/art of living/ a secular spiritualism and other things around
Lately I have been focusing a bit on nurturing the spiritual side a bit. Two weeks ago enrolled into the foundation/basic course of 'Art of Living'. No specific reason for this interest, just that it was something I was contemplating on joining, Jayeeta my wife was also eager and this specific program was being offered close to our location as well it was being conducted by a senior teacher who flew-in from India to do this. So after checking with few others in the company we were 5 who decided to give this a try. We thought it’s a week’s commitment, 3hr per day with some 8hr on Saturday; however we found out later its much more, willingly though. Its not only a 'detox' and rejuvenate session, but a way of life.
My take on the full offering, without going too deep would be the following:
Its a rich mix of ancient Hindu way of life (minus any specific religious practice), blended with some of the practices of 'team building' and some innovative meditation & breathing techniques that has been successfully refined to meet today’s lifestyle to make it more meaningful, fulfilling and equipped us to handle the stress of modern life. The meditation and breathing practice starts with the Pranayam, then followed by meditation while breathing in the So-Humm rhythm of 20-40-40 in 3 sets to end in rest and meditation.
The thought and philosophy around the teaching of Sri Sri Ravishankar are also worth remembering, key of the top of my mind are:
- Expectation leads to disappointment
- Stop being football of other people’s opinions
- Accept others as they are, because people don’t change if you try they change if they try
- Accept people and situation and take appropriate action
- Take responsibility for everything around; we are responsible for things that we act on and also those we do not
- Blaming and Criticizing is denouncing our responsibility and belongingness
- We exist on 7 levels: Body, Breath, Mind, Intellect, Memory, Ego, Being; in the same order of hierarchy
- The breath is the connecting link between the inner world of the mind and the outer world of the body and environment.
That’s just the tip of the ice-berg. I will try to complete this list over the next few days and make this a separate page in my site.
Now other then the thoughts and practice that I listed above, what was interesting to observe were the changes that it brought to the participants over a short period of time, even though some of them I know did not follow all the instructions about eating only vegetarian food and practicing the Pranayam and meditations every day. One of the most noticeable change observed was for those who were dependent on substances like Tobacco, alcohol and medication like sleeping pills etc. Most of them actually stopped or cut it down to minimal by the end of the program, without actually anyone asking them to do so. Also you feel more stable mind to handle ups and down of like and increased awareness to our emotions.
So here I go, taking the responsibility of spreading this nice experience with the visitor of my site and provide some idea to others if they are interested to improve their life a bit.