Heartfulness Magazine - December 2023 (Volume 8, Issue 12)

www.heartfulnessmagazine.com
December 2023
Time to Take Stock
DAAJI
10 Tips for
Effective
Communication
LIZ KINGSNORTH
Mana the Elephant
PAPIGUY de
MONTPELLIER
Cooking with Love
LLEWELLYN
VAUGHAN-LEE
Giving
L
U
N
A
NA - BU
T
A
N

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Editorial Team — Elizabeth Denley, Vanessa Patel,
Kashish Kalwani, Christine Prisland, Mamata
Subramanyam, Pankhi Chauhan
Design, Art & Photography — Uma Maheswari G,
Lakshmi Gaddam, Thomas Klein, Jasmee Mudgal, Yulia
Veresk
Writers — Zach Bush, Daaji, Charles Eisenstein,
Liz Kingsnorth, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Papiguy of
Montpellier, Tracie Pape, Suraj Sehgal
Interviewees — Barbara Bush, Pawo Choyning Dorji,
Karen Eyþórsdóttir
Support Team — Balaji Iyer, Subash Kannan, Karthik
Natarajan, Ashraful Nobi, Jayakumar Parthasarathy,
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Heartfulness

Giving
Dear readers,
Once again, another year has passed, and the holiday season provides the time and space to pause, to
reflect, to celebrate, and to give.
It feels difficult to celebrate right now, though, given the challenges we face, like a global mental health
crisis, outbreaks of war, environmental disasters, and a general sense of hopelessness. In this climate, the
ability to give to ourselves and to others, in all forms, is essential now more than ever.
This month, we reflect on the many forms of giving. Pawo Choyning Dorji celebrates the giving nature
of teachers in his award-winning film Lunana, Barbara Bush shares her vision of giving through social
activism and community building, Liz Kingsnorth offers 10 tips for giving through communication, Zach
Bush explores spirituality as a way of gifting ourselves a rise in consciousness, and Karen Eyþórsdóttir
describes the greening of a city.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee expresses giving through cooking, Suraj Sehgal offers 4 ways to be a better friend,
and Charles Eisenstein is living in the gift. Tracie Pape asks if we are showing up for ourselves, and
Papiguy from Montpellier tells a beautiful story about giving, in time for the festive season.
We are grateful to you for turning or scrolled the pages of our magazine. We hope you have been inspired,
more connected to the Earth, and have discovered tools that support you at work and at home, allowed
your inner creativity to flourish, strengthened your relationships, and learned ways to care and give.
We look forward to seeing you in 2024 with renewed inspiration and a few changes.
Happy reading,
The editors
December 2023

inside
self-care
Time to Take Stock
Daaji
12
Are You Showing Up for
Yourself?
Tracie Pape
14
Cooking with Love
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
18
inspiration
The Secret Ingredient
Daaji
26
Spirituality
Zach Bush
32
environment
Living in the Gift
Charles Eisenstein
58
creativity
Mana the Elephant
Papiguy of Montpellier
66
A Love Letter from Bhutan
Pawo Choyning Dorji
76
what's up
82
workplace
Creating a Green City
Karen Eyþórsdóttir
38
Creating Communities for
Health
Barbara Bush
42
relationships
10 Tips for Effective
Communication
Liz Kingsnorth
50
4 Ways to Be a Better
Friend
Suraj Sehgal
54
December 2023 7

DAAJI
Daaji is the Heartfulness
Guide. He is an innovator and
researcher, equally at home in the
fields of spirituality, science, and
the evolution of consciousness.
He has taken our understanding
of human potential to a new
level.
KAREN EYÞÓRSDÓTTIR
Karen is a project manager for
the city of Reykjavik in the
field of climate change and
European cooperation, adopting
international standards in the
city’s progress towards a more
sustainable future.
ZACH BUSH
Zach is a multi-disciplinary
physician of internal medicine,
endocrinology, and hospice
care, and founder of Farmer’s
Footprint. He is also an educator
and thought leader on the
microbiome, as it relates to
human health, soil health, food
systems and a regenerative future.
BARBARA BUSH
Barbara is a fellow at Schmidt
Futures, supporting racial justice.
She is co-founder and Board
Chair of Global Health Corps
which mobilizes young leaders
to build health equity. She serves
on a number of boards including
Partners In Health and Friends
of the Global Fight for AIDS,
TB, and Malaria. Barbara also
co-authored Sisters First, with
her sister.
LLWELLYN VAUGHAN-
LEE
Llewellyn is the founder of The
Golden Sufi Center. Author of
several books, he has specialized
in dream work, integrating
Sufism and modern psychology.
Since 2000 his focus has been
on spiritual responsibility
and awakening the global
consciousness of oneness.
CHARLES EISENSTEIN
Charles is a writer, philosopher,
speaker and pioneer, who has
been exploring the need for
society’s transformation for
some years now. He has focused
light on our economic, social
and political systems, and the
need for us to move from a
paradigm of separation to that
of interbeing. His work can be
found at charleseisenstein.org.
Heartfulness
8

contributors
PAPIGUY
Papiguy from Montpellier is a
retired communication trainer,
psychotherapist, and assistant
of the director of the Grotowski
Theatre Laboratory in Poland,
leading creation sessions through
the voice. In 1981, an encounter
with Babuji revolutionized his
life. He continues to be a student
of the heart.
JASMEE MUDGAL
Jasmee is a graphic designer with
Heartfulness Magazine, and
she is also a Klayzen potter. She
aspires to open a studio where
underprivileged women from the
villages can make art and support
themselves.
TRACIE PAPE
Tracie is a licenced clinical social
worker, who has been working
in the social service field since
1991. Her work has included
Peace Corps in West Africa and
trauma recovery with survivors in
Chicago. Tracie offers culturally
sensitive treatment focusing on
individual strengths, self-love and
connection.
PAWO CHOYNING
DORJI
Pawo is a Bhutanese filmmaker
and photographer. His film,
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
(2019), was nominated for Best
International Feature Film at the
94th Academy Awards, and had
its world premiere at the BFI
London Film Festival.
LIZ KINGSNORTH
Liz is a happy human being
living in Kanha Shanti Vanam
ashram. She is blessed with a son
and daughter and four beloved
grandchildren in Australia. She
is the global Director of Heartful
Communication and has been a
certified trainer in Nonviolent
Communication for over 20
years.
SURAJ SEHGAL
Suraj is currently an MBA
student at UC Berkeley Haas. He
has been a consultant for large
government clients and studied
engineering at Georgia Tech.
Suraj is a storyteller at heart, and
is a blogger and public speaker.
His aspiration is to create ripples
of change in the communities
he’s in.
December 2023 9

The greatest gift you can give
yourself is a little bit of
your own attention.
ANTHONY J. D’ANGELO
self-care

Time to
Take Stock
D
ear friends,
Over this past year, we
have explored various exercises
to improve our lives and to heal
what needs to be healed. We’ve
covered topics like meditation,
dealing with thoughts, mental
and physical well-being, anger
and stress detox, imagining and
setting intentions for personal
change, being in the present,
and acceptance.
At year end, it’s time to take
stock and feel gratitude for the
gifts given and received. This
exercise can point the way for
our future to become better and
better human beings.
Journaling
Keeping a journal is one
effective way to take stock. You
can look back and see how you
have changed over the year. I
heartily recommend it.
YES, YOU CAN DO IT!
As 2023 draws to a close, DAAJI invites you
to take stock of the gifts 2023 has brought,
and to treat yourself to a simple gratitude
practice to end the year.
There is so much to write
about: your aspirations,
observations of how you feel,
narrating difficult situations.
In the latter, you may find
that getting the thoughts and
feelings on paper allows your
heart to come to acceptance and
a way forward.
On a spiritual path, keeping
a daily journal of what you
feel during your practice, any
changes in your behavior, and
insights is a way to look back
and see how far you’ve come.
The changes can be subtle, or
seemingly instant, but journal
writing encourages interest,
which in turn designs your
destiny.
Heartfulness
12

Start by writing down 5
things for which you are
grateful. If you discover
more than 5, keep writing.
They could be very small
things, like a special smile
from someone, a piece
of music, or bigger life-
changing happenings
What touched you the
most during this past year?
It could be either a happy
occasion or a sad occasion.
What have you learned
from it?
What brought you the most
joy?
Imagine your next year.
What changes would you
like to make? Keep it
simple. And then set the
intentions that will help
you to realize your dreams.
I wish you all the best in your
onward journey,
Daaji
The gratitude list
Another way to take stock is to
note the things for which you
are grateful. It is an inspiring
and heart-opening exercise,
giving perspective and hope.
At year end, it’s time to take
stock and feel gratitude for the
gifts given and received. This
exercise can point the way for our
future to become better and
better human beings.
Also, take the time to reflect on
any changes you have noticed
during the past months. It can
chart your future with more
positivity.
December 2023 13
SELF-CARE

myself, was an increased sense of
loneliness. This observation has
been a catalyst for me to consider
what helps me connect to others
and what gets in the way.
Systemic racism and
intergenerational trauma have
been at the forefront of mental
health issues for social workers
during this time. The impact of
oppression, inequity of resources
and support, parents with
untreated mental health concerns,
and lack of education or stigma
about mental health can keep
many of us in the dark.
Anxiety can keep our nervous
system on high alert and sensitive
to perceived rejection or judgment.
L
oneliness does not come from
having no people around
you, but from being unable to
communicate the things that seem
important to you.” – Carl Jung
As all of us emerge from the global
pandemic, we are experiencing
challenges unlike anything we have
ever encountered before. I work in
the mental health field in the area
of crisis, and have witnessed first-
hand the impact the pandemic
has had on mental health. Many
who struggled with depression
or anxiety prior to the pandemic
found the symptoms exacerbated
by the stress of isolation and fear.
One thing I noticed, even with
Depression can keep us hidden
away to protect ourselves from
rejection or judgment. During the
past two years, most of us have felt
these emotions to varying degrees.
When these states are chronical,
we are disconnected from ourselves
and others.
Personally, the importance of
connecting to myself has been
reinforced as I prepare to send
my youngest son off to college. I
have spent many years focusing
on being a mother, while also
helping others professionally. One
of the most enjoyable parts about
being a parent has been watching
my children grow into their
own persons, and identify their
values and unique gifts. Through
Heartfulness
14
TRACIE PAPE is a clinical social worker, therapist, and longtime
Heartfulness Meditation trainer, who works in the crisis area
of mental health. Tracie questions how she is showing up for
herself, and encourages all of us to ask ourselves the same
questions.

SELF-CARE
conversations with my boys, I have
realized that a lot of what I try to
instill and teach others are things
I am still struggling to incorporate
into my life.
While giving feedback to others at
work, I often think to myself, “Am
I doing this in my own life?”The
idea that we teach what we need to
learn has been popping up a lot for
me lately.
As I encourage others to practice
self-compassion and take care
of themselves, how often am I
putting that into practice?
Self-compassion is essential if I
am to step aside from negative or
fearful thoughts about myself and
the world, and attend to myself
with love and kindness. The
Chicago South Side Irish mindset
I have inherited can often tell me,
“keep this to yourself,” and “if
you worked harder, you wouldn’t
feel this way.”The awareness
that some of my core beliefs are a
result of upbringing rather than
inadequacies has been liberating.
Resmaa Menakem’s book My
Grandmother’s Hand resonated
with me on a very profound level
by showing me how much of what
I feel in my body is inherited or
contextual, and it is up to me to
respond differently.
The assumption that we are all
doing the best we can has helped
free me from self-judgment. When
I am kind to myself in the same
way I am often kind to others,
I feel the connection with them
more deeply. This has been the
key for me to feel included and
loved. By loving myself, I am
able to see, feel, and respond to
the kindness and love of others.
Sometimes, loneliness can set in
when we are not looking out for
it, or allowing ourselves to feel the
bids for connection and offerings
of support from others.
First published in Heartfulness
Magazine in July 2022.
Illustrations by LAKSHMI GADDAM
When I am kind to
myself in the same
way I am often kind
to others, I feel the
connection with
them more deeply.
This has been the
key for me to feel
included and loved.
Heartfulness
16

Cooking With
LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE ignites our sense of wonder with his
personal experiences of a deepening relationship with food over
the course of his life. He also offers us some valuable tips in “The
Practice of Cooking with Love.”
meditation, I learned to chop
vegetables and bake stoneground
bread. I had been brought up
without any consciousness of food,
in the English style of cooking, in
which cabbage is boiled for twenty
minutes until all the goodness has
long gone. With my chopping
board, knives and wok, I learned
to bring attention to cooking and
eating. It was also an excellent
silent rebellion against my middle
class family background. While
everyone was eating their Sunday
lunch of roast beef and roast
potatoes, I was sitting at the same
table eating a bowl of rice and
vegetables with chopsticks!
I learned to cook with awareness,
with a sense that food is not just
Let dharma be the same as food, and let food be the same as dharma...
This food is the fulfillment that is the joy of dharma and the delight of meditation.
Dogen
W
hen I was in my
teens and began to
practice meditation,
I also learned to cook. I have an
instinctual belief that to prepare
and cook one’s food with attention
is an essential part of spiritual
life that provides a necessary
ingredient for the journey. When
Dogen, the founder of the Soto
Zen school, went to China to
rediscover the roots of Zen, his
most instructive meeting was
with an old monk who was the
chief cook of the monastery,
who rebuked him for not
understanding that cooking was a
spiritual practice.
Maybe it was this ancient tradition
that returned when, along with
something we eat but also part
of a spiritual practice, a sense
that cooking and meditation go
together, bringing outer and inner
purity. Through being attentive
to the preparation of our food,
we bring an awareness into a
basic substance and sustenance
of life. Just as being aware of the
breath is central to spiritual life,
reconnecting us with life’s essence,
so is the simple art of cooking.
What is more satisfying than a
bowl of rice and vegetables that
you have prepared and cooked
with attention – what is a greater
gift to a visitor and friend?
Then one day in my late twenties,
I discovered something very
different about cooking. My
LOVE
December 2023 19

have known this all their lives,
known the sweetness of a cake that
comes not just from the sugar, but
it opened worlds to me.
Is there a technique for cooking
with love? I do not know, except
that it happens. Maybe it happens
when, as with the old cook who
taught Dogen, cooking becomes
one’s “practice of the Way.” My
teacher had studied with a Sufi
master in India and learned the
secrets of love, and how to work
with love. Her cooking was an
expression of her training and
practice. But from this one meal I
learned something so simple and
wonderful: that one can put love
into food that then nourishes both
the body and the soul. This new
ingredient now became central to
my cooking.
There are wonderful spiritual
practices for cooking. One can
cook with mindfulness and
attention, as in the Zen tradition.
One can say a mantra or dhikr
when one prepares a meal, so
that the food is infused with
remembrance of God. But love is
a simple expression of the heart. It
teacher invited me to a meal she
had cooked, simple Indian fritters
with rice and chutney. And I
tasted love. I had never known that
one can taste love, but after that
meal my understanding of cooking
changed completely. Yes, attention
as one chops the vegetables, as
one stirs the pot, is vital, but there
is another ingredient that adds a
totally different dimension to a
meal – love.
If in my childhood there was little
consciousness about food, there
was no awareness of love. And
to be given a plate of fritters and
rice in which love was the central
ingredient and the main taste was
revolutionary. Even the idea that
one can taste love was something
altogether new. Other people may
does not require special training,
only an awareness and offering of
the love in one’s heart. And the
food responds. The food knows
that it is loved and it passes on
this gift to the one who enjoys the
food. A deep sharing then takes
place, as if an ancient magic is part
of the meal.
So now, when I cook, I remember
that meal of rice and fritters,
I remember love. Of course
sometimes I just make and eat an
omelet, grill a piece of fish, and
maybe I am not even consciously
attentive. But if I am present in my
heart as well as my fingers, then
love can be present, love can be the
secret ingredient of a meal. This
is one of the reasons I rarely eat
at restaurants. The food may taste
good, but this central ingredient
is hardly ever present; something
essential is missing. And love
is what speaks to us, both on a
cellular level and in the soul. It
nourishes our body on all levels.
How to cook with love is for each
of us to discover, because our
heart is unique to each of us, just
as the song of our soul is unique
to each of us. And yet love is also
the primary substance of life; it
connects us with the divine Source
of all that exists. And for me,
one meal cooked with love was
an experience of a lifetime. Forty
years later, I can still taste it.
SELF-CARE
Heartfulness
20

Food and love are two of the most vital
forms of human nourishment.
Combining them is a simple but
essential practice.
Love is alive. It is so much more than
just the feeling we call love; it is the
animating force of life, working
according to principles far vaster than
our own lives. When we feel it moving,
most of us try to grab on to it or chase
after it, make it our own. But it is the
very nature of love to move and flow.
The more it flows, the more it serves. It
grows as it is given.
Cooking with love is natural, because
through cooking we give. Cooking and
serving food are two of the most
ancient and basic human gifts. We
serve those who eat the food with the
Earth’s sustenance – Its gift – as well
as with our time, effort, care, and
attention. Through this gift we are in
turn given the opportunity to
consciously reconnect with the
foundation of life.
THE PRACTICE OF
Cooking With Love
SELF-CARE
21
December 2023

To practice cooking with love, begin with the
trust and confidence that love is accessible and can be
worked with. Without this fundamental understanding,
love will not be drawn in, cannot season, or nourish.
Cultivate the trust that love is always available to an open
heart, and that through our loving attention we can create
ways for love to flow.
As you prepare to cook, let your heart open to love.
Let yourself feel – love comes in on feeling. A simple way
to begin to access love in the kitchen is to cook for people
you love – your friends, your family, your partner, the
person you’re in love with – allowing your feeling for them
to infuse the process. We experience love most familiarly
in the love we feel for others and from others, the feelings
of affinity and affection or passion that bind human
beings together. Even if you are cooking just for yourself,
you can bring love in, drawing on the same kindness and
compassion of love that you would bring to others. This
love is not self-regard, but a real, needed nourishment for
the body and soul.
As love animates all of life, it is not limited to
our love for one another and ourselves. It can be found
everywhere, in everything. It is abundantly present in the
ingredients we use in our cooking, and we can access it
simply through bringing our open attention to them as we
work. Begin by slowing down – don’t rush. Give yourself
time and space to cook. Look closely at the ingredients you
are using. Consciously touch and smell them. Recognize
the bright beauty of the carrot; the symmetry of a
cauliflower; the mysterious, universal swirl of a fiddlehead;
the simple wonder of an egg. Breathe in the scent of the
herbs and be conscious of their unique properties – how
one can revive your liver and another soothe your stomach.
Imagine the cow, buffalo, or chicken in the meat, milk,
cheese, or eggs you are cooking, acknowledging the living
animal whose life has become part of your food. Feel the
love from the Earth that has made all this bounty available
to you.
SELF-CARE
Heartfulness
22

The love that gives life to all things also comes alive
through your hands. It is accessible through the simple
awareness and care you bring to chopping the vegetables,
stirring the pot. As you work, bring the feeling from your
heart into your hands, from your hands into the food. Love
is alive; it wants to flow, and through your attention you
can participate in directing its flow.
In our modern world we have almost entirely lost this
direct relationship with food. But food links us together
and to the Earth, and cooking can help us become more
conscious of this essential gift of love. Everything that is
part of cooking – from the fire of the stove and the herbs
we season with, to the water or wine we pour – invites us to
consciously participate in this circle of life that both gives
and receives. The more we recognize that we are part of
this wholeness, not separate from it, the more love can flow
with and through us.
The world needs love. It needs love to flow like water, to be
breathed like oxygen. Love can be savored, as it nourishes
us in hidden ways. Love is like a key ingredient in a recipe
that only the grandmothers remember. And yet it is here
with us, waiting to be used, simple – like salt on the shelf.
It is the most fundamental ingredient of all of life.
Be attentive to the offering that this act of cooking
is. As you pepper the stew to refine the taste, be aware
that you are creating something to give, to feed, and share.
Reaffirm the fundamental generosity of the Earth – how it
not only keeps us alive but gives us pleasure and enjoyment
through our senses of smell and taste, and how through
cooking you are participating in that generosity.
SELF-CARE
First published in Heartfulness Magazine in November 2019.
December 2023 23

24
24
It is not how much we do,
but how much love we put
in the action that we do.
MOTHER TERESA
inspiration
Illustrations by YULIA VERESK

The Secret
Ingredient
DAAJI’s latest book, Spiritual Anatomy: Meditation, Chakras, and the
Journey to the Center, was released in the U.S. in October 2023, and
will be released in other parts of the world in early 2024. It is already
a bestseller. In this excerpt, we get a taste of the tips he offers to
all spiritual seekers in his groundbreaking book. Here, he shares 3
important attitudes that will help us on our way.
I
f you wish to realize your fullest
human potential, to live from
your heart, calm your mind, and
expand your spiritual capacity,
it’s not the hours you spend in
meditation that matter most: It’s
your attitude.
Be it meditation, writing a letter,
or even making a sandwich, the
attitude with which we work
shapes our inner being. In any
task, what we do accounts for 5
percent, and the remaining 95
percent is the attitude with which
we do it.
You acquire your attitudes
through your upbringing and
life experiences. You also inherit
some of your attitudes from your
parents. You can also actively
cultivate attitudes. How you
think or feel about something
or someone is guided by your
attitude. Attitudes are so ingrained
in you that you aren’t aware of how
they shape your destiny. In fact,
your life is an expression of your
attitudes.
Your active focus on cultivating
beneficial attitudes helps to
accelerate your progress in your
spiritual journey. Think what
happens when you are digging
a well for water. You dig from
the top and keep digging deeper
(outside in), while the water under
the earth is also gushing up to
meet the surface (inside out).
When it comes to your spiritual
journey, the outside in is your
cultivating attitudes, and the inside
out is the meditation practice
doing its work. The two work in
tandem.
What are some attitudes that
we should cultivate? Why these
attitudes specifically? There are
three core attitudes that will
serve you as you elevate your
consciousness, which I call the
mother tincture attitudes.
December 2023 27
INSPIRATION

Heartfulness
28
THE MOTHER TINCTURE
ATTITUDES
In some forms of medicine, there
is the idea of a mother tincture.
It is the base formulation from
which other medicines of varying
potency are created. Some core
attitudes are like the mother
tincture, from which other
attitudes emerge. If you can master
these mother tinctures, they will
lay a strong foundation for your
inner development and support
you in your day-to-day affairs.
The three mother tincture
attitudes are:
• Sense of urgency
• Humility
• Liveliness
Sense of Urgency
In any endeavor, a sense of
urgency is crucial. It is the first
step to creating change. Without
a sustained sense of urgency,
efforts become lukewarm, and
complacency sets in. In your
spiritual journey, a sense of
urgency helps you focus on your
priorities in the present.
Make a habit of asking yourself
this question: “What’s the most
important thing to do in this
moment?” It will help you re-
center and cultivate a sense of
urgency toward your goal. As
urgency increases, your eagerness
to get to the goal also increases.
Questions such as, “What am I
here for?” “What do I need to do?”
and “What is my goal?” become
more frequent. Each time these
questions surface in your mind,
they leave a ripple of restlessness
in your consciousness.
But don’t worry – the restlessness
I am writing about is nothing
like you feel when you are late
for a flight or your takeout is
delayed. Neither is it the unhealthy
restlessness that leads to anxiety
or despair. This is spiritual
restlessness. It propels you toward
the soul’s true purpose: to grow
and evolve. If you have been in
love, recall the restlessness with
which you waited for your lover.
Amplify this many times, and you
will get a whiff of the restlessness I
talk about.
INSPIRATION

December 2023 29
The spiritual restlessness created
in your meditation finds an ally in
the sense of urgency you cultivate.
Together, they help you stay
focused on the goal. Alertness,
initiative, and agility are natural
outcomes of a sense of urgency.
Now, be mindful that urgency
is not desperation. Urgency is a
positive driving force you create,
but desperation is a knee-jerk
reaction grounded in fear or
scarcity. A sense of urgency helps
you focus on making progress
toward the goal daily, whereas
INSPIRATION
desperation creates a flurry of
activity that fatigues you.
A sense of urgency helps you
counter inner entropy and creates
protection against a lukewarm
approach to life.
Humility
Humility is the most sublimated
state of ego. Humility is not
flattery or servility. Instead,
humility is a sign of great self-
awareness, where you are aware of
your smallness in front of a much
bigger ideal. Such awareness gives
you a feeling of insignificance
that helps you grow. A humble
person is respectful by nature and
cultivates reverence in the hearts
of others. Just as a tree laden with
fruit bends naturally under the
weight of its gifts, a human being
bearing spiritual fruit becomes
increasingly accessible to one and
all.
Humility attracts grace. When a
low-pressure area is created in the
atmosphere, the wind rushes in
to fill the void. In the same way,
when you create space within by
sublimating the ego, you create

To bring about
transformation, be
livelier. Throw away
the deadwood that
fixates you. Stay
pliable in spirit.
Emotional and
mental flexibility
come from the
openness of the
heart.
Heartfulness
30
smile on the lips, and a spring in
the step make the journey livelier.
Cultivate an attitude of liveliness.
Become livelier, more cheerful.
Carrying the baggage of sadness,
sorrow, and unhappiness will not
work. How long would you like
to carry that sadness with you? Is
sorrow that precious? Is it worth
storing it in your beautiful heart
and burdening it? Moreover, in
almost all cases, the reason for
sadness will always be another
person, who is also God’s creation.
To bring about transformation, be
livelier. Throw away the deadwood
that fixates you. Stay pliable in
spirit. Emotional and mental
flexibility come from the openness
of the heart. A sad, heavy heart
cannot stay open. Only a lively
heart is open and flowing.
https://heartfulness.org/en/spiritual-
anatomy/
Excerpted from Spiritual Anatomy by
Kamlesh D. Patel. Copyright © 2023
by Kamlesh D. Patel. Reprinted with
permission of Balance Publishing, an
imprint of Hachette Book Group. All
rights reserved.
Illustrations by YULIA VERESK
a low-pressure area in the heart,
which is then filled with grace.
When there is humility within,
grace descends automatically.
And grace is a catalyst for inner
progress.
Liveliness
Long-drawn faces, gloomy moods,
and irritable behaviors stretch the
journey. But a song in the heart, a
INSPIRATION

Spirituality
DR. ZACH BUSH is a renowned, multi-disciplinary
physician and educator on the microbiome as
it relates to human health, the environment and
our interconnected future. Here he extends this
worldview into the spiritual realm and the field of
consciousness, so as to co-create a sustainable and
regenerative future for all of us, and understand the
role of humanity in the greater scheme of things.
32 Heartfulness

S
pirituality is one difficult topic to tackle as
a human being, let alone try to be some sort
of leader in it. I’ve never looked to my own
experience or knowledge base to think of myself
as a leader in any sort of spiritual content. I never
really dove into spirituality thinking that this
was going to be an area of focus for me. It’s just
percolated up through the rest of my experience
and pursuits.
The deeper I’ve gotten into science, medical and
otherwise, the more I find that the template of
nature itself speaks to some greater design, some
deep fundamental truths that are echoed from
the most microscopic to the most macroscopic
things we see in us, from the tiny viruses that
would inhabit a body to the universe itself. The
scale is truly extraordinary. And in recent years,
the scientific literature has introduced us to The
Universal Scalability Law. That law shows that
the mathematical scale between the universe
itself and the tiniest particles we've ever measured
in physics – the tiniest being the vibration of
the electromagnetic field in a vacuum, called
Planck's constant – is laid in half, cut in half in its
dimensions by human biology.
We sit at the center point of the vast universe within
and the vast universe without. It must not be
an accident. We have the ability to observe both,
to be witness to both the grandeur within
and the grandeur without.
What do I mean by that? Extraordinarily, we
sit at the center point mathematically between
the tiniest thing and the largest thing that has
ever been witnessed by humans in the universe.
Somehow, we sit at the center point, the event
horizon, the center point of the universe, which
means that as we look through telescopes out
through the billions of stars that would make
up our galaxy, and then past that to the billions
of galaxies that would make up the universe,
that telescope expands to the very edges of the
universe. You would have to turn that telescope
around into your hand or into your chest, and
then look just as deep into that physical space
to find the exact same depth, the exact same
complexity and scale.
We sit at the center point of the vast universe
within and the vast universe without. It must not
be an accident. We have the ability to observe
both, to be witness to both the grandeur within
and the grandeur without. And for that reason, I
think we’re called into relationship with nature,
not to demand something of it, not to control it,
but to simply be a grateful and loving witness to
miraculous nature, without and within.
33
December 2023
INSPIRATION

The spirituality I’ve come to really embrace is
one of understanding of singularity and diversity,
this extraordinary truth that it is only in our
own self-identity that we can find our role and
our relationship, in that singularity, to the entire
universe without and within.
We stand at a powerful place in mathematical
scale. We stand at a tipping point between the
grandiose and the minuscule. We can manifest
the very intention of life, which is nature around
us and within us. I want human consciousness
to rise, so that as we improve our understanding
of human health and push the boundaries
of longevity and reverse the chronic disease
epidemics around us, we don’t continue to
participate in speed, the demise of our species,
and the destruction of our planet.
The rise of consciousness needs to be such that
we don’t just improve human health, but come
to understand our human relationship to the
universe at large, inside and outside of us. I’m
excited for us to have dialogues towards this end,
in the medical environment, the scientific world,
and most of all, perhaps, in the consumer world.
As consumers, each of us can see this world
differently as we come to see our role. You did
not show up by accident. Seven billion souls have
leapt into these bodies at this moment in human
history. We find ourselves to be at the tipping
point, with maybe 60 or 70 years left of human
life on Earth. That's an extraordinarily bizarre
and terrifying fact. And yet I look at my children
and I see the purpose and passion within them.
My son is an engineer, brilliant in his excitement
at co-creating in the universe. My daughter, so
expressive in her creative capacity as a performer,
and she is in New York City now enjoying this
incredible culture of creative arts. I see both of
them and I have hope. Souls are still jumping into
bodies with great purpose, and a sense of joy, and
a sense of hope for the future.
I have trust in the wisdom and expectation of
those souls that somehow, within the next couple
of decades, humanity's consciousness rises.
And thus we can become the very pinnacle of
transformation on this planet; so that we can be
part of that solution-based transformation to
co-create with Mother Earth for a sustainable and
regenerative future for mankind.
We need to debunk the fear and guilt of
spirituality that’s been built into our religious
constructs, and really come to see that we are
all on one small blue dot in this vast expanse of
vacuum space of the universe. We are singular
here, we’re singular in our homes, and in our
opportunity to live in a healthy, cooperative
environment with the rest of humanity, such
that we participate with the greater ecosystem in
nature to manifest the face of what we might call
God, we might call spirituality, or we might call
the Universe. We can be a part of that in a healthy
and synergistic fashion.
The spirituality I’ve come to
really embrace is one of
understanding of singularity
and diversity, this
extraordinary truth that it is
only in our own self-identity
that we can find our role and
our relationship, in that
singularity, to the entire
universe without and within.
34 Heartfulness
INSPIRATION

I’m excited to continue to engage with all of you,
so please get back to us through the social media
environments, not just to reach me but to reach
all of us who would be drawn to an environment
like this. Be inspired to think collectively together
in a new fashion so that we overcome the fear and
guilt and the psychosis of our political structures,
our social structures, our religious structures, and
really start to understand humanity and its proper
position in the universe itself.
www.zachbushmd.com
https://www.instagram.com/zachbushmd
First published in Heartfulness Magazine in May 2021.
The rise of consciousness
needs to be such that we
don’t just improve human
health, but come to
understand our human
relationship to the universe
at large, inside and outside
of us. I’m excited for us to
have dialogues towards this
end, in the medical
environment, the scientific
world, and most of all,
perhaps, in the consumer
world.
35
December 2023
INSPIRATION

Workplace
No one has ever become
poor from giving.
ANNE FRANK

CREATING A
GREEN CITY
KAREN EYÞÓRSDÓTTIR works for the city of
Reykjavik in the field of climate change and
European cooperation, adopting international
standards in the city’s progress towards a more
sustainable future. Here she is interviewed by
MADELEINE OLIVE about the sustainable Reykjavik
of the future and the importance of togetherness.

WORKPLACE
December 2023 39
A Sustainable Future
Q: What is your vision for
Reykjavik as a sustainable city of
the future?
After Covid, Reykjavik created
something called the Green Plan.
It’s an outreach program based on
the city’s vision for a sustainable
environment, outlining funding
and green spaces for the next 10
years.
There’s a lot of emphasis on
green transport, infrastructure,
neighborhoods, and innovation in
green jobs. The Green Plan aims
to create a better city to live in,
and incorporates the three pillars
of sustainability – economic, social,
and environmental – to ultimately
create an environment-friendly
city. And this Green Plan is very
much in line with the 100 climate-
neutral and smart cities program.
That’s our vision.
Q: Did growing up with nature all
around you educate you about
the environment?
In Iceland we grow up in close
proximity to nature, and many
of us live by the sea. If you drive
out of the city for half an hour,
you experience untouched nature,
which is such a privilege. And as
you grow older, you appreciate
it more and more. I wouldn’t say
that Icelanders are more respectful
of nature than other people. We
spend a lot of time in the city and
go to the countryside once in a
while, but not many people really
go out on a hike in nature or go up
to the highlands.
Iceland is rich in natural resources,
like hydropower and wind power.
We use hydropower to generate
electricity, and we use geothermal
energy – where hot water is
pumped from the ground – to heat
the houses. But there is an ever-
increasing need for electricity. A
recent report said that to achieve
carbon neutrality by 2040, we
need to dam our rivers to generate
hydroelectric power. Another
report stated that we need to build
five more dams to harness this
amount of energy.
But that would mean flooding
entire valleys and their ecosystems,
flora, and wildlife, which I think
is a big shame because Iceland
has one of the most untouched
highlands. There aren’t many
places like it, at least in Europe.
We really do need to protect these
The Green Plan
aims to create a
better city to live in,
and incorporates
the three pillars of
sustainability –
economic, social,
and environmental
– to ultimately
create an
environment-
friendly city.

areas. There are all too many
people willing to sacrifice them in
order to create more dams to sell
more cheap energy to the industry.
I guess living in close proximity to
nature does makes you feel more
connected to it, but I think we can
protect it better. You will protect
something that you love.
Young Leaders
Q: Would you like to share
something on how to empower
and encourage young people to
become leaders?
My primary advice to young
people is to nurture yourself,
because you have to put the
oxygen mask on first before you
can assist others. And after you
have nurtured yourself and found
your own strengths, find the field
of study or area of work you want
to engage in. Then, I encourage
you to get involved in any way
possible.
Often, we feel that our voices
are not heard, or that we are not
invited to have a seat at the table.
But in my experience, there are
a lot more opportunities than
we think. For instance, you can
be a mentor at your university,
helping students find their feet
and guiding them. You can be a
volunteer with the UN. You can
Heartfulness
40
WORKPLACE

Magazine in December 2022
volunteer, like you are doing with
the Heartfulness Magazine.
I was a deputy delegate to the UN
on sustainable development, but
then came Covid. So, I didn’t get
to do nearly as much as I wanted
to. Now Covid is lifting. There are
multiple ways to volunteer, and if
you don’t have time, you can be a
leader within your environment.
But it really all starts with
nurturing yourself first, finding
self-acceptance, self-love. Find
your strengths and work on them,
and then you can start assisting
others. It always has to come
from love. Any kind of activity or
decision is so much more powerful
if it comes from love rather than
fear.
Don’t engage with climate change
solely out of fear; do it out of love
for the future generations. Young
people are so powerful. Look
out for grants. Very often there
are grants from municipalities,
innovation companies or
institutions, student associations,
etc. Go with your idea and believe
in it.
Then, try to inspire others and
be open to the world. Travel, get
to know other people, be open to
other cultures and other ways of
seeing things, new perspectives.
My main message is to embrace
openness and inspiration.
Q: I am realizing more and more
the power of togetherness.
Thank you very much for sharing
your thoughts.
Thank you!
December 2023 41
WORKPLACE

In 2020, BARBARA BUSH spoke with MAMATA SUBRAMANYAM about
Global Health Corps, working in teams with other passionate young
talented people who want to make a difference in the health of their
communities, and finding ways to create connection with friends,
family, and colleagues during lockdown and self-isolation.
Creating Communities
for Health

Q: Global Health Corps, the non-
profit fellowship program you
co-founded, was created as a
way for passionate young adults
to help fill the systemic gaps in
the healthcare system. Can you
tell us a little more about how it
started?
In 2008, my co-founders and I
started Global Health Corps. We
didn’t think we were going to
start an organization. We were in
our early twenties and passionate
about global health. All of us were
imagining what our careers could
look like and we came together
around the idea of bringing
leadership and talent to the field
to continue to solve problems.
We were so lucky to be growing
up in the early 2000s. Then,
and today, we have so much at
our disposal. We have drugs to
keep people healthy, vaccines,
technology to connect us and
share information, education, etc.
We have most of the tools to make
sure millions of people around the
world don’t die from preventable
and treatable illnesses. But that
doesn’t matter if those tools don’t
get to people or people can’t use
them. So we built Global Health
Corps as a human capital talent
pipeline, to maximize the tools to
keep people safe and healthy.
The way we do that is to recruit
young leaders from around the
world to join us for an initial
year-long fellowship, where they
work on cross-cultural teams
within partner organizations,
solving issues to better serve the
communities in which they’re
based. They are working and
learning in the gray area of health;
throughout the year they go
through a curriculum focused on
advocacy, entrepreneurship, and
systems change, so that they have
the frameworks to continue to
grow in their careers as leaders in
global health.
While it is a fellowship program,
our biggest impact is what
happens in the years after the first
year. We have an active alumni
community and the fellows know
each other deeply, which I think
helps with resilience in this
work. 82% of them continue to
work in global health and social
determinants of health following
their fellowship.
We’re seeing young leaders enter
the field early in their careers and
stay in the field, which means that
there is creative, young, passionate
talent working in global health to
serve others.
Q: Are there stories that stand
out for you?
There are so many stories of our
fellows and alums! Each of them
brings a unique way of working.
Many of them are not doctors and
nurses; they have different skill
sets, which bring different ways of
thinking to the table.
Temie Giwa joined our third class
of fellows. She was working in
Uganda for Millinium Villages
Project, and she’s a maternal
health advocate. Temie gave
birth to her first child after her
fellowship, and even though there
were complications she had a safe
birth. After this, she became more
passionate about maternal health,
in particular addressing maternal-
infant mortality due to maternal
hemorrhaging during the birthing
process. Blood transfusions help
dramatically, so Temie started
LifeBank to address blood
shortages in Nigeria.
In the U.S., we take for granted
that we have the American Red
Cross and other blood banks.
December 2023 43
WORKPLACE

Because of the AIDS crisis in
Nigeria, blood for transfusions
was scarce. So Temie focused on
saving women’s lives during the
birthing process, by holding blood
drives and delivering life-saving
medicines and blood to hospitals.
She is scaling it across Nigeria,
and in the future, the continent.
She has fleets of moto-drivers and
bikers that deliver blood in order
to serve women where they are.
She’s keeping women alive and
healthy while giving birth, and
she’s managing to do it at scale.
That’s not what you would think
of initially if you were going to
do a maternal health intervention.
She came up with a different way
of addressing a chronic problem in
her country, and across the world.
Q: You said earlier that the
fellows are deeply connected
to one another. How important
do you think camaraderie is in
making an impact?
It’s probably the most important
thing. We forget that we don’t
need to do this work alone. We
shouldn’t do this work alone. And
there are a number of reasons why.
Behavioral science theory and
problem-solving theory show how
important it is to work in teams,
because we bring different ways
of thinking to the same problem;
“One plus one equals three.” We
get to different solutions based on
different viewpoints.
Number two: The resilience
required in global health is critical.
Challenges can be debilitating,
and it’s critical to know you have
a community of others walking
alongside you, who have your
back as you do this work. We’ve
seen this tremendously in Global
Health Corps – connections are
important, and so is a peer group
that shares values. When people
come to Global Health Corps,
they are passionate about global
health equity, and they find a
community of 20 to 100 people
who believe in global health
equity. They have a peer group
that pushes them to continue to
be better in this work, and that
understands the intricacies of the
work. There are people they can
turn to for debriefing about what
they’re seeing.
Finally, we’ve seen incredible
examples of our fellows working
together. They do that because
they get to know each other
and trust each other. Trust is
incredibly important in building
The resilience required in global
health is critical. Challenges can
be debilitating, and it’s critical to
know you have a community of
others walking alongside you,
who have your back as you do
this work.
relationships. The fellows and
alums may not have known
each other before entering our
program, and they build trusting
relationships – it’s very powerful.
Q: Leaders come in different
shapes and forms. What are
some qualities that are really
significant for any young adult
who wants to be a leader in the
social impact space?
There are many archetypes of
leaders. When you’re in school,
studying history, you learn
about leaders who are merrily
leading with strength. I think it’s
important to reconsider what we
perceive, and who we perceive to
be leaders, and why.
I would say the biggest leadership
quality that’s needed is empathy. I
don’t think other qualities rival it,
because if you’re a leader, your goal
should be to serve. And in order
to serve, you need to understand
people well. You need to connect
with people and you need to love
Heartfulness
44
WORKPLACE

people. And while normally love
doesn’t come up as a leadership
quality, it should. The opposite of
love is fear, and it’s easy to lead
with fear. We see that quite a bit
right now in the United States.
Fear looks like “othering” people.
Fear looks like creating divisions
among people. To me, that’s not
good leadership. The opposite
is leading with love, which is to
lead with empathy, which is to
build connections, which is to
highlight the humanity in other
people, and celebrate people,
rather than finding the flaws in
them. I think it’s important to talk
about these qualities. While they
are considered soft skills, I’d say
they are more important than hard
skills.
There’s a lot of strength in
softness; there’s a lot of strength
in kindness. I’ve reflected a lot
on my own life. I lost three of my
grandparents in the last year. One
of my grandparents was given the
title of a leader. His leadership
style would seem foreign now,
because it was a very gentle
form of leadership, a kind form
Fear looks like creating divisions among people. To me, that’s
not good leadership. The opposite is leading with love, which
is to lead with empathy, which is to build connections, which
is to highlight the humanity in other people, and celebrate
people, rather than finding the flaws in them.
December 2023 45
WORKPLACE

Trust is incredibly important in building relationships. The fact
that Global Health Corps’ fellows and alums may have not
known each other before entering our program, and yet they
build trusting relationships – it’s very powerful.
of leadership. I watched
his life and when you lose
people you reflect on their
life. He was very satisfied
and fulfilled with his life,
because he allowed himself to
live and be a leader in a way
that was authentic to him.
Authenticity really matters
in leadership. Many of the
examples we see aren’t in
line with this. You need to
be authentic to yourself and
hopefully do so with humility
and empathy.
Q: You’ve been in the public
eye your entire life, and
that’s probably come with
a lot of wonderful moments
and a lot of challenges.
How has it impacted your
decision to do the work that
you’re doing?
It’s really hard to tell, because
I don’t know my life without
it. I do know that I’m lucky
to have had tremendous
exposure to our country and
to the world when I was
younger. That was afforded
to me because of my dad
being the President. I was
WORKPLACE
Heartfulness
46

it’s really important
to make sure we
understand how
people live, and be
empathetic so that
we’re building a
country that values
all people.
in my freshman year of college
when he became President, and
my parents made it clear I could
travel with them as long as it
worked with school and with my
jobs. So I traveled the country and
to five different continents with
them. The exposure gave me a
global perspective and taught me
how people live around the world.
It introduced me to a number of
incredible people who are service-
oriented, who are stepping up in
communities to make a difference.
It’s incredibly contagious to
meet people who do not accept
the status quo, who want to do
something about it. That led me
into the field of global health,
and I was exposed to a number
of wonderful leaders who were
making a difference. And that
inspired me and let me see that
we can have an impact on global
health issues. That’s why I pursued
global health as a career.
We can all have exposure to
different ways of being and
different ways of thinking, even
in our own communities. It’s
important to broaden who we
interact with and how we interact
with them. That is a huge part
of addressing racial justice in the
United States. While the United
States is not formally segregated,
in many ways it is. And it’s
really important to make sure we
understand how people live, and be
empathetic so that we’re building a
country that values all people.
Q: Barbara, thank you for taking
the time to chat with us, and
for being so open, thoughtful,
and authentic in all of your
responses. We really appreciate
it.
Thank you.
Magazine in October 2020.
WORKPLACE
December 2023 47

Giving is an act of generosity.
Giving is sowing a seed.
The seed will produce great
harvest of fruits.
LAILAH GIFTY AKITA

TIPS for
EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
LIZ KINGSNORTH, Director of the Heartful
Communication program, shares 10 tips we
can apply to improve our relationships with
others at home, at work and with friends, all
by improving the way we communicate.
“winning” or “being right,” or even
just “having your say.” Connecting
heartfully with others is one of the
deepest of human needs.
Having a quality of connection
means that you bring yourself fully
present and try to keep your heart
open to what is going on for the
other person—however they might
1. Keep an intention for
connection
Nurture your intention: that
you want to create and sustain,
a respectful and compassionate
quality of connection—whatever
happens! Trust that this intention
for connection is more important
and more nourishing than
Heartfulness
50

4. Develop awareness of
underlying needs and values
One way of understanding human
behavior is to be aware that
everything people say and do is an
expression of underlying needs,
longings, or values. We can learn
to tune in, identify, and “hear”
these needs, even when they are
not directly expressed. Because
all human beings share these
needs, they are our magic key to
unlocking mutual understanding.
For example, if someone says,
“You are so selfish, you never do
anything to help at home,” they are
indirectly expressing a longing for
consideration and support, but it
comes out as blame and judgment.
If you can empathize rather than
react, you might say, “Are you
upset and angry because you really
need consideration and support?”
This type of response will connect,
and the person will start to feel
understood.
3. Understand the other
person first
“Seek first to understand before
you are understood,” said Stephen
Covey in his book, The 7 Habits
of Highly Effective People. When
the other person feels you
are understanding them, they
are far more likely to be open
to understanding you. Being
willing to understand the other
person first involves acceptance,
generosity, respect, self-control,
patience, and being curious instead
of furious about how they are
different from you!
When someone receives respect
and empathy, then a wish to
cooperate and contribute is free
to emerge. In this approach, we
believe that generosity, and a desire
to cooperate and contribute, are
natural human states. Not habitual,
but natural. When people don’t
receive attention and empathy,
they may continue struggling to be
heard and understood, becoming
increasingly insistent or aggressive.
Alternatively, they may shut down,
feeling resentful and unwilling
to interact further. Remember,
empathy is not agreement—you
express themselves—plus you
keep an awareness of what is alive
within yourself in each moment.
In this way you can be in touch
with what matters to the other and
to yourself.
To achieve this, learning to pause
often is invaluable!
When the connection is sustained,
there is a strong possibility that
both of you will be able to express
yourselves, plus be heard and
understood.
2. Listen twice as much as
you speak!
You have two ears and one
mouth—an effective reminder!
Listening, truly listening, is one
key to a healthy relationship. You
may only be half listening, just
waiting for your chance to speak,
wanting to make your point,
disagree, or tell your story. When
your attention is with your own
thoughts, you are not listening.
Listening means to sense into the
world of the other person, to intend
to understand their perspective and
needs, even if you disagree with what
they are saying.
can empathize with someone with
whom you profoundly disagree, if
you are willing!
December 2023 51
RELATIONSHIPS

5. Become aware of
responses likely to
disconnect you
Refrain from:
• Immediately telling your
own similar story,
• Interrogating with a lot of
data-type questions,
• Interpreting the other’s
experience,
• Giving advice,
• One-upmanship, e.g., “If you
think that’s bad wait till you
hear about what happened
to me!”
• Dismissing the person’s
feelings, e.g., “Oh, don’t be
angry,”
• Compensating and
minimizing the person’s
experience, e.g. “At least…”
and
• Telling the person that this
experience is actually good
for them!
7. Make requests that
are doable, specific, and
positive, linked to your need
Having expressed what is
important to you (your need or
value), you can make a request that
would go one step toward fulfilling
that need. Making specific
requests allows you to move out
of just complaining. It’s a gateway
to something changing. You may
be asking things of others that are
simply too vague, too big, or are
expressed as a request to stop doing
something, rather than a request
about what you would positively
like to happen. For example, “Stop
making so much noise,” or “Please
be more considerate,” are not clear,
and could be interpreted in various
ways. In contrast, “When you are
playing video games, please would
you use headphones?” is specific
and doable.
Generally people appreciate
receiving empathy before anything
else. The above responses may
have their place later on in a
conversation—it is often a matter
of being sensitive to when!
6. Link your feelings to your
needs or values, and take
responsibility for them
What someone else says or does
is not the cause for how you feel,
it is the trigger. Your feelings
are linked to underlying needs
or values that are stimulated by
what’s happening. For example,
you might get angry that someone
does not do what they say they
are going to do, so you tell them,
“You make me so angry, you are
so unreliable!”This inflammatory
accusation could be rephrased by
owning that your anger comes
from your own unfulfilled wish or
value, e.g., “I feel really frustrated
because it’s important to me that
we keep to agreements that we’ve
made.”
Heartfulness
52
RELATIONSHIPS

8. Describe what’s
happened in observation
language
When you are upset, angry, scared,
or worried, you may lapse into
descriptions of what is triggering
you, in language full of judgment,
blame, or interpretation, for
example, “You are always attacking
me,” “He doesn’t care at all about
us,” “You’re too lazy,” etc.
If you can describe what you are
seeing and hearing in a neutral,
factual way, free of judgments (as
a video camera would record),
there’s a good chance the other
person can agree with this initial
description. Then the interaction
can move to aspects that will
make the difference, such as
sharing of feelings, needs, and
requests. “That’s a really stupid
idea,” might be rephrased as,
“When you suggest that we all
go to a movie that finishes at
midnight (observation language),
I’m worried (feeling) because it’s
important that the kids get a full
night’s sleep (need). How about
we go to the 2 p.m. show instead
(specific request)?”
9. Be willing to hear "No!"
Even these guidelines are not
a magic wand. Your carefully
expressed requests might still elicit
a “No” from the other person.
If this upsets you, it is useful to
reflect if your request was actually
a demand that the person should
fulfill! You have a choice about how
you hear that “No.” You could hear
it simply as an expression that
something else is important to
the other person, i.e., they have
a different need or value alive in
this moment. If you take time to
find this out, you may realize that
their “No” is actually a request for
something else to happen. And
then you are into the dance of
negotiation! “No” may not be as
threatening as you might imagine!
10. Remember how much
you are communicating
without words
What is in your heart and mind,
your inner condition and attitude,
the energies being expressed
through your body, your facial
expressions, the tone of your
voice… all these elements are
communicating in ways that
are intuitively picked up and
understood by others. Are
your words in alignment with
these subtler elements? You are
manifesting your consciousness
at every moment. If you want
connection, understanding, and
harmony in your relationships,
you can work on nourishing those
aspects deeply within ourselves.
Then our communication may
become truly communion.
USEFUL REFERENCES:
Heartful Communication:
https://heartfulness.org/hc/
Nonviolent Communication™ – a
Language of Life, by Marshall
Rosenberg
www.cnvc.org
www.nvctraining.com
Illustrations by LAKSHMI GADDAM
First version published in Heartfulness Magazine in December 2015, edited for this second version.
December 2023 53
RELATIONSHIPS

BeaBetterFriend
Back in 2015, while a college student, SURAJ SEHGAL explored friendship,
and came up with 4 ways to be a better friend. They are timeless in their
wisdom and will help you cultivate a giving attitude toward others.
I
t wasn’t until I came to college that I began to
appreciate my friends and what it meant to have
a friendship. When you are suddenly surrounded
by people everywhere, and are also given more
duties and responsibility, the day-to-day tradeoff
between investing in friendships and expending
effort on classes, work, and organizations
becomes much more tangible.
For me, this helped me realize some important
aspects of friendship that have helped me grow.
Whether you are trying to make new relationships
or maintain old bonds, below are a few simple
ways in which you can improve that balance and
grow to become a better friend:
Whether it’s an event that your friend has
planned or just a trip to the grocery store, being
present is a powerful way of showing that you
care. Even just seeing someone’s face over several
occasions can go a long way in making them seem
familiar.
1. Show up
54 Heartfulness

When you remember somebody you haven’t
talked to in a while, take a moment to reach out
to them. It takes no more than a minute to text
someone a “How are you?” or a “Let’s catch up!”,
but in a world where everyone knows hundreds of
people, taking the time to reach out with a simple
hello can make you stand out. After all, don’t we
all like to be remembered?
Many times, we forget that along with our
families, our friends have shaped much of
who we are today. Take a brief moment to
look within and acknowledge who has had an
impact on you. Whether it has been because of
a deep conversation or a passing compliment,
if someone has helped to change you or your
perspective, take the time to let them know – it
has the potential to mean more than you can
imagine.
We all meet each other for a reason, and it is
important to appreciate that everyone plays
a role in our development and growth, whether
it is the professor who taught you discipline or
the grade school bully who helped you develop
patience.
Ultimately, there is no formula for being a
better friend. Maintaining friendships and good
relationships is a continual process that takes
intention, love, and time. And while we may
never be perfect friends, with some planning and
better understanding, our little efforts can go a
long way in helping uplift those who have helped
us on our journey.
First published in Heartfulness Magazine in November
2015
For many of us, with our busy lives, busy
jobs, and constant work, we often find it
very difficult to see the relevance of talking
to anybody who is not actively present in our
day-to-day activities. We become so absorbed
in our mundane tasks that we often forget
those people who have helped to make our
experiences worthwhile. When someone is
making an effort to reach out to you, try to
accommodate. Recognize how much effort the
other person has been making by letting them
know that you notice how much they have been
giving to you and try to give back as much as you
can.
2. Reach out
3. Accommodate
4. Appreciate
Illustrations by JASMEE MUDGAL
55
December 2023
RELATIONSHIPS

Let us permit
nature to have
her way. She
understands her
business better
than we do.
MICHEL DE
MONTAIGNE

58 Heartfulness 58
July 2023
Gift
Living in the

ENVIRONMENT
59
December 2023
Nature does not charge us anything for its abundance. Everything
in nature is free, a gift. We are part of the same nature, so can we
incorporate this principle in our own interpersonal relationships
and interactions? CHARLES EISENSTEIN reflects on this beautiful
principle through his story of Interbeing.
W
hy does the sun shine?
Is it a random result of coalescing gases
igniting nuclear fusion? Or is it in order
to give its light and warmth to Life?
Why does the rain fall?
Is it the senseless product of blind chemical processes
of evaporation and condensation? Or is it to water Life?
Why do you seek to pour forth your song?
Is it to show off your genetic fitness to attract a mate,
or is it to contribute to a more beautiful world?
We may fear those first answers but it is the second
that carries the ring of truth.
Every culture, as far as I know, has something that
I call a Story of the World. That story is a weave of
myths, meanings, narratives, words, symbols, rituals, and
agreements that together define the world. That story
tells us who we are, how to be a man or a woman, what
is important and valuable, what is real, what is sacred,
and what humanity’s role and purpose is on Earth.
The world’s dominant culture, the one called modern,
has a story of the world too. I call it the Story of
Separation. I won’t go too deep into it now, because I
bet you already know intuitively what I’m talking about.
It is the story that holds us as separate individuals and
holds humanity separate from nature.
In the Story of Separation, giving does not come
naturally. In fact, that story says our default nature is
selfishness, down to the genetic level. If I’m separate
from you, then more for me is less for you.
In the Story of Separation, trust does not come naturally
either.The world is our adversary, full of other competing
separate individuals, human and otherwise, whom we
must overcome to have a good life – weeds, germs, the
Russians or the Americans, whatever. Beyond that, the
forces of nature are adversaries too, because they are
utterly random, and the whole universe tends toward
entropy. There is no intelligence or purpose outside
of ourselves. Therefore, to establish a comfortable
human habitation in the world, we must dominate and
control these forces, insulate ourselves from them, and
harness them to our purposes. That’s what the Story
of Separation says.
Where in that story is there room for gratitude? Where
is there room for gift? In the Story of Separation
you basically have to rise above human nature, rise
above the way of the world, to be selfless, generous,
or altruistic. Becoming a good person, then, involves
a sort of conquest, a conquest of self. It is the same
domination of nature, this time turned inward.
Now I have to say, this story is quickly becoming
obsolete. Even its scientific dimension in genetics,
physics, and biology are crumbling. In complexity theory,

ENVIRONMENT
60 Heartfulness
we understand that order can emerge spontaneously
out of chaos, without an external organizing force. In
ecology, we understand that the well-being of one is
inseparable from the well-being of all. So let me talk
about gift, generosity, and gratitude from the perspective
of another story, a new and ancient story I like to call
Interbeing.
In the Story of Interbeing, life is a gift. The world and
everything in it is a gift. We did not earn our lives.
We did not earn the sun; it is not thanks to our hard
efforts that it shines. We did not earn the ability of
plants to grow. We did not earn water. We did not earn
our conception or our breath. Our hearts beat and our
livers metabolize all on their own. Life is a gift.
What about all those things that did come to you
through hard effort? You worked hard for your money
perhaps, for your status, for your healthy body. Okay,
but from where comes your capacity to work hard?
From where comes your creativity, your strength, and
your intelligence? Did you earn these too?
When we apprehend these basic truths, gratitude
comes naturally. Gratitude is the knowledge of having
received, and the consequent desire to give in turn. It
is primal. All beings, including human beings, have an
unquenchable desire to pour forth their gifts. That is
why if you are in a situation where your gifts are not
valued, not received, or not useful, you will want to leave
that situation, that job or relationship. No matter how
much you are being paid, no matter how scared you
are to leave the relationship, you’re going to want to
bust out and develop and express your capacity to give
to the world in service of something you care about.
All beings are thus. That is why we should be living in
a world of incredible abundance.
In the Story of Interbeing, life is a gift.
The world and everything in it is a gift.
We did not earn our lives. We did not earn the sun;
it is not thanks to our hard efforts that it shines. We
did not earn the ability of plants to grow. We did not
earn water. We did not earn our conception or our
breath. Our hearts beat and our livers metabolize
all on their own. Life is a gift.

61
December 2023
The fact that modern society has constructed conditions
of such pervasive scarcity is an impressive achievement!
So much talent, such a rich world. How is it that so
many live in insecurity, anxiety, and deprivation? Not
even the wealthy are exempt from the fear of it.
Nature is fundamentally abundant, even profligate. I
am writing this at my brother’s farm. The birds sing
all day, pouring forth their song as a gift to the world.
Yeah, I know about attracting a mate and marking
territory, but come on, do they have to sing that much
to do that? It is as if they are bursting with the desire
to give their song, just like you are. You were born for
it, whatever your song is, you were born for it. Do the
wild black raspberries here have to taste that good to
attract animals to eat them and poop out their seeds?
And don’t you have that urge too, to do it better than
necessary for the grade, for the boss, for the market?
Don’t you have to yearn to make art of your work?
Don’t you have the urge within you to create something
beautiful, to expand your capacities to their full potential
and express them in service to something magnificent?
You are not alone. Imagine what the world would be
if each person were liberated in this desire. Imagine
what the world could be if we could sweep away the
conditions that conspire to stunt and suppress our gifts.
These conditions are political, they are economic, they
are ideological, they are relational, they are psychological
and they are spiritual.
Every culture, as far as I
know, has something that
I call a Story of the World.
That story is a weave of
myths, meanings, narratives,
words, symbols, rituals, and
agreements that together
define the world.
That story tells us who we
are, how to be a man or a
woman, what is important
and valuable, what is real,
what is sacred, and what
humanity’s role and purpose
is on Earth.

ENVIRONMENT
62 Heartfulness
For civilization to transition into an Age of the Gift
requires transformation on every level.
I’ve written extensively about the transition on an
economic level, but what about the personal, relational,
and spiritual? We need to deprogram from the habits
of separation and scarcity to reclaim the primal state of
gift. I don’t think that this happens through personal
efforts, motivated by the desire to be a better person.
It is rather something that happens to us. It happens,
in other words, as a gift.
The transmission vector of that gift is community.
Generosity, you may have noticed, is infectious. When
you witness generosity, you receive the message, “It is
safe to give. It is okay. I’ll be okay.” Sharing stories
and practices of gratitude, of generosity – and of the
challenges and setbacks in stepping more deeply into
Don’t you have to yearn to
make art of your work? Don’t
you have the urge within you
to create something
beautiful, to expand your
capacities to their full
potential and express them
in service to something
magnificent?

ENVIRONMENT
63
December 2023
gift – we generate a normalizing field that counteracts
social programming toward competition, selfishness,
and scarcity.
My small contribution to that ‘normalizing field of gift’
is an online course called Living in the Gift.While
it touches on a few big-picture issues, mostly it is an
immersion into the habits of gift, the perceptions of
gift, the awareness of abundance, and the experience
of gratitude. In doing so, we step outside the New Age
abundance-thinking bubble to address the contradictions
of our time: between money and love, service and
security, community and independence, wealth and
inequality.
In case you are wondering, we offer the course itself
on a gift model. Any payment is purely voluntary.
Nothing is withheld behind a paywall, and there is
no ‘upselling’ to paid programs. One of the habits of
Separation, nearly universal in this culture, is to always
be on guard against someone seeking to make money
from you, to take, to extract. Economics even teaches
us that basically, everyone is trying to get the best deal
and maximize their rational self-interest. That’s the
water in which we swim. So as much as I dare, I like
to mess with that expectation of extraction.
This small article draws from some of the introductory
course material. I hope most of what I’ve written here
seems obvious. My purpose here is to pluck an ancient
chord of recognition. It is to invoke a memory, to
activate a piece of knowledge long suppressed in the
dominant culture but still alive somewhere in all of
us. It is simply that life is a gift, that the world is a
gift, that the cosmos operates on the principle of gift.
Please bathe in your intuitive resonance with this truth.
Beneath the cynicism we know: it is all a gift. Gratitude
is our native state. Generosity is its maturation. Thank
you for keeping the thread of this knowledge alive.

Republished with permission from the author:
https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/living-in-the-gift
First published in Heartfulness Magazine January 2019.
It is simply that life is a gift,
that the world is a gift, that
the cosmos operates on the
principle of gift.

Thinking is the enemy of creativity.
It’s self-conscious, and anything self-
conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do
things. You simply must do things.
RAY BRADBURY
Creativity

MANA
the elephant
PAPIGUY from Montpellier reminds us that we have a lot to
learn about generosity from the natural world around us, in
this case from a very beloved elephant named Mana.
66 Heartfulness

O
nce upon a time, ages ago, in the
Himalayan forest, there was a white
elephant. His name was Mana and he
had two superb long tusks. He was the descendant
of a whole line of white elephants that came from
the Hui-Sai forests in Siam, and they could speak
the human language.
No circumstance, however bad, altered his
kindness and warm-heartedness. Mana was
a model of generosity and wisdom for all the
surrounding animals. Everyone was touched by
the pure love and simplicity he radiated, and
would in turn love and respect him. Through
their songs and cries, the animals would often
celebrate his incredible compassion, but he would
say nothing.
The quest
When he was younger, the tall white elephant
decided to go on a quest to faraway countries, and
he met two remarkable men, Tierno and Hatim,
who impressed him.
Tierno, who was notable for his wisdom, said to
him, “The more beneficial action is the one that
consists in praying for one’s enemies.”
Tierno’s teaching helped Mana understand that
evil begets evil. So he decided to behave properly
with all living creatures and bless inwardly any
creature he came across.
In the Syrian deserts, he met Hatim, a benevolent
young prince of the Tai tribe. Hatim would say,
“Generosity is a tree of paradise.”
Chief of the elephants
After coming back home, Mana became chief of
all the herds of elephants in the Himalayas, which
meant a great multitude ruled by wickedness and
hatred. He did his best to calm down conflicts,
always using kind words spoken through his
tender heart.
When his ruling time expired, he lived a solitary
life, thinking, meditating, and praying. All the
animals respected and loved him. He would
welcome, guide, and help whoever needed it. They
called him “the good king of the elephants.”
One day, the animals heard a man desperately
trying to find his way among thorny bushes.
Shrubs and vines barred his path and he looked
lost, haggard, and finally exhausted. His clothes
were torn, his body was covered with blood, and
he hopelessly wrung his hands: “Please, help me!”
but nobody answered.
The white elephant found him, and held his trunk
toward the man. Frightened, the man stepped
back. The elephant froze. So did the man. The
elephant made a step ahead, but the man stepped
back again. The elephant approached more slowly
this time.
The man said to himself, “This elephant stops
every time I step back. Maybe it does not want to
hurt me,” so he stopped moving.
Good-hearted Mana approached and asked,
“Why are you crying and complaining, man?”
“I’ve lost my way in this forest, and I’m afraid I
am going to die,” the man answered.
“Don’t be afraid,” Mana replied. “I’ll put you back
on the road to Gorakhpur.”
He very cautiously put his trunk around the man,
put him on his back and walked out of the forest.
Feeling reassured, the man accepted Mana’s help.
On his way, he thought, “What a lovely story to
tell my friends!”
On reaching the main road, the elephant set the
man gently down and said, “Here you are. This is
the road, man. It will take you right to Gorakhpur.
67
December 2023
CREATIVITY

Go in peace! But don’t tell anybody how I helped
you, whatever the questions you are being asked.”
Man was greedy
The man thanked the elephant and left for
Gorakhpur in a lively mood. But he was greedy
and covetous, so his thought went to the kind
elephant’s beautiful tusks.
He went on to Varanasi and popped into a shop
that sold ivory objects, asking, “How much would
you give for the tusks of a living elephant?”
The eldest said, “The tusks of a living elephant
are far more expensive then those of a dead one?
Bring them to us and you will get good money for
it.”
As he walked home, the man said to himself,
“The elephant looked very kind. I could convince
him to give me one of his tusks. That would mean
a lot of money.”
So he took a saw and went back to the Himalayan
forest where the good king of the elephants lived.
Surprised to see him back, Mana asked, “Why
have you come back man? What brings you here?”
“Misery, my dear white elephant,” the impostor
answered. “I have nothing to eat. Give me your
tusks. I will sell them in Varanasi and that will
earn me a living.”
Shocked by such a shameless demand, the white
elephant thought the matter over and concluded
that it had to be so.
He answered, “Do you realize what you are asking
for?”The man remained silent. “Okay, brother
man. I will give you one of my tusks. Have you
got a tool to cut it?”
“I have brought a saw,” the greedy fellow said.
So the elephant lay down and let the man saw one
of his tusks.
69
December 2023
CREATIVITY

Feeling happy, the man added, “My dear elephant,
one tusk won’t do without its pair. Let me have
it, so that I won’t have to come back when the
money for the first one is spent.”
The determination and effrontery of the man
dumfounded the elephant: “Are you going to
leave me without any defense?” he asked. “They
are precious to me and I am going to miss them.
Thanks to them, I have survived. Well, brother
man, if you really think they will be useful to you,
take my second tusk.”
Fearing neither God nor man, the ruthless man
took the tusks away without expressing any
thanks. He sold them for a very good price to the
craftsmen in Varanasi. For some time, he led a
debauched life and soon squandered all the money
he received from the sale.
Then he went back to the Himalayan forest to see
the kind-hearted elephant and said, “Dear white
elephant, I’ve sold your tusks, but the money
has already gone. Again I am in a state of great
misery, starving to death. Have mercy on me.
Give me what is left of your tusks so that I may
sell them too.”
“What is your name, man?” Mana asked.
“Goruk,” the man replied with a slight grin that
distorted his embarrassed smile.
The white elephant took a long look at the
dishonest man. He had a glimpse of the man’s
lost soul, locked in its gross coverings, passions,
desires, and excessive jealousy. He said to himself
that since he had already given his tusks, why not
continue. Goruk cut them again, took the ivory
away and left without thanking Mana.
70 Heartfulness
CREATIVITY

All the creatures were in turmoil
The animals had seen it all and spread the news
across the Himalayas. They were in turmoil and
could not understand how anyone could behave so
poorly. Each one of them had a point of view, but
they agreed to condemn the man’s attitude.
The facts reached the ears of Lord Tiger who,
feeling offended, said, “We won’t take it!”
It was not long before the man’s money was
squandered anew and greedy Goruk was again on
his way to the Himalayan forest.
On meeting the white elephant, he stated bluntly,
“You gave me your tusks and all that was left of
them. Now you must give me the roots. You don’t
need them anymore, whereas I could draw money
from them.”
Good-hearted Mana lay down again and let
ungrateful Goruk help himself to the roots of
his tusks. Goruk purred with pleasure at the idea
of the money he would get by selling them. But
there were no thanks for Mana.
As Mana watched him go, he felt compassion
and thought, “Well, I’ve given him everything he
asked for. I hope it will help him. Let him be in
peace!”
But the birds did not take the same view. They
started squawking and blew the whistle for
CREATIVITY

the whole forest. Suddenly, the man found
himself surrounded by a myriad of animals,
forming a barrier as inextricable as the thorns he
encountered the first time he came in the forest.
He heard a tiger roaring, coming nearer to him.
Panicked, he ran back to the elephant, chased by
flights of birds and grasshoppers.
Mana, still stunned by what he had just
undergone, was surprised to see the man back so
quickly.
The man shouted, “Please, elephant, protect me,
save me!”
The birds and the grasshoppers were soon joined
by the threatening tiger, who addressed Mana:
“You are our wise king, but don’t you see this man
has shown disrespect to you! Eating one of his
arms would be a reasonable punishment. And if
he finds the verdict unbalanced, then I will eat his
other arm.”
Goruk started to shake like the leaves of a poplar
in stormy weather.
The elephant said gently, “Let him go. We all
have to pay for our deeds, words, and thoughts.
Let him harvest the fruit of what he did. As for
me, I thank him for having rid me of my precious
tusks, so useful in this world but of no use in the
other world. I am at peace with him. Please, calm
down my friends. Ask yourselves if you have never
been blind to the condition of somebody else,
out of greed or fear. Are we any better than him?
When I was young, I had a great wise teacher.
He was a man who could speak the languages of
animals. He gave me the following advice: ‘Pray
for your enemies and for any person who will
make you suffer.’”
“Yes, dear king,” the tiger insisted, “but my mouth
already waters when I think of eating one of this
man’s arms!”
“Your satisfaction will be a selfish one, but what
about your heart? Will your deeper conscience be
satisfied too?” asked Mana.
“But I will be considered weak and foolish,” the
tiger grumbled.
“Only the ignorant will take you for a fool.
Though you may seem to be weak, you will
express in the true core of your being a real
strength of character.”
In turn, the grasshoppers exclaimed, “Oh, beloved
king, you have sacrificed a good part of yourself.
But as for him, what is the use of your gift? Was it
really useful? Was it wise?”
Mana answered, “I don’t know. Only God knows
whether it is useful or not. He is the invisible
force that rules all our deeds.”
Mana’s story
Then Mana told them all a story.
“When I was young, I was anxious to learn. I was
curious about everything, and thought that to
become wiser I needed to store as much diverse
knowledge as I could. This quest for knowledge
went on for years and years. It was an endless one.
I roamed the world for it. Every day I became
more and more emaciated and exhausted.
“I tried to join a wise man I had heard of in
Palmyra, Syria, when I was lost in the endless
desert. I was terribly thirsty and thought I was
going to die, far away from home. I collapsed and
some men came to my rescue and took me to the
Tai camp of Prince Hatim, who took care of me,
treated me as a king, and cherished me, although
he knew nothing about me. He turned every
single day into a day of feasting in my honor.
My heart was touched by his compassion and I
was impressed by the sort of man he was. Some
people said he was so well-known in Syria for his
generosity that the king of Yemen had become
jealous.
72 Heartfulness
CREATIVITY

“One night a man arrived, seeking asylum for the
night. He was as ragged as I had been. Hatim
welcomed him as a brother and ordered that a
feast be held at once. The man stayed for several
days and finally said he had to go as he was
expected in Palmyra for some important business.
‘Can I be of help?’ Hatim asked.
Then the man whispered, ‘I have to kill Prince
Hatim. The King of Yemen has ordered me to do
so.’ He added, ‘I am poor, so I live as an assassin
and this murder I must do. If you want to serve
me, after you have welcomed me as I was never
welcomed before, please tell me what this noble
man looks like, so that I may slaughter him. I
have never seen his face.’
“Hatim laughed, bent down, and, with his hand
on his heart, answered, ‘My dear guest, you need
go no further, because I am Hatim Tai, the man
you are looking for. Take my head. It is a present
for you! Take it to your king, since you must be
true to your word and fulfill the task you have
been entrusted with.’
When he heard Hatim’s words, the ruffian knelt
at the Prince’s feet, and amidst hot tears said,
‘If ever I kill you, may all the sand in the desert
devour my body and reduce it to dust.’
73
December 2023

“Hatim raised him up, ordered some food to be
given to him, and the man went back to Yemen
no longer a murderer. Hatim’s generosity and
kindness had touched him so deeply that his heart
opened and became tender.
“When the king of Yemen heard his story, he
considered Hatim a saint. Hatim’s story is still
told in Syria and the surrounding countries. His
tomb has become a place of pilgrimage.
“I could never forget Hatim, so I try to give
willingly to all who ask for something.”
All the animals were impressed and drifted away.
Cheeky Goruk, who thought his hour had come,
stood in front of that elephant with bleeding
wounds where there had been superb tusks. Mana
radiated a love he had never seen before.
He felt a strong heat invade his chest, then a
tidal wave of sobs. He knelt down and sobbed his
heart out. He felt ashamed for his wickedness,
his ungratefulness, and he regretted sincerely that
he could not turn back the clock and change the
events that happened. Mana comforted him and
wished him well.
In the forest, no one ever saw that cheeky Goruk
again. Later on, some passing birds related that a
man from Gorakhpur had become well-known for
his generosity, and would tell everyone ready to
listen stories about a white elephant.
That is the end of the tale. May its words
illuminate your path and enchant your hearts.
Illustrations by THOMAS KLEIN
First published in Heartfulness Magazine in April and
May 2016.
74 Heartfulness
CREATIVITY

a love letter from
Bhutan
PAWO CHOYNING DORJI is a Bhutanese filmmaker and photographer.
His film, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019), was nominated for
Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, and had
its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. Pawo speaks with
PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about the making of Lunana, the teachings
of Buddha that inspired major parts of the film, and his hopes and
wishes for young people today.
Q: Thank you so much for
joining me.
Thank you for having me,
Purnima.
Q: How did the idea of Lunana
come about?
I grew up outside Bhutan, as
my father was a diplomat. I
was born in India, and lived
in Europe, the Middle East,
and America. After finishing
college, I returned to India and
joined a Buddhist monastery in
Himachal Pradesh. And after
all that, I returned to Bhutan.
Bhutan is very guarded about
exposure to the outside world,
so a lot of Bhutanese wonder
what the rest of the world is
like. When I returned, I went
through the same journey as the
protagonist of the film. He is
reintroduced to his culture and
falls in love with it. There is a
lot of my own story in the film.
One inspiration was the
younger population seeking life
in Western developed countries
like Australia, Canada, and
America. In Bhutan, we are
going through that right now.
Thousands leave, seeking
happiness.
I thought, “If our people
are seeking life in the urban
glittering lights of Western
civilization, I will create a
story where the protagonist
goes to the opposite end of
the spectrum. Let me take this
protagonist to the remotest,
most desolate place in Bhutan.”
Heartfulness
76

That happens to be Lunana. In
our language, Lunana means
“the dark valley,” because it is
so far.
So the theme was: could we
really discover in the shadows
and darkness what we are
longing for and so desperately
seeking in the light? We could
have cheated on the location,
making the movie in a village
with electricity and road
connection, but I didn’t want
to do that. I wanted us all to
go through the experience and
live in the darkness. I felt that
it would then translate into the
film. It is almost a docu-feature.
Q: Lunana is a spark of
inspiration. I can’t associate
the word “darkness” with it.
In many ancient traditions, a
teacher is given importance
next only to God. You don’t
really know God, but you
know the teacher who can
take you where you need to
go. You chose to portray the
protagonist as a teacher,
rather than a doctor, a social
worker, or any other noble
profession. That aspect has
a deep significance. Can you
tell me why you made that
choice?
There are two reasons.
One is exactly as you say.
Bhutan’s culture, tradition,
and spirituality are based on
Buddhism. And the teacher-
student relationship is very
important. We have this name
“Dalai Lama” meaning “root
teacher.”The root teacher takes
the most important position
in our life. So, I made the
protagonist a teacher as he
CREATIVITY
December 2023 77

holds the most important role in
Bhutanese culture and society, yet
he is not happy and he wants to
leave.
The second reason is that I am
trying to bring reality into my
films. Reality is my inspiration.
In the Bhutan of today, there are
two common things. One is that
most young people are leaving for
Australia. The second is that most
of the people who are quitting
their jobs are teachers.
I had many different aspirations.
One was to tell the story of
Bhutan, and another was to
highlight and preserve our
disappearing traditions. Yet
another was to reach out to the
teachers who are quitting their
jobs every year. I told my friends
that if I can save one teacher from
giving up their profession, it would
mean more than any award the
film received.
Q: That is a very noble idea.
There is another interesting thing
I observed in your film. Today
we live in an age of excess.
We produce more food than
we can eat and we dump the
excess food. We fight wars for
trivial matters and aspire for
space habitation, and yet you
show in your movie that there
are extremely joyful people
living amongst us who do not
have shoes or electricity, and
who do not know how to use a
toothbrush.
While the gap is vast, and I
cannot even fathom how it could
be bridged, you very sublimely,
subtly, and creatively bring this
“social activism” to the forefront.
My heart is deeply touched. Did
CREATIVITY
Heartfulness
78

you consciously think of these
things, or did it just emerge?
I am a lover of Bhutan. I made
this film as a love letter from
Bhutan to the rest of the world. I
wanted to showcase and celebrate
our culture and our traditions. I
grew up outside Bhutan in a very
materialistic world, where, as
you said, there is a lot of excess.
Where many people are not happy.
Bhutan advertises itself as a happy
country, and there is some truth in
that. Unfortunately, we are losing
touch with that because we too are
falling into the race to modernize,
the race to become worldly.
Bhutan’s traditions are rooted
in Buddha’s teachings. Buddha
always talked about wishing all
beings to be happy.
But what is true happiness? In this
movie, I wanted to touch upon
what happiness is for the people
of Lunana. It is really two things.
One is contentment. Contentment
is a person saying, “I have enough.”
He is much wealthier than any
rich person. A rich person is never
content, always longing for more
and more, so they are never happy.
In Lunana, the people have very
little, yet they are content. Their
lives are full. They are not rich but
they are wealthy people.
Buddha also taught that we must
accept impermanence. Much
happiness comes from that
acceptance because everything is
always changing. When we are
attached to those things that are
changing, then we will not be
happy.
So I really wanted to put
across these two teachings of
contentment and acceptance.
Much happiness
comes from
acceptance
because
everything is
always changing.
When we are
attached to those
things that are
changing, then we
will not be happy.
CREATIVITY
December 2023 79

Q: The stark difference that you
brought out between wealth
and richness is a very poignant
message.
Spoiler alert: for those of you
who have not yet watched the
movie and wish to do so, please
stop here, otherwise, continue
reading.
The protagonist leaves Bhutan
for Australia toward the end of
the movie. I was waiting with
bated breath to see what he
would do. I thought he would
have a change of heart and
stay back in Lunana to educate
the poor children. But he left. I
was surprised, yet I felt relieved
that it was realistic, not like
a Hollywood movie where the
impossible happens. The ending
made me weep. So, why did
you choose for Ugyen to leave
Bhutan?
Because my movies reflect reality!
In a real story, Ugyen would leave.
He has passion and ambition.
The second reason is the magic of
storytelling, of cinema. If he had
stayed in Lunana, the story would
have ended there. He stayed for
the kids. He stayed for his yak.
He stayed for the girl, Saldon.
That would be the end of it. But
by Ugyen going to Australia, and
singing the song he learned in
Lunana in the club in Australia,
the story continues. When the
CREATIVITY
Heartfulness
80

Heartfulness Magazine - December 2023 (Volume 8, Issue 12)

Heartfulness Magazine - December 2023 (Volume 8, Issue 12)

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