[this post was supposed to be publish long time ago...]
Namaste, my family calls me Pancho and I'd like you to know that I love you all.
A few of weeks ago (May 5th) I was very happy to read the sign at the facade of the Kindness temple. For a moment, I read: SOULar Powered Home. While this home is now powered by our star, I would not doubt for a second that it is also ran by soul ;-) The embodiment of this statement is mamá Harshida who had a pretty bad cold and yet she cooked for all of us, joined the circle and handed to us each one of the dinner plates with her usual living-kind smile. That's what I call soular power! What a way to support our journeys!
I'm not surprised that each member in the Mehta family has this quality of the soulforce very well developed.
These were the three points I shared:
1. Belief and Unbelief
2. Freedom from Fear
3. Vinoba on Virtues
1. Belief and Unbelief
Critical thinking is one of the core values I was taught at home and school. Growing up, basically in a secular environment, I developed an inquisitive mind that got rid of most superstitions or blind believes. Then, being high at the science ladder, I discovered that there are questions that humans won't be able to respond ever–get closer to the answer yes, but never fully correct–because, for practical purposes at the human scale, it is an infinite ladder. It humbled my heart and mind. Science is not a fix thing, it is a dynamic process. How beautiful and profound!
Blind belief is also called false positive, and blind unbelief is called false negative. In other words, we can believe something not-true or we can not-believe something true. In both cases we are misrepresenting reality as it is.
For me, what this means is that blind unbelief should not replace blind belief. It is not as if belief alone can be blind, that it has monopoly of blindness. Unbelief too can be blind.
That's why I've been striving for the balance between science and art, the magic spot where the beauty of life blossoms at its best. I might say it is a combination of critical thinking and critical feeling.
2. Freedom from Fear
Without truth positive qualities have no value; but then, for truth, fearlessness is essential. In an atmosphere charged with fear, positive qualities cannot grow. In fact they become themselves negative qualities, and positive efforts and tendencies get weakened. Freedom from fear is the supreme leader of all positive qualities.
Those that have learnt the lesson of fearlessness and selfeffacement need no leader. When fear of jail disappears, repression puts heart into people. I can only be infinitely grateful for the administration of the University of California because through its structural and physical violence it facilitated me to embrace the fearlessness. As a student, I was sent to jail with charges of trespassing on university property and of "disrupting" the peace. When I was arrested I was meditating. Since then, and through the beautiful interaction with inmate brothers in the Berkeley and Santa Rita jails, I don't do fear any more. I had a blind belief that prison was terrifying. Anchored in love and respect, I lost the fear to be imprisoned.
One of the lessons a planetary community yearning for collective intelligence needs to learn is to shed fears of loosing title, wealthy position, fear of imprisonment, of bodily injury and lastly death. What this means, for me, is that when one finally is not identified with the body, then oppression and tyranny, both internal and external, are overcome forever.
3. Vinoba on Virtues
Fearlessness has been given first place in a long list of twenty-six qualities according to Vinoba. This is not an accident. As mentioned before, in a atmosphere charged with fear, positive qualities cannot grow. Vinobaji uses the analogy of an army: "While in front fearlessness stands alert, humility guards the rear. This is an excellent arrangement." If we have first twenty five qualities (like compassion, tenderness, forgiveness, serenity, patience, nonviolence, loyalty, etc.) but no humility, the ego principle will attack the army from the back and destroy it. In the absence of humility, there is no knowing when victory will turn into defeat.
So, there is a third way in adition to the “fight or flight”response: the fearless-nonviolent-humble action. I'm learning, on Wednesdays, how to cultivate all these qualities.
May all become compassionate, courageous and wise.
On Jun 24, 2010 Pancho wrote :
[this post was supposed to be publish long time ago...]
Namaste, my family calls me Pancho and I'd like you to know that I love you all.
A few of weeks ago (May 5th) I was very happy to read the sign at the facade of the Kindness temple. For a moment, I read: SOULar Powered Home. While this home is now powered by our star, I would not doubt for a second that it is also ran by soul ;-) The embodiment of this statement is mamá Harshida who had a pretty bad cold and yet she cooked for all of us, joined the circle and handed to us each one of the dinner plates with her usual living-kind smile. That's what I call soular power! What a way to support our journeys!
I'm not surprised that each member in the Mehta family has this quality of the soulforce very well developed.
These were the three points I shared:
1. Belief and Unbelief
2. Freedom from Fear
3. Vinoba on Virtues
1. Belief and Unbelief
Critical thinking is one of the core values I was taught at home and school. Growing up, basically in a secular environment, I developed an inquisitive mind that got rid of most superstitions or blind believes. Then, being high at the science ladder, I discovered that there are questions that humans won't be able to respond ever–get closer to the answer yes, but never fully correct–because, for practical purposes at the human scale, it is an infinite ladder. It humbled my heart and mind. Science is not a fix thing, it is a dynamic process. How beautiful and profound!
Blind belief is also called false positive, and blind unbelief is called false negative. In other words, we can believe something not-true or we can not-believe something true. In both cases we are misrepresenting reality as it is.
For me, what this means is that blind unbelief should not replace blind belief. It is not as if belief alone can be blind, that it has monopoly of blindness. Unbelief too can be blind.
That's why I've been striving for the balance between science and art, the magic spot where the beauty of life blossoms at its best. I might say it is a combination of critical thinking and critical feeling.
2. Freedom from Fear
Without truth positive qualities have no value; but then, for truth, fearlessness is essential. In an atmosphere charged with fear, positive qualities cannot grow. In fact they become themselves negative qualities, and positive efforts and tendencies get weakened. Freedom from fear is the supreme leader of all positive qualities.
Those that have learnt the lesson of fearlessness and selfeffacement need no leader. When fear of jail disappears, repression puts heart into people. I can only be infinitely grateful for the administration of the University of California because through its structural and physical violence it facilitated me to embrace the fearlessness. As a student, I was sent to jail with charges of trespassing on university property and of "disrupting" the peace. When I was arrested I was meditating. Since then, and through the beautiful interaction with inmate brothers in the Berkeley and Santa Rita jails, I don't do fear any more. I had a blind belief that prison was terrifying. Anchored in love and respect, I lost the fear to be imprisoned.
One of the lessons a planetary community yearning for collective intelligence needs to learn is to shed fears of loosing title, wealthy position, fear of imprisonment, of bodily injury and lastly death. What this means, for me, is that when one finally is not identified with the body, then oppression and tyranny, both internal and external, are overcome forever.
3. Vinoba on Virtues
Fearlessness has been given first place in a long list of twenty-six qualities according to Vinoba. This is not an accident. As mentioned before, in a atmosphere charged with fear, positive qualities cannot grow. Vinobaji uses the analogy of an army: "While in front fearlessness stands alert, humility guards the rear. This is an excellent arrangement." If we have first twenty five qualities (like compassion, tenderness, forgiveness, serenity, patience, nonviolence, loyalty, etc.) but no humility, the ego principle will attack the army from the back and destroy it. In the absence of humility, there is no knowing when victory will turn into defeat.
So, there is a third way in adition to the “fight or flight”response: the fearless-nonviolent-humble action. I'm learning, on Wednesdays, how to cultivate all these qualities.
May all become compassionate, courageous and wise.
Pancho