Wakanyi is a Global Education Specialist, writer, editor, storyteller, and founder of the African Folktales Project. The theme of peaceful, cross-cultural cooperation is a common thread in her writing and personal life. For more than a decade she has lived in 7 countries, on 3 continents, as a global nomad, developing a rich intercultural intelligence built upon her training as a journalist.

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Wakanyi Hoffman

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>
 WAKANYI HOFFMAN
 is a Global Education Specialist and founder of the African Folktales
 Project. Here, she speaks with
 SARA BUBBER
 about the value of storytelling and passing down wisdom through generations,
 her Kikuyu culture, and how all of us are indigenous people contributing to
 the world.
</h4>

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 Q: Hello Wakanyi. It is a pleasure to meet with you today. I love listening
 to stories, reading them, and meeting people who tell stories, so I’m very
 happy we are talking.



 WH: Thank you!
 I’m also quite excited to have this conversation with you, Sara.



 Q: In the Heartfulness community, we often talk about the Wisdom Bridge –
 the transfer of wisdom from elders to youth, and from youth to elders,
 because learning is a dual process. It signifies the relationship between
 traditional cultural heritage and wisdom, and the present. What is the
 importance of the Wisdom Bridge from your perspective?



 WH: Wow, that’s a
 really important way of framing it! Off the top of my head, the Wisdom Bridge
 is a rite of passage from one generation to another. It signifies the idea of
 passing the baton from the old to the young, so that they become custodians of
 knowledge, whether that is cultural knowledge, spiritual knowledge, or values.



 Of course, there is reciprocity as well. Children offer wisdom to the old, so
 there is a kind of remembrance for our elders that wisdom is an ongoing
 pursuit, and that they can gather wisdom from the young as much as they can
 gather from their peers. Then, the other way around, elders are passing down
 wisdom to the younger generation, signifying, “It is our task to carry you
 forward.”



 To some degree, I see the Wisdom Bridge as a reminder that we are all
 indigenous to this planet. It is very important to hold that in our hearts, to
 understand that we’re all human beings and our knowledge is ancient. It has
 been growing. It never ended. We tend to put indigenous people to the side and
 have parallel worlds going on. I think it’s important to recall, and to recall
 from each other, that we are all indigenous to our planet.



 For me, the Wisdom Bridge is a symbolic movement of knowledge from one
 generation to another. It is also a symbolic movement from one culture to
 another. That way, we’re not stuck. You can take the wisdom and knowledge that
 has been passed down to you and recreate it, using it to learn about others.
 It is also a bridge to other worlds. There’s a lot there. I see it as a rite
 of passage from one generation to the next, and a way to connect with others
 who do not come from your cultural background.



 It is the gift of elders to the next generation, and it is a way for elders to
 recall who they were when they were younger, receiving that gift from others.
 There’s a whole exchange of knowledge that goes on when that is allowed to
 happen.



 Q: I really like what you said about it being a rite of passage and a gift.
 It’s a wonderful gift! As you said, we often keep indigenous people aside,
 so we are losing out on their wisdom.



 The Wisdom Bridge is creaky and in need of repair. The relationships
 between grandparents and grandchildren, tribes and urban populations, are
 not so strong now. Many of our ancient cultures are either being absorbed
 into modern urban life, or people are moving away from them. So we are
 losing a lot of wisdom from our past. This affects all areas of lifestyle.
 What can we do to save and preserve the bridge that we have?


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 First of all, I want to start on a hopeful note. I’d like to think of this as
 the audacity of hope – we are all human beings, and we are all indigenous to
 this world. Yes, there is a crisis around how much of our old oral traditions
 and cultural knowledge have been passed on, whether it’s to global modern
 culture, or national modern culture. There is definitely a big divide between
 indigenous knowledge and the rest of the world, however, I believe that all
 the knowledge is carried in every generation. Like we started off with the
 idea of the Wisdom Bridge, I believe my mother holds within her heart the
 knowledge of the past. Now she’s living as a modern woman, but that knowledge
 lives somewhere in her.



 It’s less a question of where to find the knowledge, and more an issue of how
 to open up the path; for people to open their hearts to share the knowledge.
 It’s a living thing. And we can recover that knowledge through storytelling.
 Telling stories is something inherently human.



 We all tell stories. You and I are telling stories now, and we’re telling
 stories on social media, and we’re telling stories on the news. We’re telling
 stories with friends when we gather, and when we’re at the supermarket we’re
 telling a story. I believe a story is a living thing, and it lives from one
 person to the next. As soon as we have a conversation, we exchange some form
 of story. You will carry part of my story with you, and I will carry part of
 your story with me. That’s the link.



 We can bring storytelling into classrooms, so that children who no longer live
 in their indigenous communities, or rural communities, where a lot of this
 culture and wisdom is practiced don’t have to lose it. We just shift it to the
 masses.


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<h5 class="has-text-align-center">
 The Wisdom Bridge is a symbolic movement of knowledge from one
 generation to another. It is also a symbolic movement from one
 culture to another.
</h5>

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 Also, indigenous knowledge and wisdom is not something that is stuck in the
 past. It is not lost; it is living in modern populations. It’s just not being
 utilized in the same way that it was in its indigenous settings. There’s a
 need to recall it from each other. The power of storytelling is such that we
 can recall the past by beginning from where we’re standing.



 If you know a folktale from your own community, that is a way to recall some
 part of your indigenous heritage. The more people are telling stories from the
 past, the more we are recollecting that knowledge and bringing it into the
 present. We don’t necessarily need to move backwards. In fact, that’s what the
 hesitation usually is.



 There is the challenge of how to embrace indigenous cultures in the modern
 world. I think that’s the wrong question to ask. We are all indigenous. We’re
 indigenous to this planet. The question should be, “How do we work together?
 How do we bridge the gap?” One good way is to open up the avenues of
 storytelling, whether it’s digitally, through social media, or orally. Create
 storytelling sessions. In that way, we begin to discover where we have
 deviated, and the cultural values and principles we’re still applying to our
 modern world that are from the indigenous past.



 Don’t forget, also, that indigenous folk have been moving on. They’re not
 stuck in the past. They are using knowledge that they have refined over time.
 Through storytelling and openly wanting to learn about each other, we create
 the space where knowledge is considered as another source of being, rather
 than separate from who we are.



 I think storytelling is the answer to your question. I have realized that we
 are made up of stories; it is our stories that feed us. If we’re able to
 understand that and bring indigenous wisdom into schools, without distorting
 the way knowledge is passed down (usually, orally is the best way to do it)
 then we will regenerate and recollect this wisdom.



 Q: This dialogue is breaking a lot of myths: for example, indigenous people
 are not stuck in the past, we are all indigenous, and we are not separate
 from each other. These are great insights.



 WH: There are
 age-old traditions all over the world. What are the initiatives you are taking
 up in your culture as a storyteller to bring them back, to tap into them, and
 to open things up?



 I’m a Global Education Specialist, and through my research I discovered the UN
 Sustainable Development Goals. I discovered that there’s a lot of talk about
 how to engage children in classrooms to understand and embrace the SDGs, and
 how they can become better-informed global citizens who can find solutions to
 the challenges of achieving these goals.



 But the SDGs are complex for young children. So how can we package them for
 young children who just want to be children? They want to play and learn and
 be happy. They don’t want to be bothered by big ideas about what the world
 looks like, and what the problems of the world are. Take climate change, for
 instance. Even though we’ve seen an amazing movement of children around the
 world protesting for climate justice, there’s still a big question mark around
 how they truly understand the crisis itself. They can understand that there is
 a lot of pollution, there are a lot of fires and earthquakes, but to what
 extent do they understand that this major crisis could signify the end of
 times as we know them?



 As a result of my research, I founded the African Folktales Project. I
 collected African folktales that contain ideas about sustainability, and
 through that process I discovered that all folktales have some lesson or idea
 about the future. A lot of stories are about conflict between humans and
 wildlife, and about climate issues like drought. There are a lot of African
 folktales related to climate change. This was a very exciting discovery for
 me. I realized that storytelling was one of the ways I could bring the
 Sustainable Development Goals to the classroom, so as to help kids understand
 them and get inspired to do something.



 So, I started taking stories tied to the 17 SDGs and reimagining them. For
 example, I have taken a story about a big fire that happened, and how the fire
 was put out and the land was regenerated and recovered. I’ll use the same
 characters, the moral of the story remains, but I reimagine it in the present
 time. Often, folktales are set in the past, so they are not relevant to kids
 growing up in today’s world, especially when you’re telling stories to
 children in modern settings versus indigenous settings. As I tell these
 stories, I ask the children to take them and remake them, recreate them. It is
 that Wisdom Bridge you were talking about initially – passing down stories and
 leaving them incomplete, so they can have ownership of the stories.


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<h5 class="has-text-align-center">
 I’m trying to create an environment in which we can embrace the
 idea that these are our stories 
 – all of us indigenous people on planet Earth.
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 I’m deconstructing the idea of folktales being held by a certain group of
 people. I’m trying to create an environment in which we can embrace the idea
 that these are our stories – all of us indigenous people on planet Earth. I
 don’t discount the fact that the stories came from a certain space, but even
 within an indigenous population there is a clear understanding that stories
 never had an original storyteller anyway. A story was always meant to be
 passed down. When I heard a story from my grandmother, she couldn’t possibly
 tell me where the story originally came from. The objective was for me to take
 the story, use it in my own life, and pass it on to my children. That keeps
 the stories going.



 This is one of the ways I’m trying to promote storytelling, promote indigenous
 wisdom, especially in my country, Kenya, where there is a rich oral tradition
 from indigenous cultures that is not seen any more in classrooms.



 I’ve transformed the stories into podcasts, and next year I will publish a
 book of the first series of UN SDG folktales. I’m trying to use as many forms
 of communication and media as possible – digital, audio, and live sessions in
 schools. These stories can become our stories, not stuck in one space.


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 Even within indigenous communities, there is a concern that children are not
 always told stories by their elders, because of the formalities of going to
 school and the way in which the culture has been separated from formal
 education. So, I’m hoping that these storytelling sessions will also engage
 indigenous elders in the process of recollecting, retelling, and recreating
 their stories. Then we’re all learning from each other, and we’re doing
 something relevant for the times with what we already have.



 I’m trying to bridge and marry cultures through storytelling, using folktales
 as a pedagogical approach to learning more about who we are.


To be continued.

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<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 Interview by SARA BUBBER Illustrations by SANTANU CHATTERJEE
</h4>

<hr />

We are all indigenous global citizens – part 1

<h4>
 WAKANYI HOFFMAN
 is a Global Education Specialist and founder of the African Folktales
 Project. In part 2 of her interview with
 SARA BUBBER
 from the Heartfulness Institute, Wakanyi shares the value of storytelling,
 passing down wisdom through generations, her Kikuyu culture, and how we are
 all indigenous global citizens.
</h4>

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<h3 class="has-text-align-center">
 We Are All Indigenous Global Citizens – Part
 2
</h3>

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 Q: A lot of change has taken place from previous times to modern
 times. But
 one thing that really stands out as central in this dialogue is
 storytelling. What is the role of stories in the transfer of wisdom?



 WH: That could be
 another session, couldn’t it? Storytelling is a living thing. It is who we
 are. We tell stories using all forms of communication: Through song, through
 dance, through nonverbal communication, we use the art of storytelling to
 communicate our feelings, our ideas, our fears, and our concerns. And so, the
 role of storytelling in communicating wisdom is central.



 Children are like sponges: They are very good at receiving a story, and then
 interpreting it for themselves and reenacting it. Whenever I hold a
 storytelling session with a group of children, I will hear the story later on
 from another child who was not part of the group, because that story was
 shared. That’s clearly the way we’ve always passed down knowledge. Even in
 schools, whenever I speak to educators, especially teachers involved in global
 citizenship education, every single discipline that children are taught in
 school, whether it is mathematics or science or music or art, is a form of
 storytelling. If children imagine it as a story, there’s a lot more retention;
 that has been scientifically proven.


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 The role of storytelling in passing down wisdom is key to understanding how to
 do it, and there is no one way that is better than another. Take oral
 storytelling – I could claim that stories are best told orally, but that’s
 just one way in which indigenous communities have done it. Now we have other
 tools, and we can use the digital tools we have. We can use any space in which
 human beings are gathering to tell stories. We need to open up our minds to
 what is available to us, and get excited that we can scale the process of
 telling stories with these tools.



 Q: Storytelling has been going on for a long time in oral form.
 We’d like
 to know about the oral traditions of Africa.



 WH: There are so
 many! I think I will focus on my own culture. I come from a tribe known as the
 Kikuyu people of Kenya. The communities of the Kikuyu are based around the
 mountain region. We border the Masai and other tribes, and there’s a lot of
 intermarriage. My maternal grandfather was part Masai, so there’s a bit of
 Masai blood in me.



 Some of the oral traditions are reflective of this intermarriage and
 intercultural exchange, but there are also certain ways of the Kikuyu I can
 speak to, for example, the oral tradition around naming. We name our children
 after ancestors; for example, my name, Wakanyi, is my maternal grandmother’s
 name, and she was named after either her maternal grandmother or paternal
 grandmother. It really depends on the line and the birth order. I’m the last
 born, and the second daughter of my mom. My sister is named after my father’s
 mother. That’s one of the very strict traditions of the Kikuyu culture. You
 know the birth order and you also know if it’s from your mother’s side or your
 father’s side.


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<hr />

<h5 class="has-text-align-center">
 Our indigenous cultures are so important, and we need to
 honor their
 importance to this world. They provide the map to show us where we’ve
 come from, and where we’re heading.
</h5>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 There’s a creation myth: The first Kikuyu that settled around Mount Kenya
 climbed up the mountain. From there, he experienced a spiritual awakening by
 encountering the God of the Kikuyu, and he was presented with a wife. The wife
 then bore nine daughters, and the nine daughters started the Kikuyu’s nine
 tribes. We are all descendants of those nine tribes. Depending on your name
 and your clan, you can trace your ancestors back to one of those daughters.



 There’s also a tradition of building houses, which is an interesting one.
 According to the Kikuyu, a house – a round hut – had to be built in a day.
 That doesn’t happen anymore, but in the olden times, each hut was built from
 morning till evening. A lot of organizing had to go on to complete the task.
 The reason? An incomplete house could invite the wrong kind of energy, evil
 spirits. To avoid them, you had to build your house, move into it immediately,
 and begin living in it. Then you’d have the blessing of the right kind of
 spirits.



 There are a lot of stories around ancestors, and how the ancestors live with
 us, in us, and around us. There’s a lot of respect for ancestors who have
 departed, as well as rules and ideas about how not to upset the ancestors. You
 cannot invoke certain names or people in any old way. You must pay your
 respects to certain people that have passed before you. And the naming culture
 also has a lot to do with respecting those who have left, and showing the
 continuation of life, in a reincarnation kind of way.



 A lot of traditions are still practiced within modern Kikuyu culture, such as
 traditions around marriage. When you get engaged, you go back to your home and
 stay, and perform a ceremony, which is basically a marriage ceremony, before
 you do the formal modern wedding ceremony.


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<h5 class="has-text-align-center">
 We’re all living on the same planet. We are experiencing
 the same
 changes, and the same landscape, on the whole, and we breathe
 the same air. So, I think it is important for us to understand
 that we are called to work together as indigenous citizens of
 this planet.
</h5>

<hr />

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 Q: As you were talking, it reminded me so much of the
 similarities in my
 culture, like what you said about naming. In India, the first son in many
 cultures is named after the paternal grandfather. Regarding marriage, you
 cannot marry someone from a certain village because they are your brothers.
 You should marry someone from seven villages away. These traditions are
 still followed – the ones with ancestors that live on, and the rites after
 death, also continue.



 As you were talking, the thought that came that these stories
 are unifying.
 There are so many things that are similar: The folktales are similar, the
 rituals are similar, and we all feel a sort of brotherhood. We resonate with
 each other. The whole circle of storytelling is complete.



 WH: I agree
 completely. Which is why we need to start embracing the idea that we are all
 indigenous to this world. Our indigenous cultures are so important, and we
 need to honor their importance to this world. They provide the map to show us
 where we’ve come from, and where we’re heading. If we ignore this, it’s like
 taking off to sea without a compass. We don’t know where we’re going.



 It’s not to say that we need to be like they used to be, or that they are
 better than us. There’s no “us” and “them.” We’re all one. Like you say, there
 are so many similarities that bring us together. There are more similarities
 than there are differences, and the reason for that is because we have
 originated from the same kind of indigenous populations. The way to bridge
 that gap is to tell our stories. And when we find a point of difference,
 that’s an opportunity to recall a story that might bring about the connection.



 It makes me excited to hear that within Indian cultures there are similarities
 to my own Kikuyu culture. And I know this is true for my own people back in
 Kenya, where there are 50 to 60 tribes. Within those tribes, there are many
 ways in which we are interconnected, but we tend to differentiate ourselves
 based on something as abstract as language. When we overcome the language
 barrier, we discover that we’ve all intermarried.



 We obviously share some of these ideas and ways of being. Ultimately, we’re
 all living on the same planet. We are experiencing the same changes, and the
 same landscape, on the whole, and we breathe the same air. So, I think it is
 important for us to understand that we are called to work together as
 indigenous citizens of this planet.



 Q: I’m so happy to end on the note that stories connect, and we
 are all
 indigenous to this planet. Thank you so much for talking with us today. It
 was wonderful to have you.



 WH: It was my
 pleasure. I hope that we get to talk again sometime soon!


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<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 Interview by SARA BUBBER Illustrations by SANTANU CHATTERJEE
</h4>

<hr />

The new storytelling

Wendell Berry

The Earth

defualt-profile-image.png

William James

A great thing

William Shakespeare

Love unsought

One touch of nature 

Co-founder of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation, William is one of the world’s leading experts on negotiation and mediation. He is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Harvard Negotiation Project.

William-Ury.jpg

William Ury

<h4>
 WILLIAM URY is
 one of the world’s most trusted negotiators and mediators. He has spent his
 life building bridges in conflict situations and teaching other people how
 to do the same. His book, Getting to Yes, is a worldwide bestseller
 and is translated into thirty-five languages. Here he is interviewed by
 GUILA CLARA
 KESSOUS
 about his approach to peace-making.
 We thank our partner, the
 <a href="https://www.sohforum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spirit of Humanity Forum</a>,
 for facilitating this
 interview.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 Q: William Ury has dedicated his life to peace-making and
 better diplomatic
 relationships. William, welcome and thank you so much for giving us your
 time.



 Today, we live in a world where relationships have become
 harder and
 harder, especially in terms of trust. What is your definition of
 peace-making today?



 WU: First of all,
 thank you Guila. In today’s world, conflict is a growth industry. Everywhere
 we look – domestically and internationally – for every issue, from war to
 climate, to hunger, we are faced with conflicts that are seemingly impossible
 to resolve. To me, peace-making is the continuous transformation of those
 conflicts.



 When I began working in this field forty-five years ago, with my colleague
 Roger Fisher, we were working on the Cold War, and it seemed impossible that
 there’d ever be an end to it. People thought the Berlin Wall was going to be
 there forever, but as we know, the Berlin Wall fell, and the relationship
 between the United States and the then Soviet Union transformed.



 The same was true in South Africa when we were working on the problem of
 apartheid. For as long as anybody could envision, people said there would be a
 race war in South Africa, and I watched Nelson Mandela and countless other
 individuals working for peace to transform that situation. The same thing
 happened in Northern Ireland. The Catholics and the Protestants have been
 fighting each other for centuries, and they are going to be fighting each
 other for centuries. In each of those cases, there’s no end to the conflict.



 Sometimes, we have this illusion that peace-making means an end to conflict –
 you wrap it up like a present. No. The form changes. It changes from a
 destructive form, from the destruction of values, the destruction of lives, to
 a more constructive, creative form.



 To me, that is the definition of peace-making. Peace-making never ends. It’s
 not like you get to a final yes. I think of peace-making as being the
 impossible yes. It may seem impossible, but it is actually a whole series of
 yeses over time, because the game of conflict is not a final game. It’s not a
 win-lose final game. It’s an infinite game. It goes on. Relationships go on.
 The United States and Russia still have problems, there are still problems in
 Northern Ireland, and there are still problems in South Africa, but the
 conflicts were transformed.



 If you look around the world today, there are still so many injustices. I
 would argue that, paradoxically, the world needs more conflict, not less,
 because conflict is the way we deal with injustice. At the same time, we need
 constructive, creative conflict, and to me that’s what peace-making is.
 Peace-making is the continuous transformation of those conflicts through
 methods like negotiation.



 Q: You speak about a new way of seeing negotiations, of
 possibilism, and I
 like this notion. In fact, when I hear you talking about the idea of
 unwrapping conflict – trying to have a change of energy, of value – it’s a
 way to change perspective and realize that in conflict there is an
 interdependency that we cannot put away. Could you give us a little more
 information about this notion of possibilism?



 WU: Sure. People
 ask me, “At the end of forty-five years working in this field, dealing with
 impossible situations, are you still an optimist?” I generally say, “You
 know, constitutionally I am an optimist, but I’d like to say now that I am a
 possibilist.” A possibilist is someone who believes in human potential.
 Of course, there is the possibility that we will kill each other, but there is
 also the possibility that we can create or find ways to deal with even the
 most intractable, impossible situations. The reason I say that is because I
 have seen it happen with my own eyes, and I’ve had the privilege of
 participating in one such situation in the last decade.


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<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 A possibilist is someone who believes in human
 potential. Of course,
 there is the possibility that we will kill each other, but there is
 also the possibility that we can create or find ways to deal with
 even the most intractable, impossible situations.
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 About ten years ago, I got a call from the President of Colombia, who wanted
 to find a way to end or transform the civil war in Colombia, which had been
 going on for fifty years, since the 1960s. It was fifty years of civil war,
 over 250,000 dead, and eight million victims of conflict, mostly women and
 children, the innocents. He was willing to put his political reputation on the
 line, because peace is the hardest work that people do. People think wars are
 hard, but peace is even harder, because it takes more of us as human beings.
 So, my colleagues and I worked with President Santos for over eight years. We
 made twenty-five trips to Colombia even before the negotiation process began,
 secretly, trying to see whether it could be transformed. And it did get
 transformed. Is the conflict over in Colombia? No, but it’s transformed. The
 armed conflict came to an end, and that’s what is possible in every conflict
 facing the world today. That’s why I am a possibilist.


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 <img decoding="async" width="434" height="600" alt="transforming_conflict_golden_bridge2"
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 Q: So, what is a good way to transform conflict, to change
 people’s minds?
 What is the paradigm shift that can happen?



 WU: Well, let me
 begin by telling you one of my favorite stories on negotiations, which I think
 crystallizes and answers your question, Guila. It is an ancient story from the
 Middle East about three sons who receive from their father an inheritance of
 seventeen camels. The first son, being the eldest, receives half the camels,
 the second son receives a third of the camels, and the youngest son receives a
 ninth of the camels. The three sons get into a negotiation about dividing up
 their inheritance, because seventeen doesn’t divide by two, it doesn’t divide
 by three, and it doesn’t divide by nine. Each one wants more. They argue, and
 there is the risk of it becoming violent.



 Finally, in desperation, they consult a wise old woman, and she thinks about
 the problem for a long time. Finally, she comes back and says, “Well, I don’t
 know if I have an answer to your problem, but I have a camel. Would you like
 my camel?” The three sons say, “Okay,” so they have eighteen camels. Now,
 eighteen divides by two, so the first son takes nine camels. Eighteen divides
 by three, so the second son takes six camels. Eighteen divides by nine, so the
 youngest son takes two camels. When you add nine plus six plus two, you get
 seventeen. They have one camel left over, so they give it back to the wise
 woman.



 If you think about that problem for a moment, you’ll find it resembles a lot
 of the negotiations we engage in. At first sight it seems impossible. The
 secret to the paradigm shift you asked about, Guila, is the wise old woman.
 What does she do? She steps back from the situation for a moment. She goes to
 what I call a balcony, which is the place where you overlook the stage in a
 theatre. It’s a place of perspective. It’s a place where you can rise above
 the fray, above the conflict, where you can see the picture more clearly,
 where you can keep your eye on the prize.



 Then what does she do? She comes up with the eighteenth camel, what I call
 “building the parties a golden bridge” so they can advance across the big
 chasm of disagreement. How do we build them a bridge over that chasm? How do
 we make it as easy as possible to say yes? That’s the eighteenth camel. Where
 does that eighteenth camel come from? It often comes not from the parties
 themselves but from the surrounding community, which is what I call the third
 side of any conflict.


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 <figure>
 <img decoding="async" width="700" height="353" alt="transforming_conflict_golden_bridge3"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/transforming_conflict_golden_bridge3_700x353_f4d43fc3b7.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T06:40:10.635Z" />
 </figure>
</div>

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<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 We use the third side to act on those new
 possibilities. That’s the
 paradigm shift – balcony, bridge, and third side. I call it BB3, the key to finding impossible yeses.
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 We often see conflicts as two-sided – Arabs versus Israelis, Catholics versus
 Protestants – but there is always a third side, the surrounding community, the
 circle surrounding the conflict. In this case, it is the wise old woman. That
 is the paradigm shift.



 If I had to look back over forty-five years and ask, “How do I sum all of this
 up?”, it is the ability to get to that impossible yes. We need to step back
 and go to the balcony to see new possibilities. Then we build a golden bridge
 to bring about those new possibilities creatively. Finally, we use the third
 side to act on those new possibilities. That’s the paradigm shift – balcony,
 bridge, and third side. I call it BB3, the key to finding impossible yeses.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

To be continued.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

Transforming conflict: building a golden bridge

Peace-making

<h4>
 WILLIAM URY is
 an author, anthropologist, and one of the world’s leading negotiators and mediators. He
 has spent his life building bridges in conflict situations and teaching
 other people how to do the same. His book, Getting to Yes, is a
 worldwide best seller, and is translated into thirty-five languages.
 
</h4>

<h4
 id="h-in-part-2-of-his-interview-by-guila-clara-kessous-william-speaks-about-what-causes-conflict-how-men-and-women-bring-different-qualities-to-negotiation-and-how-conflict-resolution-has-evolved"
>
 In part 2 of his interview by GUILA CLARA KESSOUS, William speaks about what causes conflict, how men and women bring
 different qualities to negotiation, and how conflict resolution has
 evolved.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 Q: What are the most common stereotypes we see today in conflicts?



 WU: What is
 behind all the conflicts around the world? They are each very different, but
 behind almost all of them is a feeling of scarcity, that there isn’t enough.
 And behind that scarcity – if you go deeper – there is a sense that we are all
 separate. There is no sense of the interconnection that you were talking
 about, Guila; we are all separate little parties, and there isn’t enough. In
 this worldview, the only way we satisfy our interests is by engaging in a
 win-lose battle.



 Those are the stereotypes behind conflicts: scarcity, separation, and the
 win-lose mindset.



 And what’s required of us to make a paradigmatic shift is to realize that, in
 fact, quite possibly there is no scarcity. Of course, there is scarcity in one
 sense, but there may be enough for everyone, just like in the story of the
 camels&nbsp;. We are not separate; we are interconnected. We are in that story
 the whole family, the brothers, right? And we are all one in the human family.
 What’s then required is to shift the mindset from win-lose. We shift it not
 only to win-win, which has become a phrase popularized by
 Getting to Yes, but we need a third win. We need a win not just for
 both sides of a conflict, but a win for the whole. We need a win for the
 community. We need a win for the world. We need a win for the world’s
 environment. We need the triple win. That’s the new game we need to learn to
 play.



 Q: And this triple win includes the possibility and the willingness to get
 out of the conflicts. Is that correct? It means that the two parties are not
 so in love with their conflict. That is, they accept to take a step back and
 go to the balcony.



 When we talk about gender stereotypes with what has happened in
 Afghanistan, for example, is there a question that could change men’s
 approach to women? Is it something you could advise?



 WU: Well, it’s
 really hard to generalize about gender. But with my knowledge of the
 sub-scientific research, I would say that men tend to be more sucked into the
 win-lose: Who’s gonna win in the short term? Women, evolutionarily, are
 trained to pay more attention to relationships in the long-term. So, I have
 found that when women are involved (or the feminine principle, whether it’s
 women themselves) in a negotiation, there is more tending to relationships,
 which is also key.



 In negotiation, men often make the mistake of being hard on the problem,
 wanting to solve the problem. That also means being hard on the people: “Well,
 okay, that’s what’s possible.” Women sometimes make the opposite mistake,
 which is, “We need to be soft on the people. We have to tend to the
 relationships,” so they are soft on the problem, and give in too easily.



 A successful negotiator is soft on the people, respectful of the people, and
 hard on the problem. They try to solve the problem in a way that works for
 everyone. So, we need both the masculine and the feminine, especially in the
 peace-making field. We need a lot more women and the leadership of women. I
 think that’s starting to happen, and it’s an extremely promising trend.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 Those are the stereotypes behind conflicts: scarcity, separation, and the win-lose mindset.
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width: 700px !important">
 <img
 width="700px"
 alt="why-we-need-megotiation2-700x488"
 class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/why_we_need_megotiation2_700x488_f5ae42358c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T11:19:10.219Z"
 />
 <figcaption>Photograph by LINKEDIN-SALES-SOLUTIONS</figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 Q: In your career, have you seen an evolution of ego in negotiation? Would
 you say that the egos of countries have changed now that they know the
 protocols you and Rodger Fisher have given to the world? Do you see an
 ego-education? Would you say that some countries have understood mutual gain
 and become softer in their relationships?



 WU: There’s a
 syndrome I call the “me-syndrome,” which stands for “male-ego syndrome,” you
 know, bad heads. And then there is something that happens in these
 peace-making processes, where suddenly the ego starts to diminish, people
 start to realize that there are things like the future, their children.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 A successful negotiator is soft on the people, respectful of the
 people, and hard on the problem. They try to solve the problem in a
 way that works for everyone.
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 I was just remembering back to Northern Ireland in the 80s or early 90s. The
 reputed head of the IRA was a man by the name of Mark McGuiness. The IRA had
 declared a ceasefire and then broken the ceasefire, and the terrorist acts
 were going on. Going back to the role of women here, he was confronted at home
 by his wife and daughter over the dinner table. They said, “You told us you’re
 going to stop.” To me, that’s the third side. That’s the community. And that’s
 when the ego – especially the male ego – starts to go, “Oh, okay.” And Mark
 McGuiness made the most remarkable turnaround where he led the IRA and Gerry
 Adams into an agreement – the Good Friday agreement. He later served in the
 government and became the Minister for Education. His closest colleague in
 government was his most bitter adversary on the Protestant loyalist side, Ian
 Paisley. The two of them formed a friendship, and that’s when the ego starts
 to diminish. A lot of it was through the role of women.



 Q: It’s the same in business relationships. Sometimes, in salary
 negotiation, bosses forget that, even if they don’t have money to give, the
 person wants to take home something more than money. It’s also to answer the
 third party, whether it’s a wife, or a past significant, just to say, “Yes,
 I’ve got something. I’ve been working so hard and you know what? I had the
 guts to ask for a salary review, and guess what? I’ve got something.”
 Sometimes, the hierarchy forgets that there is this conversation that
 happens right after the negotiation, and if they don’t give anything it is a
 disaster for that relationship. Of course, they are also losing the
 employee. Would you say that this is also an illustration of the third
 party?



 WU: Absolutely.
 In fact, one of the most useful exercises when you are preparing for a
 negotiation is to imagine the other side – maybe the employee – accepting your
 proposal, and then having to go to the people they care about and explain why
 this was a victory. In other words, sit down, take out a piece of paper, and
 write out the other side’s victory speech. What are they going to say to their
 constituency, the people they care about most, about why accepting your
 proposal is a victory for them? And then work back from that. How do you help
 them deliver that victory speech?


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width: 600px !important">
 <img
 width="600px"
 alt="why-we-need-megotiation3"
 class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/why_we_need_megotiation3_27925f6dd5.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T11:20:24.312Z"
 />
 <figcaption>Original Photograph by COTTONBRO</figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 Q: Excellent! In terms of role games, it is true that it helps for this
 paradigmatic shift to prepare the other better to this positive “No,” the
 way you call it. Excellent!



 It is the International Day of Peace, so I would like to ask you: Do we
 learn, and do Nations learn from conflicts? Can we say that the harm, the
 difficulties, the aggression, the violence is something that serves the
 world to get better?



 WU: Well,
 paradoxically and unfortunately, when we are offered a choice between learning
 the easy way or the hard way, we often choose the hard way. Sometimes we learn
 through the destructiveness of conflicts. You know, people learned when there
 was World War I in Europe. But there wasn’t enough learning, so then there was
 World War II. And that’s how the UN was born, right? The League of Nations was
 born after World War I, and that was not quite enough. Slowly, slowly, the
 world is making progress. It may not look that way from the news, but actually
 the numbers of wars and the numbers of people killed in wars have been
 gradually decreasing for the last fifty years. There have been some ups here
 and there, which are very serious, but there has been a slow learning process.



 A century ago, war was glorious and people celebrated. For example, in Paris
 in August 1914, all the women wished the soldiers, “It’s going to be a
 glorious success,” and sent them off. Since then, we’ve learned that war is a
 terrible thing; no one wins and, in the end, everyone loses. You know, even
 one of the most powerful countries in the world, the United States, was not
 able to win in Afghanistan, against the comparatively small force of the
 Taliban. They had to leave. It’s just one more example that war does not work.
 That’s why we need negotiation.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

To be continued.


 Thanks to our partner, the Spirit of Humanity Forum, for facilitating this
 interview.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">Interview by CLARA KESSOUS</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

Why we need negotiation

Photograph by Metin Ozer<h4>WILLIAM URY is an author, anthropologist, and one of the world’s leading negotiators and mediators. He has spent his life building bridges in conflict situations and teaching other people how to do the same. His book, Getting to Yes, is a worldwide bestseller, translated into thirty-five languages.&nbsp;</h4><h4>This is part 3 of an interview conducted by GUILA CLARA KESSOUS and JULIAN PÉLABÈRE on the occasion of the 2021 United Nations and NERA Humanity Prize, which was awarded to William for his efforts in promoting innovative thinking to change the world for a better future, to help us better understand what is negotiation, and how we can all live together for a better life, a better future.</h4><hr>GCK: William, you have already mentioned BB3 – balcony, bridge, and third side. Is that your advice to bring more peace within ourselves and in our relationship with others? Is BB3 the magic formula? Do you have any advice you could give us?WU: Well, first of all, in the last forty-five years since I started Getting to Yes, the biggest lesson I have learned is that to influence others we first need to learn how to influence ourselves. We keep thinking that we want to change the minds of others, but it starts right here. The single biggest obstacle for me in my personal life, or for me to get what I need to satisfy my interests, is not the difficult person on the other side of the table. It’s not the difficult person in life, as difficult as that person might be. It’s right here. The most difficult person is the person we look at in the mirror every single morning, and that’s a lot of what going to the balcony is about.There is a saying, “When you are angry, you’ll make the best speech you ever regret,” and I think that’s very true. Human beings naturally get frustrated and angry, and say things that they later regret. That happens a lot in conflict. Gandhi noticed this and he said, “An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.” So, learn the ability not to react. Neuroscientists tell us it takes about ninety seconds for any emotion like anger or fear to go through your system. Learn to pause, a little bit of silence.There is an interesting study done by one of my colleagues on negotiation, where they studied different groups and measured the number of pauses in the conversation. That was it. There was a direct correlation between the number of pauses, how collaborative the process was, and how successful the outcome was.So just slow down. We live in a very fast world. We need to pause. We need to go to the balcony. We need to take some time for ourselves.&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr><h4>The biggest lesson I have learned is that to influence others we first need to learn how to influence ourselves. We keep thinking that we want to change the minds of others, but it starts right here.</h4>&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>Take emails, for example. When you get an email or a text that makes you irritated, the temptation is to hit the reply button and get it out of your system. Then the whole thing escalates, right? There is a balcony button on the screen that we never use, called “save as draft.” Write it out, save it as a draft, then go to the balcony, meditate, go for a walk, have a coffee with a friend, sleep on it, and then go back and look at that message. You’re going to hit “delete.” And then you’re going to pick up the phone and you’re going to talk to that person or, even better, listen to that person because that’s the key in negotiation. We think of negotiation as talking, but successful negotiation is more about listening.So, learn to pause, learn to listen effectively, learn to listen not just from your perspective. The hard thing is to listen from the other side’s perspective, to put yourself in their shoes, in their frame of reference. If we can learn to do that, then I think that’s the secret of success for negotiation.GCK: What can you share with us about your balcony, William? What is your way to find peace? Do you have a style of peace-making for yourself?WU: Well, Guila, it’s a good question. You know, when I was a boy of six, I moved from the United States to the Swiss Alps for a year. I fell in love with mountains. Nowadays I live in Colorado, which is like Switzerland in the US. The mountains are my personal balcony.&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr><h4>We think of negotiation as talking, but successful negotiation is more about listening.</h4>&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/join_peace_games2_9e79d42039.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T07:13:32.388Z" alt="join-peace-games">Original photograph by ANTENNA<hr>I travel around the world, to Afghanistan, to the Middle East, to Korea, but I come back here to the mountains. The mountains have been here for tens of millions of years. I get perspective. Going out for a walk in the mountains is my way of regenerating myself in this world of conflicts. That’s my personal balcony: taking a walk, nature, beauty.There is nothing like beauty to give a little bit of hope. There are so many problems, and it is so easy to fall into despair. Beauty awakens the heart again, brings a sense of wonder, and then it gives you the strength to go back into the fray, fight the good fight, transform conflicts, because it’s never-ending. This game never ends, but it’s a game in which everyone can benefit, as opposed to the usual games like sports where someone wins and everyone else loses. This is a game where everyone benefits, not just us but our children, our grandchildren, and successive generations.JP: I really love what you say about looking for a third win, and how negotiation is not like sport with a winner and losers. Can you give us more clues to understand what is winning in negotiation?WU: Thank you, Julien. To me, winning a negotiation is satisfying your interest. Your interests are your deep desires, your aspirations, your concerns, your fears, and, in the end, it’s basic needs. Every human being has a few basic needs: a basic need for well-being (to put food on the table for your family and so on); for security and safety; for some kind of recognition, some sense of autonomy and dignity, right? So, to me that’s success. Success is when there is dignity for everyone, well-being for everyone, and a sense of safety for everyone. That’s the goal of negotiation – to meet the basic needs. You may not always get everything you say you want – you know everyone says, “I want this sum of money, I want that territory” – but the basic needs are met.Let me give you an example. About two decades ago, I was involved in mediating with a Swiss institution. It was a conflict in Indonesia, a civil war that had been going on for decades over the Province of Aceh. I was sitting in Geneva with the leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and I said, “You’ve been fighting for over thirty years for independence. What do you want? What’s the purpose of the negotiation?” “We want independence – that’s what we want.” “Okay, I got it. Why do you want independence? What’s independence going to give you?” I can tell you, around that table in Geneva there was silence. They didn’t quite know how to answer that question. They knew what their position was – independence – but they hadn’t thought through what they really wanted independence for. I asked, “Is it because of economics? Do you want control over your natural resources? Is it political? Do you want a seat at the United Nations? Is it symbolic? Is it that you want autonomy for your culture, so that your children can go to school in your own language? What does independence mean to you?”The truth is, they realized that militarily they were never going to defeat the Indonesian army, so the question was: Could they meet the interests for which they were fighting without necessarily getting independence? They could still keep the dream of independence. Five years later, they reached an agreement that gave them full political autonomy. The leaders of the GAM became the Governor and the Vice-Governor of the Province. In the parliament, in the province, their own language was respected. They gained control over their natural resources. Did they get independence? No. But their basic needs were beginning to be addressed, and the basic needs of the people were addressed. That’s really the purpose of negotiation.&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr><h4>Success is when there is dignity for everyone, well-being for everyone, and a sense of safety for everyone. That’s the goal of negotiation – to meet the basic needs.</h4>&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>GCK: This notion of meaning is extremely important. Do you think this willingness of meaning is also something that we have to look for in a world of Covid? We know it’s going to be a spiral, and we know that there will be a lot of violence. Things will also be complicated regarding security, and for our children and children’s children. So, would you say this notion of meaning is the most important to keep, no matter what conflict or negotiation we are going through?WU: There is a basic human need for meaning. People want their lives to be meaningful, and to me that’s one of the great opportunities with peace-making – to redefine what gives meaning to our lives. It used to be that war gave people’s lives meaning. Can peace give people’s lives even more meaning?We can make that happen. That’s why we have the peace-making profession, the negotiation profession. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there has been a race between human beings’ technological genius to devise weapons of incredible destructiveness that could put an end to all of life on Earth, and our moral, emotional, political, and social capacities to find ways to live together and create meaning together.Creating meaning is the great challenge, the ongoing challenge we face today. How do we make peace genuinely meaningful and not just some kind of an abstract thing? It goes back to your first question Guila, it’s in the game of the impossible yes1. Let me give you a dream here: What if we had (in addition to the Olympic Games) the Peace Games, in which teams were organized around the world to resolve the world’s toughest conflicts? They would not be competing with each other but against the challenge of these impossible conflicts. It would be a league, like a league of nations … call it a league of possibilists. There would be teams playing and working with each other. I really think we could transform these impossible conflicts. That’s what the world needs – peace games. There were war games, and now we need peace games. That would bring meaning to people. People love to play games, so may we all join this league of possibilists!<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/join_peace_games3_cb1c5a5cbc.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T07:14:59.238Z" alt="join-peace-games">Original photograph by Priscilla Du Preez<hr><hr><h4>What if we had the Peace Games, in which teams were organized around the world to resolve the world’s toughest conflicts? They would not be competing with each other but against the challenge of these impossible conflicts. It would be a league, like a league of nations … call it a league of possibilists.</h4>&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>GCK: I am in! You’re right in saying that playfulness needs to be there, because even if people want meaning, they don’t want sad meaning. They want joyful meaning. They want objective meaning. They want dynamism and the willingness to live. Living is also a way not only to make efforts, but also progress, with people flourishing – Getting to Yes with happiness.William, I want to thank you so very much for these very precious moments we have spent together. It has been a great pleasure to have you as a speaker. Julien and I were very honored that you accepted this prize, and we would like to thank our great host, the Center for Executive Education at the University of Peace. We would like to thank our sponsor, Heartfulness, and their event “Connecting for Peace,” together with Institut NERA and UNESCO Artists for Peace. So, thank you for talking to us so sincerely from the heart. We wish you all the very best.What can we do to help you continue in this wonderful direction that you are taking us?WU: Join me in forming this league of possibilists. Let’s play these peace games and let’s tackle the world’s problems. It would give me joy to welcome you all into this league.GCK: Definitely. You heard Professor William Ury. We are all invited to this possibilist movement that he is creating for more peace in the world. Please join him. Thank you again William.WU: My pleasure. Thank you all. Un grand plaisir. Merci. Infiniment.<hr><hr>1 In part 1 of this interview in the February 2022 edition, William Ury said, “I think of peace-making as being the impossible yes. It may seem impossible, but it is actually a whole series of yeses over time, because the game of conflict is not a final game. It’s not a win-lose final game. It’s an infinite game. It goes on. Relationships go on.”

Join the peace games

What is peace-making?

Yeganeh is a Grade 9 student at Iroquois Ridge High School, Toronto, Canada. She is a competitive swimmer and plays both piano and guitar. Her Brighter Minds experience includes intensive cognitive development practices, and volunteering alongside cognitive coaches.

yeganeh-hassani.jpg

Yeganah Hassani

<h2 style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</h2><h2 style="text-align:center;">TAKE THE BRIGHTER MINDS PATH&nbsp; TO COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT</h2><h4 style="text-align:justify;">&nbsp;</h4><h4 style="text-align:justify;">In the ever-evolving landscape of education, the Brighter Minds Program emerges as a transformative initiative designed to enhance children’s <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/enhancing-learning-effectiveness" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cognitive abilities</a> and develop their sense of observation. Brighter Minds integrates cutting-edge theories with practical techniques to foster intellectual and personal growth. Young Canadian, YEGANEH HASSANI, shares her experience of how it has transformed her life.</h4>&nbsp;My name is Yeganeh, I am 14 years old, and at the age of 7 my parents introduced me to Brighter Minds, seeking to enlighten my educational journey. Initially, I was reluctant to spend my Sundays attending a four-hour class, as I would have preferred to play at the park with my friends. However, as a social person, I decided to enroll in the program, motivated by the opportunity to meet other children and make friends. This decision marked the beginning of my transformation.On the first day, the instructors showed us a video of a girl aged 10 performing various exercises blindfold. She would identify the color of plastic balls behind her back by feeling them, and state the color without looking. This was presented as an example of what we could achieve. Over time, I realized that this program would require significant dedication, practice, and perseverance. It was a demanding program that would occupy much of my time.The course involved practicing exercises, listening to music, and attending sessions. Gradually, I began to understand the true meaning of “You can’t get results until you put in the work.” Most seven-year-olds, including myself, are not accustomed to pushing their minds to their full potential, which is why this program challenged me in numerous ways. It tested both my strengths and weaknesses, making me more resilient and effective. While the progress was evident to parents, educators, and peers, the struggle to remain consistent and persistently repeat the same practices made me intensely impatient.After hours of discipline and determination, practicing became second nature. There was no longer a need for my father to remind me to practice, no need for my mother to prompt me to prepare for sessions, and no more dread of the long hours of practice ahead. Instead, I eagerly looked forward to practice, asking my father if he would come and test me. I was excited about attending sessions and would ask my mother to arrive early so I could be the first in class. I was grateful for the opportunity to develop new skills and enhance my abilities.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/unlock_your_potential2_18a0092cf1_2538a694dd.jpg" alt="unlock_your_potential2_18a0092cf1.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_unlock_your_potential2_18a0092cf1_2538a694dd.jpg 245w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_unlock_your_potential2_18a0092cf1_2538a694dd.jpg 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_unlock_your_potential2_18a0092cf1_2538a694dd.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw">&nbsp;As the years passed, I grew older and ascended the academic ladder, with each grade becoming slightly more challenging than the last. For many children, this can be overwhelming and emotionally draining. I have experienced this firsthand. As an extroverted child brimming with energy, I often found myself distracted, with a very short attention span. This made it difficult to stay focused in class, complete assignments, and grasp some of the material being taught.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/unlock_your_potential3_cf5803b945_e1dc93b37e.jpg" alt="unlock_your_potential3_cf5803b945.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_unlock_your_potential3_cf5803b945_e1dc93b37e.jpg 245w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_unlock_your_potential3_cf5803b945_e1dc93b37e.jpg 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_unlock_your_potential3_cf5803b945_e1dc93b37e.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;After enrolling in Brighter Minds, the first to notice changes in my behavior were my teachers. Within just three weeks, I made tremendous improvements. Suddenly, I was answering questions, completing my work without distractions, and significantly boosting my test scores. By the fifth week, my family and friends began to notice my progress and were astonished by the remarkable difference.None of this would have been possible without key elements that supported my development:<ul><li style="text-align:justify;">One crucial pillar is support. Without adequate support from guardians, our progress can become challenging.&nbsp; &nbsp;</li><li style="text-align:justify;">Patience and discipline are also essential. Parents need to understand that results do not appear after two sessions. Progress comes with patience and consistent effort. Children also need to recognize that development takes time. Results will come with perseverance and practice. &nbsp;</li><li style="text-align:justify;">And parents, practicing with your child daily will bring optimal results. Engaging with Brighter Minds music, doing brain exercises, and attending all sessions together will foster better cognitive development and strengthen your bond. Children often resist activities at first, so making practice times engaging and interactive will both improve cognitive function and enhance your connection.</li></ul><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Making practice times engaging and interactive will both improve cognitive function and enhance your connection. &nbsp;</h4><hr>With these key concepts in mind, you and your child will be well-equipped to face any challenge. Remember, together we are nurturing the next generation of children!&nbsp;

Unlock your potential

Yogita is an engineer and a wildlife conservation researcher. She has been practicing Heartfulness meditation since 2015.

Yogita Karpate

<h4>YOGITA KARPATE explores ecosystem restoration and ecological resilience, and how an integrated perspective opens up a more enlightened approach to creating policies for humanity coexisting with all the other species that share planet Earth with us.</h4><hr>I have been intrigued by the idea of ecological restoration since I came to know that the United Nations declared 2021-2030 the <a href="https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/">“Decade for Ecosystem Restoration.”</a> It relates to my research on Ecological Resilience. Therefore, I thought it was a great opportunity to rethink the causes of ecosystem degradation, how they relate to ecological resilience, how it impacts our lives, if restoration is realistic, and what we can do about it?I’ll start with what we are missing. Many people think that natural landscapes are all forests. Since people are now more conscious about their responsibility toward conservation, communities and governments are investing in the afforestation of degraded lands. As a result, lands that historically never had trees are also being converted to forests. Using non-endemic trees for afforestation has given rise to another ecological threat, “biological invasion,” which has been a hot topic among ecologists for many years. Forests are undoubtedly important, but so are other ecosystems.This is a good time to remind ourselves of the definition of an ecosystem. I like the definition on the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/ecosystem/">National Geographic Society’s website</a>: “An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscapes, work together to form a bubble of life.”Ecosystems range from lush dense rainforest to sparsely vegetated savannah, from freshwater streams to vast expanses of ocean, from rocky arid regions to deserts, and from rustic villages to densely populated urban areas.Ecosystems sometimes naturally exist in combination, for example, a forest-grassland ecosystem where forests and grasslands coexist in a mosaic pattern.&nbsp;Each ecosystem has intrinsic ecological value and is home to a variety of plants, shrubs, trees, grasses, animals, birds, and diverse human communities.&nbsp;Ecosystems also impact our lives. Ecosystem Services are the link between nature and humans. <a href="https://www.iucn.org/">The International Union of Conservation of Nature </a><a href="https://www.iucn.org/commissions/commission-ecosystem-management/our-work/cems-thematic-groups/services">defines</a> them as “the benefits people derive from ecosystems.” The services provided by forests are often described, but less attention is given to the services provided by other ecosystems. For example, grasslands are an “Open Natural Ecosystem (ONE),” having a great potential for carbon storage. Scientists<a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/grasslands-may-trump-forests-at-carbon-storage-in-a-warming-world/"> say</a> that grasslands sequester carbon below ground, protecting the carbon from wildfires.&nbsp;Terrestrial ecosystems have been victim to changes in land-use practices. Marine and freshwater realms have been subjected to unregulated fishing, oil spills, and chemical pollution. ONEs are threatened by overgrazing, agriculture, plantations, and human settlement. After the announcement of the <a href="https://www.bonnchallenge.org/">“Bonn Challenge”</a> in 2020, <a href="https://researchmatters.in/news/ill-conceived-idea-replacing-natural-grasslands-%E2%80%98forests%E2%80%99%E2%80%94lessons-past-mistakes">afforestation of grasslands is being done in the name of climate change mitigation.</a> Unfortunately, policymakers have missed giving ONEs the importance they deserve. Forest-grassland ecosystems are being threatened by the invasion of non-native fast-growing species, and climate change. The same is happening to other ecosystems, where the absence of policies for restoration and conservation is catalyzing their degradation.All ecosystems have a natural capacity to heal themselves up to a certain threshold. Once this threshold is crossed, the health of the ecosystem is not retrievable. The ability of an <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/a-journey-of-conservation-and-hope" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ecosystem</a> to bounce back to its original state after being subjected to external disturbance is a measure of its “resilience.” Restoration of ecosystems can only help when the system is resilient.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Think_ecosystem2_83bd1adb8f.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T11:59:33.837Z" alt="">&nbsp;<hr><h4>The ability of an ecosystem&nbsp; to bounce back to its original state after&nbsp; being subjected to external disturbance&nbsp; is a measure of its “resilience.”&nbsp; Restoration of ecosystems can only help&nbsp; when the system is resilient.&nbsp;</h4><hr>According to the United Nations, “Ecosystem restoration means assisting the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as conserving the ecosystems that are still intact.”&nbsp;Active restoration on land can be done by planting, and enhancing soil nutrient properties, and in water by regulating fishing, and controlling water pollution. It can also be done passively by removing human-induced pressures and letting ecosystems heal on their own. When done scientifically, restoration won’t just heal our planet but will also help the economy to thrive. The United Nations goes as far as saying that the <a href="https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/what-ecosystem-restoration">economic benefits of ecosystem restoration</a> are nine times the cost of investment.&nbsp;Although we understand the urgency of ecological restoration, unscientific restoration is not sustainable. It may also lead to larger problems such as disease, biological invasions, and loss of biodiversity. Scientists propose developing a holistic framework based on cost-effectiveness and long-term sustainability of restoration work.How can we actively participate in restoration? Many of us feel clueless but I believe we can do much more than just offer occasional financial contributions. Contribution to ecosystem restoration shouldn’t be limited to planting trees or cleaning lakes, which again become occasional activities, especially in urban areas.&nbsp; From increasing mining in ecologically sensitive areas to wildlife hunting, and extraction of non-timber forest products, drivers of ecosystem degradation point toward the rising demands created from urban areas.The most effective contribution we can make is to become more conscious about our lifestyle. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10393-020-01480-1">Research</a> says that ecosystem health is closely linked with human health and therefore science-backed restoration is critical to the survival of humans. Being conscious about our well-being will not only reduce the load on our pockets but will also heal the planet.To conclude, I would like to revisit what we are missing from the lens of conservation science. Wildlife conservation can be approached in two ways: one is the utilitarian approach, which focuses on how nature conservation benefits us, and the other is the coexistence approach, which talks about the simultaneous existence of species. The former approaches restoration to enhance ecosystem services, whereas the latter focuses on minimizing negative interactions between species. Both approaches are effective and scientific. It is we who decide which way to approach ecosystem restoration.This reminds me of an informal interaction I had with an elephant biologist, who asked me “Why should we conserve elephants in our neighborhood forests?” My answer back then, as a newbie in the field, was, “Because wide-ranging animals help the conservation of larger patches of natural habitats.” He disagreeably accepted my analytical opinion with a smile and said, “Because it’s their intrinsic right to live in the forest, which is their home.” I couldn’t agree with him more.&nbsp;References<a href="https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/">https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/</a><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/ecosystem/">https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/ecosystem/</a><a href="https://www.iucn.org/">https://www.iucn.org/</a><a href="https://www.iucn.org/commissions/commission-ecosystem-management/our-work/cems-thematic-groups/services">https://www.iucn.org/commissions/commission-ecosystem-management/our-work/cems-thematic-groups/services</a><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/grasslands-may-trump-forests-at-carbon-storage-in-a-warming-world/">https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/grasslands-may-trump-forests-at-carbon-storage-in-a-warming-world/</a><a href="https://www.bonnchallenge.org/">https://www.bonnchallenge.org/</a><a href="https://researchmatters.in/news/ill-conceived-idea-replacing-natural-grasslands-%E2%80%98forests%E2%80%99%E2%80%94lessons-past-mistakes">https://researchmatters.in/news/ill-conceived-idea-replacing-natural-grasslands-%E2%80%98forests%E2%80%99%E2%80%94lessons-past-mistakes</a><a href="https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/what-ecosystem-restoration">https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/what-ecosystem-restoration</a><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10393-020-01480-1#auth-Martin_F_-Breed">Breed</a>, M.F. et al., 2021. Ecosystem Restoration: A Public Health Intervention, EcoHealth ,18: 269-271. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-020-01480-1">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-020-01480-1</a><a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorRaw=Perring%2C+Michael+P">Perring</a>, M.P. et al., 2015. Advances in restoration ecology: rising to the challenges of the coming decades, Ecosphere,&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/ES15-00121.1">https://doi.org/10.1890/ES15-00121.1</a>

Think ecosystem

Yogrishi Swami Ramdev is an Indian Yoga Guru known for his work in Ayurveda, Ashtanga Yoga, agriculture and business. He co-founded Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd. with his colleague Balkrishna. He has also campaigned assiduously against government corruption. From 2003, Aastha TV has featured his programs in their morning Yoga slots and he has since become instrumental in Yoga’s surge of popularity around the world. He walks the talk, living a simple life, eating only sattvik foods and sleeping on the floor. Despite being such a successful businessman, he owns no shares in his company. He is an inspiration to many.

YOGRISHI-SWAMI-RAMDEV.jpg

YOGRISHI SWAMI RAMDEV

<h4>In January 2020, YOGRISHI SWAMI RAMDEV visited Kanha Shanti Vanam to celebrate 75 years of the Heartfulness organizations, along with Daaji and 100,000 practitioners from around the world. Here, ELIZABETH DENLEY interviews him about what he is doing for youth in the field of education.</h4><hr>Q: Namaste Swamiji Maharaj. I am delighted to interview you today. With education in mind, what would you like to offer young people, and what does Yoga have to offer the youth of today?YSR: The youth today have three main challenges:To maintain a fit body, without which we cannot fully achieve all that we set out to do. Our body has to support us. A fit body doesn’t just mean a healthy body, it means improving our physical capacity to its fullest.The second challenge for youth is to work very hard on the development of their mind and emotions, and ensure they are going in the right direction. This can be accomplished through Ashtanga Yoga and Heartfulness practices.Ashtanga Yoga doesn’t only promote a fit body, but through its eight steps it also promotes regulation of the senses, the brain, our emotions, actions, total behavior and character – essentially our entire life cycle is affected. We stand to gain all-rounded development through Ashtanga Yoga, so that our thoughts and our nature will be transformed.There are so many obstacles in life which have to be surmounted to bring about inclusive and sustainable growth. In economics and politics we use two terms very often – overall and balanced growth which is permanent, inclusive, sustainable, non-violent, and full of justice, for our overall development. This can be realized through Ashtanga Yoga and the Heartfulness system, by fully regulating our body, mind, thoughts, emotions, and our very nature.Life is like a seed: there are two types of seeds, bad ones and good ones. The bad ones must be squashed, and the good ones must be allowed to blossom. This is what we mean by purification.Q: Tell us about your education syllabus. What are you offering the youth of India with this syllabus?YSR: We have developed the syllabus for students up to Year 12. It includes different levels of Yoga practice, and we already have government accreditation. Behind the development of this syllabus is a single goal – that the culture of Yoga is imbibed by children in childhood and in a way that they can relate to, including physical activity. There’s some confusion that Yoga is only about physical activity, but what is Yoga? Doing each and every action of our life, whatever it is, with purity, with perfection – this is Yoga. Meditation is different. Everything is not meditation, but there is meditation in everything – in your studies, your actions and thoughts, in everything you do. So, there is meditativeness in everything. But to meditate is different – it is that which you do by yourself. There is Yoga related to meditation, which is a solitary practice, and Yoga related to conducting your daily life immersed in a meditative state.Q: So you also include the character work of Yama and Niyama.YSR: Yes, they are included. Ashtanga Yoga is not merely one thing, not only exercise, not only meditation, not only breathing exercises, not only spiritual things. In Ashtanga Yoga the eight steps are complete Yoga practice. This is what we want to highlight.For students’ internal development, Yoga is absolutely crucial.Finally, I would like to say that here, with the Heartfulness practices, there is a silent revolution happening – a revolution that will influence the spiritual life of the individual, of the country and of the whole world. This is a massive work in progress for this century.<hr>With the Heartfulness practices, there is a silent revolution happening&nbsp; – a revolution that will influence the spiritual life of the individual,&nbsp; of the country and of the whole world.&nbsp; This is a massive work in progress for this century.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Interviewed by ELIZABETH DENLEY</h4><hr>

A silent revolution

Yves is a homeopathic doctor, who is also writing a novel and involved in theatre. He regularly presents conferences on the themes of meditation and spirituality, building bridges between meditation and various social groups and their particular issues. His artistic nature is very much in tune with the joy of the heart, which he is always willing to share with everyone in his role as a Heartfulness trainer.

yves.jpg

Yves Benhamou

Zach is a multi-disciplinary physician of internal medicine, endocrinology, and hospice care, and founder of Farmer’s Footprint. He is also an educator and thought leader on the microbiome, as it relates to human health, soil health, food systems and a regenerative future.

Zach-bush-150x150-1.jpg

Zach Bush

<hr class="vertical-space1" />
<h4>
 DR. ZACH BUSH is a renowned,
 multi-disciplinary physician and educator on the microbiome as it relates to
 human health, the environment and our interconnected future. Here he extends
 this worldview into the spiritual realm and the field of consciousness, so as
 to co-create a sustainable and regenerative future for all of us, and
 understand the role of humanity in the greater scheme of things.
</h4>
<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 Spirituality is one difficult topic to tackle as a human being, let alone try
 to be some sort of leader in it. I’ve never looked to my own experience or
 knowledge base to think of myself as a leader in any sort of spiritual
 content. I never really dove into spirituality thinking that this was going to
 be an area of focus for me. It’s just percolated up through the rest of my
 experience and pursuits.


 The deeper I’ve gotten into science, medical and otherwise, the more I find
 that the template of nature itself speaks to some greater design, some deep
 fundamental truths that are echoed from the most microscopic to the most
 macroscopic things we see us, from the tiny viruses that would inhabit a body
 to the universe itself. The scale is truly extraordinary. And in recent years,
 the scientific literature has introduced us to The Universal Scalability Law.
 That law shows that the mathematical scale between the universe itself and the
 tiniest particles we’ve ever measured in physics – the tiniest being the
 vibration of the electromagnetic field in a vacuum, called Planck’s constant –
 is laid in half, cut in half in its dimensions by human biology.


 What do I mean by that? Extraordinarily, we sit at the center point
 mathematically between the tiniest thing and the largest thing that has ever
 been witnessed by humans in the universe. Somehow, we sit at the center point,
 the event horizon, the center point of the universe, which means that as we
 look through telescopes out through the billions of stars that would make up
 our galaxy, and then past that to the billions of galaxies that would make up
 the universe, that telescope expands to the very edges of the universe. You
 would have to turn that telescope around into your hand or into your chest,
 and then look just as deep into that physical space to find the exact same
 depth, the exact same complexity and scale.


 We sit at the center point of the vast universe within and the vast universe
 without. It must not be an accident. We have the ability to observe both, to
 be witness to both the grandeur within and the grandeur without. And for that
 reason, I think we’re called into relationship with nature, not to demand
 something of it, not to control it, but to simply be a grateful and loving
 witness to miraculous nature, without and within.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


<hr />

<h5 style="text-align: center">
 We sit at the center point of the vast universe
 
 within and the vast universe without. 
 It must not be an accident. 
 We have the ability to observe both, 
 to be witness to both the grandeur within 
 and the grandeur without.
</h5>

<hr />


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 The spirituality I’ve come to really embrace is one of understanding of
 singularity and diversity, this extraordinary truth that it is only in our own
 self-identity that we can find our role and our relationship, in that
 singularity, to the entire universe without and within.


 We stand at a powerful place in mathematical scale. We stand at a tipping
 point between the grandiose and the minuscule. We can manifest the very
 intention of life, which is nature around us and within us. I want human
 consciousness to rise, so that as we improve our understanding of human health
 and push the boundaries of longevity and reverse the chronic disease epidemics
 around us, we don’t continue to participate in speed, the demise of our
 species, and the destruction of our planet.


 The rise of consciousness needs to be such that we don’t just improve human
 health, but come to understand our human relationship to the universe at
 large, inside and outside of us. I’m excited for us to have dialogues towards
 this end, in the medical environment, the scientific world, and most of all,
 perhaps, in the consumer world.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />
<img
 alt="spirituality"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/spirituality2_1_8ad06f8c3b.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:34:10.314Z"
/>


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


<hr />

<h5 style="text-align: center">
 The spirituality I’ve come to really embrace is one of understanding of
 singularity and diversity, this extraordinary truth that it is only in our
 own self-identity that we can find our role and our relationship, in that
 singularity, to the entire universe without and within.
</h5>

<hr />


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 As consumers, each of us can see this world differently as we come to see our
 role. You did not show up by accident. Seven billion souls have leapt into
 these bodies at this moment in human history. We find ourselves to be at the
 tipping point, with maybe 60 or 70 years left of human life on Earth. That’s
 an extraordinarily bizarre and terrifying fact. And yet I look at my children
 and I see the purpose and passion within them. My son is an engineer,
 brilliant in his excitement at co-creating in the universe. My daughter, so
 expressive in her creative capacity as a performer, and she is in New York
 City now enjoying this incredible culture of creative arts. I see both of them
 and I have hope. Souls are still jumping into bodies with great purpose, and a
 sense of joy, and a sense of hope for the future.


 I have trust in the wisdom and expectation of those souls that somehow, within
 the next couple of decades, humanity’s consciousness rises. And thus we can
 become the very pinnacle of transformation on this planet; so that we can be
 part of that solution-based transformation to co-create with Mother Earth for
 a sustainable and regenerative future for mankind.


 We need to debunk the fear and guilt of spirituality that’s been built into
 our religious constructs, and really come to see that we are all on one small
 blue dot in this vast expanse of vacuum space of the universe. We are singular
 here, we’re singular in our homes, and in our opportunity to live in a
 healthy, cooperative environment with the rest of humanity, such that we
 participate with the greater ecosystem in nature to manifest the face of what
 we might call God, we might call spirituality, or we might call the Universe.
 We can be a part of that in a healthy and synergistic fashion.


 I’m excited to continue to engage with all of you, so please get back to us
 through the social media environments, not just to reach me but to reach all
 of us who would be drawn to an environment like this. Be inspired to think
 collectively together in a new fashion so that we overcome the fear and guilt
 and the psychosis of our political structures, our social structures, our
 religious structures, and really start to understand humanity and its proper
 position in the universe itself.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

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 style="color: #b57a1b"
 href="https://zachbushmd.com/"
 target="_blank"
 rel="noopener"
 >www.zachbushmd.com</a
 >
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 style="color: #b57a1b"
 href="https://www.instagram.com/zachbushmd"
 target="_blank"
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<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 style="text-align: center">Article by DR. ZACH BUSH</h4>

<hr />

Spirituality

<h4>
DR. ZACH BUSH
 inspires us with hope for the future, and the paradigm shift that is
 happening right now. He reminds us to focus on beauty, and our
 capacity to hold the light.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<h4>
The whole is in every fractal. Each tear holds the world.

</h4>

<p
id="h-humanity-has-yet-to-discover-how-to-program-the-quantum-chips-that-are-emerging-when-we-start-programming-the-first-quantum-computer-i-believe-what-we-re-going-to-reveal-is-that-each-of-us-is-a-supercomputer-where-every-single-atom-in-each-of-our-molecules-holds-access-to-an-extreme-knowledge-field"
>
Humanity has yet to discover how to program the quantum chips that are
emerging. When we start programming the first quantum computer, I
believe what we’re going to reveal is that each of us is a
supercomputer, where every single atom in each of our molecules holds
access to an extreme knowledge field.


<h4>
We are all quantum beings …
</h4>


Every millionth of a second, our bodies make billions of calculations
that decide who we are today. With an endless number of possibilities in
which our bodies can manifest, you may wonder: how does it express the
vibration of an energy field that we call a soul? It does so by
projecting a hologram as our physical reality.


<h4>
The only solid things in existence right now are light waves that
 become a particle state for a moment.
</h4>


Light energy turns a wave into a particle, which gives us the impression
of solidity. Your body may seem solid, but it is actually a particle
expression of a light force within you.



For example, quantum intelligence within a piece of wood may express a
wood table in Your physical experience, when in fact, it’s just light
energy. There’s nothing wood about the atomic structure, but there’s a
macro experience of wood as the collective vibration remembers a tree.



Look carefully around you and truly take in this spectacular hologram we
are living in. Know that it can project an unlimited number of possible
realities; appreciate that the reality you see never appears in perfect
symmetry – the beauty is in the asymmetric experience.



Notice how not a single cloud in nature is ever symmetric. Rather, the
beauty of the sky is the infinite number of patterns and apparent
asymmetry. It’s that ultrastructure that makes it so beautiful, and
whatever looks most asymmetric is actually obeying a more macro version
of balance. In the physics world, this is expressed in Chaos Theory.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
<figure>
 <img
 decoding="async"
 width="700"
 height="303"
 alt=""
 
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/life_around_is_hologram2_700x303_23906aada9.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T06:50:43.376Z"
 
 />
</figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h5 class="has-text-align-center">
If we make a conscious effort to elevate beauty in our work
 and our relationships, we can focus on doing our highest work
 and witnessing, with pleasure, the fabric of reality.
</h5>

<hr />

<h4>
Even the most chaotic system, a waterfall, is perfectly
 asymmetrical
</h4>


The water molecules tumbling over rocks, falling down hundreds of feet,
crashing into a pool below never fall in the same spot twice. Yet, in
that absolute state of chaos, a mathematician can always find macro
patterns that form in perfect coherence. To the naked eye, we often
can’t see these patterns because of the limitations of our visual
perspective, but they are there.



Though it seems so chaotic right now, this hologram we live in is truly
an impermanent expression of beauty. As human beings, our highest
function is to witness that beauty and foster a version of it that
portrays the most magnificent things we can imagine. If we make a
conscious effort to elevate that beauty in our work and our
relationships, we don’t need to be afraid of humanity as a destructive
force. We can instead focus on doing our highest work and witnessing,
with pleasure, the fabric of reality. Beauty.



Find reassurance when you look around at our world right now and see
chaos. The chaos of humanity is necessary. Collectively, it may seem
that we are expressing a low vibrational state, but if we look to Chaos
Theory, we know there’s an ultra pattern within it. It’s speaking to
something of our true nature that’s going to emerge in a beautiful
paradigm shift in our awareness and in our capacity to hold light
energy.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


Reprinted with permission from the author: <a href="https://zachbushmd.com/blog-november-2021/"
 >https://zachbushmd.com/blog-november-2021/</a
>



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Life around us is a hologram

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 <h4 
 id="h-this-is-how-dr-zach-bush-deconstructs-his-sense-of-self-it-could-just-be-the-medicine-you-need-too">
 This is how DR.
 ZACH BUSH deconstructs his sense of self. It could just be the medicine you need, too.
 </h4>



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 <h4 >Where do people find you?</h4>



 I’ve been getting this question at the end of every podcast. They are looking to get mention of websites and
 social media connection points, and usually I answer appropriately, but recently the question hit me
 differently, and I thought it was a metaphysical inquiry.



 <h4 >So, where does one find me? Where do I find me?&nbsp;</h4>



 Initially I thought, “you want to find me, go dig a hole.” Once the confusion in the answer washed away, I could
 see the layers of the response and just how accurate it is.



 Dig a hole and you will discover that by removing a shovel full of soil you create space; both literally and
 figuratively. When we dig out the dirt from our minds, spirits, and bodies, we create space. In this space many
 new things can be brought out of the potential energy that lies within.



 In the cosmos, everything leaps out of the void: this vacuum of space which is filled with the electromagnetic
 field that emanates from all the stars in the universe. The black hole absorbs this massive energy and
 translates all that raw energy into matter which spirals out to create a new galaxy. My life is the same. The
 more I empty myself, the more beauty is birthed into physical form. And the more beauty there is, the more love
 there is.



 <h4 class="text-center">I am a generative machine as I dig that hole more
 completely.</h4>



 This is where I’m most at home. It’s where all the lessons I’ve carried and learned from began, and it is the
 ever-flowing source of inspiration and medicine for a busy mind. Go dig a hole – it’s where I retreat to slow
 down and deconstruct the ego.&nbsp;



 A single sprout is all I need to witness and remember the simple, yet profound, connection between self and soil.
 We are each of the Earth and are here to be stewards of her vital pursuit of regeneration. Deep within that
 exists peace if we can recognize our role, not as producers or consumers, but stewards of life, peace, health,
 and connection.&nbsp;



 So go dig a hole today and find that part of you you’ve been missing.



 In reverence,


<img alt="zach_bush_md_signature_dark"
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Where do people find you?

The potential within

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">ZACH BUSH, MD, explores Nature’s role in our regenerative future, the fact that we can no longer see ourselves as separate from Nature, and what we can become when we accept that we are of this Earth.</h4>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/living_natural_law2_83c85efaca.webp" alt="living-natural-law2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_living_natural_law2_83c85efaca.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_living_natural_law2_83c85efaca.webp 607w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/living_natural_law2_83c85efaca.webp 607w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;It’s time we found a new mirror to look into.&nbsp;The only one I’ve found globally that works for every person of every socioeconomic class, every race, and every creed&nbsp;is Nature.Nature is the only place where we will be seen for the beauty we can be, rather than the trauma we’ve lived.Nature is unchanging in her capacity to birth and create by our attitude and our awareness of her. She’s constantly asking us back into a relationship so that the playfulness of creativity and creation can flow through our own kindness.We have so much opportunity to become something we have not been before. But to get there,&nbsp;it’s time to come to terms with the fact that we are all of this Earth.We are a transmutation of the elements of the soils, the air, and the waters of this Earth. They self-organized within the wombs of our mothers to become the humans we are.&nbsp;If we come to terms with the fact that we are never separate from the Nature within us and the Nature around us, we may finally look into the correct mirror to see the beauty and potential of ourselves.The Earth is not yearning for us to look to her. I believe that Nature is yearning to see herself in us. If she had no care for that, we would probably not exist. But we are here, the most sentient and intelligent beings that have been brought forth from the soils of the Earth, from the microbiome that lives within us and around us, from the shared intelligence of thousands of species that collaborate. We are here to create the information stream in our minds that will create the opportunity for curiosity, and the creativity that comes out of that curiosity, and the productivity that will be aligned and productive within the constructs of Nature.We are the living natural law. We are the system of biology iterated again and again on this planet until we appear. It is in our abstract belief that we are separate from this source of life, within this Earth. And so, we have become destructive and extractive of the elements of nature.May we remember to be seen by this Earth so that we might recalibrate, retune, and become the humankind we are capable of being.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/living_natural_law3_40be320d6e.webp" alt="living-natural-law3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_living_natural_law3_40be320d6e.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_living_natural_law3_40be320d6e.webp 600w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/living_natural_law3_40be320d6e.webp 600w," sizes="100vw"><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Nature is the only place where we will be seen for the beauty we can be,&nbsp; rather than the trauma we’ve lived.</h4><hr>It is my hope that we all remember to send prayers to the children, the mothers and fathers, and the grandparents of every nation that is at war today. We can offer a collective prayer that the pattern will be broken, that forgiveness will become a language that is shared among nations, that is taught in the hearts of our children before they have the opportunity to learn the hate of our past. I hope that we pray into the Nature around us until we can see ourselves for the beauty that we can become.&nbsp;May we become that humankind.I’m honored to be alive now with each of you. We are here collectively to ask the deepest questions, to find the deepest answers, to discover our capacity for transformation, transmutation, and creativity within the Nature that we live.May you be blessed and remember every day, every year; Nature always remembers us. Blessings on you and those you love. May forgiveness be the new language in your hearts and minds toward one another and toward the world around you.This is our regenerative future.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by LAKSHMI GADDAM</h4><hr>

The living natural law

Zachari is a Canadian artist working mainly in drawing, ceramics and installation practices. His work has been exhibited widely, in group and solo exhibitions around the world. Logan has also attended residencies and worked in collaboration with many other artists.

Zachari-Logan.jpg

Zachari Logan

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<h3 class="has-text-align-center" id="h-an-art-essay">AN ART ESSAY</h3>



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<h4
 id="h-zachari-logan-is-interviewed-by-vanessa-patel-about-his-art-the-influences-that-have-informed-his-approach-the-relationship-between-the-human-body-and-the-land-and-the-beauty-of-slowing-down-and-contemplating-the-world-at-a-different-pace">
 ZACHARI LOGAN is interviewed by VANESSA PATEL about his art, the influences that have
 informed his approach, the relationship between the human body and the land, and the beauty of slowing down and
 contemplating the world at a different pace.
</h4>



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</figure>




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Q: Hello Zachari, thank you for your time. I noticed that your
 exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum is in a space dedicated to contemplation and meditation.



ZL: Yes, a lot of my work is a mixture of figuration and
 landscape. My belief surrounding the body and land is that they are one and the same. I have a desire to slow the
 viewers down, because we interact with so many media that speed up our brains, and don’t always foster contemplation
 or critical thinking.



Recently I was in New York and saw the Hans Holbein exhibition at the Morgan Library. I was in the room with people
 who were just quietly staring at objects for ten minutes or longer. Sharing moments within that type of space is
 phenomenal because our brains work in a different way.



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<figure><img decoding="async" width="700" height="562" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/let_art_slow_down3_700x562_1009516802.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:20:40.715Z">
</figure>




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<figure><img decoding="async" width="532" height="800" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/let_art_slow_down4_9259afb6d8.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:21:37.362Z">
</figure>




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Q: Yes, instead of being bombarded constantly, something emerges
 from within. The work you are showing right now at the Peabody, “Remembrance,” is a lot about life and
 death.



ZL: I gravitate to the contemplation of my own mortality
 in my work. The Jurrien Timmer Gallery at the Peabody is a space of contemplation, which gave me a great opportunity
 to do some new works that had a specific focus on the past couple of years. Some were done in immediate response to
 the pandemic, and later became a conversation that touched on our perception of time, the contemplation of loss, and
 the remarkable change and potential as we’re emerging from what ever this is.



Q: I have been enjoying your nature drawings, and also some of
 your pen and ink drawings. They have such an old-world feel, the detailing is beautiful, and the visualization
 process is almost like contemplation for you. What has informed your work?



ZL: The art historical reference point was really
 important. For example, I worked on a series of very large self-portraits, referencing the scale and the
 construction of the neoclassicists. I’d been thinking about figuration of the male body, so I started with my own
 body, while making references to historical tropes and styles. In 2009 I had an exhibition in Paris, and it was the
 first time I’d seen a lot of the historical work I was referencing; works like The Raft of Medusa,
 and the paintings of David and Delacroix. I’ve made it a part of my practice to do residencies, and to do research
 and work from collections. It’s how I’ve come across most of the works that are referenced in my visual language.




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<figure><img decoding="async" width="418" height="600" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/let_art_slow_down5_58c7f51559.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:23:00.526Z">
</figure>




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My body is always the catalyst. Regardless of whether or not it is visually present, I think about things in relation
 to my body, which I address in terms of mortality.



Also, I see no separation between our bodies and the land. What we do to ourselves, we do to the land, and vice
 versa. So, with something like the pandemic, it probably happened because of encroachment in places that we don’t
 need to be. In a lot of ways, I think it comes down to human greed.



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<figure><img decoding="async" width="384" height="800" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/let_art_slow_down6_b3b161e8ae.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:24:03.343Z">
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<figure><img decoding="async" width="700" height="683" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/let_art_slow_down7_700x683_19f5c3768d.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:25:01.595Z">
</figure>




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Another big influence was my upbringing in an isolated area of Canada as a Roman Catholic. A lot of Western art is
 linked to the Catholic narrative, with male bodies in different forms of torture and transcendence. A lot of 20th
 century Canadian art was very British or European, transposed to a North American context, and that was what I knew.




Q: This is what informed you, and along the way you have
 discovered new things. At the Peabody, part of your work has been making murals. How was that?



ZL: I had a lot of time to think and rethink projects
 during the pandemic. I wanted to do work that would disappear after an exhibition, just sink into the wall. The
 mural artworks are literally sanded down (they’re graphite drawings) and painted over. Traces of them will always
 remain in the wall, which is a lovely notion. I call them Nomenclature 1, 2, 3, and 4, and I definitely wanted to do
 one for this exhibition. It’s simply a gesture about time, about how we’re here then we’re not.



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<figure><img decoding="async" width="269" height="800" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/let_art_slow_down10_b0c0563744.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:26:49.131Z">
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<figure><img decoding="async" width="521" height="800" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
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</figure>




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<figure><img decoding="async" width="521" height="800" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/let_art_slow_down9_fb5c7941a0.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:28:44.396Z">
</figure>




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Q: Coming to your installations, you made one in porcelain and
 encouraged people to touch it. That is very unusual for an artist in a public space.



ZL: People have a desire to touch things. They get to be
 in dialogue with the artist, to experience the same thing, even in a slight way. One of the aspects that personally
 drew me to ceramics, and the specific clay that I work with, is the feel of it. It almost feels like bone, and the
 color looks like bone matter. Again, it all comes back to the body. “Fountain 1” is really like a pile of bones.
 Every time I show it, there are more flowers. It changes with every installation.



The Fountain installation came out of seeing how monuments were changed by human interaction, and how they changed
 each person who visited them. The first monument I visited was the grave of Oscar Wilde, which is in Père Lachaise
 cemetery in Paris. It was a very cold wintry day, and there were brown, green, and red mosses on everything. As I
 approached the grave, I thought it was covered with red moss, but as I got closer I realized it was lipstick. People
 had been kissing the grave. I thought, “What a beautiful, beautiful thing. This monument has been changed in a
 subtle but physical way.” It really affected me.



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<figure><img decoding="async" width="618" height="800" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/let_art_slow_down11_64c847ba16.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:29:43.552Z">
</figure>




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I had another experience in Vienna at the Stephansdom, the city cathedral. As you walk through the door, you’re
 invited to touch a small piece of limestone. There’s a hand imprint in the limestone from people having touched the
 stone in the same spot for 900 years. That continual very simple gesture over time created a beautiful impact.



My thinking about a monument isn’t that you visit it once, but that you visit it at different times in your life.
 You’re always changing, so you’re going to have a different experience each time.



Q: So far you’ve explored painting, ceramics, murals,
 installations, illustrations, poetry. What’s next, Zachari?



ZL: I’m not sure. I have a few projects coming up, and
 the expansive space of my new studio will definitely affect what I do. We’ll see what happens.



Q: It’s been lovely chatting with you.



ZL: I thank you so much.



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<figure><img decoding="async" width="618" height="800" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/let_art_slow_down12_8a793384f0.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:30:37.372Z">
</figure>




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<figure><img decoding="async" width="618" height="800" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/let_art_slow_down13_6960cc9d55.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:31:30.126Z">
</figure>




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<h4 class="has-text-align-center">Artworks by ZACHARI LOGAN</h4>



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