Brian_Chesky_Airbnb.jpg

Brian Chesky

Culture

Brian has studied the art and science of meditation for over 50 years and is a Heartfulness meditation trainer. He is one of the most viewed writers on Quora for the topics of spirituality, meditation, and enlightenment, and is a regular speaker at corporations and universities. Brian is an artist, musician, writer, photographer, and corporate interior designer. He is married with an adult daughter and four grandchildren, and is currently working on a book about his spiritual experiences and travels.



brianjones.jpg

Brian Jones

<hr class="vertical-space1" />
<h4>
 <spanundefined>BRIAN JONES explores unity in a world
 full of challenges and diversity. Through different analogies and his own
 personal experience with meditation, he finds effective ways to achieve
 unity through the silence of the heart.
</h4>
<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <spanundefined>It was a long flight from Los Angeles to Singapore. Somewhere over the
 Pacific Ocean I took another one of many walks from my seat to the back of
 the plane for a much-needed cup of coffee.
 


 <spanundefined>Three women stood there, all from different countries, each one holding a
 small baby. A lovely and nonsensical conversation was going on; each
 mother amusing the other’s baby with an assortment of gaga and coo-cooing
 baby sounds. It was apparent that none of the mothers spoke the languages
 of the others, and yet three babies were having quite a fun time,
 innocently laughing, not caring what language or which mother was
 entertaining them!


 <spanundefined>I was gleefully immersed in this special moment. I found the innocence,
 love and happiness that so effortlessly flowed a wonderful example of how
 we are all inextricably united. We come into this world with such purity,
 with a heart wide open, but quickly we begin to realize, “These are my
 hands, this is my foot, these are my toes.” Soon enough, I, me, and mine
 are here to stay.
 


 <spanundefined>“Unity” has many levels of meaning. We are united by love as well as by
 hate, we are united by country, by race, by culture, and even by the
 football team we support. But in these cases, our experience of unity is
 limited, accompanied by a feeling of exclusiveness – my team is better
 than yours, my political party is better than yours, my religion is better
 than yours, etc.


 <spanundefined>If we look back through time, there has hardly been a moment when there
 wasn’t a war, an uprising, or a tribal dispute. We may wonder: Is it
 possible that we live on a planet that is only united by divisiveness?
 Imagine, we’ve all come into this world with such purity, acceptance, and
 non-judgment. What happened?


 <spanundefined>By nature’s design, we are soul, spirit, essence, or
 something that manifests in an infinitude of ways through this
 complex, wondrous and beautiful vehicle of a body. But isn’t that the
 dilemma? We perceive everyone as different and forget that our soul, our
 essence, our HEART is the same. Our outer perception hides the truth
 within.
 


 <spanundefined>Though the world faces many challenges, occasionally we see glimpses of
 that “united heart.” We witness how hardship and tragedy bring us
 together. In difficult times we forget our differences, our hearts open
 and we extend a hand of help and friendship. Through hardship we are
 reminded that we all laugh the same and we cry the same, too. When we
 witness deep emotion in another person it stirs our hearts. We exclaim,
 “Oh! My heart really goes out to that person.” We feel them. What they are
 going through. We’ve been there ourselves. We resonate with them. In such
 moments, it’s the tenderness of the human heart, that feels our
 sameness.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h5 style="text-align: center">
 <spanundefined>By nature’s design, we are soul, spirit, essence, 
 or something that manifests in an infinitude of ways
 through 
 this complex, wondrous
 and beautiful vehicle of a body.
 
</h5>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <spanundefined>Having been a musician for most of my life, I’ve experienced another type
 of unity when playing music with others. There have been a few rare
 occasions when I entered a room of musicians, plugged in my guitar, and
 with barely an introduction began playing with four or five other
 musicians who themselves had never played together.
 


 <spanundefined>Sometimes genuine magic happens – the playing spontaneously begins and
 for the next forty minutes the most authentic and extremely sophisticated
 music simply flows. Soft notes, intense rhythms, solos, mood changes, key
 changes, each musician having their chance to shine, spontaneously playing
 the music of their soul. It is like sitting on the very edge of creation
 as it emerges, pure, alive, with a wonderful adherence to unspoken
 principles.
 


 <spanundefined>Then, as the music winds down and reaches its natural finale, everyone is
 left speechless, perhaps with an incredulous smile, feeling, “Wow, what
 just happened?” In moments like this we bypass the mind, and the silent
 feelings of the heart flow out through our fingertips, genuine,
 unprocessed.


 <spanundefined>We are like the spokes of a bicycle wheel, each of us connected at the
 hub or center of the wheel. The spoke is the timeline of our existence,
 all of us coming from the same “center.” The farther we “spokes” have
 moved away from that center, the farther apart we’ve become from each
 other. Our sense of separateness has increased more and more.


 <spanundefined>This is apparent in daily life; we continually face diversity juggling
 work, family and friends. We engage in many relationships, we agree, we
 disagree, we try to please each other and ourselves, too. We spokes
 interact, we’re separate units, but we tend to forget we are all still
 connected at the center. We just don’t remember how to connect
 there.


 <spanundefined>Of course, we do create times of unity in our lives, sharing a movie or a
 hobby, taking a vacation and sharing a vocation. Sharing the same goal
 brings unity. How many times, when we are collaborating on a team project,
 do we hear the phrase, “We need to be on the same page”? It’s a reminder
 that when we understand our objective, our goal, we will connect with our
 shared goal and work efficiently to achieve it.
 


<hr class="vertical-space1" />
<img alt="unity-world-diversity2" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/unity_world_diversity2_e4b4b504a0.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:24:53.532Z" />
&nbsp;
<hr class="vertical-space1" />


<hr />

<h5 style="text-align: center">
 <spanundefined style="color: #a8a93f">Soft notes, intense rhythms, solos, mood changes, key changes, 
 each musician having their chance to shine, spontaneously playing the
 music of their soul. 
 It is like sitting on the very edge of creation as it emerges, 
 pure, alive, with a wonderful adherence to unspoken principles.
</h5>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <spanundefined>All of this is our external work. What about our internal work? Realizing
 unity within my own self, in a very tangible way, requires personal inner
 work. In this process we soon realize our inner goal is not merely about
 being on the same page, as that would be a very short story indeed!


 <spanundefined>Each of us is a chapter in the same book creating our unique storyline,
 sometimes lighthearted and other times sad or tragic, but all the while
 being bound by the same cover, a beautiful story in the book of “Life.”
 


 <spanundefined>We are many threads of many colors, woven through the fabric of time and
 space to complete the cosmic quilt, each essential to the whole.
 


 <spanundefined>Nature likely has a larger purpose in creating intelligent, thinking
 beings, and perhaps a hidden lesson as well, for each of us to learn to
 see the center and not the spokes.
 


 <spanundefined>So how do we connect to our Center?


 <spanundefined>I believe there is indeed a solution, a way to unite us, to overcome our
 differences and return to center, a way to point our world in a new
 direction. “We cannot solve our problems by the same thinking that created
 them,” is a famous saying often attributed to Albert Einstein. If this is
 indeed the case, can we achieve unity by changing our thinking? Hardly an
 easy task. Is there another, more effective way to reach unity?


<hr class="vertical-space1" />
<img alt="unity-world-diversity2" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/unity_world_diversity3_e01ff8d3f1.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:26:09.816Z" />
&nbsp;
<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 <spanundefined>When I was twelve years of age, I was introduced to something that would
 forever shape my life: meditation. I learned that it is possible to find
 relief from our incessant thinking and to experience daily deep states,
 where the mind returns to a simple state of purity. We can call this our
 original or pure mind. Let’s simply call it our center.
 


 <spanundefined>When I first experienced a deep meditation, it felt like I was at home in
 myself for the very first time. Soon my meditation time became the best
 time, the essential time of my day. It began to permeate, sort of exuding
 into everything I did. In the depth of meditation, there was an emptiness
 and yet that emptiness was full of potential! It was fresh, unconditioned.
 


 <spanundefined>After a bit of practice, I found it natural and easy to see our sameness
 more than our differences. It made me pause and take a moment to feel what
 is behind our actions. In the meditative state, the heart speaks, so there
 is no room for personal opinion or motive.
 


 <spanundefined>I have spent a few decades now meditating with others, both individually
 and in a group setting. I have witnessed and felt, again and again, how we
 “spokes” merge into this beautiful Oneness, the unity experienced by all.
 


 <spanundefined>I’ve always loved the Indian tradition of Namaste: I bow to the divine in
 you. It is a needed reminder to acknowledge that essence, that sameness
 that makes us one family. In meditation I experience that state of
 innocence and purity with which we enter this world, and sometimes I feel
 a sense of wonder – of simply existing!
 


 <spanundefined>Perhaps our quest for unity may only come when we connect without words,
 in the quiet of the heart. We let go, rise above, and share the unity of
 silence.
 

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 style="text-align: center">
 Article by
 <spanundefined>BRIAN JONES 
 <spanundefined>Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL
</h4>

<hr />

Unity in a world of diversity

<h4
 class="has-black-color has-text-color block-heading"
 id="h-brian-jones-is-a-corporate-interior-design-artist-and-writer-who-has-been-meditating-for-50-years-he-is-also-a-heartfulness-trainer-brian-has-been-a-regular-contributor-to-the-online-question-answer-sessions-on-quora-for-several-years-sharing-his-stories-lessons-and-experiences-https-www-brianjonesconnect-com"
 >
 BRIAN JONES
 is a corporate interior design artist and writer, who has been
 meditating for 50 years. He is also a Heartfulness trainer. Brian
 has been a regular contributor to the online question/answer
 sessions on Quora for several years, sharing his stories, lessons,
 and experiences.
 <a href="https://www.brianjonesconnect.com/"
 >https://www.brianjonesconnect.com/</a
 >
 </h4>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 Why are we human beings so hard on ourselves?

 
 We are good-hearted, loving beings by nature, and even the smallest
 emotions, judgments, and criticism send our hearts into ripples and
 sometimes shockwaves.
 

 
 The heart is the field of our feelings. The mind, on the other hand, is
 very tricky. It always interprets our feelings through our past
 experiences, our filters of right and wrong, our opinions and
 prejudices.
 

 
 The mind is a great storyteller. It doesn’t care if it’s telling the
 truth or lying to us about how we are feeling; it just creates a story
 from what it already knows.
 

 
 On returning homeward to being compassionate and kind to our hearts, we
 must acknowledge that “my thoughts and stories are just not going to
 have power over me anymore.” This takes a little practice and
 persistence.
 

 You can try this practice at night:

 
 Sit on the side of your bed or on your bed. Think of all the
 people who have been important to you in your life. Feel a sense
 of love and gratitude for them percolate up inside. Then feel you
 are sending them your love and gratitude.
 

 
 Do this at bedtime for a few days. Then include other people too,
 perhaps someone you have not forgiven.
 

 
 Now, remember to include yourself in this process. Send yourself love
 and gratitude.
 

 
 This is a powerful technique. The secret is that it is the same feeling
 whether you feel you love others or are loved by them. So, it is for you
 to send your love. The more you practice, the more you will become
 loving, and you will feel your inner walls melting away.
 

 
 So, I don’t like to think that there are barriers in the way of
 self-compassion. There are only the stories you tell yourself.
 

 
 Create a new story. One that is your aspiration. One filled with love
 and compassion.
 

 Believe it.

 <hr />

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 This article first appeared at www.quora.com, September 6, 2022.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h4 class="has-text-align-center block-heading">
 Illustration by JASMEE MUDGAL
 </h4>

 <hr />

Are there barriers to starting a self-compassion journey?

Brigitte has illustrated 120 books, along with children’s films, posters, catalogues, and logos. She has worked in Switzerland, Italy, Canada, USA, India, and her native Germany. She was married until her husband passed away, and they have three daughters. She mether spiritual Master in India in 1977.



Brigitte-Smith.jpg

Brigitte Smith

Did you know that on special days there are people from the rainbow visiting our planet earth? This is a very great
 secret and not many of us know about it. It also needs a very special light in the atmosphere to see them.
It so happened that a wise old man was once visited by these rainbow people and he told me about it. They were small
 children of many different skin colors, and each one was dressed in a garment of one color of the rainbow, very
 beautiful.
When they arrived on earth, they were so happy to find the colors of the rainbow here too.
There was purple, like the shade color under big trees and the purple in the deep velvety eyes of the gentle cows.

There was red, like the fire shooting out of the volcanoes and also the fine blood in the veins of our body,
 nourishing the heart.
There was blue, like the color in the dancing rivers, and blue in the sky far over the mountains.
There was green, the lovely green in all our plants and leaves, helping to grow the fruits and harvest.
There was orange, like the color of the earth in warm countries and the color of so many juicy fruits to eat.
And there was yellow, the holy yellow of the sunshine and also of wheat and corn.
&nbsp;
<img decoding="async" alt="the-rainbow-children" class="w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/the_rainbow_children1_img_a44ce88d16.jpg">
&nbsp;
The children went here and there and wanted to know all things about this planet. They saw the plants, the trees, the
 animals and all the beauty here on earth.
All the while they heard the fine silvery sound of a flute, but they did not know from where it came …


<h4>Read the complete article in Volume 2, Issue 1 
 </h4>
<h4><a href="//www.heartfulnessmagazine.com/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SUBSCRIBE &amp; DOWNLOAD</a></h4>

<hr>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">Story&nbsp;and illustrations by&nbsp;BRIGITTE SMITH</h4>
<hr>

The rainbow children

The beings seen in my pictures are symbols of Higher Spirits helping human beings to evolve and to become more
 conscious. They first appeared in my meditations. The caps on their heads are open on top in order for them to
 receive guidance. So far, I am unable to simply ‘do’ a picture; I have to wait until it comes. This is a totally
 different process to my usual professional way of working. After some anxiety, I had to accept that I am simply
 a servant and can only apply my will within the service. That state developed into a very grateful happiness.
 
 <img decoding="async" 
 class="w-100 lazyload" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/human_evolution_img_1_440d8a5389.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-31T06:22:37.629Z">
 
 <h4>Prayer for the balance of the planet</h4>
 Since the spiral is a symbol of human evolution, these Spirit helpers are trying to balance the situation on the
 planet using prayer.
 <h4>In search of human consciousness</h4>
 In 1900 Greek sponge divers found an antique shipwreck. Within it was something known as the Antikythera
 Mechanism, the first known analogue computer. Scientists could only X-ray it one hundred years later to discover
 the inner mechanism, and it is thought to possibly come from the school of Archimedes in Corinth or the famous
 ancient library of Pergamum. This inspired me to show this eternal urge in human beings to search and to strive.
 The released cranes are the freed thoughts. 
 <img decoding="async"
 class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/human_evolution_img_2_3d208f627d.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-31T06:23:24.250Z">
 
 <h4>Initiation</h4>
 Here the Spirit helper is giving an olive branch to a soul being initiated into learning. The Spirit helpers are
 mostly clad in forms of nature. 
 <img decoding="async"
 class="w-100 lazyload" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/human_evolution_img_76c78e0188.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-31T06:16:22.601Z">
 
 <h4>Emergence</h4>
 Here a human being, not yet conscious, is being born out of plant-existence into the beginnings of
 consciousness. 
 <img decoding="async" 
 class="w-100 lazyload" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/human_evolution_img_3_b338b07295.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-31T06:26:07.430Z">
 
 <hr>
 <h5 style="text-align: center;">Art essay by BRIGITTE SMITH</h5>
 <hr>

Human Evolution

<h4 class="text-justify">In Part 1, the rainbow children came to earth and met many interesting animals and people. They were searching for the special seed of contentment. In Part 2 they continue their journey ...</h4>
&nbsp;
There in the deep shade of the big trees they could only see the glow of the eyes of all the animals living there, and many, many whispers, chirpings and other noises.
While walking they met many of these jungle folk. It was amazing to see such a variety of creatures here on earth. They observed the fugitive, graceful deer, the ever-chatting monkeys. They saw the little jungle fowl, the colorful parakeets, the powerful buffalo and even a glimpse of the mighty tiger.
They were talking among themselves, asking each other if these creatures would know about the seed of contentment. This place was so full of life but it seemed to be a separate universe of its own. These animals all had their own law of existence and survival. They were naturally content, when they were not hungry and absolutely discontent when hungry.
The seed of contentment and the secret heartflower seemed to only be for people, because people could decide, if they wanted, to be good or not good.
They decided, therefore, that people needed this special gift of the seed of contentment, to remind them that indeed they could decide. Therefore the special heartflower would become a gift for them, so that they would persevere and not give up on being good.
It was a very secretive world, such a jungle. The children walked and walked until they came to a beautiful meadow. There was such peace and tranquility, that they began to feel different. ...
&nbsp;
<h4>Read the complete article in Volume 2, Issue 2
</h4>
<h4><a href="//www.heartfulnessmagazine.com/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SUBSCRIBE &amp; DOWNLOAD</a></h4>

<hr>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">Story &amp; illustrations by BRIGITTE SMITH</h4>

<hr>

The rainbow children - part 2

<hr class="vertical-space1" />
 <h3 style="text-align: center">
 AN ART ESSAY
 </h3>
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 <h4>
 <spanundefined
 >BRIGITTE SMITH was a refugee as a
 child, so the questions of why and whereto came with a certain
 urgency. She was educated at art school in Germany and has taught
 there as a freelance artist all her life. Here she explores various
 aspects of consciousness and evolution.</spanundefined
 >
 </h4>
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <spanundefined
 >The beings seen in my pictures are symbols of Higher Spirits helping
 human beings to evolve and to become more conscious. They first
 appeared in my meditations. The caps on their heads are open on top in
 order for them to receive guidance. So far, I am unable to simply “do”
 a picture; I have to wait until it comes. This is a totally different
 process to my usual professional way of working. After some anxiety, I
 had to accept that I am simply a servant and can only apply my will
 within the service. That state developed into a very grateful
 happiness.</spanundefined
 >
 
 
 <hr />
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <img
 alt="human-evolution-artessay-prayer"
 class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://hfn-strapi-bucket.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/human_evolution_img_9206cefe21.jpg"
 />
 
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 <h3 style="text-align: center">
 <spanundefined
 >Prayer </spanundefined
 >for the balance of the planet
 </h3>
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <spanundefined
 >Since the spiral is a symbol of human evolution, these Spirit helpers
 are trying to balance the situation on the planet using
 prayer.</spanundefined
 >
 
 
 <hr />
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <img
 alt="human-evolution-artessay-human-consciousness"
 class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://hfn-strapi-bucket.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/human_evolution_artessay_human_consciousness_46fd4e9b15.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T05:13:49.596Z"
 />
 
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 <h3 style="text-align: center">
 <spanundefined
 >In search of </spanundefined
 >human consciousness
 </h3>
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <spanundefined
 >In 1900, Greek sponge divers found an antique shipwreck. Within it
 was something known as the Antikythera Mechanism, the first known
 analogue computer. Scientists could only X-ray it one hundred years
 later to discover the inner mechanism, and it is thought to possibly
 come from the school of Archimedes in Corinth or the famous ancient
 library of Pergamum. This inspired me to show this eternal urge in
 human beings to search and to strive. The released cranes are the
 freed thoughts.</spanundefined
 >
 
 
 <hr />
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <img
 alt="human-evolution-artessay-initiation"
 class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://hfn-strapi-bucket.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/human_evolution_artessay_initiation_343bbad21c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T05:13:49.544Z"
 />
 
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 <h3 style="text-align: center">
 Initiation
 </h3>
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <spanundefined
 >Here the Spirit helper is giving an olive branch to a soul being
 initiated into learning. The Spirit helpers are mostly clad in forms
 of nature.</spanundefined
 >
 
 
 <hr />
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <img
 alt="human-evolution-artessay-emergence"
 class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://hfn-strapi-bucket.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/human_evolution_artessay_emergence_6f48e466b6.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T05:13:49.563Z"
 />
 
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 <h3 style="text-align: center">
 Emergence
 </h3>
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <spanundefined
 >Here a human being, not yet conscious, is being born out of
 plant-existence into the beginnings of consciousness.</spanundefined
 >
 
 <hr class="vertical-space1" />
 
 <hr />
 <h4 style="text-align: center">
 Art and text by <spanundefined>BRIGITTE SMITH</spanundefined>
 </h4>
 
 <hr />

Human evolution

<h4>
 BRIGITTE SMITH
 speaks about the social responsibility of artists, and creativity’s
 role in inspiring new thought processes.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width: 700px !important">
 <img width="700" alt="ascending-flowe" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/ascending_flower_700x700_09006db72a.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T05:25:32.908Z" />
 <figcaption>Ascending Flower</figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 In the urgency of our time, we are forced to be aware of the need of
 renewal of the spirit within, and the hopeful healing of the planet we
 live on and have so very much neglected.



 As artists, we have the inner urge to become aware of the spirit of the
 time we live in. We are moved to use our work to develop greater
 awareness and a sense of responsibility in the viewer.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width: 700px !important">
 <img width="700" alt="mother-earth" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/mother_earth_700x700_594a52c4b4.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T05:26:09.442Z" />
 <figcaption>Mother Earth</figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 It has always been the duty of art to inspire new thought processes.



 The more we all connect to our inner Self, to our higher Self, the more
 we are guided to do the work we are here for. Every soul has a purpose
 in its incarnation. Since we have been given this urge to put forth into
 form and thought and action, we can connect with our spirit to find out
 what it might be.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width: 700px !important"></figure>
 <img width="700" alt="only-together-can-we-save-the-planet" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/only_together_can_we_save_the_planet_700x743_ea9d0f8f4d.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T05:26:54.008Z" />
 <figcaption>Only Together Can We Save the Planet</figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width: 700px !important">
 <img width="700" alt="cosmic-impulse" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/cosmic_impulse_700x700_afd516d861.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T05:27:40.048Z" />
 <figcaption>Cosmic Impulse</figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 If we find our true purpose, it creates a great feeling of joy and
 gratitude and responsibility to be true. I think the ability to create
 is in all of us, once we uncover our purpose.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width: 700px !important">
 <img width="700" alt="the-merciful" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/the_merciful_700x683_9d2043004f.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T05:28:52.354Z" />
 <figcaption>The Merciful</figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 An artist transforms thought into form, may it be dance, music,
 painting, or sculpture. The artist’s responsibility is to be truthful to
 their calling, and try to clean their channel, for the product to emerge
 clean and connected to their inner truth.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width: 700px !important">
 <img width="700" alt="cleaning-of-heart-mind-action" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/cleaning_of_heart_mind_action_700x700_cc6554689e.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T05:29:36.849Z" />
 <figcaption>Cleaning of Heart, Mind and Action</figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 I am now in my eighties, and my learning on the path has been many
 years. I can witness this process within myself and in my pictures. In
 great joy I have noticed that I have become more and more a channel for
 my soul to speak and put that into form.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 An artist transforms thought into form, may it be dance,
 music,
 painting, or sculpture. The artist’s responsibility is to be
 truthful to their calling, and try to clean their channel, for
 the product to emerge clean and connected to their inner
 truth.
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width: 700px !important">
 <img width="700" alt="guardians-of-nature" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/guardians_of_nature_700x700_370137aa92.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T05:30:18.592Z" />
 <figcaption>Guardians of Nature</figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">Art by BRIGITTE SMITH</h4>

<hr />

The urgency of our time

<h4>Under the Trees&nbsp; Saratoga Springs, New York, 2024 FIONA NEARY</h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace2_eef369b889.webp" alt="expressions-of-peace2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_expressions_of_peace2_eef369b889.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_expressions_of_peace2_eef369b889.webp 1000w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace2_eef369b889.webp 1000w," sizes="100vw"><h4>Finding Joy Saratoga Springs, New York, 2024 FIONA NEARY</h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace3_7881dcc714.webp" alt="expressions-of-peace3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_expressions_of_peace3_7881dcc714.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_expressions_of_peace3_7881dcc714.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace3_7881dcc714.webp 800w," sizes="100vw">&nbsp;<hr><h4>May Their Innocence and Joy Continue to Flower South Africa, 2015 HETTY ZANTMAN</h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace4_9fb2448418.webp" alt="expressions-of-peace4.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_expressions_of_peace4_9fb2448418.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_expressions_of_peace4_9fb2448418.webp 1000w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace4_9fb2448418.webp 1000w," sizes="100vw">&nbsp;<hr><h4>Tree RAMYA SRIRAM</h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace5_4e2b2479bb.webp" alt="expressions-of-peace5.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_expressions_of_peace5_4e2b2479bb.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_expressions_of_peace5_4e2b2479bb.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace5_4e2b2479bb.webp 800w," sizes="100vw">&nbsp;<hr><h4>In Tune with Nature 2007 BRIGITTE SMITH</h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace6_b40f508c95.webp" alt="expressions-of-peace6.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_expressions_of_peace6_b40f508c95.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_expressions_of_peace6_b40f508c95.webp 1000w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace6_b40f508c95.webp 1000w," sizes="100vw"><hr><h4>Expressions of Love 2023 SANTANU CHATTERJEE</h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace7_dc37aae479.webp" alt="expressions-of-peace7.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_expressions_of_peace7_dc37aae479.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_expressions_of_peace7_dc37aae479.webp 1000w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/expressions_of_peace7_dc37aae479.webp 1000w," sizes="100vw">&nbsp;

Expressions of peace from around the world

Brittany is the Director of Communications at Global Health Corps, an international non-profit working with rising leaders in the U.S. and Africa. Fluent in Swahili and an avid reader, writer, and hiker, Brittany currently lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her husband and their young son. 



Brittany-Cesarini.jpg

Brittany Cesarini

<h4
 id="h-brittany-cesarini-is-the-director-of-communications-at-global-health-corps-brittany-holds-a-degree-in-public-policy-with-a-focus-on-gender-studies-and-african-studies-from-princeton-university-here-she-shares-an-anecdote-on-not-letting-your-work-push-you-to-burnout-cultivating-humility-and-making-life-more-about-others"
 >
 BRITTANY CESARINI
 is the Director of Communications at Global Health Corps. Brittany
 holds a degree in Public Policy with a focus on Gender Studies and
 African Studies from Princeton University. Here, she shares an
 anecdote on not letting your work push you to burnout, cultivating
 humility, and making life more about others.
 </h4>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 There’s so much good advice out there on how to prevent and manage
 burnout. But the foundation of real change is a change in mindset and
 narrative. So I encourage young professionals to start with what’s most
 within your control: your beautiful, powerful, flexible mind.&nbsp;
 

 
 “it helps to say that i’m on the edge of burnout. in the past i flew
 right by all the telltale signs and right into the flames, almost
 welcoming the rest that came when I relinquished all ability to live
 in my life.” –adrienne maree brown&nbsp;
 

 
 When I was starting out after college, I was a prisoner to grind
 culture, often tempted to run right into the flames of burnout. It felt
 intoxicating. Look at me! My defining characteristic is my work ethic. I
 will let it define me at all costs – anguished mind, achy body,
 unwatered hobbies and relationships be damned.
 

 
 At the heart of this self-destructive tendency was fear. Without the
 unshakeable work ethic I’ve been cultivating since childhood, what do I
 have to stand on? I’m not that funny. I’m not
 that smart. I’m not that interesting.
 

 
 Besides, the world was always on fire. Shouldn’t I be right there in the
 flames or risk complacency? Every headline was a taunt, reminding me I
 wasn’t doing enough. Every Tweet was an invite to do more, do better,
 and do it yesterday. Every protest was a demand to quit my current job
 and work on what I “should” be passionate about – gun violence, the
 criminal injustice system, the war in Iraq, gender-based violence,
 homelessness, climate change, etc.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img
 width="603"
 height="795"
 alt="Avoiding-burnout2"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Avoiding_burnout2_d8ba9ad49a.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T05:04:56.419Z"
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <h4>
 Cultivating self-love &amp; humility
 </h4>

 
 Thankfully, through conversations, reflection, reading, therapy, and
 life experiences, my internal narratives have shifted over the past
 decade. I’m a little older now, a little softer, and a little wiser.
 Definitely more tired, but also more anchored and hopeful, even as
 heartbreaking fires rage around us.
 

 
 Most importantly, I love myself more. Paradoxically, I think of
 myself less.
 

 
 At a cellular level, I know that the entire future of our community, our
 society, our planet does not rest on my shoulders. I extend grace (okay,
 and some gentle ribbing) to the version of myself that once acted like
 it did.
 

 
 “humility can let our shoulders drop, can make us more adaptive and
 flexible…and more accepting of the truth that the outcome is not only
 a mystery, but so so so much bigger than our work…[we can] relax in
 our smallness, our insignificance.” –adrienne maree
 brown&nbsp;
 

 
 I now say no to commitments that mean I won’t get enough sleep, fresh
 air, exercise, and quality time with loved ones. I am practicing
 relaxing (with varied success from week to week), scheduling it as
 non-negotiable, and not feeling shameful about needing it.&nbsp;
 

 <h4>
 Community
 </h4>

 
 Once I learned to love myself more, and got a grip on genuine humility,
 the next step of the journey was to practice being in and about
 community.
 

 
 “the more i prioritize caring for myself, caring for my community,
 and accepting care from my community, the better and brighter spark in
 the movement flame i can be.” –adrienne maree brown&nbsp;
 

 
 As a human, a white person, an American with educational privilege
 married to a Black man, mothering a biracial son, I have a
 responsibility to be awake and engaged. To keep learning and trying. To
 contribute to a radically different future where everyone lives with
 care and dignity and abundance.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img
 width="600"
 height="488"
 alt="Avoiding-burnout3"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Avoiding_burnout3_913286553b.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T05:05:30.508Z"
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 It’s not about me; it is about us who envision that future. I
 show up to my life and my work to make the us bigger and stronger, to
 make that future more likely. And if I want to contribute to that
 ambitious long-term project, I have to take care of myself and others
 along the way.&nbsp;
 

 
 Paradoxically, this allows me to contribute more, because my definition
 of contribution is not limited to leadership roles or driving a project
 forward at work. I donate (money or time, even in small amounts), I
 participate in mutual aid efforts, I support friends and be supported, I
 amplify others, I lend my skills and expertise in behind-the-scenes ways
 without needing credit, a title, or purview on the return on my
 investment.
 

 
 Ultimately, I can grieve what’s heartbreaking and choose to rest and
 release the illusion of control, because I know there are many others
 out there contributing.&nbsp;&nbsp;
 

 <h4>
 Rejecting binaries &amp; seeking connections
 </h4>

 
 “everything is small. everything is changing me…everything is an
 invitation to practice being free and interacting with other free
 beings.” –adrienne maree brown&nbsp;
 

 
 Looking for and threading connections has helped me step back from the
 edge of burnout many times. On the whole, the binaries between work and
 life, between productive and non-productive ways to spend our time, are
 not real. The sooner we live accordingly, the healthier we’ll be.
 

 
 I work hard at my day job, but these days I also put time, energy, and
 thoughtfulness into having fun, spending time with my people, and
 resting. When I consider every realm of life as a canvas to live out my
 values and create a better future, I keep burnout at bay.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img
 width="600"
 height="703"
 alt="Avoiding-burnout4"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Avoiding_burnout4_0dafc757d8.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T05:06:03.265Z"
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 Raising my three-year-old son to name his feelings, choose his clothes,
 and consider other opinions has a lot to do with creating a more
 equitable future. Setting aside my endless to-do list to call a friend,
 share encouragement, or watch a funny video is a radical choice in the
 face of exploitative capitalism. Daily exercise and good sleep are a
 necessary balm and fuel for me to show up as a colleague, friend,
 mother, wife, sister, daughter, and neighbor. It’s all connected.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h4 class="has-text-align-center">Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4>

 <hr />

Avoiding burnout: an ode to adrienne maree brown

Bronwyn Caley

<h3 style="text-align: center;">AN ART ESSAY</h3>
<hr class="vertical-space1">
<h4>Artist BRONWYN CALEY speaks with ROSALIND PEARMAIN about her art and her philosophy of life, and shares some of
 her paintings.</h4>
<hr class="vertical-space1">
Q: What is the inspiration for your art?
BC:&nbsp;A drawing I made as a young child of seven
 years old amazed me, as it felt like a kind of magic! I had drawn a full-length portrait of a friend, small, and in
 pencil. It had captured something of her essence. I remember it to this day.
Fairy stories, with beautiful illustrations, were a childhood favorite. Later, art was
 at the center of my education and at the center of my life. I loved so many things from the art world: other
 artists’ work, other students’ work, exhibitions, museums, architectural magazines, churches, stained-glass windows,
 crafts. I was all the time studying, creating and making.
Progressing to art college led me into new directions, from drawing, painting and
 sculpture to costume design, dance, performance and then to making tapestries. My tutors were inspiring and helpful,
 with opportunities to learn new skills.
<div class="text-center">
 <img alt="inner-dimensions" class="has-img-center lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/inner_dimensions_img_c8a6b04e1c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:42:40.887Z">
</div>
Q: How has your work evolved over time?
BC:&nbsp;It has constantly changed. The need to
 balance making a living and having a space to work has been a major challenge throughout my life. Consequently I
 worked as a part-time teacher, leaving time for creativity. Support came from various sources such as Northern Arts
 grants, exhibitions, publications and creative friends – writers, poets, artists, publishers and craftspeople. Some
 recognition from major galleries gave me confidence in the works I had produced.
During my time living in Durham, I had what I can only call a mystical experience of
 being in Divine Light: it felt timeless, with a sense of “a peace that passeth all understanding.” That became a
 major source of inspiration over many years.
The move to London helped me to evolve further, with exposure to wonderful exhibitions,
 galleries, cultural events, concerts and so much more. During that time I found Heartfulness, or rather it found me!
 It gave me a more profound understanding of spirituality, and this discovery showed new aspects of consciousness, an
 awareness of the spiritual heart. Here was a philosophy focused on ancient wisdom and knowledge, which consequently
 led to new and different works inspired by meditation on the heart. Subsequent titles such as “Akasha,” “Swimming in
 Infinity,” and “The Magical Function of Zero,” reflect these experiences of inner dimensions previously unknown to
 me. An inner geography was being revealed. At present, I am working with watercolors on a series called “Inscapes.”

<img alt="inner-dimensions" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Inner_dimensions2_2b45d10aa1.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T11:35:43.899Z">
AKASHA
Q: How does Heartfulness Meditation influence you?
The gift of Transmission gave me the idea to create these wonderful, divine, magical
 qualities into paintings, but how difficult it is to realize them! And so I continued, trying to communicate with
 that which is invisible to the physical eye but experienced through spiritual sight. Qualities such as softness,
 subtlety, fineness, other-worldly beauty, for example, were translated into line, shape, form, color. How to share
 this through art, through personal limitations? The challenge continues.
<img alt="inner-dimensions" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Inner_dimensions3_e201020fda.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T11:36:46.616Z">INSCAPES

Q: How does Nature influence you?
BC:&nbsp;Nature has always been a source of wonder
 and awe. It displays infinity of forms, geometries, colors, textures, through incredible diversity – rocks,
 crystals, flowers, plants, water, animal life and much, much more. Learning to look when drawing, for example, at
 the smallest details of a feather or shell, is evidence of Nature as Divine. I was fascinated by Ram Chandra’s use
 of the capital N in Nature, as we use the lower case in English. This seemingly insignificant detail was like a
 revelation. Of course Nature is sacred, and we partake in that. We have access to incredible resources both external
 and internal.
<hr>
<h5 style="text-align: center;">The gift of Transmission 
 gave me the idea to create 
 these wonderful, divine, 
 magical qualities into painting.
</h5>
<hr>
<div class="text-center">
 <img alt="inner dimensions" class="has-img-center lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Inner_dimensions5_1ea7e9609c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T11:37:38.789Z">
</div>
Q: What have you learned through immersion in your art?
BC:&nbsp;Art is like a doorway, an entrance to
 yourself and other. We gain knowledge and skills that follow with practice, time and experience. Abilities are
 acquired but always with love, with education in the broadest sense. The journey is full of infinite possibilities,
 infinite potential. I am still learning. We can be co-creators, makers. We can be inspired. Meditation is also an
 invitation to enter, to step on to a path leading into a divine adventure. A journey within. The goal is union with
 the Divine.
<hr>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">Interview by ROSALIND PEARMAIN 
 Art by BRONWYN CAYLEY</h4>
<hr>

Inner dimensions

Bruce was a Hong Kong-American martial arts expert and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial art philosophy that has been credited with paving the way for mixed martial arts. Lee is thought to be the most influential martial artist of all time. He was a cultural icon of the 20th century, who bridged the gap between East and West. He promoted Hong Kong action cinema and helped change the way Asians were represented in the film industry.



Bruce-Lee.jpg

Bruce Lee

The creative process

Bruce is an internationally acclaimed leader in bridging science and spirituality. He is a stem cell biologist, the bestselling author of The Biology of Belief and other books, and the 2009 Goi Peace Award recipient. He is a prolific and sought-after guest speaker and keynote presenter, who brings awareness of the heart and consciousness into modern science.


Bruce-Lipton.jpg

Bruce Lipton

Raising consciousness - part 1

Raising consciousness - part 2

<hr class="vertical-space1" />
<h4>
 In April 2020, DR. BRUCE LIPTON spoke with
 UDAY KUMAR about the transition our planet
 is going through right now, and what we need to do to raise our consciousness
 to the next level. In this excerpt from the interview, he goes into more
 detail about epigenetics, consciousness, and how we remain pre-programmed
 until we evolve our consciousness through meditation. It is our programs more
 than anything external that hack our attention.
</h4>
<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 We’re made up of 50 trillion cells, and our genetic activity is not controlled
 by genes turning on and off, it’s controlled by the chemistry of the blood,
 which is the culture medium for our cells. Now, we take the big blow-away
 steps that changed my life. The chemistry of the blood controls the genetics
 of the cell. So, who’s the chemist? Who controls the chemistry of the blood?
 The answer is: The brain is the chemist! Next question: What chemicals should
 the brain put into the blood? The answer: Whatever image is in your mind will
 be translated by the brain into complementary chemistry.


 There’s a chemistry of love; if you’re experiencing love in your life, you
 release dopamine for pleasure, vasopressin makes you more attractive so your
 partner stays with you, oxytocin bonds you to your lover, and growth hormone
 is released when you’re in love. So, the blood has all these things that
 happened just from my picture of love, and the chemistry is going through.
 Growth hormone promotes vitality and growth, so when people fall in love
 they’re so healthy – it’s chemistry, the chemistry of love.


 And if you go to the opposite side, the chemistry of fear does not release any
 of that. In fear, stress hormones are released, and hormones called cytokines
 which control the immune system are released. So now, the chemistry of the
 culture medium is completely different if I’m in love and if I’m in fear. The
 chemistry is what controls the genetics, and you control the chemistry,
 because your thoughts are manifesting the chemistry that controls genes.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />
<h5 style="text-align: center">
 Your consciousness is the master of your genes. 
 Your life becomes the vision in your consciousness. 
 Your thoughts are creating your world.
</h5>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 Now, all of a sudden, you’re not a victim of your genes, you’re the master of
 your genes, because your consciousness is going to manipulate those genes to
 manifest what’s in your consciousness. So if you’re afraid of the flu, what’s
 going to happen? Well, you’re going to open up your immune system to get the
 flu, because you’re preparing for what?
 The function of the mind is to create coherence between your belief and
 your reality.
 If I have a belief that I’m going to get the flu, the function of the mind is
 to do everything to ensure that I get the flu. If I’m programmed to believe
 that I’m going to die in three months because I have cancer, the function of
 the mind is to shut me down so that my truth will manifest in three months and
 I will die.


 I said to myself, “Do you understand what’s going on here?” Your consciousness
 is manifesting your genetics and your behavior, and I want to add one more
 piece to it, epigenetics. Genetic control is what people are programmed to
 believe in, which means this character, say breast cancer, is under genetic
 control and not in your hands. Epigenetics is the new science, epigenetic
 control. Sounds like the same one, but what’s ‘epi’? It means above.
 Epigenetic control is control above the genes – that’s all the difference in
 the world.


 If the genes are in control I’m a victim, but if the control is above the
 genes then I’m the master. So, epigenetics takes us from the victim of
 heredity to the master of our current existence. First of all, the
 environment, the blood is controlling genetics. Now, what’s above that? The
 brain, because the brain is making the chemistry. And what’s above that?
 Consciousness. Your life is manifested by your consciousness.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />
<h5 style="text-align: center">
 There are two parts to the mind, 
 and they don’t have the same function and 
 they don’t learn in the same way – 
 
 the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. 
 The subconscious mind is programmed.
 
</h5>

<hr />
<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <img alt="raising-consciousness2" class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/raising_consciousness2_f0ad26b41e.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T04:41:52.223Z" />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 The most valid science on the planet is quantum physics. There is no other
 science that has been tested more, verified more, it’s the most truthful. The
 first principle of quantum physics is that consciousness is creating your life
 experience. Biology, epigenetics, quantum physics all say the same thing;
 biology and physics come together at this point.


 And the relevance is to understand where’s your consciousness. If you think
 it’s passive, that it’s just coming in and out, then you’ve got it all wrong.
 Your consciousness is the master of your genes. Your life becomes the vision
 in your consciousness. Your thoughts are creating your world. This is what I
 wrote The Biology of Belief about; as individuals, you and I, we are
 creating our life experiences with our consciousness. But we also have a lot
 of shared consciousness, a lot of shared belief, and that’s what led to my
 second book, Spontaneous Evolution. If a lot of us have the same
 programming, then each head is a tuning fork and consciousness is broadcast.
 This is the important part. People think their thoughts are in their head, and
 we can read this with an EEG. But now there’s a new device called the Magneto
 Encephalogram where the probe is not in your head, it’s held away from the
 head.


 What does this mean?
 My thoughts are not contained in my head. My thoughts are
 broadcast into the field, so I’m creating a field of consciousness around my
 head. And I love this quote by Albert Einstein, “The field is the sole
 governing agency of the particle.” The field is the invisible energy around
 us, the particle is the expression of energy as matter, not real matter, it’s
 an energy because everything is energy in quantum physics. The field
 (invisible energy) is the sole governing agency of that particle. Your
 thoughts are a field, and it’s shaping this particle called the body. That’s
 quantum physics.


 The body is like a vehicle, there’s a steering wheel, and the mind is driving
 the vehicle. Now, there are two parts to the mind, and they don’t have the
 same function and they don’t learn in the same way – the conscious mind and
 the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is programmed. Some of it is
 instinct, like when a ball comes at your face and you blink, but mostly it’s
 learned. You learned how to walk by the age of two, that’s a program; but once
 you learned it, it’s in your subconscious and for as long as you live you’ll
 be able to walk without thinking about it, unless you break it all up. The
 programs are concerned with how we live, even how we move, all of our actions.
 The child in a family of a musician will learn music, because that’s the
 environment they were in when they were programmed. It’s downloading – while
 the parents were talking music, playing music, the child was like a video
 camera, recording. Children grow up like their parents because that’s where we
 got the program.


 So, I get off the ground using a program in the first seven years, and I have
 a vehicle with a driving wheel, but I have two minds. The subconscious is
 programmed mind, and I get driver education. How you learn how to drive a car
 from someone and you download that program, is exactly like you were taught by
 them. At age seven, consciousness kicks in – what’s different? The
 subconscious mind is habits and programs; the conscious mind is creativity.
 Now, you can imagine, you have imagination. And if you take this imagination
 and drive the vehicle with it, you can create your imagination. In the
 creative mind, I get to put my hands on the wheel and drive. Towards what?
 Your imagination, wishes and desires. So your conscious mind, when driving is
 going to take you to your wishes and desires. Whereas the subconscious mind is
 going to take you to the destination according to the program.


 And here comes the crux of the problem, and this is why meditation comes into
 the picture. First of all, you have to realize this: The conscious mind, when
 it’s driving the vehicle, is taking you to your wishes and desires, but the
 conscious mind can think. When the conscious mind is thinking it’s not looking
 out; a thinking mind is looking in. So, if I ask you, “Tell me what you’re
 doing on Friday.” Well, if you’re going to answer that question and it’s not
 written right there in front of you, where are you going to get the answer?
 You’re going to go think about it. And when you are thinking you’re looking
 in.


 Now, the moment you’re thinking, you’re not paying attention. What if I’m
 walking down the street or driving a car and I’m not thinking? Am I going to
 crash the car or walk into a tree? When the conscious mind is busy thinking,
 the subconscious mind is on autopilot. Whatever you’re doing is now going to
 be taken over by the subconscious mind. You know how to walk, you know how to
 drive the car, you know how to talk, and do your job, because these are
 habits. The subconscious mind is more powerful. If you’re going to crash the
 car, the subconscious mind will take over. It’s more powerful and faster; the
 conscious mind is too slow. So, the subconscious mind may function better than
 the conscious mind when driving.


 And now the issue is this: You are engaging in subconscious behavior, but your
 conscious mind is not observing them because it is looking inside at a
 thought. So, while you’re thinking, you won’t consciously see your behavior
 because you are still thinking. So the moment you’re thinking, your biology is
 run by the subconscious autopilot. And while you’re doing that you won’t see
 your behavior because your attention is not looking out, it’s looking in.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <img alt="raising-consciousness3" class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/raising_consciousness3_f171191acb.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T04:41:52.327Z" />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 I tell people that somewhere in your life you had a friend and you knew your
 friend’s behavior very, very well, and you happened to know your friend’s
 parents, too. One day you see that your friend has the exact same behavior as
 their parent, so you want to tell your friend, “Hey, Bill, you’re just like
 your dad.” I say, back away from Bill because when he hears this he’ll say,
 “How can you compare me to my dad? I’m nothing like him!” He’ll get mad. And
 everyone laughs because everyone’s had that experience. This is why the story
 is so profound. Everyone else can see that Bill behaves like his dad, except
 Bill.


 What’s the meaning of this? The answer’s simple. Bill is thinking, and when
 he’s thinking, he lets go of the control. The autopilot steps in, and where
 was that programmed from? His dad. So, whatever he’s going to do in autopilot
 mode is a direct play from the dad’s program. But why can’t he see it? Because
 why is he playing it? He’s playing it because he’s not paying attention. He
 can’t see his own behavior, because he’s not looking at it when it’s playing.


 Well, that is 95% of the day for the average person. 95% of the day they’re
 running on programs, and they do not see it, they only see the result. Why is
 that important? If I have a bad program, I come home at the end of the day and
 my life sucks. And if I didn’t see the program, like Bill, and I didn’t see
 that I was sabotaging myself, I’m going to say, “Who sabotaged me?” In our
 minds we blame other people – I wanted to be successful, but when I let go of
 the program my father’s behavior took over, he has a crap program and I come
 home at the end of the day, none of it works and I’m thinking, “I wanted to be
 successful but I’m a victim of the world.” This is 100% wrong. We manifested
 that. But we did it unconsciously in the way Bill did it; we didn’t see the
 behavior, we sabotaged ourselves. We see the result and it’s not what we want,
 and then we blame other people.


 What we have to do is recognize the fact that we’re not running our own life
 95% of the time, we’re running on a program. … You’ve been programmed, and
 this is the world. This idea of programming hasn’t been lost. It’s even better
 today, people are getting programmed better today than they ever were before.

Look at an infant carrying an iPad.

 Ancient people knew this, and when the controls started to come in, when
 people realized, “I can program you,” the game changed. It became a power
 game, where the powerful people programmed the less powerful people. There’s a
 book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter, and
 everything that we just talked about is the basis of that book. If you came
 from a rich family, as a kid, you unconsciously downloaded how to be
 successful, as compared to a poor kid who downloads every reason why they’re
 not successful, and they perpetuate it. Rich Dad, Poor Dad is
 epigenetics.


 So, we come full circle, and therefore, if we are not in control of our
 consciousness, we are victims of our subconscious programming. Exercises that
 re-empower conscious thinking are exercises to take back power over our life.
 From a quantum physics point of view, our experiences are all based on
 consciousness; from a biological point of view, our experiences are
 programming our health, our genetics, and our behavior. There’s agreement
 there and that’s the coolest part. We must take back control of our
 consciousness. People don’t even know they’re using it; they still think in
 their minds that they’re controlling their lives with their thoughts. So, when
 life doesn’t work out, they say, “It wasn’t me because my thoughts were
 successful, and look, I’m not successful and I am now the victim.” To that I
 say, “It’s because you’re unaware of where your consciousness is.
 Consciousness is not controlling 95% of your life; your program is. So,
 meditation techniques and the programs you’re involved with are fundamental
 programs of exercising your consciousness, which by definition emphasize your
 power over life. If you’re not conscious, you are the program.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <img alt="raising-consciousness4" class="lazyload has-img-center" style="width: 353px !important;"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/raising_consciousness4_6f93750df7.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T04:41:52.064Z" />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />
<h4 style="text-align: center">Article by DR. BRUCE LIPTON</h4>

<hr />

Raising consciousness

Raising consciousness - part 3

Heartfulness_Logo_new.png

Bruno Memeint

<h4
 id="h-in-these-landscapes-which-are-so-surreal-they-are-almost-like-paintings-bruno-memeint-captures-the-stark-beauty-of-iceland-a-land-known-for-its-harsh-climate-and-astounding-ephemeral-light"
>
 In these landscapes, which are so surreal they are almost like paintings,
 BRUNO MEMEINT
 captures the stark beauty of Iceland, a land known for its harsh climate and
 astounding ephemeral light.&nbsp;
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width : 532px !important">
 <img
 width="532"
 alt="lights-of-iceland2-2"
 class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/lights_of_iceland2_2_df44cbcc3c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:49:25.253Z"
 />
 <figcaption>
 The last glimmers of twilight through the mist on Vik Beach
 </figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<h3 class="has-text-align-center" id="h-a-photo-essay">
 A PHOTO ESSAY
</h3>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 The island of ten thousand waterfalls is the land of volcanoes, geysers, the
 largest glacier in Europe, and extraordinary landscapes. It is a land of
 Vikings, with severe climatic conditions in the long winter months.



 The practice of Heartfulness Meditation over the past decade has changed my
 view of nature, influencing my photographs. How was I going to discover and
 approach this country, a paradise for photographers, but unknown to me? I
 relied on my heart, knowing that it would guide me throughout my stay, as it
 does in my daily life.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width : 1000px !important">
 <img
 decoding="async"
 width="1000"
 alt="lights-of-iceland3-2"
 class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/lights_of_iceland3_2_29eb1a217f.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:51:00.147Z"
 />
 <figcaption>
 Landmannalaugar: The starting point of one of the most beautiful treks in
 the world. There is such an impression of being tiny in front of
 these mountains.
 </figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width : 1000px !important">
 <img
 width="1000"
 
 alt="lights-of-iceland4"
 class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/lights_of_iceland4_e7f4ad9a00.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:52:35.387Z"
 />
 <figcaption>
 The night is complicit in the appearance of the famous Northern Lights.
 The moon also brings its own light.
 </figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h5 class="has-text-align-center">
 How was I going to discover and approach this country, a paradise for
 photographers, but unknown to me? I relied on my heart, knowing that it
 would guide me throughout my stay, as it does in my daily life.
</h5>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width : 700px !important">
 <img
 width="700"
 alt="lights-of-iceland5"
 class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/lights_of_iceland5_a274dee8db.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:54:12.928Z"
 />
 <figcaption>
 Like a projector, a ray of sunshine highlights this typical Icelandic
 house.
 </figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h5 class="has-text-align-center">
 The answer was the light, so particular and ephemeral, that
 sculpts the unique landscapes, bringing to them an almost
 supernatural side.
</h5>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 The answer was the light, so particular and ephemeral, that sculpts the unique
 landscapes, bringing to them an almost supernatural side.



 As much as I felt the spiritual energy during my various stays in India, in
 Iceland it is the telluric energy that dominates. It’s a bit like traveling
 back in time, with volcanoes and lava flows, geysers, and black sand on the
 beaches. But there is also the hope of light that illuminates the darkness. At
 least that’s what I tried to express in my pictures.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">Photos by BRUNO MEMEINT</h4>

<hr />

Lights of Iceland

C. Otto Scharmer

Presencing an emerging future

Carl-Jung.jpg

Carl Jung

What is fate?

Let the unconscious become conscious

Fate

Chanchal Meena

<h4 id="h-"></h4>

 <h2 class="has-text-align-center">
 
 How Communication Changes Lives
 
 </h2>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 One of my closest friends in my hometown had a love marriage, which many
 considered to be a rebellious act against our small society. She looked
 happy for a few years after marriage, but I quietly sensed that she was
 hiding something behind her façade. One day she came over to visit me, and
 we eventually reached the topic of relationships and marriage. I never force
 people to share with me, but that day, when my friend started to cry, I
 gently comforted her and simply asked if she wanted to share.
 

 
 Eventually, she opened up to our private silence. Her marriage was very
 rocky, and because it was a love marriage she could not depend on the
 support of her family to help her. In many places in India, even today,
 there are families who blame their children if their love marriages fail. My
 friend’s parents had clearly told her, “If you have problems later, don’t
 come to us. This marriage is your choice.” I stayed quiet as my friend
 poured her heart out. There was no sense of urgency from me; I would have
 stayed up all night if needed. I recognized that painful secrets worth
 several years could take time to be expressed. My friend was broken, and I
 eventually picked up on her stream of thinking.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div >
 <figure>
 <img
 width="456"
 height="291"
 alt=""
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_marriage2_2f68b092da.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T12:55:22.117Z"
 
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 
 That day, it was not my job to tell her right from wrong. It was not my
 place to criticize her way of thinking, although I sensed it was biased in
 one direction. And it was not my motive to “fix” her situation. My only job
 was to listen – to help her feel lighter – after all, maybe unburdening her
 pain would give her clarity on her situation.
 

 
 After she finished speaking, my friend realized some of her own mistakes
 that had brought bitterness in her marriage. I asked her if I could make
 suggestions, and when she agreed I suggested small behavioral changes, and a
 more compassionate approach towards failure. She was ready to try these
 things because she felt she could depend on me to support her, listen to
 her, and talk things through with her.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h5 class="has-text-align-center">
 I believe there is great potential in listening compassionately. When
 people talk to a listener, they can hear themselves and become more
 in tune with the voice of their heart. Listening with no judgment
 gives people space to unburden – to release the clutter – so that it
 gives room for the heart to speak.
 </h5>

 <hr />

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 Throughout the next few months, I stayed in regular contact with her. She
 was on the verge of depression, and constant emotional and mental support
 was necessary. Slowly, the more she was able to open up, the more she was
 able to discover her own ways of fixing her problems.
 

 
 I do not take credit for my friend’s recovering marriage. After all, she
 found her own solutions, carried out her ideas, and kept courage. All I did
 was listen. I believe there is great potential in listening compassionately.
 When people talk to a listener, they can hear themselves and become more in
 tune with the voice of their heart. Listening with no judgment gives people
 space to unburden – to release the clutter – so that it gives room for the
 heart to speak.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

Love marriage

Charles is a writer, philosopher, speaker and pioneer, who has been exploring the need for society’s transformation for some years now. He has focused light on our economic, social and political systems, and the need for us to move from a paradigm of separation to that of interbeing. His work can be found at charleseisenstein.org.


Charles-Eisenstein.jpg

Charles Eisenstein

<h4>
 Nature does not charge us anything for its abundance. Everything in
 nature is free, a gift. We are part of the same nature, so can we
 incorporate this principle in our own interpersonal relationships and
 interactions?
 CHARLES EISENSTEIN reflects on this
 beautiful principle through his story of Interbeing.
</h4>

 Why does the sun shine? 
 Is it a random result of coalescing gases igniting nuclear fusion? Or is
 it in order to give its light and warmth to Life?


 Why does the rain fall? 
 Is it the senseless product of blind chemical processes of evaporation
 and condensation? Or is it to water Life?


 Why do you seek to pour forth your song? Is it to show off your genetic
 fitness to attract a mate, or is it to contribute to a more beautiful
 world?


 We may fear those first answers but it is the second that carries the
 ring of truth.


 Every culture, as far as I know, has something that I call a Story of
 the World. That story is a weave of myths, meanings, narratives, words,
 symbols, rituals, and agreements that together define the world. That
 story tells us who we are, how to be a man or a woman, what is important
 and valuable, what is real, what is sacred, and what humanity’s role and
 purpose is on Earth.

<hr />
<h5 style="text-align: center">
 Every culture, as far as I know,&nbsp;has something that I call 
 a Story of the World.&nbsp;That story is a weave of myths, 
 meanings, narratives,&nbsp;words, symbols, rituals, 
 and agreements that together define the world. 
 That story tells us who we are, how to be a man or a woman, 
 what is important and valuable,&nbsp;what is real, what is sacred, 
 and what humanity’s role and&nbsp;purpose is on Earth.
</h5>
<hr />

 The world’s dominant culture, the one called modern, has a story of the
 world too. I call it the Story of Separation. I won’t go too deep into
 it now, because I bet you already know intuitively what I’m talking
 about. It is the story that holds us as separate individuals and holds
 humanity separate from nature.


 In the Story of Separation, giving does not come naturally. In fact,
 that story says our default nature is selfishness, down to the genetic
 level. If I’m separate from you, then more for me is less for you.


 In the Story of Separation, trust does not come naturally either. The
 world is our adversary, full of other competing&nbsp;separate
 individuals, human and otherwise, whom we must overcome to have a good
 life – weeds, germs, the Russians or the Americans, whatever. Beyond
 that, the forces of nature are adversaries too, because they are utterly
 random, and the whole universe tends toward entropy. There is no
 intelligence or purpose outside of ourselves. Therefore, to establish a
 comfortable human habitation in the world, we must dominate and control
 these forces, insulate ourselves from them, and harness them to our
 purposes. That’s what the Story of Separation says.


 Where in that story is there room for gratitude? Where is there room for
 gift? In the Story of Separation you basically have to rise above human
 nature, rise above the way of the world, to be selfless, generous, or
 altruistic. Becoming a good person, then, involves a sort of conquest, a
 conquest of self. It is the same domination of nature, this time turned
 inward.

<hr />
<h5 style="text-align: center">
 In the Story of Interbeing, life is a gift. 
 The world and everything in it is a gift. 
 We did not earn our lives. 
 We did not earn the sun; it is not thanks 
 to our hard efforts that it shines. 
 We did not earn the ability of plants to grow. 
 We did not earn water. 
 We did not earn our conception or our breath. 
 Our hearts beat and our livers metabolize 
 all on their own. Life is a gift.
</h5>
<hr />

 Now I have to say, this story is quickly becoming obsolete. Even its
 scientific dimension in genetics, physics, and biology are crumbling. In
 complexity theory, we understand that order can emerge spontaneously out
 of chaos, without an external organizing force. In ecology, we
 understand that the well-being of one is inseparable from the well-being
 of all. So let me talk about gift, generosity, and gratitude from the
 perspective of another story, a new and ancient story I like to call
 Interbeing.


 In the Story of Interbeing, life is a gift. The world and everything in
 it is a gift. We did not earn our lives. We did not earn the sun; it is
 not thanks to our hard efforts that it shines. We did not earn the
 ability of plants to grow. We did not earn water. We did not earn our
 conception or our breath. Our hearts beat and our livers metabolize all
 on their own. Life is a gift.


 <img
 class="has-img-center lazyload w-100 h-auto"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/gift2_76b60201de.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-04T11:04:26.378Z"
 alt="gift2"
 />


 What about all those things that did come to you through hard effort?
 You worked hard for your money perhaps, for your status, for your
 healthy body. Okay, but from where comes your capacity to work hard?
 From where comes your creativity, your strength, and your intelligence?
 Did you earn these too?


 When we apprehend these basic truths, gratitude comes naturally.
 Gratitude is the knowledge of having received, and the consequent desire
 to give in turn. It is primal. All beings, including human beings, have
 an unquenchable desire to pour forth their gifts. That is why if you are
 in a situation where your gifts are not valued, not received, or not
 useful, you will want to leave that situation, that job or relationship.
 No matter how much you are being paid, no matter how scared you are to
 leave the relationship, you’re going to want to bust out and develop and
 express your capacity to give to the world in service of something you
 care about.


 All beings are thus. That is why we should be living in a world of
 incredible abundance. The fact that modern society has constructed
 conditions of such pervasive scarcity is an impressive achievement! So
 much talent, such a rich world. How is it that so many live in
 insecurity, anxiety, and deprivation? Not even the wealthy are exempt
 from the fear of it.


 Nature is fundamentally abundant, even profligate. I am writing this at
 my brother’s farm. The birds sing all day, pouring forth their song as a
 gift to the world. Yeah I know about attracting a mate and marking
 territory, but come on, do they have to sing that much to do that? It is
 as if they are bursting with the desire to give their song, just like
 you are. You were born for it, whatever your song is, you were born for
 it. Do the wild black raspberries here have to taste that good to
 attract animals to eat them and poop out their seeds? And don’t you have
 that urge too, to do it better than necessary for the grade, for the
 boss, for the market? Don’t you have to yearn to make art of your work?
 Don’t you have the urge within you to create something beautiful, to
 expand your capacities to their full potential and express them in
 service to something magnificent?


 You are not alone. Imagine what the world would be if each person were
 liberated in this desire. Imagine what the world could be if we could
 sweep away the conditions that conspire to stunt and suppress our gifts.
 These conditions are political, they are economic, they are ideological,
 they are relational, they are psychological and they are spiritual. For
 civilization to transition into an Age of the Gift requires
 transformation on every level.

<hr />
<h5 style="text-align: center">
 Don’t you have to yearn to make art of your work? 
 Don’t you have the urge within you to create something beautiful, 
 to expand your capacities to their full potential 
 and express&nbsp;them in service to something magnificent?
</h5>
<hr />

 I’ve written extensively about the transition on an economic level, but
 what about the personal, relational, and spiritual? We need to deprogram
 from the habits of separation and scarcity to reclaim the primal state
 of gift. I don’t think that this happens through personal efforts,
 motivated by the desire to be a better person. It is rather something
 that happens to us. It happens, in other words, as a gift.


 The transmission vector of that gift is community. Generosity, you may
 have noticed, is infectious. When you witness generosity, you receive
 the message, “It is safe to give. It is okay. I’ll be okay.” Sharing
 stories and practices of gratitude, of generosity – and of the
 challenges and setbacks in stepping more deeply into gift – we generate
 a normalizing field that counteracts social programming toward
 competition, selfishness, and scarcity.


 <img
 class="has-img-center lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/gift23_8299d8c19f.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-04T11:05:01.370Z"
 alt="gift23"
 />


 My small contribution to that ‘normalizing field of gift’ is an online
 course called Living in the Gift.While it touches on a few big-picture
 issues, mostly it is an immersion into the habits of gift, the
 perceptions of gift, the awareness of abundance, and the experience of
 gratitude. In doing so, we step outside the New Age abundance-thinking
 bubble to address the contradictions of our time: between money and
 love, service and security, community and independence, wealth and
 inequality.


 In case you are wondering, we offer the course itself on a gift model.
 Any payment is purely voluntary. Nothing is withheld behind a paywall,
 and there is no ‘upselling’ to paid programs. One of the habits of
 Separation, nearly universal in this culture, is to always be on guard
 against someone seeking to make money from you, to take, to extract.
 Economics even teaches us that basically, everyone is trying to get the
 best deal and maximize their rational self-interest. That’s the water in
 which we swim. So as much as I dare, I like to mess with that
 expectation of extraction.


 This small article draws from some of the introductory course material.
 I hope most of what I’ve written here seems obvious. My purpose here is
 to pluck an ancient chord of recognition. It is to invoke a memory, to
 activate a piece of knowledge long suppressed in the dominant culture
 but still alive somewhere in all of us. It is simply that life is a
 gift, that the world is a gift, that the cosmos operates on the
 principle of gift. Please bathe in your intuitive resonance with this
 truth. Beneath the cynicism we know: it is all a gift. Gratitude is our
 native state. Generosity is its maturation. Thank you for keeping the
 thread of this knowledge alive.

<h6>
 Republished with permission from the author:
 <a
 style="color: #98b53f"
 href="https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/living-in-the-gift"
 >https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/living-in-the-gift</a
 >
</h6>
<hr />
<h4 style="text-align: center">Article by CHARLES EISENSTEIN</h4>
<hr />

Living in the gift

The coronation

<hr class="vertical-space1" />
<h4>
 <spanundefined>In 2015, ERICK JOSEPH filmed
 CHARLES EISENSTEIN in a short
 interview for a younger audience. Charles wrote a short essay to accompany
 the film, which we have reproduced here.
</h4>
<hr class="vertical-space1" />
Dear Self,
<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <spanundefined style="color: #22a7e0">Your secret, lonely knowledge is true. Despite all you have been told,
 the world that has been offered to you as normal is anything but normal.
 It is a pale semblance of the intimacy, connection, authenticity,
 community, joy and grief that lie just beneath the surface of society’s
 habits and routines.

<hr />

 <spanundefined style="color: #e87676">Do not believe the cynical voice, masquerading as the realistic voice
 that says that nothing much can change. That voice will call your dreams
 by many names: naïve, unrealistic, immature, and irresponsible. Trust your
 knowledge that the world can be different, can be better. You needn’t sell
 out and live a life complicit in maintaining the status quo.

<hr />

 <spanundefined style="color: #1f9490">You have a magnificent contribution to make to the more beautiful world
 your heart knows is possible. It may not make you famous, but you have an
 important gift, an indispensable gift, and it demands you to apply it to
 something you care about. Unless you do, you will feel like you aren’t
 really living your life. You will live the life someone pays you to live,
 caring about things you are paid to care about. You can make a different
 choice.


<hr />

 <spanundefined style="color: #6a2a9c">When you follow your passion and come fully alive, your choices will feel
 threatening to anyone who abides in the dominant story of normal. You will
 be reminding them of the path they didn’t follow, and awaken in them the
 suppressed yearning to devote their gifts to something beautiful. Rather
 than face that grief, they may suppress it – and suppress you as
 well.


<hr />

 <spanundefined style="color: #22a7e0">You carry a deep yearning to contribute to the healing of the world and
 fulfillment of its possibilities. This is your deepest desire, and if you
 abandon it you will feel like a ghost inhabiting the mere shell of a life.
 Instead, trust that desire and follow it toward whatever service it calls
 you to, however small and insignificant it might seem.


<hr />

 <spanundefined style="color: #e87676">The most reliable guide to choice is to follow whatever makes you feel
 happy and excited to get out of bed in the morning. Life is not supposed
 to be a grim slog of discipline and sacrifice. You practiced for such a
 life in school, tearing yourself out of bed for days of tedium, bribed
 with trivial rewards called grades, intimidated by artificial
 consequences, proceeding through a curriculum designed by faraway
 authorities, asking permission to use the toilet. It is time to undo those
 habits. Let your compass instead be joy, love, and whatever makes you feel
 alive.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <img alt="Letter-to-my-younger-self2" class="has-img-center lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Letter_to_my_younger_self2_22ebeaf25c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T05:39:52.843Z" />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <spanundefined style="color: #1f9490">Powerful forces will attempt to make you conform to society’s normality.
 These will take the form of social pressure, parental pressure, and very
 likely, economic pressure. When you encounter them, please understand that
 they are giving you the opportunity to define yourself. When push comes to
 shove, who are you?


<hr />

 <spanundefined style="color: #6a2a9c">At a certain moment it will become necessary for you to go on a journey.
 It isn’t to escape forever. It is to find yourself outside of whomever
 your conditioning trained you to be. You must put yourself in a situation
 where you don’t know who you are anymore. This is called an initiation.
 Who you were becomes inoperative; then, who you will be can emerge.


<hr />

 <spanundefined style="color: #22a7e0">The old maps do not apply in these times of transition. Even if you try
 to follow them, even if you accept their bribes and heed their threats,
 there is no guarantee you’ll reap the promised rewards. The university
 graduates washing dishes and the PhD’s driving taxis attest to this. We
 are entering new territory. Trust your guidance. It is okay to make
 mistakes, because in uncharted territory even the wrong path is part of
 finding the right path.


<hr />

 <spanundefined style="color: #e87676">On this path, you are sure to get lost. But you are held, watched, and
 guided by a vast organic intelligence. It will become visible when things
 fall apart – as surely they must, in the transition between worlds. You
 will stumble, only to find overlooked treasure beneath your feet. You’ll
 despair of finding the answer – and then the answer will find you.
 Breakdown clears the space for synchronicity, for help unimagined and
 unearned.


<hr />

 <spanundefined style="color: #6a2a9c">None of this advice can be sustainably implemented by a heroic effort on
 your part. You need help. Seek out other people who reinforce your
 perception that a more beautiful world is possible, and that life’s first
 priority is not security, but rather to give of your gifts, to play, to
 love and be loved, to learn, to explore. When those people (your tribe)
 are in crisis, you can hold them in the knowing of what you know. And they
 can do the same for you. No one can do this alone.

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 <img decoding="async" alt="Letter-to-my-younger-self3" class="has-img-center lazyload"
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&nbsp;
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 <spanundefined style="color: #d67e1a">Reprinted with permission from
 <a style="color: #d67e1a" href="https://charleseisenstein.org/short-reflection-essays/letter-to-my-younger-self/"
 target="_blank"
 rel="noopener noreferrer">https://charleseisenstein.org/short-reflection-essays/letter-to-my-younger-self/</a>

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<h4 style="text-align: center">
 Article by
 <spanundefined>CHARLES EISENSTEIN Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL
</h4>

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Letter to my younger self

<h4>CHARLES EISENSTEIN challenges our current understanding of environmental sustainability, and asks us to reconsider our approaches and practices to environmentalism. He also dares us to realize that it will only work once we become nature lovers.</h4>If we are to focus our attention on a single substance, it should be not carbon dioxide but water. Beyond greenhouse effects, water is crucial in the ways the world maintains conditions for life to thrive.&nbsp;One function of water is as a vehicle of heat transport, part of the physiology of this living planet. Please watch the&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/B-oJyInmTTo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">animated video</a>&nbsp;about how plants influence local and global temperatures through the movement of water.This video, along with companion pieces on the&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/kKL40aBg-7E" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">biotic pump</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/Q8B4tST8ti8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hydrology</a>, comes from an emerging understanding among many environmentalists that we have made a scientific, strategic, rhetorical, and political error by reducing the ecological crisis to climate, and the climate crisis to carbon. Earth is best understood as a living being with a complex physiology, whose health depends on the health of her constituent organs. Her organs are the forests, the wetlands, the grasslands, the estuaries, the reefs, the apex predators, the keystone species, the soil, the insects, and indeed every intact ecosystem and every species on Earth. If we continue to degrade them, drain them, cut them, poison them, pave them, and kill them, earth will die a death of a million cuts. She will die of organ failure regardless of the levels of greenhouse gases.That is why, if I may be so bold as to make a prediction, that we will see increasingly dramatic derangement of weather patterns over the next few years. Indeed it has already begun. Floods, droughts, fires, anomalous heat, cold, wet, and dry at the wrong time of year will intensify, even in the absence of significant global warming. Such is already the case. I’m sure you’ve noticed. The weather has been weird the last few years; in some places, devastatingly so. Yet, global temperatures (according to the most reliable measure, satellite measurements of the lower troposphere) are about what they were in 2016. The overall trend since measurements began is definitely a warming trend (about 0.13 degrees per decade), but it has not been accelerating.Herein lies the strategic error. Having hitched the environmental wagon to the global warming horse, what happens if the horse stops running? It won’t mean that our environmental problems will have been solved. It won’t mean the crisis has been averted, if temperatures stop rising. That is because the core of the crisis is not warming, it is ecocide – the killing of ecosystems, the killing of life.The video and its companion videos illustrate clearly some of the ways this happens. Destroying soil and plant life, and all the other ecological actors they nourish and depend on, leads directly to flood-drought cycles that then get blamed on global warming. The complex, homeostatic feedback loops that maintain stability unravel. The loss of the Amazon can bring drought to Colorado. The loss of rainforests in Borneo and Sumatra might cause drought in China. The loss of the Congo causes floods in Nigeria. Everything is connected to everything else.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/environmental_movement2_ae2f711784.jpg"></figure><h3>Calculating our way to love?</h3>I was hiking yesterday near my home in the Carter Preserve. Dead trees are everywhere. Almost all the oaks are dead. Elsewhere in the state, tracts of old-growth oak have been clearcut to make way for utility-scale solar farms. Let’s put that in quotes, “farms.” Conservationist and entomology professor Douglas Tallamy has this to say, in response to industry advocates who claim that the ecological benefits of solar “farms” outweigh the benefits of a forest.“Cutting down an existing solar plant, which is a tree, in order to build an artificial one is just ridiculous,” he said. “It’s more than energy. Solar doesn’t feed a single bird, it doesn’t manage the watershed. The only ecological value is capturing energy from the sun, which is what plants do, but it’s not passing it on to rest of the food web. It’s the plants and animals around us that run the ecosystems that we all depend on. I know we want renewable energy, but we’ve got enough land that has already been leveled. Put the solar arrays on rooftops. Put them on all the destroyed properties we already have. Don’t cut down existing forests. It’s totally antithetical to the goals of conservation.”1What is the basis of industry’s argument that a solar “farm” is better than a forest? Carbon math, that’s what. They add up the sequestration numbers of a mature forest and compare it to the fossil fuel equivalent of the photovoltaic output. This is an extreme yet all-too-common example of what happens when we define “green” in terms of carbon dioxide. Further extremes are on the horizon. What happens if, as some think likely, carbon capture technologies reach economic&nbsp;<a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.iecr.0c04839" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feasibility</a>? Already, carbon math sometimes brings perverse results, as with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nearly useless</a>&nbsp;carbon offsets. Carbon math vastly underestimates the ecological utility of forests, given the role they play in the water cycle and Earth’s physiology. Inevitably, then, when carbon math defines “green,” the forests will suffer.None of this is to say that greenhouse gas emissions are benign. The degradation of earth’s ecosystemic organs renders her less able to cope with changes in atmospheric gas composition. The additional thermodynamic flux through an already unstable system exacerbates existing instabilities. Moreover, from the living Earth view, there are plenty of reasons to curtail fossil fuel development that have nothing to do with CO2 or methane. Strip-mining, drilling, fracking, burning, offshore oil development, and so forth devastate ecosystems, poison whole landscapes, destroy habitat, acidify rain, contaminate water, and risk catastrophic spills.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/environmental_movement3_f3fad7e9ed.jpg"></figure>The solution, though, is not to shift industrial civilization to another, equally or more damaging energy technology. We have instead to consider matters of scale and purpose. Scale: rooftop solar is different from utility-scale PV fields. Farm-based biogas reactors are different from industrial-scale monocrop biofuel plantations. Micro-hydro is different from mega-dams. In each case, the former fits into an ecological relationship to the specific beings, human and otherwise, of a place. As for purpose, do we really need to produce more and more energy forever? Does it really contribute to human well-being? Bigger houses, more weapons, more stuff, the whole developmentalist technological program that separates us ever-further from life and matter… what does it serve? Ultimately, the “solution” to the ecological crisis is not technical. It comes from reclaiming basic values and changing our relationship to nature.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">One no longer needs be a nature lover to support the aims of environmentalism... The result is that environmentalism has been hijacked by people and institutions&nbsp; who are not nature lovers. We see where it leads: nature dies in the service of “sustainability.”</h4><hr>Commenting on the clearing of forests to build solar arrays, Tellamy wrote, “It’s totally antithetical to the goals of conservation.” Yes. The environmental movement needs to return to its roots. Conservation does not mean to “use more slowly” or to “save for later.” What the word really means is to&nbsp;serve with. To serve together. To serve what? To serve life. It is a rhetorical error to frame environmentalism in any other way than to make it about love of nature, love of life. No one becomes an environmentalist because of all the money they will save. No one calculates their way into love. And the changes that we will need to make to restore Earth’s aliveness from its current depletion will require a degree of courage and sacrifice that comes only from love. We will not be coerced or bribed into them.A veteran activist once told me of a meeting he attended in the 1980s in which a group of leading environmentalists decided to adopt the term “sustainability” into their core lexicon. “We wanted to sound scientific,” he said. “We didn’t want to use words like ‘love’ or ‘precious’ and be dismissed as tree-huggers. We wanted to give people a rational, hard-headed&nbsp;reason&nbsp;why we should protect nature. We thought that appealing to the beauty and sacredness of nature wouldn’t reach the people who were destroying it, so we tried to make it about their self-interest instead.”Around the same time, global warming entered the awareness of the environmental movement, growing over the years to become its defining issue. At first, global warming (now called climate change) seemed a boon to the movement. Now we would be able to force corporations and governments to do the things we’d always wanted, appealing not just to sentiments about nature’s magnificence, and not just to concerns over the health of some subset of people downwind, but to the survival of civilization itself. One no longer need be a nature lover to support the aims of environmentalism.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/environmental_movement4_365bb244b7.jpg"></figure>Let that last statement sink in. One no longer need be a nature lover to support the aims of environmentalism.The result is that environmentalism has been hijacked by people and institutions who are not nature lovers. We see where it leads: nature dies in the service of “sustainability.” Forests are cut for solar farms. Landscapes are sacrificed to pit mines to extract lithium, cobalt, silver, rare earths, etc. for decarbonization. There is an awful lot of money in the sustainability industry. It is the same story as before. Meanwhile, we neglect the priorities that are highest from the Living Earth perspective. The energy and funding and attention goes toward “saving the world” by reducing CO2. Neglected in comparison are the sea grass meadows. The peat bogs. The mangrove swamps. The beavers. The elephants. The whales. The sharks. Yet all of these are vital to planetary physiology.To be continued. Reprinted with permission by the author from&nbsp;<a href="https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/how-the-environmental-movement-can#footnote-1-110660236" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/how-the-environmental-movement-can#footnote-1-110660236</a>&nbsp;<hr><a href="https://ecori.org/2021-6-2-for-better-or-worse-statewide-oak-tree-mortality-changes-ris-landscape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1 https://ecori.org/2021-6-2-for-better-or-worse-statewide-oak-tree-mortality-changes-ris-landscape/</a>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4><hr>&nbsp;

How the environmental movement can find its way again

<h4>CHARLES EISENSTEIN challenges our current understanding of environmental sustainability, and asks us to reconsider our approaches and practices to environmentalism. In part 1, he dared us to realize that environmentalism will only work once we become nature lovers. In part 2, he focuses on the way forward, offering ways to heal the environment and ourselves.</h4>All is not lost. There is in fact a way to “save the world.” I put it in quotes, because ultimately the choice we face is not about our survival, it is about what kind of world we choose to live in. One vibrant with life? Or a gigantic strip mine/waste dump/parking lot? So let us say there is a way to regenerate a world vibrant with life. The way is to enact a reverence for life in all its forms. This translates to three priorities for environmentalist attention and funding.<figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:50.13%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/3properties_environmental_healing2_d077c1ff8d.jpg"></figure><h4 style="margin-left:0cm;">Priority 1: Protect Ecosystems</h4>The first recalls traditional conservationism. We must absolutely protect any remaining intact ecosystems from development, whether it is for oil and gas, minerals, lumber, ranching, suburbs, dam reservoirs, industrial-scale fishing, or biofuels. The few remaining intact organs of Gaia are its reservoirs of biodiversity and its memory of health. Note well that to “protect” does not usually mean to fence off and keep humans away. In fact, right human participation can enhance the health of ecosystems when those humans have intimate understanding and reverence for the places where they live.<h4 style="margin-left:0cm;">Priority 2: Regeneration</h4>The second priority is regeneration, the restoring of life to places where it has been depleted. Regenerative farming and ranching, agroforestry, marine preserves, beaver reintroduction, salmon reintroduction, dam removal, and water retention landscapes are just some of the ways to revitalize the organs of the Earth and bring them back online to stabilize the climate.<h4 style="margin-left:0cm;">Priority 3: Detoxification</h4>The third priority is detoxification. I suspect a lot of forest death (it isn’t just oaks) and insect collapse (in most places at least 80% of insects have disappeared) is due to the ubiquity of herbicides, pesticides, toxic waste, and other pollutants in the environment. It shocked me when I learned that vast areas of forest in the eastern United States are routinely sprayed to “control” pest insects. Dioxins, PFAs, antibiotics, pharmaceutical residues, and agriculture chemicals contaminate every ecosystem on Earth, every animal, every cell. They are detectable even in Antarctica.&nbsp;Add to these the aerial spraying of aluminum and other particles in geoengineering experiments, causing elevated levels of aluminum in places remote from any industrial source. And let’s not forget the little-recognized impact of electromagnetic pollution, light pollution, and noise pollution on ecosystems. All of the above harm the Earth on the tissue level, further weakening her already compromised organs.<hr>In fact, right human participation&nbsp; can enhance the health of ecosystems&nbsp; when those humans have intimate understanding&nbsp; and reverence for the places where they live.<hr><figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:50.13%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/3properties_environmental_healing3_5100fcc786.jpg"></figure><hr>The ecological crisis and the spiritual crisis&nbsp; that we call “mental health”&nbsp; share a common source:&nbsp; denial of the Earth as a living being worthy of love, worthy of service.<hr>The soul of the environmental movementI do not worry that our system is not sustainable. I worry that it is. I am afraid that we can continue to lay waste to the living Earth indefinitely, ending up on a concrete world, so chronically ill physically and mentally that we must incorporate technological assistance into our very brains and bodies.&nbsp;I am afraid we will compensate for the lost connection to a living world with a burgeoning array of virtual substitutes, digital realities, and online adventures, tragically seeking something that we come to forget we ever had. Do you remember how loud the frogs were? Do you remember flocks of birds extending from horizon to horizon? Do you remember the clouds of fireflies that lit up the nights of my father’s youth? I am afraid we will forget we ever lived in such wealth and make do instead with Mario Cart.&nbsp;We are already far down this path to a concrete world, and far down the path of learning to cope with it. American doctors write every year around 120 million prescriptions for SSRIs, 118 million prescriptions for Adderall, Ritalin, and other ADHD medications, and 120 million for benzodiazepines (I got those numbers by consulting the oracle, I mean ChatGPT). That’s more than one psychiatric drug prescription per capita! No wonder people have never been happier.The inner desolation mirrors the outer. The ecological crisis and the spiritual crisis that we call “mental health” share a common source: denial of the Earth as a living being worthy of love, worthy of service. The conservationist draws from a well of truth: that the purpose of a human being is to participate in the flourishing of life. To serve with. Sundered from that purpose, we inevitably become sick. That inner sickness, that soul sickness, reflects the outer sickness of ecosystems. Could there ultimately be any doubt that the global climate reflects the social climate, the political climate, the economic climate, and the psychic climate?The three priorities I listed above are no mere technical tweaks to the project of engineering Earth. They occur naturally to anyone who beholds Earth as a living being with a complex physiology. Beholding Earth as a being, a magnificent being, a gorgeous being, a sacred being, we fall ever deeper in love. Here is where to find again the soul of the environmental movement and fulfill its destiny to transform civilization.Reprinted with permission by the author from&nbsp;<a href="https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/how-the-environmental-movement-can#footnote-1-110660236">https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/how-the-environmental-movement-can#footnote-1-110660236</a><figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/3properties_environmental_healing4_64d1b7002e.jpg"></figure>

Three priorities for environmental healing

<h4>CHARLES EISENSTEIN challenges our reliance on money to cater to all our needs, and asks, “What is the corollary to such a life?”</h4>A privileged person is somebody who doesn’t have or doesn’t need community because they can meet all their needs with money. If you have enough money in modern society, you don’t need anybody or anyone or anything. You don’t need the people around you because you can pay somebody else to do whatever they’re doing. You don’t need the ecosystem around you, you don’t need the soil around, because you can pay to import food from somewhere else. You’re completely independent of your relationships, except for the one relationship that matters in modern society to sustain life, which is money, or so it seems.&nbsp;But as studies demonstrate, it’s not actually true that we can meet all of our needs with money. What money does is replaces human relationships. So, in an Amish community, there’s no such thing, as far as I know, as insurance on your home. Because if your home burns down, the community will get together and build you a new home. That’s your insurance. And your insurance payment is all the times that you helped somebody else build their house. So you don’t need insurance in that community.&nbsp;Well, any society that lives in that way is a ripe target for development, as it’s called, for economic growth, because you can replace that community function with a paid service. So what’s happened in the modern era is that, one after another, human relationships have been replaced with paid services. Everything from growing food to taking care of children to making entertainment. It’s not just the survival needs, it’s also: What does it take to live well? To be fully human? And if you don’t make your own music any more but you download it from Spotify, then that’s another service that’s been converted into money. And also ecological services get converted into something that you purchase. And that strips away what actually makes life rich.&nbsp;So what to do about it? On the broadest level, it’s to reclaim, to restore, to recover, to regenerate the lost relationships to come into relationship again... but to turn that idea [of privilege] on its head and embrace the knowledge of what actually makes life rich, what makes life good, and to say, okay, it’s time to enrich ourselves again. It’s time to reclaim the lost relationships.Here is a corollary to my point. In a subtle way, the assumptions that the privileged take for granted are part of the very conception of privilege. The privilege discourse takes for granted the desirability of the lives that the privileged occupy. This is part of the ideology of development that imposes Western, modernist ideas of progress on the rest of the world. It approaches development with the smug certainty that our way of life is better than theirs.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">In a subtle way, the assumptions that the privileged&nbsp; take for granted are part of the very conception of privilege.</h4><hr>Certainly the life of an affluent American suburbanite is preferable to that of a starving Somali villager, an incarcerated inmate, or a sex-trafficked Haitian child. But is it superior to that of the relatives of my Amish interlocutor? Is it superior to the lives of indigenous peasants in the remote Andes? Traditional villagers in Gabon or Bangladesh? If so, then why are people so often palpably happier in those places than in America, where prescriptions for psychiatric medications exceed one per capita?Consider an example of NGO philanthropic development work, the boring of wells for Africans living in remote areas. Everyone would agree that access to safe drinking water is a positive good for all humans. Is it, however, an advance to have running water in every home? From the perspective of an American, it seems obviously so, as we are reminded when a power outage cuts off the water supply. But traditional villagers say that the spring or river or well is central to village life, one of the primary gathering places, especially for women. Are we better off sequestered, each in our own homes, never needing to interact with each other to procure food, water, play, child care, or entertainment?And what about the wealth that is&nbsp;connection to non-human beings like plants, animals, wind, rain, and soil? Progress has distanced us from all those things. As money mediates our relationships to these other beings, it grows into our primary relationship with the material world. We end up alone.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/True_Wealth2_46f688b383.jpg"></figure>The privileged at least have money. The rest, living in a society of separation, suffer much of the same distancing from nature and community, and lack money as well. If we take the distancing for granted, then yes, to have money is better than not to have it. To be privileged is preferable to being without privilege.In a society where courts and police settle our disputes instead of village councils and wise elders, then it is preferable to be among the privileged races and classes that suffer less police violence than the poor and Black.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">The first step is always&nbsp; a step back into connection.</h4><hr>Must we take all that for granted though? Can we envision a different kind of society? Some of us have seen it, in remote places or in remnants in developed societies. Some remains even in small-town America. It is possible, but the path from here to there disappears into the mist. The first step is always a step back into connection. Then we remember the wealth we have lost. Our sense of poverty within affluence is validated. We are no longer satisfied with the money-mediated, technology-mediated substitutes for what we have lost. We no longer tolerate the ongoing destruction of the species, habitats, places, and cultures where such wealth still resides. Our choices orient naturally to the recovery of true wealth for one and all.<a href="https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/notes-on-privilege?utm_source=substack&amp;publication_id=427455&amp;post_id=130521854&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;triggerShare=true&amp;isFreemail=true">https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/notes-on-privilege?utm_source=substack&amp;publication_id=427455&amp;post_id=130521854&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;triggerShare=true&amp;isFreemail=true</a>

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