At the heart of most philosophical and spiritual traditions is the invitation to “allow”. Sometimes words such as acceptance, submission and surrender are also used in this context. These are fraught words because they have associations of compliance and conformity. For many of us these words may bring sensations of disempowerment.
Read MoreI find it intriguing that while there is endless commentary about the transitory nature of the times we live in, and about the new era that awaits, these commentaries are accompanied by predictions about how this “new” era will look. People either propose a dystopian future or one that will be a golden era of divinity. I must admit that neither fills me with hope, and this has to do with how we arrive at these scenarios rather than what they propose for the future.
Read MoreIf truth be told, a visceral experience of strength is not considered “spiritual” in our times. “Strength” is largely understood as something of the mind, a mental resolve, a statement, or narrative of what that means, and a series of actions templated by these narratives. In fact, we even consider strength of the body as oppositional to spirituality.
Read MoreI have noticed a curious pattern when I am dancing with women, especially in my Individual program where it is a one-on-one situation. No sooner do we begin to taste anything like presence and expression of Self than they flee towards a myriad of distractions.
Read MoreIn recent times I have encountered people in my classes who speak to me of their apathy. They share with me that they feel sapped of energy and hold a sense of helplessness. One of them told me that they feel they are standing on a railway platform watching the trains of life pass them by.
Read MoreThis week I had one of the women in my classes ask me about the difference between expression and action. She wondered whether “work” and “expression” need to be the same, and whether it is possible for them to be the same.
Read MoreLike many people I teach, I also hear much about the age of transition in which we are living. I hear eminent people speak about a change of ages, and the coming of a different paradigm of life. I often consider how I situate my lifetime in relation to these cosmic time movements. I hear people share with me how the incessant conversations about ages that are made up of thousands of years can serve to further distance us from the immediacy of our lifetime which is relatively only a drop in the cosmic time.
Read MoreA few days ago was my father’s tenth death anniversary. I performed the shraddha or rituals to my Pitrs or ancestors on that day. I am somewhat resistant to the determinism of ancestral narratives. In my own life, I have experienced that nothing needs to pre-determine how our lives should unfold, rather life is a co-creative project between our Yearning and Reality.
Read MoreWe live in times of virulent tribalism. Everything is about sides, signing up to an ideology and finding “community” amongst “like-minded” people. This is supported by the narrative about humans being “social animals” and that not belonging is abnormal. We are suspicious of people who choose to stand alone, or who seem to express sentiments that are nuanced, and who do not sign up to any side.
Read MoreIn our times the divorce between the arts, and paradigms that offer value to our understanding of reality, intensifies in economics-driven models of value. Either artists are superfluous to a narrative that determines the value of goods and services, or they are considered ivory-tower dwellers, remote from the urgent concerns of day-to-day life.
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