Eat well, sleep well, sit still and you will notice everything with clarity, joy and beauty. Master Trainer-Sufiee
Sufiee was rescued from a street when she was two months old and had lost her mother.She was found by a kind friend and I immediately wanted to adopt her,I had lost two street puppies to parvo a week ago.Sufiee is a healer,the moment she came to my Training Institute,she wanted to offer her love and presence to everyone out there.I just knew I had made the best choice, making space for a pet,a friend,a teacher,a companion.
Welcoming life with stillness adds such clarity and beauty,no matter how tough the past,the moment we start living fully -the now, the beauty springs,the joy springs and it is both within and without.
The Mindful Village Project: Sharing the practice and Learning
Rural education is very close to my heart.We often talk about stress and busyness of urban life,the impact on city children but we seldom talk about the life of children in the villages,the issues they deal with:the limited opportunities they have,the real economic hardship,the rigidity of caste system,the divisions that run deeper than just drawn as borders for how the villages are divided,the gender issue,the number of children discontinuing post the school for difficulty in commuting to cities ,money, family; they have so much on their plate-so much of uncertainty, challenge to survive and yet the courage to smile.
A group of more than 30 underprivileged children from the age of 5-16 years along with their parents, family and friends received a Mindfulness-based programme at Genpapuram,a village near Gingee in Tamil Nadu last year.
I delivered the sessions in the village church,for there wasn’t any hall where we could accommodate everybody and it was received with much warmth and open-heartedness.The village pastor and school headmaster, Armstrong Alagasen helped to translate the sessions from English to Tamil.I had no fear,no lack of confidence that anyone will have any trouble in understanding or meditating.Not even once,the instructions were requested again.There was such stillness,balance and beauty,the way we all meditated in the lap of nature.Today,I received a video from Volker Jebraj in the village(he is a senior secondary student).He decided to do this video in English to give others a view of beautiful Gengapuram and feedback of sessions.I have few videos of the sessions and many are in Tamil.I will post those soon with subtitles.
Watching this video was such joy.I still remember all the stories children shared,I will write more on all that soon in a separate post.
The organizers and village residents who run the Neela Home Trust, shared their feelings of balance,ease and relaxation after the sessions.I will make efforts in uploading all the videos as I sit in deep appreciation and inspiration for these children and their families.
Thank you to dear friends-Mary Morgan,Reema Moudgill and everyone at Gengapuram, our connection has grown by every day, month and year.
While facilitating this session, there was a specific question about the eyes, the alertness.
How much watchful?How stimulated while watchful?How does being watchful taste like?
The audience was so diverse,from the age of 5 to 50.Yes, this happens when I travel to far away in the rural.Nobody is excluded, the community feeling is beautifully embedded in the togetherness that we share in the villages.So, everyone from all age groups wants to be a part and also help others to understand, cultivate more of the practice.
I am very open to this experimentation, it makes me feel like a part of the farming family-where we all play a role, to feel the ground, be open and giving.We remain alert yet relaxed, fun-loving and open to listening everyone’s suggestions.That is exactly what this practice is: sharing the benefits with others, growing it for self and others.It is so much like growing the food for others with others- with happiness,sweat, and wisdom.
And back to the question about eyes and alertness.As I told them that it is perfectly okay to keep your eyes open or closed.Mindfulness is not about postures and coercion,it is your watchfulness in whatever you do, that makes it right.
Being watchful in a placid manner, not on a high alert, over-energized or low and passive.Being watchful like elements in nature, being joyful like plants bathing in the rain, being watchful like sitting in front of the fire while cooking, being watchful in meeting the air that breathes through your skin and wind that makes noise through the surroundings.Being watchful as you take the step on the floor and drink your coffee.Being watchful in words and action.Watchful with a smile, a tear or nothing.Watchful of your intention, smell, and plannings.Being watchful as you are, being watchful without pressure, stress, and laziness.Being watchful as you are, wherever you are!
And we did get it right, for you can never do it wrong:)
I noticed that behind inspiring someone, looking deeply into their eyes and offering a hand,I was offering myself incredible bundles of support, inspiration and love.I was offering myself what many a times I couldn’t find the courage to do,I was loving and fulfilling myself.I was moving into present and rejoicing for others,my words were unfolding worlds of joy…who knows what you can achieve just by believing in someone,by baring your heart and bearing your failure.I rejoice in everyone’s happiness and success.I rejoice in all that everyone has,the capacities and wonders.I rejoice in my past, imperfections and losses.I rejoice and honour myself,I celebrate you,me,us and everyone here and everywhere.❤❤♥🌻
When you open your presence to life and bow to the mystery of its teachings.When you know nothing is better than what you live, experience and learn from.Connecting deeply to who you are,how you live and how you open with an embrace,that’s all…dear one,that’s all.May we all experience our presence!May we be happy!
In our deep disappointment lies a beginning,a hope and bounties of happiness.Happy moving!Happy learning! Opening my presence to life, getting unstuck and moving is the mantra to say on.
Sending Loving kindness to everyone in the universe.🌻🌻🌻🌻
Meet the Happy Dog in the picture,the sleep says it all❤
Took this in Goa, long ago.The early morning beauteous vibes and this dear friend-sitting and watching the waves dance their hearts, sitting and holding his self, watching and playing with no losing, drowning and changing.I used to call him Shakespeare(I know, I have a bizarre naming sense).So, Shakespeare and I used to meet every morning for food, love and take notes on how to journal the rest of the day.This is how I used to notice him every day.His sit would anchor my presence, lull me to slow down and watch him gently without disturbing a thing.
Meditation is a state of being present with whatever it is and my dear friend could do this, every morning: sitting and watching, the rising and falling, the coming and going, spacing and welcoming life as it is.
Spending a few minutes with self in kindness and tenderness is the most active and beautiful ways of offering self-compassion.
May we be drenched with self-compassion!May we experience calm and ease!May we smile!May we offer ourselves, a few minutes of silence!May the beauty of self-compassion sink in!May a sense of good, kind wishes reach our heart!May we allow warm-heartedness to our self!May we meet ourselves with empathetic support and compassion!May we be easy and kind to our past and present!May we recognize our suffering with compassion!May we not get lost in the narratives but hold ourselves with all the care that we need!May we be kind!May we offer ourselves what we often give away to everyone else!May we be the source and beauty of what we yearn!
I was talking to my kid about the perils of the Blue Whale Game and assuring, how support is always near and we can ask whenever we want,for more than adults children often bottle up with hesitation.I wanted to assure him that his voice is heard and if he has anything about the game, he had heard from his friends, it was utmost important to share with adults.So, I coaxed him to talk and he said yes, I have heard about the game and I know how to be safe but my friends say,there are agents of Blue whale game, they are spread all over the world and if a child doesn’t submit to the task they ask for, they can find you and take you away.
First of all,I was relieved that he had shared. Then, breathing, holding our hearts, I said-No, kiddo.The kids in the school are not right.It is just not possible.Nobody can dare do this to any child.Nobody, yes.I stressed and said- there is law.There are cops, see what happened to Ram Rahim.Nobody is above the law.
He listened to me deeply, wisely and said-What about Salman Khan?He could go free, like that.He could, right?
My moment, oh yes!Thank you for saying it out.
I was speechless and awakened.Gathering my self and breathing into this painful acknowledgment of the harsh, criminal truth, I said but you know-I am here and together, we can take care of all the demons.Let’s breathe and sing our songs.Shall we?I am watching you,you are watching too.We will keep ourselves safe.
And we did sing our song but I know my answer was not enough, my words were not complete but my work was-he could cogitate and wonder at what the world was capable of-not just the inventions, beauty, and marvels but also the extremes of cruelty, violence and injustice.
Our children are watching-the world we have created,the world we have decimated.
Though,we could sing our song for a while but I know that he knows that there is a much deeper poison than the blue whale that has choked us all out of our very essence of being just, humane and conscious or kind.
Every breath meets many heart breaks,every day is a challenge.It is so tough holding the centre,it is so tough to see through this mania,division and justice taken on a ride.And yet, I choose,I do, consciously I do to hold myself in full presence with compassion and calmness, swerving and shaking for we need hearts and hopes, shoulders to lean,for courage to manifest from our deepest sorrows and breakdowns.As I said-I am here,we are here,you are here.
Sending us all equanimity,peace and calm!Breathe on!
Clicked at Plum village,France.Calligraphy by Thich Nhat Hanh
A few weeks ago, a 16-year-old boy was lynched by a mob in a train in North India.He was coming home to celebrate Eid with his family. While my Pakistani friend and I were sharing our grief at the tragic dousing of more than a hundred people in the oil-tanker episode, another close friend in the UK battling her personal health issues shared her online request for sponsoring baby clothes for a homeless Romanian woman selling magazines in the streets of Liverpool.
Our lives are so full.In a moment, there are multiple moments of hate, prejudice and charity.There is bleakness and uncertainty over political leaderships, there is flag-waving nationalism on the one side and there are xenophobic rages to wipe out the ‘other’ on the second.
We are in the crisis of choosing, holding and living.Adapting the meaning of life to mental, physical, political seismic currents; holding is the toughest exercise in disaster but utmost for survival.
I am shaken, saddened and petrified on a daily basis.Yet, as a Mindfulness practitioner I draw an image of circle around myself and ask: What does this current time of killing, chaos and bloodshed mean to me.How do I see out of the circle when enough darkness and madness envelops my entire being.How do I to tend to parts and pieces with trembling hands and not let the house, the planet, the country, the body, the voice, the skin, the friendships, the shakiness fall into the jams of crushing voices, noises, words and newsmongering.
The news media is filled with venom, the social media is replete with fear and abuse.
The times are challenging.I see many of my friends – protesting, posting, reaching Social Media, joining people in the streets, holding placards and some sitting confounded at their homes, some working in front of their computer screens- discussing how this is just not the way, asking relevant questions-how can this be averted,echoing-how can we do better at where we are now, feeling this collective social distrust, fully within themselves and others.
The media is at war, the perceptions are unapologetically unleashed.There are questions and there are interminable tales of anger, anguish and skepticism.Everyone is hurt, the injuries are valid. It appears, no more criminal to serve hatred and vainglorious war of words.Crime is played,used, made a selective tool to feast on some unquenchable thirst of human grandiosity, a historical crime we should know by now- how it serves none and destroys all.
Gathering ourselves like scattered pages from albums: the one who questions, the one who answers and the one who watches with eyes huddled , our hands crossed in fear, doubt and grief, we experience the depths of our sadness, no matter what opinion we hold and where we are in the world right now.
The hub of our presence is -harsh, shaky and glum.We appear deeply terrorized by humans,by each other.Measuring whatever we have, let’s- hold our hands, our hearts and invite our minds to preserve ourselves and offer our presence as a gift to ourselves, a gift that can be automatically shared by its beauty that has no agenda except compassionate flowering.
To cultivate our presence,to tap into our inner capacities,we can allow ourselves to be open to a minute of STOP-a calm moment ,a token to just be with our breath and hold our heart to affirm-I am okay to be with myself in all that I am in,I am okay to be with others if needed to be and be a vehicle of support if necessary to be but foremost I am okay to be with my presence.
We can assure ourselves of our presence.May I hold my peace.May I hold my trust in myself if not in anyone else in the moments of deep internal and external war.May I nourish myself to be fully alive, awakened and healthy to do all that I wish to in these moments of strife.
Here is my Breathing prayer for us all:
Breathing in,I am peaceful.
Breathing out,I am centred.
Breathing in, I recognize my deep pain and anguish.
Breathing out,I offer myself care and support.
Breathing in,I read uncertainty and chaos.
Breathing out,I offer deep compassion to all of us.
Breathing in,I see the world in pain.
Breathing out, I offer to be mindful and giving.
Breathing in-I touch,hear,see and smell my pain.
Breathing out,I tap into my heart and offer moments of joy.
Breathing in,I am fully present for myself.
Breathing out,I am fully present for you.
Breathing in,I am fully present for myself.
Breathing out,I am fully present for you.
–
Fifi,our companion pigeon perched on a tree in Genjpauram village, I have been volunteering and teaching for six years.It was a delight to sit back and watch Fifi explore the branches,the ruggedness,the hopping and yet keep her mind focussed on my voice crying in happiness, guidance and affection.Fifi is blind,she is an inspiration to feel,see, hear and believe.We may not have the capacity to define darkness but we have the capacities to explore, accept and live in it differently.Thank you, Fifi, for holding us in the murkier times and more so holding yourself through everything to be our support.
Sarabsri 