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

A WORD, A THOUGHT, A QUESTION

In the February issue of Heartfulness Magazine, a man emerges from twelve years of isolation through a dream that reveals the truth he’d spent a lifetime pursuing. We witness how the son of a spiritual master observes devotion passed through generations—each keeping alive their predecessor’s flame. A mother discovers that emotional intimacy grows through choosing connection over correction, even when her teenage son’s sharp words test her patience. And we learn how a simple grass with tear-shaped beads has fed communities and adorned prayers for centuries.Together, these contributions illuminate transformation through relationship and practice.We welcome all contributions. Please email contributions@heartfulnessmagazine.com with your submissions.

February 2026 Edition

<h3 style="text-align:center;">ART ESSAY</h3><h4>ANUJA CHANDRAMOULI and the journey of transformation through mythology—profile by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN.</h4>“Life is like driving a car. You have to keep glancing at the rearview mirror every once in a while—meaning the past—which is a way of staying connected to your roots. Trying to figure out where you’re from helps you get attuned to your cultural heritage, which is a big part of your identity. Revisiting the ancient world gives you an insight into the present, which you cannot have if you do not look at the rearview mirror while you’re steering through the present, all the while keeping an eye on the future.”Anuja speaks about mythology. Mythological stories like the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Puranas shaped my childhood—constant companions at every moment. Lord Krishna was always my favorite, and learning of his death left me deeply saddened.When speaking with Anuja, author of fourteen books reimagining Arjuna, Mohini, Shakti, and Ganga, I was curious about how ancient narratives could support spiritual seekers like me. As a Heartfulness meditator, I know turning inward requires courage and guidance.Could these old stories offer another form of guidance, I wondered?&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/ancient_narratives_2_ecdd6c1ed5.webp" alt="ancient-narratives-2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Looking Inward: The Real Journey</h4>Anuja says that when most people think of journeys, they imagine external movement: flights taken, monuments visited, experiences accumulated. But the journey she’s describing is entirely different.“Through writing, through engaging with our ancient mythology, you are encouraging yourself to look inward. That is a lot more challenging because it calls for a degree of mental discipline; it calls for finding the stillness at the simmering and always churning core within you and reveling in the periods of quiet contemplation and introspection.”Mental discipline, stillness at one’s core, and quiet contemplation are some of the same elements we cultivate in <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/meditation-medicine" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">meditation practice</a>. When we sit down for meditation, we turn away from the external world and face what’s within. The discipline Anuja describes is almost the same work in a different form.As Anuja explores these stories, she describes accessing “universal consciousness,” a phrase that stops me in my tracks! In Heartfulness, we refer to consciousness expansion and meditation as means to connect with something greater than ourselves. Here was an author describing a similar state, achieved through immersion in mythology!<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Emptying to Receive</h4>Anuja describes her research process in terms that sound almost ascetic. When she begins work on a book, diving into the vast ocean of epic literature, the first thing she encounters is her own ignorance. The material is immense, accumulated over generations. Anuja says that it is humbling and sometimes even overwhelming.“It’s like scooping out your insides. You’re emptying all of it so that you can fill it with this beautiful store of ancient knowledge, which then reshapes who you are as a person. You’re emptying yourself up to make yourself a worthy receptacle.”The trick, she says, is to trust the process and to keep returning to the research and the writing with humility. Slowly, you gain insights, you begin to harness what you’re receiving and pour it onto the pages.“When that happens, a certain healing happens. Because as I mentioned, you’ve been scooped out hollow and once more, you’re shaping yourself reflectively, immersing yourself in the timeless flow of profound truth; you’re surrendering to a greater process, and you emerge stronger from it.”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Characters as Teachers</h4>Anuja has written fourteen books. She calls them her babies, the books she’s carried and delivered with care. But she also calls them her parents, the guides who have helped her grow.Each character demanded something different from her. Each book required her to reach a certain level of growth before she could do it justice.From Arjuna: Saga of a Pandava Warrior-Prince, her first book, came the confrontation with anger, that defensive shield we mistake for strength. She had to let go of preconceived notions about this character she’d grown up with. To surrender to this process, she found she had to let go of her own anger.Anyone who meditates regularly knows what it’s like to meet anger on the cushion. The question is always: will we defend it, or let it go?<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Mohini: Facing Discomfort</h4>Then followed Mohini: The Enchantress. This character forced Anuja to confront the inherently ingrained discomfort around sexuality and sensuality.“As women, there are so many hang-ups we have about sexuality because society either encourages us to be sex objects (as opposed to sexual beings) or the very vision of chastity and repressed sexuality. In Mohini, I realized I was so shy and reluctant to do this character justice. That was the very first time that I used the first person as an author, because I wanted to get closer to this character and stop being so reluctant to engage with someone so confident in her sexual skin.”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Beyond Binaries</h4>Anuja’s most recent book, The Wife and the Dancing Girl (a revisionist take on the Tamil classic, Silapathikaram), tackles another false choice: the “Madonna-whore” complex: the good wife versus the dancing girl.“I really struggled to write this book because I had a lot of growing up to do. We’re forced to view women as either one thing or the other. But a woman has thousands of faces, and they’re all valid.”This is what svadharma means, following your own dharma—your own truth.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Shakti: Accessing Inner Strength</h4>If any single work embodies the transformative power Anuja describes, it is Shakti: The Divine Feminine.“When you’re exploring the transcendental quality of the Divine Mother, that’s when you realize that the answers you were seeking outside are within you. The greatest lesson the Goddess teaches you is also the simplest: You are enough!”For Anuja, writing Shakti meant exorcising personal demons, confronting nameless terrors, working through phobias and unpleasant experiences, and trauma accumulated over a lifetime. The book itself became the reward—and not only for Anuja. During the Kerala floods, a young woman reached out to her on Instagram. Stranded, waterlogged, frightened, the girl told Anuja that Shakti had been her source of comfort in those terrifying hours.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/ancient_narratives_3_f0b082e4e0.webp" alt="ancient-narratives-3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">“When you’re exploring the transcendental quality of the Divine Mother, that’s when you realize that the answers you were seeking outside are within you.&nbsp; The greatest lesson the Goddess teaches you is also the simplest: You are enough!” &nbsp;</h4><hr>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Ganga: Redefining the Sacred</h4>In her book Ganga: The Constant Goddess, Anuja reimagines the river deity as a woman who follows her heart.“She refused to stay put in one place and be the dutiful wife. She wanted to truly become a divine lover and partake of a timeless love that will sustain nature in its raw splendor. She chose to live life Goddess-size.”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">A Simple Practice</h4>When I ask Anuja how readers can meaningfully engage with these stories for their own transformation, she speaks of interlocking patterns—mysterious connections that reveal themselves only through sustained attention.What you receive from mythology depends on what you bring to it. The stories can serve many purposes, including pure entertainment. Yet if you keep responding to their call, you may be surprised by how they educate you without your even trying.”Anuja offers a simple practice: read a few pages every day. The Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Upanishads, your favorite Puranic tales, Tenali Raman stories—or even your own writing! Just read and absorb.“You’ve been fed this diet of stories as a child, along with mother’s milk and the parupu-sadam (rice and lentils). It becomes a part of your blood and your bones. Just read a few pages, and you absorb and assimilate what is being conveyed. Slowly, with time, you start discerning the mysterious interlocking patterns which convey the deeper truth.”It is never obvious, she says. It is never simple. And yet it is both obvious and simple! That is the paradox.&nbsp;Anuja’s daily reading practice parallels meditation: both require showing up, absorbing, and yielding. Over time, the change is subtle but deep; when needed, your <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/a-diy-guide-to-wellbeing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">inner strength</a> emerges.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Death and the Shamba Revelation</h4>Near the end of our conversation, Anuja shares what she calls her “eureka moment,” an insight that came while working on her book, Abhimanyu.“The characters in the Mahabharata were all embodiments, divine entities who wanted to be a part of this Dharma Yuddha [righteous war]. They wanted to assist Vishnu’s avatar, Krishna, because he was Bhumi Devi’s worthiest champion. Once a divine entity’s purpose is fulfilled, there is no sense in clinging to this world. They must be released so they can return. Ultimately, liberation is about letting go, especially of the things you love with passionate abandon.”Anuja speaks of the Yadava massacre, the destruction of Krishna’s entire clan after the Mahabharata war—almost unbearable for her to contemplate as a young child. Shamba, son of Krishna and Jambavati, was blessed by Shiva in his Ardhanarishvara form [Shiva as half-woman]. Shamba was beautiful, like Krishna, and irresistible to women—but also cursed. The sages doomed him to deliver an iron mace that would destroy the Yadava race. On the surface, their loss can feel terrible, yet it is divinely ordained.Anuja’s insight goes deeper.Death and destruction, the work of Shiva the destroyer, come with negative connotations, but they are part of the great cycle, whether we acknowledge it or not.“Stories help us engage with these mysterious patterns. They encourage you. The monsters of the world may be real, but you carry with you what is necessary to deal with all of it, whether it be death, personal demons, or anything else. You will find what you need, provided you are brave and kind.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/ancient_narratives_4_279f487566.webp" alt="ancient-narratives-4.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:justify;">The Living Inheritance</h4>As our conversation comes to a close, I return to the image of the rearview mirror. We must glance back to move forward. The past helps us orient toward the future.As Anuja says, stories are living organisms. They breathe, but they also change with each generation. Something gets added, something gets removed, always according to what is needed. It doesn’t mean the stories are contaminated or diluted. Similarly, we are living organisms, capable of being emptied and refilled, changed, and adapted. As we go, we develop the capacity to confront our demons and discover our strength.The journey inward is not easy. It requires contemplation and courage. Just as we return to our meditation cushion each day, we can repeatedly return to the wisdom of ancient stories. The practice is the same: showing up, opening your heart, and allowing transformation. &nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">The journey inward is not easy.&nbsp; It requires contemplation and courage.&nbsp; Just as we return to our meditation cushion each day,&nbsp; we can repeatedly return to the wisdom of ancient stories.&nbsp; The practice is the same: showing up, opening your heart, and allowing transformation.</h4><hr>&nbsp;

Ancient Narratives as Maps to Modern Transformation

<h4>MEGHAN STEWART explores how nonviolence starts at home, showing how emotional intimacy, regulation, and repair shape how families navigate conflict.</h4>While exploring nonviolence in a conflict studies course, I began to notice how often nonviolence is discussed as a principle rather than a lived practice. In theory, it is easy to agree that violence causes harm and that peace is something we should strive for. In everyday life, especially within families, nonviolence shows up in subtle ways, through tone, timing, interpretation, and the meaning we assign to one another’s behavior. This realization prompted me to look more closely at the relationship among nonviolence, parenting, and developmental psychology, and at how peace is cultivated not only in societies but also within bodies and relationships.Peace, as it is understood in conflict studies, is not limited to the absence of war and overt harm. Peace exists across multiple relational layers: within ourselves, between individuals, within families, communities, and institutions. These layers are interconnected. As we observe through Mindfulness practice, what is carried internally often shapes how we respond externally. From a developmental and social learning perspective, parenting is one of the earliest and most influential contexts in which relational patterns are modeled, absorbed, practiced, and carried forward.From a developmental perspective, this interconnectedness matters deeply. The parts of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, impulse control, and executive functioning continue developing well into young adulthood. Children are therefore not equipped to manage intense emotional states independently and rely on caregivers to help them settle, orient, and recover. This can be interpreted to mean that regulation is learned through relationships long before it becomes an internal capacity.When children express strong emotions, withdraw, or push limits, they are revealing where support is still needed. Noticing this can gently shift how parenting moments are held, moving attention away from managing behavior and toward the relational safety and emotional intimacy that allow regulation to take root. This shift in attention opens a different way of being with children. Rather than rushing into interpretation or correction, there is room to pause and wonder what might be unfolding beneath the surface. Essentially, there is room for connection before correction.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/non_violence_family2_e3b3bf38eb.webp" alt="non-violence-family2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;In family life, emotional intimacy grows through the repeated choice of connection, as parents remain present with a child’s inner experience while staying grounded in themselves. Children learn whether their inner world is welcome through repeated, ordinary interactions. When emotions are met with steadiness and curiosity, children learn that feelings can be expressed without threatening connection. When emotions are met with dismissal, urgency, or judgment, children adapt in order to preserve relationships, sometimes by hiding parts of themselves, sometimes by amplifying them.There is a gradual way that emotional rules take shape in childhood, not through instruction but through experience, as children attune to the responses around them and begin to organize their inner lives around what seems to preserve connection. Within this landscape, different expectations often settle around different caregivers. Fathers may come to feel that steadiness means withholding emotion, while mothers may sense that distress is acceptable so long as it does not take the shape of anger or frustration. These patterns are rarely intentional, yet over time, they influence which emotions are given room to breathe and which are quietly managed in the background.bell hooks, an African American feminist writer and educator known for her work on love, power, and relational healing, writes that “children need to be raised in environments where they can learn that love is an action, where care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge are practiced” (hooks, 2015, p. 142). In her reflections on revolutionary parenting, she names how domination within parent–child relationships, even when subtle or well intentioned, can erode emotional safety. Emotional intimacy grows when children experience adults as emotionally available rather than emotionally controlling.I remember being in a <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/conscious-parenting" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">parenting course</a> grounded in the Circle of Security framework when the facilitator shared something that still offers me pause. Children who need love the most ask for it in the worst ways. She went on to explain that when children feel afraid, hurt, overwhelmed, or unsafe, the behaviors that emerge do not always look like a request for connection. They may look like defiance, withdrawal, or disregard.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/non_violence_family3_dd3bb92c75.webp" alt="non-violence-family3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;Another observation that surfaced among parents in that room was the common belief that children “just want attention.” Sitting with that idea more closely, it became clear how often attention is mistaken for the need underneath it. In most cases, it is rarely about attention itself. It is almost always about connection.It often looks something like this:A mother is sick at home, depleted, and asking her teenage son to walk the dog. He ignores the request. Later, when she raises it again, he responds sharply, saying, “Not everything is about you, mom.” In her body, there is a tightening. Her chest feels hot. Thoughts arrive quickly, shaped by exhaustion and long-standing fears. She notices a familiar story forming: doing everything, not being appreciated, being the strict parent while his father is the fun one. Before there is space to pause, her response comes out charged, listing sacrifices and responsibilities. The exchange becomes adversarial.Moments like this are familiar to many parents, arising when tired bodies, unspoken fears, and competing needs converge. Eventually, the moment shifts, allowing the son to share his overwhelm and need for rest, and the mother to meet him there with an apology of her own. She notices that her reaction had less to do with the request itself and more to do with quiet stories about scarcity, comparison, and adequacy that were already present. What initially felt personal becomes understandable.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/non_violence_family4_262cbd84e4.webp" alt="non-violence-family4.webp"></figure>&nbsp;As the moment opens, the pull of judgment becomes easier to recognize, how quickly experience can be shaped by stories about what something means or what it says about us. With a little more space, attention drifts back toward what is present: the body, the room, the relationship. Contemplative practice supports this return, offering a way to stay with sensation, notice thought as thought, and allow emotion to move without rushing toward response.Developmental and attachment research consistently show that children learn regulation through emotionally responsive caregiving. When caregivers remain present and engaged, even during moments of rupture, children’s nervous systems learn how to return to balance. Over time, this becomes internalized as resilience and emotional flexibility. Secure attachment is shaped through repeated experiences of repair rather than constant harmony.This is often where nonviolence takes root in parenting, through the patterns children witness and internalize for meeting needs. When guidance and boundaries remain steady, emotions no longer need to intensify to be taken seriously. Children begin to learn strategies for expressing needs that are less fear-based and more grounded in relationships.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/non_violence_family5_8798d23e31.webp" alt="non-violence-family5.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Developmental and attachment research consistently show that children learn regulation through emotionally responsive caregiving. When caregivers remain present and engaged, even during moments of rupture, children’s nervous systems learn how to return to balance.</h4><hr>&nbsp;Caring for oneself as a parent becomes integral within this landscape, as parents also navigate stress, fatigue, and inherited emotional patterns. When parents respond to their own reactions with harsh self-judgment, the nervous system remains activated, making presence harder to access. Compassion toward oneself supports regulation because the nervous system settles when it feels acknowledged rather than corrected, and this settling directly shapes a parent’s capacity to remain emotionally available to their child.Practices oriented toward kindness and care help parents stay with their own discomfort long enough for choice to re-emerge. Noticing fatigue, fear, or frustration with gentleness allows these experiences to move without solidifying into shame or defensiveness, shifting the inner dialogue from:“…something is wrong with me for feeling this, to this is what is present right now, and I can stay with it without needing to fix or justify it.’’Over time, this creates more space for repair and reduces the tendency to personalize a child’s emotional expression.My own relationship to this deepened through Vipassana practice. Learning to remain present with unpleasant sensations without fixing or escaping them built a steadiness that now supports my parenting. That steadiness allows me to hear emotion without immediately turning it into a story about myself. It makes it easier to respond rather than react, and to return to connection after moments of rupture. &nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Practices oriented toward kindness and care&nbsp; help parents stay with their own discomfort&nbsp; long enough for choice to re-emerge.</h4><hr>&nbsp;A simple reminder continues to guide me: nothing is about me unless I make it about me. This perspective restores proportion. <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/step-into-the-future-of-emotions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Children’s emotions</a> are not tests of worth. They are signals of development and invitations for guidance within the relationship. bell hooks reminds us that loving parenting involves resisting domination while remaining accountable to the responsibility of care (hooks, 2015). When adults can hold authority without control and presence without collapse, families become places where nonviolence is quietly practiced through attention, repair, and emotional honesty.Over time, children learn less from whether a parent responds perfectly and more from what happens next. When parents can return to presence and care for themselves along the way, emotional intimacy becomes easier to maintain, and peace is built through the small, repeated ways families repair and stay connected.To learn more about Meghan Stewart’s work, visit&nbsp; <a href="https://www.mindfulnessmeghan.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.mindfulnessmeghan.com</a><hr>References:hooks, b. (2015). Revolutionary parenting. In Feminist theory: From margin to center (3rd ed., pp. 133–147). Routledge.Menakem, R. (2017). My grandmother’s hands: Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies. Central Recovery Press.Santrock, J. W. (2020). Child development (2nd Canadian ed.). McGraw Hill Education.Siegel, D. J., &amp; Bryson, T. P. (2012). The whole-brain child: 12 revolutionary strategies to nurture your child’s developing mind. Bantam Books.Stewart, M. (n.d.). Vipassana takeaways. Mindfulness Meghan. <a href="https://www.mindfulnessmeghan.com/blog/vipassanatakeaways" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.mindfulnessmeghan.com/blog/vipassanatakeaways</a> &nbsp;

Where Nonviolence Begins: Emotional Intimacy in Family Life

From Isolation to Solitude

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<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 <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/i-am" 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.</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