ONE MESSAGE

This is a presentation of three poems from my favorite poets who lived during the 12^th, 13^th, and 14^th centuries but their poems carry the same message, message of oneness and peace.

  

12^th Century

1165 – 1240

Mystic, philosopher, poet, sage Ali Ibn Arabi is one of the world’s great spiritual teachers. He was born into the Moorish culture of Andalusian Spain and died in Damascus. His poetry and extensive writings provide a beautiful exposition of the unity of Being. His wisdom has much to offer us in the modern world in terms of understanding what it means to be human.

Light of Sacredness

The inner space inside

that we call the heart

has become many different

living scenes and stories.

A pasture for sleek gazelles,

a monastery for Christian monks,

a temple with Shiva dancing

a kaaba for pilgrimage.

The tablets of Moses are there,

the Qur’an, the Vedas,

the sutras, and the gospels.

Love is the religion in me.

Whichever way love’s camel goes,

that way becomes my faith,

the source of beauty, and a light

of sacredness over everything.

13^th Century

1207 – 1273

Poet, Sufi, and mystic RUMI, known as planetary poet and the first seeker of Truth, was born in Balkh ancient Persia. According to the experts, his words carry a broad range of religious awareness - the meditative silence and no-mind of Zen, the open heart and compassion of Jesus, the stern discipline of Mohammad, the convivial humor of Taoists, the crazy wisdom and bright intelligence of the Jewish and Hassidic masters. He wrote poetry to transform his listeners and readers in order to take them out of themselves and lead them to greater awareness.

Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, sufi or zen. Not any religion

or cultural system. I am not from the East
or West, not out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any

origin story. My place is place-less, a trace
of the trace-less. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

14^th Century

1320-1389

The beloved Persian poet, sufi master and mystic HAFIZ was born in Shiraz, Iran and was known as the tongue of the invisible. He came one hundred years after RUMI and in his poems he reveals a God that would never cripple us with guilt or control us with fear. His words are a music that comforts, empowers and enlightens. He invites you to join him in his fantastic applause of life.

I have learned

I
Have
Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself

A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim
A Buddha, a Jew

The Truth has shared so much of itself
With me

That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure soul.

Love has befriended Hafiz so completely
It had turned to ash
And freed
Me

Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known

***

#poets #oneness 

ONCE UPON A TIME, NEPAL

A Temple

Our small plane was flying over the Himalayas, and looking from the window, I was in awe while staring at the beautiful chain of mountains covered with snow against the clear blue sky. At that time I was working with the World Health Organization and I lived in Bangladesh in South Asia. I was on my way to Katmandu, Nepal which was not very far from where I was stationed.

Himalayas

The Federal Republic of Nepal is the world’s largest country by land mass, and is located in Himalayas bordered to the north by China, and to the south, east and west by India. The 27+ million population of the country are mostly Hindu and Buddhist. Nepal is separated from Bangladesh by a narrow stretch of land. The capital city and the largest city of Nepal is Katmandu. The country’s agriculture sector employs about 76% of the workforce.

The Watching Eyes

People love to visit Nepal for its natural beauty and for being almost like a mystical place but they also go there for mountain climbing especially if they are professional mountaineers. The mountains north of Nepal have eight of the world’s ten tallest mountains, including the highest point of Earth, Mount Everest.

 

A beautiful scenery in Katmandu

My whole experience of being in Nepal felt like a dream especially when I took a tour to see the surrounding skirts of mountains. The air was fresh and cool and I felt I have stepped into a new planet. I saw local women and children in colorful cloths waiting around and talking with each other. When I asked the tour guide about them he said that many of them are relatives of Sherpas who guide the mountaineers.

Sherpas are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal in the Himalayas who are regarded as elite mountaineers and expert in their local terrain. In April 2014 the avalanche of massive chunks of ice and snow killed 16 Nepalese guides, mostly Sherpas. There are reports that many Sherpa climbing guides have left their jobs because of frequent deaths and injuries.

Colorful Spices

I experienced Nepal as a beautiful and colorful country with an spectacular landscape. The diverse and exotic cultures of Nepal attract a lot of tourists. The people of Nepal are extremely kind, serene and helpful in spite of the hardship and apparent poverty. I never forget the view of Himalayas and the country’s beautiful sceneries and temples.

In Katmandu

#Himalayas #Nepal #Katmandu

CHOOSING TO ENJOY LIFE

We are all observers and we do not know how things really are, we only know how we observe them or interpret them to be. Each human being experiences the world from a unique perspective and is a certain observer of the world. However, changes in life can shift the observer that we are, and can help us gain new insights. If we were able to observe ourselves from outside we could see how we create our own realities.

Let’s explore this together:

1. We all have a cognitive blindness which means we don’t know what we don’t know and once we accept that, we will be more open to learning and increasing our personal effectiveness.

2. We constantly judge others based on our beliefs, feelings, emotions and moods. Judging as such prevents learning and the person who is being judged will gradually disappear from our sight. In the meantime, we isolate ourselves too.

3. Sometimes what we say is not the real reason for what we claim it to be. The real reason is the choices we have made but we are not conscious about or present to our choices. We have the habit of blaming it on other people or other things.

4. Humans are linguistic beings and language is generative not merely descriptive. According to the experts, language is action and to speak is to act, it is a representational system of the unconscious. The five linguistic acts are - (1) assertion (2) declaration (these two set the context for actions to follow) (3) request (4) offer (5) promise (these three are the generative part of language and they produce results). True leaders solicit promise and make requests. They are good at enrolling others because they are seen as possibility. The question each one of us has to ask ourselves is – how effective is my language?

5. According to behavioral experts, being aware of our emotions and feelings, play an important role in our ability to control our own behavior. Examples of emotions and feelings are – being sad, happy, eager, hurt, angry, fearful, doubtful, affectionate, afraid, etc. When feelings remain at an unconscious level they can take control of our behavior which can lead to acting-out. Examples of acting-out are – eating when anxious, yelling at a child when we have had a bad day, getting drunk, forgetfulness, etc.  At some point the mind can direct the emotions back in the body and the person can develop psycho-somatic diseases. At the pathological level a person can show criminal behaviors. The feeling remained at an unconscious level can also lead to direct or indirect expression of emotions such as criticism, loaded questions, accusations, name-calling and judgments. In such situations the best thing to do is not to get defensive or counterattack. Staying in touch with our emotions and feelings and bringing them to our conscious level prevents acting-out and destructive behavior.

6. It is commonly believed that emotions reflect intentions and we have the power to choose our intentions. Intentions of love expand the loving part of our personality but if we yield to fear and negative emotions we lose power.

In brief, we can start by trying to stay conscious and centered and by doing that; learn to appreciate even the difficult experiences of our life. As a result our happiness will not be conditional to outside world or to our own preferences, and we can choose to enjoy our life as best as we can.

#observer, #intentions, #acting-out, #enjoying, #choice, #judgment

TRUST IS A DECLARATION!

Trust is a social construct which is defined as “reliance on the integrity, strength, and ability of person to do what is expected”.  In sociology and psychology the degree of trust is a measure of belief in the authenticity, fairness and good will of the other. According to psychologists basic trust occurs during the first two years of life, and failure leads towards an orientation of insecurity and mistrust.

Trust in ontological terms is a declaration and a positive assessment about sincerity, competence, and reliability in some domain of action. Thus, if we want to risk trust we should increase our capacity for well grounded assessment.

The root of the word assessment is from the Latin “assidere” which means “to sit beside”. Assessment is grounded when the personal opinion of the person who is making the assessment is evidence-based and provides the standards against which the evidence is compared. The ungrounded assessment is when we bring up some opinion based on no evidence or valid criteria. Assessments are an inescapable and important part of our lives, and we become more effective in life by making more grounded assessments. We should also realize that assessments are just assessments and not “the truth”.

All human actions take place out of some mood or emotion. Moods are pervasive and are basically in the background. They shape our emotions and the way we act or speak.

Assessment is usually done in one of the following moods:

Naive: innocent, childlike

 Distrustful: staying away, lonely

 Skeptical: prove it over and over, mood of business

Prudent: wise and judicial: power of leaders reside here

True leaders are prudent and have the capacity to make grounded assessments. They are aware that ungrounded assessment does not serve the purpose, and being trustworthy based on valid criteria is the only sure way to maintain a trust level.

#trust, #grounded assessment, #moods, #declaration 

HAPPY NOROOZ AND SPRING CELEBRATIONS

March 20^th of 2014 is the first day of spring which marks the Persian New Year. It is also called NOROOZ which means “a new day” in Persian language. At this time families gather around a traditional table setting called Haft-Seen to observe the rituals of spring season which is celebrated in many countries.

At the spring Equinox, when the sun is at zenith over the Equator, days are close to 12 hours long and get longer as the season progresses. Spring and “springtime” refer to the season and also to the ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, and growth.

The last Wednesday evening of the year is called Wednesday Light when bonfires are lit and people jump over the fire saying a purification rite. This is an ancient Persian-Festival dating back to 1700 BCE.

Wednesday Fire Jumping

The traditional table setting called Haft-Seen in Persian language means seven items that their name starts with the letter “S”. Every item has a significance of its own symbolizing something very special. The items are found on every traditional Haft-Seen table around the world. The items and their significance are listed below, and as you can see there are more than seven items in my list but we should not have less than that.

1.      Sabzeh meaning sprouts of lentil, wheat or combination of other kind of seeds that we can grow in a dish. sprouts represent rebirth.

 2.      Seeb meaning apple which symbolizes health and beauty

3.      Senjet which is the dry fruit of Lotus tree and symbolizes love

4.      Seer meaning garlic which symbolizes medicine

5.      Sumac berries which symbolize sunrise

6.      Samanoo which is a wheat germ pudding and it symbolizes new life.

7.      Sekkeh meaning coin which symbolizes affluence

8.      Serkeh meaning vinegar which symbolizes age and patience

9.      Hyacinth flower which symbolizes constancy

10.   Gold fish swimming in water symbolizing life.

11.  Painted Eggs which represent spring celebration

12.  Mirror which symbolizes the sky and light.

13.  Candles which symbolize fire

14. Cookies which symbolize sweetness of life

We can have other decorative items such as all kinds of beautiful flowers or anything that adds to the beauty of the table. The traditional food of New Year’s Day is a special kind of vegetable rice and white fish.

ON LEADERSHIP

As a life long learner I have always liked what I learned through experiential methods because the coaches let me get involved in a concrete experience. The learning has never been about definitions and theories but I could actually infer meaning from my own direct experience.

Aristotle called experiential learning “learning by doing”, and David A. Kolb, influenced by the work of John Dewey, Kurt Levin, and Jean Piaget, expanded it to Experiential Education. In this regard, Werner Erhard author of transformational models and ontological insights says “Coaches never tell us what to do they tell us what to observe. They will alter what is possible for us to observe by creating distinctions and bringing forth paradigms”.

Here is the essence of what I learned about leadership as a learnable competence which I have always kept close to my heart and it has consistently been relevant and applicable to my work situations:

1. Leadership is an assessment about our capacity for action in taking care of other people. Exercising power without taking care of others equals manipulation.

2. Leadership is a social phenomenon and should produce teamwork. Our capacity for action to help others is dependent on our competencies and the commitments we can elicit from others. Standing in the commitment is expressing it so people can listen and possibilities are created.

3. Leaders generate change and promote learning and education. They declare their vision and are able to see what others don’t see in terms of possibilities for future. The new way is to see the future as a possibility arising now in the present which explains the past. When we clear ourselves for the future’s possibility we are listening to what inspires and empowers us in the present.

4. Leadership requires effective listening as a primary competence for all other competencies. Effective listeners listen less to the words being spoken and more to the concerns being addressed by the speakers. The highest level of listening is that everything anybody says is a contribution.

5. Leaders are masterful at managing moods and emotions. They know that our moods are not based on grounded assessment and they should not allow themselves to be dominated by their moods. Moods are affected by our biology meaning the chemicals and the hormones in our body, they are even affected by the conversations we have with others or in our head. Right conversation in the wrong mood is the wrong conversation. In general, moods of ambition, peace, gratitude, enthusiasm, and reflection are appropriate for effective action.

6. Leadership is different from management. Management is the competence to coordinate the actions of many individuals to generate and deliver the conditions of satisfaction involved in the leader’s promises. Managers are responsible for producing results with the authority delegated to them from the leadership of the organization.

I would like to close this article with words of wisdom from David Spangler the American Philosopher who says:

“There are those who live in the consciousness of the oneness of life and work to build and serve the best interests of the whole, they are of the new”.

#Leadership

MOODS OF LEARNING

I know:  The graduate

I already know: Boredom

I don't know, and I don't like it: Confusion

I don't know and it is OK: Perplexity

I don't know and I like this: Wonder

I know that I don't know that I don't know: Awe

Awe is a promise to learn but the person needs to have commitment, practice, rigor, time, patience and courage.


To be continued........