Fred is an author, lecturer, and founder and chair of International Cities of Peace.&nbsp;He mentors peace leadership in over 400 member cities. His books include The Elements of Peace: How Nonviolence Works, The Economics of Peace: Freedom, the Golden Rule, and Broadening Prosperity, and The Physics of Spirit: Four Energetic Propositions to Enliven the Human Condition.

J. Frederick Arment.webp

J. Frederick Arment

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">J. FREDERICK ARMENT has a conversation with CHRISTINE JONES about his organization, International Cities of Peace, as well as the other ways he promotes peace in the world. The foundation of it all is the importance of relationship, community, and love. This is the first in a series of conversations.</h4>&nbsp;Q: Fred, you are the founding director of the organization, International Cities of Peace, which was established fifteen years ago. You are stewarding its growth with the goal of 1,000 cities by 2030. Currently there are 414. You’re one of the co-founders of the Dayton International Peace Museum, and you see yourself as a facilitator of peace. You have dedicated your life to peace efforts.FA: The idea of facilitator is very important to me. I used to be called a director, and I dropped that because everything is collaboration, just as the trainers at Heartfulness Centers are facilitators, and there is a relationship based on the facilitating of peace. Rather than telling people how to find peace, directing them, or coordinating them, I consider myself a lead facilitator. I run a team called ICP Central, which we’re keeping very small, because the cities of peace themselves are what should be given accolades. They are the people. They are the leaders. They are the teams that work in their community, not because of money (although money is always useful) but because of love of community and love of place. We facilitate that love, and that is what creates cities of peace.Q: What inspired your inclination toward peace initiatives? Was there an event that happened when you were young that moved you in this direction?FA: Maybe playing basketball at 11 years old, and wondering what the heck was going on, and how an 11-year-old could contribute to the world. I became a writer, not because I knew a lot but because I had so many questions. Questioning is what drove me to the idea that we need peace in this world.We opened the Dayton International Peace Museum in 2005. I shook everyone’s hand as they arrived, and whoever came through that door had their unique way of creating peace. We documented all the ways people work for peace, and I realized that everyone is working for peace. That was a big epiphany. It’s like the idea that even someone in prison for murder loves his mother. The heart is why everyone works for peace. We documented statecraft, mediation, etc., and came up with 30 different ways to work for peace.Then I wrote a book called The Elements of Peace, describing those 30 ways. It depends on who you are, your background, your values, but it doesn’t depend on someone telling you to work for peace. It’s what you do, whether you’re a nurse, a teacher, a plumber, somebody who works with their hands, their mind, or their spirit; everyone works for peace. That epiphany set me in a new direction in the early 2000s.Q: I admire your tremendous capacity for acceptance of all the different ways communities and individuals build peace. Some come with a political view; others work in villages in Africa; in Heartfulness, we believe inner peace leads to world peace. Do you have a personal practice that keeps you grounded and centered within all these different ways people define peace for the world?FA: Yes. When you look around the world you see that honesty is undervalued. My father was honest, and his honesty made me take a look at myself and helped me be in communion with everybody else. If you’re honest, you realize we’re all one, and the person who is holding a gun is the same as you. Working for peace is what our essence is about. There are 8 billion people on the planet, 8 billion ways to work for peace, and we need to respect that.Q: That helps me understand the statement that peace is not a hope, it’s a right.FA: Yes, we have a right to harmony in our lives; we start with the heart, and we work out from there. There are physical reasons, spiritual reasons, emotional reasons, and intellectual reasons, but it starts with the heart, and that’s why Heartfulness Centers are very important for humanity. The heart is the essence.Q: When I read your book, The Physics of Spirit, I realized the spiritual influence in what you do. It felt like a very advanced version of Heartfulness and I was so moved by it.FA: Thank you. The Physics of Spirit is part of the questioning I had. The old idea of science and physics is that there’s a dichotomy, a tension in our little universe, between matter and spirit. Yet, every law of physics tells us it’s not true—that dichotomy doesn’t exist.So, what is it about the material world and the spiritual world that is intertwined? I’m not a physicist, but physics helped me to understand that matter and spirit, matter and light are interchangeable. As human beings, we have a heart-soul that brings in light and turns it into material things and relationships. So, I consider the soul is a vessel for the spirit, and the soul is an evolved entity within us that brings in light from other people, from the sun, from what we do every day. It brings love in and it moves love out. It’s a vessel that provides the mechanism within us to feel love and to give love.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">We have a right to harmony in our lives;&nbsp; we start with the heart, and we work out from there.&nbsp; There are physical reasons, spiritual reasons,&nbsp; emotional reasons, and intellectual reasons,&nbsp; and that’s why Heartfulness Centers are very important&nbsp; for humanity. The heart is the essence.</h4><hr><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/international_cities_peace2_b1e985ffa1.webp" alt="international-cities-peace2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_international_cities_peace2_b1e985ffa1.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_international_cities_peace2_b1e985ffa1.webp 494w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/international_cities_peace2_b1e985ffa1.webp 494w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Q: We do an intention for peace every night at 9 p.m. We share it with people who join virtually. That intention is: “Our hearts and the hearts of all are filled with lightness and love. May everyone be radiant with joy. And may the entire earth be engulfed with peace.”When I read your book, it was fascinating to me that you relate light and love with the soul, because that is really the foundation.In Heartfulness meditation, the first thing we teach people to do is to bring their attention to their heart and feel the presence of divine light, which is the source attracting them from within. In your book you wrote, “Spirit is also not matter. In theological terms, spirit is defined as incorporeal, immaterial, or ethereal. Spirit is often described in the context of light. For instance, in the Gospel of John in the Bible, God is light. In Hinduism, Diwali is the festival of light. In Islam, Ayah-an-Nur means God is the light of the heavens and earth."This is the part that really moved me: “Spirit is consonant with at least two characteristics of light. It has no mass that can be measured, and in theological thought, it is pervasive throughout the universe as a massless and omnipresent field of potential. Spirit is a form of energy, though mysterious and little understood. As with all mysteries, once revealed, either in life or death, spiritual energy will necessarily be incorporated within the expanding laws of physics.” After reading your book, my question is: Do you think the solution to world peace is scientific or spiritual?FA: Since I believe that matter and light are in essence the same, I have to say that all roads lead to peace. We may go to church, the synagogue, or a sports arena; we may be a nurse in a hospital; whatever, it is our personal way. What’s inside us reciprocates with whatever we’re doing and creates the relationship with the universe that allows us to work for peace every single day.The reason most people don’t know I have a spiritual nature is because I’m busy doing my life’s work, which is creating the organization so that people can be empowered to arrive at a peaceful condition within themselves and their communities.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/international_cities_peace3_5eea7d5d22.webp" alt="international-cities-peace3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_international_cities_peace3_5eea7d5d22.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_international_cities_peace3_5eea7d5d22.webp 1000w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/international_cities_peace3_5eea7d5d22.webp 1097w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Q: I didn’t know that side of you until I read, The Physics of Spirit, which is only 11 pages, yet you pack so much in there.I’m part of the “Intention for Peace” team. During the pandemic, we created a virtual platform to be connected. It remained after the pandemic Monday through Friday. Then we partnered with the Dayton International Museum of Peace in a 64-day intention they sponsored. It was an initiative titled, “A Season of Non-violence.” Our combined efforts spanned from January 30 through April 4, 2024, coinciding with the memorial anniversaries of the assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. So many more people joined us in the intention for peace during that time, and after that we have continued it every night. The physics of the spirit seems to have a plan that’s much bigger than you, me, cities of peace, Heartfulness, or the Dayton Museum of Peace. That was a turning point for me. I felt a shift inside, and I could now truly relax.FA: That’s absolutely true. And I think that goes back to your previous question: how do I keep calm within the storm. I work in war-torn areas, and I see things that are unspeakable. It goes back to the intention of the museum, the intention of my books, the intention of the heart. You know, with International Cities of Peace, we start out with a letter of intent. It’s from intention that everything comes forth. That’s why we’re going to stay small centrally and expand to 1,000 cities or more in the coming years. We’re just allowing people to do what they are already intending to do. We’ll help out here and there, but essentially it’s these teams, these communities.Our mission is world peace. I’m not doing this to fill my day. I’m doing this for world peace. So every day I acknowledge my intention. I believe in this, and think we’ll be able to get there if we can create the infrastructure that allows our intentions to start in community, build to the region, build to the nation, then build to the world.We have to have an infrastructure, the material aspect, and that’s why cities of peace are for people, whether it’s Cleveland, Beavercreek, or our 413th city, Chiwere, Malawi. It’s amazing what they've come up with as the vision, mission, and goals for their community; we just put it out there for them to create the city of peace ideal. Every single day I open my email and there are stories that inspire, and stories that challenge us.The idea is to create a tipping point for global peace; we just need an infrastructure to go there. The international cities of peace ideal is thousands of years old—we didn’t create it. All we do is allow people to remember in their DNA this ideal that has been with us since the first village was created. The idea was to create a city of peace right then, and we’ve forgotten that. It hasn’t been flourishing because we get lost in the chaos. If we settle down and remain calm, and realize that everything’s going to be all right because we’re in a universe of love, then we can work very carefully and methodically for peace.To be continued…&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/international_cities_peace4_fed50393d6.webp" alt="international-cities-peace4.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_international_cities_peace4_fed50393d6.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_international_cities_peace4_fed50393d6.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/international_cities_peace4_fed50393d6.webp 500w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr>For more information visit www.internationalcitiesofpeace.org and www.fredarment.com.

International cities of peace

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">J. FREDERICK ARMENT continues his conversation with CHRISTINE JONES about promoting peace in the world. He especially focuses on the foundation of it all—the importance of relationship, community, and love.</h4>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/waveguides_community2_3ed6ec674b.jpg" alt="waveguides-community2.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_waveguides_community2_3ed6ec674b.jpg 123w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_waveguides_community2_3ed6ec674b.jpg 396w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_waveguides_community2_3ed6ec674b.jpg 594w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Q: Last fall, you were having a conversation with Daaji, and you said, “After 15 years and 400 cities of peace, I’m not really seeing much peace anywhere. There’s a sense of discouragement sometimes in my work.” Daaji responded with, “Well, we do this intention for peace, which originally came from Ram Chandra (Babuji), who called it the universal prayer. He had an epiphany that everyone should come together at night at 9 p.m. local time.”&nbsp;We created a modern day version, a universal intention for peace, so that everybody can join. Daaji said to invite all these cities of peace to join us in this intention for peace—a common time where we join together for only 15 minutes.And he mentioned the word egregore, a thought form that acts to hold a group of people together. As thoughts are added to the egregore, it grows, but it also allows those connected to the current of the egregore to access the knowledge of that group. In your book, The Physics of Spirit, you’re well versed in this idea of egregore, although you use a different word—waveguide. This may be why Daaji invited the cities of peace to join in the intention for peace. When a group has the same thought at the same time, a waveguide will radiate the harmony we all hope for.Can you expound on this in layman’s terms?FA: Yes, a waveguide is a structure that guides wave. They are around everybody right now. It’s like a wire that plugs in and the current runs through the wire. It directs the waves. And when you guide a wave, you can increase the consonance by bringing in other waves. The consonant wave becomes much more powerful. For example, the churches of the Middle Ages had tall steeples and the podium was up high so that everything was raised to the sky. We create waveguides even within churches. Also, we create waveguides in whatever activity we are doing. The waveguide of a spouse allows you to love and receive love. That means your spouse is a waveguide for your love in order to expand it, replicate it, increase the intensity, and make an impact on the world and yourself at the same time.So the Heartfulness Centers are waveguides in the community. You come to a Heartfulness Center to learn meditation, but also for the relationships. So I see the Heartfulness Centers as waveguides and the heart of the community. Community needs a heart, needs this waveguide. I’m very excited about Heartfulness Centers around the world becoming cities of peace, because you’re already working for peace in your community.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/waveguides_community1_6cb3a4e689.jpg" alt="waveguides-community1.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_waveguides_community1_6cb3a4e689.jpg 245w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_waveguides_community1_6cb3a4e689.jpg 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_waveguides_community1_6cb3a4e689.jpg 750w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_waveguides_community1_6cb3a4e689.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;The cities of peace ideal is something that will enable all of the Heartfulness Centers to tell their story of how they affect the community in a positive way. Whether there’s a potluck, you’re planting trees, or you’re giving a prize to a child who does beautiful artwork, you’re impacting the community. So if Heartfulness Centers have this idea of egregore, then all of a sudden we have this means of working for peace.People do need a way to work in their communities, and all the different aspects of community, like government, the library, etc., can work together through the ideal of a city of peace. Heartfulness Centers can become the heart of that effort.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">People do need a way to work in their communities, and all the different aspects of community, like government, the library, etc., can work together through the ideal of a city of peace.&nbsp;</h4><hr>Q: You just explained that spiritual waveguides give purpose through reciprocal love. Spiritual interactions like meditation, rituals, and worship are energy interactions that help us experience a feeling of unity beyond oneself. A waveguide guides the propagation of waves, such as electromagnetic waves or sound, with minimal loss of energy. It routes energy along a path, I love it!FA: You know, wave guides can also be destructive. So we need to create our waveguides with the understanding that they route our energy. If you choose waveguides that are destructive, there is destruction at the end of the path. If you construct your wave guides as positive influences on community, then the result will be positive.Q: Daaji recently said, “Your readiness to do things perfectly takes you forward.” So, there has to be completion and conclusion in anything we start in perfection. The tendency to perfect our work will come only when we are proud of ourselves. This is the positive use of ego. Ego can be used in either direction, and the same with these waveguides.FA: Yes, we have to look at what we do and who we are as energy. If we do something halfway, the energy dissipates, whereas if we go to completion the energy is transferred. What Daaji says is very revealing, because it gives us the urge to do good.And I've been working on the concept of least and urgent; the urge is to life and the least is to death. It leads to entropy, the dissolution of energy. It’s the old couch potato routine. If you sit on the couch and don’t work in your community, then your energy will dissipate. If you get up and become engaged, then life is created, beauty is created. That’s how people do wonderful paintings and become great writers, ride horses and work with their dogs and walk in nature. All these beautiful things are because we have the urge to complete this idea that the spirit comes out of us and it comes back into us. That’s the reciprocal truth of all things being energy.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/waveguides_community4_ca9ccb9c43.jpg" alt="waveguides-community4.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_waveguides_community4_ca9ccb9c43.jpg 245w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_waveguides_community4_ca9ccb9c43.jpg 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_waveguides_community4_ca9ccb9c43.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Q: Something changed in me when Daaji said that about how I participate in the intention for peace. I realized I was working more from hope than completion, and it was interfering in the intention for peace.You wrote in your book about the Latin root of the word inspiration—a sudden and spontaneous breathing in of the divine spark that gives us creative purpose. Fulfilling our purpose is simply resonating with the energy of universal love. So Daaji’s idea about willingness to do things perfectly, and your idea that purpose is resonating with the energy of universal love, a new understanding changed the way I was approaching the universal intention for peace. I moved to feeling that peace was already established in the world.So my question is, do you feel your personal vision for peace has already manifested?FA: Each of us manifests, so I believe it is our manifestation and I work for peace. I founded a couple of things, I’ve written some books, but I don't take any personal pride in those things as the idea is that we are working in concert. My wave is in concert with your wave, Christine, so we are together, and that’s why I can smile. With all the bad news in the world, if we get bogged down by the idea that there’s only hope, we’ve already started giving up. We’ve been given so many gifts as human beings, and we just need to calm down and work as we can and in our own way. I think that’s how humanity will raise our consciousness. And when we raise our consciousness, all will be well.To be continued.

Waveguides and community

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">In this final conversation of the series, J. FREDERICK ARMENT continues to talk with CHRISTINE JONES about promoting peace in the world. They discuss the awakening of consciousness that is happening around the world, and the need for humanity to reach a tipping point where we can make the leap into a higher way of being.</h4>&nbsp;Q: Daaji recently talked about the Sanskrit word for meditation, Dhyana, and he said “Dhi” means ultimate wisdom, and “Yana” is a vehicle. I had this revelation that humanity may now be capable of having the ultimate wisdom while we receive the gift of being in this vehicle.FA: Yes, Yāna refers to a vehicle or the means by which we reach our destination, which is ultimate wisdom. Meditation and also International Cities of Peace can be important aspects of Yāna. It may be a little optimistic, but I do think humanity has purpose in the universe, and it is to expand and extend and become perfect in our consciousness.Q: The idea of consciousness seems to be happening in all different groups. In March we had a Global Spirituality Conference in India, where one hundred thousand people from diverse spiritual faiths and traditions came in person and also joined virtually. I believe there is a tipping point happening. This idea of consciousness is about everyone coming together and contributing to a resonance on the planet.FA:&nbsp;We create these waveguides—ways we can contribute and receive at the same time. International Cities of Peace is a waveguide, and communities can use International Cities of Peace as the ideal of a city of peace. No city in the world is an actual 100% city of peace, but they can use the ideal of a city of peace to work for a better community: have safety for their families, prosperity for the community, and a quality of life for everyone who is in that community.That’s our definition of peace, the consensus values of safety, prosperity, and quality of life. We’ve never had any pushback on that definition of safety, prosperity, and quality of life. Whether it’s in Sudan, Colombia, China, or Canada, everybody is working toward that, because everyone has a family and everyone has a community.So International Cities of Peace creates an infrastructure, community by community, to localize, democratize, and sensitize the world to what is best for families and people. That can contribute positively to the Tipping Point. To express our love of community, our love of place, is the intention of International Cities of Peace, and it’s working quite well.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/the_tipping_point2_fc36cc9159_56efaeac03.jpg" alt="the_tipping_point2_fc36cc9159.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_the_tipping_point2_fc36cc9159_56efaeac03.jpg 191w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_the_tipping_point2_fc36cc9159_56efaeac03.jpg 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_the_tipping_point2_fc36cc9159_56efaeac03.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Q: I was in a retreat last week and I was so moved by the people who were participating in a meeting. I felt blessed that I can associate with so many people doing so many good things. You commented in one of your podcasts that 95% of the world’s people are good. They’re working people trying to take care of their families. And there are different communities doing tremendous work—reciprocating love and peace, something we all want.FA:&nbsp;You find divisions everywhere in the United States. It’s become 50-50, tossing the dice on who’s going one way and who’s going the other. But, when it comes down to it, love can heal those divisions.Whether you’re on one side of the political spectrum or the other, both sides are working for peace, both sides want safety, and both sides want prosperity and quality of life. It depends on the waveguides that everyone is choosing, so look at the energy; a community has heart, and that heart beats with the resonance of each person in that community. That’s why Heartfulness centers are so important: You start with the heart and you expand from there. And the community needs a heart. I’m so excited about more and more Heartfulness centers becoming Cities of Peace.Q: Daaji said we don’t come here to change the world or save it; we come here to create a center so that the Universal Laws can work around that. So, your book about The Physics of Spirit, is actively staying centered in your heart. The principles of nature that you write about automatically start formulating around a peaceful soul.FA:&nbsp;It could be anything people love; how they express love and receive love is their domain. It has to do with that vessel called the soul, and that human organ called the heart. We can center ourselves and be able to work to receive and give love.Q: How can we guide people to create a City of Peace? I’m feeling drawn to help them.FA:&nbsp;That’s great. People need facilitators. For each city, there is a facilitator within the community who is a liaison. There are literally thousands of facilitators all over the world. I think the Heartfulness centers don’t need to worry about this. We don’t charge anything, but there’s the possibility of donations. We want the smallest village in Kenya to be able to do exactly what the largest city in the United States can do.I have one story for you about Nakivale, the refugee camp in Uganda. There are refugees from different nations inside the camp, which has been around since 1959. It is literally a city, so we opened it up to become a City of Peace. Now there are 13 Cities of Peace among the 80 different villages within the camp. And there’s a movement now to coordinate all the Cities of Peace in the Nakivale refugee camp. They're supported by Aalborg, Denmark, which is the 400th City of Peace, and so we’re looking forward to the city-to-city collaboration. It’s not just communities but regions that start to expand the base of Cities of Peace that can work together.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">International Cities of Peace creates an infrastructure,&nbsp; community by community, to localize, democratize,&nbsp; and sensitize the world to what is best for families and people.&nbsp; That’s the intention of International Cities of Peace,&nbsp; and it’s working quite well.</h4><hr>It becomes a twinning between two cities, then four cities, then a region, and that’s happening all over the world. So the Heartfulness Centers are very important as a path that can expand this network to other cities around the world. Your universal meditation at 9 o’clock at night can expand to other cities through this city-to-city coordination. So there are a lot of reasons for Heartfulness centers to become cities of peace, and it’s not just within the community, it’s also beyond the community.Q: It was very clear early on that the Cities of Peace is not an agenda-driven organization. I love that. It makes it so much purer in the essence of what the goal is.FA:&nbsp;That’s why I separate my spirituality from it. That’s why I separate my books from it. I don’t post anything about myself on the Cities of Peace website because I don’t want to become a luminary or force my thoughts about the universe on anyone else. We’re just providing a tool, a waveguide, for people to work for their purposes.Q: I was surprised at how much I didn’t know about you. It feels like &nbsp;your approach isn’t personal. I’ve noticed a similar shift in my own work; it must be a natural evolution of the soul.FA:&nbsp;That’s the whole intention of the International Cities of Peace—to provide the means for other intentions. It will be great when you’re facilitating the effort.Q: Do you believe a global awakening of consciousness can happen and bring peace to humanity?FA:&nbsp;Clearly, we face some serious existential threats right now, and we’ve relied on evolution to make progress. The physics of evolution is one of the concepts I’m working on, but we need a leap, and the awareness that we need a leap will lead to the leap because we are highly creative entities.Whether we do it from the heart or the brain, or using artificial intelligence because it’s part of our creativity, we are ready for a leap. I believe that if it is apparent that we do have existential threats, then people will put their shoulders to the boulder, their nose to the grindstone, and we will achieve awakening and also a manifestation of existence, rather than existence with a limitation. I do believe there is already an awakening, but we need more, and we need to drive it to the point where there is a leap in our evolution.Q: That’s what I think happened with me, after Daaji’s comment then reading your book; it was a leap of consciousness in me. This must be happening to so many people.FA:&nbsp;I am the eternal optimist and so are you. That’s probably why we get to be part of the team.Q: Thank you very much for sharing your story.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/the_tipping_point3_259a3e48ca_0da35e88f9.jpg" alt="the_tipping_point3_259a3e48ca.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_the_tipping_point3_259a3e48ca_0da35e88f9.jpg 245w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_the_tipping_point3_259a3e48ca_0da35e88f9.jpg 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_the_tipping_point3_259a3e48ca_0da35e88f9.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure> &nbsp;

The tipping point

J. Krishnamurti

Still mind

jclittle.webp

J.C. LITTLE

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">J.C. LITTLE is a Canadian artist and former animator known for her expressive watercolors and <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-new-storytelling" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">storytelling</a>. Here, she is interviewed by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN. She shares how art serves as meditation and reflects on two of her standout works—Momentum, a celestial painting on inner transformation, and Deadline, a poignant take on time and womanhood.</h4>Q: Do you see art as a form of meditation? When I look at certain art, I feel a kind of meditative stillness in it.JCL: I think so. There’s a popular way of describing it, where you get in the zone as you’re executing art.For me, it starts before that. I’m one of these people who suffer from an overactive imagination. I’m always being assaulted with ideas and concepts, and in my mind, I’m turning them over and seeing how to tell that story. Is it funny? Is it wordplay? Is it emotional? At the back of my mind, I’m percolating on these things that I want to turn into images.When you finally get to the point where you’re executing something, there’s an element of discovery in it. We may not have completely worked out the solution to what we are looking for, the actual creative expression, but most of that work is already done in my head. That can become extremely meditative. It can also be problematic because we can get lost in it.I have a little escape hatch, which is my dog. It keeps me from working on and on into the small hours of the night. The answer to your question is yes, definitely, there is a meditative aspect. Several aspects.Q:&nbsp;How was your journey from being a cartoon artist to a person who does beautiful paintings? Has your creative process changed? How has this evolution changed you as a person?JCL:&nbsp;I have always mixed the two, ever since I was a small child. My parents knew I could draw, so they were always getting me art supplies for every birthday and Christmas. Whenever it was time for presents, I got art supplies. I was given art lessons, lots of art lessons. As a kid, I just wanted to do funny drawings.When I was a child, we lived in Montreal in Canada. When I was 11, we moved to Hong Kong. A couple of things happened. The first was that my parents immediately put me in Chinese brush painting classes. That’s where I was very impressed by the dispersion of pigment in water. That was my first real structured introduction to watercolors. The second thing that happened was that my little brother went to the hospital for surgery on his legs. Seeing him in recovery was a great motivation for me to draw funny pictures for him, to make him laugh and cheer him up.I grew up and went to university to study graphic design and illustration. Later, I met an animator and became an animator. For decades, I worked in animation, and that’s a different kind of creativity.All the while, I was still drawing and sketching, but not focusing on fine arts. My animation career turned into The Animated Woman, which was my blogging site where I finally did my own TV series. I worked for three or four years, 90 hours a week. I just needed a break from that and wanted to get my little creative ideas out. The fastest way to express all the ideas from my overactive imagination was to do stick figures digitally. I did conceptual things, little jokes about family life. That became my blog.I did quite a few short animated films using these stick figures, but I also did a lot of what I call sequential art, illustrated books for children, my own books that I self-published. A lot of that art was on my blog. My blog, The Animated Woman, was drawings like that.I was forced to simplify a concept or a feeling or a story into the most poetic form. They weren’t always funny, sometimes they were quite tender, playful, or sad, evoking tears. When I went back into watercolors, it was a natural progression for me to take these single-image stories and turn them into full paintings. &nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_honest_medium2_ae21b42bec.webp" alt="art-honest-medium2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;All my concept drawings start as these very simple stick figures. Let me show you my sketchbook. I did a lot of color studies. You can see how I started with a very rough face and then refined it, how I was going to handle the gold leaf, what pigments I was going to use, how I was going to do the dress. I work all of that out in my sketchbook. My painting, <a href="https://www.jclittleportraits.com/fine-art-shop/momentum" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Momentum</a>, was special because it’s really big for a watercolor.Q:&nbsp;Momentum is one of the most fabulous paintings I’ve really seen.JCL:&nbsp;That’s good to hear. That painting was special because I had the idea and was thinking of using my friend Tracy. She agreed to pose for me. It started out as just the woman on the sofa. There are many paintings of a woman on a sofa, many, many paintings. It’s a popular subject. But I wanted to show her imagining the planet, imagining the world, maybe even reimagining the world. Contemplating the world, and showing a kind of transformative, contemplative state with the butterfly.To make her more of a creator or give a kind of celestial vibe, I decided she should have all the space she wants. I literally put her in outer space. This painting was different from everything I had done before in its size, but it was a continuation of the painting Deadline with the clock. That was going more in a direction of magical realism, where you depict things rendered in a realistic way, but there’s no way they could be real. There’s no way a woman sits in outer space on a sofa imagining.I don’t want to be limited by reality because I come from the world of animation, where we can do anything. The scope of it, the size of it, meant I couldn’t use my usual brushes for the background. I had to use a completely different technique to approach the background, because I didn’t want to see brush marks. In fact, I painted the painting three times, not the full painting, but mainly the background. The first two times, it wasn’t what I wanted. I discovered a way to move the paint around without using brushes. I used a special technique. I put a lot of water on the paper, then put the pigment on top and moved it around. It worked out in a way that gave this beautiful galactic feeling. The background is pretty much done in one layer of paint.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">I think a lot of people really related to this painting&nbsp; because it talks about several themes: women, our bodies, and how we are running out of time.</h4><hr>With watercolor, it’s really difficult to make larger <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/thoughts-about-painting-india" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">paintings</a>. When they’re small, you can use a certain sized brush. The hairs on a brush are a certain thickness, and if you get a bigger brush, it doesn’t behave the same way. This is all technical stuff about watercolor, getting things to behave, inducing behavior in watercolor, which really just wants to do its own thing. You want to let it do its own thing.It lends itself to magical realism very easily. I just love that about this medium. It’s a very honest medium. It’s impossible to lie with it. You can’t cover things up. There is not a drop of white paint on that painting. It is all the whites of the paper shining through, the stars, everything. That makes it really luminous. That’s what I love about that painting.Q:&nbsp;I also liked your painting Deadline, this lady sitting between the minute hand and hour hand. Somehow I felt that was me, and then I thought, perhaps everyone thinks that is them.JCL:&nbsp;I think a lot of people really related to this painting because it talks about several themes: women, our bodies, and how we are running out of time. Society places a lot of pressure on us to stay young or be reproductive. We have our reproductive deadline, your body clock is going to run out. There’s also work, and how we impose these deadlines upon ourselves, to finish things on time or to achieve things. I think it has universal appeal in how people relate to it.To purchase J.C. Little’s paintings directly from her website, please visit <a href="https://www.jclittleportraits.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.jclittleportraits.com/</a><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Artwork by J.C. LITTLE&nbsp;</h4><hr>

Art is an honest medium

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J.R.R. Tolkien

Value food and cheer

Jack Canfield is a bestselling author, professional speaker, trainer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the Canfield Training Group and coauthor of more than two hundred books, including the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series.

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JACK CANFIELD

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN interviews JACK CANFIELD, the co-creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul. In part two of his interview, he shares insights on overcoming fear, following inner guidance, and the evolution of his definition of success over time. His wisdom offers practical advice and inspiration for pursuing one's passion and leading a fulfilling life.</h4>Q: What stops us from achieving our dreams?JC: Limiting beliefs—but also fear. Fear of loss, whether loss of reputation, loss of money, loss of credibility, loss of their job, loss of their relationship with their spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend. Or, it can also be a fear of being physically hurt.You’ve probably seen this: F-E-A-R means Fantasized Experiences Appearing Real. When the pandemic occurred, many people were afraid. We’re going to lose our jobs. We won’t be able to have clients. We can’t go out. I can’t go to school. I’m going to fall behind. And that was all just made up in their mind by looking ahead a year or two and thinking it’s all going to be worse.I always ask people to do one of two things. Either come back to the present moment—“right now, everything’s fine”—or if you’re going to go into the future, imagine something positive happening. “I’m going to get my job.” “My book’s going to become a bestseller.”The last thing I teach about fear is to feel the fear and do it anyway. Most people can dive off a diving board if they have ever learned to swim. Now, you didn’t get out on the end of the board, look at your mother or your father or your coach, and say, “I have a fear of jumping into liquids from high places. I’m going to go talk to a therapist to get rid of this fear, and when I come back, I’ll jump in the water.” No one ever did that. What did we do? We felt the fear, and we jumped anyway. And mostly we survived, right? And then, pretty soon, we’re jumping in and doing cannonballs and splashing everybody and having a good time because we felt the fear and we did it anyway.If you’re going to go skydiving, if you’re going to go scuba diving, if you’re going to give your first speech or ask that person for a date, you’re probably going to feel a little fear. It’s natural. But if you go and do it, you survive. That’s what builds self-confidence. Self-confidence is the result of taking a risk and surviving.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/chicken_soup_part2_2_a72d66c659.webp" alt="chicken-soup-part2-2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">One of the techniques I teach all my students now&nbsp; is what we call “micro actions.”&nbsp; Do something small to get started.</h4><hr>So, the first time you talk, you’re a little nervous, but then nothing bad happens. The next time you speak, maybe people will even applaud. And then the 20th time, they’re giving a standing ovation—only because you survived.Every time you came back, came back, came back. And even if you failed think about this—even if you failed, you survived it!To everybody reading this: you’ve survived everything that ever happened to you, or you wouldn’t be here. We are natural survivors. And if we can remember that we’ve had a lot of successes, we’ve had a lot of things where we’ve done well, and we’ve just got to keep on going out there.Now, if you’re going to feel the fear and do it anyway, start small. In other words, don’t make your first audience a thousand people. Talk to ten people in a room. Practice your talk in the mirror. One of the techniques I teach all my students now is what we call “micro actions.” Do something small to get started.I’ll share a quick story with you. There was a guy named Jim Bunch. He’s a teacher in America and runs the program called The Ultimate Game of Life. I was on the phone with him. He asked me, “What’s your goal, Jack?” I said, “Oh, I want to get fit. I want to lose weight.” He said, “Great, put the phone down and give me ten pushups.”I said, “Jim, no, I’m talking about joining a gym and getting a coach.” He said, “Jack, put the phone down and give me ten pushups.”I said, “Jim, you’re not listening.”He said, “Jack, you’re not listening, and we’re not moving on. Give me ten pushups. So, I put the phone down, and I did ten pushups.”He said, “Now, I’m teaching you an important lesson. As soon as you have a desire to do something new, start small. Make the phone call; make the appointment. It doesn’t have to be huge, but start now because we all can do something small. You don’t have to start with a twenty-mile run; start with walking around the block once.And that was critical to me to get that. So, that’s what I would say too: you can feel the fear and do it anyway, but don’t start with something that’s so overwhelmingly scary that you freeze.Q: Thank you so much, Jack. I like what Jim told you about actually putting the phone down and doing ten pushups. My next question is, how has this spiritual path shaped your life? I have noticed that all your books have spiritual undertones. And you have spoken so much about visualization, affirmations, and releasing the brakes. And there’s something deeply soulful in what you say, what you’ve written, and what you teach. I wonder how your inner journey has shaped the way you lead and serve people.JC:&nbsp;My spiritual path started when I was about twenty-eight years old. I was living in Massachusetts. My ex-wife and I had a camper van. We drove down through Mexico to Guatemala, camping on the side of Lake Atitlán. We went through the clouds to get up there, and it was next to a volcano. I was reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.That was the first spiritual book I ever read.I felt, “Oh my God, there’s so much more to life than I understood.” I was a psychologist, but I wasn’t spiritually awake at that time. I decided, “Well, I’m going to learn to meditate. I have to learn to do yoga.” So I bought a book on yoga and started doing it on my own. It was a little paperback. And then I took some meditation classes.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">You can feel the fear and do it anyway,&nbsp; but don’t start with something&nbsp; that’s so overwhelmingly scary that you freeze.</h4><hr>I met a guy named Guru Shabad Singh. He was teaching meditation, and I would get into ecstatic states. I began to realize I wanted to teach that as well. So, I discovered this form of psychology called psychosynthesis. It was developed by an Italian psychologist named Roberto Assagioli. He was a contemporary of Carl Jung. He had this theory that we all have a Higher Self, our soul. He had this diagram, like an upside-down funnel. At the top is your Higher Self, and it comes down into this thing called your center of awareness, the eye.So, when I meditate, I’m in that center, and I can choose to be aware of my Higher Self. But around that center of the eye, there’s a choice. I can choose to place my consciousness on my body. I can choose to place it on my emotions. I can choose to place it on the thoughts I’m thinking.These are all psychological functions, but it was all in service of the Higher Self. The way he described it was that you have an orchestra director directing all these other instruments, which are your body and your emotions. From this place of “eye,” tune into your Higher Self, get the direction for your next step or what you need to be focusing on, and then use the function of your intellect and your body and your emotions to go and do the thing in the world that you’ve gotten this guidance about. That takes us out of the ego. So, it’s all about goal-setting and vision and taking action and using affirmations and visualization—but in the service of the Higher Self, in the service of the soul, if you will.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">What am I here to do? What’s the guidance that I am getting?&nbsp; That is the success principle, Inquire Within.&nbsp; That generally is how everything unfolded for me.</h4><hr>That’s how it began to evolve for me. I could still teach all the stuff I’d learned from my original mentor, W. Clement Stone, who was a contemporary and friend of Napoleon Hill, who wrote Think and Grow Rich, which was a great book in terms of success. That spirituality gave me the context for everything else. Visualization can be used to create fear, or it can be used to create motivation for achieving your goal.So, tap in: What’s my goal? What am I being asked to do? What thoughts do I need to think to do that? That’s my affirmations, my inner self-talk. How do I use my body? What actions do I take? How do I respond to feedback? Because not all actions work. And it all went into the book, Success Principles. All of this must be in service of my purpose: What am I here to do? What’s the guidance that I am getting? That is the success principle, Inquire Within. That generally is how everything unfolded for me.Q: Coming back to another of my favorites, the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Tell me how it all came to be?JC:&nbsp;First of all, the stories are so resonant with people because they are about universal themes that everybody deals with—relationships, love, death, grief, overcoming obstacles, pursuing dreams, all the things that make up the essence of what we think about, and focus on what we want to achieve in our lives. We all want to be loved and loving. There are sections on love, self-esteem, honoring, and loving ourselves. It relates to things that everybody can connect with. My consciousness was pretty elevated at that time, and all the stories were filtered through me and Mark, my co-author, who was also a meditator and someone who spent time in India studying. For us to like a story and approve it, it has to have a level of vibration, in terms of love and joy, and the truth of life.Let me share two things with you that most people do not know. First of all, how did the title come to me? So, we did not have a title. We had the book. We were supposed to go to New York and meet some publishers and sell them the book. Mark and I decided that we would meditate for a week and ask for a title. Mark was much more hyperactive than I am, and he would go to bed and meditate, “best-selling title, best-selling title, best-selling title…” I am a bit more mellow, and every morning I would wake up and just submit, “God, give me a title,” and I would sit in silence and wait.Nothing happened on the first day. Nothing happened on the second day. I woke up early on the third day. A big green chalkboard, like in school, appeared. And a hand came out and wrote “Chicken Soup” on it. And I thought, “Wow,” as I thought it was God’s hands. Then I thought, “What does chicken soup have to do with this book?” Again, I sat in meditation. This voice said, “When you were sick as a child, your grandmother gave you chicken soup.” Then I said, “This is not a book about sick people.” And then the voice said, “People’s spirits are sick. They are living in resignation, hopelessness, and fear. And these stories that you have will help them overcome that.” And I thought, “Chicken Soup for the Spirit.” That did not sound right. Then I said to myself, “Chicken Soup for the Soul?” And I got goosebumps. I told my wife. She got goosebumps. I called Mark. He got goosebumps. I told our agent. He got goosebumps.Then, we went to New York and met with twenty-one publishers. Seven a day for three days. Nobody got goosebumps. We got twenty-one rejections. Nobody liked it. “Stupid title.” “People don’t read stories.” “It’s nicey-nice.” “It’s too positive.” So, 144 rejections later, our agent gave us the book back and said, “I can’t sell it. I tried. Nobody wants it.”I was living in Los Angeles at that time. Someone said that in Orange County, at the Disneyland Convention Center, there will be a convention of publishers. So, Mark and I went down with our backpacks, and had about twenty stories from the book, and we went around and talked to all these publishers, and they kept saying, “No!” “No!” “No!” “No!”Eventually, the 145th person we talked to said, “I will read it.” Nobody else even wanted to read it. He takes it home and calls me back a week later, and he said, “I love it, but I don’t know how many copies we could sell. I am a little bit reluctant. If you can convince me that we can sell 20,000 copies, I will publish it.” So, every time Mark and I went out to give a talk, we had this sheet of paper that said, “I promise to buy X number of copies of Chicken Soup for the Soul.” We received promises to buy 20,000. Some people said they would buy five or ten. One guy said he would buy a 1,000. So, we went to the publisher and said, “Here we have 20,000 promises.” That is how the title came to be. That is how the stories were published.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/chicken_soup_part2_3_7180739c20.webp" alt="chicken-soup-part2-3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;Q: Thank you for telling me that story. I also wanted to ask you about the book Success Principles.JC:&nbsp;Let me tell you the question I get asked a lot about that book. People ask me which is the most important success principle, and I tell them that if you could only keep one organ in your body, which one would you keep? Because without the heart, without the lungs, without the liver, or the kidneys, nothing would work. So if you look at that book, there is a lot about taking responsibility, having a goal, making sure it is measurable, using affirmations, using visualizations, taking action, taking feedback, persevering, having a team, having an accountability group—there is a lot of stuff in there. It really is a system of success. It is like a recipe.So, the final thing for everybody reading this is this: You have everything you need to do anything you want. You would not be allowed to have a desire if you did not have the capacity to fulfill it. You will not come up with a goal if you do not have the ability to reach it. Now, you may have to learn some new things or get a credential that you don’t have. You may need to attend school and obtain a degree or license. You may have to team up with other people. It might take you a long time to get there. But you will literally be unable to have that dream without the ability to make it happen. And I could tell you story after story of people doing things. You give me a problem or challenge, and I can tell you a story about someone who faced the exact same problem and still achieved it. It is not about your circumstances. It is not about your physicality. It is about your intention, your belief, your heart, and your perseverance.So, trust yourself, follow your heart, and know that you have the capacity to make your dreams come true.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/chicken_soup_part2_4_052e6b8a6f.webp" alt="chicken-soup-part2-4.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Trust yourself, follow your heart, and know that you have the capacity to make your dreams come true.</h4><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">AI generated images</h4><hr>

Chicken Soup for the Successful Soul - Part Two

Chicken Soup for the Successful Soul

Jacqueline is the author of two books on spirituality, Wonder and Words and Oceans and Clouds. She has been practicing Heartfulness meditation for over thirty years and is also a Chinese medicine practitioner in France and Switzerland.

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Jacqueline Camisa

<h5 style="text-align:justify;">JACQUELINE CAMISA explores the nature of the heart, and invites us all to experience its wonders.</h5>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;The heart is a fascinating organ to explore, not only for cardiologists. Because of its central position, its role is paramount for physical health, but who amongst us knows that it also has the upper hand over intelligence, thought, judgment, discernment and caring about others? Even more, it manages in a masterful way a third, even subtler level – our evolution.In these days of globalization, with the problems that have arisen, is the current instability that we see among human beings being addressed? If it is possible for a good gardener to care for and save plants that are threatened, is it not possible to do the same by going directly to the heart of human nature, and so treat and care for man’s heart? This is certainly an ambitious initiative, yet pragmatic and urgent.We all feel our heartbeat, this relay point between the animate and the inanimate. The heart beats, gets excited, and sometimes misses beats. A doctor checks blood pressure and pulse rate, monitors the heart through an ECG,&nbsp; performs ultrasound echography, and sometimes does deeper functional exploration to secure our physical health, and physical exercise and diet contribute to fitness and well-being. Despite all our care and efforts the day comes, however, when the heart stops. This is the end of our earthly existence. But is it the end of life? This life has been infused by the heart, because it is through the heart that life is transmitted.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">This life has been infused by the heart, because it is through the heart that life is transmitted.</h5><hr>This was revealed in Chinese documents several thousand years ago, in which the heart is presented as the conductor of our body symphony. From the third week of pregnancy, a ‘little heart’, known as the heart tube by embryologists, is already active, generating our organs and organizing their physiology, and transforming us continually. Ultimately it is helping us evolve. Elaboration and organization, transformation and, finally, evolution are the three stages attributed to the heart.By giving ‘the little heart’ the name ‘the door of destiny’, Chinese philosophy attests the possibility of evolution beyond the physical body. So let’s look at the heart in its various stages and rhythms.<h5 style="text-align:justify;">The physical level</h5>Physical evolution in human beings has been very slow and rather limited. On one hand it has taken thousands of years for human beings to reach the stage they are today. On the other hand our parents and their descendants’ genetic data continue to impose their limitations. Even in the most favorable conditions we can only hope to be a little taller and a little more developed physically than our ancestors, as this will always be within the limits of a genetic program. To change the color of our skin or to stem old age is impossible for us, despite all the creams, cosmetics and vitamins displayed on the attractive shelves of health food shops.The physical body is a temporary but necessary vehicle to carry us further through this adventure of life towards another more subtle level. And what is that? Perhaps it is the mind level. We are tempted to believe so.<h5 style="text-align:justify;">The mind level</h5><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/globalization_through_the_heart_img1_ba96eb5b6b.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-30T13:00:34.248Z" alt="spiritual-relationship">Since the Greeks, the mind continues to be the favorite playground of the Western world. We just have to look at our bookshelves. This academic affluence is proof of an interest to educate and instruct over the long term. However, has it really brought about real human transformation?Fascinating as they are, have all the mental speculations helped us to develop simple wisdom embodied in our daily behavior? Or, even more modestly, do we now find a simple state of balance in human character in general? The present human context raises serious doubts.Besides this already distressing observation, we know that we only use around 10% of our mental capacity. This&nbsp; compels us to humbly acknowledge that our most ambitious and remarkable initiatives are accomplished within such a narrow frame that our mental vision exists within a very thin beam. We focus upon this thin beam to the extent that we are blind to everything outside its sphere.If we add to this the intense and accelerated media frenzy bombarding us day after day, the question of us having a mind capable of raising us is under question. How can we evolve when the mind is becoming heavier and heavier? Sensations, passions, urges and desires generate prejudice, habits and thought patterns. As the mind becomes heavier, it is less qualified to help us reach a higher level of consciousness.The brain does, however, have a constant regeneration capacity. So is it right to keep it functioning at an optimal level. Reading, attending lectures, doing crosswords, mental calculations, games, art therapy, yoga, tai qi, chi gong, music and other activities boost our physical and psychic energies, but is all this sufficient to lead us to a more subtle level? A change of paradigm is required to rise vertically. As Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”So we must pass on to another stage, subtler than the mind level, for our evolution. This is the level of the soul, or the&nbsp;cause of our existence.<h5>The causal level, the soul</h5><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/globalization_through_the_heart_img2_36902042c3.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-30T13:01:15.307Z" alt="spiritual-relationship">To consider the soul as being only within the domain of religion is another obstacle on the path of a well understood evolution. This understanding appeared during the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century.When the scientific, rationalist mind tried to free itself from religious dominance, there was significant collateral damage: that of assigning the soul only to the field of religion. For a certain time this prevented any serious observation and scientific experimentation on the causal level of our existence.But the human soul belongs to no domain, no institution and no religion. It belongs to each one of us because we all have a heart. Wherever we were born, and whatever our previous cultural, religious (or nonreligious) and community background, the soul level is our common identity card. It is our only passport to exit from this life to the next stage. Today, research on the world of the spirit is evident everywhere, in all cultures, and more and more there is a call for inner experimentation, even scientific experimentation.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">The human soul belongs to no domain, no institution and no religion. It belongs to each one of us because we all have a heart. Wherever we were born, and whatever our previous cultural, religious (or non-religious) and community background, the soul level is our common identity card. It is our only passport to exit from this life to the next stage.</h5><hr>All ancient traditions were aware of the spiritual level of existence. The ancient Indian tradition claimed that a regulated and clear mind allows access to spiritual spheres. For example, in Raja Yoga, as a first step we go deep inside ourselves through meditation to experience the vast inner world, and then make use of these discoveries to embody them in daily life in a pragmatic way. A mind conscious of the unity of everything through experience, and no longer influenced by dogmas and theories, becomes calm and keen to care about others, while assuming its personal responsibilities.Ancient Chinese wisdom recommended meditation, so that men could become “true men,” “real men”. Chinese medicine is the practical application of these discoveries in the health field through inner experimentation. Wise men, real men, of all cultures have always condensed their experiences into a few words, such as sutras or aphorisms. Here again there has been collateral damage throughout human history, as disciples and commentators who have not had the same personal experiences have distorted their meaning through interpretation and created dogma from their contents. This shows just how much the still narrow beam has remained powerless to infuse a rise in consciousness. This is also the reason why everywhere in the world the subtle essence of spirituality has remained hidden under various and numerous religious expressions.Between the spirit, which surpasses our earthly destiny, and the means we have to determine our destiny, the heart is our laboratory where wonders occur. To put it simply, we can change everything through the heart. The heart is joy, laughter, gratitude and love.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">Let us dare to experience this heart globalization. We all have the opportunity to experience this realm, a space with no right of property, with equal access by all, to be shared fraternally. In fact this is its universal value.</h5><hr>Let us dare to experience this heart globalization. We all have the opportunity to experience this realm, a space with no right of property, with equal access by all, to be shared fraternally. In fact this is its universal value.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">Article by JACQUELINE CAMISA</h5><hr>

Globalization Through the Heart

Jagdish Naran is a Heartfulness practitioner, trainer, and volunteer from South Africa. Practicing for over 40 years, he supports digital outreach and community initiatives, and is passionate about service, inner transformation, and helping others discover the depth and simplicity of the Heartfulness way.

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Jagdish Naran

<h2 style="text-align:center;">Ubuntu: Discovering Ourselves Through One Another</h2><h4>JAGDISH NARAN explores Ubuntu, the timeless truth that we discover ourselves most deeply through one another.</h4>There is a profound truth at the heart of every human being—we are connected in ways deeper than we consciously know. My well-being is incomplete without yours, and my journey is intertwined with yours. In southern Africa, this truth is captured by a single word: Ubuntu.Ubuntu is a Nguni (Zulu/Xhosa) term from Southern Africa meaning humanity to others.” It embodies the interconnectedness of “I am because we are,” emphasizing compassion, community, dignity, and mutual care, where one’s humanity is found through relationships. This humanist ethic fosters sharing, respect, and harmony, becoming a cornerstone of post-apartheid South Africa and shaping its legal and social structures, as advanced by figures like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.Ubuntu has been defined in many ways—I am because we are; a person is a person through other persons; humanity towards others. But Ubuntu is more than a slogan or a gentle philosophy. It is a lived experience of our shared essence—a recognition that we are each a spark of the same divine origin, appearing as many but rooted in One.As Heartfulness practitioners, we are continuously on a journey of inner discovery. We sit each morning in meditation, allowing transmission to purify and elevate the heart. We meditate together and discover that transformation is not merely an individual event; it reverberates universally. Each shift in consciousness touches others, sometimes without a word. In this light, Ubuntu is not only a cultural value; it becomes a spiritual truth.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">The Discovery of “We”</h4>Modern life often pushes us into an illusion of separateness—my success, my comfort, my spiritual progress, my house, my country, my, my, my. We compare, compete, and protect. Even spiritual pursuit can become self-centered if we forget its purpose: To reveal our interconnectedness and expand our capacity to love.Ubuntu invites us to move from the discovery of “I” to the discovery of “we.” It says: Your joy brings me joy. Your suffering affects me. Your growth lifts me higher. Your dignity reveals my own.The heart does not beat alone. It beats in harmony with countless hearts, human and divine. Each act of compassion, each shared moment of presence, contributes to a subtle collective energy—a living field that grows stronger when we connect from the heart.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">A Heritage of Shared Humanity</h4>Ubuntu did not start in written texts or philosophical treatises. It arose from community—from people whose survival depended on cooperation, mutual support, and reverence for elders and ancestors. It emerged naturally from living close to the earth. One person’s harvest fed many homes. Wisdom was a collective inheritance.This way of being is beautifully aligned with the teachings of Heartfulness:<ul><li>The heart is our common meeting place.</li><li>Brotherhood is evidence of spiritual evolution.</li><li>Growth is measured by the expansion of love.</li></ul>As we meditate and refine the heart’s subtlety, we discover this: Compassion is not something to cultivate. Compassion is our nature. Ubuntu simply reminds us not to forget.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/ubuntu2_e46e359e83.webp" alt="ubuntu2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:justify;">The Invisible Thread</h4>When people come together with goodwill, compassion, and shared purpose, an energetic presence emerges, sometimes called an egregore in subtle consciousness. This is the invisible thread that binds hearts, carrying the shared intentions, love, and care of a group.In <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/heartfulness-mindfulness" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Heartfulness meditation</a>, this subtle field becomes palpable. The atmosphere thickens with peace and tranquility. Our hearts align naturally, as if harmonized by a gentle, unseen current. This is the living essence of Ubuntu—the tangible experience of being connected beyond words. The transformation of one heart uplifts many.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Individuality and Interconnectedness</h4>The modern worldview encourages independence, achievement, and personal identity. There is nothing wrong with this. Each soul is unique and has a purpose to fulfil. But individuality without interconnectedness becomes isolation. Achievement without compassion becomes emptiness.Ubuntu offers a balance: We rise together, each unique, but never alone.In meditation, we turn inward to connect with the Source, yet the result of that inwardness is increased love for those around us. A heart that has touched the Divine becomes incapable of indifference. Through this shared field of consciousness, we feel the presence of many hearts lifting together.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Service: The Practice of Ubuntu</h4>At its core, <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/ubuntu-a-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ubuntu is practical</a>. It is not merely a state of mind—it becomes action: Sharing, listening, including, uplifting, protecting, and encouraging.Service is discovering that we have more to give than we believed. Every act of generosity contributes to the subtle field that binds us, strengthening the energy of compassion and unity. In Heartfulness, service is not a duty; it is a joy. When we serve, we dissolve the barrier between self and other. We stop seeing “them” and recognize “us.”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Discovering the True Self</h4>The greatest illusion in life is that we are separate beings. Ubuntu dissolves that illusion. It reveals identity not as a solitary island but as an ecosystem of relationships—with our families, our communities, nature, and the Divine.Ubuntu leads us inward by leading us outward. It helps us recognize that the divine seed in my heart is the same as the one in yours. When I honor you, I honor the Source that breathes life into both of us.Through this recognition, the subtle field of shared consciousness amplifies love, empathy, and care. In discovering the humanity of others, we discover our own divinity.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">A Future Built on Togetherness</h4>The world today is facing difficult questions—inequality, loneliness, ecological destruction, and conflict. Solutions will not emerge through competition or division. They will come from recognizing that the earth, our air, and our future are shared.Ubuntu offers a spiritual blueprint for human survival:If you fall, I will help you up. Because tomorrow, I may need you to help me. This humility is not weakness. It is wisdom.<ul><li>A Heart-Centered Ubuntu</li><li>Heartfulness offers a way to deepen Ubuntu from within:</li><li>Meditation softens the heart.</li><li>Cleaning (rejuvenation) frees us from impressions that block compassion.</li><li>Prayer (inner reflection) expands our love beyond our limited circle.</li><li>Transmission connects us at the level of essence.</li></ul>Ubuntu becomes not just a cultural legacy but a living spiritual experience—a flowing field of love, compassion, and unity. When a heart is open, Ubuntu flows effortlessly.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/ubuntu3_ca36918858.webp" alt="ubuntu3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:justify;">A Simple Practice of Discovery</h4>What if every day, we chose one moment for Ubuntu?<ul><li>A smile to someone who feels unseen</li><li>A listening ear without rushing to respond</li><li>A gesture of inclusion toward someone left out.</li><li>A sincere wish for another’s happiness</li><li>A thought of peace for someone suffering</li><li>A silent prayer for someone in need</li></ul>These may seem like small actions, but each one strengthens the invisible web of hearts—the subtle energy of togetherness that transforms both giver and receiver.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">We Are the Discovery</h4>The theme of this month’s issue, “discovery,” reminds us that life is not only about exploring the world outside, but also about exploring the world within. Ubuntu reveals that the most important discovery each of us can make is this:We belong to one another.I am not the whole story; you are not the whole story. We are chapters in the same book—one humanity, guided by one divine Heart.As we meditate, serve, connect, and grow together, may we rediscover what our ancestors knew so well: Love is not optional for human flourishing; it is the foundation of our being.In discovering you, I discover me.In discovering us, I discover God.I am because we are.We are because He is.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by LAKSHMI GADDAM</h4><hr>&nbsp;

Ubuntu

Allen (1864-1912) was a British mystic and philosopher, known for his inspirational books and poetry and as a pioneer of the self-help movement. Born in Leicester, England, to a working-class family, he left school at fifteen to support the family, after his father died. In 1903 he retired to devote himself to writing and moved with his wife and daughter to a small cottage in Devon, where he spent the rest of his life. As A Man Thinketh has influenced many contemporary writers and has inspired millions to recognize that our visions can become reality, simply through the power of thought.

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James Allen

<div class="text-center">
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 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/collectorsedition_img_97d38e9149.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-29T11:43:31.955Z" class="has-img-center" />
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&nbsp;
Until thought is linked with purpose, there is no
 intelligent accomplishment. With the majority, the barque of thought is allowed to ‘drift’ upon the ocean of life.
 Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and
 destruction.
They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries,
 fears, troubles and self-pitying. All of these are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as
 deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness and loss, for weakness cannot
 persist in a power-evolving universe.
A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart and set out to accomplish it.
 He should make this purpose the centralising point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal or it
 may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being. But whichever it is, he should steadily focus
 his thought-forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and
 should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings
 and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought.
Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until
 weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form
 a new starting point for future power and triumph.
Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a great purpose should fix the
 thoughts upon the faultless performance of their duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear. Only in
 this way can the thoughts be gathered and focused, and resolution and energy be developed, which being done there is
 nothing which may not be accomplished.

<h4 class="fs-5 lh-lg">Read the complete article in Issue 14 </h4>
<h4 class="fs-5 lh-lg"><a style="color: #cc9a37;"
 href="https://www.heartfulnessmagazine.com/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SUBSCRIBE
 &amp; DOWNLOAD</a></h4>
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<h4 class="fs-5 lh-lg text-center">From As a Man Thinketh by JAMES ALLEN</h4>
<hr />

Thought and purpose

<h4>JAMES ALLEN is known for his simple and clear explanations of the human condition. In this excerpt from As a Man Thinketh, Allen explores the nature of thought and purpose.</h4>&nbsp;Until thought is linked with purpose, there is no intelligent accomplishment. With the majority, the barque of thought is allowed to ‘drift’ upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles and selfpitying. All of these are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe.A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralising point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being. But whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought-forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.</h4><hr>Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.Having conceived of his purpose, a man should mentally mark out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right nor the left. Doubts and fears should be rigorously excluded. They are disintegrating elements, which break up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual and useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplished anything and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in.The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome.</h4><hr>He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome. His purposes are seasonably planted, and they bloom and bring forth fruit which does not fall prematurely to the ground.<h4 style="text-align:center;"> Chapter 4, As a Man Thinketh,&nbsp;1902</h4><hr>

Thought and Purpose

<img class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/collectorsedition_img_92a76863f3.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-02T05:31:52.018Z"
 alt="Collectorsedition-img" />

Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought
 to light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this – that man is
 the master of thought, the moulder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment and destiny.

As a being of Power, Intelligence and Love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds
 the key to every situation, and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may
 make himself what he wills.

Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state, but in his
 weakness and degradation he is the foolish master who misgoverns his ‘household’. When he begins to reflect upon his
 condition, and to search diligently for the Law upon which his being is established, he then becomes the wise
 master, directing his energies with intelligence, and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues. Such is the
 conscious master, and man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought; which discovery is
 totally a matter of application, self analysis and experience.

<h4>Read the complete article in Issue 14 </h4>
<h4><a style="color: #cc9a37;" href="//www.heartfulnessmagazine.com/subscribe/"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SUBSCRIBE &amp; DOWNLOAD</a></h4>
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">From As a Man Thinketh by JAMES ALLEN</h4>
<hr />

The conscious master

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James Baldwin

Facing our wounds

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James Clear

Mastery

Jamie is a natural medium, clairvoyant and clairaudient. She uses her abilities as a mediumship teacher to help people evolve and awaken to their own psychic abilities. In 2011, she created <a href="http://www.withloveandlight.com/">The Center for Love and Light</a>.&nbsp;The Center continues to evolve and host teachers, healers, and lecturers from all over the globe. Her latest venture is <a href="http://www.thelightersidenetwork.com/">The Lighter Side Network</a>.&nbsp;

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Jamie Butler

<hr><h4>JAMIE BUTLER, healer and medium, founded The Lighter Side Network in 2017. Here she speaks with EMMA IVATURI about consciousness, belief, feeling stuck, growing pains, intuition and synchronicity.</h4>&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/vibrations2_f9a0a247f3.jpg">&nbsp;Q: Can you elaborate on how the brain works as a receptor and filter for the countless vibrations around us every moment?JB: Our brain is not just an organ that runs neurons and sends messages throughout our body. It is also a great transmitter and receiver, much like a radio. In fact, many of our thoughts are not originally ours, but come because of our ability to receive the energy vibrations from all around us. Working this way, our brain can easily be overwhelmed and bombarded with information. Our ability to focus on what we want to attract is how we filter out all the unwanted vibrations on a daily basis. But it is also the way we are able to attract all the things we don’t desire, because we spend time worrying, living in fear and feeling victimized. What you are focused on is what your energy field resonates with. Like attracts like.Let’s say you are pretending to ‘play small’, whether you are pretending to be a mouse or you are pulling in your great charisma to allow someone else to shine. When you do this, you are saying you are willing to receive all the energy around you – from people, from the room, from conversations, from the history of the room, from plants and animals that match this version of ‘playing small’, even though it is not your true nature. The energy you are receiving is going to be the energy you are putting out. We can see now the vicious cycle this can create.We can take this in another direction too. Let’s say you are pretending to be confident, to earn a position at work or to impress a love interest. You adopt a confident posture and spoken language and your energy patterns follow suit. Now, your energy field is vibrating with confidence. All the worry energy in the room is unlikely to vibrate with you any more hence you won’t receive it nor process it.I like this example better. Even reading it allows my energy to fluff up and feel better, however, I have free will and can immediately change this feeling by thinking of all the difficult situations in life and at work. As soon as I begin to focus on all the things going ‘wrong’, I vibrate with things going wrong. I air-quote the word ‘wrong’ because I don’t necessarily believe there is a right or a wrong, but this is the way we use our language to express the situations we don’t want.To help filter and attract the vibrations needed to grow, we must be conscious of our energy. This means being aware of our intent, emotions, thoughts and imagination. What are they expressing? What are they attracting? This simple act gives us insight into the subtle light world around, which is constantly offering information to better our lives.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Through my decades of working with subtle light energy, techniques are nothing unless we believe in them. It is time to detangle ourselves from being triggered to stay within the same patterns that hold us hostage.</h4><hr>Q: Our conscious experience is but a small bandwidth of what we pick up on. How can we expand our awareness to integrate information we perceive less clearly that would otherwise create a cognitive dissonance?JB: Expanding our bandwidth of consciousness begins with understanding who we believe we are. In this current lifetime, our body is our instrument and our belief systems are the dial to broaden or narrow how we use this instrument. If we want to receive more clarity it is time to get into the gray areas, to step away from right or wrong, black and white, and the learned belief systems that are not working for us.Through my decades of working with subtle light energy, techniques are nothing unless we believe in them. It is time to detangle ourselves from being triggered to stay within the same patterns that hold us hostage.Next time you feel stuck try this:Center your energy into a neutral space. You can do this through a few minutes of steady breathing.Imagine you are without any attachment. Seriously, use that incredible imagination of yours! Imagination and intuition are roommates and share the same space. When you engage your imagination you are creating more room for intuition to use. Once you can imagine that there is any possible outcome, you are allowing new truths to enter into your consciousness.Mantras can help you create a single focus and allow different energies to come into your energy field to create the changes you are seeking.The mantra I use is: deep breath, re-access, change your perspective.Another mantra is: if you want to remain constant, always change.From this space begin to assess the images and messages coming to you. Please keep disciplining the monkey mind to stay in the ‘gray’ and un-triggered by the images and messages. Grab a pencil and paper and start to document what is coming through.Once you are done writing, walk away. If you can go into nature, allow the outdoors to calm and soothe your energy while continuing to hold the flow of ideas expanding your understanding, connection and energy. When you are activating your body with movement, you are helping these energies to merge with your new discoveries and belief systems.When you feel full or done, go back to writing and jot down your discoveries. Be sure to write keywords that will reconnect you with the ‘ahha’ moments. Re-read your notes frequently. This will help you incorporate your discoveries instead of them being fleeting moments.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">When life presents you with chaos,&nbsp; congested energy, a feeling of being stuck,&nbsp; hitting walls or whatever you feel awful about,&nbsp; reach in and pull out acceptance, kindness and surrender and see where the nudge takes you.&nbsp; I bet you will find there is ease to this enlightenment.&nbsp; I trust you will begin to notice how the world around you is supporting you</h4><hr>Q: Sometimes we misread the growing pains as we outgrow our current circumstances and are pushed into the next level of evolution. Perhaps the next step may not be clear and a leap of faith is needed to let go and surrender to where we’re going. How do you bridge the gap between these life phases?JB: Bridging the gap between life phases requires the art of acceptance, kindness and surrender. Each shift in our evolution is asking for us to change our beliefs. This can be a tremendous burden to the ego and the heart. I have noticed in the last 27 years of being a medium, there are certain ideals to which we hold strong culturally: these include gaining knowledge, loyalty and politeness. These ideals often lead us into shame and dissonance. When we are trained to value these ideals we create suffering and pain when it is time to grow.Let’s look at acceptance, kindness and surrender, and how these three actions can shift our cultural ideals and ease our way while we are becoming enlightened.When we are taught acceptance from a young age, we transcend loyalty to provide self-care, we transcend the need to gain knowledge with the comfort of the unknown, and we transcend politeness to find authenticity over.When we show kindness to ourselves, we find that loyalty is actually an expression of love not discipline, the act of gaining knowledge is an expression of curiosity, and the use of politeness is the desire to create peace.When we surrender, our truth is found. Surrendering allows us to accept not only possible outcomes but also the very real impossible outcomes. It allows us to walk away from loyalty when it was created out of guilt, regret or fear, and break commitments that no longer serve us. Surrendering allows us to stop comparing and contrasting our every move, to understand who we are and look at the very deep inner light for guidance. It also allows us to see that true politeness can be based in honesty and not the lens of praise.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/vibrations3_a518152a4c.jpg">&nbsp;When life presents you with chaos, congested energy, a feeling of being stuck, hitting walls or whatever you feel awful about, reach in and pull out acceptance, kindness and surrender and see where the nudge takes you. I bet you will find there is ease to this enlightenment. I trust you will begin to notice how the world around you is supporting you.Q: Can you speak about the energies we take on from other people and act out with them in relation to our own character work?JB: When we are in communication with someone else it is natural for us to connect to them empathically. This helps us understand them. Our own energy will mimic what the other person’s energy is vibrating and therefore we will hold their pattern in our energy field. Sometimes people will continue to hold that pattern even after the communication is over. They can even take on other person’s energy.I have seen through the years of working as a medium and healer that we are emotional beings. Our first and foremost ability is to feel emotionally: the rest of life follows suit. Once we can identify that we are emotional beings, we begin to observe the amount of energy it takes to maintain our emotions. Everything we do, think and feel is all empowered by energy. Our chakra system, the energetic highways and byways, contains all the possible energetic vibrations and the way we use our emotions dictates the responses of the chakras. Knowing this we can see how natural it is for us to be empathic, having the ability to connect to how others feel.Empathy is a powerful tool but sometimes misused. When we are feeling what another is going through, we often come to believe it is ourselves feeling this way. Our brain is not trained to ask, “Is this feeling mine?” so we begin to believe whatever we are feeling must belong to us. However, I feel there is no guideline on the kind of work we need to do to evolve. There is no one judging your performance except you. This life is a very personal experience and only you can decide what needs to be done to reach the goals you have aligned for yourself. The only true common denominator I can speak to is our ability to feel emotions and have our needs met.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Synchronicities pop up in our life when we are agreeing to align ourselves with our truth, that is, when we are ‘in the flow’. For me, synchronicities are not road signs directing us to change directions, but gentle reminders to stay the course.</h4><hr>Q: How can we cultivate a more natural alignment to our intuition?JB: Start building your trust with your intuition through these little activities:THE REAL YES AND NOTake the time to acknowledge how your five senses react to the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’. What color, feeling, location, sensation, taste, sound and more do these words evoke in you? You can use simple yes or no questions to engage your intuition on the myriad of decisions you make on a daily basis.DOCUMENTATION PLEASEWrite down in a list all the intuitive experiences you have throughout the day, even if they are very small and do not seem to be worth much. At the end of the day, go back and put a checkmark next to the ones that played out to be accurate with good insight. You might find it is a full day or week later before you get your validation. Having this on paper allows your brain to see it documented.&nbsp;<img class="image_resized" style="width:602px !important;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/vibrations4_4931e8f75f.jpg">&nbsp;WORD ASSOCIATIONPay attention to your words. Most of the time we’re trying to express our intuition, yet our language does not provide accurate words to convey it. Words like ‘lucky’, ‘coincidence’, ‘bright idea’, ‘ah- ha’ are all indicators of intuition. Be confident to share information without knowing the source of its origin. For that is a very intuitive thing!TRUST FALLBuilding trust in your intuition allows it to be stronger. When you find yourself doubting, step back. Claim your intuitive place as a no-doubt zone! When you are doubting, you are not connecting and you are not trusting your experience. Step back, take a breath, and begin to ask very simple yes and no questions about what you are experiencing.BE EFFORTLESSIntuition does not need you. As soon as you insert your voice, you could be wanting to control, compare, contrast and measure your intuition as if it were a logical experience. When you let go and become effortless with answers or intuition, your accuracy level increases.Q: How do synchronicities point us in the right direction in our lives? What are some you’ve experienced?JB: Synchronicities pop up in our life when we are agreeing to align ourselves with our truth, that is, when we are ‘in the flow’. For me, synchronicities are not road signs directing us to change directions, but gentle reminders to stay the course. Synchronicities have helped me create my businesses, especially The Lighter Side Network. I did not have a vision to create an online network, but the universe kept putting people in my path who brought out the creative in me. Once I acknowledged this, I began to see my path clearly. The Lighter Side Network is now over one year old and growing.<hr><a href="http://www.jamiebutlermedium.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.jamiebutlermedium.com</a> <a href="http://www.thelightersidenetwork.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.thelightersidenetwork.com</a> <a href="http://www.withloveandlight.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.withloveandlight.com</a><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Interviewed by EMMA IVATURI</h4><hr>

Vibrations

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English author, who 6 major novels are still some of the most popular in the English language, and have been made into films and TV series. She particularly used realism, irony, and social commentary to highlight the standing of women at the time.

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