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charles eisenstein

A friend of mine and I exchange books. Last month when she offered a book to me; I looked at it and thought to myself, “I don’t think so.” I accepted it though and after reading a few pages, happily continued. Soon I realized that the author is a world-class thinker. The 565 -page book is titled The Ascent of Humanity The Age of Separation, the Age of Reunion, and the Convergence of Crises that is birthing the transition. At first glance it looks like the kind of book many of us would pick up and put right down, -as in I don’t think so. True, it’s as serious as the title suggests, and It could have been boring and dry. But it isn’t. There’s a wanting to read more because it becomes obvious to the reader that Charles Eisenstein is a person who is compassionate and dedicated to understanding all that brought the world to its present condition. On page after page his easy style of writing connects the reader to the world and all that it’s been through, and all that it can become. And we begin to know and to understand how it’s accumulated the many, many problems facing it today. Don’t worry, it doesn’t leave the reader “down in the dumps.” On the contrary, reading it opens the mind, and the reader is able to see the world’s problems with clarity, and also its solutions with an equal dose of clarity. Now I’ll stop attempting to explain a book that covers a vast number of important topics that touch our every day lives.

If you click on to Charles Eisenstein’s website, I think you’ll be pleased that you did:
www.ascentofhumanity.com

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siddhartha, a book a movie

Until last year I hadn’t read the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Not because I was too busy, too busy is never the case when it comes to good books. The truth is that until last year I hadn’t even heard of the book. People I mentioned it to said, “Oh, that book. Yes, I read it a long time ago.” Two things surprised me, the number of people who’ve read it, and their response to the book.

So, because I was late jumping onto the bandwagon, I intensified the feeling by watching a movie about Siddhartha written, produced, and directed by Conrad Rooks and shot in Northern India. To watch the movie is to bask in beauty. Really! And to listen to Conrad Rooks speak about the making of the movie, and also about his life in Greenwich Village in the 70’s, is as wonderful as a pistacchio ice cream cone on a sweltering summer afternoon.

When body, or mind, or spirit is feeling frazzled, and you just want to bathe in tranquility, pick up a copy of the 122-page book Siddhartha, or watch the movie, or do both. If you’ve read it, you can read it again. There’s always a passage or two or three that will sing to your heart.

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laughing

It’s said that laughter heals. And that laughing for 15 minutes every day offers many benefits to our health. It doesn’t matter whether the laughter is coming from something that’s caught our attention, or from simply wanting to laugh. Laughing feels so good. I wonder, has any one researched when exactly our ability to laugh began?

Laughing dissolves stressful and awkward situations. Laughing keeps us in the present moment. It makes problems seem less troublesome. When we put our heart and soul into laughing, any problems we have take second fiddle. Laughing refreshes the mind. Children love to laugh; we can learn from children – they know what we’ve forgotten. Laughing changes our energy to a higher vibration. Are you in?

www.laughteryoga.org

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a sticky situation

This week in a Brooklyn magazine I read a column in which people write in for adivice on how to handle sticky situations. For instance, a couple bought a house with a much needed garage because they live in a busy community where parking is not always readily available. The husband works long hours, they have three children (one has special needs whose school is a distance from their house), another child is on the way, and the car is used throughout the day. This is the sticky situation: one or two neighbors often park in front of the couple’s garage “for a few minutes.” The owner has to go knocking on the door; the offender apologizes when caught. Then the same thing happens again, and again. Once it took 20 minutes for the neighhor to answer a knock because she was taking a shower. Geez!

Many thoughts came to mind when I read about this particular situation: lack of manners, no common sense, using what’s not theirs, inauthentic apologizing, bringing stress into another’s life, etcetera. The advice given by the writer of the column was to have the neighbor’s car towed. She said the complete inconvenience of getting the car back, plus the elbow grease needed to remove the sticker from the car, would stop the illegal parking. I agree; it would do that, however. . . . There’s got to be a better solution for all involved.

The above advice reminds me of a quote by Albert Einstein on the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And it reminds me of a wonderful passage I read, and I wish I’d kept because it rings true for just about any situation we encounter. Mankind is evolving, every person will eventually be in the folds of the Divine – no matter how long it takes. Evolvement requires that we move beyond the way things have always been done. A quick look at what’s going on in our world suggests that it’s time to do things differently. We need to begin to understand that there are other ways of handling sticky situations, no matter how small, no matter how big, and it’s up to every individual to find that way. It’s not something that can be handed to us on a silver platter. Going to the next level requires the attention of our whole self because it comes from within. If the above garage situation advice is followed, it’s likely that other stressful situations will follow on its path.

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To know how to live is my trade and my art. – Michel De Montaigne

When we allow ourselves to exist truly and fully, we sting the world with our vision and challenge it with our own ways of being. – Thomas Moore

You are not a beggar at the table of life. You are the honored guest. – Emmanuel

Before you die, dare to walk the wildest unknown way – Bryce Courtney

Always look for creative solutions to every day challenges – Deepak Chopra