Simple practical weekly inspirations to improve various aspects of your thought patterns, emotions, habits and lifestyle.

A WORD, A THOUGHT, A QUESTION

Imagine knowing that you will never be alone! Not in any circumstance, ever! Well, it’s actually true, and you can cultivate that capacity to connect with the eternal and infinite presence that is always with you through the practice of remembrance. Even if you were without the soul’s existence for a billionth of a second, you would not exist. &nbsp;This month, we celebrate the spiritual practice of remembrance. We hear from Daaji on love and remembrance, Pir Zia Inayat Khan on uniting the fragments of our being, Jason Nutting on stillness, Kapik Naidu and Sanjana Ayyagari on the paradox of remembering and forgetting, and Robert Steven Goldstein on the Tree of Knowledge. Ravi Venkatesan explores the foundation for exceptional listening, Emilie Mogensen reflects upon regenerative leadership, and Narendra Kini challenges us to think about the capacities of AI and human intelligence. We hear from Gayathri Ramachandran on self-awareness, Elizabeth Denley on remembrance and entanglement, Sreenath Ananthaneni on the flower that nearly started a war, and B. Rathinasabapathy on the confluence of nature and spirituality. Neeraj Patel shares an art essay called Frameworks of Fluidity, and Sara Bubber celebrates the Olympic Games.Next month, we’ll be focusing on an ancient yogic practice known as Pranahuti, and how it has been revived in modern times. We would love to hear from you, so please share your letters, articles, and stories with us at contributions@heartfulnessmagazine.com.

May 2025 Edition

<h3 style="text-align:center;">SPIRITUAL PRACTICES AND ATTITUDES FOR MODERN LIVING</h3><h4 style="text-align:justify;">DAAJI is in conversation with APOORVA PATEL about Constant Remembrance and love, how they are both expressions of each other, and the role they play in our spiritual evolution.</h4>AP: Can you share with us the relationship between remembrance and love? What is their context in our spiritual practice?Daaji: Well, I think love is the guiding force behind remembering someone. Even when it is not love, even if you hate someone, you remember that person so often! Now, the remembrance of the Beloved carries a different level of vibration in your heart. It’s almost like you are in a state of absorbency while thinking of that person. I’m deliberately using this word “thinking,” though there is a vast difference between thinking and remembering. Where thinking is about your head, your mind especially, remembrance is from the heart. When you think about a particular sloka from the Bhagavad Gita, you are ruminating on it. What does Lord Krishna mean to say by, “Sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam sarva-dharm vraja"? [Abandon all varieties of dharma and surrender to me alone. I shall liberate you from all sinful reactions; do not fear.] You keep thinking, contemplating… what is he trying to convey to me? There is the mind’s involvement. But when you go into a different dimension, when you remember Krishna or this verse, it is felt in your heart.AP:&nbsp;Feeling it rather than analyzing it.Daaji: Yes. You feel the presence. You begin to have some shift in your awareness because of this remembrance. So, I would say love is the product, and remembrance is the beginning. According to Babuji Maharaj, even when you reverse this equation, when you love someone, you remember. As God is an unknown entity, we don’t really know how to love, so we begin by remembering and end up with love. This accelerates the journey, because why would you remember someone with whom you do not want to merge, with whom you do not want to become one? So remembrance is a great catalyst for this.AP:&nbsp;Is there a way that we can cultivate remembrance?Daaji:&nbsp;It’s very, very easy. For example, when you remember someone or something, why do you remember that person or that particular moment? It strikes your heart. You are so impressed by that event or by that person, and you remain grateful.So now, how does it apply in the spiritual realm? When we meditate, and arrive at a certain spiritual state, we are overwhelmed by that particular state and say, “Wow, do I deserve this?” A kind of gratefulness begins in the heart and then because of this gratefulness, we start wondering about who is this giver; be it our Guru or be it God. Then we begin to think, to remember, and then we remain absorbed in remembrance with gratefulness. So there is incremental refinement in our remembrance. So meditating on this person, on the guru, will also help.AP:&nbsp;What about in other traditions? For example, in Sufism they have Dhikr, and I am wondering if this is the same thing or similar to what we call Constant Remembrance.Daaji:&nbsp;It is the same thing, just a different word. It is also there in other traditions. Constant Remembrance is the continuous remembrance of the Beloved. Any moment that passes without remembering, is cause for regret: “Why did I, how did I, how could I forget my Beloved?”AP:&nbsp;Babuji said that remembrance is capable of clearing everything from the spiritual path and it keeps us constantly charged from the Divine. Is this something that happens only after a certain point in our Yatra?Daaji:&nbsp;There are actually three questions in one here. The first is about removal of unnecessary things. The second is about infusing us with charge. And the third is: When in the journey does remembrance truly begin?&nbsp;Whenever we remember, we are immediately in osmosis with the Beloved, and we begin to draw grace (the power, the love) transmitted from such a person into our heart. So that sort of remembrance, where you are imbued with Divinity constantly is a love-filled invitation. There is absolute Sharanagati. It’s not that you have surrendered in a defeated way. You have lovingly surrendered to your Beloved, with full trust and respect.Second, what sort of things are cleaned? Whenever we remember such a great personality as Guruji or God or Krishna or the Prophet, peace be upon him, there is an immediate shift in our awareness. Whenever we remember such great personalities, our hearts move tremendously. If we are about to do the wrong thing, this remembrance will prevent it. “How can I do such a thing while I am also thinking of my Beloved?” If we are still interested in doing things despite remembering, it means we don’t have true love.When it comes to remembering, slowly, as we develop the ability to remain in osmosis through remembrance, there will be a qualitative change in us. In chemistry and physics, the process of osmosis is well-explained. In biology and physiology, also, without osmosis we cannot exist at a physiological level. Similarly, at the psychological, emotional, and spiritual levels there is also some level of osmosis between our subtle body and that of the universal body of God. There is osmosis.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Whenever we remember,&nbsp; we are immediately in osmosis with the Beloved,&nbsp; and we begin to draw grace (the power, the love)&nbsp; transmitted from such a person into our heart.</h4><hr>Until that moment is reached where our level of purity and His level of purity become equal, osmosis will continue. That is the purpose of yoga, of meditation, of bhakti, and of worshipping God—to trigger this osmosis and attain the state of godliness.AP:&nbsp;You have mentioned that “meditation is the mother of remembrance.” Can this mean that for those who have not yet made it a part of them, regular meditation can bring them closer to remembering the Beloved in such a way that it is a part of their being?Daaji: It was a famous statement by Babuji Maharaj that “Meditation is the mother of Constant Remembrance.” And I do appreciate this statement because it explains the entire essence of our spiritual practice. Whether you practice X system or Y system, fundamentally, whoever be your guide or the being you worship, how can you remember them unless you become so grateful? And what drives this gratefulness? It's your own experiments with the processes they share with you. They say, “Okay, meditate like this.” So you go through the process and see in your own heart how it affects you at a consciousness level. If you like it, you become more appreciative, more grateful, and you will continue to remember.This is why I say, and I cannot appreciate more than this, that it’s a magical thing to meditate and arrive at such a refined state.AP:&nbsp;Is there ever a time when the Master is remembering his disciple?Daaji:&nbsp;It is always the case. Masters remember individuals under many categories actually. For example, those who are in trouble, and those who are advancing very fast and attain a very high level spiritually. So you cannot say Master does not remember you, because we all fall into one of those categories. Either we are so advanced or we are always so in need. But is his remembering of his disciples specific, or by choice, or is he conscious of it? What you mean to ask is this: is he consciously remembering some individuals? I would say yes. There are moments when he consciously remembers the people he has met, and so often he remembers people he has never met also! This sounds paradoxical, but it’s a fact.Both those who are in need and those who do not need have vibrations with the Master. They are picked up somehow. But from a Master’s perspective, engaging the conscious mind, that conscious remembering happens very rarely, if at all. If there is a critical moment in a disciple's life, he would pick up on it, for example, if someone is about to die, generally he would notice. Or if someone is about to experience an accident, he would perhaps feel it. More often than critical moments are those when the disciple is transitioning from one level to another level spiritually, or when that disciple’s mind and heart are constantly calling the Master with lots of love. They also pull the attention of the Master at a conscious level.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_remembrance2_2d216d7956.webp" alt="love-remembrance2.webp">AP:&nbsp;Can you tell us something about those great saints who were known to be in remembrance of their Beloved and how it defined their own life?Daaji:&nbsp;Imagine how it was for a personality like Radha. She is the epitome of remembrance. It is said that whenever she was in the remembrance of Lord Krishna, she would be so absorbed in his memory that she would find herself reciting “Krishna, Krishna, Krishna.” The moment came when she herself became Krishna and finally she was reciting, “Radhe, Radhe, Radhe.” One of the most classical examples is Radha. There are so many more, like Meera, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Swami Vivekananda, our Babuji Maharaj and Lalaji Saheb. There are many personalities like these who devoted their entire life to the remembrance of God, and they were famous for that throughout history.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_remembrance3_58f5086d39.webp" alt="love-remembrance3.webp">

Love and remembrance

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

Uniting the fragments

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">ELIZABETH DENLEY shares some experiences of remembrance, and how it enlivens her life and her relationships with herself and others.&nbsp;</h4>At various moments throughout any day and night, remembrances surface like bubbles rising to the top of a pond, as people and other beings appear, momentarily bursting into consciousness. The heart naturally offers an impulse of love to those being remembered, and that impulse is itself a gift of love flowing constantly from the Beloved.Love is received from the Source and passed on to others as a blessing, via the conduit of the Beloved, who is my teacher, mentor, and spiritual Master. In this way, the universe is constantly being created, as love is constantly flowing from the Source, touching every nook and corner of existence, through connections and entanglements.Sometimes those who receive these impulses of love are strangers, sometimes associates or friends. They may be dear ones, and often the flow is recycled back to the Beloved himself. They can appear in vivid consciousness, almost too much to bear; or as an undercurrent, subtle, almost imperceptible; or anywhere in between.They can be here or on the other side of the Earth; an ancestor, long gone yet full of presence; or a great being woven into a past or future existence. Connections do not need physical bodies to be real. Love and remembrance transcend time and space, the physical and the non-physical dimensions. You may have heard of Indra’s Net—the mythological web of connections and interdependencies that is this universe. Well, I have observed that remembrance can surface from anywhere across the full expanse of that field, and so it taps into the collective consciousness and unconsciousness.The mental function we know as memory, smriti, is one of the 5 functions of human thinking described by the great sage Patanjali a few thousand years back. In his treatise, the Yoga Sutra, he called them the 5 vrittis, and all have magical gifts that we have been given to aid our speedy evolution. But they are not just functions of thinking. Number 4, smriti, memory, is more about feelings than thoughts, and more about subtle essence than feelings. The heaviest of memories may be complicated, even traumatic, charged with emotions and desires, but the subtlest may have a homeopathic quality with nothing detectable, just essence. There may not be any weight at all, just as there may be an undetectable fragrance of jasmine that causes a hidden lifetime from another era to bubble up to the surface of consciousness.Memory becomes subtler and lighter in nature over time with regular meditation. We go beyond thought, and beyond feeling, too, so that memory and love are entangled in remembrance. When we reach the subtlest love for and memory of our original home, we reach the ultimate remembrance. Thankfully, easier by far, we can also reach that ultimate stage by becoming one with the Beloved, who is himself in osmosis with the original home. This is the great boon we receive on the spiritual journey of love and beyond.And when does that happen? When we remember, when our consciousness is pulled.Love is always flowing through us, like gravity, from the Source outward and back again. It cannot not be there, only perhaps hidden by our own lack of awareness. When we become conscious and aware of the Beloved’s presence, then we remember. And we remember when our consciousness is pulled—by a beautiful scene, a beautiful face with eyes framing the soul, a beautiful piece of music, the joy of life itself, the person who stirs our hearts, or the Light at the Center of our hearts. Those objects of our love keep coming to us again and again, until we realize they are inviting us to dissolve in them. That is the beauty of using memory in search of Oneness; it allows us to remain connected and entangled. It allows us to remember.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Memory becomes subtler and lighter in nature over time with regular meditation.&nbsp; We go beyond thought, and beyond feeling, too, so that memory and&nbsp; love are entangled in remembrance.</h4><hr>What is not true is that we are directing the composition of our love like a conductor. At best, we choose to celebrate and yield to the flow, rather than resist it, but we do not have any control over love. We can, however, try to attune with it, be in osmosis. It is manifesting the heart-to-heart connections in this divine play in which we are actors. We need only open our hearts to the flow of love and remembrance.If I close my eyes and remember my Beloved’s hands, their fragrance and the vibration radiating from them is instantly present, no matter that he is on another continent. When I remember his eyes, they pull me inward. When I remember his being, his essence is everywhere. But even sweeter is when there is no conscious remembrance of these things; there is a presence that I cannot describe and cannot always feel, but if I check, it is there and always has been.Often we quote the great inspirational texts and scriptures that say God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, God is at the heart of every being.What do they mean?That we are all connected with God at every moment of every day of all the many lives of our existence. We are never apart from the Ultimate being.That we remain bathed in divine love, no matter what mistakes we make during our lives. We are as innocent as young children, and He is forever gently drawing the love from of our hearts and just as gently drawing our love into Him. Life itself is a pure expression of that ebb and flow. We are not solid beings, we are conduits of life force.That we are entangled in Indra’s Net. It explains so much—why there are discoveries like the observer effect, why there is a quantum field, why consciousness is always collective, and why the soul is joy.And probably so much more.&nbsp;We swim in remembrance of the loving Source that holds this universe together, supported by great beings. In their remembrance, we touch the essence and purpose of life, not just human life, as well as consciousness, and what lies beyond consciousness. For this we simply have to start the journey and keep going.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/indras_net2_3bf582ab07.webp" alt="indras-net2.webp"><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">We are all connected with God at every moment of every day of all the many lives of our existence. We are never apart from the Ultimate being.</h4><hr><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">AI generated images</h4><hr>

Indra’s net

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A sacred confluence of nature and spirituality: Asana Mandala Garden

War over a fragrant flower

The earth laughs

Awakened soil

Soils make life possible

The hole in the boat

Only this love

The legacy of my mother

My mother

Remembering and forgetting

The descent into stillness

I can’t remember what I’ve forgotten!

Anchored in His love

The tree of knowledge

I bow my head in humility

From ego to soul

Nothingness

Frameworks of fluidity

The Universe

Music is a spiritual experience

Houseplant wisdom

Music

Human intelligence, artificial intelligence

Whispers of winter

The foundation of exceptional listening: state of being

The silence within yourself

On building trust

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">ROSALIND PEARMAIN speaks of the attitude of softness, the world of the senses—of hard and soft, force and forcelessness, warmth and cold—and how we harken to a more profound and beautiful world at the core of our being through the heart.</h4>&nbsp;We are living in a time of hardening edges, of ever harsher decisions affecting millions of our fellow human beings.On the other hand, Babuji stressed from the very origins of Heartfulness that it was fundamentally based on a forceless force—on softness.Another Heartfulness Guide. Chariji, often reminded us of the strength of a tiny plant root in breaking up rocks:“What is this miracle, you see, that the softest thing can penetrate the deepest, hardest substance known? Whereas a hard thing can only up a hard thing. Can you break water by bashing it with a crowbar?“It was a tremendous risk that the Masters took, Lalaji and Babuji. Because it’s like building a house of butter and then asking the people who come in to have torches in their hands. The whole thing would melt. But they had this almost nonsensical stupid faith, that a soft thing can never be broken.“And we have also, in our fairy tales, that when the wind blew, all the hard trees which would not bend were just blown down, and the soft things which were willing to bend, bent almost to the Earth, recovered. It is the soft which wins the battle always. Not the hard, you see; the hard is broken. It survives until it meets something harder than itself. But the soft, nothing in the universe can break it. Nothing in the universe can destroy it.”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Our journey in forceless force</h4>It seems that as human beings our souls choose to inhabit a specific existence in time and space as it unfolds on our planet and in relation to all creation.So we find ourselves inhabiting a field of feeling unique to each. Is it woven from DNA and patternings that have been transferred into this lifetime? This field of feeling has many layers and dimensions and knots that we perceive through different sensory gateways. They could be in terms of color or light, density and heaviness, warmth and cold, sound, or as qualities of touch. With the help of a being who is attuned to subtlest dimensions, we can harken to a more profound and beautiful world that is ours at the core, and long to return to this original part of creation.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/the_power_of_softness2_6da4490505.webp" alt="the-power-of-softness2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;The core of this sensibility is in the organ of the heart which integrates energetic information from the nervous system, from the organs, from viscera, from the brain, from soul. Furthermore our heart can be seen as a kind of organ of sensibility and perception whose intelligence can refine throughout life as it links with the capacity of the mind to focus <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/lack-of-awareness" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">awareness</a> with the array of feeling at the most subtle levels.In this vein, then, our existence is a field of vibratory exchange with environment, with all sentient life forms, with human beings. This vibratory array is like a glimmering or a shimmering, sometimes soothing sometimes discordant, similar to the domain of music.It seems to me that the <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/spirituality-in-daily-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spiritual journey</a> can bring us closer and deeper to the source of all manifestation of life, as a sound of love resonating through all creation. It is potentially experienced by us in layers of a kind of infinite softness that absorbs and transforms and brings everything into a larger field of connectivity which can keep expanding and softening as it moves towards a steady flow of coherence that can integrate increasing complexities within evolving life.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/the_power_of_softness3_b5a40fe2a1.webp" alt="the-power-of-softness3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">It seems to me that the spiritual journey can bring us closer and deeper to the source of all manifestation of life, as a sound of love resonating through all creation.</h4><hr>Heartfulness gives us a resource emanating from the most profound and subtle level of vibration; the very original stir, in which to be reminded through a silent soft intimation felt within the heart of our source. This awakens our dormant longing to be dissolved into this field, and resonate in harmony with a nameless and marvelous ultimate. It is in the service of coherence, beauty, truth, and infinite love that we feel our longings for this return to our origin. Our individual journey is shaped by our intrinsic uniqueness and the kinds of samskaras and tendencies that need to be dissolved and reconciled with this core longing.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4><hr>

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The power of softness

Ravi Venkatesan and Mark Milton explore listening skills and empathy.

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The superpower of listening

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">This World Storytelling Day, March 20, we bring you a story by SARA BUBBER, based on a common folk template. May the stories within the story entertain you!</h4><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Stories have been a tool in the passage of rites from one generation to the next since time immemorial. Entertainment, knowledge, wisdom, and education was passed down in the form of stories.</h4>Once upon a time, the Earth was an open canvas. People lived a nomadic life. Traveling from one place to another for food, shelter, and clothing was a common sight. With no radio, television, and phones the only way to entertain each other was to tell stories. Stories about new roots, giant trees, and scary tigers. Travelers were given lodging in exchange for stories, work could also be done by telling stories.One such day, a group of friends were traveling. After a long day they were tired and were trying to decide who would fetch firewood and cook for the group. They tried many ways of deciding but then saw a young girl who was coming the same way. They thought they could get her to cook for them while they rested. They asked her where she was from and if she cared to listen to some stories.The young girl loved stories. She immediately agreed. The group of travelers asked if she wanted to make the story session interesting. They placed a little bet. The travelers would tell the girl a story that was absolutely impossible. If the girl said that the story was impossible, she would have to cook food. The bet also went the other way. The young girl would tell a story, and if the travelers would say that it was impossible, they would cook for her instead.The story session began.One of the travelers started: “My grandfather was a poor farmer who worked in a rich household. He was always called names for working as a slow and careless worker. He prayed to God every day. However much he tried, he couldn’t work faster and was scolded endlessly. One day, the God he prayed to appeared in front of him and when he woke he had great strength. The next day as he was scolded, the energy he had felt rushed through his veins, he grew in size, lifted the house, and took a big leap. The house shook, the cupboards fell, the beds flew out and the windows shattered. He kept flying high until his employer begged him to stop. His employer not only stopped calling him names but also gave him the place of a family member.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales2_7bab8dfbf1.webp" alt="tale-of-tales2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;“How was the story? Does someone disagree?” No one disagreed.Another traveler continued: “Once there was a famine in my grandfather’s land. My grandfather was a very weak person. One day, in a fight with his brother, he had to leave home. He thought of finding fame for himself. He walked into a forest and came across a man painting. He painted a deer and, as my grandfather continued watching, to his surprise the deer came alive. He thought it was such an amazing device, that he wanted to possess it. When he got the chance, he went ahead and painted a boat with the owner of the brush in it. He added winds on the lake and blew the owner away. Now he had full possession of the paintbrush. He took the brush back and painted clouds and grains which solved the problems of his village. He became the treasurer of the village and one day, he created a son from the paintbrush. He was so exceptional that there was no girl to match him. Then he created a fully grown young girl as a match for his son. And thus, I was born from parents who were painted. The brush is gone, but it seems like my smooth hair is a gift from the paintbrush. I use the best herbs from the best orchard that my grandfather painted.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales3_5c925060a1.webp" alt="tale-of-tales3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;“This is my story, do you agree?” “Yes we all do.”Now it was the little girl’s turn. She began her story. “My grandparents possessed many things. They were well respected in their community, and helped many people achieve greatness. They possessed hulk-like strength and various magical possessions. One day, in a civil strife, the servants of the house ran away with the chest of hulk strength and some of the magical possessions like a wish-granting paintbrush. My parents looked for it all their life, and today I set off in search. I have finally found all my family possessions with you. It seems you are the long lost servants of our family who have our possessions.&nbsp;“This is the end of my story. Do you agree?” “Yes we do.” The little girl continued, “That is wonderful news, now, give my possessions back.” “But… no we do not agree,” said the group. “Oh, then you must cook for me.” And the little girl, using her wit, rested as the team cooked for her.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales4_c3079e9217.webp" alt="tale-of-tales4.webp"></figure><hr><h3>Interesting facts about stories</h3><h4> &nbsp;Aesop’s Fables</h4>Aesop was a slave who lived in ancient Greece. He wanted freedom more than anything else. He noticed the supervisor of slaves and began to tell stories every day. The supervisor was impressed and one day asked Aesop what he wanted. Aesop asked for food for all his fellow slaves. His selfless gesture made the supervisor give Aesop and his community the freedom they deserved. These tales were combined into the <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/once-upon-a-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Aesop’s Fables</a> that you have all loved growing up!<h4>Grimms’ Fairy Tales</h4>Grimms’ Fairy Tales is a German collection of fairy tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, first published on December 20, 1812. It is considered the seminal work of Western children’s literature and is listed by <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/master-yoga-2024-unesco-paris" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UNESCO</a> in its Memory of the World Registry.<h4>Panchatantra&nbsp;</h4>Panchatantra is a collection of stories from ancient India based on politics, behavior, communication, and economics. These stories are based on the Vedas, Upanishads, the Ramayana and Mahabharata as a trove of wisdom. The princes of Amarasakti had no interest in pursuing their studies and thus a teacher, Vishnu Sharma, made a comprehensive manual for these princes to be taught in the form of stories. The Panchatantra started the story within a story form of learning, which delights young readers to this day. &nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales5_3adb201b5e.webp" alt="tale-of-tales5.webp"></figure><hr><h4>Activity 1</h4>Guess these popular stories from the details: 1. A young girl who loses her shoe that gives her the chance to marry a prince:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2. A boy who climbs a tall natural element that grows from magic beans and finds treasures in the clouds:&nbsp;…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3. A prince who moves to the forest with his brother and wife to live for fourteen years. The wife is kidnapped and he goes to rescue her with an army of monkeys:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4. A little creature born into a family of ducks goes into the world alone to find his true form:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5. Two unusual friends who come together near a riverbank. The friendship ends when one large friend asks his tree-dwelling friend for his heart:&nbsp;……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………<hr><h4>Activity 2</h4>Write your own story here. It can involve animals, kings, kingdoms, humans, plants, or anything else that tells a story.Create a story with a beginning, some problems that come up, and a solution to end the story.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">AI generated images</h4><hr>

Join Sara Bubber’s adventure tale this World Storytelling Day.

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The tale of tales

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">LYNNE McTAGGART is one of the central authorities on the new science of consciousness, and the award-winning author of seven books, including the internationally bestselling The Intention Experiment, The Field, The Bond, and The Power of Eight. Here, Lynne is interviewed by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about the transformative power of intention, the profound impact of group intention, and the potential for individuals to create significant change in their lives and the world.</h4>&nbsp;Q: Lynne, welcome. You are known for your pioneering work in the science of intention in <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-journey-of-total-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">consciousness and healing</a>. You’ve explored this science behind intention so deeply. Can you share how you personally define the power of intention?&nbsp;LM: Okay, well, first of all, it’s important to understand that our thoughts aren’t locked inside our heads. They’re trespassers, and they can go out and affect other people and things. We’ve seen that from countless studies on everything from single-celled organisms to human beings. In my own work, I’ve seen that we can affect everything from making plants grow faster, to purifying water, to lowering violence in war-torn and violent areas, and even healing people of things like post-traumatic stress disorder. And I’ve seen it in big groups and small groups. Essentially, thoughts are energy, just as everything else in the body is a collection of energy and energy fields of different varieties. And those thoughts can go out and affect things.I see an intention as a focused thought. You and I are having about 80,000 thoughts a day, and most of them are undirected, most of them are negative. And they oftentimes undermine our life because we’re focusing on negative outcomes, instead of intending for what we want.So, I always teach intention as a respectful and very specific request to the universe. And I find it gets amplified in small and large groups.Q: During your intention experiments, have you encountered any surprising results? Are there poignant moments, epiphanies, which have made you stop and think? What has defined or redefined your expectations of these intention experiments?LM: I think many of the peace intention experiments really surprised me. I wasn’t at all sure they were going to work when we started in 2007. We started with simple things, trying to affect the light emissions of a leaf. And then we moved on to seeds, trying to make them grow faster. And then we moved on to water, trying to purify water, then trying to lower violence in areas.My first experience of something mind-blowing was the seed experiments. I did my very first seed experiment in 2007 when I was speaking in front of an audience in Sydney, Australia. I worked with the University of California’s Dr. Gary Schwartz, a noted psychologist who has a special laboratory with the Laboratory for Consciousness and Human Evolution. He prepared four sets of seeds, each set with 30 seeds, and had his team photograph them and send them to me. And I showed these to the audience and allowed them to select one of the four seeds to send an intention to. So we sent an intention to seed group A for ten minutes. After we were done, I called Dr. Schwartz and told him we were done, but I did not tell him which seeds we sent the intention to. I told him as that was the cue for him to plant the seeds.Five days later they measured the seeds. After they’d measured them, I unblinded the study and told them which seeds we’d sent an intention to. And lo and behold, those seeds grew taller than any others.We did this five more times in different locations with different-sized audiences. And every single time the seeds that were sent an intention grew taller than the controls. But here’s the fascinating part—I was with my audience in Sydney, Australia, and the seeds were back in Tucson, Arizona, 8,000 miles away. Plus, we weren’t sending an intention to the seeds themselves, only to a photograph of the seeds, a symbolic representation of the seeds. So I realized from that very early time that we essentially create a psychic-internet when we make an intention in a group scattered around the globe. That I could see over and over again with the other intention experiments.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Essentially, thoughts are energy, just as everything else in the body is a collection of energy and energy fields of different varieties. And those thoughts can go out and affect things.</h4><hr>Another one that blew my mind was a Sri Lanka peace intention experiment we ran in 2008, when Sri Lanka was in the midst of a 25-year civil war. We did a peace intention for 10 minutes a day over eight days with 15,000 people participating from around the globe. Now, during that week, to my alarm, violence went up rather than down. And I had a professor of statistics doing the analysis. It then plummeted after that. But a more interesting thing happened. The government won a few decisive battles during that week that turned around the entire course of the war. For some time, both sides had been at a stalemate. Then, within a few months, the government was able to take back the north, which was held by the rebel forces. And a few months later, that 25-year intractable war was over.Now, did we do this? Well, it turned out that during the week of our intention pivotal battles occurred, and that was cause for an extraordinary surprise. When you do one experiment like that, it means nothing. There are too many variables in a war. But when you keep doing it and keep getting results, as we’ve done with peace intention experiments, they start becoming interesting.For instance, in 2017, we ran an experiment to lower violence in St. Louis, Missouri, officially the most violent place in America. And we chose a neighborhood called Fairground that was the most violent of all. We had very accurate police data. I once again asked Dr. Jessica Utz from the University of California to analyze data from several years beforehand to six months afterward, to look at the effect of our intention. She found that violence had been going up in all areas of St. Louis, and continued to go up everywhere except the neighborhood we intended where violence went down by 43%. And so it’s happened over and over again.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp" alt="intention-revolution2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 110w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 353w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 529w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">I always teach intention as a respectful and very specific request to the universe. And I find it gets amplified in small and large groups.</h4><hr>Perhaps the one that amazed me the most is an intention experiment I did that same year, at the end of 2017, with eight Arab cities and a large audience of Israeli Jews. I had special equipment so we could put cameras in eight different locations in Arab cities. Each different Arab city had an audience there. And the ninth camera was with an audience of Israeli Jews. I asked them all to make an intention to lower violence in an area of Jerusalem that was suffering from a high degree of violence.Before that, I had to broker the entire thing, as nobody was speaking to anyone else. They started talking, because I could call on the different places. They would talk to me, and then they would also communicate with the people in all the other locations. And they started sending love to each other, they started sending “Your God is my God,” talking about beautiful visions of people coming together from both sides. There was a big love fest. I found that every time I put together polarized and hated enemies, they seemed to come together after these intention experiments.Since 2008, I’ve run 41 intention experiments, and 37 have shown measurable significantly positive effects. I also surveyed the people involved, and for those who responded, about 40% have reported more peace in their own lives. They’re getting along better with estranged partners or parents or children. They’re getting along better with bosses and coworkers. They’re feeling more love for everybody, and around 50% consistently report they feel more love for everyone they meet.Essentially, they’re hugging strangers and peaceful things happen in their lives. Also, about one-third have reported an improvement in a health condition or a downright cure. So that is the biggest and most amazing effect, the mirror effect of these intentions: the people who are sending intentions are being healed as much as the targets.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">So that is the biggest and most amazing effect,&nbsp; the mirror effect of these intentions:&nbsp; the people who are sending intentions&nbsp; are being healed as much as the targets.</h4><hr>Q: I was blown away by the seed experiment. How has the scientific community embraced this, or conversely, what are the challenges you’ve faced to try to share this with them?&nbsp;LM: I'm not interested in the scientific community because they aren’t going to accept it. Scientists are supposed to be explorers and very few of them really are. There are a lot of reasons for that. People lose their positions at universities for stepping out of the accepted paradigm. So I don’t need to convince scientists. There are enough scientists who are true explorers, who are fascinated by my work, and who have helped to measure the work.I work with people at prestigious universities to run the intention experiments—Princeton, Penn State, University of California, University of Arizona, and others in Europe. I choose people who are open-minded enough to do decent research.There are skeptic organizations who attack my work, but they attack it in the flimsiest of ways. My book, The Field, had more than 400 solid scientific references. I had interviewed exhaustively—frontier physicists, biologists, etc.—and had them check every last fact in that book to make sure I had written it correctly. The skeptics have said the book was based on nothing more than Star Wars, which is just incorrect, close-minded, and ignorant.So, I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in getting this information out to people so they can understand that we have extraordinary capabilities waiting to be unleashed, and we are very different from what we are told in mainstream orthodox science.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp" alt="intention-revolution3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 214w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Orthodox science is only 300-plus years old, and new studies and discoveries are being found in universities, in little pockets of academia here and there, that are completely transforming the way we think about ourselves and our world. And we’re far greater than we’ve been told!Q: Thank you for that very candid response. For someone who’s intrigued by your work, who’s curious about your work, and who wants to start applying this <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/how-to-manifest-peace" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">power of intention</a> in their own life, how can they begin?LM:&nbsp;They can join my community and my website. When they join, they receive some basic tools and information about how to do intention and how to form a group. They can also read my books. <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-intention-revolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Power of Eight</a>, the last book published on this topic, has basic descriptions of how to do intention in a group. For people who really want to learn more, I have a whole series of foundation courses.I also have a <a href="https://lynnemctaggart.com/courses/intention-masterclass/the-power-of-eight-intention-masterclass-2025/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">year-long masterclass</a>, my kingpin course, where I work with people live and interactively for a year. Participants start working in groups after six weeks, and each group meets once a week. Under my instruction, they use intention for relationships, for health and healing, for finances and career, and for life purpose. There’s specific information and instructions, and I coach them throughout the year.So there are all kinds of things at all kinds of price points, including free, and every intention experiment is free. I feel everybody should be able to participate.Recently, Gaia released a documentary about my work with large and small groups, The Power of Eight, plus the intention experiments. They interviewed the various scientists who’ve worked with me, and numerous people who have had extraordinary healings with The Power of Eight, too. And it will culminate in an intention on February 1, 2025. I’m going to have a live audience at Gaia’s headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, and we’re also going to livestream it around the world.It's an invitation. So everyone can take part by going to <a href="https://lynnemctaggart.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://lynnemctaggart.com</a>, where there are instructions.Q: I am really looking forward to it.To be continued.

Explore Lynne McTaggart’s groundbreaking work on intention and its transformative power in healing.

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 Unleashing our extraordinary capabilities