Thomas is a physicist at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany. He is a researcher and a bridge builder, helping experts and change-makers from all sectors of society to come together to explore the topic of sustainability, listen to each other, and develop solutions.



Thomas-Bruhn.jpg

Thomas Bruhn

<h4>THOMAS BRUHN is a physicist at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany. He is a researcher and bridge builder, helping experts and change-makers from all sectors of society to come together to explore the topic of sustainability, listen to each other, and develop solutions.</h4><h4>In part 1 of his conversation with JUDITH NELSON at the Spirit of Humanity Forum in Reykjavik, Iceland, he talks about the walking holiday he had after finishing his studies, and how it informed his perspectives on nature and sustainability.</h4><hr>Q: I was intrigued by some of the content of your session this morning, particularly when you talked about your walk, where you went from a mindset of “think, think, think” and “work, work, work” to something very different. Can you explain more?TB: That transformation came after I completed my diploma thesis. It was an intense phase of working, where I had little space for myself. Originally, I had huge plans after my studies like, “I’ll go to the Himalayas, or the Rocky Mountains, or the Andes,” but I didn’t have time to organize anything. I ended up packing a very small bag and started to walk in Germany. I only had a plan for the first three days, because there was a place I had been in my youth with my parents, and I thought, “That’s a nice place to start.” There is a place in the very south of Germany and I had intense memories of that place. I thought I would like to end up there.&nbsp;When I started walking, I realized how long it took for me to calm down, certainly a whole week. All sorts of things came to mind – music, songs, inner voices. I thought of my diploma thesis. Was there something I had done wrong? Because I was walking and I was on my own, I could observe and allow everything to be as silly as it seemed.&nbsp;<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/A_sustainable_mindset2_f26c785097.jpg" alt="">&nbsp;<hr>I wrote everything down in a diary, but the real beauty was the experience of transformation throughout that journey. I learned to let go of planning and I enjoyed that so much. In fact, it was like a pilgrimage. The less I planned, the more I was surprised at what happened. There were such beautiful encounters. Each of them was very small and insignificant.Along that road, there was one thing that everybody told me: “Oh, you must see that particular place.” But that was the least touching experience of the whole journey because it was loaded with expectation and planning. Everything that happened when I let go of planning was such a blissful experience. So, it’s the best type of holiday I have had!&nbsp;<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/A_sustainable_mindset3_0481ee2a7a.jpg" alt="">&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr><h4>Everything that happened&nbsp; when I let go of planning&nbsp; was such a blissful experience.</h4>&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>I didn’t take a tent with me, so I really didn’t know where I would sleep. Maybe everything would be occupied, maybe I would have to hitch-hike a little bit. Right after that pilgrimage, I met my wife. For years, I told her about this kind of traveling, and she said, “Yeah, sounds nice, but I don’t know, especially not knowing where I’m going to sleep.” Five years later, we did a similar trip together. Doing it as a couple was such a profound experience of letting go and trusting whatever comes up. So that’s the story of that experience. [Laughs]Q: You also talked about needing a lot less than we think we do. Can you expand on that?TB: Yes. I was carrying so little, but by the end of my travels I realized there was so much I took with me that I didn’t need. Even food. I needed less and less food during the trip. You might expect that hiking is intense for the body, so you would need a lot of food, but no, it was less and less.&nbsp;By the end, I didn’t even need any kind of impulses from the surrounding environment. It was not like I was taking a specific path to have perfect experiences. It was just, “Okay, I’m on the road, walking, and that satisfies everything I need.”&nbsp;Because I hadn’t had that experience before, I didn’t know whether I’d return after a week, or my mind might go crazy without the usual needs – distractions or calling people. In the first week I had my phone with me and I did call quite a few people just to connect, or just to let my parents know that I was okay. Even all that communication dissolved throughout the travel. That was very beautiful as well.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/A_sustainable_mindset4_8821ab4181.jpg" alt="">&nbsp;<hr><hr><h4>I feel that in any moment&nbsp; I’m a human being,&nbsp; I’m an organism,&nbsp; I am Nature in myself.</h4>&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>Q:&nbsp; The other very interesting thing in your talk was your positivity and your sense of not being separate from Nature. Could you explain a bit more?TB: That’s a weird paradox within myself. On the one hand, I don’t feel disconnected from Nature, but I grew up in an industrialized society and I work in a concrete building, and so forth. So, I feel I’m not as connected with Nature all the time as I am when I’m walking through a forest. At the same time, I feel that in any moment I’m a human being, I’m an organism, I&nbsp;am&nbsp;Nature in myself. I often wonder if the experience of “I am Nature” is not so much about the environment that I’m in as it is about the Nature that I experience in my own being, actions, and in my relationships with people and with everything around me. So, I can be alive in any context, you could say.&nbsp; &nbsp;A relationship with Nature, for me, doesn’t necessarily mean trying to find the perfect, pristine, non-human Nature out there and thinking, “Now I’m in Nature.” No,&nbsp;I am&nbsp;Nature in any moment … learning to be Nature.<hr>To be continued.We thank our partner, the Spirit of Humanity Forum, for facilitating this interview.&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr><h4>Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4>&nbsp;<hr>

A sustainable mindset

<h4>THOMAS BRUHN is a physicist at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany. He is a researcher and a bridge builder, helping experts and change-makers from all sectors of society to come together to explore the topic of sustainability, listen to each other, and develop solutions.</h4><h4>In part 2 of his conversation with JUDITH NELSON at the Spirit of Humanity Forum in Reykjavik, Iceland, Thomas talks about embracing mortality, finding a purpose, defining our role in the world, and the shift humanity is living through.</h4><hr>Q: In the Forum, you touched upon having no fear of death. You talked about the way the world is going, making a lot of people quite frightened. Can you tell us about that?TB: That’s a profound topic. When I was nineteen, I did my civil service in a home for the elderly, where people spent the last months of their lives. I really connected with people there. My grandmother died when I was nine years old, but at nineteen I was better able to engage with old people.Witnessing the final stages of their lives influenced me a lot. What was important for them? What did they reflect upon? Some had a hard time letting go because of unresolved relationships, or some trauma they hadn’t worked through. This influenced my own reflection about what kind of life I wanted to live.&nbsp;At nineteen, you’re busy finding out how awesome life is,&nbsp;but it was also important for me to embrace and welcome mortality. I can’t say that I’m not afraid of death. I want to experience life, and there is so much I haven’t yet lived. At the same time I find comfort in the notion that this existence is finite and impermanent. I can’t do anything about it anyway.&nbsp;The question for me is, “What is the purpose of my time here, and how should it be fulfilled?” That gives me a good orientation and makes me take things less seriously. “What is my contribution? What feels most meaningful?”&nbsp;Some people have a hedonistic attitude like, “I’m going to die anyway, so let’s have a party as long as it lasts.” That’s not the kind of life I want, but it does help me to be aware it’s finite.&nbsp;My work is dedicated to sustainability, and to more livable ways of life. My life is my responsibility, and if I have lived the wrong life when I leave this world, it’s only myself that I’m hurting. I’m also experiencing what’s happening in the rest of the world, and there’s so much suffering and destruction.Loss of biodiversity is de facto a degradation of the aliveness in this world. It is not easy to say I’m not afraid, because so much is beyond me. I love this world; it’s beautiful. I love humans, and I also love what we can contribute to this world. It’s more difficult to come to terms with the current crisis we’re experiencing as a globalized civilisation.&nbsp;<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Life_Death_Fear_pupose1_14b2189385.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T17:53:59.104Z" alt="">&nbsp;<hr>Q: Do you have any idea of a way forward through that? I know it’s a big question, but what can you contribute going forward? And how do you sustain yourself through all of this?&nbsp;TB: Ten years ago, my mind was on the big abstract topics like climate change, the technologies to mitigate climate change, global warming, CO2 emissions, and so forth. I still see a lot of value in those developments, but I also realize that the world I experience is a manifestation of a certain culture, and this culture is a manifestation of a certain understanding of being human. How do I define what it means to be human? How does that drive me to consume my surroundings, and to sustain my own aliveness? That is a paradox in itself!&nbsp;In the book Ishmael, Daniel Quinn writes, “You are captives of a civilizational system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live.”This is a very profound refection for me. How do we define life if it is at the expense of everything around us, even at the expense of ourselves?&nbsp;In the last ten years, I’ve gone through a shift in what I see as the next steps, and what my contribution can be. I see a different paradigm and a different culture emerging. Everywhere, there are young people and others who feel that our dominant culture doesn’t provide a meaningful life. They are like small islands where different modes of living are practiced. Sometimes I wish I could live the life I experience in these islands, but I cannot. Maybe I am just too much a child of this civilization that is not in harmony.My contribution is to connect these many islands, because they are often isolated and even suppressed. I enjoy connecting these marginalized change-agents, to give them a certain visibility, to show there is a potential for a different type of human life emerging, while the old one is reaching its limits. That’s the role in which I see myself.When I was fifteen, there was a popular game: “If you were a tool, what type of tool would you be?” I remember saying “a watering can.” That’s still how I feel twenty years later [Laughs]. I want to be a watering can for the plans I see growing as seeds in the middle of concrete environments. I feel like I’m standing in the middle, keeping a crack open so that something can grow, but I also feel my own limitations because I embody so much of the old paradigm. It’s a challenge for me to let go of the way I have grown up. Does that make sense?<hr><hr><h4>I want to be a watering can for the plans&nbsp; I see growing as seeds in the middle of concrete environments. I feel like I’m standing in the middle,&nbsp; keeping a crack open so that something can grow.</h4><hr><hr>Every time I speak about it, I realize it’s quite a tension I’m sitting in, but somehow I feel that the tension is exactly my role. It’s the right thing for me to be in.&nbsp;Q: Almost like a bridge, perhaps?TB: Yes, like a bridge or a gatekeeper.Q: Do you do any practice to sustain your inner world?TB: Yes and no. There are many practices I find valuable. I have come into contact with different approaches since I was fifteen, but they never became part of my everyday life. Over the past couple of years,&nbsp;I have been practicing Mindfulness and Compassion Meditation, but not like some people do. You could say it’s a moment-by-moment practice for me just to stay conscious of, “Am I the being I want to be? How purposeful am I being? How present am I?”&nbsp;I don’t want to push that into a corner of meditation and then go back to my work. When I have written thirty emails in a row, I sometimes notice I’m not writing as compassionately as I did in the beginning. Am I sensitizing myself to the quality I bring to those relationships and to those encounters?Sometimes it is playing the piano, sometimes it is hiking, or sitting in a meadow and looking at a lake. I don’t have a fixed routine, and at the same time I’m drawing on different experiences from people who have shared their practices with me. They are influencing the way I try to be present.<hr>

Life, death, fear, and purpose

Thomas Edison 

Trying Again

Thomas Fuller

Loving others

Thomas Merton (1915&nbsp;– 1968), was an American Trappist Monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. Merton wrote more than 50 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice, and pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among is most popular works is his bestselling autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Storey_Mountain">T</a>His account of his spiritual journey inspired scores of World War II veterans, students, and teenagers to explore offerings of monasteries across the US.&nbsp;Merton was a proponent of interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through his study of mystic practice. He is particularly known for having pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama; Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki; Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa; and Vietnamese monk Thich Hat Hans. In addition, he wrote books on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, &nbsp;and how Christianity is related to them.&nbsp;

Thomas Merton.webp

Thomas Merton

The goal of fasting

Our true selves

Rhythm and harmony

Peace demands...

Thomas was one of the first Heartfulness practitioners in the West, visiting Babuji in Shahjahanpur, India, in 1971, where he filmed Babuji for the first time. He has written three books, and his latest, In the Light Awakening, was released in April 2024. It documents his experiences with Babuji and his representatives, and the journey of a spiritual life. He continues to translate the Heartfulness literature into Danish.

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Thomas Mogensen

<h4>By the end of the 1960s, Westerners were traveling to visit the spiritual teacher, Babuji, in India. Among the first were the Danes, who all fell in love with Babuji and were instrumental in bringing the spiritual practices of Heartfulness to the West. One of these pioneers was THOMAS MOGENSEN, who first visited Shahjahanpur in 1971 with his wife and some friends. They filmed their conversations with Babuji, took many photos, and Thomas later wrote two books about these precious experiences. Here is a small vignette from one of his books, written with his signature humor, joy, and tenderness.</h4><hr>A large wooden table and some upright chairs occupy our dining room, situated and set aside solely for us in one of the buildings enclosing an inner kitchen courtyard in Babuji’s Shahjahanpur home. The very first time we eat our lunch there, he himself suddenly shows up.As expected from a good and polite host, he takes his seat at the end of the table. With a few words that food should be nourishing and simple he sinks into silence, looking down in front of himself in the humblest way you can imagine. As we dine, the situation gets more and more unsettling for our Danish sister, Vibe. She looks distressed from one to the other, then turns to Babuji gently saying, “It’s all right, Babuji, you don’t need to sit here with us.” Without further notice he says, “Thank you,” as polite as ever, gets up and leaves.Babuji takes his food squatting in solitude in a corner of the kitchen courtyard. His meals are served on a large stainless steel plate. Though the amount of food is not much, he often shares most of it with the cat, the only one sure to join him. Once in a while, someone, usually his granddaughter, Nini, drops by to see if he is all right. She instructs him to eat more, as she knows better than anyone else how a loss of appetite, if allowed to continue, can end up in the danger zone of his ulcer breaking out causing some real bad trouble. All such things are normally kept away from us, but after one of our lunches, Nini approaches us. Explaining how Babuji has not eaten anything for days, she asks us to please return to the veranda and speak among ourselves about food – any food, our favorite dishes. “You need not speak English,” she says, “and don’t speak to him. Just speak in your own language.”<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Babuji1_78b34add14.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T07:21:39.225Z" alt="Babuji1"><hr>Returning to the veranda, we find Babuji as we left him, far gone and curled up in his easy chair. We launch straight into some nice Danish talk about food, practically serving him a dish of the summer’s first new and absolutely delicious cooked potatoes with some nice cool Danish butter, a bit of salt, and a good lot of freshly chopped parsley, when his withdrawn painful condition lifts off. Surprised, he looks from one to the other as if wondering why he is suddenly taking part in such an odd conversation. Then he gets up and disappears into the kitchen courtyard. Probably the cat is already waiting there for him and his appetite to return.We ask him once about this ulcer of his, “Why don’t you just cure it yourself? You can easily do that.” He smiles and answers, “I don’t like to part with it. We have become good friends, me and my ulcer.” What’s hidden in this rather intriguing ulcer-thing, you, dear readers, are welcome to ponder over as much as he leaves us to do. Anyway, everyone eats the same simple food here. The same identical dishes day in and day out and, yes, it becomes a bit boring. Babuji senses it. “The food I serve you,” he says from his easy chair, making sure that no one from the kitchen happens to turn up, “I call ‘slaughtered vegetables.’”Now, if no one in the kitchen hears this masterly coined joke, an angel surely does, for one fine morning a local abhyasi1 appears on the scene. Round in shape and dressed all in white, we nickname him “the Baker.” He always observes the politest conduct and humbly presents his errand in quietly spoken Urdu, making Babuji lean forward, fully attentive. After a while of listening, he takes a good deep puff of the hookah, seems contented with what he is hearing, and turns to us saying, “He has invited you to take food in his house.”The very next day, the Baker returns for further instructions. Every detail of such a daring excursion must be in place, and with Babuji’s blessing the chosen evening finally arrives. In the dark streets of Shahjahanpur, our good Baker’s glowing white moon illuminated shape leads the way. Meanwhile the thought of something local, a bit of home cooked curry with some pickle on the side, grows on us. And soon we are seated at a dining table much like the one we are used to.Eagerly watching us, the Baker’s family glue to the walls around us, five foreigners alone at the table. They are so keen and polite that they hardly dare speak a word to us. And now, eager hands place the food on the table in front of us. Down to the smallest detail they are the exact same dishes we have been eating for months now! Yes, sir! This is so absurdly funny that only one person can be behind this pleasant surprise – Babuji himself. This is why he took so much time and care to instruct our loving Baker. He wanted to be dead sure that nothing unusual would happen to us, maybe even down to the dining table itself. Boy, he could serve God on a stainless steel plate, but this is what makes you love him. As soon as we complete our meal, the Baker is ready to take us back home for him to present Babuji with a detailed verbal report of the evening’s events.By the way, Babuji’s favorite dish was mushroom soup. On their travels to the West, his successor, Chariji, lured him with that when he lost his appetite. “Come on, I think they have mushroom soup for us today.”<hr>1 Meditation practitioner

Lunch, dinner, and a loving baker dressed in white

<h4>
 By the end of the 1960s, Westerners were traveling to India
 to visit Babuji. Among the first were the Danes, who all fell in love with Babuji and were instrumental in
 bringing the spiritual practices of Heartfulness to the West. One of these pioneers was THOMAS
 MOGENSEN, who first visited
 Shahjahanpur in 1971 with his wife and some friends. Here he shares the value of 50 years of
 Heartfulness.
</h4>



<hr class="vertical-space1">



In my Guide and Guru, Ram Chandra, Babuji as we called him, I found the help I needed – mentally, physically and
 spiritually. I also found a person who, in all his silent simplicity, became my friend and the very breath of my
 life, as is the current Guide, Daaji today.



<hr class="vertical-space1">




<figure><img decoding="async" width="700" height="525" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/50yrs_breathing1_700x525_82b9e6ffa0.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T06:31:44.092Z">
</figure>




<hr class="vertical-space1">



Back then, they called our system of meditation Sahaj Marg – the Natural Way. And what is more natural than
 breathing? We all breathe. Without it we are dead. Without a beating heart and a breath there is no flow of
 anything.



<div class="text-center is-style-rounded">
 <figure><img decoding="async" alt="" style="border-radius: 9999px;"
 class="lazyload img-float-right has-img-center-in-mobile"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/50yrs_breathing3_ff2384c9da.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T06:34:57.565Z">
 </figure>
</div>



That was the condition in which my Guide found me, not I him, 50 years ago. He was and still is “the finder.” He
 finds us and leads us on to find our true natural way of life. He breathes it into our hearts. Hidden to us, it is
 something we already are every second of the day, and the night as well. We sleep and we breathe. We breathe and we
 live. So, why yoga and meditation if that breath of life is not there?



Who wants to struggle with a lifeless yoga? Who cares to meditate for hours, breathe in certain odd ways, recite
 endless mantras, or fall to their knees with non-stop praying? The only thing we really need is to forget ourselves.
 Forget who we are. Forget who we think we should be, so that we can become what we have always been, a breath of
 life.



Such a method sounds so easy. And it is easy. You don’t need to sit with a straight back and legs crossed for hours
 and hours suppressing yourself into some sort of mindset. That is what practitioners of yoga have sadly often done,
 and some of us still do, because we still live in the past.



In my Guide and Guru, I am daily found. By someone who doesn’t live in the past. He is not hanging onto anything. He
 doesn’t expect anything, not from you and not from me. He doesn’t remember yesterday and before, cling to it, or get
 stuck in it. He is always here, now, urging us to forget and become. A new way of breathing. A new way of moving
 through life. That is meditation in a nutshell. That was what I needed back then, still now, and tomorrow as well.




<hr class="vertical-space1">



<figure><img decoding="async" width="700" height="525" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/50yrs_breathing2_700x525_2435440d1d.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T06:36:25.027Z">
</figure>




<hr class="vertical-space1">



So, dear sisters and brothers, whoever reads this, I wish you peace, tranquility, and prosperity. We all worry about
 our lives, children, grandchildren, pandemics, and wars. 



Apart from the methods themselves, what have 50 years of Heartfulness Meditation given me to tackle all these worries
 and my own inner turmoil? In the most simple terms, the Guide gave me a friend. One who doesn’t want to teach me
 anything except to breathe in the most common natural way. In such a breath of life, a mere possibility to move on,
 we can all be, and become unknown to ourselves. We can know the Unknown. For that I am forever thankful. For that I
 am forever on the road.



<hr class="vertical-space1">

50 years of breathing

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<h4>
 By the end of the 1960s, Westerners were traveling to India to visit
 Babuji. Among the first were a group of young Danes, who fell in love
 with Babuji and who were instrumental in bringing the spiritual
 practices of Heartfulness to the West. One of these pioneers
 was&nbsp;THOMAS
 MOGENSEN,&nbsp;who first visited Shahjahanpur in 1971 with his wife and some
 friends. Here he shares some personal stories about how he found
 balance and equilibrium, with some wisdom from Babuji.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 Nobody could teach me how to ride a two-wheeler bike. My father, my
 mother – they all had a go at it. As long as they ran beside me,
 supporting me with a firm grip on the broomstick mounted behind my
 saddle, I was all right. As soon as they loosened their grip I lost my
 balance. It happened over and over again. Letting go, they gave me a
 slight push into the freedom of biking on my own. I fell and they gave
 up. I must have been about seven years old.



 Then, on a warm sunny summers day, I succeeded in pestering an ice cream
 out of my mother. The ice cream parlor was not just a short walk away.
 You had to follow a dirt road, a mere wheel track, all the way through a
 plantation of pine trees surrounding our summer house to finally reach
 the small village. The first thing to catch my attention was Martha’s
 Ice Cream Parlor, a blue painted shack, soda pops, sausages, that sort
 of thing, and then the ice cream of course.



 Anyway, that particular day I jumped my bike, wheeled all the way to
 Martha’s, had my ice cream and wheeled back home again without fully
 realizing that I was actually biking.&nbsp;Now, had anybody kept
 pouncing on me, “You must do this … No, no, not like that,” it would
 have surely created dislike, resentment, sadness, inferiority feelings,
 and anger. To ever go near my bike again, I would have had to conquer a
 samskara as deep as any we toil to get rid of. My interest and
 curiosity, joy and energetic pedaling would have been blocked from
 carrying me into the art of mastering my bike. I would have ended up
 “school tiered,” as we say in Danish. For years!



 In school, no one could teach me how to read or write properly. Reading
 took time. My handwriting was a mess of small and capital letters
 jumping up and down. The teachers worried, and particularly my father.
 Seventh grade. Something wrong! Then, one fine afternoon, I returned
 from school, sat down and wrote my thesis for tomorrow in the orderly
 handwritten style I still have. A revelation! An angel’s gift right out
 of the blue. What a profound experience producing even more joyous
 pedaling into reading a ton of books.



 Some weeks before Lalaji’s centenary celebration in 1973, I sat alone on
 Babuji’s veranda with Lalaji’s book, Truth Eternal, struggling
 to understand what I was reading. On the verge of giving up, I realized
 that Babuji had appeared from inside his study, now standing there next
 to his easy chair watching me. I looked up. With something like disgust
 he looked at me, then at Lalaji’s book, saying, “This is a very old
 book. Now he has written some new ones. You should write your own book.”



 With the words, “Now he has written some new ones,” he referred not to
 Lalaji but to himself and his own books, while I dropped
 Truth Eternal into my lap, leaned back and relaxed just as he,
 absorbed in his Lalaji, did in his easy chair.



 Books are okay, a few inspiring pages on a rainy day, but who wants to
 become a quotation machine? You know, feed it a question, pull the
 handle, bing! Right answer, 10 points. Babuji didn’t return to his study
 to fetch a load of books and throw them into my lap on top of
 Truth Eternal. He didn’t say, “You must read all these books
 within half a year, otherwise you will not …” He didn’t say that. He
 said, “You should write your own book.” He could have said, “You should
 ride your own bike,” because that was in fact what he did for us
 youngsters hanging around him on the veranda outside his study in
 Shahjahanpur.



 He urged us to ride our own bikes deep into our own interest and
 curiosity, our joy and vital pedaling, by his grace turning us into what
 he still wants all of us to become, whether we are good with books or
 not. The track is clear, the road ready. “Experience will show,” he said
 while literally throwing me empty-handed into conducting my very first
 group meditation during Lalaji’s centenary celebration in Chennai 50
 years ago. What an easy and simple way to enjoy the ice creams
 constantly transmitted to us. “Experience will show.” Close your eyes
 and open that book. There is not a single word in it. Not even a capital
 letter. Find your own balance. “Do and feel.” That, to me, is the
 essence of riding bikes in a natural way.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 Find your own balance. “Do
 and feel.” That, to me, is the essence
 of riding bikes in a natural way.
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

Ride your own bike

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">EMILIE MOGENSEN rekindles a correspondence with her father, THOMAS MOGENSEN, which she started in her youth. Years later, she now asks him about what truly matters to him after a lifetime of meditation, spirituality, and living in the world.</h4>History is repeating itself and I’m remembering sitting as a young girl in Manapakkam Ashram, where I spent long periods of my youth. I would stay in the simple dormitory and truly enjoy the simplicity of bare feet and daily meditations. A rather big contrast to my young life back in Denmark.&nbsp;This was before the internet, and I would send my father handwritten letters sharing my experiences with him, getting the replies a few weeks later by snail-mail. Those were the days!One letter I remember in particular had me explaining to my dad how fortunate I felt to spend so much time with my spiritual guide at the time, Chariji. I wrote how I didn’t feel I deserved this time of magic, where I received so much attention and presence, opening up a window to my inner dimensions to an extent I long for today.The reply from my dad was very different from what I expected. He simply wrote that I didn’t deserve it, and that is what makes a spiritual guide special. He gives it anyway! He gives something that no human can ever deserve. With advice not framed as advice; that is how my dad always brought us up, my brother and me. He wanted us to discover from within and not because of outer dogma.I live according to this profound wisdom every day-no human can ever deserve what is so much bigger than any action or any thought or any feeling. It evokes humility.After the release in April of my dad’s book, In the Light Awakening, I got the inspiration to renew the letter exchange, this time over email from one part of Denmark to another.Emilie: Hi dad, congratulations on your new book being released! We are all very happy for this achievement, and I am eager to ask a few questions. If you could put only one word on what your spiritual guide Babuji was for you, what would that word be?Thomas: Becoming.Emilie: Evolutionarily speaking, we are in the midst of so many planetary and human crises, and working with educational projects for young people, I know how extremely challenging it can be to be young nowadays. How can “Becoming” be translated into something that your three grandkids, aged 16, 18, and 23, and all other youngsters can benefit from today?Thomas:&nbsp;Benefit and becoming walk hand in hand. Babuji always said, “On and on.” Young and old. It is our trademark. Then we will become One.Emilie: Not everyone has had or will have the opportunity to spend time with spiritual guides, in person, as we have had in our family. What would be your best experience in life, where you felt this becoming in another way than sitting at the feet of Babuji in Shahjahanpur? And why?Thomas: It happened to us. It can happen to anyone. I was 22 when Babuji picked me and your dear mother up. Then you, your brother, your sister, and my grandchildren blessed my life. What can be greater! &nbsp;I became a grandfather.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Benefit and becoming walk hand in hand. Babuji always said, “On and on.” Young and old. It is our trademark. Then we will become One.</h4><hr>Emilie:&nbsp;Can becoming be cultivated intentionally? How?Thomas: By being aware.Emilie: You have always been ahead of your time. You started meditation more than 50 years ago, and now we see meditation becoming mainstream in the world. You put my brother and me into a progressive school, where values of compassion, solidarity, and creativity dictated the agenda. Now we see alternative schooling systems popping up all over. What is the future like in 50 years from now, if we make it through the planetary and human crises we are in?Thomas:&nbsp;More natural. If we dare to become natural human beings, we need nothing else. It solves everything.Emilie: What is the most important skill to develop in order to reach the vision you just unfolded?Thomas:&nbsp;To bow our heads and give our hearts to Nature. Inside and outside.Emilie: I know it was not always easy to go your own way. Your parents were not particularly fans of you traveling to India as a 21-year-old. What made you able to continue this inner quest of yours, despite being rather different in society back then?Thomas:&nbsp;I had to. The past was the past back then, too. Who wants to be stuck in the past?Emilie:&nbsp;When you are no longer here on the planet, what would you like to be remembered for? What story would you want us all to share about you?Thomas: Not me. Share Babuji’s great message for all humanity.Emilie: This makes me curious. I resonate with living in a state of surrender to that vision, but what if I am not yet there, where I feel a deep meaning in truly forgetting myself and allowing something bigger to unfold? How can young people in today’s world tap into this and truly show up in the world with a sense of authenticity?Thomas: By flying with both wings, as we say in Heartfulness. The material wing and the spiritual wing. Meditation teaches us to do that.Emilie: I am inspired when you mention Nature, as I work with regenerative education, where we use Nature as role model in how to facilitate learning around sustainability. Biodiversity is the foundation of a truly resilient ecosystem, meaning we all are different, and this is seen as a strength in our organizations, schools, societies, etc. As we harness this difference, how can we hold a vision of Oneness?Thomas: Oneness comes first. Oneness is our Nature. Look at children playing. What a beautiful resilient ecosystem they have. They fight and then they find their Oneness again. That is the spirit of Heartfulness Meditation. We are all in the same boat.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/becoming_nature2_1c4a9b6313.webp" alt="becoming-nature2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_becoming_nature2_1c4a9b6313.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_becoming_nature2_1c4a9b6313.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/becoming_nature2_1c4a9b6313.webp 800w," sizes="100vw">&nbsp;Emilie: Thank you dad, and may the wisdom in your book reach the hearts of many. May it inspire and invite some deepfelt inner reflection, and a good amount of loving, rebellious, spiritual activism.Thomas:&nbsp;A big hug to you and everyone else.&nbsp;<img class="image_resized" style="width:50%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/becoming_nature3_52d6e4d73d.webp" alt="becoming-nature3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_becoming_nature3_52d6e4d73d.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_becoming_nature3_52d6e4d73d.webp 250w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/becoming_nature3_52d6e4d73d.webp 250w," sizes="100vw">

Becoming Nature

Thomas is a Psychology M.Sc. and Heartfulness practitioner based in Chester, UK. He is interested in the fusion of spirituality and psychology, and tries to make intellectual topics understandable for a child.

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Thomas Stanley

<h2 style="text-align:center;">HOW DO YOU CONNECT WITH YOUR BELONGINGS?</h2><h4 style="text-align:justify;">THOMAS STANLEY is a psychology master’s student based in Bristol, UK. He shares his awakening to the value of decluttering and Shintoism, and what they teach us about taking better care of our planet Earth.</h4>Two weeks ago, I had an experience which inspired me to think about my relationship with the things I own. In preparation for moving house, I condensed my clothes down to what I would need for the next five days, hung them in my wardrobe, put everything else in a cardboard box, and paused. Not only did the wardrobe look different, but I felt dramatically different looking at it. A feeling of ease enveloped me, a sense of freedom.&nbsp;After living with 28 years of stuff, my awareness was brought to the weight of it all. Why had I been living with this stuff if it had been subtly weighing me down? Inspired by having fewer coat hangers to pick up, I explored the psychological impact of material belongings on our mental wellness.Environment decides our moods, our emotions, our thoughts, our actions. —Kamlesh Patel 1It’s true. Our environment affects us in many ways. More time spent in nature can improve our health and well-being,2 there is generally a higher risk of mental illness in cities than in rural areas,3 and architectural design can impact productivity in the workplace.4 It can even affect our DNA.5 We commonly think of spaces when we think of environment, but our belongings&nbsp;are also a part of it. From the clothes we wear to that box of glass jars under the bed that were going to become terrariums (just me?), the things we own are environmental factors that affect our minds.Clutter can also be an environmental factor. By clutter, I mean things in our environment that make it untidy. One study found that more clutter was associated with more depression throughout the day, fatigue in the evening, and less satisfaction in relationships.6 Our possessions, including the ones we are attached to but don’t regularly use, contribute to the clutter.7 This implies that owning more clutter-prone items can worsen our mental health. So can letting go of such items make us feel better? It seems so!In a scientific literature review on minimalism, 21 studies showed that reducing consumption and excess in one’s life improves well-being.8 Minimalism, also known as voluntary simplicity, is a philosophy that encourages us to live with less, an opposing force to consumerism. For some, it can provide an opportunity to become aware of the intentions that drive us to accumulate different things. A space to notice the thoughts and energy we give to our belongings and the energy they give back. A country with elements of minimalism ingrained into its culture is Japan.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Minimalism, also known as voluntary simplicity,&nbsp; is a philosophy that encourages us&nbsp; to live with less,&nbsp; an opposing force to consumerism.</h4><hr><figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/clutter_clarity2_23ebc07964.jpg"></figure><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Minimalist Practices in Japan</h4>The KonMari method9 is a popular organizing method developed by Marie Kondo, a Japanese author, TV presenter, and consultant known for her bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and her Netflix TV show Tidying Up With Marie Kondo.The KonMari method involves gathering all your belongings together in one place, one category at a time, and only keeping the ones that spark joy.&nbsp;To see if an item sparks joy, you hold it and see if it makes you feel joyful.&nbsp;First you go through your clothes, keep the ones that spark joy and discard the ones that don’t, then move on to books, paper, etc. The items you choose to keep are given a specific location where they will stay.&nbsp;Even though this approach is similar to minimalism, Kondo states, “Minimalism advocates living with less; the KonMari Method encourages living among items you truly cherish.”10 Following the KonMari method, you are surrounded by purposeful possessions, creating an environment that reflects the positivity within you.&nbsp;Kondo says that removing household items that don’t spark joy lets you reflect on the usefulness of each item, invoking an opportunity to learn from your past experiences.&nbsp;She says this helps to learn what the feeling of joy means to you, which will develop and aid you in future decluttering.&nbsp;Whilst tidying, she encourages you to set the intention to build an environment that will cater to the person you aspire to be.Whilst the KonMari method has seen a mainstream surge of interest, there is a deeper intention behind it, the influence of Shinto, a religious system in Japan.&nbsp;Kondo previously worked as a priestess at a Shinto shrine,11 which she says influences her method: “In Shintoism and in shrines, tidying and cleaning are regarded as mental cultivation and spiritual training. I suggest people develop their home as if it is their own shrine, which is a power spot to its residents.”Shinto first appeared in the literature over 2,000 years ago.12 In a survey, 80% of people in Japan said they practice the Shinto tradition, but less than 4% identified it as their religion.13What defines Shinto? It is the belief in Kami, divine entities that watch over the universe and live alongside humans, commonly in beautiful objects of nature.14 Humans respect the Kami and, in return, they receive the Kami’s love.15 We communicate with them through offerings and prayer, which is believed to help maintain a sacred relationship with the environment. Cleaning and tidiness are a staple ritual in Shinto, as it is believed that waste and pollution separate a person from the creative nature of Kami, known as Musubi, which connects everything and everyone in the universe.&nbsp;“In the West, we are taught that cleanliness is next to godliness. In Shinto, cleanliness is godliness.”16 This gives a deeper understanding of Kondo’s work and an alternative look at how tidying up can be changed from a chore to a divine act of gratitude.&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:justify;">The Outcome of My Experience</h4>For most of my life, I have lived in clutter: stuff on the floor, random ideas for art projects under my bed, musical instruments that I did not play, etc. I identified with my creative chaos and was partially content with it. Thinking back on it, I resented organization, being born into a family of hyper-organizers. However, my mess did create some emotional conflict and subtle brain fog, which I am still processing today. I can empathize with people who are okay with their clutter – they may have more pressing matters to attend to or a different way of life.But there is value in decluttering. One way of looking at it is that you spend less time searching for things in a scurry and less time accessing essentials, leading to more time with the things and people that spark joy.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/clutter_clarity3_a81d98fd25.jpg">If it weren’t for moving house, I probably would not have seen the value in decluttering, and I wouldn’t feel this newfound connection to my immediate environment. While disconnecting from your environment personally can create clutter, leading to increased stress and decreased focus,17 disconnecting from the environment on a global scale can lead to mass extinction and poisoning the landscape,18 which I see as the collective clutter and uncleanliness of our collaborative home.&nbsp;I now see the value in Shintoism, and feel that if each of us adopted similar rituals in our day-to-day lives to express more gratitude to the planet and take better care of her (and her belongings), we could reduce the ramifications of consumerism and restore her health.<hr><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cshOZiaxgjo">1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cshOZiaxgjo</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref2">2</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44097-3">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44097-3</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374256/">3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374256/</a> <a href="#_ftnref4">4</a><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355340634_Factors_Affecting_the_Productivity_of_Employees_in_Architectural_Firms">https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355340634_Factors_Affecting_the_Productivity_of_Employees_in_Architectural_Firms</a> <a href="#_ftnref5">5 </a><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4887632/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4887632/</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref6">6</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/0146167209352864">https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/0146167209352864</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref7">7</a> <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10253860701256208">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10253860701256208</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref8">8</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439760.2021.1991450?src=">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439760.2021.1991450?src=</a> <a href="#_ftnref9">9 </a><a href="https://konmari.com/about-the-konmari-method/">https://konmari.com/about-the-konmari-method/</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref10">10</a> <a href="https://konmari.com/konmari-is-not-minimalism/">https://konmari.com/konmari-is-not-minimalism/</a> <a href="#_ftnref11">11 </a><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/12102664/Japans-decluttering-guru-says-she-is-on-a-mission-to-organise-the-world.html">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/12102664/Japans-decluttering-guru-says-she-is-on-a-mission-to-organise-the-world.html</a>&nbsp; <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/helen-hardacre-shinto-a-history-new-york-oxford-university-press-2017-698-pp-isbn-9780190621711/F581DE6974395E5FCE0DE2FAE3931A93">12https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/helen-hardacre-shinto-a-history-new-york-oxford-university-press-2017-698-pp-isbn-9780190621711/F581DE6974395E5FCE0DE2FAE3931A93</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref13">13</a> <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781444317190">https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781444317190</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref14">14</a><a href="https://ia803400.us.archive.org/22/items/studies-on-shinto-and-japanese-religion-stuart-picken/Essentials%20of%20Shinto%20-%20Stuart%20D.B.%20Picken.pdf">https://ia803400.us.archive.org/22/items/studies-on-shinto-and-japanese-religion-stuart-picken/Essentials%20of%20Shinto%20-%20Stuart%20D.B.%20Picken.pdf</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref15">15</a> <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/Encyclopedia-of-religion/oclc/56057973">https://www.worldcat.org/title/Encyclopedia-of-religion/oclc/56057973</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref16">16 </a><a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20191006-what-japan-can-teach-us-about-cleanliness">https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20191006-what-japan-can-teach-us-about-cleanliness</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref17">17</a> <a href="https://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/2/587">https://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/2/587</a>&nbsp; <a href="#_ftnref18">18</a><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0013916506295574">https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0013916506295574</a>;<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40362-014-0021-3">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40362-014-0021-3</a>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4><hr>&nbsp;

From clutter to clarity  

Dr. Field is professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Psychology, and Psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine and Director of the Touch Research Institute. She specializes in infant development and the efficacy of massage and touch therapy in promoting growth and emotional well-being in premature and low birth weight infants. Field is the author of The Amazing Infant, Infancy, Touch, Touch Therapy, Complementary and Alternative Therapies Research, and Massage Therapy Research, as well as edited volumes.


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Tiffany Field, Ph.D.

Touch in the time of social distancing

Tiziana is a 19-year-old environmental activist. Born in Argentina, she moved to Spain in October 2021 to further her studies, develop her language skills, and fulfill her objective of studying International Relations. Tiziana has continued her environmental activities in Spain, joining the Alicante group of the Fridays for Future climate movement. 



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Tiziana Martin

<h4>TIZIANA MARTIN is a 19-year-old environmental activist, who began in her hometown of Mar del Plata, Argentina, 3 years ago and moved to Spain to develop her language skills and study International Relations as part of her legal studies. Tiziana joined the Alicante group of the Fridays For Future climate movement, and maintains strong links with Argentina, highlighting climate and environmental issues, and speaking regularly with journalists. Here she speaks with RACHEL NELSON of the Heartfulness Institute.</h4><hr>Q: Hello Tiziana, it’s great to speak with you and thanks for joining me. Is there anything in particular that started your activism, and why is it important to you?TM: It happened over time. I didn’t wake up saying, “I want to be a climate activist.” Shortly before entering that world, I represented Argentina in the Model United Nations (MUN). We discussed the role of our country with respect to the Paris Agreement, which binds participating countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and to limit global warming to well below 2 (preferably to 1.5) degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.In the MUN, we had to negotiate and deepen international cooperation and that understanding and knowledge of other countries increased my interest in the climate crisis. Moving to Europe last year reaffirmed how much I like international relations.The important thing is to be able to do more and more work, to have the freedom to express my ideas and opinions, to promote work on an international level, and to travel and get to know countries and people that contribute as much as Argentina did for me.My current goal is to study international relations related to environmental activism here in Spain.Q: Climate change is a global problem, but are there specific issues in Argentina or Spain you’re involved in or want to change?”TM: Yes, my home city’s government was recently in favor of letting companies carry out seismic exploration in search of oil and gas, but it is a coastal city, and its main economic activities are tourism and fishing, so they would be affected by oil spills.Although I disagree with the need to continue using fossil fuels, I also understand that we can’t transition to clean energy overnight, and we can’t be an environmental movement that is limited to opposing the productive projects of our country. I believe we have to devise projects that create the best possible environmental conditions, that rely on strong environmental impact studies, and promote development guidelines to enable us to generate the foreign exchange that our countries need.As citizens, we can’t be left out of decision making. It is why we try to have a political influence. This issue of the oil companies touches me very deeply, as it’s happening in my city. Knowing that thousands of people have demonstrated against this project gives me hope.The other day I was talking with my parents who attended the protest, and I understood that not only activists but average citizens are protesting, people who want a healthy future for their children, who don’t want to drink contaminated water, who want to enjoy the coast, and much more.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Tiziana2_b168b35cc4.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T11:24:39.450Z" alt="">&nbsp;<hr>Q: I live in Scotland, and we have a similar situation. A lot of our money comes from tourism and fishing, but we also have oil in the North Sea. We are asking similar questions, and we’re lucky that Scotland is very windy, so wind power is very good here. We just had the COP 26 in Scotland, so there’s been a lot of thought about it recently, but maybe fewer demonstrations here.It’s interesting to look at other countries like Argentina and see what other people are doing. We are lucky in Scotland that we’re not going to be hit badly by climate change until later. But that doesn’t mean we can sit back and do nothing, because it’s other countries we need to think about.How do you think human rights and social justice relate to the climate crisis? Is there a link?TM: Yes. The climate crisis especially affects the sector that contributes the least to it. The social and environmental crisis is an intersectional problem, encompassing many other struggles. I have been in talks with people from Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile, and many of them are native peoples, the main protagonists in the fight for the defense of land. When we talk about intersectionality, we not only talk about them, but we also talk about the fact that the gender inequalities that existed before the climate crisis are going to be a central issue. This is how the climate crisis relates to rights.In Argentina, with the installation of offshore platforms, Article 41 of the National Constitution is being delayed. It establishes that all inhabitants have the right to enjoy a healthy environment. It also establishes access to health, to clean water, and to security, among other things. So, this is a matter of human rights and social justice.Q: Yes, these problems are all interlinked. It’s not just “we’ll deal with the climate crisis then we’ll deal with social injustice,” as they’re often coming from the same issues.&nbsp;Can you tell me about the groups you’re involved in? You mentioned Fridays For Future. Are there other groups? What do you do in those groups to try and help?TM: Three years ago, I joined Jóvenes por el Clima (Youth for Climate), which is affiliated with Fridays for Future, the movement led by Greta Thunberg, the Swedish activist. We grew together in Latin America with the perspective that the climate crisis is a matter of human rights and social justice. Now, in Spain, I am with Fridays For Future.Q: The groups you’re involved in are aimed at people your own age. How do you think young people can positively affect the environment and climate change? Do young people have something that older generations don’t, or do you think it’s just a kind of push because the older generations have let things go for too long?TM: I believe in the power of young people. We are the present, and we have to guarantee the future for future generations. There is a phrase we use a lot at Youth for Climate, “Si el presente es de lucha, el futuro es nuestro!” which means, “If the present is a struggle, the future is ours.”We know what is happening, and we have to do something about it. We need a systemic change. While there are many issues that can’t be changed overnight, if we have the intention to do things well, they will become reality.Sometimes we are afraid to talk about politics, but I feel that politics are fundamental to transforming the present into the future we want. We need an involved and politicized youth.Q: Definitely. You can’t get away from the fact that the power to enact change comes from people and from government. The people in charge have to be willing to change and move things forward. Some governments do more than others, but we need a global consensus. Are governments doing enough?TM: The government projects don’t match the objectives set in the international agreements, for example, at COP 26 in Glasgow. It’s necessary to influence the areas of greatest social transformation, for example, politics and in the streets. Demonstrating and environmental discussion must be open to everyone. It is very important that there is intersectionality influencing the people in power, as they are the decision-makers.For our part, one concrete action is to police politics in relation to the climate and ecological crisis; to change people’s minds and encourage them to participate in their country’s development.Protests are a main tool to express our claims and achieve the transformation for which we fight. A clear example of this happened recently in a province in Argentina, in response to a mining bill. Thanks to demonstrations in different parts of the country, the bill was repealed.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Tiziana3_245dcec056.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T11:26:00.993Z" alt="">&nbsp;<hr>Q: COP 26 saw people getting together for change, but I know a lot of activists felt that while a lot was said, not a lot was decided, and not a lot changed. You’re right that sometimes we need more than a conference. We need people to get out there and make changes themselves. With your example, we can see that it worked.Do you have a message for young activists and people in general?TM: Something I always highlight is for people to really get involved, if not as activists, at least as citizens, as people. Many young people don’t realize the power we have; our voice, our ability to understand the need and be part of the projects and solutions.If you are thinking about getting involved in an environmental movement or organization, take heart, understand what is happening, and think of environmentally sound solutions that go hand in hand with development. Obtain new experiences and tools.For me, activism is a way of life. Once you’re committed, and advance in that process, there is no turning back. For every decision you make, you will find an intersectionality in what you think and do, and the impact your actions will have in the present and the future. I always liked international relations and politics, languages, and cultures, but five years ago I never imagined being in a social environmental movement, giving interviews on TV, etc. During the years of activism in Argentina, I made friends and colleagues, and involved myself in other struggles that have given me knowledge and values.Since I was young, I dreamed of being in Europe to continue my education. My activities here in Spain are wonderful, and I have met activists from all over the world. I learn so much from them. I have gained new tools, encountered new cultures, and practiced English, and I will take more values and knowledge with me.I am very passionate about what I do, and hope that everything I do from now on will improve things.Q: This has clearly become your life. It’s not just “Oh, I’ll do some activism today.” Everything you do lends itself toward that.With these interviews, we want to make sure that young people are being heard. Many of them are stepping out and putting themselves forward when it comes to climate. When people are doing so much work, we want to be able to hear their voices and amplify their voices.What do your family and friends think of you being an activist? Are they supportive?TM: My friends in Argentina are activists, and my family supports me and my friends, too. During the last demonstration in Argentina against the oil companies, my family attended the protest and sent me pictures and videos, because I miss them so much.Q: I can understand that. Do you have any plans for the near future?TM: My dream is to continue to grow in Europe and in Argentina too; to grow as an activist, to be able to study, to work toward environmental issues, and more and more rights for young people, for my country, for Spain. I also love meeting people from other parts of the world. I love learning about other cultures and other languages. They really teach me so much.Q: Europe’s quite good for that. There are so many countries in such a small area, so it’s easy to meet lots of different people.TM: Since I was eight years old, I dreamed of living in Europe. I told my parents I would travel to England for the Beatles, my favorite band, and for the history, too. It’s incredible to be here.Q: Do you have an idea of what career you want to pursue?TM: As a child, my dream was to work with the UN or in a United Europe. I want to be a better person with good values, to work for climate change, for human rights and social justice in Argentina, Latin America, Spain, and the rest of the world, with my friends who are activists. That is my dream. I work for that and study for that. It’s my dream to continue growing as an activist and a person.Q: Thanks, Tiziana. Maybe we should interview you again in five years to see how far you’ve gone. That would be fun!<hr><hr><h4>Interview by RACHEL NELSON&nbsp;</h4><hr>

Creating the best environmental conditions

Tobin is a professor in the University of West Georgia’s Humanistic, Transpersonal and Critical Psychology program, and co-founder of the ChildSpirit Institute, a non-profit educational and research hub exploring and nurturing the spirituality of children and adults. His work explores human consciousness at the nexus of spirituality, psychology, and education. His recent books include: The Four Virtues, The Integrative Mind: Transformative Education for a World on Fire, Spiritual Knowing, From Information to Transformation: Education for the Evolution of Consciousness, Transpersonal Knowing: Exploring the Horizon of Consciousness, and The Secret Spiritual World of Children.



Tobin-Hart.jpg

Tobin Hart

How we know - part 1

<h4></h4>
 TOBIN HART is a
 humanistic transpersonal psychologist, professor in the University of West
 Georgia’s Humanistic, Transpersonal and Critical Psychology program, and
 co-founder of the ChildSpirit Institute. In this three-part
 series, he is interviewed by
 VICTOR KANNAN,
 Director of the Heartfulness Institute USA, and in part 2 they focus on
 Tobin’s book, The Four Virtues, and especially presence, wisdom and
 the heart.
</h4>


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 Q: So, Tobin, in your book you basically talk about presence, heart, wisdom
 and creation as four virtues. In each of these, you also add and talk about
 other things. For example, in presence, you talk about the beautiful, the
 sensing, the focusing, the witnessing, and the opening.



 Can we dig a little bit deeper into this one particular virtue of presence?
 And then see how that is perhaps the most important starting point in one’s
 life?



 TH: Presence, for
 example, really tracks with beauty. So the extent to which we’re present to
 another or present to the world, is the extent to which the world opens to us.
 And in that opening, we find and hear things (and people) as beautiful. To
 really sit with and see somebody beyond their persona and beyond their
 actions, we find that they have this incredible quality of luminosity. We get
 the sense of feeling a soul. What comes out of that is often a sense of love
 and a sense of beauty.



 Sure. In the West, the most enduring depiction of the good life is captured
 with the words “the good, the true and the beautiful.” So, for me, I was
 surprised to see those tracked with each of these things that you mentioned,
 and we’ll add another one, too.



 I have a friend who was on a mission to be with people on death row, years
 ago. Those people had committed horrific crimes, there was really little doubt
 of that. At some point my friend stopped trying to preach anything, convert
 anyone, or change anything. Instead, he simply was present to these inmates,
 listening to them to see who they were. What really surprised him was that
 when he really allowed himself to lose his own agenda and just be with each
 person, their soul poured out and their beauty was revealed. It shocked him
 how much he felt love for them, despite what they had done. In his being
 present for them, they were able to be present for themselves and begin to
 feel a glimpse of their own divinity. This is how he described it. It’s magic
 in some way.



 It’s so simple, yet we come in with an agenda that we’re trying to get
 something from this encounter rather than being there, and we lose something.
 While an agenda can be a good motivator, a good starting point, it can also
 cover deeper experience – whether that is to get my walk in today, my 10,000
 steps, or whatever else it is. It’s a good motivator but we can lose the
 opportunity of presence if we don’t leave the goal behind and be present in
 what we’re doing. If we can’t suspend the surface goal or agenda, whether it’s
 meeting a death row inmate or going for a walk, beauty stays in the
 background. It’s not there in the same way.


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 Q: So presence is to be present to the extent that we can appreciate the
 other.



 TH: I think that
 appreciation is both an outcome and also a portal – to lead with curiosity and
 to move into contact with the other to see who they are. It’s what Martin
 Buber would call an “I–thou” relationship, and through it appreciation emerges
 organically.



 Q: So the quality of time spent in the encounter is one way to look at
 presence, right?



 TH: Yes, I think
 quality is the right word for this. I remember one time when my wife had to go
 out of the country. I had our two little kids and my work, and I was also
 filling in for some of her work. I was overwhelmed. I remember the first night
 putting the kids to bed and sort of shouting with frustration, “Okay, just go
 to sleep now!”



 I was overwhelmed, and after realizing the energy I was giving out, I
 basically said to myself, “Oh, this is awful. I love my kids. I love chance,
 but The extent to which we’re present to another or present to the world, is
 the extent to which the world opens to us. And in that opening, we find and
 hear things (and people) as beautiful. INNERVIEWI’m hating this. So what can I
 drop away? What’s really the priority here?” I hadn’t let go of my
 self-imposed agenda of “I want to get this done this week. I want to finish
 that.” I finally calculated what I absolutely had to take care of during that
 week, and just let everything else go. I ended up having the most glorious
 week with my kids. I fell more deeply in love with them than ever before. As
 you said, it was the quality of time spent and a change in commitment and
 priority.



 Q: So how do you recognize that you are not present, even though you’re
 physically there? What are the tools and techniques that we can use to
 recognize and remedy the patterns of non-engaging presence?



 TH: I think one of
 the most powerful ways is through the body. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, for
 example, says that if you change how you think about something, it will change
 how you feel. Other folks have gone a different way, for example, Eugene
 Gendlin created something called Focusing. He discovered that in psychotherapy
 it wasn’t simply insight, but also a felt sense that helps make change and
 growth happen. We know insight is helpful, but it’s not the same thing as when
 you have a felt sense, that is, a bodily sense of meaning. That’s when change
 actually happens in therapy, for example. It becomes embodied.



 One of the trailheads toward presence is to increase embodiment; increase
 awareness of subtle cues in our heart, in our mouth, and in our gut. For
 example, we know that the enteric nervous system (the gut brain) is full of
 neuropeptides and their receptor sites. We used to think they were only in the
 brain. We understand that they’re involved with thinking. We discovered in the
 ’80s that they’re also in the gut and throughout the body. So the whole body
 is this thinking, feeling being. Even to make a distinction between thought
 and feeling is very difficult. This felt sense is our constant available
 touchstone to check in to see how present we are, and what we’re present to.



 For example, if I say, “Wow, something isn’t right,” and “I feel a little
 tension in my abdomen, what’s that about?”, that’s the trailhead to follow so
 that I can be present to myself in order to be present to something else.


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 The extent to which we’re present to 
 another or present to the world, is the extent to which the world opens to us. And in that opening, we find and hear things (and people) as beautiful.
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 Other times, things come from the outside; we’re grabbed by beauty, or by
 something unexpected. Toward the end of his life, after he had had a couple of
 heart attacks, Maslow had what he called plateau experiences, instead of peak
 experience. He began to talk about presence. He said that in that state you
 get stabbed by things, by babies, by flowers, by beautiful things, and just
 the very act of living. It’s this idea that the outside creates this real
 resonance if we’re open to it in some way.



 Q: So, that’s where he probably says that beauty kills, right?



 TH: Kills the
 separate Self. Yes.



 Q: You also talk about the heart. You assigned the beautiful to presence,
 the good to the heart, and the true to wisdom. The heart is also a place of
 enormous duality and emotion, right?


TH: Yes.

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 Q: So both pain and suffering as well as good and kindness are all in the
 heart. How do you feel the heart through the duality of emotion? I ask this
 because most of us are trying to avoid pain and seek pleasure. How do we
 make sure that the heart – either as an instrument or as an organ of feeling
 – can navigate through these dualities and also become either a tool or an
 indicator for how we are leading our lives?



 When you mentioned connecting as part of the heart, if I take “the good”
 with the connection, how do we connect to the good, while also recognizing
 the connection to the bad and the impact of that?



 TH: That’s a big
 question, isn’t it?



 What I see is that the heart is not discriminant. It’s here just to feel and
 to love. It’s about compassion, it’s about empathy. It’s about connecting.
 This may be a more limited notion than your use of the word “heart” or
 “heartfulness.” But for me, to be in the world, and to feel it in some way,
 are essential to bringing wisdom into this life. We can only do that by first
 really encountering the heart as fully as we can. Then we have a chance not to
 be consumed by feelings, but to be able to be with them in a way that is
 transformative.



 In the United States, we have this thing called “life, liberty and the pursuit
 of happiness.” It’s a mixed bag, right? These days we have an expectation that
 if we’re not happy, if we’re not doing something that we’re happy about,
 something’s wrong with us. So it becomes a value. That’s an imposition. It can
 really throw us off course. People indulge in moments of pleasure, for
 example, to find happiness, or they try to make a lot of money to find
 happiness. I would say that, instead of that pursuit of happiness, the goal is
 the pursuit of fullness in some way. We all want to feel good rather than
 jealous; we want to feel playful rather than overly serious. But putting
 feelings into Remarkable people have an undercurrent of joy, even an
 undercurrent of equanimity, even when they’re in the midst of darkness and
 despair. They may be desperately sad, but still there’s something else that
 they tap into or stand in. It’s a place of rest. It’s a place of
 steadiness.categories of good versus bad, which is a fashion these days in
 psychology, really sets us up for an oppositional adversarial relationship to
 ourselves. I would argue that we’ve created an opponent, and the opponent is
 us. So, instead, the question might be, “How can I have a sense of welcoming
 them all?”



 Rumi has a wonderful poem that many people know as “The Guest House.”
 Essentially he says to welcome all feelings, “a joy, a depression, a
 meanness,” and then, “The dark thought, the shame, the malice”… invite them
 in. Be grateful for whoever comes, for each has been sent as a guide from
 beyond.” They’re just feelings. They’re just here, leading us somewhere, to
 pay attention, inviting us to be present with them, welcoming them all, rather
 than having prejudice for one or another. There’s a s sense of, “Ah, okay,
 what do you have to show me? Can I be with that?”



 What this implies is that there’s another order of awareness and capacity to
 be with this and have equanimity, balance and even joy in this. Usually the
 way we define happiness is that we feel happy when something good happens,
 whereas the etymological meaning of the word “joy” is an exaltation of spirit.
 Joy means an exaltation of spirit.


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<h5 class="has-text-align-center">
 Remarkable people have an undercurrent of joy, even an undercurrent
 of equanimity, even when they’re in the midst of darkness and despair.
 They may be desperately sad, but still there’s something else
 that they tap into or stand in. It’s a place of rest. It’s
 a place of steadiness.
</h5>

<hr />

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 So remarkable people have an undercurrent of joy, even an undercurrent of
 equanimity, even when they’re in the midst of darkness and despair. They may
 be desperately sad, but still there’s something else that they tap into or
 stand in. It’s a place of rest. It’s a place of steadiness. It’s a place of
 clarity that says, “Yes, yes, this human world is indeed about all these ups
 and downs, this roller coaster ride, and it’s so easy to fall down any one of
 these holes, pleasure or pain. But from this other position, we can see that
 it’s bigger than that.” We see that fundamentally there’s the possibility of
 equanimity and joy.



 Q: Nice. So, this is wisdom, right? Is it something we can cultivate or are
 we born with it?



 TH: Well in Zen,
 they tell us to have a beginner’s mind. In the Book of Matthew in the Bible,
 the instructions are to turn and become like a little child; only then shall
 you enter the Kingdom of Heaven. So there’s something about this presence of
 being that seems to be tied to wisdom.



 Wisdom doesn’t come through calculation. It doesn’t come through shrewdness.
 Those things may be intelligence and they may be really useful for life, but I
 would argue that wisdom comes from something else. It comes from being in
 rapport with the mystery of reality.



 We can recognize that it involves a couple of different things. For example,
 Aquinas, who’s influential in Western spiritual thought, said that wisdom
 involves what he called “the virtue of gnome,” which means higher discernment
 or seeing into the heart of something. There is some way that the mind of a
 child sometimes sees into the heart of something, or can instantly grasp the
 emotional reality. If somebody is in pain, even though they are denying it,
 the child gets it; they see something present. Rather than shrewdness or
 calculation, it involves a capacity, a willingness and an ability to enter in
 with wonder, with radical openness, seeing from a greater height, seeing into
 the heart of something.



 Can we cultivate it? Well, cultivating heart and cultivating presence lead to
 this. One of my favorite things about wisdom is the capacity for possibility.
 Often, our minds construct things in a certain way, because our family and our
 culture construct things in a certain way. We believe that this is the way it
 is. But wisdom really believes in the possibility of all things. It’s this
 radical ability to step beyond the frame we’re in to see it from a greater
 height from within the heart.



 Sometimes great spiritual guides, great discoverers, inventors, and others
 have these moments. We’re so conditioned by our surroundings, by our
 worldview, by our family, and by our experience, that it’s hard to leave the
 gravitational pull of that conditioning in order to get another point of view.
 And yet wisdom engenders and enables another possibility; always another
 possibility.


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How we know - part 2

<h4>TOBIN HART is a humanistic transpersonal psychologist, professor in the University of West Georgia’s Humanistic, Transpersonal and Critical Psychology program, and co-founder of the ChildSpirit Institute. In the final part of this series, in which he is interviewed by VICTOR KANNAN, Director of the Heartfulness Institute USA, Tobin speaks about the intersection of western psychology and spirituality, in particular the importance of presence, imagination, wisdom, love, compassion, purity, and overcoming spiritual bypassing.</h4><hr>Q: When you talk about possibility, would faith be part of wisdom?TH: Yes, in this sense my favorite definition of faith is a suspension of disbelief. So, rather than believe in something, there is another important quality or capacity we call imagination. One of the powerful allies for wisdom and possibility is imagination. Can we conceive of another way? And can we act “as if ” for a bit? Can we hold open possibility for long enough? Imagination is a bridge between the known and the unknown. From psychology, we know our minds are so powerfully conditioned to see things, to perceive in a way, and to believe in a way. If we can imagine another way, suddenly we can free ourselves. That’s also part of what I think wisdom is about – to free ourselves.Q: So faith is also a bridge between the known and the unknown.&nbsp;TH: Exactly. Yes.Q: So imagination is the bridge between the known and the unknown.&nbsp;TH: Yes.Q: Wisdom is also a bridge between perhaps the known and the unknown at this point in time, in a way that they seem to share in the quality of each other.&nbsp;TH: Yes, absolutely. Really, I think with all the things we are talking about, if you go deep enough into any one of them it opens to all the others. Wisdom involves some other things too. It involves cultivating clarity and seeking guidance. Different capacities serve us. For example, how do we find wise guides? From our interiority, from our inspiration, from a dialogue with a good book, with our children, with our loved ones in general, and, ultimately, with any circumstance, we’re looking for signs.The indigenous cultures often read signs, such as the flight of a bird or something that crosses our path. It’s fascinating to say, “Wow, okay, what does that do for me? Why does it resonate?” Rather than making any ontological claims about somebody sending this bird to me, it’s instead, “What is that about? What does it trigger or open? How can I dialogue with this? What does it make me think of ?” So we’re always available for guidance, and it’s always available to us.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/how_we_know_part3_2_335e423034.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T15:33:53.688Z" alt=""><hr>Q: And that is not possible if we are not present. In the wisdom category, you talk about discernment, and also about the child’s ability to directly perceive things.TH: Exactly.Q: In your book, you mention a tool called SAM, the Spirituality Assessment Matrix. So, if I were to say to myself, “Hey, I want to become wiser, I want to be able to perceive things better,” then what type of assessment should I give myself?TH: You’re referring to the instrument we made. It’s just a series of questions to ask yourself. It’s for self-reflection when folks look for help, direction and guidance to develop their psycho-spiritual potential. I think it’s very difficult to do the spiritual life without simultaneously doing the psychological, and the psychological without the spiritual. SAM was designed to give a self-assessment about what your strengths are already, and what might be some specific trailheads for growth.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">How do we find wise guides?&nbsp; From our interiority, from our inspiration,&nbsp; from a dialogue with a good book,&nbsp; with our children, with our loved ones in general,&nbsp; and, ultimately, with any circumstance,&nbsp; we’re looking for signs.</h4><hr>For example, you might discover that you have this incredibly big heart, compassion and empathy, but you may not have a strong capacity for, say, discernment. Another person might have a lot of presence, being really aware and awake, and yet not have what is the fourth direction – they have not found their voice. They haven’t yet found their creative expression in the world.Maybe your capacity for love and compassion overrides any discernment. So anytime you see something or someone in need, you give to them automatically but end up feeling drained, sometimes even like a doormat. You might justify it further by saying, “Well, what I’ve given hasn’t helped, but at least I’ve given it to them.” You may even feel like a martyr in some way, suffering as you give. Yet, I would argue that to give without a very organic joy is problematic. It misses the point really. I think when folks give freely from their hearts, there is this incredible expansion, and the whole world is enriched by it. So, in this particular case, it might be that one needs to practice or develop the capacity for discernment, maybe even more particularly, self-assertion. Practicing when to say no, and when to say yes, and when to be particular in what and how to give. For example, rather than giving cash to someone who has trouble with drugs, you give meals instead. That’s where the heart really joins with wisdom so that we can serve one another.Q: You’re talking about a different dimension of all this working together, right? For example, we can be compassionate, but if we don’t have joy, we reach empathy-fatigue. If we are compassionate but don’t have wisdom, then we don’t know when to stop, or how much to give, or what to give?I feel it all works together, and that leads me to the idea of evolution of consciousness. At the end of the day, all these elements of love, wisdom etc., are in the consciousness of a person. The joy you speak about is when the evolution of consciousness, expansion of consciousness, and purity of consciousness reach a level where joy is possible.TH: When I think about purity of consciousness, I think that this is the notion of oneness; ultimately, things are all one. The notion of maya alludes to this. At this level of perception or awareness, things are illusory in relation to the ultimate, where there is oneness of all things. That’s what I think of when I think of purity of consciousness.The evolution of consciousness is tricky, because one could argue that consciousness doesn’t evolve. It’s just what it is, always. It’s pure. So, in my mind, the idea of evolution of consciousness is about how each of us, as individuals, and as a community of humanity, can really develop our presence, our love, our wisdom, and our creativity, in order to come closer to that greater mystery.I think that’s what we’re about in our own very, very particular ways. Sometimes it can be tricky, because it’s easy for folks who are very earnest and very advanced to do spiritual by passing. That is, they take that ultimate perspective of oneness and dismiss the reality of their personhood, the need for differentiation and discernment.The sentiment might be, “If all is oneness, then I need to love everything. So let me treat everything accordingly.” Yet the reality is that there’s some things that you don’t love. So there’s denial, there’s repression. What we know is this: What we resist will persist, and it will come back to haunt us. It’s what Carl Jung talked about as the shadow. Jung talked about the whole process of individuation. The process of evolution of individual consciousness is about “shadow work.”It’s about owning those parts of ourselves that we don’t want to see.William James says that the things we value most are at the mercy of the things we value least. That’s particularly true about ourselves, right? So, that’s where this trick is. I think we’re limited, but let’s accept that, and see how we engage with and move through it rather than deny and bypass. This is our work towards expanding consciousness.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">When I think about purity of consciousness,&nbsp; I think that this is the notion of&nbsp; oneness; ultimately, things are all one.&nbsp; The notion of maya alludes to this.&nbsp; At this level of perception or awareness,&nbsp; things are illusory in relation to the ultimate,&nbsp; where there is oneness of all things.</h4><hr>Spiritual bypassing is a real problem with earnest and honest spiritual seekers. That’s why the psychological and the spiritual have to go together every step of the way. To move spiritually, you have to work through, or in some way disentangle, the psychological structures that have kept you at a certain level. For example, we see great spiritual guides, people who really are remarkable in many respects, who are also abusing people. They haven’t done sufficient psychological work. On the other hand, we know lots of people who are brilliant intellectually and great personalities, but in some way don’t have the spiritual capacity or vision to really have the fullness of potential.Q: I want to go a little bit deeper into spiritual bypassing. I think this has been introduced through different terminologies. For example, in Heartfulness, the first Guide says that we have not even taken the first step in spirituality until we have improved our character. He makes a big distinction between character formation and spiritual achievement. To me, it is spiritual bypassing if you are not focusing on improving your character.Can you talk a little bit more about this, maybe giving one or two examples? That way, people can really understand that the very spiritual practice they are doing can be counterproductive if they do not increase their level of awareness of some of those shadows or blind spots.TH: Yes, sure. There is a simple everyday one, and that is practicing to be fully loving. Imagine you go to pick up your car from a repair shop. You’re having a muffler replaced, and they quoted you $60 but it turns out to be $600.You decide, “Boy, this person must need the money more than I do. From a heartful place I’m just going to give it to them.” And yet, there’s another part of you that says, “I think I’ve just been swindled. I think I’ve just been cheated,” but you make a decision not to address that. You swallow it. Rather than being assertive (not aggressive) and saying, “Look, you told me this. We had a contract, and you didn’t call me to tell me that something changed with the contract.”That’s human life. If you’re conflict avoidant, which a lot of us are, particularly if we’re trying to be in our heart, this will just rile you up. You may wake up at night with it, but rationalize to yourself that, “No, I did the right thing.” This is a very simple example, but it’s at that level that the tension of the spiritual and the psychological is manifested day in and day out.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/how_we_know_part3_3_a698f7976d.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T16:59:32.636Z" alt=""><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">In my mind, the idea of evolution of consciousness&nbsp; is about how each of us, as individuals,&nbsp; and as a community of humanity,&nbsp; can really develop our presence, our love, our wisdom,&nbsp; and our creativity, in order&nbsp; to come closer to that greater mystery.</h4><hr>Another category of spiritual bypassing comes when we might have had some experience, some powerful awakening of sorts. So, we’ve had some ecstasy, some vision, or some profound sense of love, and we really seek to be with that, to live with that. Yet spiritual experiences can also be a trap. We become so attached to them that everything else falls to the wayside. People then pursue the experience, seeking another high, essentially, and it becomes an addiction. Rather than the profound event being a source of development and growth, it now actually becomes an anchor that holds us back. We may become fixated rather than curious, and this is keeping us from being present in any situation. Also, the ego may assume that this special moment means that we’re special and fuel ego-inflation, which works against spiritual growth.There are other sorts of issues when we have experiences. I think there are three general steps we might go through:In terms of overarching questions, the first step is, “What happened? What does this mean?” whether it’s a near death experience, or a great moment in meditation, or whatever. So, we’re trying to figure it out, to ground it in understanding and meaning so that we can get our bearings.The next stage, as a question, is: “What am I to do?” That might mean, “How do I need to readjust my life and redirect my efforts in light of what I now know?”The last step takes the integration still further: “How am I to be? What is the life that flows from and through this?” We could say this has more to do with being than doing.Q: So what’s the end goal of all this? What’s the ultimate purpose of life and living, walking and exercising? Another way to put it is: How do we derive meaning from all these activities and aspirations?TH: Well, I think the point of life is to live it. Pretty simple. And I do like that it’s a mystery. How do we engage the mystery in a way that feels fulfilling? I think that we basically have some internal felt sense, a barometer or an invisible hand on our shoulder, and it’s directing us in some way. I don’t know how it works. I think we’ll leave that as a mystery. But I do think that we have this opportunity of our life in the Earth school. The job is to do a couple things, that is, to see what it is that is ours to give and what it is ours to learn. In some ways, I would say that’s the definition of a calling.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/how_we_know_part3_4_779fe76d73.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T17:02:16.281Z" alt=""><hr>Q: In Heartfulness we say that we are connected with the Source. It’s even a logical hypothesis, because we all have come from some place, so there is a source for everything – not only the source of creation, but also the source of sustenance, and so on. So, if we are part of that which is created and is being sustained, then there is a connection to the Source.So the hypothesis is about how I establish a connection with the Source and what does it mean? How does it feel, and what does the journey look like? One idea in terms of the purpose of life, or meaning of life, is basically to be cognizant of this connection and the nature of our journey towards the Source. What are the benefits of that journey, the progressive, feel-good aspect, in a very tangible way, in a real way, not in an assumed way? In a way where you’re marching the trail of reality, where whatever you see is real and authentic. Then you become more and more one with it.I’m going to send you a book called The Heartfulness Way, written by Daaji, our Guide, where he tries to explain everything as rationally as possible. But at the same time, there is only so much that the rational mind can grasp. It is in keeping with the wonder, the curiosity and the observation out there that we extend our knowledge from what we can know logically to what we can know with wonder.TH: I’ve recently read some of Daaji’s writings and really appreciate them. His writings are beautifully coherent and down-to-earth. It is very contemporary, not as in trends, not even as a translation, but as a very sane and spiritual depiction relevant for today. I feel the kinship.Q: You want to share anything else, Tobin?TH: I’ve appreciated your incisive and big questions. It’s been nice to talk with somebody who’s really knowledgeable and smart about it.Q: Thank you, Tobin. I hope this conversation further adds to our understanding of psychology and spirituality as a whole study of humanity. Thank you so very much.&nbsp;&nbsp;

How we know - part 3

Tony Fadell

Problems

Maharaja Dr. Nader has a degree in Internal Medicine, a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and is a researcher, university president, author, and Vedic scholar. He is the leader of the Transcendental Meditation Movement.

tony-nader.webp

Tony Nader

<h3 style="text-align:center;">BEING AND BECOMING</h3><h4 style="text-align:justify;">DR. TONY NADER, neuroscientist, author, and leader of the Transcendental Meditation® movement, shares some insights on consciousness, and the research findings of TM that highlight the Maharishi Effect as a way of raising the consciousness of humanity.</h4>&nbsp;All spiritual leaders emphasize the importance of attending to an aspect of life that is beyond matter and physical energy, a reality transcendental to surface sensory perception.The relationship between the physical and this non-physical reality has inspired great debates in philosophy and religion for millennia, and those debates continue among today’s scientists.On one extreme are the physicalists, who propose that there is nothing spiritual, that consciousness and awareness are not real but only illusory byproducts—epiphenomena of the physical activity of the human nervous system. At best, physicalists see consciousness as a conundrum and call the mind-body relationship a “hard problem” because they cannot see how mechanical objective reality leads to subjective personal experience.Then there are the dualists, who propose two different and separate fundamental realities, one objective and material and the other subjective and non-material. This begs the same question: how can two fundamentally different entities, one natural and obeying strict laws and the other seemingly supernatural, possibly interact and influence each other?Scientists look at explanations asserting anything supernatural with skepticism. They shy away from explanations that do not conform to objective laws. Anything supernatural poses a problem for science, not only in the unexplainable mechanisms by which the non-physical interacts with the physical, but also in the potential “apparent moodiness” and “unreasonable decisions” of such supernatural actors.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/being_becoming2_9367fdfbb8.webp" alt="being-becoming2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_being_becoming2_9367fdfbb8.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_being_becoming2_9367fdfbb8.webp 941w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/being_becoming2_9367fdfbb8.webp 941w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;The Advaita Vedanta perspective, brought to light by Adi Shankara, proclaimed by Swami Vivekananda, and more recently emphasized by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, presents consciousness as primary and all there is. Consciousness is all there is!We propose that this Vedic perspective solves all the problems and conundrums of philosophy and science. There is no hard problem of consciousness because consciousness is all there is; it is both natural and fundamental, both immanent and transcendental.To exist is to be conscious. To be is to be conscious. Pure existence is pure consciousness. Becoming is the process by which consciousness knows itself, appearing as many but remaining one. In the upcoming book, entitled, Consciousness Is All There Is, both logic and empirical evidence provide support for how the one unbounded ocean of consciousness manifests as multiplicity. There is only one ocean of pure Being appearing on the surface to become an endless number of waves.The latest discoveries of modern physics in supergravity and M-theory point to a similar, unified reality at the basis of all diversity. Instantaneous infinite correlation appearing as action at a distance much faster than the speed of light has been shown scientifically, a phenomenon called entanglement. The phenomenon of being in many places at the same time is now understood as natural and described by wave functions on the quantum levels. Uncertainty and randomness in the behavior of elementary particles open the possibility of freedom even within the constraints of very strict, deterministic laws. These and other discoveries of modern science baffle scientists, who often describe them as weird. Most significantly, these phenomena beg for explanations that can only come with a fundamental paradigm shift from the materialist and physicalist perspective to a consciousness-based worldview.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Just as the coherence of an individual’s consciousness determines their behavior, so the coherence of the collective consciousness&nbsp; of many individuals influences social behavior.&nbsp;</h4><hr>What appears as supernatural or magical is simply due to a limited understanding of the fundamental laws of nature. The Vedic tradition has technologies that utilize such fundamental aspects of consciousness to create effects that might seem supernatural to those who are ignorant of ultimate reality. But these technologies and phenomena are nonetheless natural, obeying strict laws. If, two hundred years ago, someone had said that it is possible for two people to talk to each other and even to see each other across vast distances, this would have been considered magical and supernatural. Today, video conferencing is an entirely natural way to communicate aurally and visually across the globe and beyond.The supportive evidence for a consciousness-based Vedantic worldview is not just theoretical; there are reliable empirical findings and considerations. We live in a realm of constantly changing physical manifestations, and when we examine this carefully, we find that consciousness is the one aspect we can be one hundred percent sure about.Most importantly, hundreds of scientific research studies on the technologies of consciousness, as demonstrated by Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation® (TM) program, have shown profound benefits in individual and social life. These improvements come on many levels of mental and physical health, behavior, and social, national, and international well-being. Applying these consciousness-based Vedic technologies has clearly demonstrated how achieving inner peace can create world peace.Just as the coherence of an individual’s consciousness determines their behavior, so the coherence of the collective consciousness of many individuals influences social behavior. Practice of the advanced Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi® programs, as brought to light by Maharishi from the Vedic tradition, produces a powerful coherence in both individual and collective consciousness, reducing both individual and social stress.Most significantly, to achieve world peace, it is not necessary for all individuals everywhere to be developing their inner peace. There is a shortcut: it is called the Maharishi Effect.The Maharishi Effect is the positive result when one percent of a population practices the Transcendental Meditation technique or the square root of one percent of a population practices the TM and TM-Sidhi programs together in one place. It is characterized by significant improvements in societal trends, decreasing negative factors such as crime, accidents, hospital admissions, and indicators of conflict and violence, including war deaths, and increasing positive economic and social tendencies.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/being_becoming3_e650102a91.webp" alt="being-becoming3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_being_becoming3_e650102a91.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_being_becoming3_e650102a91.webp 547w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/being_becoming3_e650102a91.webp 547w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;The usual methods of crime prevention, such as policing and corrections, and of conflict resolution, such as military presence and diplomacy, have shown minimal and temporary results. They rely on coercion or negotiation, while the underlying problems of high stress levels with limited consciousness and narrow awareness remain. Reduced vision and creativity manifest as economic and social turmoil. These problems cannot be resolved by force and compromise.A worldview that considers physicality and material possession as primary, even all there is, will always lead to conflict and opportunism with short term, narrow, and limited perspectives.Today, leaders turn to science for guidance, and science is finally embracing consciousness. Artificial intelligence and genetic engineering promise great benefits but also pose tremendous risks and dangers, and this has made raising human consciousness to its highest potential absolutely necessary.Besides the hundreds of research studies on the benefits of Transcendental Meditation for individuals, there have been 116 scientific papers documenting the improvements that the Maharishi Effect brings to social life. Of these, 54 empirical studies were published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals or professional conference proceedings. Another 38 papers were published in research anthologies. Many studies had project review boards of independent scientists. Statistical analysis of the results yielded very small probabilities (p-values), indicating to a near certainty that the results were not due to chance or other factors. The studies routinely used publicly available statistics anyone could confirm. Nearly all studies first appeared in publications independent of the Maharishi Foundation and its affiliates. There was no “cherry-picking” of data to support the hypothesis.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/being_becoming4_35cc1c074b.webp" alt="being-becoming4.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_being_becoming4_35cc1c074b.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_being_becoming4_35cc1c074b.webp 572w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/being_becoming4_35cc1c074b.webp 572w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;The Maharishi Effect was found to be causal, not merely correlational: during periods when it was predicted, trends in diverse social indicators that previously were moving randomly with respect to each other all began to move in the same positive directions. Moreover, the Maharishi Effect scales: Eighteen studies found improvements in small towns, five in entire states, thirty-two in culturally and ethnically diverse nations, and five worldwide. Twenty theoretical papers have closely examined how the Maharishi Effect works. And today, ongoing genetic investigations and brain-to-brain synchrony research are probing the details of how a meditating TM group affects the behavior of people at a distance who are not meditating.In short, the Maharishi Effect is a phenomenon operating in the consciousness field, at the unified field level of natural law. For a world population surpassing eight billion, 10,000 people applying these technologies together in one place would be enough to create the Maharishi Effect and accelerate progress toward world peace.We look forward to seeing this great assembly lead to important decisions and actions from this land of the Vedas, offering and implementing the Vedic technologies of consciousness as a perfect science for happiness, health, prosperity, and world peace.From a talk given at the Global Spirituality Mahotsav, March 14 to 17, 2024.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL &nbsp;</h4><hr>

The Maharishi effect

Maharaja Dr. Nader has a degree in Internal Medicine, a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and is a researcher, university president, author, and Vedic scholar. He is the leader of the Transcendental Meditation Movement.

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