Michael has been involved in a number of Buddhist organizations over the years, has served as a Trustee of the Buddhist Hospice Trust been a Committee Member of the Lifestyle Movement, which is dedicated to simple, green living and was a Member of the Gandhi Foundation. A few years ago he spent two years living in a Franciscan Friary, engaging his time with meditation, walking, yoga and deepening his writing practice. He has spent the last 25 years teaching and supporting a variety of different groups, e.g. young offenders, young unemployed people, children at risk, children with special needs, adults with learning difficulties and adults with mental health needs.

Michael-Lewin.jpg

Michael Lewin

<h4>MICHAEL LEWIN shares his experience and idea on how to bring simplicity into daily life, through lifestyle changes and practices.</h4>My hut lies in the middle of a dense forest;&nbsp; Every year the green ivy grows longer.&nbsp; No news of the affairs of men,&nbsp; Only the occasional song of a woodcutter.&nbsp; The sun shines and I mend my robe;&nbsp; When the moon comes out I read Buddhist poems.&nbsp; I have nothing to report, my friends&nbsp; If you want to find the meaning, stop chasing after so&nbsp; many things.—Ryokan (1758 – 1831)Before you started reading this, what were you doing? Where was your mind attending? Were you concentrating on one particular task, fully focused, giving your best effort? Or were you mentally elsewhere, distracted by a stream of fragmented thoughts, totally unaware of your lack of mindfulness?If you are anything like me you are probably in the latter category, over-reaching and dissipating your energy, chasing after so many things.Our preoccupation with doing and achieving is an anxiety that largely accumulates from our exposure to fiercely competitive, economic environments, financially driven market cultures (now increased to global proportions) that constantly strive to maximize material production, performance and consumption at all costs. In the process of busying ourselves with all these activities we can be lost, away from looking deeper into life and from asking those questions that can lead us into enriched understanding, deeper awakening and true liberation.<h4>THE PATH CAN BEGIN THIS VERY MOMENT</h4>Life gets difficult when we try to meet so many expectations, often imposed on us by us. We overburden ourselves with multiple tasks and end up feeling guilty when we do not accomplish the desired results. Leading a better life, a simplified, saner life, means letting go of so much that preoccupies us unnecessarily. Letting go of that, which we know deep within us, is not essential to our true being.A new and spiritually enriched life that will take us off to deeper appreciation is only a choice away. So do we continue to cling to our acquisitive, materialistic values and allow ourselves to become over-stressed in a situation that is unsustainable for us, and for the planet, in the long term? Or do we follow the lead of Ryokan and try to simplify our existence to manageable proportions?<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/path_of_simlicity2_e861e01897.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-06T05:45:11.585Z"><h4>THE PATH CAN START HERE</h4>Once, a self-confessed over-worked, over-stressed friend of mine was late for an important meeting. He dashed to his car and headed towards his destination only to find heavy traffic congestion all along the route. He tried to take alternative shortcuts, but to no avail. There seemed to be traffic jams everywhere. At a crawling pace, getting very agitated, he suddenly and for no apparent reason made the decision that he was going to be late.I like that. He reframed his normal response of anxiety and denial and accepted the reality of a situation he couldn’t change. This marked his entry point into a whole new way of thinking, a whole new way of being in the world. His busy lifestyle of trying to juggle so many different things was in sharp focus like never before, and he knew he that he had to trim down his commitments in order to achieve more peace, contentment and easiness in his life. Soon thereafter he started to attend retreats and engage with the pragmatic teachings of Buddhism (Dharma).To reduce our burden of over-achieving, over-reaching and over-stretching we must start somewhere, like my friend. We need to simplify whatever we are doing. This decision then becomes our starting point, our entry into a new life. Instead of making adjustments to keep up with the runaway schedules, timetables, performance targets of a fierce economic culture, the latter may be scaled down and humanized to meet our real needs and desires.Our lives are precious, our time is precious – greater than the value of the Stock Market’s trading or the value of the FT Index.<h4>THE PATH CAN BE MY LIFE, MY LIFE CAN BE THE PATH</h4>We can travel a long way and do many different things, but our deepest happiness is not born from accumulating new experiences. It is born from letting go of what is unnecessary and knowing ourselves to always be at home.—Sharon Salzberg‘Being at home’ is what we should aim for. A space that allows us to rest mindfully in non-attachment. A space where contentment and deep happiness abide. A space that allows healing and restoration to take place.It seems that everything we touch today has now, now, now wired into it, and unless we challenge our mindsets we may just go on repeating the same old patterns of behavior. We do not have to be driven by turbulent thoughts, which tell us that we must be constantly doing; that rest is lazy and unproductive. On the contrary, rest can quite often be uniquely productive.Take nature for instance. During the dormant winter months an apple orchard is at rest, but within every tree, right down to its deepest roots, there is a promise of what is to come: the full fruits of its creative cycle. Without that rest there would be no apples to harvest. The latter is simply a product of the former, all expressed in the natural cycle of seasons.Rest nourishes growth.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/path_of_simlicity3_fa5fbb6fc0.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-06T05:46:21.747Z">he more we can quiet our mind of its restless and neurotic thoughts, the more we open up for a listening to take place. A listening so deep, so still, that we may never be the same again. In Buddhism this is known as yoniso manasikara, which means ‘wise attention’.Letting go creates space for letting in. Ryokan was very much aware of this. That’s why he dedicated his life to the pursuit of simplicity, in order to be able to somehow touch the truth of his existence. How else can we start to touch our truth in a world that provides so many materialistic distractions?Simplicity means living lightly, and this involves not only watching our consumption levels but also following Earth-friendly strategies for a more sustainable future. Then we can rest knowing that we have done all we can to make this world a better place. Living in harmony with the natural world, paying due respect to its universal gifts, is an imperative that we cannot afford to ignore anymore. And whilst we may not be able to influence global environmental policies, we can at least make certain that we are engaged and committed to doing what we can.The deeper we venture into simplicity, the deeper we experience a knowing that transcends the rationalistic surface thought that we readily accept as normal. Simplicity helps to focus clarity of vision and insightfulness, bringing us the realization that less is often more. And within this knowledge lies sacca, or truth.The mystery does not get clearer by repeating the question,&nbsp; Nor is it bought with going to amazing places.Until you’ve kept your eyes&nbsp; And your wanting still for fifty years,&nbsp; You don’t begin to cross over from confusion.—RumiJourney well. Journey into simplicity.Reprinted with permission from http://www.michaellewin.org/articles/simplicity/path-of-simplicity/<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by MICHAEL LEWIN</h4><hr>

The path of simplicity

<h4>MICHAEL LEWIN explores the expression of patience in Nature, and how easy it is to learn lessons from the natural world around us.</h4>Nikos Kazantzakis, the author of Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ, once wrote about a chrysalis that he came across nestled in an olive tree. The infant butterfly, within its cocoon, was just starting to break through to greet a new life when Kazantzakis, anxious to shorten the natural process, breathed intensely on it. The butterfly eventually emerged, but because it was prematurely induced, its wings were insufficiently formed. Unable to take flight, the butterfly soon died. This intervention, in nature’s slow unfolding of a life, gave Kazantzakis a stirring lesson to reflect upon. If he had let nature take its own course, if he had been more mindful and patient, the small butterfly would have felt the expression of life through its wings, but because Kazantzakis impatiently intervened in a process that he did not fully understand, he had unintentionally denied this butterfly a life.Impatience seems to enter into all our lives. Sometimes it surfaces in a small act of unconscious intervention, such as Kazantzakis’; at other times it changes form into an explosive, blind rage, where people get physically and emotionally hurt. But in whatever way it finds expression, in whatever way it manifests itself, it’s all impatience, it’s all about letting our frustration get the better of us.<hr>Responding to situations in a considered, reflective manner brings out the best in us, and reacting to situations in a hasty “let’s get it over with” approach invariably brings out the worst in us.<hr><h4>WHY HURRY?</h4>Impatience seems to be a growing modern malaise that we all have to contend with in our lives, either as perpetrators or recipients. I have often felt in myself, and seen in others, the welling up of irritation, annoyance and frustration that can change people’s personalities in an instant. The feeling of exasperation that keeps us away from being present in the moment, calm and attentive to the unfolding of life as it is, and not as we want it to be.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/patience2_7575a4a363.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:53:36.753Z" alt="">Responding to situations in a considered, reflective manner brings out the best in us, and reacting to situations in a hasty “let’s get it over with” approach invariably brings out the worst in us. Impatience rarely gets us the results we want. It just forces its way forward with an “I know best” attitude that tangles us up in irritation and disappointment.My impatience is something that I constantly work with in order to cultivate a more relaxed state of mind, a more relaxed state of being, where I’m fully attending, fully accepting of the present, fully engaged with the now. But it isn’t easy. Whether I’m waiting for the kettle to boil on the gas ring, or delayed in traffic congestion, if I’m preoccupied with the thought that I’m far too busy to be wasting time, that I should be elsewhere, then my impatience is winning.Even when I’m writing, I can sometimes feel the company of impatience gnawing away in the background, pressurizing me to quickly form appropriate sentences and paragraphs, to move the writing along, to reach out for closure. But this rather forceful way of operating only stifles creative flow, which has its own rhythm to effectively deliver what is needed. My only obligation is to listen attentively to this rhythm, place myself within its presence, and patiently work along side it. I have to constantly remind myself that the writing is in charge, not me. All I really have to do is attend, with a concentrated but relaxed mind, and wait.Impatience can be a sign of something much deeper, not just a distracting mind that keeps us away from the present, but an anxious and sometimes neurotic one as well. Impatience cannot change anything for the better; it only makes us feel worse. It tries to rush us swiftly into the next moment without due regard for experiencing the present one.Giving up our sense of urgency and frustration – “I want it now” – is the road to relaxed awareness that can offer us so much in terms of appreciating what life, in all its infinite richness, can offer. On the contrary, quick fix, quick solutions, quick results, with no intervening incubation period for reflection, are increasingly gaining a strong foothold in our culture and closing down our potential for deeper, fuller possibilities.The Greek origin of the word <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-qualities-of-a-leader" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">patience</a> is pathos – suffering.<h4>THE SEASONALITY OF LIFE</h4><h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/patience3_43bc349fb9.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T09:55:11.020Z" alt=""></h4>I vividly recall, at the age of nine or ten, my class taking hyacinth bulbs to school on the instruction of our teacher. The bulbs were placed on the tops of narrow-necked glass jars, full of water, and then placed on a shelf. The class was told to wait until shoots started to appear. Days came and went, but there were no signs of any shoots. Boredom quickly set in as we waited and waited. Finally, when we all had started to really lose interest in this process of “looking and not seeing,” we suddenly started seeing.Slowly at first, but very much visible, were small, white tendrils growing out of the base of the bulbs, stretching out in order to reach the water. In time the tendrils grew so long that they curled around the base of the jars in loops. Top growth also came, giving birth to full, scented blossoms that make me heady even today as I continue to grow hyacinth bulbs.Through my experience at school I learnt a valuable lesson about patience and letting nature unfold in its own time. Much later I realized that the blooms of the hyacinths were in the bulbs all the time, just waiting to find expression.Spring comes and the grass grows by itself. —The ZenrinIn our technological, postmodernist world, where we even get agitated over the response time of the fastest computers, we run the risk of missing out on a valuable lesson about waiting. In the natural world there is no rushing. The sun never tells the moon to hurry up to complete its cycle, because it’s busy and needs extra time to do so many things. It just follows its natural path of slow awakening into the new morning according to the set laws of nature.Are we any different? It is in nature that we must look for guidance, not in technology. Aren’t we all sentient beings, flesh of nature, instead of printed circuit boards?<h4>PATIENCE FOR PEOPLE</h4>People may irritate and aggravate us, but how do we respond to those self-generated feelings? By allowing a sense of bitterness and anger to develop, we are the ones who really suffer. If we could accept with an attitude of equanimity, where we are prepared to offer a tolerant space for others (as we seem to make available for ourselves), we may avoid slipping into an entrapment of corrosive feelings that cause us untold damage, psychologically speaking.Perhaps we do not have such an all embracing, clear, informed perspective on things as we may think we do. Perhaps we are prone to misinterpreting situations and individuals. Perhaps we are, at times, too insensitive to other people’s feelings, too judgmental. Perhaps we need to relax more around certain issues.Opening up, and expanding an inner landscape on which we can accommodate the faults of others and our own faults, is important for our <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/from-ego-to-soul" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spiritual growth</a>. But we do need to recognize where there are serious problems to overcome. Patience, per se, cannot heal them. It just provides the necessary space in which compassion and forgiveness can hopefully surface, so that the healing can take place.<hr>Opening up, and expanding an inner landscape on which we can accommodate the faults of others and our own faults, is important for our spiritual growth. But we do need to recognize where there are serious problems to overcome.<hr><h4>LISTENING</h4>On the road to developing patience for others, as well as ourselves, we automatically begin to awaken a listening within us that can uncover and reveal deeper truths. A listening that pays attention to not only what is said but also what is not said. A listening that absorbs verbal communication as well as non-verbal communication, into a deeper understanding. People then start feeling comfortable and relaxed with us, may be for the first time, because a ground has been prepared for them to be themselves. Too often we keep other individuals at a distance from ourselves, on the periphery of our lives, and consequently we deny ourselves the opportunity to know them better. And without fully engaging with others, without fully listening to them, how can we claim to be fully alive?Listening is the oldest and perhaps the most powerful tool of healing. It is often through the quality of our listening and not the wisdom of our words that we are able to affect the most profound changes in the people around us. When we listen we offer sanctuary for the homeless parts within the other person. That which has been denied, unloved, devalued by themselves and others. That which is hidden. When you listen generously to people, they can hear the truth in themselves often for the first time. —Rachel Naomi Remen<h4>NO ACTION</h4>The pace of modern life can push us all over the place, insisting that agendas are prepared, decisions are made, actions are taken, and we may get lost amongst it all. We may get confused and frustrated about our responses.In these moments, never be afraid to pull back and wait a while, allowing an acceptance to form around the process of letting go. Good, well-understood decisions can never really flow from pressurized feelings, self-imposed or otherwise. It can only flourish when we are relaxed and reflective, drawing on our inner wisdom to arrive at the best judgments.Pavlovian, knee-jerk responses (which we all tend to make at times) run the risk of working against us, of bypassing our deeper thought processing, and throwing us into anxiety and regret. Waiting does not mean doing nothing. It means reflecting, relaxing and seeing what develops. Perhaps things can work out fine without our interference, without our intervention, if we make the decision not to make a decision!Do you have the patience to wait until the mud settles and the water is clear?Can you remain un-moving until the right action arises by itself? —Lao TzuPerhaps we should be patient and leave things alone. Learn from the lessons of nature, of which we are all an integral part, and let everything unfold as it should. Nature has its own time, but it’s not the time of ticking clocks and flashing digital readouts. It’s not the time of busy schedules and set agendas. It’s the time of seasonality, where everything has its own internal breath of life, which we have no right to influence or change because we haven’t the patience to stay present and wait.<hr>Perhaps we should be patient and leave things alone. Learn from the lessons of nature, of which we are all an integral part, and let everything unfold as it should. Nature has its own time, but it’s not the time of ticking clocks and flashing digital readouts.<hr>Patience is deeply embedded in nature, and we do need to honor this. If Kazantzakis had shown more patience, and not interfered with the natural cycle of life, there might have been 10,000 more butterflies flourishing in this world of ours. So next time that you feel called to respond in a given situation, think deeply about the possible outcomes that might develop, and act mindfully, act patiently, for all our sakes.Journey long. Journey well.Republished with permission from the author, whose blog is at <a href="http://www.michaellewin.org/articles/personalgrowth/patience-the-spiritual-path-to-personal-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.michaellewin.org/articles/personalgrowth/patience-the-spiritual-path-to-personal-growth/</a><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by MICHAEL LEWIN</h4><hr>

Patience: the spiritual path to personal growth

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<h4>
 MICHAEL LEWIN shares his own experience
 of the value of writing a journal, including embracing imagination, feeling,
 expansive thinking, creativity, spiritual growth, self-development and much
 more.
</h4>
<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 Similar to other art forms, journal writing can only be perfected in actual
 practice and nowhere else. Through this process of sustained commitment to
 self-exploration and discovery, a process of discrimination and refinement
 slowly surfaces to aid our learning and take us forward into new territories
 of language development and expression – an adventure into the heart of our
 existence. This has certainly been my personal experience, making me leave
 behind a rather cold, fixed, rationalist, analytical shell to embrace an
 imaginative, expansive, psycho-spiritual mode of feeling and expression,
 which has brought my life so much richness.


 At times I have been so engaged with my writing, trekking into a wilderness
 of a previously unknown psychological life. It has involved learning,
 clarifying, refining, growing, and has allowed a self-forgetfulness to
 quietly and without warning descend upon me, dissolving momentarily all
 traces of the normal functioning of the ego-driven self to reveal an
 underlying spiritual presence. And in these moments of self-forgetfulness I
 realize that I’m in meditation.

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 <img
 alt="art-of-journal-writing2"
 class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_of_journal_writing2_img_488f732564.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T06:26:09.805Z"
 />

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<h4>Suggestions for Journal Writing</h4>

 In order to access some of the depths within us for our journal writing to
 be authentic, real and true, we need to cultivate prolonged periods of
 stillness and silence. Avoid the busy-ness of normal, everyday routines that
 contribute to a deadening of creative energies. This is not always easy to
 manage, but it is essential.
 


 Rise earlier than normal in the mornings and, after meditation, go quietly
 to your place of writing and write. Do not edit at this stage or engage in
 any critical, judgmental attitudes towards your work. Record the previous
 day’s events, thoughts, feelings etc. without literary embellishments,
 unless the latter is what you are seeking and they come easily and naturally
 and are not too labored. Remember that later corrections are always
 possible. Avoid being too critical too soon, because time itself is the best
 editor.


 Pay attention to the minutiae of the life that surrounds you. What are they
 saying to you? How do they impact you? Try to understand them, describe
 them, search for the underlying values and truths, but never ignore them or
 you could be missing out on a vital dimension, a crucial lesson. Everything
 in your life is your life and is therefore worthy of your full
 attention.


 I am part of all 
 that I have met.


 —Alfred Lord Tennyson


 Our mind never stops; it is constantly enmeshed in a continuous process of
 thought creation. Therefore, should we not try and utilize this vast
 reservoir of power to expand our understanding of what constitutes
 significance, meaning and reality in our lived experiences, through the
 creative medium of exploratory writing? Try to absorb and assimilate, in a
 mindful way, everything you see, feel and touch for a future meeting at the
 keyboard. All our thoughts are possible future prose that could reveal
 hidden, imaginative, life affirming insight to sustain us.


 Although inevitably there is a chronological structure to journal writing,
 there is always scope to make detours, to follow interesting ideas and
 thoughts to see where they may lead, in case they can throw up some form of
 fresh view unrealized before. Journal writing is not a straightforward
 recording function, but a full and open canvas where many possibilities for
 looking, exploring and change exist. After sufficient engagement with this
 process the world may never seem the same again.


 The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of
 grass, 
 it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in
 itself.


 —Henry Miller


 Sometimes the writing goes well, and it seems to reach out to touch a
 hidden chord within us that resonates with such clarity. At other times, a
 possible moment of self-deepening is abandoned in the face of agitation,
 lack of concentration, impatience, doubt … But this is the very time to
 persevere, and in working this through we may come to realize another
 important facet of journal writing, namely, its therapeutic dimension.
 Writing can uncover what we are really doing within our lives and thus pave
 the way for our self-curative potential to develop.


 
 I am both changed and developed by writing, 
 and am changing and developing myself 
 and others in the process. 
 My emotional, intellectual and spiritual landscape is always on the
 move.


 —Nicki Jackowska


 Journal writing, the chronicling of events, appears to be a universal
 phenomenon in all world cultures. Whether we filter the story of our lives
 through the modern Word Processor or use the time-honored oral tradition of
 telling stories over a night’s campfire, it makes no real difference. They
 are both equally valid. Both fulfil a deep-seated need for human expression
 and validation.

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 <img
 alt="art-of-journal-writing3"
 class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_of_journal_writing3_img_be7a598110.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-15T18:00:39.987Z"
 />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 Working mindfully with words, crafting their potential fine beauty into
 shape, seeing if they dovetail together to give a coherent imaginative,
 accurate expression, a life, to your thought processes, is a fine and noble
 activity indeed.


 … And every phrase 
 And sentence that is right (where every word is at home, 
 Taking its place to support the others, 
 The word neither diffident nor ostentatious, 
 An easy commerce of the old and
 new, 
 The common word exact without vulgarity, 
 The formal word precise but not pedantic, 
 The complete consort dancing together) 
 Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning, 
 Every poem an epitaph …


 —T.S. Eliot


 Pursued over time, with commitment, the style, range and depth of journal
 writing may expand beyond all recognition, sparking off even more fresh
 thoughts and ideas for us to follow up in a self-reinforcing, creative act.
 Thus the journal becomes one vast repository of written material to be
 revisited, and sections can be independently reworked into more structured
 and coherent forms at later stages if required.


 Finally, as the journal develops and opens up, we may find that it also
 helps highlight, in a fundamental way, our literary, emotional and
 psycho-spiritual progress as we move through life, recording its experiences
 and our growing and changing responses to them. And the more we give to this
 process the greater will be its rewards, until in the fullness of engagement
 it brings deep understanding and clarity to our life hitherto
 unrealized.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 Excerpt edited and reprinted with permission from the author. 
 Read the full article at:
 <a
 href="http://www.michaellewin.org/articles/creative-writing/journal-writing-as-a-spiritual-practice/"
 >http://www.michaellewin.org/articles/creative-writing/journal-writing-as-a-spiritual-practice/</a
 >

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<h4 style="text-align: center">
 Article by MICHAEL LEWIN Illustrations by GAYATRI PACHPANDE
</h4>
<hr />

The art of journal writing

Doing nothing

Michael has been working internationally with sustainability in the business world for more than 20 years. He founded Sprout World in 2013, and was included in Worth Media’s Worthy 100 list in 2021 as one of 100 entrepreneurs who use their business for good.

Michael-Stausholm.jpg

Michael Stausholm

Michel De Montaigne

Nature's business

Michel is a French businessman, who is the founder and 40% owner of the DECATHLON Group, the world’s largest sporting goods retailer. He is married with four children, and lives in Lille, France. His wife, Marie-Claude Leclercq, is a psychotherapist, and represents the family on the council of the DECATHLON Foundation, which was founded in 2005.

Michel-Leclercq.jpg

Michel Leclercq

<h4>In this exclusive interview, MICHEL LECLERCQ, the founder of DECATHLON, speaks with CHRISTINE MOLLE. DECATHLON is the world’s largest sporting goods retailer, and has over 1,400 sports shops in 47 countries. Michel’s motto for DECATHLON is, “The pleasures and the benefits of sport for the greatest number.”</h4>Q: Bonjour Michel. What would you like to speak about today?ML:&nbsp;I am more a man of action than reflection. Sometimes I compare myself to Lucky Luke, because I tend to think after I act. But I also like the fact that the company has a vision. Vision feeds on past actions. I can recognize the meaning of my life by looking in the rear view mirror. So, what I see in the mirror of the past I project forward into new projects; I project myself. If a new project makes sense to me, it becomes an additional freedom. If it does not make sense to me, it becomes a constraint. I like to be a free man, so I like it when projects make sense to me. I also like it when the people with whom I am associated in these projects can be free; it is important that the majority of the people who are associated with any project share the meaning of the project. If they share the vision, then they share the “why” and they will be free to invent the “how.” I really like to reflect on how to support as many people as possible to find meaning in their life in their professional activities.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/decathlon2_39667020fc.jpg" alt="">&nbsp;<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">It is important that the majority of the people who are associated with any project share the meaning of the project. If they share the vision, then they share the “why” and they will be free to invent the “how.” I really like to reflect on how to support as many people as possible to find meaning in their life in their professional activities.</h5><hr>Q: What values have been important to you in your professional life?ML:&nbsp;For me sharing is important. The company must bring happiness to people, and for this it is important to share with my collaborators the meaning embodied in the products and in the organizations. The company must be empowering, liberating, as a result of sharing the meaning. And in this I assume the consequences of the decisions I make, and the collaborators too.A standing man is better than a lying man.My current conviction is management by meaning, by “why.” Before there was the leader, the referent now is the meaning. It is the embodied sense. If it is embodied by parents, teachers, or bosses, that’s fine, but management by managers is out of date. We have to manage by meaning, by why, not by how (how = money).<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/decathlon1_694bc65756.jpg" alt="spreading-happiness">Q: You say that business must bring meaning and happiness to people. What do you mean by that? What is happiness for you?ML:&nbsp;Shared happiness is greatly amplified. Do not confuse pleasure with happiness. Pleasure is fleeting, more superficial. Happiness is a state that lasts.My definition of happiness is that I live better, and I act in line with the meaning of my life. At that moment I feel happy. While eating chocolate and drinking red wine I have fun, whereas feeling useful to others gives me a lot of happiness. It is what many people have told me in the workshops I have run on meaning in companies, with workers and students: 80 to 90% of the people I meet say they feel happy when they are useful to other people.If money and shareholder enrichment are the goals of the business, then the business will be built, it will be run, and it will be made up of mercenaries who will obey orders when they have an interest. If the company has a humanistic, generous sense, then the collaborators will have a mission, and then the business will be much more dynamic, creative, and empowering. It will deserve the trust of its users and its customers. And the results will be much better. So the capitalists will find themselves there.I am wary of saying this, because I risk attracting those cheats who use the search for the common good, ethics, ecology, etc. only to make more money for themselves. That would not be ideal, but it would still be better than using amoral methods like polluting the planet etc., even if the motivation is money.So I try to testify to this in the workshops that I run, within a framework known as “Happier People” that I created three years ago after retiring. This is the last business I have developed.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/decathlon3_7be746822f.jpg" alt="">Q: In 1961, when you were 22 years old, you worked at Auchan as a butcher. You had stopped studying engineering. What was your motivation?ML:&nbsp;40 years ago, large-scale distribution started with the motivation of low prices to give purchasing power to the greatest number of people. It was the need of the time.I was recruited to Auchan in 1961. The meaning of the company was “to improve the quality of life of the working classes of workers in the factories of Roubaix.”My uncle Gérard was the President of Auchan, and his son Gérard was the general manager. They both visited very regularly and reminded us of the meaning of what we were doing: “Allow workers and the lower classes in the city of Roubaix to improve their quality of life.” My friends with whom I worked and I were very mobilized by this sentiment. I had a lot of autonomy and responsibilities because the meaning was very clear and I shared it.Q: In 1976 you opened your first Decathlon store. What led you to do that?ML:&nbsp;I had been fired! I was made redundant and I succeeded in transforming a difficulty into an opportunity. Suddenly, the second company in which I worked was DECATHLON. At first the meaning was not very explicit, and it had to unfold gradually as the business developed, to as to be able to bring it to life from a distance. And now the meaning is expressed in the phrase “Sport for everyone.” In French, we said: “The pleasures and the benefits of sport for the greatest number.”The success of DECATHLON is due to this shared sense which allows freedom and autonomy of direction. I do give direction, but from a distance to very autonomous people who know their profession, without micromanaging them: “To allow the pleasures and the benefits of sport for the greatest number,” without applying precise instructions. It gives our people a lot of autonomy and a lot of energy.When we have a strong sense of the company’s purpose, the rebound is much less difficult because we are not only focused on the “doing” but also on the “why.” If we have difficulties, if we get stuck in the “how,” we find energy through the “why,” which is much more permanent than the how: Why? For whom?The process of asking why is sometimes difficult, while it is easy to answer, “For whom?” For example, people in internships answer, “So that my children, my wife, and my friends are happy.” This makes it easier to answer this question “why?”<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/decathlon4_5fa6985fc0.jpg" alt="">Q: In 1986 you started to design and produce DECATHLON sporting goods. What was your motivation?ML:&nbsp;It was a strategy, a “how,” but it was still important. I didn’t conceptualize it until afterwards. I’m thinking about it even more right now, because there are struggling companies that are performing worse than before – companies that have lost their soul a little in my opinion. I think money has become far too important in these businesses.DECATHLON is revived by the “why” conveyed by the products – the meaning is conveyed by the products. Products that are our own brand, designed by us, under responsible subcontracting, convey a why which is specific to the company; they convey a sense of the company.And it irrigates the whole business like blood. The hormones in my blood irrigate my whole body – my heart, my brain, my energy. The blood of the company are our products. It travels throughout, from the reception docks to the shipping docks to the checkout counters in our stores.Employees who handle cigarettes will not have the same mindset as employees who put soccer balls on shelves, because cigarettes are harmful whereas soccer balls are beneficial products. As a result, our employees have more sustainable energy, to manufacture, to transport, to present on the shelves, and to dispatch to the warehouse, because they are working with soccer balls and not cigarettes. This is what I try to testify about in the workshops about “Happier people.”Q: What do you think is most important in today’s world?ML:&nbsp;I don’t want to talk about the world today, as my responsibility is these companies and those who work in the companies. I have ideas about the world today, but I don’t have the expertise to talk about it.I hope that, by my action, DECATHLON has a beneficial influence on those who work there and on the environment, its customers, and shareholders.If the collaborators, the customers, the users of the products, the environment, the citizens who are around the sites of establishment are winners, the company will have excellent results and the shareholders in turn will be winners. My belief is that shareholders should come last, not first, otherwise it’s called a financialized company and, in the long run, it doesn’t interest employees to work there.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/decathlon5_6b9a506fba.jpg" alt="">Q: What have been your inner resources? How have you kept your balance?ML:&nbsp;The etymology of motivation comes from same root as motor, or action. I’m someone in action – not for myself, but for others. I like to help others. For example, I am a heterodidact – I learn from others rather than being self-taught.Q: What vision do you have for the future of companies facing the challenges of global warming?ML:&nbsp;At DECATHLON, sustainability and global warming have a huge influence on the employees I meet. For example, spraying of cotton causes pollution, uses a lot of water etc. There is a collective consciousness that is being created. Global warming will also have positive consequences, depending on the country. We look at what is happening, and the opportunities for rebound. We look to difficulty as a source of progress. We are working on it intensively.Q: What place does family have in your life?ML:&nbsp;100%, everything. These various aspects of a person’s life are not added, they have a multiplying effect. A person who is happy in their personal life will also be happy in their professional life and vice versa. There’s no opposition. You shouldn’t sacrifice one for the other.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/decathlon6_2eeaa00ca8.jpg" alt="">Q: You are 80 years old and you have started a new business, a training center. Can you tell us your motivation?ML:&nbsp;It is a training center so that more people can be happier.It’s a direction, not a target, not a goal. Happiness is not quantifiable. How to find the meaning of life in our professional activities? Shared happiness is amplified. Pleasure is different from happiness. Pleasure is more fleeting, more superficial. Happiness lasts. I invented a definition that suits me: “I live better, I act in line with the meaning of my life, so I feel happy.”Q: What would you say to young people today?ML:&nbsp;To try to make your environment and their friends happier. May all the people around you be happy.Q: What words of wisdom would you like to share?ML:&nbsp;I’m not a sage, that’s not my thing. I can just say that money should not be the goal of any business. What seems important to me is love – love for the other. It’s always been the way of the world. What’s important does not change. It is acting for the good of the other, not just wishing for it.Q: Thank you for your openness and for this moment of sharing.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Interviewed by CHRISTINE MOLLE</h4><hr>

Spreading happiness

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MICHELE DONGMO

<h4>MICHELE DONGMO finds her guidance from within. Here she shares her way of finding clarity, direction and purpose in life.</h4><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/meditate_listen2_43389ffe00.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T04:42:35.389Z"> As a curious mind, I like to research new and useful inventions with the help of technology. I like practicing meditation and Yoga, and I love dancing, singing and traveling. Everything that helps me to be useful to myself and others automatically becomes a passion for me.I have had this deep feeling of knowing my origin to be not only at the human or physical level, but beyond. Having a mother who is as passionate about spirituality pushed me into it, too, and I began meditating in 2008. To me, meditation means constant change. It has helped me to accept life as it is. I still get angry sometimes, but more so with myself. It goes away quickly, especially when I use my practice to let go of emotions, or because of a strange positive thought, and my heart is always light, free.Like other youth my age, I want to control my emotions, not allowing any external changes to affect me. When I come across difficulties, I try to find solutions, and when I don’t find them I give them up to a higher power. Through meditation, I have learnt to listen deep within me. I stay quiet, I listen, and when clarity emerges, I decide what to do.If you wish to follow your heart’s dreams, I would ask you to do more research on what you want in life, and to <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/transmission-the-field-that-makes-it-possible" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">meditate</a> so as to know if you have enough passion and patience to fulfill your dreams. The heart never gives rough answers, but the mind might misinterpret the heart’s response. So focus on your deeper self, talk to yourself in a quiet way. Meditate.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Focus on your deeper self, talk to yourself in a quiet way. Meditate.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by MICHELE DONGMO</h4><hr>

Meditate … listen!

Michelle Obama

The arts

Value yourself

Try new things

Mira is a transplant from the UK, happily rooted in Austin, Texas. The Covid 19 worldwide lockdown in 2020 gifted her with the good fortune of learning to creatively write non-fiction through the University of Cambridge, UK. She now enjoys combining her love and respect for Nature with the joy of writing.

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Mira Madhav

Awakened soil

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Mirabai

Behold the ocean

Don't forget love

Mirabai teaches contemplative practices and develops programs based on contemplative principles and values for organizations. Her spiritual studies include two years in India with Neemkaroli Baba; with Buddhist teachers Shri S.N. Goenka, Anagarika Munindra, and IMS guiding teachers; with Pir Vilayat Khan and Tibetan Buddhist lamas Kalu Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Gelek Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche; and intensive practice in Iyengar yoga and Aikido under Kanai Sensei.

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Mirabai Bush

The heart is where we experience connection

Women & spirituality

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">In this interview, MIRABAI BUSH is interviewed by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about the influence of spiritual practice on relationships and the healing of wounds like betrayal and loss. She also explores the interconnectedness of all beings and the impermanence of life through the lens of spiritual practice.</h4>&nbsp;PR: Welcome Mirabai. It’s lovely to have you with us again.MB: Thank you Purnima, for me too.PR:&nbsp;Today I’d like to ask you about how a spiritual practice can influence our relationship with others.MB: When I first learned meditation and other practices in the Buddhist tradition, which came out of a monastic setting, they were about sitting on the cushion, closing your eyes, and being with yourself. It had nothing to do with other people. And yoga was something you did with other people, but it wasn’t about relationships. There are old clichés about navel-gazing, and how contemplative practices cut you off from the world and others rather than connect you. Well, the truth is, some practices done in silence, like meditation, do leave you by yourself, even in a room with others. Through spiritual practice, though, you begin to recognize how you are interconnected with everything, including other people.As you learn to be at home in the space of awareness, you naturally recognize that it holds everything and that there is no other. We’ve been working on a new book, curating some of Ram Dass’s writings on interconnection, and we’re going to call it There Is No Other. Because, at this time, especially in the USA, but also in India, people are increasingly separating themselves from other groups. We know that treating others as if they are separate means they are not treated with the care, love, and respect we give to those we see as like us.Meditation, and other <a href="https://heartfulness.org/global/making-meditation-a-daily-habit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spiritual practices</a>, help us come home to awareness, show us that there is no other. This is something we begin to know ourselves. We don’t have to hear it from anyone else, though teachers help by reminding us of what we’re discovering inside.Also, practices of compassion, love, and kindness help in a specific way. Compassion is empathy. It is the ability to walk in another’s shoes and feel what they’re feeling. That’s the heart of compassion. Compassion also includes the desire to relieve another’s suffering, rejoice in their happiness (which can be difficult), and be moved to act in ways that ease their suffering. To do this, you need to be aware and empathic, knowing what another person is going through, and what their suffering is. You also need self-awareness.In dialogue and relationships, it’s important to understand what you’re bringing to the situation, as well as what the other person is bringing. That awareness comes from <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/4-pillars-of-self-development" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">self-awareness</a>. We all know times when we’re on automatic, bringing prejudgments to a situation. Seeing that is crucial. It allows you to see who the other person is, separate from who you want them to be, or what your biases are. These practices are directly and practically useful for creating good relationships and for truly being present, being here in this moment with others.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Compassion is empathy.&nbsp; It is the ability to walk in another’s shoes and feel what they’re feeling. That’s the heart of compassion.</h4><hr>I’m not making Ram Dass into a saint, but he taught me a lot about this. When I first traveled with him, he was already a teacher. People loved being with him, loved hearing what he said, and they were always happy talking to him. That seemed normal, and we took it for granted. At the airport, he’d go to the desk, and he would just be there, not saying anything special, not doing anything in particular, just being really present with the person behind the counter. And I’d notice how that person, while doing their job, would suddenly smile a little or seem genuinely happy handing him his ticket. It kept happening, over and over.How does that happen?It wasn’t about the particular person he encountered. Over time, I worked on it myself because it’s such a beautiful way to go through life. To have these moments with people you may never see again, with all kinds of people, as well as in your closest relationships. To have those moments of “here we are, doing our thing. This moment will never come again, let’s be here for it.” We can talk about that idea, but the ability to actually do it, to let everything else go and be fully present in the moment, comes through practice. In my experience, that’s what has helped me.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_more_powerful_death2_7afb87e782.webp" alt="love-more-powerful-death2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_love_more_powerful_death2_7afb87e782.webp 119w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_love_more_powerful_death2_7afb87e782.webp 382w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_love_more_powerful_death2_7afb87e782.webp 573w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;PR:&nbsp;Thank you. That’s really beautiful. I would like to ask you about the other side of a relationship: How do <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-legacy-of-my-mother" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spiritual practices</a> help heal wounds like betrayal, loss, and grief? It’s easy to discuss these ideas, but how do we truly heal the heart? Betrayal, loss, and broken trust happen not only in relationships with a spouse or partner, but also in friendships, professional connections, or any bond.MB:&nbsp;I was thinking about this before we got on this call, and some examples in my life came up, like a blues song by American blues singer Keb’ Mo’. He said, “I’m feeling like dust on an empty shelf.” I can remember feeling that way.The basic things a spiritual practice teaches us are: first, it’s all interconnected, and second, it’s all impermanent. Now, at 85, I can say everything is changing all the time. The message is to recognize that. Moments come and go, so many things in our lives come and go, and even within relationships, they’re always changing. Spiritual practice helps us let go of negative emotions, not repress them, but let them go and be here in this moment. Often, even if someone has left and your heart is broken, in this moment, everything’s okay. I’m here, I’m alive, and the future’s ahead of me.Self-awareness really helps with recovering from hard loss, seeing how much of it is real and how much you’re bringing to it. In a classic relationship: “Okay, he or she has left. He doesn’t love me anymore. He’s gone.”The whole issue of self-judgment is important. It’s not about stopping it, but seeing it as it arises and letting it go. Then continuing to see it and let it go. Self-compassion allows you to love yourself. Simple self-compassion meditations, like putting your hand on your heart and saying, “I’m having a hard time right now. Everyone suffers. I’m suffering now. I give myself the care and kindness I’d give a good friend if she were suffering,” can really help. Just breathing in and out that loving-kindness for yourself makes a difference.In recent years, I’ve worked a lot with grief and loss around death. I wrote Walking Each Other Home with Ram Dass, and I’m old, so people around me are dying. Every relationship ends in one way or another; ultimately, one person will die and that relationship, as it stands, will end. But loving relationships never truly end. When people die, the love remains within you. That being is there in a different way, you’re not alone. I’ve heard that before, but after losing so many close people, I’ve realized it’s true.I had a dream about Ram Dass after he died. We’d been friends for 50 years, and losing him was a huge loss. In the dream, we were sitting on cushions in a circle, waiting in silence. I leaned back and touched him, and I felt this warm, light feeling that everything was fine. He leaned back too and said, “I’m here.” That was the end of the dream. It felt like a confirmation that even when the loss is through death, the love and connection remain.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Spiritual practice helps us&nbsp; let go of negative emotions,&nbsp; not repress them, but let them go and&nbsp; be here in this moment.</h4><hr>Relationships of all kinds—romantic, familial, and friendships—benefit from appreciation and forgiveness. Compassion practice helps; recognizing that this person, like me, just wants to be happy, and they’re doing what they think will make them happy, even if it hurts me. And they’ve suffered too, just like me.We’re all doing the best we can with what we understand at the moment. That perspective helps. It’s not all about you, it’s also about them. I’ve been the person who left, and that’s hard too. Practice helps you not take yourself too seriously and see things as they are.PR:&nbsp;You spoke about loving and dying, about impermanence in relationships, and about feeling that the person is still with you. When we say affirmations, like, “Yes, my loved one is with me,” or think about someone who has passed, we do feel that connection. Sometimes we have had very little time with someone who is very loved, cherished, and close. I think about how that love carries forward, even if the time together was brief.MB:&nbsp;Grandparents and great-grandparents, for example, are very important. I am one too, a grandparent. I have one granddaughter, and my relationship with her is one of the most precious in my life, and I know it is for her too. And I know I’m going to die pretty soon before she does. When I started writing the book, I began thinking about how long people remember us after we die. I thought about my mother, who died 40 years ago, and tried to remember, what do I really remember about her? I have an idea of my mother, but how much do I actually remember?I used to run groups for women in spiritual practice, and we’d go around the group in the beginning. Each woman would say her name, her mother’s name, her grandmother’s name, as far back as she could go. Most women in this country couldn’t go past their grandmother’s first name. Immigration cut off a lot of family lines for various reasons. That made me realize that if Dahlia (my granddaughter) has a daughter in the future, that daughter probably won’t know my name. That hit me. How could that be? But it was true for so many women.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_more_powerful_death3_80b86eb3ff.webp" alt="love-more-powerful-death3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_love_more_powerful_death3_80b86eb3ff.webp 119w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_love_more_powerful_death3_80b86eb3ff.webp 382w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_love_more_powerful_death3_80b86eb3ff.webp 573w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">It’s important to know that&nbsp; we grieve because we’ve lost someone we love.&nbsp; Without love, there’s no grief.</h4><hr>So I asked: What practices can we do to keep the people we love alive, so what they brought into the world can continue to be a gift for the rest of us?In many cultures, they already do this, but I made a little altar. I put up pictures of the people I love who have died and promised to visit them every day, even if just for a moment, to remember. I put it in my meditation room, and every day I’d stop at the little table altar and look at each picture. What I found (and this is an aside, but it has to do with aging) was that in the beginning, there were about half a dozen pictures. By the end of the two years writing the book, there were so many pictures that I had to start another table. So many people were dying. Now there’s a crowd there. I have to go in and say hello to each one of them. A lot of times, we just have pictures around of people we love who have died, but I tried to make it more ritualistic, more formal, so it became a practice. I’m more likely to do it every day than just appreciating the pictures when I happen to see them.It’s important to know that we grieve because we’ve lost someone we love. Without love, there’s no grief. If someone dies who you don’t care about, they’re just gone. Grief is really about love, and that love doesn’t go away. You carry them in your heart, you just need to awaken it, to remember, for them to come alive within you. As I said, I’d heard those words in my life, but it wasn’t until I started losing people I really loved, people I didn’t want to lose, that I began to see grief as not a loss, but a transformation.Neem Karoli Baba Maharaj ji said, “Love is more powerful than death.” It turns out, the people we love stay alive in that love, even when their bodies die.I just finished writing a memoir because I wanted the stories to be there. We learn through stories. Also, grief is real. Just because it is only the body that dies doesn’t mean grief isn’t real. It’s different for everyone, because it depends on the whole relationship and past losses that resurface. It comes in surprising ways.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Neem Karoli Baba Maharaj ji said, “Love is more powerful than death.” It turns out, the people we love stay alive in that love, even when their bodies die.</h4><hr>It’s important not to feel, “I shouldn’t be grieving,” but to honor it. If you’re feeling sad, acknowledge it: “Yes, I’m feeling sad. People feel sad when they lose someone they love.”Honor that grief. Don’t repress it. Use the same self-compassion to see it, honor it, because it’s there for a reason. It’s there because you’ve loved someone so much, and it’s trying to find a new way to be with that being.PR:&nbsp;I like what you said: it’s a new way of being with your loved one. And it’s a very mature way of looking at it. I never thought of it like that. Thank you so much for this beautiful and insightful time we spent together.MB:&nbsp;Thank you, too.&nbsp;

Love Is more powerful than death

Miriam has been working as a professional silversmith since 2008, creating pieces for private clients and public commissions, including the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, Eton College, New College Oxford, The Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Museum of Wales. Her work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions internationally, including in the UK, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Finland.

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Miriam Hanid

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<h3 style="text-align: center">AN ART ESSAY</h3>
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<h4>
 <spanundefined>MIRIAM HANID is an artist
 silversmith. In 2016, she was interviewed by
 ROSALIND PEARMAIN for Heartfulness
 Magazine about her art and her motivations. Five years later, they catch
 up again to find out more about Miriam’s journey, and where her art has
 taken her.
</h4>
<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <spanundefined style="color: #b98d30">Q: The last time we reflected on your work it was in&nbsp;<a style="color: #b98d30" href="https://www.heartfulnessmagazine.com/silver-and-water/"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">2016</a>. Looking at your website, you have been so busy since then,
 continuing
 to create so many exquisite works of sheer beauty. How have you sustained
 this output?


 <spanundefined>MH: Wow, time flies! Thank you, it’s
 always nice to receive good feedback about my work! Many factors come to
 mind about how I have sustained my output, but I would say the main ones
 are rest, motivation, and beauty. While these words may not seem to be
 closely linked, they all work together for me. It is extremely difficult
 to be motivated without proper rest. Working at an optimal level, the best
 possible, work seems more like play and the end of the day comes as a
 surprise. The work is so enjoyable, and one is completely absorbed in it.
 I believe that leads to great rest.


 <spanundefined>As the days and months pass, when reflecting on my career so far, I often
 look back on the most productive times with much amazement. But I have
 found myself overlooking the times of non-doing – those necessary inner
 periods when I’m just resting, relaxing and absorbing all that is going
 on. I now know that these are the opportunities where inspirational seeds
 can poke their heads above the surface to see what the conditions are like
 for growth. If my motivation is replenished (more on that later), and I
 can nourish those seeds, I can catch many new ideas for silver pieces,
 textures, forms and patterns which then come into being.
 


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<img class="w-100" src="
 https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/silver2_6b5bd5181f.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T03:15:37.102Z
 " alt="silver" />
<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 <spanundefined>Working in precious metal is laborious, particularly chasing and
 engraving, my two signature techniques. The metal demands care, attention,
 and precision at every step. Nothing can be rushed, or it ends up taking
 longer to correct mistakes.


 <spanundefined>The driving force behind any work, whether the physical sculpting of the
 silver, or planning and designing, is undoubtedly motivation. There are
 countless books on how to find your “why power,” the reason why you do
 what you do. If the mental or emotional “why” is strong, the physical work
 will fall into place and become easier. To brighten up someone’s spirit,
 to give a gift of hope, to surpass my past performance, to thank the
 universe and all the people in it for all the things I’ve learned so far,
 and to express them in a creative expression of gratitude, I find myself
 going back to my why at times of difficulty. It is hard to put into words,
 but I think this is where beauty comes in. The expression and gift of
 beauty is probably my biggest why.
 


 <spanundefined>John O’Donohue writes in his book,
 Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, “When we feel and know and touch
 the beautiful, we feel that we are at one with ourselves – because in some
 subtle and secret way, beauty meets the needs of the soul. The Earth is
 full of concealed beauty,” and all we are doing in art is revealing it
 from the depths of our consciousness – and perhaps from the universal
 consciousness.


 <spanundefined style="color: #b98d30">Q: Evidently, you continue to be inspired so much by the forces of
 nature, especially water, but we can see that you are also interested in
 many forms and patterns that you observe around you.


 <spanundefined>MH: I think the inspirations that
 attract me change and go through seasons. I feel I can always draw on
 water with its never-ending variety of forms and patterns, encompassing
 energy and movement which echoes the great flow of love all around us. I
 also like this to birth in different shapes and matters – those of
 botanical forms such as leaves, buds and flowers, wood, earth, stone and
 ice. I have realized more and more that the manner in which a subject is
 represented in any work is where the real richness lies. The clues around
 the subject, how it has been carefully and lovingly shaped and shaded, as
 well as represented or considered in the overall design, speaks volumes
 about what the artist is actually communicating with the receiver.


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<img class="w-100" src="
 https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/silver3_ver2_482d4e3e87.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T03:17:04.963Z
 " alt="silver" />
<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 <spanundefined style="color: #b98d30">Q: I can see that Japanese traditional forms, such as Manga, are also
 resonant for your own work and giving you a new direction. Can you say
 more about how you came to this?


 <spanundefined>MH: I have always loved oriental art,
 from the time I studied it in my A levels and the influence it had on Art
 Nouveau, to coming across beautiful woodblock prints and books, such as
 The Grammar of Chinese Ornament, which has many visual motifs
 which excite me and subconsciously feed into my work.
 


 <spanundefined>When writing my latest blog post, “<a
 href="https://miriamhanid.com/?p=1866">Oriental Inspired Works</a>,” I
 explored pen and ink Manga with a natural theme after my creative
 communication assistant, Emma, suggested I look into it. I came across
 many striking examples of exquisite mark making, which I found very
 inspirational. I can see these feeding into my use of hand engraving,
 which uses a series of lines to create different visual effects on
 silver.


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<img class="w-100" src="
 https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/silver4_33cc7e896c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T03:18:03.638Z
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 <spanundefined>Q: Recently, there were some lovely BBC TV programs by the art
 historian James Fox about Japanese art. He pointed out how Japanese
 artists and craftsmen show a reverence and care for the materials they
 shape; for example, saws and planes are pulled rather than pushed across
 the wood by a master carpenter. They revere
 
 
 <spanundefined>the spirit of the material they are working with, demonstrating the
 beauty of the humble and everyday object. I was wondering, do any of
 these strike a chord with you, too?


 <spanundefined>MH: I haven’t seen this series, but
 will definitely watch it. It sounds fascinating and seems a very natural
 way to work with the materials, which are so precious to us as
 craftspeople. Reverence and care are also very important to me when
 working with a precious metal – listening to it by observing the signs of
 stress and tension, and respecting these whilst being aware that the metal
 can be worked to its limit if treated with respect.
 


 <spanundefined>The Flower of Love Tumbler was a piece where I tried to stretch the metal
 a bit further than normal, and I’m very pleased with the result. I plan to
 continue in this way, refining as I go, and hopefully pushing more
 boundaries. There comes a point where it takes great motivation and vision
 to keep going. It is easy to stop and settle for what the piece may be at
 that moment, but I feel staying true to one’s own vision is important.
 This might equally entail knowing when to stop.


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 <spanundefined>Q: You mention the significance of simplicity.
 


 <spanundefined>MH: This has become an element in my
 designs all by itself. Looking at my work, one may think that it is far
 from simple, however, an object can be meticulously worked by hand and
 also be simple in design. That is what I aim to achieve, not adding
 anything unnecessary other than the inherent theme which runs through the
 piece. Many of my pieces are quite busy, yet I aim to imbue each piece
 with a unified feeling so that the piece is inherently harmonious.
 


 <spanundefined>The chasing or engraving often follows the same trajectory of the initial
 shape of the silver piece, and they work in tandem with its nature rather
 than having a different flow. I feel this is the same for simple living,
 and it is one of the great insights of Heartfulness – to be plain, simple,
 and thus in tune with nature. For example, as the sun rises, we also rise;
 as it sets, we rest. We are in harmony.


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&nbsp;
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 <spanundefined style="color: #b98d30">Q: Are there any pieces you have been making that are most valued by
 you?


 <spanundefined>MH: Yes, the Cascade Loving Cup,
 which was my major commission for 2020 and was delivered in October, in
 between the lockdowns in the UK. A commission for the Clothworkers’
 Company of London, the cup evokes a swirling piece of cloth and is deeply
 chased with draped fabric and yarn fibres. The piece took 800 to 1000
 hours of chasing, working the metal from the inside and outside in order
 to achieve the depth. I collaborated with a fellow silversmith, Jenny
 Edge, who developed the design of the handles and made them. Working
 together resulted in this key aspect of the design, and a much more
 dynamic piece than I could have achieved on my own, particularly as
 Jenny’s specialty is anticlastic raising, by which the inner curves of the
 handles were formed. It meant she could bring a movement and synergy to
 the handles which complemented my chasing. The turned wooden models and
 maquettes made by my father, an engineer, also greatly help the
 realization of my designs.
 


 <spanundefined>The Mountain Incense Burner is another commission that I look back on
 with particular joy. After my Union Centrepiece was exhibited in the
 “Masterpieces of British Silver: Highlights from the Victoria and Albert
 Museum” in Hong Kong, a client who saw it asked me to design and make an
 incense burner. I really loved researching the mountainous terrain, the
 flora and fauna of rural Chinese landscapes in order to design the chasing
 on this piece. It is one of my most intricate pieces to date, and took
 considerable time to create. It remains one of my favourites.
 


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 <spanundefined style="color: #b98d30">Q: I see that you have also been hosting interns. How did you find
 that?


 <spanundefined>MH: It was a great summer of 2019,
 and looking back I value it even more! I really enjoyed the vitality,
 determination and enthusiasm of my two young students, Sana and Julius,
 from Paris and Vienna respectively. They asked to come and learn
 silversmithing and chasing from me, in two-month and one-month
 internships. Their aptitude and curiosity to learn and apply the
 techniques to their own work was really refreshing, and I really enjoyed
 having them in the workshop. We made a road trip to see the master
 engraver, Malcolm Appleby, in Scotland, and had a great time at a hand
 engraving symposium there. I have many fond memories of creating,
 designing, experimenting and sharing.


 <spanundefined style="color: #b98d30">Q: How does Heartfulness affect your work?


 <spanundefined>MH: I would say that the practices of
 Heartfulness enhance my connection to my work, and transform it from
 something merely physical into a day-to-day and lifelong passion and
 personal practice. This cannot be put into words, but I would attempt to
 describe the process by saying, “If Heartfulness were not there, I would
 not be able to see in order to create.”


 <spanundefined>The inspirational people I’ve met through Heartfulness seminars and
 groups in the UK and around the world form a network of creative
 connections with beauty of spirit as a running theme. The exceptional
 talent and enthusiasm for their work of many Heartfulness practitioners –
 whatever form that work may take – has inspired and nurtured me throughout
 my career and life so far.
 


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<img class="w-100" src="
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 " alt="silver" />
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 <spanundefined>
 I should also say something about the times I find it difficult to carry
 on, when I feel depleted, tired, lacking in vision or clarity, or just
 can’t see the point of my work anymore. It’s my own regular Heartfulness
 practice that always reveals a helpful insight about the situation. That
 daily silent time with my Self brings forth new inspiration, energy,
 resources, and clarity. It supports my adventure in life generally, which
 then undoubtedly influences my silversmithing practice with a fresh
 perspective. This cannot be underestimated. It also confirms that without
 rest, motivation and beauty, I question whether any of my work would exist
 in the way it does today.


 <spanundefined>I found this quote, which is from The Creative Fire by Clarissa
 Pinkola Estés: “Because there must be a decline and a time of utter
 stillness, creativity can never be paradisical. It can never be utopia
 wherein it just flows and flows and flows with no maintenance, with no
 waiting periods. In everything manifest, there is vibrancy then decline
 followed by restoration.”


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<img class="w-100" src="
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 <spanundefined style="color: #b98d30">Q: What next?


 <spanundefined>MH: The effect of the current
 pandemic has marginally reduced my commissions, so, whilst working on
 various silver projects at a more relaxed speed, I have enjoyed exploring
 new techniques, working on a building conversion project with my father,
 spending more time supporting Heartfulness practitioners through various
 online programs and virtual meditation sessions, reading and gathering new
 inspiration.
 


 <spanundefined>I have also been having a slower pace of life, which, as I mentioned
 earlier, is very necessary.&nbsp;Thankfully, I have been fortunate to have
 consistent income from my work, which is very encouraging. My next project
 will be a Roses Beaker, as part of a collection of four beakers on the
 theme of the four nations of the UK – a concept which my client is
 commissioning from four different silversmiths. The climbing roses will be
 chased in my usual style and softly gilded with gold fading out from the
 centre of each flower.


 <spanundefined>In the long term, my husband and I have always dreamed of setting up a
 center where people can come to retreat from their busy lives, learn
 silversmithing and experience the rural beauty of Suffolk. It would be a
 creative sabbatical and a retreat from technology. I’m looking forward to
 seeing what unfolds in the years to come and to exploring how we can bring
 this project into being in order to provide a space where interested
 people can slow down and open up the ground for inspirational seeds to
 grow.

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<hr />

<h4 style="text-align: center">
 <spanundefined>
 Interviewed by ROSALIND PEARMAIN
 
</h4>

<hr />

Silver

Monica is a passionate practitioner and teacher of subtle energy with nearly 20 years experience. Combining her engineering and MBA background with studies in BioGeometry®, Vastu, Feng Shui, Energy Medicine, and biofields, she bridges ancient wisdom with a scientific perspective.

Monica.webp

Monica Verma-Vachery

How heartfulness meditation shifts our biofield and the energies in a room

Monu Singh

<h3 style="text-align:center;">A PHOTO ESSAY IN RURAL TELANGANA</h3><h4>Members of the Heartfulness Media Team traveled with DAAJI to rural Telangana on the Deccan Plateau, to document the meditation sessions he has been conducting with the villagers in Mahbubnagar District. Here MONU SINGH treats us to just a glimpse of the silent revolution that is sweeping the villages of India through meditation programs in the heartland of the country.</h4>Clean air, green farms, simple hearts and village life … it sounds so idyllic, but rural life in India can be very difficult. Here are some snippets from conversations with eight local villagers in Mahbubnagar District, about their lives before starting meditation and how Heartfulness has transformed them.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/silent_revolution2_5589d1ee9a.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T07:52:26.056Z" alt=""><hr>Elderly lady: “I had so many fears about finances, family matters. I used to fear seeing everybody, I was scared of everything.” Potter: “I was always scared that other people may harm me.” Farmer: “It has been a long time since I slept well.” Mother: “I would get very angry without realizing it.” Elderly gentleman: “I was losing my confidence.” Mother: “I don’t know how to change.”<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/silent_revolution3_4145e598c6.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T07:53:46.292Z" alt="">During our conversations, they said that in the past they tended to solve their problems only with their minds, and using the mind they were stressed. They came to understand that they could try a different approach. They all decided to try meditation, with the hope that the mind would also follow the direction of the heart.Potter: “When I would see the picture of Shiva, he was in a <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/on-meditation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">meditative pose</a>. I would ask myself, ‘What is God doing?’” Elderly lady: “We used to do what everyone did, puja etc. Husband of a married couple: “People used to say that meditation is only needed once you are old, so why do you want to do it now?” Potter: “I never really understood what meditation was.”These villagers learnt about meditation, experimented and had experiences in meditation. After a while, they also shared the changes they found in themselves.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/silent_revolution4_622925b734.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T07:54:38.823Z" alt="">Second elderly gentleman: “When I make the suggestion that there is Divine Light in the heart, I feel like a bird escaping the cage and flying freely. I do not know what happens after that.” Potter: “After I started meditating, I lost most of my fears.” Elderly lady: “Even when there is a problem, we don’t feel its presence.” Potter: “I started noticing everybody around me after I started meditating.” Shopkeeper: “After starting meditation I felt many changes and began to develop myself.” First elderly gentleman: “Now I can do a lot of things with courage.” The mother: “Anger has decreased to a great extent.”<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/silent_revolution5_844b799dbf.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T08:00:18.872Z" alt="">Farmer: “I have been sleeping peacefully ever since I started meditating.” Husband: “We will be peaceful only with meditation. We will develop mentally, and the family will become peaceful too.” Elderly lady: “When we are meditating there is no need for fear.” Potter: “You will not get the same happiness anywhere in the world that you get from meditation. Happiness is within us. The only way to be happy is to meditate. It is inside us. That’s all.” Elderly lady: “Meditation need not be restricted only to our families or a few of us.” Husband: “Everybody needs meditation.”<hr>One lamp lights another lamp. One heart inspires another heart. From one house to another. From one village to another.<hr>Elderly lady: “Now it is the heart’s turn.”<hr>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPJFnqeVVQ4<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by MONU SINGH Photos by the HEARTFULNESS MEDIA TEAM</h4><hr>

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