Namasté Friends You are invited to
join us for a NEW YEAR'S DAY ~
INTENTION SETTING KIRTAN ~ January 1st, 2013
7
PM
HAPPY NEW YEAR! ~ BLESSINGS FOR NEW BEGINNINGS ~ OM GUM GANAPATAYE
NAMAHA
Let's mark our shift to the NEW YEAR
2013 A YEAR OF TRANSFORMATION AHEAD We'll start it off
by setting our Highest Intentions, singing our truth and delivering
the spirit of the NAME with our friendly voices lifting in
call and response KIRTAN and Mantra
meditation
Bring your intentions, sankalpas, admirable
resolves and unwaivering determination to make this your best year, ever!
You might even consider writing your sankalpa on paper and having it
with you.
Join Sandra Leigh (Vox, Harmonium), Stefan Cihelka
(Tabla), Kim Fischer (Response) & many friendly voices. All are welcome. No experience is
needed.
PLEASE NOTE A DIFFERENT START TIME for this
special event: 7 PM Open Door Yoga
Studio 2111 W.16th @ Arbutus in
Kitsilano (doors open / warm up at
6:45) ~ Gratitude ~ $20 donation /$15
underemployed / $10 concession
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
☆ This event is fueled
by donation in order to keep the KIRTAN lamps burning
brightly. No one turned
away for lack of funds because we have volunteer exchange
available. Please
contact us before the event for details. KIRTAN IS THE YOGA OF
LOVE
Jane Fonda: I started yoga late in life, in 1996. As is my way, I
went from not doing yoga to doing Asthanga. At the time, I was married
to Ted Turner and found a great teacher who would travel with me so I
had great and detailed teaching for several months. I practiced Asthanga
for about four years; then I stated practicing Iyengar. Then I stopped
for a while because of back surgery—I had arthritis, which is why I’ve
had hip and knee replacements and I have only restarted yoga recently.
LA YOGA: What inspired you to begin?
JF: All along, there was a little wise voice in the back of my head
that was a whisper at first: “You need to meditate; you need to learn to
do yoga.” I’m wound tight, I have a lot of energy, I move fast, and I
know that I need to slow down and go in. I didn’t realize how yoga does
everything — it is aerobic, it works your muscles, and it works your
soul and mind. It keeps you limber, balanced, and centered. It had a
huge impact on me.
In my book Prime Time, in the chapter “The Work In,” I talk
about learning to meditate while on an eight-day silent Buddhist
meditation retreat at the Upaya Zen Center in New Mexico. Eight days of
silent meditation in a group—that is hard! But if I’m going to do
something, I’m going to go right into the fire.
LA YOGA: Why these videos now?
JF: It took me three years to do the research for Prime Time. All the
research pointed to the importance of staying physically active, to the
extent that it blew my mind. If you ask Dr. Oz and other experts what
is the number one most important thing for people to age successfully,
they would say to stay physically active.
I thought: Who better than I to help people do that because I’m old
and I’ve build up credibility in the workout arena? Most of what’s out
there is for people who can do what I used to do, and since I can’t do
that anymore, my demographic is being left out. And I don’t mean just
people who are chronologically old but people in their 40s who have
never worked out, are out of shape or have had surgery, or people who
are getting back into exercise or beginning it for the first time. These
are all included in the demographic I address now.
LA YOGA: What do you do in your own life to stay balanced?
JF: Now I do the yoga videos, but before yoga, I knew that I needed
to stay active. Something happens to me when I start to move: I feel so
good and have such a sense of well-being that I miss it when I don’t
have it. It keeps me centered. I come from a long line of depressed
people on both sides of my family, and without staying active, I would
tend to become depressed. The older I’ve gotten, the more important it
is. I used to do it to look good but now I do it to feel good.
LA YOGA: How has your fitness regime changed?
JF: One word. Slower. When you grow older, you want to go slower or
you will get hurt. You can still lift weights, but they are lighter. I
no longer run, but I do walk. There is something about yoga that when
you are done with it you feel elegant, taller, straighter, prouder, and
wiser. I feel that I look better from the inside out. I know that 90% of
that is attitude that comes from the inside. I think that yoga is one
of the major contributors to that inside-out beauty.
LA YOGA: What has shifted for you as a result of your yoga and meditation practices?
JF: I’m kinder. I listen to people with more compassion. I am more patient.
As I describe in “Work In” in Prime Time, I had a powerful meditation experience that inspired me to study physics.
Meditating is hard. Once you achieve mindlessness, you know where to
go and it becomes easier. It’s like you can’t do it, can’t do it, can’t
do it, and then you can. My “can” happened on the seventh day. There
were sixty of us at the temple at Upaya, and there was a noise that
accompanied the sensation and I felt as though I was being sucked into a
tunnel—the doors were opened and we went out the doors and over the
tops of the trees and over the hills and out there.
On some non-cognitive level, I experienced the fact that we are all
one. We are made from molecules of the stars and we are all just fields
of energy. Yoga helps remind me to not be stressed when I breathe and
realize that we are just part of the stars. Yoga is the thing that
brings me back there.
LA YOGA: Did these experiences surprise you in any way?
Yoga practice offers a link to the state of mind which I have come to
cherish. As you get older, it can make the difference between living a
self-realized life or not.
LA YOGA: Speaking of acting, how does it feel to be acting again?
JF: It has helped me to be in the moment and stay present. Whenever a
young actor happens to let it be known that she does yoga, I think,
“She is going to be okay.” I wouldn’t want to be a young actor for
anything. It’s much harder now; it was harder for me than it was for my
dad. It’s become more competitive with more pressure on the wrong
things. People old and young need something to maintain a perspective.
Yet, if you are doing yoga and thinking about what you have to do
during the day, you aren’t really doing yoga. You have to be present in
your body in the moment to get out of it what there is to get out of it.
When you are present in your body, you are capable of compassion and
empathy for yourself as well as others. Your brain isn’t just between
your ears; it’s in your whole body, the neurological system in your
whole body.
If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of
yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate
all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to
give is that of your own self-transformation. ♥
A
25-foot (7.57 metre) tall sand sculpture of Santa Claus, created by
Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik, is seen at the Golden Beach in
Puri on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2008. Despite Christians forming a
little over two percent of the billion plus population in India, with
Hindus comprising the majority, Christmas is celebrated with much
fanfare and zeal throughout the country. AFP PHOTO/STR (Photo credit
should read STR/AFP/Getty Images) 2008 AFP.
Bangla Dhun (Live in New York City 1971) - Ravi Shankar And Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
"Goodwill unto all religions; peace unto all people; peace unto all
creatures; peace unto all that lives." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Beautiful!
I AM ~ Guru Singh & Seal
The
first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within
the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness
with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the
center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is
really everywhere, it is within each of us.” ― Black Elk
FRIDAY, December 21, 2012 GLOBAL KIRTAN & Mantra
Meditations
ST. PAUL'S
LABYRINTH 7 PM 1130 Jervis @
Davie West End, Vancouver (pay parking at
the old Super Value lot on Davie)
CANDLE LIGHT & LABYRINTH
Mantra Meditations on PEACE & LIGHT &
LOVE
Featuring the
inspiring energy of the WORLD PEACE FLAME with Sandra Leigh (Vox, Harmonium) Stefan Cihelka
(Tabla) Kim Fischer (response vocals) and many friendly
voices
ABOUT THE GLOBAL KIRTAN: We at GPaC Kirtan Community feel
honoured to be participating in this Global Kirtan & World Peace
Prayer event. Thanks to the initiative of K.d. McComb in California,
thousands will gather internationally, connecting heart engines, positive
intentions
to wake up to our Highest
Aspirations, both individually and for the whole of creation. It's a very
special time for us ALL
WE ARE ONE HEALING VIBRATION
!
Come sing, dance, walk or rest in
meditation a while. The Labyrinth is a mystical, magical healing space of
transformation.
Wherever you are:
21.12.2012 set the positive intention of
GRATITUDE, Future Hope, LOVE, HEALING,
respecting one another and this beautiful planet we call
EARTH.
Join us in this
special celebration
EVERYONE IS
WELCOME Admission : $20 /$15 for
underemployed $10 for students and seniors
Thursday, 13 December 2012
What would happen if a Billion people were all unified in meditation, prayer, and celebration through a single sound vibration at the same time?
Let’s find out! 3 Minutes could change all of our lives!
PARTICIPATE in the world’s largest simultaneous meditation and OM vibration in modern history on December 22nd, 2012 at 12PM India Standard Time. See Time Zones Map for what time this is where you live.
“All the world’s major religions, with their emphasis on love,
compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can and do promote
inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding
ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly
convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about
spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether.” ~ Dalai Lama
Well, not exactly—here is what the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism actually told his four million friends on Facebook earlier this fall: (see above quote).
It is easy to sympathize with the Dalai Lama’s frustration. After
millennia of being preached at by priests and prophets, humanity is
still addicted to war; we continue to lay waste to the planet’s fragile
ecosystem; we torture animals, repress ethnic minorities, and ignore the
plight of the poor.
Worse still, religion has often been in service of the very sins of
intolerance that its prophets have railed against. Abortion clinics are
bombed to support a “pro-life” agenda; religiously inspired hatred in
the Middle East have fueled ongoing war—religiously inspired hatred
everywhere have led to countless horrors.
In the past, such moral failings, while contributing to human misery,
did not put life itself at risk. But that has changed. Our
once-marginal species is now the dominant life form on the planet
numbering over seven billion souls. Granted, there are still more
microorganisms in a shovelful of prime agricultural soil than human
beings on Earth. But bacteria don’t have brains, and the crux of the
problem is that we do.
To call the brain a “problem,” of course, is only half of the story.
The human mind has created art, science, philosophy, government,
education, and the miracles of modern medicine. Religion, with its
exalted ethical and spiritual teachings, is another example—whatever
Richard Dawkins might say—of our human capacity for creating good.
The New Atheists are right of course when they fault religion for not
living up to its own ideals. They would get no argument from the Dalai
Lama on this. But His Holiness would be quick to point out that the
moral principles themselves are not to blame—it’s our failure to act on
them.
The Dalai Lama recommends a radical new approach: a religionless
religion, if you will, stripped of myth, superstition, and narrow
dogmatism, and focused on the practical work of transforming human
behavior. He wants to incorporate the insights of the hard sciences as
well as psychology, philosophy, and sociology into a broad-based new
discipline to address our current moral crisis.
But can religion be rationalized into a pure system of ethics without losing its (historically) persuasive power?
Some have pointed to Buddhism itself
as an example of just such a system. Western practitioners like to
think of Buddhism as a methodology for self-cultivation rather than as a
religion per se. But Tibetan Buddhism, with its pantheon of deities and
arcane practices, certainly looks familiarly religious to those of us
brought up on Western religious myths and symbols.
I suspect that His Holiness would agree that these religious elements
are not a bad thing. Because religion, for all its faults, seems to
have an unrivaled capacity to move us, and to motivate us.
Perhaps that has something to do with stories—we want to know how our
private stories fit into the greater cosmic narrative. The Dalai Lama
seems to be saying that religion needs to work harder to bridge the gap
between the story that it tells and our actions in the world. It is not
enough to provide believers with a comforting world view; religion
should give people tools to act upon the sacred ideals that it preaches.
The way to accomplish this, according to the Dalai Lama, is spiritual
practice. “We are now in the twenty-first century,” writes Tibet’s
leading monk.
“The world is also facing a lot of new problems, most of which are
man-made. The root cause of these man made problems is the inability of
human being to control their agitated minds. How to control such a state
of mind is taught by the various religions of this world.”
The Dalai Lama advocates prayer and meditation as an antidote to the
mind’s capacity for mischief. But he insists that we need not limit
ourselves to traditional spiritual techniques. He has written a book on the convergence of views between Buddhism and science and he helped to organize conferences
where religious thinkers meet with scientists to explore their common
ground. This is because, in his view, science can help religion to fine
tune its own methods. (Neurology has already gone a long way toward
validating the reality of spiritual states by documenting, for example,
similar changes in regions of the cerebral cortex in Cistercian monks
during prayer as it has shown in Buddhist monks during meditation.)
The Dalai Lama believes that the fundamental ethical discoveries of
religion are scientifically verifiable. When we actually live
religiously—and don’t just profess a set of beliefs—we become more
forgiving, peaceful, tolerant, attentive and inspired. This in turn
leads to profound psychological and physiological changes which can be
studied—and even measured.
It is time, the Dalai Lama says, to take the discoveries of
spirituality out of the monasteries and into the world. While
mindfulness meditation has been introduced into schools, hospitals, and
even corporate boardrooms as a technique to lower stress, improve
concentration, and help resolve conflicts, Tibet’s religious leader is
acutely aware that none of this is enough. “It is all too evident that
our moral thinking simply has not been able to keep pace with such rapid
progress in our acquisition of knowledge and power,” the Dalai Lama told a group of scientists in 2005.
The bottom line is that taming the mind creates more peaceful and
contented human beings. This is the crux of the Dalai Lama’s
message—because, as his urgency suggests, we are running out of time to
get it right.
Illustration by Moonrunner Design Ltd., National Geographic
In July, two separate teams working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
reported they were more than 99 percent certain they've discovered the
Higgs boson, aka the God particle—or at the least a brand-new particle
exactly where they expected the Higgs to be.
The long-sought
particle may complete the standard model of physics by explaining why
objects in our universe have mass—and in so doing, why galaxies,
planets, and even humans have any right to exist.
The Higgs boson or Higgs particle is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of physics.
All other particles in the Standard Model have been seen in
experiments, but the Higgs boson, first predicted to exist in the 1960s,
is difficult to create and detect. It may have finally been discovered
in July 2012, but it will take further testing to know for sure.
"It's helping us understand the big universal question, which is what
are we made out of," says Philippe Di Stefano, a physics professor at
Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.
“Without the Higgs particle, other particles, such as electrons and
quarks, would be massless and the universe would not be what it is.
“Now, with the amazing results from the [Large Hadron Collider], we
are finally finding growing experimental evidence that the Higgs really
exists.
“The second part of the story about the Higgs particle is even more
exciting as it provides us with a window to new physics — a tool for the
exploration of the truly unknown.
“The next stage will be a detailed and careful study of its
properties. Successful completion of this second stage will bring us
closer to uncovering new physics, explaining dark matter and other
mysteries of the universe.”
— Prof. Valentin Khoze, director of Durham University’s Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology in Durham, England
"Today's discovery teaches us something fundamental about the
building blocks of the universe and how the fundamental particles that
build the world around us acquire mass.
"The Higgs boson matters because it tells us about 'matter.' This is
curiosity-driven research and addresses basic questions about the
evolution of the universe.
We have arrived at December, 2012, the month prophesied as a turning
point in human history. Much ado has been devoted to the December 21st
solstice date. The Mayan calendar is said to end here; some soothsayers
predict the end of the world; others predict the beginning.Groups are
gathering at the Great Pyramid in Egypt, Machu Picchu, and sacred sites
around the planet. All year people have been asking me, “What do you
think will happen on December 21st?” I recently picked up a
hitchhiker who asked me this very question. Millions of people are
wondering, some are fearing, and others are hoping.
Eckhart Tolle declared, “Suffering needs time.” This pithy statement
implies that any event in time is subject to suffering, because time is
an illusion and we are bigger than it. He goes on to say, “it
[suffering] cannot survive in the now.”Tolle has mined gold here. Why
make a big deal about events in time? Why not dive into the eternal now
moment and let time take care of itself? As Ram Dass said in his
classic book Be Here Now, “If you can be here now, when ‘then’
become ‘now,” you will have superconsciousness and superawareness and
know exactly what to do.”
So I suggest you worry not, wonder not, and hope not for any event associated with the December 21st
solstice. A more powerful approach is to live fully in the present
moment. If you waste the now by thinking or worrying about the future,
when the future comes you won’t be there to receive it. It’s all a lot
simpler than we have been told.
Mata Amritanandamayi is a holy woman from India who embraces people around the world in order
to take on their karma and heal the mind, body and spirit.
Amma on 20/20
From Amma: A Letter to My Soul Sisters, Everywhere:
My Beloved Sister,
I could hear the pain in your voice and feel the utter fatigue and exhaustion in your energy, and that deeply concerns me. You are pushing yourself far beyond the limits that y
our body and mind can tolerate. It is time to Surrender. What I mean by
that is, you need to gather all the concerns you have for your family
and rather than trying to do it all yourself as you see fit, gather all
of those concerns, all of the anxiety, all of the pain and confusion,
and offer it all to the Divine Mother, unconditionally. Offer it all to
Her, as She knows each one of us better than we know ourselves. She
knows our strengths, our weaknesses, our karmas that we came here in
this lifetime to deal with, She knows the highest and best path we must
tread in order for all of that stuff to be worked out. Yet we still feel
the necessity to carry the whole bag of boulders on our own shoulders.
I have found that this simply does not work, and by taking the whole
bag onto our own shoulders, thinking that we have to know all the
answers, leaves no room for Mystery and Miracles. Sometimes, in order
for us to really learn a lesson, we need to be fully in it; to
experience it in all it's messy totality, to be immersed in it
completely. Only then can we really understand, and make corrections.
This is true for all of us. We have certain things that we came here to
master, but we can not master them until we totally understand them.
Sometimes we have to let our children and our loved ones find out for
themselves as they experience the lessons of life.
Meanwhile, you stand
beside them as a Luminous Guide, a Lamp of Wisdom and and most
importantly an Incarnation of Unconditional Love. That is your gift to
them. Nothing else is necessary. You are their Greatest Gift, and you do
it with more Love and Wisdom than anyone I have ever known. You are
Precious. Yet, you need to learn how to surrender the bag of boulders
that you constantly have hanging over your shoulders, dragging you down,
and possibly killing you with it's weight. Because ultimately, God is
their True parent, and God is our True Parent.
By learning how to
surrender and offer the control back to Him/Her, we are acknowledging
that God knows better than we do, what needs to be done, and at the
right time, in the right way, and in the proper doses. Surrender does
not mean that you are letting go of your concerns for your children and
loved ones; in fact, it is quite the opposite.
By giving the control
back to the Divine, you are releasing the weight of all the frustration,
pain, grief, agony, resentment, and confusion to a Higher Power who can
take it all into Her Divine Heart, with the Strong Intention and Belief
that God has the Immense Love and Power to Transmute and Transform even
the most hopeless of situations. I try to Practice Surrender in every
moment of every day, and the comfort, peace and stillness it brings me
is beyond words, and Magical & Miraculous things happen. When I
forget, and I go back into worry and control mode, chaos comes crashing
in again. Just Let Go, Sister. Offer that Huge Bag of Boulders to Her,
Unconditionally. Trust and Faith are your Companions now.
As
much as we'd like to think that we have the power to change what needs
to be changed, heal what needs to be healed, support what needs to be
supported, and wave our magic wand so that all will be well with the
world, we simply don't have that power. The only one we have power over
is ourselves. Really, after all these years of being a Mother-to-all,
what I have finally realized is that our power comes from LOVE alone. It
is the Power of Your Love that works to Heal and to caress, to comfort
and to console, to allow someone to be who they are, make mistakes and
to also learn from their mistakes by taking responsibility for them and
learning from them.
Each of us has both gifts and challenges that we
bring with us when we incarnate into this world. Some of us have more
gifts than challenges, and vice versa. You are one of those Precious and
Powerful Souls that comes here with an amazing amount of Gifts that you
offer freely to the world. You are an Amazing and Beautiful incarnation
of the Divine Mother's Shakti. Everyone you touch is changed in some
special way, just by being near you. There is no need for you to carry
everything on your own shoulders; that just makes everything more
difficult and brings you down in the process.
Think of God as being a
Super-Computer that carries all knowledge and wisdom within itself, in
addition to being the Cosmic Generator of Love. Why would you want to
carry around a heavy bag of everyone's problems and sorrows when you
have access to the Cosmic Super Computer that has the ability to see
all, to know all and to solve all manner of problems in a way that we
simply can't?
Beloved Sister, Let Go and Let God! Deepen your Faith in
Her, and Trust that She is there to find the most creative solutions to
all problems if you would just let go and give them over to Her, with
Consummate Faith and Trust. If you don't, then I fear that we will loose
you to a heart attack or stroke, because you have carried this heavy
load for so long.
Please consider what I am trying to say, and know that
I am saying this out of my deep Love for you. The world needs you,
Sweet One. You are so Precious, and you came here to complete the Dharma
of carrying on an Ancient Lineage, a Divine Sisterhood. This is your
Gift to the world. Do not doubt yourself or entertain fears that are not
based in reality. Cultivate your faith in yourself and in your intimate
connection to Divinity. Leave the bag of boulders behind and move ahead
in faith and trust that God will not only carry it for you, She will
transform and transmute it all in the proper way.
Please know
that I love you with all my heart, and I am so deeply appreciative of
your presence in my life. You are Precious to Me, Sweet Sister. I am
always here for you, whenever you need me.
No, nothing to do with Daniel
Craig, though kirtan is definitely more shaken than stirred. This kind
of bond is about relationship and genuine connection. A mantra is much
more than just a potent sound, it is a personal address, a call for
help, a heartfelt expression of gratitude.
To go deeply into the practice of
kirtan it is important to understand that the call and response is not
just between the leader and the rest of the group. The deeper response
comes sometimes very subtly, sometimes very obviously from the from the
one we address when we sing.
It is said that this Divine person is present within every heart as
the inner guide and dearest friend and can be perceived by regular
practice. This is because the words of a mantra don’t just describe the
person, they are non different from that person.
Regular names, like Boris Johnson, don’t invoke the presence of that
person (for better or worse!), but the names of the Divine are exactly
the opposite. If sung with deep feeling, the experience is unlike that
of any other exchange.
Depending on our level of investment, kirtan can be infinitely more
rewarding than a meaningful exchange with a lifelong friend, or as
shallow as water cooler chit chat. Like any relationship, if given
quality time, attention and care, a genuine bond will form. Are you
satisfied with anything less?
A Shaman is a tribal spiritual healer and elder, who gives guidance on
the journey of life, which they themselves have partaken and found
successful routes through. To become a Shaman one has to go on their
own journey which usually in tales a traumatic incident or
psychological/spiritual Illnesses that they overcome. Which they
overcome and by overcoming the illness/journey they are able to help
other people with the same ordeal.
We are four spiritual seekers who have turned our talents to serving the
Divine Consciousness through kirtan, a traditional Indian form of
call-and-response chanting.
One of the world’s most famous Buddhists on Tuesday led about 1,500 people on a walking meditation across the expansive University of B.C. campus.
Thich Nhat Hanh,
a tiny 84-year-old Zen monk who was exiled from his native Vietnam for
four decades, was wearing a brown monk’s robe and toque as he headed the
slow parade of silent walkers. (See exclusive photos of the event.)
Earlier, the noted Vietnam War protester told an enraptured audience
inside the War Memorial Gym that happiness can be found through the
popular meditation technique called “mindfulness,” which he said will
help people overcome their pain, anger and suicidal tendencies.
The monk’s one-hour morning “dharma talk” was the public part of a
six-day meditation retreat Hanh is leading at UBC for more than 800
people.
Speaking in a whispery voice inside the large gymnasium, the peace
and environmental activist lamented how young people in Hong Kong are
jumping out of tall buildings to their deaths because they “do not know
how to handle their painful emotions.”
Urging people to learn the art of mindfulness, which emphasizes
focusing on breathing to calm the mind and heart, Hanh said strong
emotions are “like a storm,” and are usually short lasting. “You don’t
have to die because of one emotion.”
Hanh, who leads monastic communities in North America and Europe, is
being accompanied in Vancouver by dozens of brown-robed monks and nuns.
One of them told the audince, which was made up predominantly of
Caucasians, that Hanh was the first to use the term “engaged Buddhism.”
This form of Buddhism counters the Eastern religion’s historical
tendency toward quietism, which has often resulted in Buddhists
disengaging from society to seek individual psychological liberation.
Hanh, however, has been a devoted human-rights activist ever since
the Vietnam War in the 1960s. He is credited with convincing civil
rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. to publicly oppose U.S. military actions in the South Asian country.
On Tuesday, after displaying his skill at the art of calligraphy at
UBC’s Asian Centre Auditorium, Hanh said he remembered first coming to
Vancouver decades ago, when he tried to convince various leaders to
oppose the Vietnam War.
Hanh, who makes his home in a meditation centre called Plum Village
in the Bordeaux region south of Paris, also increasingly stresses
environmental sustainability.
The Buddhist prayers offered for retreatants at the silent vegetarian
lunch stressed “moderation” and the need to “reduce global warming.”
The cost of the six-day retreat was $700 each, including food and simple
lodging. Participants said they appreciated the low price. Heesoon Bai,
an education professor at Simon Fraser University, said she was on the
retreat because Hanh “is an embodiment of mindfulness. His gentleness is
so strong. It’s interesting he regards himself as a spiritual
‘soldier.’”
Anglican Rev. Ellen Clark-King, who works at Christ Church Cathedral
in downtown Vancouver, said Hanh’s “message of going deeper speaks to a
general hunger for spiritual exploration in Cascadia,” another name for
the Pacific Northwest.
“I think his teaching about mindfulness – about being awake to what
is happening around you and within you – is relevant no matter what
faith one belongs to,” said Clark-King, who attended the monk’s public
talk.
Mindfulness is a way to “free oneself to encounter God. It’s not a
replacement or substitute for the Christian God,” said Clark-King, whose
new book, The Path to Your Door: Approaches to Christian Spirituality, will be published this fall by Continuum Books.
An exhibition of Thich Nhat Hanh’s calligraphy will be on display
until Thursday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The monk will also give a
sold-out public talk at the Orpheum Theatre at 1: 30 p.m. on Sunday.
UPDATE: Those who no longer want to practise alone (a very B.C. thing
to do) could join a Buddhist community (sangha) based on the work of
Thich Nhat Hanh. Jeanie provided this link to the group. http://www.mindfulnessvancouver.org
Every human being is creative. Every human being must constantly
create new patterns of sensing and responding in the moment and for the
moment in order to survive.
Yet there are some humans who find themselves called or impelled or otherwise choosing to spend their lives exercising this creativity
in a particular sensory range, whether visual, aural, tactile,
linguistic, or kinetic. These artists, in so far as they share their
work, inspire others to sense, imagine, and understand anew.They make
possible ways of seeing and knowing that would not otherwise exist, thus
opening the way for new realities to emerge. It is difficult work, and
not always rewarded, for its value can be difficult to perceive in terms
of product and profit. Often, only those who cannot choose to do
otherwise persevere.
A gift is a potential to move and be moved. It is a sensibility, a
receptivity, a vulnerability. Whether the gift is in dance or design,
those with it are able to notice and articulate impulses to move as
those impulses arise in them in response to the unique experiences of
their living. They are able to create and become new patterns of sensing
and responding that express this attentiveness. A gift is thus an
opening to the movement of the universe, creating itself through us. And
sometimes the energy coming through can overwhelm.
For this
reason, a gift is not something upon which we make demands. It is
something that makes demands on us so that we can learn to surf its
tides. A gift compels us to act in ways that allow it to unfold and
flow. It compels us to surround ourselves with the kinds of nourishment,
structure, encouragement, and opportunity we need in order to cultivate
our receptivity and responsivity. It guides us to act in ways that keep
it alive, and if we want to enjoy the experience of its facility and
power, we must.
2. Keep the channel open.
The
discipline involved is not that of mastering form or perfecting
technique. It is not, in other words, a question of learning movements
that someone else has made. Rather, it is a question of staying open to
one’s own ability to create new movements. In this task, the practice of
technique helps, but not necessarily as a measure of achievement. It
helps because it serves to mark the time and space, the context and the
medium through which we invite new patterns. Such practice helps keep
the channel open.
The channels through which impulses to move
appear are easily clogged. Anxieties hung from hopes, fears of failure,
disappointments and grief,
or even successes that strangle us with the thought that we will never
match that height again can all compromise our ability to create. We are
easily clogged as well by the remedies for which we reach in
response—the painkillers and distractions, the addictions and
dependencies. The challenge, then, is to stay grounded in the gift, and
align our actions with what it needs to keep moving.
3. Greet every obstacle as a guide to your own unique offering.
The
key to keeping the channel open and staying grounded in a gift is to
use it, all the time, in response to everything. What we have to offer
is what we know and whatever happens to us contributes to that unique
set of movement patterns that we are and can be. It is when we are
forced to respond to obstacles and challenges, disappointments and
fears, that we do the kind of singular work that resonates with
universal meaning. The moves we make make us into people who can. No
loss is simply a loss when we create through it.
4. Be ready for the desert.
There
will be times when the landscape of life seems barren indeed—bereft of
all life forms, ideas, companionship, or opportunities to share. Such
times are inevitable. They will come when we choose to act in ways that
honor our gift. They will come when we keep the channel open. They will
come when we are nose to nose with our greatest challenges. And in those
moments, we will need the willingness to dive deep within ourselves for
the sustenance we need. It is in those times that we will find those
hidden wells, when we come to appreciate their resources, and when we
realize that it is OK to be alive. For we are.
5. Give competition and critique their due--and no more.
Along
the way, there are ever twin allies that can complicate or complement
our journey. Competition and critique can lift us up or leave us in the
dust. But the point isn’t to win. Where is the race? The point is to
allow our sensitivity and vulnerability to others--to their gifts and
insights and responses--to inspire and challenge and stretch us to find
out what it is we have to give, and then to give it.
There is no
judge. There is never any judge. Never anyone to tell you that your gift
is too small or too big or not worthy. The question for you and you
alone is how will you use it.
6. Remember relationships.
No
one, absolutely no one, does anything or make anything on their own. We
are all held up by others who enable us to be. And these others we must
remember—our mentors, teachers, family, and friends. Our colleagues and
collaborators. We need to cultivate these relationships, respect them,
keep them alive, and so provide ourselves and our gift with the counsel
and comfort we need to continue.
When we do, the deserts are
fewer and farther between; the obstacles less challenging to surmount,
and the resources for growing are greater.
