-from-home life-change had disrupted my almost daily visits to the rivers, bridges and forest spaces of renewal.

All of that changed in an instant this past week, as I took some time off to ‘return to work.’ The work of visiting with some of my ‘best friends’ and checking on their health. It was a wonderful return, a visit that reminded me of how much I had missed this essential part of my spiritual practice.

The trails are the type of friends who never ask you how long you’ve been gone – they just welcome you back with open arms. This felt true about the section of the river that was in spate after the recent rains, as also the section where a mother and her toddler were soaking their toes in its quiet flow under a bridge.

The welcome felt true about the narrow fisherman’s trail where the dense over-growth grabbed your ankles as you walked by, and the tall oaks invited you to hug them in the wide clearings. An hour and a half later, playing and visiting with the damp earth, waters and river beds, clouds in the sky, sunlight among trees, and the ‘ether’ that flows warmth from nature’s heart to mine, I felt while again.

I realized that this is the part of ‘coming to work’ that I had truly missed over the past year. I realized that the daily connection to nature plants seeds of contentment, which grow into branches of calmness and the leaves compassion. Courage and clarity are the flowers and fruits become the tree of spiritual work.

Our real work is perhaps to remember our nature. Connection with nature can remind us that we have the potential to be living, breathing, loving, ever-welcoming, radiant hearts full of joy, awareness and contentment. May we all include That connection in our ‘return to work’ plans.

Namaste,

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly Twitter chat, Sunday June 13 at 9amET / 630om India in #SpiritChat. I look forward to connecting with all of you. – @AjmaniK

The ‘bike path’ through the forest…

On Life and Dignity

Tags

compassion, dignity, justice, kindness, purity, simplicity, spring, walking

What is dignity, and why is it important to us as human beings and our human experience? Rather than try to define dignity in physical terms, I feel it easier for me to define its experience. One such experience was the soft spoken-ness of my grandmother, which was inherited by her children, and perhaps by me to some extent. By lowering their voices and weighing their words, particularly in times of great stress, all my elders showed me that dignity can flow from speaking softly, kindly and with deliberation.

Why may we need dignity in speech? Perhaps because it isn’t even possible to have dignity in our actions if our speech is corrupted by indignities of the mind.

How may one develop dignity of thought? One way is to purify the heart, whence the mind’s layers of dirt get flushed with silence, beauty and awareness of the truth that we are.

Yes. We are back to the work of the heart’s purity. One way to purity is to work with an attitude of loving service, as we remind ourselves, and those we may be privileged to serve, of our shared human dignity. Every verdict that “bends the long arc of the moral universe a bit more toward justice”, every invitation by someone to break bread with them, every softly spoken word whispered to us in the hour of our awareness, seeds dignity within us.

It is with these new seeds of dignity that we find the courage to rise yet again, and continue our walk towards that permanent love and grace which is available to all. Our walk need not be complete or complex. In fact the simpler the better, the more dignified it usually is.

This reminds me. It’s time for a cup of tea. One join me. Namaste,

Kumud

P.S. Join in our weekly chat on Twitter, Sunday April 25 at 9amET / 630pm India as we share some tea, fruit, flowers and cookies. Namaste – @AjmaniK

The simplicity, purity and dignity of Spring

On Raising Compassion

Tags

compassion, easter, passion, resurrection

In all the years that I have been hosting the Sunday #SpiritChat, it has become a sort of tradition to ‘pause’ the weekly virtual gathering of our community on Easter Sunday. One reason for the ‘pause’ is that it is a day for celebration with ‘real life’ friends and family and local community. Many of our #SpiritChat community members are traveling or hosting travelers in their homes. Another reason is that it is usually ‘spring break’ time for my school-going daughter, and I myself am traveling. Perhaps the biggest reason for the ‘pause’ is that it serves as a day of reverence, renewal, reflection and, often, new spiritual resolutions for me and many in the community. 

However, this year, life is a bit different because a lot of us are not going to be gathering with our ‘real life’ communities on Easter. A lot of us are ‘physical distancing’ to help contain the spread of the pandemic, and we can see some positive results emerging from our efforts, as each of us in our small way contribute to the wellness of the whole. So, we break ‘tradition’ and gather virtually, to connect and celebrate our collaborative spirit of compassion. 

When I started to think about the topic for this unique day, I initially thought about resolve, resolution, renewal, rebirth, and yes, even resurrection. However, the more I read about how different communities, cities, states and countries have been responding to this unique challenge, the more I asked myself the question – what is the greatest need of the current situation? To rephrase the question in the form that was popular a few years ago — What would Jesus Do (WWJD)?

Two Aprils ago, we were all in Southern Brazil on my father-in-law’s farm for the Easter holiday and spring break. There were a lot of gatherings with my wife’s immediate and extended family. The one event that was perhaps most impactful to me was the one that I hadn’t planned on or expected to attend. It was an Easter service at the family’s local church where my wife’s cousin is the priest. I wasn’t sure what to expect, because I had never attended an Easter service before. I went with an open heart, with the expectation that I would find some common ground with temple services. 

Sure enough, there was common ground aplenty. There was light through candles, there was music and singing through the choir and congretation’s singing, there were rituals and pageantry, and much more. Above all, there was family togetherness, and the peace among all those gathered was palpable and pronounced. At the start of the service, when the priest and processional walked through the center aisle with the Cross held high, I was immediately reminded of Swami Vivekanda’s famous quote — “ Unfurl the banner of Love! – Arise, Awake and stop not until the goal is reached.”

Compassion is our common ground because it represents a commingling of all the different streams of love, with a passion for each others’ well-being. Love is the banner that has been raised in all times, by all spiritual teachers of all spiritual denominations. When we raise the banner of compassion, we celebrate the resurrection and empowerment of the heart. When so empowered, we evoke grace, we act with tenderness, we put into motion the wheels of empathy. 

So, for the opportunity to raise compassion and find common ground, let us gather virtually again. Let us celebrate the heart’s resurgence, and honor the remembrance of love and light that Easter represents. 

Namaste,

Kumud

P.S. What does (spiritual) Easter represent to you? Share with us in our weekly gathering on twitter in #SpiritChat – Sunday, April 12 at 9amET / 1pm GMT / 630pm India. To all those celebrating, Happy Easter and Feliz Pascoa! Namaste – @AjmaniK

Let the Lillies rise again…

 

Align and Shine

Tags

alignment, compassion, spiritual practice

Align and Shine – by Dr. Christy Johnson

During #SpiritChat on the topic of Loyalty earlier this year, I tweeted “Still not a fan of the word #loyalty, I vote for alignment – aligning to self, others, and the highest good of all“ as my answer to one of the questions. After that tweet, Kumud challenged me to host a chat about alignment, which led me here.

I believe a driving force behind each of our earthly incarnations is to embrace our authentic selves. The idea is to accept our messy, imperfect humanness despite the contrast with our soul-level perfection. Via self-alignment, we can shine more brilliantly and vibrantly as whatever may block our light gets removed. Self-alignment also illuminates the evolutionary path for those who can see and hear us, those who are aligned to us.

As part of my own explorations, I took three different extensive Mindful Self-Compassion courses starting in late 2017. I tried and tried Mindful Self-Compassion practices, believing if I just stuck with them, something would shift but finally after a year and a half I realized it isn’t something I align to deeply. Aha! So Mindful Self-Compassion joins other powerful but not aligned to me approaches like acupuncture, Ayurveda, and Transcendental Meditation.

Giving myself permission to release Mindful Self-Compassion from my daily practices relieves me from unconsciously pushing to make it “work” and frees time and energy for what does align. Now I feel lighter and freer and have found ways to apply my healing modalities to the issues at hand. Through this evolution, I’ve become more self-aligned, which is precisely the point of Mindful Self-Compassion!

As your evolution deepens and strengthens, you also align to the highest good of all. Self-aligning more fully frees energy that gets reabsorbed in the world and also models the power of alignment.

How do we find what aligns? What are the clues? How do we know what either doesn’t align or has passed its expiration date? Ever notice how effortless life becomes when you’re aligned to what you want to be doing? Alignment leads to flow and flow, in turn, supports alignment. What resonates also energizes us. When we align, we shine.

Please come to share and shine on Sunday, March 24th at 9 A.M. EDT on Twitter with hashtag #SpiritChat.

Host Bio: Dr. Christy Johnson quit her decades-long engineering career in 2010 to open her own integrative energy healing practice. She helps clients overcome life challenges and also align with themselves, others, and their highest good via soul level information, energy healing, and empowering self-help tools. You can connect with her via her website www.intuitiveheal.com , on Twitter @IntuitiveHeal and on her YouTube channel.

Editor’s Note: Thank you, Christy, for taking up the ‘alignment’ challenge and stepping up to host the weekly chat on Sunday. I am sure that it is going to be a wonderful opportunity for many to ‘Align and Shine’! Namaste. – Kumud

What is Compassion? by @Joan_Kappes

Tags

compassion, spiritchat, spirituality

I invite you to join our weekly #SpiritChat conversation on Sunday, April 2nd 2017 at 9amET/1pmUTC with a special guest, Joan Kappes. Please share your thoughts in a unique twitter chat in #SpiritChat on ‘Compassion’ with the founder of #IAmChoosingLove. Thank You! – Kumud (@AjmaniK)

What is Compassion?

‘Often the simplest question opens the door to amazing journeys yet unknown…’

For me, this down-to-earth question, ‘What is Compassion?’ opened a wonder land filled with depth, expansion and adventure!

Join me on this journey called Compassion ……

I was seeing the word everywhere:  ‘Be compassionate’, ‘have compassion’ ‘act with compassion’, and so on.  It was as if the word itself was calling out to be heard. Finally, I began my quest in response to its invitation.  What is compassion and what does it mean to be compassionate?

I realized I grew up with a partial, though well-intentioned description of compassion.  I was raised with the idea that compassion was mostly associated with ‘the poor’ and downtrodden.  It was almost an ‘above/below’ kind of thing where I ‘had’ and they didn’t, therefore I was supposed to be compassionate and help-out somehow.

I began listening and asking people questions; I received many revealing answers similar to these:

• Compassion is seeing life from the other person’s point of view
• Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help physical, spiritual or emotional hurts or pains of another*
• I believe compassion to be recognizing essence. When we open ourselves to recognizing the true essence of someone in need, we are more likely to be led to a compassionate act*
• Compassion is a mind that is motivated by cherishing other living beings and wishes to release them from their suffering*
• Compassion is the ability to understand the emotional state of another person or oneself. It has the added element of having a desire to alleviate or reduce the suffering of another*
• Synonyms: Tenderness, heart, clemency, mercy, commiseration
• Dictionary definition: A feeling of deep sympathy accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering

These definitions increased my interest desiring me to go deeper.  What is it that causes people to want to understand and act with compassion? I decided to go deeper within, asking All-That-Is for new understanding regarding What is Compassion?  The following insights rocked my world!

Compassion:

• Com= a prefix meaning ‘with’, ‘together’, ‘in association’
• A quantitative dimension, such that individual’s compassion is often given a property of depth, vigor or passion – ‘With Passion’

With Passion

• The English noun, compassion: ‘To love together with’…..*

To Love Together With

___________________

Compassion:

To Love Together With……..Passion!

____________________

Yes!!!! This changes the meaning of everything!  Compassion is not just a desire to reach out to alleviate the suffering of another, it springs from ‘loving together with’ another!  From this loving connectedness, compassion naturally elicits understanding and action. We are loving ‘with’ not ‘to’.

More!  More! I asked for even more clarity:

• Compassion lives and flows from the heart
• Compassion lives and inspires in the present moment
• Compassion is the presence that helps the person re-member Love, and in those moments we ‘love together with’
• Compassion is seeing and loving the other for who they really are. It is loving them without their filters
• All the masters of the planet carried compassion with them. This is compassion: Look into their heart, no matter who they are on the street or in your own family and all you see is God*

The illumination of my Compassion path continues.  With each daily news cycle comes more opportunity to go deeper into the meaning of ‘loving together with’.  With each new inspiration comes another question and ‘aha’.  What does this mean for me in everyday life?  How can I remove the cloak of fear and judgment and learn to ‘be’ compassion? It is the onion.  Layer by layer I am uncovering my path of compassion, loving together with….You.

Thank you for sharing this adventure! –  Joan (Joan_Kappes on Twitter)

About Joan 

Joan Kappes is a lover of life and adventure, living each day with joy and intention.  Joan is a certified Life Coach specializing in uncovering limiting beliefs.  She is also a retreat designer and creator of the interactive coaching site, “Come to the Edge Today!” and the online project, #IAMChoosingLove.  Joan is committed to helping people rediscover and reclaim who they really are so they can live their natural life of joy.  Her motto: ‘The destination is great, but it’s the journey we came for…it’s the joy-filled journey that IS life!’ I AM Choosing Love: Facebook group – Twitter group

Self-Compassion by @IntuitiveHeal

Tags

buddha, compassion, spiritchat

We continue our weekly Sunday morning #SpiritChat conversations on Sunday, August 23rd 2015 at 9amET/1pmUTC with special host, Dr. Christy Johnson. A long time supporter of the chat with her insights and sharing, Christy will discuss the subject of “Self-Compassion” with all of you! Please join her, and leave her some comments on her beautiful post below. Thank you, Christy, for stepping up to host #SpiritChat! – Kumud

As Buddha stated, “You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” Yet many of us, even long-time spiritual seekers, often hold ourselves to a higher standard. You may even treat yourself more poorly than you could ever imagine treating someone else, pulling yourself out of the flow of light and love available to all. Perhaps a higher self-standard arises because you feel your increasing consciousness requires you to do more, to exceed expectations, to be of greater service in this time of intense need on our planet.

Often people who excel pay the price of higher expectations. You may wish to transcend your humanness by being perfect. Yet true transcendence comes with accepting your human imperfections, by realizing the journey to consciousness never ends.

Maya Angelou said, “When you know better, you do better.” I would amend this to say, “Once you integrate knowing better, you do better.” Conscious knowing only lays the foundation. People often lament about “getting it consciously but not in daily life.” Something magical happens when you accept what you know. When you deeply admit you need to love yourself, when you integrate it as a value and not just an abstract concept, life shifts.

“If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love others,” according to the Dalai Lama. Compassion is the desire to reduce suffering. By developing self-compassion, you reduce your own suffering. Self-compassion yields many benefits: you feel better, you have more to offer the world, and you uplift all beings when you shine more brightly. Plus you model kindness for yourself and others, a much needed quality for our survival as a species.

Join us on Twitter with the hashtag #spiritchat on Sunday, August 23, 2015, at 9 A.M. ET where we’ll explore how to invite the healing energy of self-compassion.

Bio

Dr. Christy L. Johnson, a recovering IBM engineer and perfectionist, helps people invite wholeness and harmony into their bodies, minds, spirits, finances, relationships, careers, and businesses. She offers soul point of view (#SoulPOV) consultations, the healing art of Jin Shin Jyutsu® Japanese acupressure, and intuitive healing.

Connect with Christy at her website

Blog: http://www.intuitiveheal.com/blog

e-mail: christy@intutiveheal.com

Twitter: @intuitiveheal

Facebook: http://www.fb.com/intuitiveheal

Practical Spirituality Series – Compassion and Listening

Tags

compassion, listening, spirichat

As April draws to a close, and I reflect back on the conversations within the #SpiritChat community – we have grown through spontaneity, paused in patience, and healed through perseverance. A lot of folks have shared their thoughts and concerns, and whether they realize it or not, they have serendipitously helped even those who may just be watching silently. I thank each and every one of you who takes time to share in our weekly community hour on Sundays at 9am ET. Your sharing has become an essential part of many folks’ lives, and I am indeed humbled that I have the privilege to host and ask questions.

In some of the past months, we have utilized the final Sunday of the month to pause, reflect and summarize the conversations that we may have had during the month. In that vein, I am proposing to start a monthly conversation on “Practical Spirituality” on the final Sunday of every month. This is not to say that our regular conversations are in some sense Impractical (at least I hope that they aren’t). However, these month-end chats will help us to perhaps focus on sharing practical techniques, resources and conversations that may have had a significant impact on us during recent weeks or months.

We will kickoff this “Practical Spirituality” segment with two subjects – compassion (suggested by Leslie Carothers, @tkpleslie and Janet Nestor, @janetnestorlistening. They are very closely related – ergo, “compassionate listening” comes to mind. So, what is so special about compassion? This word comes up many times during #SpiritChat – we have even had an entire chat dedicated to compassion.

This week, we will focus on Practical Compassion and how we can incorporate it, consciously and subconsciously into our daily lives. Compassion for self via self-care, for others via empathy and giving, are but two examples. How has your compassing quotient (ratio of giving to receiving) been lately? The second, and equally important topic is listening – a fundamental trait that we can all be working to improve on. How do we become better listeners – not just with our ears, but with our hearts, minds and our whole beings? Does our current lifestyle encourage more of listening or more of talking? How has your listening quotient (ratio of listening to speaking) been lately?

I invite all of you who have read this far to join us on Sunday April 28th at our regular time of 9amET in our weekly #SpiritChat discussion on twitter. I look forward to all your smiling faces in the twitter stream as we share and listen with compassion. Come prepared to share some of your favorite quotes, books, people and websites. Sharing is caring!

Kumud

SpiritChat – April Discussions

Tags

compassion, education, meditation

April has been an exciting month in our weekly spiritchat discussions. We began with a discussion titled The Spirit of Compassion – a virtue that is thought to be essential to developing moral excellence and spiritual growth.

The second Sunday of April was Easter Sunday – when we paused for the holiday to let folks enjoy the spirit of renewal with friends, family and community.

…the heart and spirit of Easter is about faith, family, love, light, renewal, hope and remembrance – all those things are worth pausing for…

We did something different for the third Sunday – I invited a special guest, @acmullick – to share with us about the practice of meditation. At the outset, we realized that there are too many different aspects to meditation to cover in the space of one hour. So, this topic will be back in the future – to discuss more specifics of meditation. I would like, in particular, to explore the link between meditation and prayer.

The fourth Sunday of April (which happened to be Earth Day) started out as a discussion about education and learning and evolved into a chat about what nature and the earth can teach us. As always, a lot of questions were raised during this chat – some of which we will try and answer in future chats.

So, as another month is behind us and we prepare to step into May, we pause (as has become a little bit of a spirit chat tradition) – to look back on the month in the final week. Which topic impacted you most in April? What topics would you like to see discussed in the month of May? Is there a common thread between compassion, renewal, meditation and learning?

I invite you to join us in our weekly SpiritChat discussion on Sunday, April 29th at 9am ET / 1pm GMT.

Go ahead – invite a few friends too!

Kumud Ajmani

Update: Here is the transcript http://bit.ly/sc-tr-0429 and questions – thank you to all who shared in the discussion!

Q1. In your opinion, what is the best way to practice #compassion? #SpiritChat 

Q2. What prevents us from being #compassionate? How can we overcome it? #SpiritChat 

Q3. How can #meditation (or similar practices) lead us to more #compassion? #SpiritChat 

Q4. Can we learn #meditation by ourselves? Or do we need a technique and/or teacher? #SpiritChat 

Q5. What kind of #education do we need for spiritual progress? Or #SpiritChat 

Q6. What spiritual lesson(s) did you learn in April that will help you moving forward? #SpiritChat 

Q7. April was a month of renewal with #compassion and #meditation. What can we expect in May? #SpiritChat 

The Spirit of Compassion

Tags

compassion, spirit, spiritchat

We have discussed in March the various aspects of renewal of the spirit. As we step into April, we will try and discuss some virtues that are perhaps essential for us to move us forward on our spiritual path.

What is a virtue? One definition of virtue is any action that demonstrates high moral standards. Wikipedia goes a step further and says

Virtue (Latin: virtus) is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being.

One of the fundamental virtues, that defines us as humans is compassion. Again, Wikipedia says

Compassion is a virtue — one in which the emotional capacities of empathy and sympathy (for the suffering of others) are regarded as a part of love itself….

Compassion has its roots in pathos – with emphasis on awareness of the suffering of others. If we can develop and act with compassion, we can grow love. A lack of compassion is perhaps the root of apathy or selfishness, which leads us to operate from a place of disconnection with those around us.

As I was writing this article, my wife said from the other side of the room – did you see this article? A fifteen year old girl with cystic fibrosis had a double-lung transplant. Each parent donated a lung to their daughter – so she could breathe properly. Compassion at work!

It may seem that it would be in everyone’s nature to have a sense of compassion – for it is part of our fundamental humaneness. However, have you ever done or said something and realized later – that wasn’t very compassionate! Do you find that it is much easier for you to be compassionate to those around you – and not treat your own Self with compassion? Are there occasions where a lack of compassion may be necessary? How can we actively grow the virtue of compassion in our heart? What is the connection between compassion and service to others?

I invite you to join us in our weekly #SpiritChat discussion to discuss “The Spirit of Compassion”. Sunday, April 1st at 9am ET / 1pm GMT.

Bring your compassion with you!

Kumud Ajmani

Update: Transcript from the live chat on ‘Spirit of Compassion’ is at http://bit.ly/sc-tr-0401

Q1. What feelings does the word compassion invoke in you?  

Q2. What is the source of our compassion? How do we connect to it? 

Q3. How does too much or too little compassion affect us and those around us?

Q4. What are some obstacles to us expressing, exercising compassion? 

Q5. Why is compassion important to spiritual growth?

Q6. What is the connection between compassion and service? healing?

Q7. Please share a person or organization - online or offline - that demonstrates a high degree of compassion. 

Takeaway Q8. How will you exercise more compassion in the week ahead? Towards yourself and others? #SpiritChat