My family calls me Pancho and I'd like you to know that I love you all...
If you have ever attended to a Wednesday, you know it is no cliche when I say that last Wednesday was another incredible one. For me, it was the first time in almost two years, that the six pack (the way we fondly call all the Mehtas), was formed only by mamá Harshida and papá Dinesh. Hermana Gurita is learning about the Latin American cultures; hermano Viral is in a 30 day retreat in India; hermana Pavititita is finishing up the writing of The Infinite Vision book in Madurai; and hermano Nipuni was engaged in some (r)evolution mission. So, there we were, 40-ish people feeling at home with our adoptive parents, all by ourselves.
As hermano Somik shared it already, papa Dinesh set the tone of the circle with a warm loving greeting and the magic, as usual, kept flowing facilitated by brothers Somik and Hafeez. Equally loving, grounding and powerful was the closing of the circle when mamá Harshida embodied her loving fully presence and awareness. This were the 3 points that I shared:
1. The Best Present.
2. A Moment of Awareness.
3. The Balance of Spirituality.
1. The Best Present.
Attention is alert stillness. So, the best gift that one can give to anyone, is our attentive presence. Have you noticed the wide-open eyes of a child or the shining eyes of a sage that can be distracted with nothing but the connection of the person in front of them? That's what it means to be alert in stillness, to have an alert still presence. Irresistible for the mind and heart.
2. A Moment of Awareness.
I had to travel to the other side of the World, to the part of the Planet we call India, to have a dramatic revelation. Due to my almost only secular perspective during my early education, I used to find Religion and Science mutually exclusive. In an explicit way, I was primarily exposed to only the dogmatic aspect of religion: when you remove the kernel of truth from any philosophy (for example, the Saint Inquisition). in other words when one doesn't walk the walk.
But implicitly, my heart kept storing and taking care of the seeds of compassion planted by my four interracial grandparents, all spiritual in their unique way. So, when I entered to a temporal temple in Wardha, the Ashram where Vinoba Bhave and his brothers lived, and I noticed the picture of Gandhi, Yagananda, Vinoba, other sages and in the middle... Albert Einstein... something happened to the sprouts of my heart.
It was a profound moment of awareness, as if all the kindness, generosity, love, forgiveness, compassion, the sense of responsibility and the sense of harmony (also known as spirituality) were hibernating, were waiting for me to sprout in that moment.
I looked around and noticed the Science and the Village tent: compost toilets, solar panels, rain water catching systems, organic fertilizers... all smiling at me. But that was not all.
The Ashram was intended to be managed by women. The power of the heart, the power of the Feminine Divine was all around. A profound balance between the mind and the heart. I went to the little bookstore and grab the pamphlet that eventually, helped me to start walking on my path for real: Science and Self-Knowledge by Vinoba.
Then what I found is that in evolutionary time scales, violence and science are mutually exclusive; the two cannot coexist in the long run. Vinoba was quite aware of this: “Violence must be done away with if science is to survive. If both are sought to be retained, (hu)mankind, along with its science also, would be destroyed.” This disastrous combination inhibits the development of critical inquiry, our thinking becomes narrow and circumscribed if we are associated with any organization which will not be fully conductive for the quest of nonviolence.
3. The Balance of Spirituality
That's what happened to me in Wardha. Once for all, I was aware of the balance of spirituality. All of the sudden, everything made sense. Today, I'm convinced that self-control, self-governance, self-reliance, interdependence, mutuality, individuality, an equilibrium between Science and Arts is where the beauty of life manifests at its best. I found that the organic cosmic glue that keeps altogether, for example Anarchy and Nonviolence, is spirituality: a balance between the mind and the heart that brings harmony to the being.
"The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without Authority, there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution. But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require the protection of governmental power ... There can be only one permanent revolution – a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man. --Tolstoy
After all, we might be living the Great Turning, we might be living in the Cour-Age (the Age of the Heart!). Please surf the web of life and don't forget to use your heart-drive! ;-)
May all become compassionate, courageous and wise.
Pancho
On Mar 22, 2010 Pancho wrote :
My family calls me Pancho and I'd like you to know that I love you all...
3. The Balance of Spirituality
That's what happened to me in Wardha. Once for all, I was aware of the balance of spirituality. All of the sudden, everything made sense. Today, I'm convinced that self-control, self-governance, self-reliance, interdependence, mutuality, individuality, an equilibrium between Science and Arts is where the beauty of life manifests at its best. I found that the organic cosmic glue that keeps altogether, for example Anarchy and Nonviolence, is spirituality: a balance between the mind and the heart that brings harmony to the being.
"The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without Authority, there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution. But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require the protection of governmental power ... There can be only one permanent revolution – a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man. --Tolstoy
After all, we might be living the Great Turning, we might be living in the Cour-Age (the Age of the Heart!). Please surf the web of life and don't forget to use your heart-drive! ;-)
If you have ever attended to a Wednesday, you know it is no cliche when I say that last Wednesday was another incredible one. For me, it was the first time in almost two years, that the six pack (the way we fondly call all the Mehtas), was formed only by mamá Harshida and papá Dinesh. Hermana Gurita is learning about the Latin American cultures; hermano Viral is in a 30 day retreat in India; hermana Pavititita is finishing up the writing of The Infinite Vision book in Madurai; and hermano Nipuni was engaged in some (r)evolution mission. So, there we were, 40-ish people feeling at home with our adoptive parents, all by ourselves.
As hermano Somik shared it already, papa Dinesh set the tone of the circle with a warm loving greeting and the magic, as usual, kept flowing facilitated by brothers Somik and Hafeez. Equally loving, grounding and powerful was the closing of the circle when mamá Harshida embodied her loving fully presence and awareness. This were the 3 points that I shared:
1. The Best Present.
2. A Moment of Awareness.
3. The Balance of Spirituality.
1. The Best Present.
Attention is alert stillness. So, the best gift that one can give to anyone, is our attentive presence. Have you noticed the wide-open eyes of a child or the shining eyes of a sage that can be distracted with nothing but the connection of the person in front of them? That's what it means to be alert in stillness, to have an alert still presence. Irresistible for the mind and heart.
2. A Moment of Awareness.
I had to travel to the other side of the World, to the part of the Planet we call India, to have a dramatic revelation. Due to my almost only secular perspective during my early education, I used to find Religion and Science mutually exclusive. In an explicit way, I was primarily exposed to only the dogmatic aspect of religion: when you remove the kernel of truth from any philosophy (for example, the Saint Inquisition). in other words when one doesn't walk the walk.
But implicitly, my heart kept storing and taking care of the seeds of compassion planted by my four interracial grandparents, all spiritual in their unique way. So, when I entered to a temporal temple in Wardha, the Ashram where Vinoba Bhave and his brothers lived, and I noticed the picture of Gandhi, Yagananda, Vinoba, other sages and in the middle... Albert Einstein... something happened to the sprouts of my heart.
It was a profound moment of awareness, as if all the kindness, generosity, love, forgiveness, compassion, the sense of responsibility and the sense of harmony (also known as spirituality) were hibernating, were waiting for me to sprout in that moment.
I looked around and noticed the Science and the Village tent: compost toilets, solar panels, rain water catching systems, organic fertilizers... all smiling at me. But that was not all.
The Ashram was intended to be managed by women. The power of the heart, the power of the Feminine Divine was all around. A profound balance between the mind and the heart. I went to the little bookstore and grab the pamphlet that eventually, helped me to start walking on my path for real: Science and Self-Knowledge by Vinoba.
Then what I found is that in evolutionary time scales, violence and science are mutually exclusive; the two cannot coexist in the long run. Vinoba was quite aware of this: “Violence must be done away with if science is to survive. If both are sought to be retained, (hu)mankind, along with its science also, would be destroyed.” This disastrous combination inhibits the development of critical inquiry, our thinking becomes narrow and circumscribed if we are associated with any organization which will not be fully conductive for the quest of nonviolence.
May all become compassionate, courageous and wise.
Pancho