what is the spiritual solution to the violence in the world?

what is the spiritual solution to the violence in the world?

It’s been an wonderful month so far in Rishikesh. My aspiration here was to do as little as possible. As an over doer this is a great task and not at all easy. Beyond attending satsangs (teachings) and meditation intensives, just being present with the vastness and colours of humanity in the mountains and on the Ganges is enough to change your life.

During a satsang with ShantiMayi someone asked the question for a magazine article she was writing on how spirituality can help the violence in the world.  ShantiMayi started with clarifying that in sanskrit, one of the oldest languages of scriptures there was no word for spiritual. Spiritual is life.

She said the only action that will change the violence in the world is love. Not speaking in hippie terminology but consciously and bravely living heart centred. The courage to love is no small task or only available to those not intimate to suffering. Hardships may differ but are inevitable for all of us and will remain our greatest teacher. If we can embrace suffering with love, against all odds we can minimize the scars. Whether or not we let those scars define and limit our lives is up to us and only us. When we hang onto resentment and anger we give our power away. Isn't that enough of an incentive to want to let go of our violent emotions. 

Greed of the corporate world is very violent with no integrity at all. True power lies in not participating. This is the way spiritual becomes political. This is the way spirituality ends violence.


Living with a constant determination to evolve from our judgement, fear and hatred to gratitude, understanding and forgiveness, no matter what is the only answer. Love has always been the only answer. Every sage from any lineage in every corner of the globe has said this for eternity. If we choose unconditional love without right and wrong, right or left, everybody wins. There is no us, no them.
 

The good news and the hard news is that the work to transform the state of violence in the world is an inside job. As we replace our own fear driven state of mind to radical compassion and love, change is possible.



 

I'm taking a fabulous meditation intensive at the moment focusing on proper breathing. This has been the most fluent instructions I’ve experienced to date that works with the mind and focus, any mind.

The teacher explained that the mind is the king of the senses and the breath is the king of the mind. If you want to control your mind, control your breath. She conducted the room’s breathing like an orchestra. On the inhale, we focused on feeling the air at our nostrils evenly. The nostrils have a filter, the left warm, the right cool. Breathing in, be aware that you are inhaling pure prana or ether into your lungs, hold at the turn for a couple of seconds then release out any stresses the body is holding. Hold at the turn of the exhale then inhale through the nostrils pure prana.. We repeated this many times and fine tuned the extraordinary instrument our body is. 

I have never felt so connected to and in sync with the miracle of universal life force. Each day we left class grounded, focused and grateful. I will try to create a short meditation recording from these teachings soon.

  


..where you can imagine us. 

   

 

  



 I wish you a taste of joy in all 1440 minutes of the day unfolding for you,

Gisele

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