Negin is a social entrepreneur and activist, who is committed to inner change. She is also a writer, a dreamer, a consciousness and communication coach, and an educator. She has been meditating for a long time, and rejoices in supporting others to get in touch with their inner being. She also uses poetry and music sessions to bring about catharsis, and unite people in oneness.

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Negin M. Khorasani

<h4>
 NEGIN KHORASANI&nbsp;throws light on
 the beauty of the inner Self – its nature and its role in discernment.
</h4>

 Many of us who are in the process of self-refinement are striving to
 become more and more gentle and loving; to respond in a state of love
 rather than fear-based reactions. Sometimes we are unsuccessful.. Later,
 when we review the events and don’t feel so good about them, we justify
 ourselves by saying that being severe is another godly quality that is
 needed, just as Shiva had both qualities. So is it just a matter of
 recognizing the right time for the right response? This complicates
 things – it brings the mind into the picture to decide on the right
 response, and the mind never seems to make it simple for us.

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<h4 style="text-align: center">
 Our task, as Rumi says, is to remove all our inner barriers against love; 
 barriers that separate us from the Ultimate. 
</h4>
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 Another approach is through the heart, where we develop Godly qualities.
 Our thinking faculty becomes a field to receive intuition, our intellect
 evolves into wisdom, and our ego becomes as subtle as possible, so that
 we are free from self-centeredness, and self-consciousness, and expand
 into the consciousness of Divinity. We see nothing but the presence of
 God, inside and outside.


 <img
 class="img-float-left has-img-center-in-mobile lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/ultimate_gentleness2_b9fd2f87d7.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-04T07:09:13.994Z"
 alt="ultimate-gentleness2"
 />In this state, we are no longer driven by plans to be either gentle or
 forceful. We are in a state of utmost surrender and acceptance. If
 applying force is needed from our side, it happens in a natural and
 intuitive way, without us thinking or planning for it. It is not driven
 by our ego but by our higher Self in constant communion with the Divine.
 Love rules it, not defensiveness to protect our ego. Love sees no
 barrier and separation; love sees all as part of the Divine and does
 what is needed.


 When we see all that comes our way as coming from the Divine, as pure
 wisdom and as the ultimate good for all, we develop faith and later
 reach a state of surrender to the Divine. So we go with the flow without
 the least resistance. In this state, our desires and egotistical motives
 have vanished. There are no more personal likes and dislikes, no more
 resistance, and that to me is the ultimate gentleness. I always think of
 water as a lesson in how the gentle conquers the hard. When water
 reaches a big rock, it does not fight with it but just finds its way
 around it, and ultimately rolls the big rock from its place without
 spending any extra energy to do so. Strength is embedded in gentleness.
 There is no need to strive for it.


 I have been always amazed by how ancient traditions consider our inner
 Self to be the feminine side of us. According to ancient collective
 wisdom, we all have a feminine side, our subtler, finer Self; our inner
 self that represents true strength. There is a tarot card, Strength,
 which has a picture of an angelic female who has tamed a lion. This card
 represents our inner Self, which is able to tame our animal nature in
 its primal form. In fact, the will and passion of our instinctive nature
 need not be broken but refined and brought to consciousness, so that all
 levels of creation come into harmony. The persuasive ‘forceless force’
 of the feminine can nurture and induce cooperation from everyone and
 everything, stilling disruptive energies by harmonizing differences in
 the spirit of collective goodwill. That is what the balance between Yin
 and Yang, Anima and Animus means.

<hr />
<h4 style="text-align: center">
 So we go with the flow without the least resistance. 
 In this state, our desires and egotistical motives have vanished. 
 There are no more personal likes and dislikes, 
 no more resistance, and that&nbsp;to me is the ultimate gentleness.
</h4>
<hr />

 Our task is not in trying to think when to be loving and gentle and when
 to be severe and tough. Our task, as Rumi says, is to remove all our
 inner barriers against love; barriers that separate us from the
 Ultimate. To sublimate our ego and purify our consciousness more and
 more. To immerse ourselves in Godly remembrance so much so that the
 right thoughts, words and actions emerge in any situation in a natural
 and effortless way. There is no need to plan to be severe or to protect.
 When we dissolve the ego and remain connected to the Divine, are we not
 just a drop in this vast ocean? Are we not one with all? Are we not
 feeling already protected and safe? The task is just to dissolve
 ourselves – fana, as they call it in the Sufi tradition.

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<h4 style="text-align: center">Article by NEGIN M. KHORASANI</h4>
<hr />

Ultimate gentleness is the ultimate strength

<h4 style="text-align: justify;">NEGIN M. KHORASANI searches for the quiddity&nbsp;of&nbsp;happiness.</h4>

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What would you wish for if you had a genie? A villa in the Canary Islands? A
 Lamborghini? A luxury vacation? Or something more sustainable: a bank account that never ends, which would maintain
 a high standard of living with all these things and many more? Or perhaps you wish for beauty? Or for the man or
 woman of your dreams, your perfect mate, with whom you can live happily ever after?
Let’s pause right here, on the very last phrase, “happily ever after”, the words that
 all our fairy tale stories end with. Isn’t it the core and the essence of all our endeavors? Isn’t this everlasting
 happiness the reason we need our jobs, titles and money? After all, happiness is what we pursue through all these
 things. We believe they will make us happy, be it our hard work, our career, our leisure activities, our
 relationships, and our material possessions and money. So why not focus on our goal in the first place, instead of
 the tools that might help us to achieve it? Why not focus on happiness?
So let’s look at the quiddity of happiness. How exactly can you define it without
 getting into the trap of equating it with the ways and means to getting it? So to be very clear, happiness is not
 the money, the luxury lifestyle, the most exotic and desirable food you may think of, a perfect relationship, or
 being in a happily balanced family life with your children around you, etc. These are all ways we think will help us
 reach a state of happiness.
In order to define happiness, let’s recall the inner state and condition we have when we
 achieve any of the items on our list. How did you feel in that moment when you reunited with a loved one after being
 apart for a while? How did you feel when you were holding your baby for the first time? Or how do you feel in simple
 moments of satisfaction, for example after a good meal in a nice environment? It seems that in all these moments we
 experience a feeling of our needs or desires being fulfilled, whatever they might be, so we are able to go beyond
 and immerse ourselves in a state of balance, serenity and harmony.
We are where we have to be, in the blissful present moment. We do not want to go
 anywhere else, as we are happy being exactly where we are. We feel a sense of belonging to something bigger than
 ourselves, connected, surrounded by it, and fulfilled. It is a feeling of being safe and supported, complete, whole
 and at home.
This feeling of connection in the moment, of feeling safe and at home, seems to be the
 key factor associated with happiness. So to further our search for happiness maybe it would be wise to search for
 its essence; this feeling of connectedness, unity and inner contentment. This brings us to the heart; not the
 physical pump that we have in our chest, but the field where we receive our emotions. It is the core of our being
 where we can settle in and enjoy the feeling of connectedness to the whole of creation and feel at home. So it seems
 the journey of a thousand miles has brought us to the closest possible corner of the world, right here, available
 anytime; our heart. Isn’t it amazing how available is that we have searched for throughout human history?
Now the question is: how to access this seemingly familiar and close corner, which tends
 to recede and stay far from reach? Both logic and experience says the means to simple things must be simple.
<hr>
<h5 style="text-align: center;">So when we go within, tune into it, 
 feel the connection and behold it, 
 day after day, 
 we start a process of becoming 
 one with it.</h5>
<hr>
Meditation is a simple way to access the simplicity of the heart; to feel the inner
 presence, the joy we all are in our essence, the light that we are. This is our natural state. So when we go within,
 tune into it, feel the connection and behold it, day after day, we start a process of becoming one with it. This
 apparently very insignificant and passive activity of meditation that we do every day is the most potent way to
 explore this inner world. It also allows us to create our day and in perusing it persistently we can create our life
 in a balanced harmonious state that is full of happiness.
Heartfulness is the process of finding the philosopher stone rather than the gold. For
 then we can turn every ordinary thing into gold, every ordinary moment into a joyful experience. That is the
 miraculous alchemy of Heartfulness, when you are in that lovely corner of the whole world, your heart.

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<h4 style="text-align: center;">Article&nbsp; by NEGIN M. KHORASANI</h4>
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