Pale Blue Dot

 Thank you for the best day yesterday: great bike ride; loved seeing Kelly; meeting Brian - very nice guy; and spending time with you. Hope you have a good time up north. 

My family calls me Pancho and I'd like you to know that I love you all...

Last Wednesday was a ONE-derful night to stress that "we are all in this together", no matter distance or time.

As usual, the Berkeley posse of satyagrahis was ready to carpool to Santa Clara but this time there were not enough cars to carry all the crew (8 of us), so Chris, Yi-An and I joyously volunteered to give away our spots (so that you know, sister Yi-An has been the first one to RSVP -before the weekly passage is sent!- for the last month!). We've been to so many Wednesdays that we know how powerful is for a "first timer" or for some of us who are re-joining the spiritual companionship of the Charity Focus family. Among the people who joined the adventure of magic Wednesdays for the first time, was brother Fab (who had a visible weapon of love: a guitar!). [I just heard the beautiful song he played at the Kindness Temple that night!]. So, improvisation was the name of the evening and the three of us decided to have a Wednesdays' night meditation/dinner in Berkeley. Yi-An and Chris bought a few veggies, which later became part of a delicious curry, rice and beans, together with a salad with home grown sprouts and mushrooms from Tilden park (kind of a swadeshi salad). We did the dinner prep and sat in receptive silence at Chris' room. [He showed me the incredible site of Rev. Heng Sure where you can set a virtual bell: a meditation timer!]

After meditation, we played Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" and it felt as if I was with all of you in Santa Clara, like if those 55 miles didn't exist. Thanks to the magic of the electron land and the prodigious skills of brother Somik, I could read some of your insights and lovely reflections. In a virtual and real circle, and honoring what might be the continuity of Planetary Wednesdays, these are some of the thoughts/feelings that flowed through me:

1. Star Stuff.
2. New Renaissance of Humanity.
3. Astronomical Gratitude.

1. Star Stuff.
I remember when I was a child the attention and enthusiasm my dad had for the Carl Sagan's TV series: Cosmos. As a 5 year old, I was quite frustrated when the long Carl monologues started because I couldn't read the subtitles, and my English didn't exist at all, so it just didn't appeal to me. However, what I still remember is the excitement of my dad afterwards: he explained to me, in Spanish, the beauty and magic of the Cosmos is his own words. Those were the seeds of critical thinking, those were the seeds of awe and wonder that shaped my profound interest for Astrobiology (the study of life as we know it -and as we don't know it!-, how it originated, how it has evolved and how it has been distributed in the Universe). In other words, thanks to (well-used)technology and the spiritual translation of people like my dad, Carl Sagan's wisdom could travel, almost in real time, to Mexico, Latin America and to the entire Planet, changing the lives of millions of people like me. It always intrigued me how it was that we are made of star stuff... that meant that you, and I and everybody's ancestors "came from stars". This is one of the most profound realizations humans have ever done: the oxygen that we breathe, the calcium in our bones, the carbon in our skin, the water in our cells, the iron in our blood all come from star stuff...

This metaphor came with the image of zooming out to recognize the macrocosm we are in, and I felt it is a powerful way of thinking that can help us break our present attachments and go to a much loftier viewpoint. 

On the same lines, is a corollary metaphor looking at the opposite end of the spectrum, the microcosm. If we look at our bodies, composed of millions of cells, we can start to imagine the lives of our cells. They are born, do intensely work for some time and then die. What if think of our little cells as people. Well, there's the toe people, and then there's the foot people. What if the toe people held grudges against the foot people, thinking, "you aren't giving us enough resources. There's inequity here, .." And the foot people held similar grudges against the toe people. 

I find myself grinning at this idea, simply because I cannot fathom the notion of toe people and foot people. There's just me - the whole organism to which the toe and the feet are connected. I understand how my unity works at the cellular level. Although the toe and foot have different functions and look different, they are part of the same organism. Since my awareness is at the level of the organism, I recognize the underlying unity immediately.  

Can we bring the awareness that lies in the microcosm up to the level of the macrocosm? When we are in toe-consciousness, we cannot see the organism that we're connected to. But, what if could connect to that organism of which we are a part? What if we were aware that although we look and think differently, we make up a much bigger whole, one that we simply cannot understand at the level of toe-consciousness? How would our lives be if we acted with that awareness?

At another level, Sagan's metaphor drives our ego into insignificance. The toe metaphor points drives home the significance of each part. Significance and insignificance are two sides of the same coin, and not contradictory ideas. To the larger being, hair falling and growing again is not a big deal. To the hair, it is birth, trauma and death. What if we take the awareness of the larger being with the biggest perspective possible and then examine the littlest of things. What would that vision be? 

Finally a story. On Tuesday, everything went contrary to my expectations. I had a full busy day planned with lots of work to be done. I started out my day with an email from a colleague who was worried about his workload getting bigger. My initial reaction was defensive - I have a bigger workload, and I could think of many reasons why things had to be better for me. Then I paused, and reflected, and found a deeper intention to be of service, and responded by acknowledging both the intention to serve and justifying the present. That didn't feel entirely wholesome. I was reflecting on everything and suddenly realized that I'd made everything in my life so important that other people's problems were not in my circle of concern anymore. It was I who was suffering as a result. Hmm.. I met my colleague and made clear that it wasn't about fairness of work distribution, it was about stress. If anything caused stress for him, I wanted to help in whatever way I could. A big burden lifted off from my heart.

In a later meeting with my professor, who I'd been trying to get a hold off for a while, our meeting went over my "budgeted" time. Instead of being delighted, the old habit-pattern kicked in causing stress. I had to be somewhere else, and I didn't have the phone number of the person I was going to meet. Then, I decided to ditch it - the universe was too vast, and my problems were too small - I gave up, and decided to enjoy the presence and time of my professor, and we had a magical meeting. I went late to the other meeting (which proceeded just fine without me), and was still able to carry out the role I had promised to perform.

One would think that this was enough to awaken me, but then I had a dinner engagement, and my friends were late. Again, my first thought was.. "Oh no, I have so much work to do, I should have timed this engagement and made it clear,..." The second thought, as I walked out into the Oval, was "What am I doing? This is so insignificant. Yes, I have a ton of things to do, and no, I am not going to do any of it right now." As I saw the clear sky, Sagan's metaphor opened up. A speck of dust; no, a fraction of a speck of dust. That's what we are. And yet, the tiniest of my problem becomes my world. No way. Not happening. Needless to say, the dinner was fantastic, I had a great time, and the next day, I finished what I thought were insurmountable tasks. 

As we went around the group, Viral shared the notion of innercosm, akin to microcosm. He summarized the gist very beautifully as one of gaining a bigger perspective. And, there is ALWAYS a bigger perspective.

Nipun talked about the fourth guy who went to the moon, Edgar Mitchell, and found himself looking at the earth and going into a moment of connection with all of life. He realized how artificial the borders are that we have created, because from space, there are none. The inspiration led to his found of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), which conducts research in areas that mainstream science has found unproductive :).

Ripa expanded the metaphor by using death as a tool to enlarge perspective. On our deathbed, how would we look back at our life? Can we bring that awareness and live each moment that way? Steve Jobs has an inspiring commencement speech on these lines (see the part about death).

Dinesh uncle wondered what was wrong with his generation that they could not take any of the risks the younger one was taking to follow their heart. I had a big smile when I heard that, and Pavi and Guri both reflected on that very powerfully. Pavi said that we stand on the shoulders of the previous generation - it is thanks to them that we can go further. Guri also pointed out that it is not the case that our generation is all awakened and aware. We have created a bubble around our little community, so it is not correct to generalize. Building on what both said, I feel that we are part of the same organism. If children succeed, then the organism succeeds, and parents are part of that organism. That generalizes to all people, all life. 

Nipun also shared this incredible story about a woman who has spent her life serving others. She had this experience where she felt she was looking at the world, and it was all dark, and when she turned around, she saw bright light, which was creating lots of lit-up spots on the world. She felt that acts of service and genuine compassion are little bright dots. Nipun felt the Wednesday is like that - maybe insignificant in the larger scheme of things, but a little bright dot. To build on this, I feel that the dark and the bright dots are part of the same organism, so in order not to let the dark dots overwhelm us, we have to glow even brighter.

Pavi also noted that it was ironical that although our insignificance should be depressing us, in our circle, we felt pretty good about it :).

We had an incredible guitar performance at the end by a Canadian friend, which was about taking the dive and spreading our wings to fly. 

On that note, may we all fly to follow our hearts!

NAMASTE ! - is the essence of Indian Horpitality. It means NA -not  + MAMAHA - me + TE- you. i.e the Host is saying ' not me, but you ' to the Guest ! Only by  elevating the guest and by humbling himself,can the Host truly extend a warm hand of hospitality and thus truly ' serve ' the guest. Service alone is the way ! When Man decides to be a ' humble servant ' of Nature, there is ' abundance -  plenty for all ! 

BUT, MAN, the most intelligent ( ? ? ) creation, decided to ' conquer, exploit, Master Nature, it led to greed, competition and scarcity - poverty amidst plenty !

We blatantly violated the ( inviolable) Laws of Nature of

- Give and Recieve. Instead he TOOK first and then did not GIVE with 'awareness' !

- Cause and Effect -as you Sow ,so you Reap !

So, he 'linearised ' the Cyclic processes of( water, food/biomass etc...) and created the problems of pollution - garbage and sewage.

RE- CYCLING , by Returning the WASTES to the Source will alone ensure ' Sustainable Living' for all on this Earth !

Why do we want to ' screw up ' another planet ?

this is one of my favorite audio excepts. Carl Sagan's voice is always filled with awe and the want of understanding in all of his documentries. Hearing him talk about the world from this perspective helped me not only appreciate the planet, people/other living beings, and nature but also the time that we have been alive and the time we are alive right now.

I have the youtube clip bookmarked and I always come back and take a listen whenever my head is somewhere else.
"The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there -- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

is one of my favorite sentances in all of little english oratory history that I know.