On EnLightening the Heart

Tags

faith, leaders, leadership, light, lightness, restoration, trust

From the very beginning on Saturday morning, I sat with colorless tears in my eyes that sealed my eyelids shut at the edges — perhaps not wanting to see any more darkness, perhaps mourning the state of a country ravaged by disease, death, destruction, despair, discrimination and disintegration.

And yet, after relaxation and prayer, there was the ever-present invitation to focus on the light within the heart…

After a few minutes, lightness came as a reminder of what many of us may need to do to cross the street safely – blinded as we may be right now by anger and despair and helplessness or even rage. What we may need to do is to hold on to the person in front of us… just like I would see the kids do at the school for the blind  which was virtually across the street from my high school in New Delhi, India. In a show of great trust, they would each put a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them. In a show of great hope that the person leading the line could actually see where they were going, they would safely cross the road towards light. 

Enlightened, emboldened, encouraged and empowered, I closed my eyes even tighter. Another thought came to lighter the heart. Perhaps all we need to do to walk the lighted path, to lighten the heart, is to be like toddlers holding on to the hem of the divine mother’s garment as we navigate these new worlds around us. By having child-like faith that the divine knows what’s best for us, and is lighting the heart path that is best for us, we can take another light step.

We take a step forward in a faith that has stood us well through previous trials and dark times. We take a step towards light and lightness, even though that path may occasionally lead us through some seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We take another step forward, even though the path may be filled with the thorns of divisiveness.  And yet, we need not despair, for we know from previous direct experience, that within all of us is planted the reservoir of love and light.

And if the reservoir of love, light, lightness is within us, then it is within them too. They may be unaware of the reservoir, but it is there — for its absence in them would violate the natural law of existence, of fairness, of divine justice. There is the existence of  love within, so that we may learn to lead with it. There is the light within, so that we can turn inward towards it in those dark nights when there are no stars or moons to guide us as the storm rages around us and within us…

Light and lightness within the heart grow trust and faith. They are good defenses against the heaviness of cruelty and injustice. When we add the personal practices of mercy, empathy and kindness, we become the blooming flowers that give light and soil and water to the next generation of leaders. With our example of an enlightened heart, we encourage a new generation of youth  to lead with a sense of fairness, empathy and justice. We construct a brand new world with a brand new generation of heart-centered leadership.

As a gardener, I know that it is often with the dregs of past growth, often called ‘organic matter’, that a brand new lawn or garden can be created. We spread soil mixed with organic matter over a barren land. We use good, enlightened seeds infused with great heart potential, fertilize them with hope, water them with trust and let them be warmed by the sunshine of divine grace. Then we step back and watch a new, kinder and gentler individual, family, community, society, and nation emerge.

It all begins with one heart full of light. An EnLightened heart. One heart that upholds truth, fairness, and yes, even justice — particularly justice. A heart that understands, respects, even reveres natural laws. How can I be so sure that a new lawn of leaders can be seeded? It has been said that “The divine is no respecter of persons”. My interpretation of this is that if it has been done by person, one set of people in space and time before, then it can surely be done by another person and another set of people again.

With that sense of faith and hope, let us heed the call to EnLighten our own heart. Our lighted heart full of warmth is needed to create a new landscape where flowers of truth and justice can bloom again. The woods may be dark now, but we need to keep waking and walking. “We have promises to keep” to those of the next generation holding on to us, as we lead them cross the street to light, just like we held on to the generation of light-bearers before us.

Raise the banner of love. Arise, awake, and stop not until the goal is achieved! – Swami Vivekananda

Kumud

Saturday, May 30 2020. 640am. 

P.S. I invite you to join our weekly conversation in #SpiritChat on twitter, held together by the glue of love and light. This week, we will gather at our usual hour of 9am ET / 1pm UTC / 630pm India. Come and share some practices, some stories, that help you EnLighten your heart. Namaste – Kumud. 

After the rainstorm – light and lightness of raindrops on flowers

Streaming the Heart’s Light

Tags

heart, heart matters, light, lightness, streaming

 

We have come a long way from the time when our televisions and radios had rabbit ears and antennas that reached out to receive their signals. In this always-connected age of WiFi and cellular service, where cell phones, tablets and laptops can ‘stream’ almost any type of audio and video at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse, our works is inundated with the concept of “streaming.” Corporations like NetFlix, YouTube, Disney and Apple are all in competition for our audio and visual awareness and our dollars.

What does all this “streaming” mean for our spiritual practices and awareness? How are we to develop, maintain and sustain the health of our mind and our heart when we are seemingly immersed in this Alphabet soup of marketing, advertising and ‘news cycles’? What are we to learn and teach from this upheaval that is causing many of us to question our values and beliefs in things like trust, honesty, integrity, service and the like?

One possible solution to the unknown of massive change created by digital “streaming” is to apply it to what we already know. We know our heart is the repository of love and light. We know our heart is the seedbed of softness and kindness. We know our heart is the source of silence and stillness. What if we were to condition and train our heart to constantly stream love, light, softness, kindness, silence and stillness?

In all of my forest walks this autumn, I am yet to undertake a journey that has not infused me with hope and elevation. The subtle changes of color, the falling of a leaf as it spins towards the earth, the rustling of the forest floor as I step gently, the sun emerging from behind clouds and streaming light from behind tall trees — I could go on and on. Observing and being in Nature is frequently my external antidote to the digital stream.

And yet, we need an internal antidote to the digital soup that we often find ourselves boiling in. A four-part practice has served me well in creating my own portable stream. It consists of cleaning the vessel of the day’s digital stream, universal prayer, physical relaxation, and sitting with a gentle focus on the source of light within the heart. It may seem like a lot of work, but I find these four actions harmonize the four quadrants of the heart. The heart’s light flows with clarity again, and the stream of joy and silence is available to immerse in wherever and whenever I need reconnecting to source.

No internet connection required.

 

Kumud

P.S. Join us in our weekly stream on Twitter in #SpiritChat — a gathering of folks “streaming their heart’s light” with enthusiasm — Sunday, Oct 20 at 9amET / 630pm India. Namaste – @AjmaniK

On Breathing Light

Tags

awareness, breathing, celebration, healing, light, remembrance

The journey began Monday evening, when the iPad which had gone dark over the past few weeks, and refused to start up inspite of my best attempts of geekery, decided to come to life. I went searching in the library app for something good to read, and an incredible journey into breath began when I downloaded, and read, that same evening, from cover to cover – WBBA – but more about that a bit later….

Breath has come into the forefront for me this week. There is a story in the Upanishads where the student asks the teacher – who among sight, speech, hearing, touch and breath, is the most powerful in life? The teacher says – ask each of them to leave, one at a time, and you shall know. When it comes the turn of breath to leave, the student’s question is answered…

I have been led to work with, observe it, and develop a greater awareness of the physical act of breathing this week. When the emotions rise, when I feel the stress level change, I have tried to pause and check my breathing pattern and cadence. The interesting thing about breath is that it is easy to observe, because it is always with us, even when it is temporarily is taken away. My observations have been quite a revelation. It is no surprise that I have discerned a direct correlation between feeling stressed and the disturbance in my breathing pattern.

So, how do I plan to use this breath awareness? I believe that, with practice, one could modulate, if not to some degree even consciously control, the autonomous breath and the nervous system connected to it. When our new breathing practice becomes habit, we shall find an emergence of new patterns, new pathways, new possibilities.

For when breath remains, all is possible in the field of possibilities, and then some… is it not?

What began on Monday evening, came to a head this morning. I share with you, my entry from my meditation journal:

There was a such a surge… a wave as high as me… in the final ten minutes… that it literally seemed to push me sideways… the intensity and breadth of the light was such as if it became like the air around me and that I was breathing it with every breath… it held no force, it’s nature was gentleness and pure being, and I was awash in its wholeness… it felt that the white light was energizing every single alveoli in the lungs… cleaning, cleansing, oxygenating, healing, liberating, and filling me with the life force that travels between every channel of the many layers of my being… it felt like the same way that I might have felt in my first awareness of being born into this physical world… the aggregated energy of all the prayers she might have said from the instant that the was aware of me, until her last… and with that breath of first new light, I felt such immense gratitude for the experience that I was led to celebrate the breath of light and life with you… and I hope… no, it’s more than hope… it is a knowing that every breath you breathe is also filled with light… and that you are enough light in this moment, and you will be enough in the next moment… and when the breath stops and leaves, the aggregate of the light you breathed and shared would also have been enough…

for when we add or subtract the infinite from the infinite, the infinite breath of love and light still remains… and that, breath, in life and what we call death, is worthy of celebration… so, let that celebration of love continue… even when breath becomes air….

Thank you. For awareness. For breath and light. For breathing light into me.

– Kumud

P. S. Join us Sunday, Feb 17 at 9am ET / 730 pm IST as we celebrate, breath, light and breathing light. Namaste – Kumud

Breathing light during one of my walks…

The one who took eternal breath, Feb 17 2016…

On Choosing and Celebrating Light

Tags

celebration, choices, light

Some days, light chooses us. On other days, our choices lead to light.

It was one of those Friday mornings when I would have rather rolled over than rolled out. After a cold, wet autumn day when it seemed to have rained, monsoon like, all day and night long, the birds in the backyard woods were silent as summer sheep grazing on a meadow. From the corner of a half-opened eye, I could tell, even amid the pre-dawn darkness, that the cloud cover was still heavy outside.

And yet, reluctantly, I did roll out, for the morning hour called to meditation and the routine of school and work. But I was determined to get that haircut before I got to work today. And so, I made a seemingly innocuous choice of stopping at the neighborhood “Barber Shop” instead of the national chain I usually stop at to get sheared every other month or so.

At first, I thought I had made the wrong choice. The lady hair-dresser was already busy, and the other employee, who looked seemed engrossed with a tablet-like device. My choice was validated though, as soon as he put away his ‘device’ and greeted me with a smile as broad as the the sunshine still hiding beyond the clouds outside. Over the next twenty minutes, my propensity towards asking questions led to me finding out that his daughter just got an internship at NASA, that he had just moved into the neighborhood with his family, that he was studying to be a nurse, and that he would have loved to be an aerospace engineer!

My seemingly innocuous choice to try something different had led to the brightening of the morning. It was like the day had been turned inside out, and I was now fully awake to the possibilities of the rest of this still rainy day. Except that it did not feel cold, dank and dreary any more. I had walked into the company of one of those people who radiate so much light just by being who they are – open-hearted fountains living life to make other people’s life brighter. They are like the cool side of the pillow that is within your reach – you just have to choose to flip it over.

So, what does all this have to spirituality? Thank you for wondering, for asking. I propose that it isn’t always our BIG choices that lead us to light. Sometimes, if not often, it is our choice to make different small, everyday choices that create light for us. Serendipity that brings unexpected joy and restores our faith in the goodness of human beings and the human spirit, is often a product of small, simple choices.

Even if that choice is to walk into the local barber shop that you have been driving by for months and let an ex-football-player who still holds the dream of building a kit airplane some day after he has put his four kids through college.

Who knows? You may get the best haircut you have had for a while. And, your heart will be so full of light that you can’t help but share it with all who ask – what’s with YOU today?!

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just excited to celebrate all those who make (new) choices to create light. Or maybe I’m just excited to celebrate the annual Indian ‘festival of lights’ (Diwali) this week. I have a feeling that it’s going to be a great celebration of light, of the victory of truth and goodness.

Join me. Choose light. Celebrate.

Kumud @AjmaniK

Choosing and Celebrating Light…

Join us in our weekly chat on twitter, Sunday Nov 4th at 9amEDT / 730pm India in #SpiritChat ~ we will celebrate our choices of light. Note that the chat may be an hour later than usual in your time-zone as we switch back to “standard time” (choosing morning light!) in my region. Namaste – Kumud

Spiritual Light and Shadows

Tags

eclipse, learning, light, shadows

For as long as the earth has revolved around the sun, and the moon has revolved around the earth, the play of light and shadows has been part of life on earth. The sun, with its rising and setting, has influenced the rhythm of life on earth for millenia. The moon, wih its reflected light, and its varying phases from full moon to new moon and back, has evoked wonder and inspiration in human hearts for millenia.

On certain occasions, the interplay between the sun, moon and earth is such, that we get events like the total solar eclipse that will be viewed across many states in the USA on August 21st 2017. The moon, much smaller in size than the sun, will position itself at just the right distance from the earth, so as to block the entire light of the sun from observers in certain areas. Day will turn into night for a few minutes, casual observers will marvel at the spectacle, and scientists of all degrees of expertise will collect data for latent analysis and discoveries.

Eclipses – partial and total – happen in our (spiritual) lives too. However, the eclipses that occur in our personal lives, the lives of communities, and of nations, often come with uncertainty and unpredictability. In contrast to the duration and location of eclipses in nature (solar and lunar), which can be precisely determined and planned for, life’s eclipses are not so deterministic. However, experience does teach us that the plays of light and shadow in our lives are temporary in nature.

Shadows cast into our lives tend to remove us from silence, stillness, happiness and joy. In moments of angry reaction despite our better judgement, we inflict short-term and even long-term damage to our own selves. So what is the one key that can sustain us through our moments of darkness, of being in the shadows of partial or even total eclipses? It is perhaps the rememembrance, the discernment of what is temporal and what is permanent in our lives.

What is (are) the permanent Source(s) of light in our lives? Beyond the (temporary) shadows, what is the Truth, the higher purpose of our (daily) existence? How much of our energy do we derive from Light and Truth? How much of our energy do we expend in doing battle with our shadows? What preparation(s) are we making for the temporary but inevitable occasional eclipses of the heart?

Like often felt by the ancients, we need not fear eclipses (and their shadows) as angry punishments from the celestials. We can observe our personal eclipses and learn many life lessons from them. Eclipses can give us an opportunity to evaluate the role of light in our lives. As the wheel of life turns, eclipses will come and go. Why not let them help strengthen our remembrance of That which is permanent?

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Join me as I host our next weekly conversation with the #SpiritChat community on twitter – Sunday August 20th 2017 at 9am ET/1pm UTC. And learn more about the historic upcoming eclipse at NASA’s Eclipse Website. Share your photos at NASA’s Flickr Gallery. Get Ready!

Diamond Ring, Total Solar Eclipse (Micronesia, 2016. Photo by Troy D Cline, NASA)

Celebrating Light and Harvest

Tags

celebration, harvest, light

A confluence of eastern (Indian) and western (American) celebrations brings together the Indian ‘festival of lights’ (Deepavali or Diwali on October 30th) and the American ‘harvest season’, of which Halloween (October 31st) is perhaps the most ‘well-known’ event. Our #SpiritChat community is open to celebration, and I daresay that we are adept at celebrating with harmony.

In lieu of the ‘cover post’ today, I share with you a ‘poem’ that I wrote as I was walking last night – I hope it conveys a feeling of celebrating light and harvest for you.

What is this glow
That seeps through overcast skies
On a nearly moonless night
Way past last light

Could it be a harbinger
Of what is to come
A new year so bright
Filled with blessings of health
And prosperity shining bright!

And through the gloom shines
A single star in the North
Unseen it may be tonight

But make no mistake O traveler
Many millennia have seen this transition
The play of shadow and highlight

What is it that lies outside the realm
Of That omniscient, omnipresent, 
Omnipotent in its purity
With purpose divine –
The One That is sought on this darkest night

Light a single candle of Hope
Build the vessel of trust
Fill it with the seeds of belief 
Watch them grow into faith

And when the harvest season comes
The one that you so fervently seek
Will have no choice but to yield
Heavens full of glowing
Starlight, Moonlight and Sunlight

And from that glowing awakening will emerge
Our harmonious celebration –
of the heartlight!

Kumud @AjmaniK

I invite you to join us in this celebration ~ of light, of harvest, or of whatever else you feel like celebrating ~ in our weekly hour on twitter – Sunday, October 30th 2016 at 9amET/1pmPT/6:30pmIndia in #SpiritChat. Namaste.

Related chats from the archive:
A Spirit of Celebration (8/14/15)
Celebrating the Divine Feminine (10/17/15)

On Light and Levity

Tags

levity, light, lightness, perspective, spirtuality

Two books – “Questions for the Dalai Lama” (library digital edition) and “The Mastery of Love” (library analog edition) merged into a powerful stream this week. “Light and Levity” emerged from reading them concurrently and alternately, interspersed with a few notes from walking among the profusion of Life springing up in some new areas of the local forest…

And then one day we will wake up and decide that we are done with punishing them for their long past mistake(s). We have been carrying this burden of being judge and jury for as long as we can remember. They may no longer even be the person that we think or imagine they were. For all intents and purposes, the person who heaped all that hurt and pain and suffering and grief upon us, all of which was justifiable and (still may be) very real for us – may be long ‘dead’ and gone. Yet, we remain. Transfixed by the past.

We may not admit it, but, to a large extent, we all choose the burdens that we wish to carry – and we have been carrying some of these burdens for so long that they have become part of our identity. We cannot imagine our forward motion or movement without this burden. The burden lowers our center of gravity and may even give us (temporary) added stability, like the sandbags that we throw in the back of our trucks to give us traction on icy pavements. But, is winter not yet over for us? Did we forget that it is spring time, the ice has melted, and that it’s okay to shed those sandbags which do not serve any more purpose?

Yes. Gravity has a purpose, but so does levity. When gravity threatens to whelm us, wash our joys away in an emotional current like the swiftly moving river swollen temporarily with overnight rain carrying away everything in her path – levity and light can be a safe haven for us.

We can choose a different perspective. We can choose to lighten our burden and reframe our vision. Instead of looking down upon ourselves in gravity, or looking behind at the hurts and pains of our past, we can reframe our view. We can bridge the wisdom of levity with the compassion of the future.

A change in perspective is often our friend. It can remind us to be kind to our own selves, to treat our own selves with a bit less gravity and a bit more levity. Consider: if we forget how to occasionally laugh at our own selves and smile at our own infirmities and frailties, how will we find the courage to chose to lighten our dead-weight burdens?

Light and levity beckon to us. They are like the steps leading up to ‘Indian Hill’ that come into view as we round the blind corner on the trail, on a day when we had only planned to ‘walk the flats’ to rest our aching feet from a week of walking the forest…

What is a seeker to do when invited? To climb or not to climb? Is That even a question?! Do I even need to describe the new light and levity gained from walking the forest at the top of That hill?

Kumud

P.S. Join us in #SpiritChat Sunday May 1st at 9amET (USA) / 1pm UTC for our weekly twitter gathering ~ Topic: Light and Levity ~ Hosted by @AjmaniK ~ Light, Levity, Lightness and Perspective will be our themes for May…

On Light and Lightness

Tags

light, lightness, spiritchat, spirituality

The last week of October and the first week of November usually bring a confluence of festivals and celebrations for our household. The five days of the “Festival of Lights” (Diwali) and the many variants of “Halloween” (harvest, trick or treat, scary stories and more) are enjoyed in their various forms and manifestations by the intergenerational and intercultural mixture of folks in our home and our community of family and friends. This year, the entire final week of October seemed to be occupied with light, levity, laughter and lightness.

So, it was natural that my Saturday morning “meditation” about a topic for our Sunday morning twitter chat brought me to “Light and Lightness”. The idea that Light is an important element of our existence cannot be understated. Natural light, provided by the Sun, is said to sustain the existence of all living beings. There is a lot of scientific evidence which shows that the presence of natural Light influences our mood, our activity levels, our ability to heal, and more.

The idea of “inner” Light also finds favor among those who have experienced it as part of their spiritual practice. When I consider the concept of enLightened souls, I think of individuals who have succeeded in removing all “darkness” from their words, their actions, their being. The notional lighting of lamps in the “Festival of Lights” emerges from this striving – to help us remove “inner darkness”, also called tamas. As I try and connect Diwali and Halloween traditions, I find it interesting that pumpkin décor follows a similar notion. The “inside” (of the pumpkin) is removed, and a candle or light is placed within to make the pumpkin glow from the inside out 🙂

Light creates a feeling of Lightness in our spirit, doesn’t it? When we see the sunrise, or the full moon on a dark night, it tends to elevate our spirit. Darkness creates a feeling of heaviness. There is perhaps a good physical reason for this. Physics tells us that Light particles, called photons, are perhaps the lightest “particles” known in existence. Is that why exposure to outer or inner light, has the ability to alleviate any heaviness that we may be feeling in mind or spirit? Like the enlightened master, Osho has so eloquently stated on the role of lightness in attaining wisdom:

“Wisdom is light”. We many not need any more proof of the importance of being light-hearted, shedding our heaviness, our unnecessary seriousness, so that we may rise in our lightness, like a photon of light.

We will explore the interplay of Light and Lightness some more in our weekly #SpiritChat. Join us Sunday, November 2nd at 9am EST / 2pm UTC / 7:30pm India for our weekly conversation on twitter. Note the time shift to 2pm UTC because of a one hour time shift in most of North America on November 2nd.

Until then, I wish you the best of Light, and a Lightness of being that inspires your spirit and all those that you connect with,

Kumud

The Light of Your Spirit

Tags

darkness, light, spirit, spiritchat

We all have periods of light and darkness in our lives. Some times we are living our truth, and at other times we aren’t. We go through feelings of love and of disappointment. A beautiful relationship turns sour because of a miscommunication or a misunderstanding. We celebrate the miracle of birth. And sometimes our lives are cruelly interrupted by the death of a loved one. 

Our spirit, resilient as it is, finds a way to keep moving forward towards light.

In India, the land of my birth, the darkest night of the month (new moon) in late October or early November is celebrated as the “festival of lights”. The deep spiritual significance of this festival was largely lost on me while I was growing up. In fact, my siblings and I were too busy lighting candles around the house, stringing lights, hanging paper based lanterns, eating goodies, buying new clothes and bursting firecrackers ~ the festivities would go on for days.

However, even through all the celebrations, one message was always clear ~ the festival was a celebration of the victory of good over evil. As I grew older, the message of “light over darkness” came more into the conscious focus of my spirit. I came to learn that darkness is just the absence of light and that “there isn’t enough darkness in this world that cannot be removed by the light of a single candle”. 

So, I invite all of you to celebrate your light with us.

Let us discuss ~  What is your truth and light? How do you overcome the ‘darkness’ in your life when it forces its way in? What is the source of your ‘inner’ light? Is our ‘inner’ light enough or do we need external ‘illumination’? 

I am sure your answers will bring out new perspectives on these questions. Come share with us.

Be well. In love and light,

Kumud ~ @AjmaniK

Join the #SpiritChat community on Sunday October 23rd at 9am ET/1pm GMT (‘evening’ edition at 7pm PT/10pm ET). Please tweet with the hashtag #SpiritChat (or visit tweetchat.com ) to join in our scheduled twitter chat. 

P.S. Please leave a comment about the “Light of Your Spirit” if you cannot join us at the appointed hour. We would love to hear from you. Thank you.

Update: Here are the questions that were asked during this discussion:

Q1. What qualities are necessary for developing spiritual truth and light?

Q2. What are obstacles in daily life that prevent us from seeking truth?

Q3. What resources can help us stay on the path to seeking truth and light? 

Q4. What is the connection of spiritual truths to faith? To belief? 

Q5. Is it possible for us to offer light and truth to others? If so, how?

Q6. What will you do this week to share light and truth with others? 

The answers of participants (from the 9am ET main chat) are available at this link: http://bit.ly/sc-tr-1023 or http://search.tweetreports.com/q/topic/spiritchat/id67231.html

The second, ‘evening’ edition of the chat (at 10pm ET) discussed Q2, Q3 and Q5 and other issues. The transcript for the discussion is at http://bit.ly/sc-tre-1023 or http://search.tweetreports.com/q/topic/spiritchat/id67302.html

Feel free to answer any or all of the questions in the comments below. Thank you.