Paul Stamets

The grand recyclers

Paul is an American sociologist and bioethicist. He is a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and served for 15 years as the Bioethicist for NASA. He is Editor-In-Chief of AJOB Neuroscience, the official Journal of the International Neuroethics Society (INS), and a director of INS.&nbsp;

Paul-Wolpe.webp

Paul Wolpe

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">PAUL WOLPE lives and breathes ethics. He speaks with one of his ex-students and one of our editors, KASHISH KALWANI, about how we rely on ethical decision in everyday life—at work, in our families, and also for ourselves. Also, how ethics, values and morals are connected, and how it is very rarely about right and wrong.</h4>KK: To break the ice, tell us three fun facts about yourself.PW: Fact number one: My father was a rabbi, two of my three brothers are rabbis, and one of my two daughters is a rabbi. I am surrounded by spiritual people. Fact number two: I put myself through graduate school as a massage therapist. Fact number three: I have a hang gliding license.KK: Wow, that’s cool.How would you define ethics in the simplest way?PW: My definition of ethics is not in textbooks or the dictionary: Ethics is how we determine, express, and assess our values in the world. Morality is how we establish, maintain, and conduct our relationships as expressions of those values.KK: &nbsp;I remember you sharing that on the first day of class. It’s not about what is right and wrong, but a conflict of two rights. That really struck a chord with me.PW: I think we’re taught about ethics incorrectly. We’re taught it’s about determining right and wrong, and sometimes it is. With children, you need to set the fundamentals: It’s wrong to steal, it’s wrong to be violent, it’s wrong to lie in certain cases. But once you’ve got those fundamentals down, the rest of your life is spent figuring out a different question: I have a set of values I want to express in the world, so what do I do when they come into conflict? That’s what ethical dilemmas are. They’re rarely about right and wrong. We phrase it as, “What’s the right thing to do here?”, but what we really mean is, “What’s the best right thing to do here?” because there’s not just one right thing, there are many right things to do.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Ethics is how we determine, express, and&nbsp; assess our values in the world.&nbsp; Morality is how we establish, maintain, and&nbsp; conduct our relationships as expressions of those values.</h4><hr>I teach ethics to doctors, and give them cases about conflicts of values. The patient wants to do one thing, while another thing is in their best interest; a patient’s autonomy is a good value, a doctor’s responsibility to take care of their patients is a good value, and they can’t both be honored. How do you get to the best right thing to do?There are certainly wrong things you can do, like killing the patient so you don’t have to worry about it. But there are usually a range of right things you can do. Being mature is about trying to figure out what the best right answers are.KK: &nbsp;That’s a great example. What inspired you to pursue a career in bioethics, and what has been the most rewarding aspect of it?PW: I’ve got an overdeveloped sense of justice. Trying to figure out when people are expressing their highest best qualities is something I’ve always done. It’s part of my personality. I was always interested in science, medicine, and technology. Putting those things together, there was this wonderful field called bioethics.Now it is a really well-known field, but back then it was pretty obscure. What’s so wonderful about bioethics? Once you develop an expertise, you can apply it to anything. Any business has ethical challenges; any group has ethical challenges, internally and in relationship with the world. If ethics is how we express our values in the world, then every interaction we have has ethical elements to it.&nbsp;Deciding how a business is going to treat its customers and employees, how safe its products will be, how safe its workplace will be, how it’s going to advertise and where, how it’s going to manufacture its goods in another country with cheaper labor, where the laws don’t protect workers well; each of these is an ethical decision. Businesses are making ethical decisions all the time. Professionals are making ethical decisions all the time. Individual business owners are too. In our relationships—with friends, with partners, with parents, when we walk into a store and talk to a clerk—there is always an ethical element.You asked what is the most rewarding part. In my career, I was bioethics advisor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). I was bioethics advisor to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, I was on committees in Canada to give out millions of dollars of state funds to worthy projects. I have sat with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. I’ve met famous singers and directors. I never expected where ethics was going to take me. I thought I was getting into an academic profession and never thought my career would allow me to do many of the things I’ve done.KK: &nbsp;A lot of our readers are young adults. How can we think ethically in everyday life situations? Given that there are wars going on and climate change happening, what is the importance of ethics in the life of a young adult?PW: Ethics is challenging. It’s not simple and it’s not easy. Many times, the ethical thing is painful and means you don’t get some other desirable outcome. For businesses to do the ethical thing might mean losing money. For me to do the ethical thing might mean turning down an opportunity, or turning down income, or losing a friend. We joke and say ethics is not for sissies.It’s easy to make casual ethical decisions. It’s when we’re faced with a situation where doing the best right thing means giving up something else significant that we often fail. We all do it, but it’s particularly problematic when big businesses do it, governments do it, people with power do it. Part of what defines a leader for me is taking the responsibility to do the best right thing for an organization, a country, or a group. It’s a hard standard to keep, and we see it failing over and over again.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">In our relationships- with friends, with partners,&nbsp; with parents, when we walk into a store and talk to a clerk— there is always an ethical element.</h4><hr>KK:&nbsp; How do we make an ethical choice in daily life, then?PW: We teach a methodology to businesses on how to make ethical choices. It’s a little different than how we make ethical choices in our individual lives. Very often, we know what the ethical choice is, but the struggle is, “Do I really have the courage to do what I think is right?” There are situations where the right ethical choice is controversial or problematic, where none of the choices seem completely right. That’s an ethical dilemma. Very often they require compromise. That’s when we tend to talk them over with friends and loved ones.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/right_wrong_ethics2_0384260e4a.webp" alt="right-wrong-ethics2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_right_wrong_ethics2_0384260e4a.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_right_wrong_ethics2_0384260e4a.webp 600w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/right_wrong_ethics2_0384260e4a.webp 600w," sizes="100vw">After studying ethics for a long time, the expertise we develop is to take apart an ethical situation into its pieces and clarify. For example, I do rounds three or four or five times a year with the OB-GYN residents, they send me their ethical dilemmas, then we talk about them. They have trouble teasing out what is a social issue, a clinical issue, a legal issue, an ethical issue; they’re wrapped up together. I help them take it apart, because the ethical piece is the conflict in values. And that’s different from the clinical, social, and legal pieces. Until you have clarity about that, it’s hard to see what to do. Sometimes it helps to start by clarifying values: “What do I think is the value I should be honoring? Is it patient autonomy, or the best interests of the patient?”In the United States in the 21st century, it’s patient autonomy. That’s what the country’s decided is the value we’re going to honor. It’s not true in every country. In some countries, a physician will override a patient if they think what the patient is doing is not in their best interests. In the US it used to be that way too, but we made a decision to prioritize the value of individual choice. It’s not about us being right, and another country being wrong. We have a best right choice, while another country based on its traditions, its history, its values, its religious background, its political beliefs, etc., says, “We think the best right choice is to do what’s in the best interest of that patient in view of the people who really understand medicine. And, eventually, we believe the patient will thank us, even though right now they may not.” And that’s a defensible, ethical position.We try as parents to give our children an ethical compass, because most of the time when we make decisions we don’t sit and analyze them and take them apart. We intuitively do what we think is best. Developing a good intuitive ethical center; part of the job of parents with their children is to teach them how to do that.KK: I have so many follow up questions. One question is: Do you feel guilty for some decisions? You mentioned that you talk with nurses and you teach doctors. What if your own bias affects their understanding?Another question is about parents teaching their kids an ethical compass: Will the bias of parents with their traumas be passed on to their kids, influencing their decisions?PW: We all have biases. In the ethics community, we believe that, for difficult and complex decisions, we need to talk about them in groups. During Covid, I was President of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors, which encompasses every organization that runs a bioethics program in the US. There were so many tough decisions we had to make.At the beginning, we thought they might run out of ventilators at certain hospitals. We were writing policies for hospitals on who would get ventilators if there was a shortage. I started an every-two-week phone call of all the bioethics presidents and leaders of centers. We discussed all these things, and ended up publishing papers on those questions.While I was at NASA, space flight was evolving from being centralized in a government agency, to happening in private space agencies all over the world. We brought together a group of ethicists and people in the private and commercial fields, because there are a lot of ethical questions about putting bodies up into space and doing experiments on those bodies. Bodies in space are a scarce resource.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">So we bring together people with a wide range of experience, coming from many different fields, cultures, religions, and backgrounds, then debate these questions and try to come up with the best policies we can.&nbsp; Then we publish a paper somewhere so that other people can read them.</h4><hr>When commercial companies start putting bodies in space, pharmaceutical companies, medical instrumentation companies, and commercial device companies will want to send up instruments and experiment on those bodies. NASA has a well-developed process for that, but the commercial companies do not.So we bring together people with a wide range of experience, coming from many different fields, cultures, religions, and backgrounds, then debate these questions and try to come up with the best policies we can. Then we publish a paper somewhere so that other people can read them.When it comes to individual ethics, or teaching children, it’s not just parents; kids learn ethics from their peers, schools, and religious institutions. The best thing we can do is to understand that we all have biases. When children learn different values and ideas outside the family, entertain them in a serious non-defensive and nonjudgmental way. Don’t immediately have a kneejerk reaction and say, “Oh my God, this is wrong!” Entertaining and discussing ideas have helped children develop a critical sense and a critical judgment about ethical values. It’s a tough job being a parent.KK: &nbsp;Is there anything more you’d like to share with our readers?PW: One of the most difficult things around our values is protecting them. We feel like anyone who challenges our values is threatening us at a deep level. Listening to another person’s articulation of their values is often threatening. Many of the fights in the world are really about a blind unwillingness to entertain the values of the other side. We defend our values by branding them as right, and the values of others as wrong, evil, or misguided. So we’re back to the beginning! This violates the whole idea that ethics is about conflicts of values, and people prioritize values differently.Deep listening to the other person is a skill we can develop. If I wanted to leave a message it would be that we need more deep listening in the world right now.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/right_wrong_ethics3_a3a754ae26.webp" alt="right-wrong-ethics3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_right_wrong_ethics3_a3a754ae26.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_right_wrong_ethics3_a3a754ae26.webp 600w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/right_wrong_ethics3_a3a754ae26.webp 600w," sizes="100vw">KK:&nbsp; I feel that listening is such a powerful tool, clearing lots of misunderstanding and miscommunication. &nbsp;What is next for you?PW: I’m stepping down as director of my center in June and building a new center for conflict resolution, mediation, and peacebuilding at Emory. I’ll be traveling on sabbatical next year to Oslo, Geneva, The Hague, and other places, talking to people in different conflict resolution centers, and trying to build some innovative models.KK: That’s great. Thank you for taking the time for this.&nbsp;

Right, wrong, and the morals of ethics

Paulo Coelho

Gentleness

Experience

Paulo has been a tennis instructor in Italy for 25 years and is an international ATP coach. He has also been a Heartfulness practitioner for 30 years. His passions include physical activity in nature, writing and rock music.

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Paulo Lezzelle

<h4>&nbsp;</h4>PAOLO LEZZELLE draws simple parallels between Heartfulness and sport, in this article focusing primarily on authenticity and creativity.&nbsp;<hr><hr><h2>What I call “mine”</h2><hr>“Education is that which remains, if one has forgotten everything he learned at school.” quoted by Albert Einstein<hr><h4>A story</h4>In my personal opinion John McEnroe has been the greatest tennis genius of all time, superior even to Roger Federer. McEnroe didn’t play better tennis than Federer, which is quite impossible, but his game was so original, unpredictable, creative and extraordinarily talented, that no one was ever able to imitate him. In contrast, in the course of time many Federer imitators have appeared on the scene, some of them very highly ranked, while Federer remained the most successful and elegant player. Nonetheless, John, that quick-tempered brat from New York, was simply unique.After a fast escalation to become the top seed in tennis, and after keeping that position for some years, John got a little lost in the meanderings of life and went down the ladder. His friend and epic rival, Bjorn Borg, had quit the scene at quite a young age and in the meantime true war machines were emerging, like Ivan Lendl, who based their strength on extremely strict programs for athletic training, diet, concentration, and care for all aspects of the game. All this was relatively new for the ’80s. In sport in general, there was still a lot of space for a level of lightness, for a kind of poetry, and for moral values to be upheld. The world of sport was full of human stories that maybe today would sound ridiculous. Since those days everything has slowly degraded, but this is another subject.When our friend John tried to take back the throne, he was unprepared for the new wave of merciless competitors. He realized that he was short of the mark in aspects of the game where others now surpassed him, and this included the planning of yearly tournaments. So he made a resolution to follow the way of hard training: gym workouts, diet, strict life conduct, and all that the task required.He climbed back, but not as much as he wished. Not to number one. He was still one of the best players in the world, but he was unable to pass a certain threshold. Things being as they were, he realized that the harsh regime wasn’t meant for him and he decided to follow his instinct. So he went back to hamburgers, fish and chips with beer, and a schedule of tournaments chosen among the cities of the world he enjoyed. He restarted to play his beloved guitar. He also restarted to quarrel with umpires and opponents whenever he felt like it. Last, but not least, as part of the show, some racquets were smashed on the ground when he lost points. Within a few months he was back on top.Ladies and gentlemen, John McEnroe!<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/heartfulnesds_sport_part3_2_18c96e6616.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T10:53:19.188Z" alt=""><hr><h4>Love what you do</h4>The world of sport is replete with such stories. After all, all the themes are a hint to one thing: You can study as much as you wish, you can be committed, you can train hard and cover all your shirts with sweat, but there will always be two parameters that matter more than anything else:Number one, enjoy and love what you do.Number two, whatever you learn has to become intimately yours, so much interiorized and mastered that you can even dare to break the classic technical and tactical standards of action and display something that belongs to you and you alone. Only then will you have the right to call what you know and do “mine.”I’m lucky to be friends with an athletics trainer who has trained top tennis players and football teams like Milan and Juventus. One day I asked him what it is above all that determines change and improvement in a specific performance. I’ve asked the same question to many good trainers, but his answer pleased me the most.<hr><hr><h5>Whatever you learn has to become intimately yours, so much interiorized and mastered that you can even dare&nbsp; to break the classic technical and tactical standards of action and&nbsp; display something that belongs to you and you alone.</h5><hr><hr>In short, he explained that even though it may seem that an exhausting amount of repetition will give good results, it is not really so. Why? Because if the very change we are struggling for is not known as “good and pleasant” within our personal neurological map, it will not work. As a result, in a difficult moment of a match (or trial), we will return to old patterns because they are the ones we know better. The old style gives us a sense of confidence, notwithstanding the fact that we know it isn’t the most effective.In other words, Ivan Lendl’s harsh training, while giving results, will not work if it is not heartily welcomed and enjoyed. It was good for him but not for others. Rather, it may be better to do less, possibly in a more creative way. We must always take into account the charge of stress and frustration that any kind of activity brings with it. It could even suppress the talent of a youth who is by nature more delicate and less bold than others, who may require longer to emerge, with more emotional experience in the sporting field.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/heartfulnesds_sport_part3_3_d614b3ddc7.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T10:54:51.767Z" alt=""><hr><h4>What is mine?</h4>This topic of what is “mine” in sport brings us straight to another field, where “I” and “mine” have a fundamental value, but not an egotistic value – the field of spirituality. If meditating with great fervor was enough, if following a master blindly was enough, if participating in important events was enough, we could all have been masters a long time ago! Obviously it’s not like that, and it shall never be like that. Unfortunately, we need to repeat the very same things before we understand. We need to go off course, to boast uselessly, and to get confused. We also need to deceive ourselves into believing that all the efforts we have made – often with admirable tenacity – were not so great, because perhaps they were not lived in true joy, passion and love.In a sense it’s like saying, “Well, I did a lot, but it was not my way, it was not really me.” I think this is why the great Masters are always able to surprise us and puzzle us. In their behavior there is never a dogmatic, static truth, but whatever they do they can absolutely call it “mine.”<hr><hr><hr>

Heartfulness sport - part 3

<hr class="vertical-space1" />
<h4>
 <spanundefined
 >PAOLO LEZZELLE draws simple parallels
 between the Heartfulness system and sport, in this article focusing
 primarily on how we master time.
 
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<h3 style="text-align: center">
 Time, Timing, Timelessness
</h3>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 <spanundefined
 >I wish to speak about one of my favorite topics in the sporting field,
 which is a “sense of time” or, more appropriately, timing. I’ve always
 been fascinated by it since I was a child watching sports on TV. Of
 course, I could not understand it in detail way back then, but I sensed
 that any kind of athletic action was strongly determined by the capacity
 of the athlete to catch the right moment to do something. Be it running,
 jumping, or hitting a ball, it seemed to me that the basic dynamics was
 the same, namely, to be there in the right way at the right moment. I
 didn’t know it, but this is what timing is in its essence.


 <spanundefined
 >Later on, as a tennis trainer, I could give a sound meaning to these
 observations, and come to understand the importance of this aspect of
 sport, which in my opinion is hidden behind more apparent aspects.
 Needless to say, I’m deeply grateful to some extraordinary mentors whom
 I’ve been so lucky to meet.


 <spanundefined
 >Oddly enough, the topic of timing is very much related to the topic of
 strength. Assuming that there are different types of strength (I won’t go
 into detail), it may appear that specific physical acts require a lot of
 strength to be performed successfully, which implies muscular mass. But it
 is not so. Most efforts, even the hardest, are much easier if performed
 with synchronicity among body segments. This means that the kinetic chains
 performing the act function without interruption, with smoothness and at
 the right time (kinetic chains are interlinked muscular groups).


 <spanundefined
 >This synchronicity is mainly responsible for strength or energy.
 Therefore, the right timing is the factor that reduces effort and enhances
 the endeavor of the whole performance.


 <spanundefined
 >Then magic can happen! The more we become familiar with this mechanism,
 the more we seem to enter a dimension where time is sort of suspended.
 Slowly we realize that it is no more a question of timing, and becomes
 instead a kind of timeless matter.


 <spanundefined
 >We could propose an equation:
 


 <spanundefined style="color: #ff0000"
 >More timing = more feeling of timelessness.


 <spanundefined
 >That is to say, less and less effort. Personally, I find it
 fantastic!


 <spanundefined
 >Any sportsperson knows that when they find themselves out of tune, out of
 synchrony, for any reason, they start making mistakes. At that point there
 is only one thing to do: slow down. Slowing down allows us to regain the
 necessary detachment to restart afresh. There is no other way. When you
 are fighting against time (as in biology, so in sport) you will never
 win!

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 <img
 decoding="async"
 alt="Heartfulness-sport-part2-2"
 class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Heartfulness_sport_part2_2_bd2dba3170.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T09:41:49.013Z"
 />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <spanundefined
 >This question of time, in all its permutations, is a theme innate to life
 itself. It appears obvious. Life can often appear to be incessant
 confusion, a continuous weaving of so many things, often out of our
 control. Viewed from this perspective, sport is an invaluable
 teacher.


 <spanundefined
 >There is a time to study, a time to ponder, a time to be idle, a time to
 have fun, etc. Timing is so precious, even in apparently small things; in
 conversation for instance, there is a time to speak and a time to listen.
 Good radio DJs are expert in this. Even in cooking, time is essential.
 Needless to say that in music timing is everything!


 <spanundefined
 >So also in life, as in sport, we should not apply too much strength to
 reach a result. On the contrary we should do the right things in the right
 way at the right time. The formula is the same.


 <spanundefined
 >The right predisposition to timing is also acquired through the practice
 of meditation. It helps us find an easy flow of things (the famous “here
 and now” of atavic memory), the functional juxtaposition of the many
 elements of chaos, where we can perceive more clearly the best solution to
 follow with the least effort. A good practice always promotes good timing.
 If we are touched by grace and this daily timing takes us by the hand to
 lead us gently into the dimension of timelessness, then it all gets a
 lighter and wonderful tinge.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h5 style="text-align: center">
 <spanundefined style="color: #ff0000"
 >The right predisposition to timing is also 
 acquired through the practice of meditation. 
 It helps us find an easy flow of things 
 (the famous “here and now” of atavic memory), 
 the functional juxtaposition of the many elements of chaos, 
 where we can perceive more clearly 
 the best solution to follow with the least effort.
</h5>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <img
 decoding="async"
 alt="Heartfulness-sport-part2"
 class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Heartfulness_sport_part2_3_13ddea10ed.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T09:42:57.144Z"
 />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <spanundefined
 >After many years of practice in both sport and meditation, I can say that
 a sporting practitioner, who wants to reach a certain level of performance
 without implementing a meditation discipline, will find insurmountable
 barriers sooner or later. His or her work will look like a computer
 painting – beautiful, excellent perhaps, but alas without a soul.


 <spanundefined
 >Time and space are interlinked. Spiritual masters tell us this all the
 time, Einstein explained it to us, and toddlers prove it to us while they
 innocently play lost in their joyful present. And novice Yoga
 practitioners can also get lost in meditation, finding themselves in an
 undefined elsewhere, still keeping a certain state of presence. We can’t
 explain what it was, but it was beyond space and time. From time to
 timing, and going beyond into timelessness.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 style="text-align: center">
 Article by
 <spanundefined
 >PAOLO LEZZELLE
</h4>

<hr />

Heartfulness sport – part 2

<hr><h3 style="text-align:center;">BALANCE AND PASSION</h3><hr><h4>PAOLO LEZZELLE draws simple parallels between the Heartfulness system and sport in this article focusing primarily on balance, relaxation, feeling, joy and passion.</h4><hr>I wish to draw some simple parallels between aspects of the Heartfulness practices and sport, although to really do justice to this would require a long time and extensive research, because each reflection seems to attract another one. So the themes presented in this series are approached in general terms, since the peculiarities of any single sport are innumerable. The implicit invitation to sports people of all kinds and levels is to start these practices and dive deeper into Heartfulness to find the hidden pearls.The goal of Yoga is the condition of balance. It is difficult to achieve because it is not a defined, fixed, and constant condition that we can acquire. It rather seems to be something which constantly eludes us. The more we try to make it a concrete thing, the more it slips away from us. It’s one of the innumerable mysteries of the spiritual quest. Balance exists, or rather it can exist in anything, but it does not exist by itself, per se. Wonderful!Similarly, in sport, balance is critical. Here too it is the goal par excellence. It is made up of many things, a lot of qualities put together; while in another way, it’s made up of nothing at all! To feel that we are in balance means to feel that this “nothing” is so perfect in itself that we are in need of nothing else.Total balance, in sport and in the spiritual context, is therefore very difficult to preserve in time, because it is a light and intangible condition.&nbsp;<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/heartfulness_sport2_18f5c8152c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:11:58.665Z" alt="heartfulness-sport"> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Many of us have already experienced the surprise and gratitude that result from extraordinary experiences in meditation – sometimes in the form of very subtle spirit, other times in the form of a true opening to higher knowledge, to where our limit permits. But alas! We are also familiar with the inability to keep those conditions for any period of time, for many reasons. A sad waste indeed.In sport it is the same. Be it a fast- or long-duration sport, it’s the condition of focus and full involvement that makes the difference. We try to allow this condition to take hold of us and let it act by itself, on our behalf, so to say. In sport, as in music, it is called being “in the flow,” letting what is beautiful in us manifest freely.If meditation is a constant education in higher perception, practice in sport is the preparation to be ready in any sense for competition, the true testing ground of our attainment.The Heartfulness method speaks of technique, perseverance and sincere commitment, but most of all it speaks of feelings. Were our feelings not our major guides, it would be an empty container, and sooner or later it would become a sterile, boring routine.Putting together technique and sensitive introspection is not a simple job. Some people find it easier to rely on one approach, others prefer the other way. If we think about the evolution of the innumerable training methods of the last twenty years, we find that they seem to swing between two opposite extremes – technical improvement on one side and incentive to inner perception on the other. In the middle is a bit of everything.A high-level athlete can draw what they need in the moment, relying on pure instinct as well as on specific acquired capacities. Throughout this process, a relaxed condition is an important prerequisite.All sports need a basal condition of relaxation. By this, I don’t mean comfortable and passive inactivity, either mental or physical, for example, when we are sunbathing. On the contrary, it’s being in a clear and tranquil state of presence to whatever happens inside and around us. It is not by chance that in Heartfulness we have a technique of relaxation to be performed before meditation.<hr>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h5 style="text-align:center;">Most sports require the right mix of strength, endurance, reactivity, fluency, and much more. These are needed both in practice and competition.</h5>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<hr>Most sports require the right mix of strength, endurance, reactivity, fluency, and much more. These are needed both in practice and competition. Furthermore, we need the Queenly ability – the ability to change. I would say that this is an art more than an ability. Getting out of our comfort zone, finding new motivation to train at the next level, looking for different strategies in competition … few sportspeople have a natural talent for these assets, though they can learn with serious dedication.We need to change to improve. Yes, but it is easier said than done! Unfortunately, we know how much our habits and complexities keep us stagnating in the same trends, despite our efforts. In the sporting field, this often happens because we make the mistake of seeking change only through hard work and extreme abnegation.Work is essential, of course, but the way is another: There is no real change without joy and passion. Even at the level of the nervous system, it’s only pleasure that brings forth the acceptance of new modalities, not fatigue. Undesired efforts and exhausting training sessions can give good results in the short term (though with an extensive amount of energy that sooner or later will present the bill), but it’s only passion that makes barriers appear exciting and makes the long road look like a joyful and enriching journey.&nbsp;<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/heartfulness_sport3_00e7b28d89.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:13:09.394Z" alt="heartfulness-sport"> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h5 style="text-align:center;">For a practitioner committed to the spiritual quest, and for athletes who give themselves totally to the sport, to be in the condition of balance is like piercing effortlessly through a hurdle-ridden maze, always pointing higher despite results.</h5>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;All this and much more comes under the umbrella of balance. To perceive it as a strength having its own life within us, guiding us out into the world, is true manna. For a practitioner committed to the spiritual quest, and for athletes who give themselves totally to the sport, to be in the condition of balance is like piercing effortlessly through a hurdle-ridden maze, always pointing higher despite results.<hr>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by PAOLO LEZZELLE</h4>&nbsp;<hr>

Heartfulness sport - part 1

<hr><h4>PAULO LEZZELLE looks at the noble value sport has as a human endeavor, and how we can all benefit from the quest for wellbeing, aspiration and continuous improvement.</h4>Since time immemorial, through the expression of our bodies, humans have sought a way to transcend the mere physical and athletic aspects in an effort to perceive their inner resources. This quest for higher levels of self-knowledge has always been there, more or less conscious at different degrees.The <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-story-of-the-Olympic-Games" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Olympic Games</a>, born from the ancient Greek philosophy, are just an example, maybe the highest in the symbolic sense. The same could be said about the noble tradition of the martial arts of the Far East, or the relatively recent tradition of sports connected to the conquest of mountains.In any kind of sport, there has certainly always been a latent aspiration to draw the best out of ourselves, and thus reach a sort of realization. In this context, it seems that the word “expression” goes hand in hand with the word “aspiration.” We could say that sport is that very activity which allows us to express ourselves in a full, powerful, and genuine way, the prime impulse being aspiration.Through the body, we go inside into an abstract dimension. And through this we emerge out again to improve our performance in the physical field. It is a perpetual work of osmosis, where the planes compenetrate and dialogue to find the balance of all forces. And this is but one of the beauties of sport.Sport is a living thing – more than living! Despite the level of performance, be it a weekend amateur or a professional, sport awakens vital and beneficial energies in every sense: physically, mentally, and emotionally. There is likely no other activity in the material plane that can produce such a sense of well-being as sport can do. And this can be experienced in any sport, the choices being very vast.Together with music, sport is a show that gives true and beautiful emotions. Empathizing with high-level athletes is easy, because it is absolutely clear that what comes to our perception is much more than a mere run or a goal or a winning shot. Real admiration is then aroused in us, an admiration for intangible qualities that now come true in concrete form, either seen on the screen or live. How we would like to feel the same in our own way!In essence, sport is like a mirror, and is a very powerful instrument of growth which can open up to a learning process that goes on and on and on. Sport is one of the few situations where we cannot bluff, because the results speak for themselves! It is just an inexorable truth and it applies to any level concerned. Sport compels us to take stock of what we are and humbly come to terms with it. It’s all there: What is your potential? How can you express your potential? What are your shortcomings? What motivates you to persevere?To go beyond limits doesn’t necessarily mean breaking records. Not at all! That is not the real goal of all efforts. Anybody can exceed a limit, not the one pre-fixed by some standards or by a specimen, but their own, whatever that is. That’s where the real challenge lies, and it’s a wonderful, exciting, intriguing, funny, and evolutionary challenge. That’s where sport acquires its noble value.When we witness a great performance, where the outcome is determined by such noble qualities more than physical prowess, then it becomes clear from where it all starts – the heart. Be it a team or single sport, it is always the same energy which really makes the difference. Courage, strength, perseverance, trust, introspection, generosity, group spirit, selflessness – all of these qualities come from the heart.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by PAULO LEZZELLE</h4><hr>

The beauty of sport

Pawo is a Bhutanese filmmaker and photographer. His film, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019), was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, and had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.

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Pawo Choyning Dorji

<h4>PAWO CHOYNING DORJI is a Bhutanese filmmaker and photographer. His film, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019), was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, and had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. Pawo speaks with PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about the making of Lunana, the teachings of Buddha that inspired major parts of the film, and his hopes and wishes for young people today.</h4><hr>Q: Thank you so much for joining me.PCD: Thank you for having me, Purnima.Q: How did the idea of Lunana come about?PCD: I grew up outside Bhutan, as my father was a diplomat. I was born in India, and lived in Europe, the Middle East, and America. After finishing college, I returned to India and joined a Buddhist monastery in Himachal Pradesh. And after all that, I returned to Bhutan.Bhutan is very guarded about exposure to the outside world, so a lot of Bhutanese wonder what the rest of the world is like. When I returned, I went through the same journey as the protagonist of the film. He is reintroduced to his culture and falls in love with it. There is a lot of my own story in the film.One inspiration was the younger population seeking life in Western developed countries like Australia, Canada, and America. In Bhutan, we are going through that right now. Thousands leave, seeking happiness.I thought, “If our people are seeking life in the urban glittering lights of Western civilization, I will create a story where the protagonist goes to the opposite end of the spectrum. Let me take this protagonist to the remotest, most desolate place in Bhutan. ”That happens to be Lunana. In our language, Lunana means “the dark valley,” because it is so far.So the theme was: could we really discover in the shadows and darkness what we are longing for and so desperately seeking in the light? We could have cheated on the location, making the movie in a village with electricity and road connection, but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted us all to go through the experience and live in the darkness. I felt that it would then translate into the film. It is almost a docu-feature.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/image1_700x617_53a48d34d7.jpeg?updated_at=2023-04-11T09:32:03.034Z" alt="image1"><hr>Q: Lunana is a spark of inspiration. I can’t associate the word “darkness” with it.In many ancient traditions, a teacher is given importance next only to God. You don’t really know God, but you know the teacher who can take you where you need to go. You chose to portray the protagonist as a teacher, rather than a doctor, a social worker, or any other noble profession. That aspect has a deep significance. Can you tell me why you made that choice?PCD: There are two reasons. One is exactly as you say. Bhutan’s culture, tradition, and spirituality are based on Buddhism. And the teacher-student relationship is very important. We have this name “Dalai Lama” meaning “root teacher.” The root teacher takes the most important position in our life. So, I made the protagonist a teacher as he holds the most important role in Bhutanese culture and society, yet he is not happy and he wants to leave.The second reason is that I am trying to bring reality into my films. Reality is my inspiration. In the Bhutan of today, there are two common things. One is that most young people are leaving for Australia. The second is that most of the people who are quitting their jobs are teachers.I had many different aspirations. One was to tell the story of Bhutan, and another was to highlight and preserve our disappearing traditions. Yet another was to reach out to the teachers who are quitting their jobs every year. I told my friends that if I can save one teacher from giving up their profession, it would mean more than any award the film received.Q:That is a very noble idea. There is another interesting thing I observed in your film. Today we live in an age of excess. We produce more food than we can eat and we dump the excess food. We fight wars for trivial matters and aspire for space habitation, and yet you show in your movie that there are extremely joyful people living amongst us who do not have shoes or electricity, and who do not know how to use a toothbrush.While the gap is vast, and I cannot even fathom how it could be bridged, you very sublimely, subtly, and creatively bring this “social activism” to the forefront. My heart is deeply touched. Did you consciously think of these things, or did it just emerge?PCD: I am a lover of Bhutan. I made this film as a love letter from Bhutan to the rest of the world. I wanted to showcase and celebrate our culture and our traditions. I grew up outside Bhutan in a very materialistic world, where, as you said, there is a lot of excess. Where many people are not happy. Bhutan advertises itself as a happy country, and there is some truth in that. Unfortunately, we are losing touch with that because we too are falling into the race to modernize, the race to become worldly. Bhutan’s traditions are rooted in Buddha’s teachings. Buddha always talked about wishing all beings to be happy.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_letter_from_bhutan3_27b2dc7748.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T09:33:00.643Z" alt="love-letter-from-bhutan3"><hr>But what is true happiness? In this movie, I wanted to touch upon what happiness is for the people of Lunana. It is really two things. One is contentment. Contentment is a person saying, “I have enough.” He is much wealthier than any rich person. A rich person is never content, always longing for more and more, so they are never happy. In Lunana, the people have very little, yet they are content. Their lives are full. They are not rich but they are wealthy people.Buddha also taught that we must accept impermanence. Much happiness comes from that acceptance because everything is always changing. When we are attached to those things that are changing, then we will not be happy.So I really wanted to put across these two teachings of contentment and acceptance.<hr><hr><h4>Much happiness comes from acceptance because everything&nbsp; is always changing. When we are&nbsp; attached to those things&nbsp; that are changing,&nbsp; then we will not be happy.</h4><hr><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_letter_from_bhutan4_8dce6c003c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T09:33:39.621Z" alt="love-letter-from-bhutan4"><hr>Q:The stark difference that you brought out between wealth and richness is a very poignant message.Spoiler alert: for those of you who have not yet watched the movie and wish to do so, please stop here, otherwise, continue reading.The protagonist leaves Bhutan for Australia toward the end of the movie. I was waiting with bated breath to see what he would do. I thought he would have a change of heart and stay back in Lunana to educate the poor children. But he left. I was surprised, yet I felt relieved that it was realistic, not like a Hollywood movie where the impossible happens. The ending made me weep. So, why did you choose for Ugyen to leave Bhutan?PCD: Because my movies reflect reality! In a real story, Ugyen would leave. He has passion and ambition.The second reason is the magic of storytelling, of cinema. If he had stayed in Lunana, the story would have ended there. He stayed for the kids. He stayed for his yak. He stayed for the girl, Saldon. That would be the end of it. But by Ugyen going to Australia, and singing the song he learned in Lunana in the club in Australia, the story continues. When the movie ends you wonder, “What did Ugyen do? He sang that song. Does it mean he will go back to Lunana?”With that thought, each viewer creates their own ending. Then it becomes a much more personal journey.Lord Buddha said that the art of storytelling is the creation of illusion to connect us to reality. And that is also cinema. We create illusory stories and illusory emotions and imaginary story lines to connect us to reality. My hope is that the audience can relate to their own journeys in life.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_letter_from_bhutan2_700x467_4f47fe1c65.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T09:34:23.063Z" alt="love-letter-from-bhutan2"><hr>Q: That is eye opening, Pawo. Lunana will always be close to my heart. It talks about the choices we make, our accountability, and the repercussions of our decisions. I hope and wish that all young people will watch this movie.I would like to ask if you have any message for young people today.PCD: I hope you will watch Lunana. It is a small film that my team and I made in the world’s remotest classroom, dependent completely on solar power. We made it with no money, and it went from the world’s remotest classroom to the Academy Awards. At the Academy Awards, I did not represent Bhutan, or myself, or this film. I represented every struggling filmmaker, storytellers who at times do not have the confidence to believe they can make it. If a film like ours can make it, if you put your heart into it, if you have the passion, there is the possibility to make it. That is how amazing this world is.Second, I am from Bhutan and I am a Buddhist. I want to share something about my culture and my spirituality. Buddha said that among all the animal footprints, the elephant’s footprint is the most majestic, powerful, and inspiring. Likewise, the Buddha said that among all the thoughts we might have, the thought of impermanence is the most majestic and inspiring.<hr><hr><h4>My advice to young people is&nbsp; to reflect on impermanence, accept impermanence and change,&nbsp; and use them as tools&nbsp; for your career.</h4><hr><hr>Why I am saying this is because the world we live in has taught us to be competitive and worldly; thoughts like impermanence are rare. They are looked down upon and considered useless and a waste of time. But it is impermanence that makes everything possible. Everything is constantly changing. Impermanence doesn’t mean the end. Impermanence means change. Impermanence means that if you do not have something, perhaps you will have it. Impermanence means that a little film powered by solar batteries and yak dung from the mountains of the Himalayas can make it to the Academy Awards.So, my advice to young people is to reflect on impermanence, accept impermanence and change, and use them as tools for your career.Q: Thank you, Pawo, for your wisdom.PCD: Thank you.

A love letter from Bhutan

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Pema Chödrön

Truth

The sacredness of life

We have a choice

Meditation

The present moment

Peter is a pioneer in the field of professional life coaching, and is the co-founder of the Coach for Life Institute. He has been the co-creator of many coaching and learning models during the last 30 years and has trained over 3,500 people to be professional coaches, all over the world. He is the 2005 recipient of the ICF’s Global Peace Award, and was one of their first Master Certified Coaches.

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PETER J. REDING

<hr><h4>In October 2019, PETER J. REDING spoke with VICTOR KANNAN about being a pioneer in the field of professional Life Coaching. In part 1, they speak about the role of helping people to be authentic and raising awareness.</h4>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;VK: Peter, thanks for joining me. We’re having a great day here in Atlanta; it’s pretty nice, sunny and cool and comfortable.PR: Same here in Orlando, Florida. And Happy Diwali to you and to those who are celebrating that today around the world.VK: Yeah, this is Happy Diwali. The world is becoming a smaller place, with everybody celebrating each other’s sources of joy.PR: That’s absolutely true, and the world needs as much light as it can possibly get, so this is a particularly happy time for the world and not just for the Indian people who are celebrating Diwali.VK: Thanks Peter. You’re a coaching profession pioneer, teaching holistic coaching since 1996. You’re also one of the founders of the Association of Coach Training Organization, and you have a book to your credit called Positively Brilliant Self Mastery: Reclaim Your Authentic Self Now. So you have enough in your DNA as a Life Coach. I would like to start off by asking, what is a life coach, what do you do as a life coach?PR: A life coach is really a facilitator of awareness of the client. We tend not to give it bias, we’re not mentors per se, we’re not educators, nor are we parental authority figures. A professional coach will ask questions to reveal to the client who they really are, and what they really want to do, and what brings a sense of satisfaction, completion, fulfilment to the client. Then we ask the client if they’re willing to do that. So I’m in the business of raising awareness.VK: That’s a pretty broad base. In terms of raising awareness for a CXO, who’s supposedly already aware, how does that happen? When they advance, do they become less aware? Or is it the general risk of life?PR: A CXO is still human. They get caught up in the busy-ness of life and they forget who they really are in many cases. So, if you’re human then get a life coach.VK: What in your experience are the keys to success for a CXO? I thought they are the “aware” people already, and yet you’re raising their awareness.PR: I’ve been one, first of all, and I’ve trained thousands of CXOs, and as you may well know yourself, they are generally task oriented. They’re there to get the job done; they’re there to produce results. And if you think about the number of hours they spend in “getting it done,” it’s an external drive, mostly. There are exceptions; CXOs who are hugely compassionate human beings. They come from the heart, from the soul, they come from a place of supporting individuals as a sense of humanity. But, I would propose to you, there are more CXOs around the world that are driven by the external “What’ve you produced for me lately?” “Where are the results?” “How come this isn’t done?” “You’ve dropped the ball.” And so, in the coaching relationship, its “Who are you?” and “How do you want to bring your most authentic self to your work?”So then there is an internal drive; an internal passion, compassion, that comes through and still gets the stuff done. I’m not saying that CXOs need to switch hundred percent over to Heartfulness. For me it’s a both/and, not an either/or situation, and it’s again raising that level of awareness for the individual on an on-going basis. It says, “What’s the right thing to do here from the place of humanity?” “What’s the right thing to do in terms of …?” “Yes, let’s get the job done, but let’s recognize that we’re working with people who are mothers and fathers, who have great responsibilities beyond their work.” And if they’re in the wrong position, then let’s bring that to the awareness of the employee and to the CXO and reposition them – find a place where they can bring their passion, their strengths, their natural God-given gifts and talents, to a different job, as opposed to the one they’re suffering in right now.And this goes on. I don’t know if you noticed, but learning continues throughout life. So, it’s kind of like that angel on your shoulder that says, “Is this what you really want to do?” “Is there a better way?” “Is there a way of bringing more of your authenticity into these negotiations, into letting this man go?” That’s what we’re talking about here.VK: You talk quite a bit about authenticity. And I’m reminded of an interaction that I had with my spiritual Guide when I asked him once if he had any tips for me so that I could progress faster. He said, “Be yourself.” It was quite a long time ago, and that has helped me just be myself. I understand it’s very difficult to coach a person who’s pretentious, but what do you mean by authentic Self? And also, you’re talking about authentic transformation, so what do you mean by Self and transformation that are authentic?PR: That’s a great question. It’s a compound question, actually, so let me decouple it just a little bit. Authentic transformation – transformation mostly – around the world, and this includes South America and North America, India and Asia, has the connotation of “You’re not okay the way you are. I want to transform you into ______” – it could be a better employee, a better communicator, a better parent, a better spouse, a better citizen of the world. Actually I have a bit of a pushback with the word “transformation,” but the way I use it is a deep, personal, back to who you really are. In the words of your spiritual Guide, “Be yourself.” Exactly “what and who am I?” is at the core of that question. Am I the product of my parenting? Am I the product of being an American citizen? Am I the product of being in the generation I am? Am I the product of the education I received, and all the influences around me? You know, you have to do this or you have to learn this in order to be successful, to be accepted, to be loved. So, for me the “who I am?” is a much, much deeper place. It’s a very spiritual place, it’s “who did my Creator make me to be?” What have I been endowed with from that creator (whatever name you give the creator)?<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Transforming_Awareness2_5f529227a9.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:22:45.571Z"><hr>Now, in order to be true to that, comes the authenticity part. To what degree am I honoring those innate gifts? Not the skills and talents that I’ve learned because I had to learn them, but the natural innate God-given gifts and talents that I have been endowed with? Am I developing those? Am I using them in my work? To what degree? Am I true to my life’s purpose? By life’s purpose, I mean in all my different roles – as an educator, as a coach, as a spouse, as a brother, as a son, as a citizen of the world?The third case is core values. Everybody in the world lives by values. My question, has always been, “Yes, I’m living by values, I’m living with a purpose, I’m utilizing strengths that I have; but whose strengths, whose purpose, and whose values? Are they the values of my generation, are they the values of my parents?” Again, it is not all bad. I’m not pointing a finger and saying, “Mom and dad really screwed up.”And, are they my core endowed values from my creator in terms of my most authentic way of being? So, I come back full circle to authenticity.So, transformation is not so much to be somebody different for the sake of my job, or because of what somebody wants from me in the current situation, but to what degree am I living in alignment with who I’m meant to be?Deep, deep dive. There’s a lot of internal returning to my true Self, what I call now my core Self, as opposed to my adapted or adopted self. And therein lies the challenge. It’s life-long learning and a life-long course correction to what degree am I authentic, to what degree have I drifted away from that sense of authenticity.That’s the absolute core of my work, why God put Peter on the planet. I support people to find that core Self.VK: I love that a lot. People are not brave enough and honest enough to confront this primal issue of authenticity, and I don’t think there can be any combination of success and happiness without authenticity. Some may be successful, but at the end of the day if they’re not authentic I think happiness will elude them.PR: I totally agree with that, one hundred percent.VK: Peter, where does acceptance come into the picture? Because acceptance has got a big role to play in authenticity, does it not? And not just the “aware” part.PR: Acceptance, first and foremost, self-acceptance. “I screwed up, I’m human. I hope I can do better the next time.” Again, awareness! Am I aware that I screwed up, or that I didn’t follow the path of authenticity? So it’s self-acceptance, and when I find I’m more and more self-accepting, then coming back to coach or to a CXO, or a good friend, I can hold a bigger space for them.I have more compassion for being human. I have compassion for “it’s not all perfect, it’s not going to be one hundred percent, absolutely straight arrow authenticity.” I strive for that, personally, and I understand when you say it takes a lot of courage to be yourself.I read something by Whoopi Goldberg many, many years ago that said the hardest thing you’ll ever do in your life is be yourself. I think that’s a true statement. It takes courage to stand up to parents: “Mom, dad, I don’t want to be a doctor. I don’t like medicine, I don’t like autopsies, I don’t like biopsies, I don’t like this, that and the other, and I’m not particularly good at all the science that is necessary.” Wow, huge courage for a kid of 18 years old, heading off to university. I tip my cap, because at 18 I didn’t have that courage. That’s something I developed later, in the latter half of my life.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Transforming_Awareness3_94db5d4c0a.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:24:23.850Z"><hr>VK: But to have that choice is a privilege, Peter, because growing up I just needed to get admission into any college, leave alone the subject or career I wanted to choose. I’m talking about 35 to 40 years ago.PR: Right.VK: Today this is a problem because there is choice. And so, there are desires from the point of view of the parents, and fears and concerns on the part of the children. That puts them at odds, and they have to develop courage. So, is courage a necessary thing when you have a choice, when you have choices to make? If there was no choice where is the question of courage?PR: In my experience, in businesses and organizations there are international surveys at least 2 or 3 times a year that talk about employee engagement, or the lack of employee engagement. So now we have a system worldwide, a universal humanity thing, where parents out of the goodness of their heart want their kids to succeed. They want them to be happy, they want them to be good citizens, they want them to be good contributors to their communities. I don’t believe any parent wakes up in the middle of the night and goes, “Let’s see, what can we do to screw up Peter so that he needs therapy at 35 years old.”That was not the case with my parents. They loved me and I loved them. Well, they don’t know what they don’t know, and it’s generational because that’s the way my parents treated me, and I turned out pretty good and my great-great grandparents, and so on. There’s a genuine love that a parent has for their child, for them to succeed, for them to avoid the pitfalls, traumas and dramas of their childhood, their career choices, their choice of partner etc.Nowadays, courage is required at all points of life, not just for the 18 year old; it’s also for the 22 year old, the 30 and 35 year old, to break the pattern of what society or peer pressure wants from them and say, “That doesn’t suit me, that doesn’t conform to what I need to do for myself, to honor who I am.” When they don’t know who they are in the first place it’s a guessing game of trial and error: “Let me try this … nah… that didn’t work. Let me try this … that didn’t work. Let me try this … that feels a little bit better, maybe I’ll stay with that one a little longer.”So, the question of courage when there’s no choice: Well, for one, I believe that there’s always a choice, and again it is tied into the courage of making that choice, and pushing back on bosses, parents, society, peer pressure, my buddy’s from B-School etc. In the modern world, there are billions of choices that are facing all of us right now, not just kids. Again, it comes back to transformation. Am I transforming to a norm in all of those choices? For instance, I need to get so many likes on my Facebook or Instagram posts because that’s what the social media peer group is measured by. Am I making a choice to come into alignment with who I’m meant to be, who I was designed by my creator to be? That conversation really isn’t taking place, not a lot in the world around me.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Transforming_Awareness4_05c06b45ee.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:25:44.007Z"><hr>&nbsp;<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">One of the sayings that I’ve always shared in my classes is, “You’ll never go wrong being your authentic self; you’ll never go wrong in being your authentic self.”</h5>&nbsp;<hr><hr>In our coach training some 8 years ago, at the end of a self-discovery process, one gentleman in India said, “Wow, this is an accurate description of my original self,” what you and I are talking about, the authentic self.One of the sayings that I’ve always shared in my classes is, “You’ll never go wrong being your authentic self; you’ll never go wrong in being your authentic self.”VK: That’s very powerful, Peter.<hr>To be continued.<hr>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Interviewed by VICTOR KANNAN Illustrations by JASMEE RATHOD</h4>&nbsp;<hr>

Transforming awareness: being a life coach - part 1

Transforming awareness: being a life coach - part 2

Peter is said to have the ‘gift of melody’. His love and enthusiasm for the creative process, self-exploration, the healing arts and the natural world continues to inspire his composing and recording. In a career spanning over 3 decades, he has recorded over 60 albums, has written scores for over 100 television and film productions including 11 On- and Off-Broadway plays, and has received many awards and honors, including 13 Grammy nominations and a Grammy Award for Dancing On Water. His music has uplifted, soothed, healed and inspired the lives of millions.

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Peter Kater

<h4>PETER KATER experiences the essence of true freedom while on his paddle board in the early morning off the island of Maui. His first of many encounters with a humpback whale, an ambassador of the sacred and free, is for him a wonderful opportunity to explore the unknown.</h4>When I first moved to Maui in 2007 I learned to paddle board and I can honestly say that the ocean experiences I’ve had since have changed my life. Here is a recap of one of my first such adventures.I headed out on my paddle board very early one morning looking for an experience. The ocean and winds were calm so I ventured further out than normal, and probably further than would have been advisable given that the sun had not yet risen and I was the only one in the water as far as I could see. But I really wanted an experience.I paddled for a while, breathing deeply into the fears that sometimes surfaced in my mind and stomach. Fears about sharks and unexpected winds, and my own vulnerability and mortality. As soon as one set of inner disturbances or ripples of fear dispersed, another surfaced. But I kept breathing into them and relaxing my body and mind. Setting my sights on the horizon as I paddled forward, I kept breathing, waiting patiently for the layers of thoughts to disintegrate so that I could simply be present.Finally the thought surfaced, “I’m so far from shore!” Then I looked down at my feet standing on top of my beautiful red striped board and I thought, “But I am here, standing on my board!”<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/somehtingsacred2_1_5040eee2f6.jpg" alt="">Life isn’t on the shore. Life isn’t elsewhere. It’s here. Like it or not, wherever we go, there we are. And I was here, simply standing on my board, holding my paddle, somewhere out on the ocean with Maui’s shore far in the distance. That is all. And that was the last of my distracting thoughts for that morning.I asked myself, “What was I was searching for out here in the ocean, alone, so early in the morning? And the thought occurred to me, “Something sacred, something free.”I wanted to touch on something that was intrinsically just it-Self. Something completely free and wild. Something that was not defined by its productivity or assigned some relative value or worth based on what it did or didn’t do. Something that didn't need to practice being.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">Something completely free and wild. Something that was not defined by its productivity or assigned some relative value or worth based on what it did or didn’t do. Something that didn’t need to practice being.</h5><hr>I wanted an experience that could remind and reconnect me with the essential part of myself that existed before all the concepts, ideals and values were layered upon me. I wanted to experience the part of me that transcended even the loftiest and most well-meaning of spiritual aspirations. Spiritual ideals, values and concepts are merely vehicles to guide and transport us to a place where they are no longer useful or relevant. They are only stepping stones, not a destination. I wanted to experience something natural. I wanted to feel true freedom. I wanted to experience my essence.We hug our concepts and beliefs close to ourselves, like a favorite soft blanket protecting us from the cold. We hug it so close that we don’t realize we’ve not only blanketed our eyes but our hearts as well. Even the most comforting, well-meaning thoughts and intentions can blind and separate us from what is present and right in front of us. It’s like forgetting it is spring and still carrying the blanket and snow boots needed in winter. Being here was very different than anywhere I’d ever been so far in my life. And being here required a lot more breathing and letting go.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/somehtingsacred3_1_28df9c07ed.jpg" alt="">True inspiration comes from venturing into the unknown, a new territory. It comes from letting go, into a new awareness.A new breath. You have to be willing to let go of what you know, of what is familiar, to relinquish control and experience something new with open eyes and open heart.I’d started paddling out on my board, hugging my identity, concepts, fears and aspirations close to me. One by one I dropped them into the ocean, and they submerged. I became more and more vulnerable and present as I disarmed myself of my illusion of separateness and identity.Finally, as I stood alone on my board a mile or more offshore, watching the sunrise shimmering brightly over the crater peak of Maui, I heard it. A huge, wet exhale. The sound of water and air spraying out with one giant breath into the atmosphere. Compared to the quiet lapping of water on my board, this new sound was like a freight train blowing its whistle into the dawn. As I heard it again I turned to look, and I saw it! It’s dark long rolling back, surfacing up along the water and then many yards later, rolling back into the ocean. It rolled and rolled, submerging like a giant sea serpent from some mythological fairytale. It gracefully sliced through the water until it completely submerged with a playful slap of its tail fin. This beautiful humpback whale, less than 30 feet away, was now heading directly towards me.This is what I was looking for: first an encounter with myself, and then with a living, breathing ambassador of something sacred and free. The whale just is. A giant symbol of the unknown, from a world I could only peer into for a few seconds at a time. Yet, at that moment, we shared the same water and breathed the same air.I saw it’s huge amazing body slice through the water over and over again. In between paddling hard to keep up with it, I also sat patiently, quietly, waiting for it to resurface again for the air that we both shared. In some ways the waiting and listening was my favorite part.The air was thick with mystery and anticipation. I submerged my head into the water to listen to its whale song and couldn’t believe how loud and clear it was. The whale surfaced and submerged a few more times before heading further out to sea. I had gone as far out as my mind could tolerate and slowly paddled back to shore.That was one of my very first experiences with the humpback whales that migrate from Alaska to Maui from December to April every year, to mate and have offspring. Since then I’ve had dozens and dozens of amazing experiences with them. Their ancient intelligence is palpable, as is the beautiful aloha energy of Maui. I am grateful to live in a place where their presence is so strong and frequent. It has changed my life.Excerpts from the author’s blog <a href="https://peterkater.com/something-sacredsomething-free/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://peterkater.com/something-sacredsomething-free/</a>. Reprinted with permission.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by PETER KATER</h4><hr>

Something sacred, something free

<h4>PETER KATER is a Grammy Award-winning musician and author, who also conducts musical, healing and creative retreats in beautiful natural settings. Here he talks with MEGHANA ANAND about communicating feelings and ideas through music.</h4><hr>Q: Hi Peter. What does music mean to you? How did your journey begin?PK:&nbsp;Music for me is a way to communicate feelings and ideas that are not easily put into words. When I was a child I didn’t really want to be a musician; my mother made me take piano lessons. But after 10 or 12 years I started to enjoy it. I found that it was very soothing and healing for me to play for myself. I did a lot of improvising even when I was a teenager, and I started writing my own songs also when I was pretty young. But I really played for myself. Sure it was cool in high school, but after I was out on my own I was really mostly doing it for myself. Other people always encouraged me to play publicly, and I would wonder, “Really, you think I should play in this place?” And they would say, “Yes, yes, you should do it.” So I would. One thing just led to another. I always had my own unique style – it’s good to be yourself.Honestly, I now enjoy it more than ever. After all these years I’m starting to come into the fullness of myself, and express that musically in a way that is more complete. I am now talking about the creative process. The creative process is a process of self-acceptance and it’s a process of compassion, spontaneity, listening very closely and deeply to yourself, and to what you hear and feel. There is no censoring.Music is a very interesting path. In my opinion, it’s a very spiritual path.Q: You play music for the healing arts. Can you elaborate on that?PK:&nbsp;I was always into the healing arts, meaning I personally always loved any kind of healing process, any kind of organic bodywork, whether it was massage or something deeper. I have always enjoyed therapy of different kinds, but as far as my music being healing, I never tried to play healing music. I never tried to affect anyone in a way that would be healing. All I have tried to do is show up authentically.There’s a saying that I love (I don’t know who coined it): “Authenticity heals.” If we are authentic, where we are, at any given moment, and transparent in a way that’s genuine, authentic, it heals us and all of a sudden we change. It’s like taking something from the dark and shining light on it. If we say, “Oh, I’m feeling frustrated,” or “I’m feeling grief,” or “I’m feeling angry,” or “I’m feeling nervous” – whatever the truth is about that moment – if we can express that in a real way then it’s transformative.So when I play the piano, I just want to tell the truth. I just want to express what’s really true for me in that moment, and when I express that then I feel differently. Then I have to express what’s true for me in the next moment, what’s true for me now and now and now and now. That becomes a natural unraveling process that I could never orchestrate with my mind. It just organically wells up. And if I allow it to flow, it takes me to some place where I need to go, but I don’t really or necessarily plan that. Does that make sense?Q: Absolutely. I totally relate to that. You started your career in music playing jazz, which was contemporary and mainstream. So how did the transition happen into the healing arts? Did you face any challenges, internally and externally?PK:&nbsp;Well, I went through a period of only improvising for about 6 years, between the ages of 18 and 24. Then I had the opportunity to make an album, and so I decided to compose the songs for the album, because I wanted to be able to play songs from it. And I released my first album called Spirit. It was very close to home; it was very much me. It was a solo piano album.The album did well, but I received some criticism from other musicians around saying, “Oh, he doesn’t really know how to play jazz. He doesn’t know how to do this,” and I felt challenged. So in my next album I incorporated other musicians, some jazz, and I started writing melodies that were catchy and commercial. And that record charted in the USA in the top 20 of National Airplay Contemporary Jazz charts.I thought, “Well, that was pretty easy!” So for the next few records I wrote more and more contemporary jazz songs, almost just to prove that I could do it if I wanted to. And I had several top 10 records in a row, but I was really not that happy with it. I would play at jazz festivals and I would feel, “This is not working. This doesn’t feel like me.”One day I heard a cassette by R. Carlos Nakai, who is a Native American flautist. The Native American flute is so beautiful, so soulful, simple and earthy. So I started playing along with it on the piano. And I thought, “Well, this sounds great,” the piano and the flute. So I contacted him to see about doing a project together. I thought it was just going to be a little aside, just a simple project that I would enjoy for myself. I didn’t really think anyone would care about it. And to my surprise when the record came out – the first album was called Natives – it became very popular, selling 5 to 10 times as many as my contemporary jazz albums. And it felt more authentically me than the jazz stuff.So that gave me a big permission to be more myself, and to stop trying to be someone else. The direction went back to where I started, with my spirit, back inside, being who I am, naturally. Working with Carlos was an invitation to do that.Q: How do you overcome the challenges and biases that you may face trying to be yourself, while following your heart’s pursuit?PK:&nbsp;I almost feel that sometimes the world is like a distraction and misleading, when we focus on the outside. We have to be in the world and we have to participate, but I think we need to take our direction from inside. And we can find it in ourselves. It takes time, but we all have this inner voice that is always questioning: “Is that the right thing?” When you have an idea and you’re excited about it, but then you start to doubt, the mind is talking.When I speak with musicians I respect, we all agree that it’s that first thought, that initial spark of an idea, that is the true idea. And all the thoughts that come after that – wondering, second-guessing, doubting – is the mind. That’s the world coming in and undermining our natural essence, our natural intuition. So when I’m playing or improvising, I’m always saying yes. I get an idea, and I say yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I find that when I start second-guessing myself, I feel like I go off the path. So for me playing the piano is about not thinking. It is almost like meditating, you know, very spontaneous. I used to meditate a lot many years ago. I was very, very disciplined. I would fast a lot, I would chant, and I would do all these things to quiet my mind. But I find now that playing the piano is the most honest and true thing I can possibly do, because really it’s in the music that my mind is completely quiet and I’m just being. I’m listening and being. And the more I do that, the better I feel in my daily life as well. It kind of bleeds into my life.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/authentic_communication2_1c47b93c40.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T12:28:50.354Z" alt="authentic-communication">Q: Peter, you have played and worked with some very big names in the industry, like John Denver, Dan Fogelberg and now with Carlos Nakai. How has the experience been?PK:&nbsp;Beautiful! I was a big John Denver and Dan Fogelberg fan when I was younger. So working with them was really sweet. But I have to say that playing with R. Carlos Nakai and Dominic Miller, who is Sting’s guitarist, and Tina Guo, who is a fantastic cellist, and Snatam Kaur, who is a beautiful vocalist, is where I really found this connection, because none of us really want to discuss or rehearse the music. We want to find a way to just be present with each other and really listen to each other. The musicians who have been doing it for a long time realize that creativity is not about doing something; it’s about listening, being very open and very receptive. It’s letting creativity flow, rather than thinking that we need to do something to create it. Creation and creativity are everywhere. This Earth is the ultimate manifestation of creativity. We live in creativity. So from my perspective, the way to be a part of that creativity is to be very receptive and listen deeply. And not judge, and not question. You know what I’m saying?Q: Yes. It’s wonderful.PK:&nbsp;And also breathing. I do a lot of Internet performances where I talk with the audience quite a bit, and people ask me, “What are you doing? What are you thinking when you’re playing the piano?” And my response, that first thing is, “Don’t think.” The second thing is, “Am I breathing? And where in my body am I breathing? Where can I breathe into? Where in my body is it tight so I can relax? Is my stomach, my abdomen relaxed?” Those are very important things, because if we’re tight, if we’re not breathing, and if we’re in our head, then we’re stuck. So that’s important to me. And you know what I like to do? I like people to lie under the piano while I’m playing!Q: Really? Okay.PK:&nbsp;Yes! No matter where I’m playing – at a home concert or on stage – I invite people to come up and lie under the piano. I feel them under there, and I breathe into it. I connect with them and then I improvise just for them. I transfer the energy – them to me, me to them – circulating the energy. And people have beautiful experiences.Q: That’s very interesting. Do you often do that with your son also?PK:&nbsp;For my son, listening to my music is like breathing, as he’s heard it all his life. He doesn’t need to go under the piano; it’s actually part of him. He’s actually a very talented guitarist. He is only 14 years old, but he is becoming a very good guitarist.Q: How did you feel winning the Grammy in 2017?PK:&nbsp;Well, it was very exciting. It was especially interesting because that was my 13th nomination! I had not won the previous 12 years, so when I did win it was actually quite shocking and very exhilarating. To be honest, I did have a premonition. And it was the first year that I also took my son to the Grammy’s, because he was old enough to go and appreciate. It was great. I have to admit that winning the Grammy gave me the sense of even more permission to be myself. Even though I had worked through a lot of the need or desire to prove something to someone, I think winning the Grammy was the stamp or the proof of what I believe in. Now I play even more from the heart, even more exploring and trying new things, just letting it go.Q: So what next for Peter Kater?PK:&nbsp;You know what I really love doing? It’s the retreats. They are so much fun, and people have such great experiences. They’re very intimate. There are usually 10 to 20 people per retreat. We spend a week together in a beautiful place, either in Hawaii or in Montana. All needs are taken care of, like food, massage, and being in nature, in a beautiful setting. And every day I play the piano for them for at least an hour, sometimes two hours. I invite guest musicians to come at night. We do little exercises in being present and authentic. I talk a lot about what happens when we show up with ourselves, being really present with ourselves and with someone else, and removing the sense of inhibition or the feeling that we can’t be authentic. We create a very safe space where people can take a risk and say, “This is who I am,” and embrace themselves and show who they are to the others at the retreat. It’s not heavy. It’s not serious. But it’s very free and very loving, and within a day or two people are having an amazing time. After a week people feel like they’ve made life-long friends, and no one wants to leave! I started doing these retreats during the last year or two, and I love them. You really get to know everyone. People experience a lot of feelings, a lot of things come up, and – I don’t like to use the word too much – a lot of ‘healing’ does happen even though no one is trying to make it happen. It happens on its own. When we’re authentic and genuine and transparent, healing happens by itself.Q: Last question. What is the significance of listening in your life, especially in your field of music?PK:&nbsp;It’s everything. Listening is one of the most important things we can learn how to do: listen to ourselves, listen to nature, listen to each other, listen to our hearts, listen to what our bodies are doing – all that stuff. We get so wrapped up in doing: Doing, doing, doing, and not being. And that’s basically what we try to do in the retreats. We focus on just being and listening, and getting out of our heads. Listening is the main ingredient in creating music. People think they have to try to be creative or they have to have creative ideas and thoughts. I don’t believe that. I really think that if we are quiet enough, to where we can actually open up and listen to what’s already going on, then things will just happen. I can never make myself play the piano if I don’t want to. I love being in nature. For me being in nature is the easiest place to open up and be present.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/authentic_communication3_8b32602ec5.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T12:29:43.505Z" alt="authentic-communication">Q: It’s been wonderful talking to you, Peter, and I really want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us.PK:&nbsp;You’re so welcome. Thank you for reaching out.Join me…&nbsp; in the presence of Trees.&nbsp; Where the Earth beckons&nbsp;a deeper listen&nbsp; As it draws you down into its peace. &nbsp; Join me… on the edge&nbsp; of the known and unfamiliar.&nbsp; In the company of intimate strangers. &nbsp; Join me… for an eternal moment&nbsp; Within the eye of spiraling time.&nbsp; As we reclaim what we’ve lost. &nbsp; Join me… in loving emancipation&nbsp; In blinding night and blinding light.&nbsp; To awaken once more and again. &nbsp;&nbsp;—Peter Kater<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Interview by MEGHANA ANAND</h4><hr>

The art of authentic communication and listening

Peter is a forester in the best sense of the word – protecting the ancient forests of Germany rather than logging them. He is the author of a number of books, including The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World, which was a New York Times bestseller. His latest book, The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bonds with Forests and Nature, will be released in June 2021.

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Peter Wohlleben

Our bond with trees

Born in Algeria, Pierre Rabhi (1938-2021) was a French farmer, writer and philosopher. He promoted a way of life that respects both humankind and nature, and worked to promote agro-ecology throughout the world, par­ticularly in Africa.&nbsp;Recognized as an international expert on food safety,&nbsp;he participated in the drafting of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.&nbsp;He created many associations with the goal of recon­necting people to nature, and personally embodied his philosophical ideals to inspire people to make changes in their lives.

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Pierre Rabhi

<hr><h4>PIERRE RABHI was interviewed by SYLVIE BERTI-ROSSI in 2018 on a life of purpose, traditions, and modernism, agro-ecology, Socrates, and transcendent love.</h4><hr>Q: You spent your childhood in an oasis in Algeria, but then had to face the modern world quite early in your life. How did such opposing cultural experiences mold the man you are today?PR: It was not easy for me. I was born and raised in a Muslim environment, in an oasis in the South of Algeria. When I was 4 years old, I lost my mother and that was a defining moment in my life. Soon after that, coal was discovered in our region and so the French came to operate the mine, as Algeria was still one of their colonies then. Coal mining caused a deep change in our lives, in our culture, in our traditions and in our biotope. It upset everything. Our little oasis, which had been so quiet for so long, was suddenly in a sort of turmoil fraught with extremely rapid changes.Many of our people became miners and were exploited, and that is when my father started to worry about our future. He thought that the rules of the game were no longer in our hands, so he entrusted me to a childless French couple, and they took care of me and introduced me to a new culture. That is how I lived alternatively in the modern world and tradition, Christianity and Islam, in a constant duality. I was confronted with totally incompatible beliefs, especially as far as religion was concerned. The credo of Islam states that God did not have a child, whereas the Christians claim that Jesus was the Son of God. So I found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place, as it were, and it was not very comfortable. That is how my humble life started.When I was a teenager, my questions became more pressing. No answer was ever obvious, however, as I was aware of the impossibility of both religions agreeing. Then I thought that philosophers might be able to give me another answer, so I read a lot. I was not really brilliant at school, where I felt bored, and having read so many philosophical works I gave the last word to Socrates, who said, “All I know is that I know nothing.” That is how it was, and that is how it still is.Q: A few years later you went to France. Can you explain what pushed you to settle down in a secluded area of the Cevennes, a choice that was going to change the rest of your life?PR: First I landed in Paris, at the heart of the hectic circle of self-satisfied modernism, where people claimed they had found the answer to humankind’s quest for happiness.I had to earn a living, so I became a skilled worker in a company, where I had a new opportunity to observe the human condition. That experience helped me question the Parisian belief at the time of what defined happiness. Little by little I understood what human bondage meant: bartering one’s existence for a salary, even if it meant risking one’s life. It was not about how to live but how to exist. Then I kept thinking about the wealth nature offered; such beautiful things that no one could ever possibly appreciate, because life meant eleven months spent in a coma and one month to resuscitate every year, and nothing more.Then I met a girl whose aspirations were similar to mine. We asked ourselves, “Could we really spend a whole life being stuck behind closed doors within a city? Why shouldn’t we go towards nature, towards large spaces and the infinite world with its vast skies and areas?” So, we decided to go back to the land and settle as small farmers.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/unnamed_2_eec1bbdcb4.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-13T10:09:15.142Z" alt="unnamed_2"></figure>&nbsp;Q: How did you do it? How did you manage to live in the country, far away from everything?PR: We did not have the skills or training for it. Returning to the land was for us a new initiation. How to become farmers ? First I went to agricultural college and graduated, and then I worked on a farm in order to learn the real practical skills and what it really meant. For me, it was a first awakening. I immediately understood that what we call modern agriculture is about becoming a murderer of nature and of the soil, due to the constant use of toxic chemicals. They were used for everything – sprayed on the ground, on the vegetation, in the environment etc. Agriculture had become a destructive practice.That was how I came to see it, all the more so because the doctor who introduced me to the country worked in public healthcare and could testify to the damage that had resulted from such extensive use of pesticides. So I was in good hands, at the heart of a very practical training that was not limited to theoretical principles. Then I said to myself that if I could not do without such destructive practices, I’d better do something else than tilling the land.My friend the physician led me to discover Rudolf Steiner’s biodynamic principles. I read the books of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, one of Steiner’s colleagues, who explained that biodynamic methods in accordance with nature would even have a positive impact on the soil. So I practiced biodynamic farming to begin with, then I devoted myself to organic agriculture, and now I specialize in agro-ecology. On our farm we experimented with non-toxic farming, in both agriculture and breeding, and everything went well.From that period onwards I became a sort of spokesperson, an advocate of natural, ecological and organic agriculture. I wanted to share my experience so I wrote a book entitled, From the Sahara to the Cevennes. It was published and I received an award from the Cevennes Academy. In the book, I exposed only facts and gave no lectures; I just wanted to talk about the course of my life and show what changes I went through, changes that in fact revealed the general trend of modern life would take. I wrote more books and as they were successful I went on writing. At the same time, I became more engaged.Having managed to survive and produce food within our own space, I wanted to see if agriculture that complied with the laws of life could work for the poorest farmers. So I went to Africa and we created our first agro-ecological center in Burkina Faso. I had a foot in the door, and I wanted to go much farther, so I did. My observations went hand in hand with philosophical reflections about society, with a spiritual quest and with a practical approach. Thus were born the three poles upon which I wanted to act and bear witness.Q: So you left for Burkina Faso in the 1980s to share the principles and techniques of agro-biology and to experiment with your discoveries in another part of the world.PR: I found myself in a very particular context, in the Sahel, where the people were mostly farmers. They had been living off the land for ages, even though they had not always done so wisely. For example, at one point they had started deforestation, but they had survived. Then, since they represented an important workforce, the farmers were mobilized to grow export goods and bring foreign money into the country. They had to use fertilizers and pesticides, which they were obliged to buy. As in many other places, they could no longer produce food to feed themselves and had to buy food for their families with what they managed to earn. As a result, they were deep in debt and the system led to a complete degradation of their living conditions. Actually, I blame these things for having contributed to the great Sahel famines.So, we opened an agro-ecological center, which gave birth to a group who disseminated our agricultural methods all around the country and in other parts of Africa. Today, many people in Burkina Faso are involved in eco-agriculture. Clearly, even when the land is poor, it can still feed us sufficiently and qualitatively, provided we respect it.Q: You have inspired so many people through your commitment, through the lectures you have given and the books you have written! Who are your own thought leaders, the people who inspire you?PR: I have read quite a lot, as I mentioned already. I had my Catholic phase, then a Muslim one, and progressively a spiritual one, devoid of any church or religion. That is the one I am still in. All through the course of my life, the person who has inspired me most is Socrates. When he said that he knew nothing, he spoke the truth. I don’t think anybody would disagree with that. What do we really know? Very little, I am afraid.Then I went through a very complex phase in my life: I did not feel clear about things and felt miserable, even though we had just succeeded in our back-to-the-land operation, and even though our children were feeling well. We had all the so-called trappings of happiness. In such moments, one can feel and live a strange intimate experience, which may be related to our past or whatever. Anyway, I was not well at all, and I was looking for a way out.Then I discovered Krishnamurti and things began to change. He would not teach lessons, or teach how to think. He had that Socratic approach that made me realize that I had been trying to understand myself through the environment and through other people, whereas I needed to understand my inner self. Such an approach had a salutary effect on me because I could not resort to any religion or philosophy of any sort. Through Krishnamurti, I was confined to that sort of solitude that triggered in me, beyond mere thinking, a way to analyze myself, to understand myself and to find out all by myself. Then, I only needed a kind hand. So I went back to the Socratic approach and I said to myself: “Rely on nobody but yourself. ”So I entered a mode of investigation related to direct feeling and thinking, to experience. Then I understood that I need not rely on anyone else’s thought, and that I’d rather take into account the clear thinking I was endowed with, a thinking that was not within me but that had been and would be given to me, as long as I stopped looking for solutions. I just had to listen to myself, pay attention to the way I was evolving, the way I reacted, and the reasons why I was jealous, why this, and why that. It was an initiation of my self by my self. That really helped me fare better, in a very strong and powerful manner. I recovered all the energy I needed to pursue my journey on earth and on the land in the way it had been envisioned.Q: So since you discovered Krishnamurti, have you resorted to that inner voice in order to be guided in whatever you do, in all your choices?PR: Absolutely. I make sure I am following the right path. We are all on the right path, but we have to make sure of it. For that, we can ask ourselves: “Will it harm others if I do that? Is it merely conforming ? Am I being influenced by preconceived ideas ? Am I attached to dogma, to anything?” Once you have no attachment to anything, then you are really connected ; you are not attached but connected, open to the Absolute. Regarding the Absolute, it makes me think of the quote of Meister Eckhart: “Stop talking about God. All you will say about Him is nothing but lies.”Q: And what happens when you are no longer attached to anything ?PR: The last question to ask yourself then is whether your imagination was at work, trying to reassure and comfort you, or whether it was silence that let you know, a silence that can say so much more than any word you hear! It is a silence in which, at long last, something can be expressed, something that does not come from torments, or from a quest for Truth that was far too intense. Being silent does not mean you have to be lost in the desert. In the desert, there is a particular silence, the absence of noise, that silence that makes you say that you are no longer within your self. You are lost in the very center of the desert. Maybe. But that is not the silence I mean. I am talking about the silence you can hear when you are in the middle of a crowd. There is no need to be in an empty environment to hear that silence. And it is a very ‘active’ silence, which doesn’t come just by magic, because it requires you to be present.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/unnamed_4_d05e18b713.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-13T10:10:42.327Z" alt="unnamed "></figure>&nbsp;Q: Being connected to that inner silence is important indeed. But how can we do that?PR: Well, do you expect someone will give you a recipe just to be applied? Today’s recipes are more like relaxation than like silence. When you are very relaxed, you may think you are bathing in silence, but true silence is different. Its nature is transcendent. You have to open yourself to it. It is like the air you breathe. The air is there, and you breathe it. It is like love – the love you experience and the love you live. In all these deeds you are by yourself, completely alone, isolated, but without actually being so. When you want to be isolated you are really connected; on the contrary, the more you want to be connected the more isolated you feel. This silence is of a very peculiar nature. Speaking about it is no easy matter.Q: You have just evoked love. You often talk about the strong energy there is in love, which is like an engine that will help you change and change things around you.PR: That’s right, but the word ‘love’ strikes a particular chord, which is open to different interpretations and fantasies. Love is, in fact, transcendent by essence. I think human beings are tailor-made for it. Love means loving trees, loving the earth, the fish, loving, loving and loving again; it’s all about love.Then there is also particular love, more intense, like the one you feel for your companion, for your children, for your dearest ones, the love between a man and a woman, the sort that ‘I’ will see and live as a great celebration! But love is not only that. When you love a tree, it is not personalized. It is like an essence, a transcendent reality to which you connect yourself. That is the reason why unconditional love can never ignite dissent. It is not its role; it is not in its essence.I think that love is rich with multiple tones and intensities. There is a first circle, the circle of the human love we feel for our loved ones. Then, there is a second circle, and a third one… until we reach the love that embraces everything and everyone.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/unnamed_3_ca0da041b0.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-13T10:09:58.634Z" alt="unnamed "></figure>www.pierrerabhi.org<hr>To be continued.<hr>&nbsp;&nbsp;

Agro-ecology, love, and Socrates

<hr class="vertical-space1">
<h4>In part 2 of this exclusive interview with PIERRE RABHI, he speaks about
 Colibris and some of the other projects he has taken up to bring awareness and change in society. In particular, he
 speaks about the pressing need for moderation and reduction in human consumption, and the importance of transcendent
 love and joy.</h4>
[distance2]
Q: In the first part of this interview, you said that your
 approach and action developed in 3 ways: through philosophical reflections about society, a spiritual quest and
 a practical approach. Does the creation of Colibris in 2007 fit into this scheme? How did this movement start,
 and how do you explain its incredible development?
PR: In 2007, along with several friends, including Cyril Dion and Isabelle Desplats, we
 decided to create a grass roots movement for active reflection and practical ways to build a greener and more humane
 society. Today, Colibris has grown enormously! It has three main objectives: to inspire, to connect and to support
 citizens engaged in individual and collective transition processes. These days, Colibris implements so many projects
 that I would have a hard time presenting them all to you.
To highlight just a few, we have the series, Domaine du Possible, published by
 Actes Sud, some of which is co-published by Colibris; many local action groups; the University of Colibris which
 offers free online training on eco-construction, permaculture, agro-ecology and education; and finally Fabrique,
 which is a platform for everyone to do their bit by offering time, talent, material resources and donations in the
 service of inspiring projects. In short, there are so many things, and I am very happy today about the work
 accomplished and the number of projects that have been implemented.
This growth has accelerated because now libraries and bookshops are full of books that
 take note of our human excesses, but now people want to act, to find solutions, and this is what Colibris offers!

<img decoding="async" width="369" height="245"
 class="img-float-left lazyload has-img-center-in-mobile"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/PIERRE_RABHI_3_2_img_c8aecf4fbb.jpg">Q: In recent
 years you have also supported other projects that spread the same
 values as yours, especially in Crete and Morocco. Can you tell us about them?
PR: Indeed, we are doing a lot. An endowment fund was created in 2013 with the aim of
 raising funds so&nbsp;that we could help. This is a small fund associated with the economic model proposed by
 Schumaker in his book, Small Is Beautiful.
To the extent that our meagre finances allow, we support initiatives that share our
 values of humanism and respect for living things and biodiversity. In Morocco, the NGO called Terre &amp; Humanisme
 Maroc has created a training center for agro-ecology not far from Marrakech. In collaboration with Kaligraines and
 Melitakes, the Endowment Fund has helped to build an eco-hut to house their volunteers in Crete. The Pierre Rabhi
 Endowment Fund has also supported projects led by NGOs in Africa, one in the Navajo Reservation in the southern
 United States, and the actions of Navdanya, the women’s seed movement.
Q:&nbsp;Your life’s journey, your reflections, your
 meetings and your readings have led you to place human beings and Nature at the heart of your thought and
 action. Can you share some of your thoughts and ideas?
PR: I told you earlier what I think about our model of a ‘slave’ society; the kind of
 barter where people give their life for a salary. They give their life to a system that is not fair, because there
 is a hierarchy of powerful owners and poor people. In human evolution, the concern for distribution and equity has
 not been very evident.
Society has been based on a hierarchy of ‘having’ to the detriment of ‘being’. In the
 acquisition of money there are very rich people, very poor people, and those in between. All this establishes&nbsp;a
 hierarchy of destinies that I cannot bear, because the fact that money can determine our social structure is
 offensive to me. Money should be at the service of something else.
We have just launched a collection of books called Carnets d’Alerte, to try to
 help people understand these issues by providing an integrated approach. For example, in the book on finance,
 Les Excès de la Finance ou l’Art de la Prédation Légalisée, we have highlighted the way society has
 legalized and standardized predation or ‘grabbing’: the moment I pay I acquire something legally. This form of legal
 acquisition may satisfy society, but not morality.

<hr>
<h5 style="text-align: center;">Society has been based 
 on a hierarchy of ‘having’ 
 to the detriment of ‘being’.
</h5>
<hr>
Is it right that because an individual has money he can buy the Amazon rainforest, or
 that the big cartels can ‘grab’ and confiscate the property owned by the whole of humanity, that they did not even
 create? If human beings were intelligent we would recognize what Nature or the Divine has given us totally free of
 charge, as a common good to all people and all creatures. Unfortunately we are not intelligent. Instead, we have
 proclaimed human beings as the best, and from there we have defined a set of rules in our own interest, in a totally
 arbitrary way.
In addition, the male world has completely dismissed the feminine dimension. For
 millennia our societies have been based on the subordination of women. Even the Bible promotes and supports this
 subjugation of women. I read the Old Testament, and it is difficult to find a woman who ‘stands up’. And it’s to Eve
 that we owe all these troubles : what an idea to eat the apple! So we start from this idea, which has then become
 ingrained, then fossilized, and finally an accepted fact.
In the first place, God is masculine. I do not see why he would not be both masculine
 and feminine. From there, an entire civilization has been influenced by precepts, principles and arbitrarily
 established creeds. This asymmetry or imbalance between the feminine and masculine principles&nbsp;creates chaos and
 destruction. The woman as creative energy, as childbearer and mother of humanity, is naturally inclined to protect
 life, and we must pay tribute to the guardians of life and listen to the feminine in each of us. Without her, there
 is no change.
All these arbitrary rules have built a society where fear dominates and where we think
 we are intelligent because we make weapons, the apotheosis being the atomic bomb. When we see all this, it is not
 easy to say that humanity is intelligent. In fact, we have confused our abilities with intelligence. We have skills
 but not intelligence. If our wonderful abilities were governed by intelligence, everything would be in an
 intelligent order.
<hr class="vertical-space1">
<img decoding="async" width="834" class="w-100 h-auto lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/PIERRE_RABHI_2_3_img_21578e2e47.jpg">
<hr class="vertical-space1">
Today we are so very far from an intelligent order: slaughter and violence are defended
 better than life. Violence is encouraged with the advent of more and more new killing machines, and Nature is
 destroyed. What this means is that the human phenomenon – just a short minute and a half or two minutes in the
 equivalent of a 24-hour history of the Earth – has been a real catastrophe. The human being is the ecological
 catastrophe number 1.
We wrote a book with Jean-Marie Pelt, in which he made a retrospective of the way life
 has evolved on Earth through cooperation and association, a principle that governs nature. He showed that life owes
 more to alliance than to rivalry. I often tell people that a lion eats an antelope, but does not have a bank of
 antelopes. He must survive, but he does not survive by accumulation or by speculation, but only by the necessity to
 which he is subjected, as is the case with all of us. This&nbsp;is the big difference with the indefinite hoarding
 of a few human beings who confiscate legitimate property from the rest of humanity.
Q: You speak about the urgent need to reduce our needs and the responsibility to leave
 a better world for future generations. What is your vision of what tomorrow’s society could be?
PR: I have indeed said a lot about degrowth, or the reduction of wants, because in
 France I was pushed to run for the 2002 presidential elections. After much hesitation, asking myself, “What am I
 going to to do in this gallery?” I eventually proposed myself. The only thing that motivated me was that this
 candidacy could create a dynamic, a pretext for dialogue between people. Today, citizens need to talk to each other
 and not just listen to politicians. So I thought it was an opportunity.
Our campaign was more of a manifesto: “What planet will we leave our children, but also
 which children will we leave to the planet?” It was a call to elevate consciousness: to go beyond all the divisions,
 all the tendencies that bury us in incurable differences, and try unity. Our campaign was therefore based on
 anything that could contribute to unity, and contribute to a different world, a paradigm shift. Among our proposals
 was the famous idea of degrowth. I tried to explain this concept of negative growth, but it was not always well
 understood.
When we launched our campaign, a number of politicians heard us, joined us and signed up
 to our program, which was a great encouragement&nbsp;to us. Our whole process was centered on public debate, and
 people talked, discussed and exchanged in a multitude of places.
And then time passed, and the idea of degrowth was misunderstood. Maybe we did not know
 how to explain it. But what is certain is that a fundamental thing was said: we cannot, humanity cannot have
 unlimited aspirations and unlimited appetites in a system that is limited. The planet cannot reproduce a forest as
 it is cut, cannot replenish the seas with fish as they are fished, and so on.
Some people have accepted and adhered to the idea, others not. We have no statistics on
 the impact of the proposal, but we have had a lot of positive feedback. I have never been aggrieved by this idea
 that we need to reduce our footprint, as for me simplicity and moderation are the true power. It is a conscious
 choice that everyone can make for the Earth and for equity. Then I wrote a book entitled Vers la Sobriété
 Heureuse. My publisher told me that it would be miraculous if it sold more than 4,000 copies, and today it
 has sold 350,000.
<hr>
<h5 style="text-align: center;">Our campaign was more of a manifesto: 
 “What planet will we leave our children, 
 but also which children will we leave to the planet?” 
 It was a call to elevate consciousness: 
 to go beyond all the divisions, 
 all the tendencies that bury us in 
 incurable differences, and try unity.
</h5>
<hr>
It has nothing to do with me personally, it’s just that today people do understand that
 wanting a complex society to which one gives one’s whole existence, and being happy at the same time, does&nbsp;not
 work. On the contrary! People living in the developed world have never consumed so many anxiolytics and watched so
 much entertainment of all kinds. They are escaping from reality. Why? Maybe because this reality scares them. We try
 to escape by all means. Of course, escape is easier than tackling the issues and dealing with them with the
 rationality and determination that would be required.
Today the situation is difficult for everyone, at least in France, because nobody is
 guaranteed of having a job in 5 years. We see a general disintegration of the social system, which is not likely to
 stop. We can try everything we want, but it will not change because it is the logic itself that ensures that it
 cannot stop. What is needed now is to praise the power of moderation, and to consider moderation and simplicity as
 the keys to our survival. To aspire to simplicity is to make a fair, moral and structurally just choice. That’s
 why&nbsp;there’s a growing craze for simplicity. Simplicity rather than complexity can lead us to joy.
Q:&nbsp;Can you explain this idea further?
PR: Joy is free. It is something that comes from elsewhere, of a transcendent essence.
 As we no longer have access to joy in our society, we fill our lives with pleasure. I have nothing against pleasure,
 but when it becomes industrial and ephemeral it is consumed like the rest. I know people who should be happy and
 fulfilled because they have everything, but are they joyful? That is another question.
I sometimes find joy in people who have almost nothing, but every hour that passes is an
 hour of happiness for them. They do not have a moment of despondency! It shows us that reaching something
 transcendent through the material way is simply not possible. But when we have nothing, we are also not happy. So
 having just what is necessary brings us inner contentment and predisposes us to joy.
<h5><a href="//www.heartfulnessmagazine.com/agro-ecology-love-socrates-part-1/">Read Part
 1</a></h5>
<hr class="vertical-space1">
<hr>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">Interview by SYLVIE BERTI ROSSI</h4>
<hr>

Agro-ecology, love & Socrates - part 2

Pierre is a DJ, producer, high-end fashion collaborator, club-headliner, certified yoga teacher, and meditation trainer. He introduced the KaRavan concept of combining music, yoga, and meditation into the Eternal Journey. He is now introducing luxury fragrances, writing a new chapter of the Eternal Journey.

pierre-ravan.webp

Pierre Ravan

<h4>Q: You are a successful DJ who also lives a spiritual life. What does spirituality mean to you?
 </h4>
 
 We read that spirituality is about living inwardly and being in the ‘present’ moment. What does that really mean
 in practical life? Where is that ‘inside’ in us where we should live? How can we feel it? Can we ultimately
 reach it?” . The answer is simple: Spirituality is the science of the heart.
 When we learn to connect with it we will find that everything is there. Most
 amazingly we find out that we are all connected to each other through our hearts. When we tune ourselves to the
 same frequency, we will be in the same vibratory plane where we are all one. It is like being in a big nightclub
 and tuning ourselves to the sound that the DJ is playing, enjoying ourselves.
 When we have less resistance in our hearts, we let go and become a part of that
 journey. Then we become unified as one single entity, lost in the music. But what is the force behind this
 unity? It is obviously love; having no prejudice towards others.
 <h4 style="text-align: justify;">Q: Is it challenging to have a disciplined spiritual practice and also be
 in the club scene?</h4>
 <h4 style="text-align: justify;">
 <hr class="vertical-space1">
 </h4>
 <img decoding="async" alt="" class="has-text-align-center lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tuning_the_soul_1_82898936f1.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-30T10:35:33.340Z">
 
 <h4></h4>
 <h4 style="text-align: justify;">
 <hr class="vertical-space1">
 </h4>
 To live spiritually, you need to overcome desires. You can enjoy good food and good
 life, but you cannot be driven by them. The art is to live in the world but not be driven by temptations, and
 that is a tough call because at the human level we are tempted and we have desires. There is nothing wrong in
 saying something is beautiful, but wanting to possess it all the time is something else. So it is all about
 attitude towards life.
 Attitude is important in everything, even your meditation practice. If you don’t
 have the right attitude you will still cheat people, because you still have that element of impurity in you. If
 you go to a dance club and judge people because you meditate and they do not, that is wrong. First of all you
 did not have to go, and also there you can be an example. Without even opening your mouth, people will recognise
 something special about you and be attracted by that.
 People respect you a lot when they see that on one hand you are with them, but at
 the same time you have your own priorities. For example they say, “It is 4 a.m. and he goes to his room to
 meditate, to reset what is happening in his system before sleeping.”
 As a musician you are exposed to so many things – sex, drugs and alcohol. I am
 convinced that even highly elevated people who can resist alcohol and drugs would still struggle with sexual
 attraction, as it is a strong pull.&nbsp; So it has been the downfall of many. The trick is not to lose sight of
 where you are going, so you do not lose the inner connection with that anchor.
 <h4 style="text-align: justify;">Q: What do you hope to achieve?</h4>
 We need to find a way of balancing the inner and outer life, and I feel that
 spirituality is the only way. I think balance in life is a huge art. So if spirituality teaches people how to
 achieve that, the work is done. I feel it is achievable.
 Whether I am a teacher, a banker, a gardener, a baker, or whatever, I am here to
 fulfil the call of Nature. We do not have to be a priest or a master to become the conduit of Nature’s work.
 There are a lot of beautiful souls out there, but we do not have the capacity to
 realise it. It is in our inability to see this that we judge the world and people. Wherever we find ourselves we
 need to be like a candle to see and attract people. Sometimes I feel that people on the dance floor are more
 connected than those in an ashram. It is not about where you are.
 We need not give up life and joy. No! Without joy, good humour and laughter there is
 no spirituality. Spirituality is joy. We misunderstand spirituality. It is the freedom of a bird with the two
 wings of balance. It is hard work! Life is work!
 If I were to achieve one thing, one state, it would be that I am at peace with
 myself. I think that is the ultimate. In that, ‘balance’ is vital; outer and inner balance. The outer deals with
 material life, with work, society, family, etc. Then I find an inner way, a guide, something in me, in my heart
 to which I give my full trust and faith. This is not giving up freedom. If I have faith, and the willpower to
 use that faith, and the patience and I do the work, I realise, “Wow! Life is not so difficult!”
 The moment we are in balance and in tune, then we go, “Ahhh! I see things so
 differently,” and we wonder, “How come I could not see this before?” We no longer see problems; we see things
 totally differently, and our level of acceptance goes up. We accept fully with our heart, although not blindly,
 and when that happens, everything changes again. So life is a fascinating school!
 I think a Master is a person who is in tune with Nature, so he can see and feel
 Nature. He does not even know what he knows. That is so beautiful. He is so in tune that he is not even aware.
 It is so spontaneous. To me the ultimate goal is to become one with yourself, where you are so much in tune with
 yourself that you are not even aware.
 <h4 style="text-align: justify;">Q:&nbsp;&nbsp; How does all of this relate to your work as a DJ with the
 younger generation?</h4>
 People who come to a dance club come for different reasons. One is to get relief
 from the pressure and tension of life. Now imagine if they could find an alternative means of relief,
 intoxication and trance. By turning inside and connecting to the Source inside themselves, they can find it.
 That is the real ecstasy. And my experience is that the more we rely on drugs to achieve trance, the more we
 lose our ability to do it naturally.
 Youth need to learn that while they are here to enjoy life, they also need to make
 that inner connection. Meditation is the first step.
 If you don’t know yourself, understand yourself and love yourself, then what is
 life? Knowing why am I here … all this comes from within.
 <h4 style="text-align: justify;">Q: Thousands of people dance at your concerts. What drives you?
 </h4>
 I never understood love. I feel I am so much in love. If you ask me with what, I
 don’t know. I feel there is a power that affects me deeply. I have learnt that love is love. You cannot even
 describe it. I realise that love is the only way. Until we develop love in us, life is a big struggle.
 <h4 style="text-align: justify;">Q: Tell us about music. How are music and spirituality connected?
 </h4>
 I love this saying by Hazrat Inayat Khan that, “Music is nothing less than the
 picture of the Beloved.” Music is ultimately about tuning the soul.
 Through music you can work and connect with many people, because when they come to
 listen and dance they have no resistance. In a club they are totally open. That is why I see music as a very
 potential means for connecting and that is why at forty-six I am still a DJ.&nbsp; After each concert I need to
 rest for one week because I give my everything.
 <h4 style="text-align: justify;">Q: Tell us more about your work as a DJ.</h4>
 For the past twenty-five years, I have been involved in the world of music and
 nightlife. I consider myself a successful DJ and producer and I am trying to be part of the evolution of the
 club scene. I have met so many beautiful souls who gather in that place I call the club, where language and
 preaching are not involved. Through music they celebrate life, joy and love.
 If we look at the roots of the club culture, we find that the main purpose was to
 create an atmosphere where people could put aside all their differences, leave behind their problems, and come
 to a place with no resistance, letting themselves being carried away by the music. Was that achieved? Did they
 get satisfaction? The answer in most cases is no. Why? Because drugs and alcohol were there. Instead of learning
 to connect inwardly through the heart to the main Source of Life, people relied on a false feeling of temporary
 intoxication and ultimately the inner connection was lost. This is far away from feeling the true peace and
 ecstasy.
 <h4 style="text-align: justify;">Q: What is the solution to restore this frequency?</h4>
 As far as my own experience as a DJ is concerned, I feel that clubbing can be like a
 group meditation where no one is being judged. Through music, people tune their hearts to the same vibratory
 dimension. By looking inside, the real intoxication which is permanent and subtle can be achieved. That can
 happen only when there is love, for themselves and for everybody around – all connected to the same source of
 existence.
 We can be courageous, experience the inner Self and reach this ecstasy, simply by tuning to the heart.
 
 <hr>
 
 <h4 style="text-align: center;">Interview with&nbsp;PIERRE RAVAN</h4>
 
 <hr>

Tuning the Soul

<h4>PIERRE RAVAN is interviewed by ELIZABETH DENLEY about the launch of his new brand, Eternal Journey, starting with 3 exquisite perfumes designed to keep you in tune with the natural rhythms of the day.</h4>Q: Hi Pierre. Tell us about your new perfume range.PR: Thank you. First there’s the brand, Eternal Journey, which was inspired by my spiritual path. I believe that life creates life, and it is an eternal journey.&nbsp;&nbsp;When we created this brand, we wanted to have different products and we started with fragrances. Because of my musical background and luxury background, I wanted to create something that covers the whole 24 hours of the day, and this is also linked with the circle of the eternal journey.&nbsp;When this first collection of three fragrances was created, we wanted to evoke the feelings from the time we wake up in the morning, then into the afternoon, through the night, and till we wake up the next morning. The journey never stops.&nbsp;I believe in the idea of trinity, so the first fragrance is Sunrise to Sunset, the second is Sunset to Midnight, and third is Midnight to Sunrise. With all 3 we are closing the circle through the 24 hours.When we use a perfume, we want it to correspond to the time of day. Even scientifically, we know that when we wake up, when the night becomes day, our breathing shifts so that we move from left nostril dominant breathing to right nostril dominant breathing. The first perfume, Sunrise to Sunset, has been created to activate and facilitate this transition. So the olfactory family of this fragrance has two very important ingredients – orange blossom, neroli, and a woodier petit-grain. Together, they facilitate the shift, while still maintaining a meditative mood.In the morning, you may do yoga, walk your dog, go for a bicycle ride, or go to the forest to pick mushrooms – whatever is your morning ritual, you can use this perfume. At that time of day, you don’t need something spicy; it would disturb others and your own inner condition.&nbsp;Later, when you come home and take a shower, you need something more active. So the second perfume we created is Sunset to Midnight. It is spicier, more sensual, while still creating a meditative mood. One of the main ingredients is frankincense and another is myrrh. And so as not to give the feeling of being in church, I added saffron from Iran, a little marshmallow, which gives sweetness, and a little patchouli and vetiver. This combination gives the sensual, spiritual, fresh, and warm, which correspond to the day’s activities.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">What is spirituality? It is when you do everything from the heart.&nbsp; Then you are connected with your inner self,&nbsp; and through that you lead your life.&nbsp;</h4><hr><figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/eternal_journey2_afa999fc31.webp" alt="eternal-journey2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_eternal_journey2_afa999fc31.webp 149w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_eternal_journey2_afa999fc31.webp 478w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_eternal_journey2_afa999fc31.webp 717w," sizes="100vw"></figure>The third fragrance, Midnight to Sunrise, is for night time, going out to dinner, the opera, a party, etc. It is designed to create a presence. It contains a lot of woody spices, like cashmere, sandalwood (the best quality sandalwood from Australia), black pepper, and oud (the best quality oud from Vietnam). The formula was created so that the oud kicks in after 20 minutes. That way it is not a woody-dominated perfume.We also created the 3 formulas so that each one blends with the others, creating a 24-hour atmosphere and evolution. That is the whole concept.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/eternal_journey3_ba20be3828.webp" alt="eternal-journey3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_eternal_journey3_ba20be3828.webp 244w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_eternal_journey3_ba20be3828.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_eternal_journey3_ba20be3828.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure> Q: Pierre, where can people buy these fragrances?PR:&nbsp;In India, we are launching them with the company, Baccarose, through their Parcos shops. We selected 50 shops across India to introduce this brand along with our storytelling. &nbsp;What is the story they will tell? It is a marriage of luxury, spirituality, entertainment, and well-being. We have incorporated all these elements into the perfumes. You will also see this in the packaging, which uses glass and organic wood.&nbsp;Eternal Journey is a gender fluid product. Without even considering gender we created this perfume, so it is for everyone. It evokes all the feelings.Q: Some people would say that spirituality and luxury don’t go together. How do they fit, in your view?PR:&nbsp;I personally do not see them as separate. In spirituality we can incorporate luxury, and vice versa. What is spirituality? It is when you do everything from the heart. Then you are connected with your inner self, and through that you lead your life. What is luxury? In my understanding, a luxury item is something unique and precious. Imagine, if you create something of luxury with your heart, you make something that is not only consistent it’s also permanent. So the people who are using the product will be affected by how profound and how deep it is.&nbsp;On top of that, with my musical background, I am aware that all sound and vibration also creates an effect. Imagine a perfume that you can hear while you smell it. Our sense of smell has a big role to play for us in memory and nostalgia, and so does music. If we blend these together, the journey is complete.Q: Thank you Pierre, we wish you all the best with your perfume launch.&nbsp;PR:&nbsp;Thank you Elizabeth.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Photographs by RASMUS MOGENSEN</h4><hr>

Eternal journey

Pir Zia is a Sufi scholar, meditation teach, and the spiritual leader of the Inayati Order (www.inayatiorder.org), an interfaith mystical fellowship carrying on his grandfather’s teachings. He is the author of Mingled Waters, Saracen Chivalry, and Immortality.

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Pir Zia Inayat Khan

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">PIR ZIA INAYAT KHAN, the esteemed Sufi scholar and key luminary of the 2024 Global Spirituality Mahotsav at Kanha Shanti Vanam, describes the Sufi concept of the “Invisible Gardens” of our lives.</h4>I can hardly imagine a more perfect place for the convening of the Global Spirituality Mahotsav than Kanha Shanti Vanam. Imagine, just eight years ago, this land was all dust, and now we see the result of the care given to the land by the venerable Daaji and the Heartfulness community. It is something of a miracle.The meditation hall is impressive no doubt; but to me, much more impressive are the gardens here—the trees that have been planted, the endangered plants that have been collected, the cultivation that is happening, so that this Vanam can truly be a living garden. Daaji has brought endangered species here, and when trees are about to be cut down elsewhere, he has them dug up and transplanted here so that they may live on. This can be a paradigm for the whole country and for the whole world.While we may find ourselves appreciating these visible gardens, the ones we see with our own eyes, here we also find invisible gardens as well. The Sufis speak of four spiritual gardens.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">The Garden of Deeds</h4>The first of these is called the Garden of Deeds, and this is the place where we rediscover everything that we have put out into the world. The world is like a dome-whatever we say re-echoes and bounces back to us eventually. If we want to find generosity, be generous. If we want to find kindness, be kind. Whatever we bring to the world, sooner or later will circle back and return to us. But we have to be careful when we cultivate our “garden of deeds” not to take pride in those deeds. May it be that the left hand does not know what the right hand has given.The great Hazrat Rabi’a Basri used to walk around with a bucket of water in one hand and a torch in the other hand, and people would ask, “Why are you carrying these things?” She answered, “I want to burn down the garden of paradise and quench the fires of hell, so that those who worship you will worship you for your own sake, and not for any reward.”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">The Garden of Friends</h4>And so we move beyond the Garden of Deeds, and come to the Garden of the Friends of God. This is the garden of the legacy of the Holy Prophet and the sages who have brought wisdom to this world. In this garden, we seek to follow in their footsteps and to realize that although these great beings may come from many different traditions, they all ultimately bring one message—the message of the Divine Consciousness that is seeking its fulfillment in our lives and in this world. We come close to the prophets when we live a life of service.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">The Garden of Names</h4>Going further, we come to the Garden of the Names, the names of God. In our world, the Divine Being is known by many names. Whichever name we choose, if we give our whole heart to it, we will be lifted up by it. In this invisible realm, the Garden of Names, it is said that the angels plant trees whenever human beings intone the name of God. One day, someone saw that an angel was no longer watering their tree or caring for it, and they asked why that tree was being neglected. The angel answered that humans on Earth had stopped reciting the name; they were not glorifying the name. And until they did, it would not be possible to nurture this garden.&nbsp;That is the possibility that exists for all of us—to ensure these trees in the garden of the invisible world continue to grow and thrive. That can only occur when we, with hearts full of love, dedicate ourselves to the glorification of the one to whom we belong.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/invisible_gardens2_6e6d29df20.webp" alt="invisible-gardens2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_invisible_gardens2_6e6d29df20.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_invisible_gardens2_6e6d29df20.webp 508w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/invisible_gardens2_6e6d29df20.webp 508w," sizes="100vw"><h4 style="text-align:justify;">The Garden of the One</h4>Finally, there is a fourth garden, the Garden of the One.&nbsp; A seeker went to that door and a voice asked, “Who is there?”&nbsp; The seeker answered, “I am here, Beloved.”&nbsp; The voice replied, “Then go away.”&nbsp; The seeker went away, and continued his search and meditation for many years, until finally he returned and once again the voice met him with the same question as before.&nbsp; This time, the seeker answered, “You are here.”&nbsp; Then the seeker entered and there was no seeker and no sought, there was no lover or beloved, there was only the “One” forever and ever.May this garden of Kanha Shanti Vanam continue to flourish under the benevolent guidance of Daaji. May the gardens of our own lives—The Garden of Deeds, The Garden of the Friends of God, The Garden of the Divine Names, and The Garden of the One—proliferate throughout this world so that we all may live in paradise. Amin.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">May the gardens of our own lives— The Garden of Deeds, The Garden of the Friends of God,&nbsp; The Garden of the Divine Names, and The Garden of the One —proliferate throughout this world&nbsp; so that we all may live in paradise.&nbsp;</h4><hr>

Invisible gardens

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">In this inspiring interview, PIR ZIA INAYAT KHAN, the head of the Inayati Order and grandson of Hazrat Pir Murshid Inayat Khan, shares the Sufi perspective on integration, consciousness, the dimension of the soul, the rhythm of the heart, and how we illuminate the inner landscape with PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN.</h4>Q: Namaste, Sir. I’m very honored and happy to speak with you today. Can you give me a little context about the Inayati Order?PZIK: It’s a pleasure to be with you, Purnimaji. Thank you so much.The Inayati is a lineage of Sufism traced back to my grandfather, Hazrat Pir Murshid Inayat Khan, who was born in Baroda into a family of musicians and became a great musician himself. He traveled throughout India as a musician and eventually went to Hyderabad as a young man, where he met the man who would become his Murshid, his Sufi teacher, Sayyid Abu Hashim Madani.He studied and practiced for several years until the passing of his Murshid. Before his passing, his Murshid said, “Go forth, my son, and unite East and West with the harmony of your music, for to this end you are blessed by Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta’ala” [May He be praised and exalted].With that blessing, he continued his travels in India before eventually journeying by ship with his brothers, first to America, then onward to Europe, where he spent many years traveling and teaching in the West. In this way, a new Sufi order was born, the first to be established in the Americas and Western Europe.Q:&nbsp;Thank you. It is said that Murshidji brought Sufism to the West. I’ve read The Inner Life, and it’s an amazing book.PZIK: Yes, I’m glad you mentioned <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/interconnectedness-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Inner Life</a>, my grandfather’s classic work. In that book he describes a method of spiritual unfoldment that involves a reintegration of the wholeness of our being. Each of us has multiple inheritances. We have our angelic inheritance, and inheritances from the jinns, the stars, the elements, the plants, and the animals. All of this is within us. We are a microcosm of the whole universe. At the same time, we are also divided within ourselves, fragmented. The path of initiation and awakening is about reuniting these various strands of our being.The first thing he emphasizes in <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/is-your-mind-flexible" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Inner Life</a>, after making space for the journey and fulfilling one’s obligations and duties, is the rediscovery of the animal dimension. In spiritual philosophies, the animal dimension is either overlooked or dismissed as something beneath the human condition. For Hazrat Inayat Khan, the animal condition is an essential dimension of our humanity. Rather than simply transcending it, it is important to integrate it.This means being in touch with our physical body; rather than fleeing from it, we must fully inhabit it. It involves coming to know the depths of the rhythm of our breath, the rhythm of our heart, the magnetism that radiates from our core and limbs, and the light that flows through our gaze. All of this contributes to the crystallization of spirit within our physical form.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Ultimately, all initiations are inner openings&nbsp; within the one who experiences them.</h4><hr>Animals are profoundly in tune with their bodies, fully embodied beings. So, the first step for a seeker on the path is to return to this state of full embodiment, as represented by the animal world.Q:&nbsp;Can I ask about your work with the John Coltrane Church?PZIK: Certainly, you may ask anything. Regarding John Coltrane, recently, we had the joy of connecting with a group that listens to A Love Supreme as a spiritual practice every Sunday. This group is called the Church of Saint John Coltrane.While I was in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to meet the founders and hear about how important the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan have been for the church. They also spoke about how influential these teachings were for John Coltrane himself, who studied the mysticism of music and sound, a subject my grandfather wrote about extensively. Coltrane used to share these teachings with other musicians, which allowed them to circulate widely in the jazz community.Q:&nbsp;Your grandfather also wrote about initiation. Nowhere else have I read about this subject except in the Heartfulness tradition and the Sufi tradition. So I would love to hear your views on this.PZIK: There are so many levels of initiation. Some initiations are given from one person to another. Other initiations occur naturally in a person’s life, arising from an inner opening, a discovery, or an unfoldment of the spirit.Ultimately, all initiations are inner openings within the one who experiences them. But some are facilitated, brought about through a blessing given by someone who has walked the path of initiation, experienced an awakening, and can kindle the fire in others.Someone who has caught fire blazes and burns, and can spread that fire to those who are ready to receive it. In this way, the fire of initiation spreads across the world, and this is how it is transmitted.Q:&nbsp;What do you think are the duties and responsibilities of someone who has been initiated?PZIK: Some initiations involve entering into the blessings of a lineage. In Sufism, there are two kinds of entry:<ol><li style="text-align:justify;">The Ashiq initiation, known as Baya’ al-Tawarruk is a pledge of blessing. This means that one simply becomes a friend of the Sangha. One expresses respect for the lineage and friendship toward those on this path. There are no special duties attached to it, and the individual may still follow a different spiritual path.</li><li style="text-align:justify;">The Tālib initiation, known as Baya’ al-Haqiqah is for those who truly feel they have found their spiritual home. They have discovered the school of inner learning where they wish to study. Such a person is ready to dedicate their focus, effort, and concentration to this sacred work.</li></ol>This second initiation is not given automatically. One may need time to prepare or it may turn out that what seemed like a connection was just a passing idea. This is why true initiation is given only when it is meant to be, and when it is serious and real.When initiation is given, it means one has entered into a spiritual current. My grandfather described it as a tool being plugged into an electrical outlet, once connected, it lights up, receiving energy directly from the source.Being plugged into this stream means receiving all the Grace, Barakah, and awakening that has flowed through generations, from teacher to student, from being to being. Each initiated soul is linked to a tremendous wave of spiritual energy.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/uniting_fragments2_6b71cd0d49.webp" alt="uniting-fragments2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">When initiation is given, it means one has entered into a spiritual current. My grandfather described it as a tool being plugged into an electrical outlet, once connected, it lights up, receiving energy directly from the source. &nbsp;</h4><hr>This is the marvel of initiation, it carries you beyond the limitations of your own egoic identity. Awakening is not something we undertake in isolation. The very meaning of awakening is to transcend the illusion of separateness.So, what brings us beyond separation? It is the wave, a force that connects us with multiple beings, all undertaking the same realization of oneness.Q: How can we contribute more to the evolution of consciousness on a larger scale?PZIK: The best contribution that we can make, first and foremost, is to be what we wishes to see in the world, to embody it, to live it.If we wish for peace in the world, our first calling is to find peace within ourselves and live accordingly. In doing so, we can be certain that we have done all that we possibly can, because while we cannot change others, we have one unique privilege: We are responsible for ourselves. We can choose our thoughts, our words, and our actions. If we take this responsibility seriously and align our choices with our highest vision of beauty and truth, then that, in itself, is the greatest service we can offer to the world, the very purpose for which we were born.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">We are responsible for ourselves.&nbsp; We can choose our thoughts, our words, and our actions.&nbsp; If we take this responsibility seriously and&nbsp; align our choices with our highest vision of beauty and truth, then that, in itself, is the greatest service&nbsp; we can offer to the world,&nbsp; the very purpose for which we were born.</h4><hr>&nbsp;Q:&nbsp;So, you suggest that we should continue to become better and better versions of ourselves, striving to embody the change we wish to see in the world.PZIK: I don’t know if I would use the word “better.” I would rather say “more whole.” Because we have become fragmented. The journey is about reintegrating those fragments—body, mind, heart, and soul—creating linkages so that all of these faculties function as one unified entity.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/uniting_fragments4_a159b60b0a.webp" alt="uniting-fragments4.webp">&nbsp;This universe is a singular reality, a unity of body, mind, and soul, and each of us is a microcosm of that unity. But we live in a flatland, a limited perception of reality where we give our attention only to what is visible. There are multiple dimensions beyond the physical.We overlook the dimension of the soul, where all is experienced as a spiritual union, where living lights commune through presence. This level is forgotten because we are preoccupied with formalities, the external structures, and the appearances of life.Similarly, we neglect the dimension of the heart, where emotional resonance occurs. The feelings we experience at this level are not mere abstractions. They are as real and tangible as this table or chair. The emotional currents of the heart create landscapes that endure long after physical objects crumble into dust.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">The journey is about reintegrating those fragments —body, mind, heart, and soul —creating linkages so that all of these faculties&nbsp; function as one unified entity.</h4><hr>&nbsp;But at the same time, we must not disregard the physical world or view it as something fallen or unworthy. The physical world is a crystallization of the inner world. The soul itself wished to manifest in this way, to take on a body, to experience incarnation. However, in the process of incarnation, the soul forgot itself. It lost its original awareness. We have come to believe that we are merely this body with a fixed outline. So, the first step is to blur the outline, to recognize that the boundaries we perceive are not absolute.For example, we assume that our body ends at our skin. But our breath extends beyond us, intermingling with the breath of others. Right now, in this moment, we are interbreathing, sharing air, sharing energy. We are also exchanging light, as the body exudes illumination and magnetism.Our thoughts do not remain confined within us. They travel, they enter the minds of others. There is a tremendous interchange happening at all times.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/uniting_fragments3_72d3b44c72.webp" alt="uniting-fragments3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;Thus, the boundary of the self is not fixed or static. It is fluid and dynamic. When we begin to rediscover this interconnectedness, it carries us beyond our preconceived egoic limits. It expands our capacity for empathy and opens us to the vast, multidimensional nature of existence, where many planes intersect, all expressing one eternal life.Q:&nbsp;Thank you!PZIK: Thank you so much, Purnimaji. It has been a pleasure to meet you and speak with you.

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