On Embracing Diversity

Tags

acceptance, diversity, embrace, growth, spirituality, unity

Sometimes, all it takes is a few drops of early morning rain falling on you as you walk, to erase the heaviness that you have inadvertently awakened to, despite a good night’s sleep. Little that you realize that the drops are actually harbingers of a drenching which is on the way!

The weekly Friday walk around the lake is colored with a wonderful cool breeze that precedes the warm front bringing a couple of forecasted hot days after some unseasonal coolness. The tree almost sound like the beginning of autumn. The lake surface is agog with waves rippling against the heavy, inch-thick layers of algae, which has taken over two thirds of the lake surface. I pause and lean against the wooden cow-fence, as the seeds of the river-birches welcome me back in much delight and ask – where have you been all week? Why don’t you visit more often? The four wooden and weathered steps in front of me invite me to come closer, so for the first time ever, I accept and sit on then last one step, where if I stretched my legs out, they would touch the grasses growing on the edge. A single goose flies over from the grassy knoll and joins me, loudly announcing the weather coming in as the wind picks up a couple of notches. I wonder if I should head back, to heed the warning of the heavy rain in its way, but I decide to press on. The forest cover will take care of me, I perhaps wrongly presume. In addition, what else do I have to do on this Friday morning?

The same rose-bush that be-friended me last week, grabs my shirt again as i walk by, reminding me of our budding friendship. The tree-lined part of the trail is still heavy with mud, what with all the rain of the past week and the now heavily dense leaf-canopy that prevents the sun from reaching the ground. I pause at the bend, as the swift breeze calms down for a bit, breathing in all the goodness created by the stillness and the soft murmurings of the fledglings from the depth of the forest. More seedlings fall on me on their way to the earth.

If and when we open all of our sense receptacles to it, without any filters, and embrace all of the diversity of the world around us if only for a few moments, it can help lighten our world within. Yes, it is said that what we see in the world around us is a reflection of the state of our world within, and yet, until we get to that stage, the outer can help bring peace to the inner. The diversity of the outer tableau is designed, often by our own selves through our seeking, to fulfill our greatest inner needs. Perhaps that is why some love the water, others the forests, and some are attracted to the mountains, and even the skies.

No matter what aspect of diversity we are attracted to as individuals, they are all necessary in order to meet the need of the hour or season of each individual. Why else would there exist millions of species of plants and animals, with their variations in behaviors in different seasons, if not to remind us of the necessity of diversity and the infinite possibilities of the universe? Does nature not mirror the need for the infinite diversity of humans in the human race, and serve as a reminder that there would be annihilation of any society that is intolerant of its diversity?

Imagine a toolbox with only one tool in it, say, a screw-driver. Can you build a house with it? Imagine eating the same breakfast every single day. How healthy would that be? Imagine having only a single vowel in the alphabet. What kind of communication would be possible? Would we able to write prose and poetry without diversity of vowels? Imagine.

Progress in love, and towards light, is only possible through our embrace of diversity. The diverse streams of life that flow within us, when they mingle with each other, become the universal ocean. Is it not that when we commit to the work of finding the unity within our diversity, that we come closer to the experience of Oneness?

As I walk under the canopy of tall trees on the trail, pausing occasionally to write this post, the rain is getting increasingly heavier. My phone’s screen is filling with droplets of all sizes, varying from about a hundredth of an inch to about an eight of an inch in diameter. The beauty of this impromptu canvas is perhaps living testament that diversity creates peace and beauty. It’s a long way back to the car, so I find a tree with a heavy leaf cover, and try and ride out the downpour. As I wait for the rain to lighten, I am filled with a rush of gratitude for the fact that no matter the season, the diversity of nature has always embraced me, whenever I have visited with it.

Maybe it is in the unconditional embraces of nature where I have learnt my best diversity lessons. How about you?

Kumud

P.S. Do join us for our community gathering in our weekly twitter chat, Sunday, May 22 at 9am ET in #SpiritChat. We are a diverse group indeed, and are welcoming of all as we chat over tea and cookies. Namaste – @AjmaniK

The diversity of nature… beauty brings peace

On Life’s Diverse Colors

Tags

celebration, colors, diversity, spirituality, unity

As I walk outside on to the deck just after sunrise, I am greeted by a symphony of sounds and colors that are unmistakably spring. The blue hues of the lake shimmering reflections of the sky remind me of the much more expansive palette of the skies and waters of the Caribbean at sunrise on any given morning.

The greens of new buds on plants and the tiniest of leaves on trees in the forest encourage the grasses that are meandering their way back to life. There aren’t many reds or oranges or yellows or such yet, but I am sure that that palette will appear later during the sunset hour. I muse over my cup of tea…

What would our lives look like without the existence of color, or our ability to discern the beauty that the myriad colors of people’s experiences add to our lives? If our true wealth is the sum total of our shared experiences, then would we not be paupers without having experienced a multitude of hues of faiths, beliefs, cultures and such? Why is it then that…

There are so many who continue to insist that it is their color, their truth, their experience, their waters, their way of life, their spiritual practices, their books, their philosophy, their mythology, their culture and such that is superior and deserving of domination — and that all else must go.

It is like me trying to color the world around me with “my favorite color”. Or, perhaps it is like a color-blind person (yes, that’s me in real life) saying that a particular color doesn’t exist or cannot possibly exist or has no value because I literally cannot see it. Imagine if the extent of our universe was limited to our senses and their perception – would we not be living in denial of a large part of our human experience? I perhaps digress…

On this full moon of March, a weekend that marks the “festival of colors” or Holi in India, my heart asks more questions. What is the color of the falling rain or the dew drop or the tear in a mother’s eye? What is the color of the breeze that awakens the buds in spring? What is the color of the heat that warms the earth and causes the roots to stir to life? What is the color of love or fear or hate or joy or awakening? I don’t really know…

I do know that it is perhaps in embracing all our transitions through the experiences of all the myriad colors of our life, that we can prepare ourselves for the experiences which are colorless, formless, infinite and permanent. It is a form of Yoga. If we were to deny or negate the diversity of color in our world, how would we ever arrive at unity, let alone experience Oneness in our heart?

So, bring on Holi, I say, with all of its vigor of color, joy and celebration of all of humanity. Let there be color everywhere through light, so that its source can infuse love for all in our hearts.

Kumud

P. S. Join us to celebrate and share the colors of your life in our weekly chat – Sunday, March 28 at 9amET in #SpiritChat on Twitter. Namaste – @AjmaniK

What colors can your eye see in Spring?

Harmony and Color

Tags

color, discovery, diversity, harmony

Dear Kumud,

   I was in a school band concert yesterday attending my step-son’s Spring band conert. The auditorium was filled with the music of clarinets, flutes, trumpets, saxophones, drums, xylophones, and probably a few more instruments that I missed. Today I am reminded that beautiful symphonic music cannot happen by chance. I recall the quote by Carl Sagan, “If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, first you must invent the universe.” Applied to the concert last night: “If you want to invent a symphony, first you must invent the universe, and then human beings to communicate and create culture and art, and then instruments, a composer and so on …”

   The music depends on the composer, who is depends on instruments. Music that sounds “just so” here in the States would sound different if it were imagined in Tibet or Madagascar or Southeast Asia. I spent some time in Indonesia and there is nothing in the world like the sound of gamalan, with anywhere between five and fifty circular gongs of various sizes played by five to fifty performers. Put together, gamelan is symphony with essentially one instrument and a wide array of tones.

   The symphonic band I heard last night, here in the States, consisted of brass, wind instruments, percussion, and strings. The conductor stood at the front, animated and dressed in black, and we were even fortunate to have a student teacher conductor lead one of the songs.

   Every composer is ideologically, culturally, unquestionably trapped by the instruments that swirl around in their heads and sometimes around their studio. They can be exposed to instruments and music from other cultures (and even compose in that style, as did Paul Simon in Graceland), but they are predominately influenced by their home base. Their schema.

   Schema refers to the structures in our brain that classify how we perceive concepts, especially new concepts.

   And yet the metaphor of the day isn’t simply to say that a symphony is a collection of various instruments that make beautiful music. Or that beautiful music is the result of the structures fixed in the composer’s brain. This isn’t what I was thinking yesterday when I sat in the school band concert. Rather than thinking about specific instruments, I was thinking about the kids playing instruments. Their make-up. Their color. Their background, identity, orientation, gender, and the tone of their skin.

   This was not a diverse band. I am remarried and at this event, I observed 3 bands and at least 180 performers who, in terms of the tone of their skin, look predominantly like me. I can observe but I can’t judge. This is just where we live.

   My son goes to school 30 miles to the south and I’ll be attending his band concert next week. I’ll sit next to a diverse collection of parents – at least in terms of the tone of their skin – and the band members will look like they are painted with a different brush. Hues of white and brown and shades in between. Along with diverse colors comes diverse family background, diverse heritage, diverse religion. Again, I can’t judge. This is just where he lives.

   Symphony and color. Instruments and skin. My son goes to a relatively diverse school and I appreciate that he sits next to kids who look different and who come to class with different heritage, different religious backgrounds, and ultimately different perspectives.

   We live in a diverse world. The spiritchat community spreads across the states and across the globe. Call me crazy, but I believe we should seek out and embrace differences – skin, culture, background, and every difference that makes someone unique. A mosaic. A symphony.

   I am going to challenge myself during the next week to have one meaningful conversation with someone culturally different than myself. During the next 7 days, I want to encounter someone who is culturally different than myself and with a healthy dose of empathy, risk being changed. Feel free to share with me in this small challenge. Bring new color to your life. Create a mosaic. Create a symphony.

   One thing we know: the spirit is happy with color. Or rather, the spirit is happy with colors.

   It is in differences that we grow our perspective, our schema. And this is not just a good thing, it is a necessary thing.

David

Today, listening to Tambazako and Tsy Ferana.

David Tumbarello is a technical communicator with over 50 years in the growth industry, with 49 of those years communicative and on two feet. When he is not technically communicating, he enjoys hiking, biking, and writing. Feel free to connect with David on LinkedIn.

Possibilities of Oneness

Tags

diversity, duality, oneness, unity

In our a world that seems to be increasingly fragmented by the day, if not the hour, the notion of oneness may seem anachronistic and out of place. One may even question the relevance, the practical importance of the idea of oneness in today’s world. In addition, one may wonder – how are we to experience oneness with our fellow beings, or even with nature in our busy lives?

Let us try and first address the notion that oneness does not belong to our current time and space. What is oneness and what does it mean to us? If we can answer that question, we can then discern its location in time and space. Is it a senses of unity, of common ground with our fellow beings? Is it a desire to live in harmony with nature? Is it an acceptance of the principle that we all share certain unifying traits despite our widely varying differences? If so, what may some of these traits and principles be?

Let us now look at the relevance, the practical importance of oneness. Oneness is not to be construed as homogeneity of thought, word or action. Oneness that promotes unity of purpose, say on a team of diverse talents, is indeed relevant to the success of a team or community. In times of conflict, the ‘common-goal’ idea of oneness can be useful to quickly defuse egos and refocus our energies. Can you think of instances in your life where oneness served a practical purpose?

The third question is about experiencing oneness in our lives. Once we have had a personal experience of oneness with our fellow beings, with nature, or with divine energy, it is easier to integrate it into our lives. Personal experience turns oneness from an esoteric notion into something tangible. So, how may we have this personal experience? The Indian sage Patanjali offers us three practices that may help.

1. To be happy in their happiness
2. To be empathetic in their suffering
3. To be friendly in response to their friendliness

If we can practice any or all of the above, we open ourselves to personal experiences of oneness. The three practices seem fairly straightforward and easy to practice. However, they may not be easy to integrate into our interactions with our ‘enemies’ or those whom we strongly disagree with. How can we experience oneness with them, or can we? How will our world of possibilities expand if we were to find a thread of oneness with our greatest opponents?

I invite you to consider the three broad themes of oneness and some of the practices suggested above. How different would our lives be if we were to have a daily persoanl experience with oneness? Imagine the possibilities!

Kumud (@AjmaniK on twitter)

P.S. Join us in #SpiritChat on twitter – Sunday October 1st at 9amET/1pmUTC. We will gather to talk about the “possibilites of oneness” and what makes oneness possbile. Namaste.

The Spirit of Diversity

Tags

change, diversity, spirit, spiritchat, unity

Growing up in India, the theme of “Unity in Diversity”, was a common refrain in our social studies and civics text books. For a country with twenty-two states (at the time I was a student), many of them with their own languages (and many more dialects), customs and sub-cultures, interpretations of Hinduism and many other religions, it would seem that theme of “Unity in Diversity” would be indispensable to keep the country together. In fact, I remember writing many essays in middle school and doing many projects celebrating this theme.

When I moved to the United States, this country seemed, on the surface, very “homogeneous” as compared to the widespread cultural diversity that I grew up with. The more years I spent here, the more I realized that diversity has many aspects. It manifests differently in different countries and cultures, and, of course, there is tremendous diversity in the USA – one just has to look a little bit beneath the surface. External diversity can conceal internal homogeneity, and vice-versa.

Yes, it is indeed a herculean task to weave a thread of Unity in the face of external, visible diversity, as it exists in India. Perhaps an even bigger task is to inculcate some aspects of Unity in the heart of diverse people, diverse cultures and perhaps even diverse religions. This revelation was brought home (again) to me in a wonderful conversation that I had with my good twitter friend, @EdwardColozzi on Friday afternoon. Edward has been a wonderful friend of the #SpiritChat community, almost since the inception of the weekly chat. He is a Career-Life counselor, and a big believer in Unity and the concept of “One Spirit”. The topic of “The Spirit of Diversity” is inspired by our conversation about the discovery of “One Spirit” among our diversities.

Some of you may be aware that Science has been hard at work to identify this fundamental commonality – sometimes referred to as the search for the “God particle”. While Science remains hard at work, we can approach this from the Spiritual side. One proclamation of this Unity is made in the Advaita philosophy of the Vedanta ~ which states that there is the One, indivisible, and we all are manifestations of the One. An analogy would be that of the One milk, and the many products (cheese, yogurt, sour cream and so on) that are manifestations of milk… I am sure that you can come up with some analogies of your own too 🙂

Well, I believe I have said enough to frame our “Spirit of Diversity” discussion. A few questions that come to mind are – where does this Diversity among us come from? Why is Diversity necessary at all? And what would happen if all this outward Diversity were to disappear? Why is it important to understand the nature, the spirit of Diversity? And where does Love fit into the equation of Diversity and Unity?

I invite all of you who have read this far to join us on Sunday May 5th at our regular time of 9amET in our weekly #SpiritChat discussion on twitter. Let us celebrate our Diversity as we contemplate the ideal of Unity.

Namaste. Be well.

Kumud