Our Life’s Rhythms

Tags

fathers, music, rhythm, spiritchat, spirituality

At a funeral service for one of my wife’s good friends this week, the priest spoke about the rhythm of our lives… and the importance of being aware of this rhythm and being in harmony with it, so that we may grow in inner peace…

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; – Ecclesiastes 3

This reminder made me reflect upon the rhythm of my own life, and my awareness (or lack) of it on a daily basis. So much of our daily actions seem to be done on auto-pilot. Many of our habits and routines serve us well as they lend structure and stability to our life, which are important for good health. However, certain life events can find us examining, questioning the habits that make up a large part of our life’s rhythms. In music, rhythm refers to a “systematic arrangement of muscial sounds according to duration and periodic stress”.

In life, rhythm refers to any repetitive pattern – the morning meditation, the lunch-time walk, the evening tea, and more. A lot of our rhythmic patterns are informed by our current goals in life, and that which we hold important in the forefront of our consciousness. If we are concerned about some aspect of our health, we may be in a a health-awareness rhythm. Education and career, relationships with family, friends and community – all have their own unique influence on our life’s rhythms. And when our rhythm is off, we know that it is time to seek out those who can help us get our groove back!

One person who was a master-tuner for me and my life’s rhythm was my Dad. A man of few words, he spoke loudly through his dedication to his family and his work. Now that I think about it, he was highly aware of the rhythm of his own life. He knew how to honor silence, to love music, to make time to simply relax with family, and not to ask too many questions. I believe I osmosized a lot his traits, but I am still working on the “don’t ask too may questions” part. I didn’t get the chance to ask him how he mastered that – maybe the secret of that rhythm is in one of the many letters he wrote to me. I need to read them again…

If we are fortunate, we have (had) warm, loving, positive associations with our fathers. And these influences have helped set (a large) part of the tone, the rhythm of our lives. But this isn’t always the case, is it? In fact, in many cases, our relationship with our fathers may be characterized by discord, discontent, disrepair and disharmony. What is one to do in such situations?

Let us not forget. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter…” – maybe it is time we can find a season of healing, of establishing a new rhythm in our heart. We may not be able to do it alone, but with the divine father’s (and mother’s) masterful tuning in our lives, all things are possible…

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Join us as we gather for our weekly conversation in #SpiritChat on twitter – Sunday, June 18th 2017 at 9amET/1pmUTC. The USA observes the “Father’s Day” holiday on this day, and we will do our best to honor those who have played said role in our lives. I will be brewing some special Darjeeling tea and playing some of my Dad’s favorite music from the Punjab. I hope you can join in… Namaste.

Walking in the forest, among familiar terrain, looking at new growth with new eyes, often resets the rhythm of my life… what are some things that help you reset the rhythm of your life?

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

I AM Choosing Love – A Life Changing Choice by @Joan_Kappes

Tags

choices, choosing love, spiritchat, spirituality

I invite you to join our weekly #SpiritChat conversation on Sunday, February 19th 2017 at 9amET/2pmUTC with a special guest, Joan Kappes. Joan will share with us as co-host, and I am excited to be hosting her in our live weekly hour on twitter. Please join in and share your thoughts in a unique discussion in #SpiritChat to celebrate ‘heart month’ with the founder of #IAmChoosingLove. Do read and enjoy Joan’s post below on ‘making a life-changing choice’. Thank You! – Kumud (@AjmaniK)

I AM Choosing Love – A Life Changing Choice

These times invite us to ‘be’ different. They invite us to look inward to hear the still, small Voice that calls us to ‘be’ Love and choose Love. We may feel the invitation, yet how do we make it ‘real’ in our day to day living?

As a jumping off place, let’s play with four commonly used sentences.  Spend a moment ‘feeling’ the energy contained within each:

• I want Love
• I desire Love
• I intend Love
• I choose Love

Notice the distinctions?  Each energy offers the potential for expansion and growth.

Today, let’s focus upon the most energetically powerful word of the four, choose/choosing; it has much to offer us as we navigate these topsy turvy days.

choose; choosing – Verb

1. to select from a number of possibilities; pick by preference:

2. to prefer or decide (to do something)

Per the above definition, choosing is a verb, an action word.  It is intentional.  The individual is aware of their choice. 

‘Choosing’, then is the most valuable, proactive tool we possess for answering the invitation to ‘be’ Love.  Via our free choice, we call into being the channel through which Love can flow. 

Enter “I AM Choosing Love.” The four most powerful action words I know.  Simply, yet profoundly, #IAMChoosingLove is an invitation, a life altering awareness, choice (and habit) that no matter the situation, we always have a choice to Love. 

Pragmatically, how do we choose Love?  The answers lie in the following intentional steps: 

Step 1:  Discover the reality that you always have a choice to Love. How? Become familiar with the phrase, ‘I AM Choosing Love’. Plaster it everywhere-on sticky notes, reminders on your phone, your mirrors, your fridge, in your car – everywhere you go. Become so familiar with #IAMChoosingLove that it repeats in your mind over and over, just like a song that gets ‘stuck’ in your head.  Allow it to flow from your heart, into your mind.  In a very short amount of time you will begin noticing countless opportunities for choosing Love!

Step 2:  Focus:  Focus is a required tool, essential for choosing and living a life of Love.

Step 2 contains two steps:

• Notice the thoughts you are thinking and focused upon regarding the topic or situation at hand, then decide if those thoughts feel either ‘loving’ or ‘fearful’.
• Actively choose either the love-filled thought or the best thought you can find that feels in the direction of a loving thought.

 Step 3: Use and choose: Use the words (silently and aloud) ‘I AM Choosing Love’ then choose the loving thought or action

Examples:

• ‘I AM Choosing Love right now’
• ‘I have a choice in this situation and I AM Choosing Love’
• ‘This person is driving me crazy right now, and I have a choice as to how I perceive them. In this moment, ‘I AM Choosing Love’ instead of (fear, anger, self-righteousness, judgement, etc.)
• ‘I am not feeling very good about myself right now. I could have done this and I should have done that, but instead I AM Choosing Love.  I AM Choosing to Love Me.

The power of #IAMChoosingLove lies in intention and practice.  You are internalizing and creating a transformational habit, so frequency is essential.

These times invite us to look inward to hear the still, small Voice that calls us to ‘be’ Love and choose Love. We can want, desire and intend Love, but the ‘real deal’, the real fun, the real expansion for you and for all of us is to choose Love!  We possess the freedom to choose, so let us choose Love.

– Joan Kappes (@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!’  http://cometotheedgetoday.com

Additional links for choosing Love:

#IAMChoosingLove  – The Birth of a Movement       

#IAMChoosingLove — Pt 1: ‘How’ to Choose Love…Every Day 

#IAMChoosingLove —Pt 2: Stories of Transformation      

The Ultimate Gift – The Ultimate Freedom 

 

 

 

 

 

Reframe. Receive. Rejoice!

Tags

holidays, photography, spiritchat, spiritual

Some of you may know that I tend to take a lot of photographs with my phone when I am walking the forest. Over time, I have learnt the importance of ‘framing’ the scene properly. Proper framing – and reframing when necessary – often provides better perspective for the photographer. In digital photography, attention to framing is perhaps becoming a lost art because snapshotters feel that they can ‘crop’ or edit out the unwanted parts of the photo later. My proposition is that it is better to slow down, take time to (re)frame the scene properly. Reframing avoids clutter – both in photography and in life situations.

Once we learn to reframe our situation, we allow for FUD to dissipate from out life. What is FUD? Fear. Uncertainty. Doubt. FUD is supplied to us from various sources – sometimes even from those whom we know and trust. They may do it inadvertently, without even knowing that their propensity for FUD is clouding our heart’s viewfinder, and preventing us from seeing what we need to see. They are showing us what they think is ‘beneficial’ for us. They truly do believe that they know what is best for us. As you gather with friends and family over the next few weeks, observe the FUD dispensers. And carry some ‘cleaning cloths’ for those times when the frame gets really dirty…

After the appropriate framing, we may need to adjust our camera’s aperture (opening) to receive the proper amount of light. This setting is also called ‘exposure’. Again, with digital software, we can ‘correct’ the exposure ‘after the fact’, after the photo is taken. But we may save ourselves a lot of unnecessary angst in life if we ‘receive the correct amount of light’ to begin with. Over- or under-exposure to life’s situations often waste our precious mental and spiritual resources to fix the situation ‘after the fact’. We may even have to return to reframing! With proper tools and training, we can learn to receive the appropriate ‘light’ and energy to move to the next step along our path, at the precise time that we need it. Just in time receiving!

So, we have framed properly and received the correct amount of light on our camera’s sensor. What’s next? If we had managed to hold the camera perfectly still, whle having kept proper focus, it may be time to rejoice! Reframing and receiving help us create a joy-filled awareness of time and space. We admit the possibility to recreate a moment of joy every time we reframe a negative situation. We have the potentiality to recreate joy when we open ourselves to new light, and shadows.

In reframing, receiving and rejoicing, we can recognize, reduce and eventually remove the fear, uncertainty and doubt that hold back our spiritual progress.

What situation or relationship can you reframe in your life today? How can you adjust your life’s input filters to receive the proper light and guidance? Are you ready to rejoice, to find joy in the moment, through reframing and receiving? Pause and examine. The answers may perhaps be the best gifts you can give to yourself.

Namaste,

Kumud

Join us Sunday, December 18th at 9amET/2pmUTC in #SpiritChat on twitter – we will reframe, receive, rejoice and reduce FUD 🙂

Original View of the Rocky River (Fall 2016)

Reframed View of the Rocky River (Fall 2016)

On Choices and Gratitude

Tags

choices, gratitude, spiritchat, thankfulness

Novemeber is the month when the focus of many in the USA shifts to giving and gratitude. It is perhaps brought on by the anticipation of the Thanksgiving season and the holidays that follow in the month of December. In order to honor giving (of thanks) and (the attitude of) gratitude, our four Sunday conversations in November will focus on four aspects of gratitude – the choices, the preparation, the expression, and the giving.

We begin with choices, and choosing gratitude. As I see it, our ability to choose is a wonderful freedom which we may often take for granted. In fact, the extent of how much inner freedom we experience may be directly correlated to the choices that we truly have. Beyond the number of choices, the quality of the choices that we are afforded is also important to our well-being. In order to dig a bit deeper, I came up with the following four classifications for our choices. I posit that true gratitude results from an optimal combination of one attribute from each class.

Class 1. The time-frame that the choice affects. It may be short (immediate), medium, or long. Of course, these are all ‘relative’ in nature – a ‘short’ time for us humans is an entire lifetime for a butterfly. But, sticking to humanity, the weight and consideration that we give to short-term choices is often much less than we give to our long-term ones. What we choose to eat for dinner is often an easy choice as compared to where we are going for vacation or what we choose as a career. Short. Medium. Long.

Class 2. The space-frame that the choice influences. These may be personal, local, or global. I could choose to sleep the extra fifteen minutes and lose my ‘window’ for morning meditation. The effect of that choice is mostly personal. Although, if said choice influences my attitude negatively, it could affect the locals around me. An example of a choice that (in)directly affects the local community, town or city around me is my decision at the voting booth. I would at least like to believe that it does. Examples of global influences of my choices would be ‘paper or plastic’, ‘GMO or non-GMO’, ‘gasoline or electric’ and so on. And then, of course, to weave the spaces all together is the ‘butterfly effect’. Not so cut and dry, is it?

Class 3. The domain that the choice impacts. Mind, Body or Spirit. What we choose to input into our mind (through our senses) is a qualified choice that we make in every moment. As I write this post, there are a lot of external inputs competing for my mindspace. I am choosing to actively filter out a lot of the inessential ones. I hope I am choosing well for the sake of some degree of coherence. The body and its well-being is largely dependent on the quality of our food and air and water choices. And what about our spirit? How do we make choices that will be helpful and healthful for the heart and spirit? We may have to make choices that address the health and healing of our mind and body. Then, within a sound, healthy mind and body, gratitude will flourish, and our spiritual choices will be most impactful to us and those around us.

Class 4. Our choices affect our attitudes. According to Sage Patanjali, these are – compassion (towards suffering), joy (in their joy), friendship (to those friendly to us), and indifference (to those of wicked intent). It is when our choices grow these four attitudes in a positive way, that inner gratitude manifests fully. Our peace becomes unshakable and has a permanence about it. In such choosing, we are not anxious or fearful that our choices are going to be negated by those made by others. We have made our choice in the highest awareness possible to us in the current state of our mind, body and spirit.

There are a lot of possibilities for us in our choices, particularly when we view them in the four-class framework presented above. In fact, there are one hundred and eight of them. As we live our lives, and make our conscious, sub-conscious and super-conscious choices, we can use this classification to help guide us. If the classes seem arbitrary or incomplete to you, I invite and welcome you to extend, modify and edit them. Create your own choice framework. Play with it. Evaluate it from time to time.

Above all, I know that our freedom to choose, even if others consider us to be making a mistaken choice, is our greatest freedom (Mahatma Gandhi). And for that, we can be grateful. Isn’t that wonderful?

Kumud @AjmaniK

Join us in our weekly #SpiritChat on twitter – Sunday, November 6th 2016 at 9amET/2pmUTC/7:30pm India. Let us discuss our choice framework with a sense of gratitude. Namaste 🙂 (Note that the USA reverts to ‘Standard Time’ this Sunday, so adjust your clocks if you are in the USA. For other countries, the chat will happen an hour later than usual – unless you are choosing to push back your clocks by an hour too!)

On Stability and Uncertainty

Tags

spiritchat, spirituality, stability, uncertainty

Some of you may be familiar with my “walking” habit which often takes me into the local parkway and the various bridges, valleys and rivers. There is a kidney-shaped lagoon that I often walk by as part of my “figure eight” circuit – the inside track of the “kidney” forms part of the circuit. I have often looked to the forest on the other side of the lagoon and wondered about the view from that side of the water. My penchant for stability and ‘staying within my comfort zone’ of exploration had so far kept me away from the other side. But that changed in an unexpected way this week. I stepped onto the slippery slope of uncertainty…

The rest of this “essay” is an extract from my “walking journal”. It speaks to my perspective on stability and uncertainty, and the balance that we try so hard to create between them. But the balance does not remain for long. And we ourselves often proceed to subconsciously or overtly upset that very same balance in order to follow an unseen call of self-exploration. Read on.

The other side of the lagoon called to me today – even though I did not know of that when I pulled in and parked in the Lewis road riding area – I was going to walk my walked-before hill that ran along the west branch of the rocky river – and yet I found myself veering off to the right along the riding paddock along the tree line – and the adventure that was to unfold was remarkable as much as it was subtle in the making –

A walk along the trail high that found me at the edge of the lagoon a few hundred feet below – some portions of the small trail ran close enough to the edge to make your heart race a beat or two faster as the drop was almost vertical to the floor of the valley – and I walked on to the turnaround where the majestic tree stood backlit against the rising sun –

Somehow I could not shake the fact that I had discovered the other side of my frequently walked lagoon and yet I was so far away from her shore which lay at the bottom of the hill – maybe another day I will uncover the path down to it, I reasoned with myself. Stability.

And as I walked back on my return journey, I glanced down and saw a clearing – a plateau about halfway down the sweeping cliff – inviting me, tempting me to descend so that I could get some closer photos of the lagoon quickly turning bluer as the sun rose higher in the sky. Uncertainty.

Maybe, if I can make it down halfway, that will be a start for the next time when I can go all the way to the floor – I rationalized to myself. I chose a “path” where if I started sliding on my descent I would be able to grab on to some young tree trunks or at least some exposed tree roots…

Off the trail and onto the hill I stepped. Into uncertainty. The floor of the steep hill floor was soft yet firm enough – the consistency of a mixture of mulch and the underlying shale on which the trees seemed to flourish – and so, sideways I descended – like a goat finding his way, right shoulder towards the decline with my right foot perpendicular to the slope, leading the dance down the mountain…

Of course, once I got halfway down and caught my breath. I admired the bluer blue of the water below. Sure enough, there was another path revealed to me. It was clear that I could reach the base of the hill and the shore of the lagoon. Maybe next week, I thought. But I recalled that the forecast was for the weather to turn rainy and cold from here on out – this was probably going to be the last dry and warm day of the season and the hill would probably become unnavigable once the weather turned…

So, down I went towards the lagoon’s shore, discovering trees full of tiny redwings and burrows in the soft mulch – probably the practice grounds of the many baby chipmunks that scurried across the hillside… and as if in welcome, a few acorns fell from trees into the clear lagoon water, sounding like thunder laps as they struck the surface…
And the very geese that would scamper at my sight when they would see me walking the other shore were now swimming towards me… one of them swam by me as if I didn’t exist – and the other pair put up quite a show as they bathed and preened on a fallen log eight in front of me. I guess that they felt no threat from me or were shocked to see any human on this side of the lagoon – so, they simply ignored me 🙂

The ascent up the hill faced me now – I had figured on my way down that the ascent would be easier than the descent – but I was wrong. I had to get on my hands to grab the ground a few times to navigate up the steep, soft incline. Often, what I thought to be tree roots that I could grab for support turned out to be chewed up, hollowed out branches. More uncertainty. So, I decided to take a circular route up the hill instead of a straight-on ascent. An attempt at stability. This strategy worked well as I huffed and puffed my way up the second half… I guess I’m not in as good of shape as I think I am!

So, that’s my story of the other side of the lagoon on a beautiful autumn day where Mother Nature blessed me abundantly for letting go of my preconceived notion of what constitutes a ‘walking path’ and stability. I learnt that a little bit of faith in oneself backed by past experience and learned intuition can mitigate the risk and fear that one feels when stepping into the unexplored regions of uncertain yet familiar terrain.

The rewards for doing so are tough to describe in words – for how does one describe the sight of a backlit tree in all her glory and the multifarious views of leaves changing color and letting go when their work is deemed complete… they spend an apparent lifetime on the branches in stability, yet they are happy to let go as they are set free in their yielding to uncertainty.

What is your current (spiritual) story about uncertainty and stability? Is it an even balance? What gives you stability? What invites you to step into uncertainty? I invite you to share with us, Sunday October 9th 2016 in our weekly #SpiritChat conversation on twitter.

Namaste – from the other side of the lagoon,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Enjoyed this essay? Leave me a comment if you would like to see more of these… Thank you for reading!

Trail’s End – Backlit Tree

The Hill Invites me to the Lagoon Floor

The Other Side of the Lagoon

On Spiritual Leadership

Tags

leaders, leadership, spiritchat, spirituality

There are perhaps as many definitions and viewpoints of leadership as there are people in the world. This is because, at any given time, we are apt to find ourselves in a (small or large) leadership role in life. Some of us plan to be leaders while some of us simply ‘fall into’ it by serendipity – like a river finds itself at a sudden bend on its path…

In order to narrow the focus and scope of the conversation, let us talk about “spiritual leadership” today. I believe that we all are spiritual beings at various stages on our path. It is perhaps safe to say that where we are and how we got here and where we are going – all three aspects have in some way been influenced by spiritual leadership. Our spiritual influencers may have begun to affect us as early as when we were in the womb, or maybe even before that. Looking back in our spiritual timeline, our granparents who influenced our parents were perhaps our very first spiritual leaders. That constitutes our past.

In the present, we may be experiencing the impact of spiritual leaders by way of teachers, trainers and fellow travelers on our chosen path. The influence of spiritual leadership percolates into our hearts through their writings, their speeches and lectures, their poetry or any means by which we can tune into their message. All it takes is a coherence of our heart energy [1] with the heart energy of our spiritual leaders and we can be instantly transformed to a higher level in the spiritual plane. Have you ever picked up a book – or someone gave you a book – and you started reading it to find an instant ‘heart coherence’ with the author?

That’s is the role of spiritual leadership. It elevates and inspires and transforms us in a subtle, serene, yet unmistakable way. Our receptivity and openness and willingness is necessary. Both, to follow, and then lead. Then, leadership influence – a two-way exchange – is possible. The followership manifests in a way that we cannot return to our previous energy level because we have experienced a quantum energy leap in our spiritual state. The leadership manifests in a way that we cannot help but radiate our new energy level to those who come within our sphere of influence.

So, who are some of your spiritual leaders or spiritual leadership influencers? How did they influence you in a ‘change-of-state’ way that transformed your spirituality? Do you view yourself as a spiritual leader of some measure? If so, what is your domain of leadership influence? How may we evaluate the spiritual strength of a potential leader that we are considering ‘following’?

I invite you to our “spiritual leadership” conversation – Sunday, October 2nd at 9amET/1pmUTC in #SpiritChat on twitter. We will have some tea and cookies, share some leadership quotes and maybe even some photography and poetry. We will celebrate the birthday of Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi – arguably one of the most impactful spiritual leaders of the 20th century!

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

Related post from 2015: On Spirituality and Non-Violence of Mahatma Gandhi

[1] The Heart’s Code by Paul Pearsall

Peace as a Spiritual Practice

Tags

peace, spiritchat, spiritual practice, spirituality

There is an unmistakable hint of autumn in the air this morning. As a matter of fact, it is more than a hint. There is a definiteness of purpose in the breeze as it rustles the leaves on the trees who have enjoyed an extra-long stay on the branches due to the grace of a longer than normal summer. Most of the leaves are still adamantly green, steadfastly oblivious of the cycle of nature that is imminently at their doorstep.

Watching this play of wind, earth and clear-blue sky that is pure as the driven snow that is yet to come brings a wonderful sense of peace to my being. The serenity seems to merge well with the theme of peace observed as the “International Day of Peace” earlier this week by the United Nations. In this moment, as I sit here and write, this is my reality. However, in the moment that you read this, your reality may be far from the peaceful easy feeling that I currently am feeling.

So, let me step back and acknowledge that we perhaps most appreciate the peace-filled moments in our gardens when we have experienced moments that lacked any semblance of peace. When we are engaged in our ‘daily struggles’, when we watch the pain of those we love, when we hear the despairing cries for justice of those we barely even know – in some or all of those instances, peace may be the furthest thing from our hearts and minds. In fact, we may even question the value of, feel guilty of owning our “inner peace” when it is clear that there are many – sometimes in our own families – who are lacking of it.

In the book, “The Heart’s Code”, the author suggests that we humans tend naturally towards pessimism because that has served us well on the road to survival as a species. So, one may non-scientifically extrapolate that we would be naturally pessimistic about creating “sustainable peace” in our world. If we engage in even a cursory reading of history, the incidences of our less-than-peaceful attitudes and actions towards each other provide enough evidence to support this extrapolation. Current events further seem to support that the idea and ideal of “sustainable peace” may not be the best solution for humanity at large.

The fact is that we are at a crossroads in our journey. On the one side lies the path of (sustained?) disharmony, violence and destruction. The ones who are fighting for justice, for equality, for representation and more seem to have grown weary of waiting for hope to deliver. On the other side, the path of a (fragile?) peace and the voices counseling non-violence, love, patience and more. Which way shall we walk? Or may we need to discover an alternate ‘middle way’?

I propose that we put our natural pessimism on hold. History is replete with examples of those who, even though they may have started their walk down the path of violence, ended their walk on the path of peace. Let the theory of “sustainabile peace” state that if there exists a single instance where a commitment to peace has produced long-term harmony for a family, a community, or a nation – then, yes, peace does have a chance. It may take extraordinary courage and extraordinary spiritual force of leadership to propose a plan, act upon, and maybe even ‘fight’ to remain on the path of peace. Yes, it may take an extraordinary amount of work to create ‘sustainable peace’. But, I ask you. What other alternative is there for the heart to thrive?

Where do we begin? You know the answer. It begins with you and me. The path the ‘sustainable peace’ is to bring back sustainable joy into our heart. I hope that we all have (or are diligently working towards developing) a sustained, consistent, non-negotiable spiritual practice that is positively impacting our inner-peace on a daily basis. For me, it is a combination of meditation, walking in nature, and staying connected with positive energy people (through books, music and community) that help me build a spiritual practice of ‘sustainable peace’. How about you?

I invite you to share your thoughts on this topic of “Peace as a Spiritual Practice” in our weekly chat – Sunday, September 25th at 9amET. The community would love to hear from you.

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. In observance of ‘International Peace Day’, we will have a special #meditation ‘sit-in’ at 8pmET on Sunday, September 25th. The meditation will be led by @amalik1818 and serves as an invitation to those who would like to experience #heartfulness (see heartfulness.org) – a ‘sustainable peace’ activity 🙂 Do join us!

A Peace Bench on one of my walking trails

On Freedom and Letting Go

Tags

freedom, lettingGo, spiritchat, spirituality

We begin the month of July, having benefited from all the reflections on discussion topics related to #energy in the month of June. The first weekend of July celebrates #freedom in the two countries of Canada (Victoria Day) and USA (Independence Day). So, it is perhaps appropriate that we had decided on #freedom to be the theme of #SpiritChat weekly chat topics for this month.

The first chat topic for this month will be “Freedom and Letting GO”. It isn’t that we haven’t talked about #freedom or #LettingGo before – but I do not believe that we have talked about them in conjunction. I imagine that we all have our individual ideas of what #freedom means to us, and conversations and celebrations can help us revise and clarify the importance of #freedom. So, take a moment and stop reading. Consider the questions:

• What does true #freedom mean to you?
• How does #freedom manifest in your life?
• How does personal #freedom affect your sense of responsibility?
• What is the greatest #freedom – the one that you would not want to give up at any price?

Now that we have clarified our current ideas about #freedom, we can visit with #LettingGO. The idea of ‘letting go’ often creates a sense of loss within us. The ‘sense of loss’ may exist even if we know fully well that ‘letting go’ is the best choice for us. Maybe that is why, when we meet the prospect of ‘letting go’ of some ‘thing’, our instinctual response is to resist. We have tried ‘letting go’ before, but the ‘sense of loss’ that comes in return, is not a good trade. Of course, the ‘thing’ may be any multitude of things – an idea, a relationship, a person, a place, a habit, an emotion, a memory, a perceived virtue, an object of great attachement, and more. It’s all about connection.

The deeper our connection in space and time to the ‘thing’, the tougher it is for us to even entertain the notion of ‘letting go’. The more threads that are woven between us and that ‘thing’, the greater the difficulty in ‘letting go’. So, how do we get to the point where ‘letting go’ becomes a reality for us? One way of getting to that point is when our freedom to live our full life of grand potential is being impacted by our resistance to #lettingGO. This raises a few more questions:

• When was an instance where you chose #LettingGO to enhance your freedom? What was the result
• Are you currently in a situation where you are choosing to live with less freedom over #LettingGO?
• Think of an instance where you helped someone in their #LettingGO process. What did you learn from that?
• What are some non-physical ‘things’ that you could immediately let go of and gain more freedom?

It is when we unclench our fists and let go of our oh-so-tight grasp of nothingness, that we can let the river flow through our spread-apart fingers and experience the joy of freedom. It is when we uncurl our toes and spread them just a tiny bit, that we can feel the earth send us a message of freedom through our bare feet. It is when we begin to let go of all of that which puts shades on our heart in the summer of our life, that we can celebrate freedom.

I hope I have made a small case for the conjunction of #Freedom and #LettingGO. Make your case by joining us Sunday, July 3rd 2016 at 9amET/1pmUTC on twitter in a #SpiritChat conversation with @AjmaniK and the community.

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. I do realize that this may be a big family-holiday-Sunday for many in Canada and USA – if you cannot join us live, we will see you next week with more #Freedom! I invite you to answer some questions posed above in the comments, or reflect on them in your journaling. Namaste.

Fireworks ‘Letting GO’ – Photo by @AjmaniK

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!