A new generation of business leaders is turning to mindfulness as a cutting-edge leadership tool. Scientific research suggests that the practice of mindfulness (a technique for learning to live in the present moment) can help individuals to gain clarity, reduce stress, optimize performance, and develop a greater sense of well-being.
In The Mindful Leader, Michael Carroll explains what mindfulness is and how to develop it in the hectic and often stressful environment of the twenty-first century workplace. He focuses on ten key principles of mindfulness and how they apply to leading groups and organizations. Along the way, Carroll addresses a range of topics, including how to:
* heal the “toxic workplace,” where anxiety and stress impede performance
* cultivate courage and confidence in the face of workplace difficulties
* pursue organizational goals without neglecting what’s happening here and now
* lead with wisdom and gentleness, not just with ambition and power
* start a personal meditation practice to develop your innate leadership talents
Full of engaging stories and practical exercises, The Mindful Leader will help leaders in any field to discover their innate intelligence, bravery, and joy on the job.
Michael Carroll is the author of Awake at Work (Shambhala 2004) and The Mindful Leader (Shambhala 2007) and over his 25 year business career has held executive positions with such companies as Shearson Lehman/American Express, Simon & Schuster and The Walt Disney Company. Michael has an active consulting and coaching business with client firms such as Procter & Gamble, AstraZeneca, Starbucks, Lutheran Medical Center, National Board of Medical Examiners and others
Michael has been studying Tibetan Buddhism since 1976, graduated from Buddhist seminary in 1982 and is an authorized teacher in the lineage of the Tibetan meditation master, Chogyam Trunpa. He has lectured at Wharton Business School, Columbia University, Swarthmore College, St. Mary’s University, Kripalu, Cape Cod Institute, Zen Mountain Monastery, Omega Institute (assisting Pema Chodron) and many other practice centers throughout the US, Canada and Europe.
Meet Author of The Mindful Leader, Michael Carroll
Author Michael Carroll discusses his book, “The Mindful Leader: Ten Principles for Bringing Out the Best in Ourselves and Others” as part of Northeastern University Libraries’ Meet the Author Series. Michael Carroll, a Buddhist-trained HR executive with many years of experience in both the corporate world and the world of Zen, draws attention to the benefits that can result from taking time out to reflect in the workplace. In “The Mindful Leader,” Carroll addresses ways to enhance productivity when working, focusing on ways to open communication and break the limitations of routine. By the end, stressed-out employees and students may be willing to give meditation a try as a way to connect with and open up to their colleagues.
Foreword
by Deepak Chopra
As a physician, I am concerned with healing. In my view, the more we are in touch with the universe we come from, the more we will be able to heal ourselves and at the same time heal our planet. We are an integral part of a living and intelligent universe. Not only is the universe alive, it is imbued with consciousness. Th e universe wants to live and breathe through you. To fi nd out the truth of this, you need to relate to the universe as if it were alive. Otherwise, how will you ever know that it is? Today, begin to adopt the following habits:
Talk to the universe.
Listen for its reply.
Be on intimate terms with Nature.
See the life in everything.
Carry yourself like a child of the universe.
Duane Elgin writes about our living universe as an evolutionary pioneer. He has been an explorer of scientific knowledge and spiritual understanding for more than four decades. He has worked on a Presidential Commission looking into the deep future; helped pioneer sustainable ways of living with his book Voluntary Simplicity; developed a stunning view of the big picture of the human journey in Awakening Earth; co-founded three non-profit organizations working for media accountability and citizen empowerment, and more. Th e uniqueness and span of this book refl ect Duane’s wideranging life journey.
The Living Universe is written with elegant simplicity and yet it addresses our most important existential dilemmas
Where are we? Who are we? What journey are we on? Step by-step he offers us new insights about ourselves and our human journey. At the foundation is the understanding that we are each an expression of a living universe. The universe is conscious, self-regulating, self-creating, ever-renewing, and always evolving to increasing levels of complexity and creativity.
Through us (the human nervous system), the universe is becoming increasingly aware of itself. We are beings of light, love, music, and happiness. We are evolving toward unity consciousness where we experience ourselves as cosmic beings participating in the evolution of the universe. If we consciously participate in this evolutionary
process, we can heal the rift in our collective soul and bring creative solutions to poverty, social injustice, war, terrorism, and ecological devastation. If we ignore the call to our collective awakening, we put at risk the future of human civilization on our precious planet. Th e choice is ours.
It is my hope that the human family rapidly awakens itself to the reality that we live in a living universe. Th e human body is part of the cosmic body. Th e human mind is part of the cosmic mind. Awakening to this cosmic dimension of ourselves is profoundly restorative. With that experience and understanding, we bring healing to our wounded planet and a new sense of adventure to the human journey.
Duane has written an important book because, at this pivotal time when we are separated by so many differences, it is vital that we discover our common ground as a species. A widely shared understanding that we all live in the same living universe provides the foundation for positive visions of the future that off er beacons of hope to pierce the darkness of the world’s gathering storms.
Duane Elgin on “The Living Universe”–Part 1
Author and visionary, Duane Elgin, explores “The Living Universe.”
Duane Elgin on “The Living Universe”–Part 2
An Interview with Duane Elgin
by Janice & Dennis Hughes, Share Guide Copublishers
A social visionary looks beneath the surface turbulence of our times to explore the deeper trends that are transforming our world.
Duane Elgin is an internationally recognized speaker, teacher, and social visionary. Over the past 25 years, Duane has co-founded three non-profit organizations concerned with media accountability and citizen empowerment. He advocates the importance of simplicity, sustainability, and community for building a green future. A local Marin County resident, Duane is the author of several best-selling books including Awakening Earth, Promise Ahead, Voluntary Simplicity, and his latest, The Living Universe. Duane has an MBA from the Wharton Business School and an honorary Doctor of Philosophy for work in “ecological and spiritual transformation” from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
The Share Guide: Duane, in your latest book The Living Universe, you say that our future pivots on whether we regard the universe as dead or alive. Why?
Duane Elgin: I say this because our future depends upon our story as a human family. If we see the universe as not simply a bunch of dead matter and empty space but actually a living system, then our story may well be one of learning how to live together in a living universe. If we don’t have a story to guide us into the future, we’re going to pull back into our smaller life stories of the past–stories of nationalism, of ethnic groups, of tribal groups, of geographic groups–and instead of pulling together in cooperation we’re going to pull apart in conflict. What I am suggesting is to step back and see the universe as our original, larger home. If we are going to pull together as a human family for a promising future, this is an inclusive project; no one is left out.
The Share Guide: Would you agree that one of the keys to saving our environment and stopping the pillaging of the planet would be educating the children to see the universe as alive?
Duane Elgin: Yes, the attitudes of parents and teachers really amplifiy and reinforce that pivotal point of view. We’ve lost the sacred dimension of life, and what we’re left with is a kind of existential materialism that’s not serving our evolution now as a species.
The Share Guide: Some people talk about the universe being inherently friendly or unfriendly. Einstein had a comment related to that.
Duane Elgin: Yes, Einstein’s famous quote was if he could ask God one question, it would be: “Is the universe friendly or not?” But I’m suggesting there may be a more fundamental question: Is the universe alive or not? In my mind, that question is really a scientific one; it’s not theology and dogma. We can use the tools of science to inquire into this question, and what’s revealed is stunning. The universe is not the dead mechanistic system that we used to think it was. The more that we inquire, the more amazing the nature of reality appears.
The Share Guide: So the materialism that’s rampant in our society is related to the way we see the universe? In other words, if we think of the universe as alive, we’ll revere it, and if we think it’s dead we’ll exploit it.
Duane Elgin: Yes. If we’re intimately connected with the entirety of creation, then we feel a sense of stewardship, a sense of communion and caring. Now, sometimes it’s hard to see that connection. We look around and it seems like there are a bunch of fragments. However, quantum theorists are saying there’s no such thing as solid matter; there are only strings of energy. More importantly, the fabric of space is not a static emptiness. It is now understood to be a very dynamic, living presence. Einstein clarified that there’s no such thing as space; there’s only space-time.
We have an enormous amount still yet to discover and understand. For instance, science now knows that 96% of the known universe is invisible. It’s called dark matter and dark energy, and it’s called “dark” because you can’t see it. But here we are, in the 4% that’s visible, and I say to people: if we’re going to make materialism our life path, we’re essentially giving our lives over to the 4% solution. Because the 96%, the invisible part, we’re just completely ignoring. In a way, the living universe paradigm is shifting our perspective and saying let’s give due regard to that 96% that we’ve been missing.
The Share Guide: In your book, you mention that we humans are the optimum size for a conscious life form.
Duane Elgin: If we were significantly smaller, as creatures we would not have enough atoms in our body to create an organism of sufficient complexity to sustain the kind of intelligence and dexterity that we have. We would just be too small to have that size of brain, the reach of arms, and so forth, to be really functional in this world. On the other hand, if we were a lot larger, that wouldn’t work either. Think of the dinosaurs that had huge bodies–they moved extremely slowly because it took so long for the electrical impulses to travel the length of that enormous body. If we were huge we could end up being just lumbering giants, very slow to respond and create. So we’re of a size that really is optimal for engaging the world as we have. I think if we saw alien conscious beings from other solar systems, they might look different than us but may be of similar size, as opposed to being huge or tiny.
The Share Guide: Do you believe there’s intelligent life elsewhere in the universe?
Duane Elgin: Absolutely. I would find it extraordinarily unlikely that there is no other intelligent life out there given the immensity of the universe. The conditions for life seem to be widespread, so I would think there is, indeed.
The Share Guide: In your book you’ve stated that you don’t believe that consciousness is confined within the brain, and that you were involved in some psychic experiments in the past, such as remote viewing.
Duane Elgin: Well, for more than 20 years I didn’t say anything about it because it’s so controversial. I was involved in these experiments for a period of almost three years, and they were funded by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The basic core question was that if you had an astronaut on the far side of the moon, and you thought they were in trouble in their space capsule, was there a way to get remote, intuitive knowledge about how they were doing? That’s what we were researching.
So over a period of three years, I was involved in all manner of experiments to explore this. It was an extraordinary learning opportunity, and one of the things that I learned was that we all have these intuitive capacities; there’s nothing special about this. If you would imagine a few hundred years ago, someone had the ability to read, and a village of illiterate folks said, “Oh, this is amazing. This person knows how to read and he must be so incredible.” That’s how we are now with our literacy of consciousness. We’re projecting miracles onto people when it’s really a very normal capacity that we all share. What’s required is study, just like going to school. That study requires meditation, and taking the time to actually do the interior inquiry to develop the understanding that we do participate in a living universe.
The Share Guide: So you think that those who meditate and do other spiritual practices can enhance and develop their innate intuitive skills?
Duane Elgin: Yes. We’re living in this ecology of consciousness. We all participate in it and it’s easy to miss. That’s one thing I learned: it’s easy to overlook those little small twinges and insights and intuitions that come up, but if we slow down and pay attention, what we find is that we’re swimming in a universe of insight and information all the time.
The Share Guide: Do you think that the work you did with these experiments and meditation helped exercise or enhance your skills by getting you to pay attention more?
Duane Elgin: Yes, it was very reinforcing. At the time I was simultaneously studying Tibetan Buddhist meditation, and doing the experimentation in the laboratory. The lab experiments gave me a chance to actually test the validity of my experience, to see if there actually was something of significance happening.
The Share Guide: The Share Guide has interviewed a number of authors whose work seems to dovetail with your books. For instance, when we interviewed Deepak Chopra, he said that the purpose of meditation is to “Get in touch with your soul, and then go beyond that and get in touch with the consciousness that your soul is a ripple of.”
Duane Elgin: There is a field of energy that permeates the universe. This is understood by science, and now what we’re beginning to discover is that field of energy is alive. One of its qualities is sentience or consciousness, and we can interact with that field. We’re not just closed off in our physical bodies. We have the capacity to interact with the larger field of consciousness; it permeates our lives and touches us day-in and day-out. If there is needless suffering happening in the world, it tinges and colors the ocean of consciousness that we swim in, and we imbibe this daily. So, if we can create a world without undue suffering–one where we’re not killing off all of these species and harming one another–it will change the atmosphere of our lives.
The Share Guide: Many people have written that we don’t just have an individual unconscious but we’re also part of something larger, which Carl Jung called the collective unconscious. What do you think about that?
Duane Elgin: I think the collective unconscious is actually becoming the Collective Consciousness. With the mass media, every time we watch some event, whether it’s a mass sporting event or it’s the president speaking about one thing or another, we are tuning in with our collective consciousness to a happening in the world. In the past, we didn’t have that ability. And so in a way, we have been awakening a capacity for reflective consciousness at a social level unbeknownst to humanity. It’s an almost invisible process of bio-osmosis; we are developing a new capacity for witnessing, for being an observing species, and this is transformative.
The Share Guide: Is it true that lesser-evolved creatures, even monkeys and apes that are closely related to us, don’t have the capacity to reflect like we do?
Duane Elgin: Researchers are now seeing that there are a number of animals that do have the ability to recognize themselves in a mirror. They have consciousness to some degree. Dolphins have it, elephants have it, some birds have it, and I think chimps and some others too. So there’s probably a spectrum of consciousness where the ability to be reflective is not unique to humans, but the capacity to be truly introspective probably is.
The Share Guide: Deepak Chopra said that when you experience enlightenment, “You see the whole world as an expression of yourself, and you see that the ground of your being is also the ground of all existence.” This seems to go along with what you’ve written about the living universe and experiencing ourselves as a connected part of it.
Duane Elgin: Yes. Not only do we live in a living universe, but the living universe lives within us. In other words, we’re not just sitting here and looking out at a universe that’s alive–we ourselves are that aliveness.
The Share Guide: When we interviewed John Hagelin for The Share Guide, he talked about a universal field of nature’s intelligence that governs the vast universe with perfect order. What are your thoughts on that?
Duane Elgin: I think it’s a self-governing universe. All of the pieces of the universe have some degree of choice and consciousness, whether it’s an atom, a single-cell entity, or a human being. We all have some degree of freedom and choice, and we’re all choosing and co-creating the sum total of reality as it presents itself at every moment.
The Share Guide: Don’t cosmologists now say that there may be multiple universes?
Duane Elgin: Yes, in the last 20 years, cosmology has shifted from talking about a single universe to saying there must be multiple universes co-existing simultaneously. We’re just one among an infinite number of other universes.
The Share Guide: You’ve written that our universe is a place of miracles but it is not a place of magic. Does that mean you still believe in the scientific method, and we can’t just believe everything we read?
Duane Elgin: Yes, I do believe in the scientific method. The wonderful thing is that we can use the tools of science to explore these seemingly invisible realms of ecology of consciousness. So it’s not impenetrable; we can explore.
The Share Guide: Your book discussed three major stages in awakening to the living universe: Reflective consciousness, oceanic consciousness, and flow consciousness. Can you explain?
Duane Elgin: I think people would recognize each of these stages of progression towards union with the living universe. Reflective consciousness says, “I will pay attention to myself as I move through daily life.” Whether it’s with psychotherapy or a spiritual tradition, watching yourself as you move through life is powerfully transformative, because it requires that we come to a place of reconciliation and friendship and a place of connection with ourselves. In doing so, we end up in a place of connection and communion with the larger universe.
This reflection then moves us to an oceanic sense of communion with the living universe. Studies have shown that approximately 40% of the American public has had the experience of communion with a living universe. People speak about a sense of feeling great safety, of great peace, of a great sense of connection, which is what I call the oceanic experience. Then, as people rest in that kind of oceanic experience, we begin to see this as a living, dynamic presence.
This offers us the potential for flow consciousness, where we dance with the flow of the universe. This is something that’s widely recognized. People on high-performance sports teams talk about flow consciousness. Jazz ensembles that are playing together speak about flow consciousness. People that have a high level of challenge and productivity together will sometimes speak about flow consciousness. All sorts of areas of our lives bring out those moments, those little periods of, “We’re just moving at one with the flow of it all.” So, that’s the sequence of progressively engaging and coming into a more intimate relationship with the living universe.
The Share Guide: You’ve compared all the major world religions, and point to a common thread through them all showing that we are all part of a connected, living universe. So how do we overcome all the strife and hate and racism, and learn to live in peace with each other?
Duane Elgin: We’re still in discovery. Unfortunately, most people don’t look at their religion and think that other religions around the world share the same foundation. This is good news that has yet to spread around the world. People have yet to see that we all share the same foundational insight; we’re in the same universe together. However, science is now sharing that same awareness, so science and religion do not have to be at odds with one another. That gives us the foundation for actually creating a resilient and strong understanding for moving into the future–where the reconciliation and the work towards cooperation and collaboration can come from.
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi leapt to prominence in the 1960s when his teaching of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and his widely-reported involvement with The Beatles and the Beach Boys provoked reactions ranging from reverence to mockery. Now Paul Mason takes us behind the scenes, drawing on scarce and previously unpublished material.
Much more than just a biography, this is a seminal enquiry into the aims and methods of the Maharishi Movement. We are taken deep into the Indian tradition of the Vedic scriptures, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.
He describes the early days of the teachings in the 1950s, through the development of a sprawling bureaucracy, to the fiasco of the attempts to enter mainstream politics with the Natural Law Party.
Paul Mason learned the practice of Transcendental Meditation after hitchhiking to India in 1970, when he visited the Maharishi’s ashram at Rishikesh. He has maintained an abiding interest in yoga-meditation and Indian teachings. He is also a musician, composing music that integrates East and West. He has contributed to the magazine Yoga Today, and to Behind The Beatles Songs
Contents PART I: The Spirit and the Flesh
1. Mahesh and His Master 3
2. Himalayan Hermitage 14
3. ‘The Maharishi’ Emerges 28
4. From Hawaii to Hollywood 40
5. The Divine Plan, God and Suffering 52
6. Talking Book 63
7. The One and the Many 75
8. Flower Power 85
9. Time for a Song 98
10. The Blessing of the Beatles 104
11. Indian Summer 117
12. Retirement Party 128
13. The Comeback Tour 141
PART II: Maharishi Upanishad
– An Audience with the Maharishi
14. Evolution to Immortality 149
15. Celestial Connections 158
16. Those Who Speak Don’t Know 168
17. Water the Root and Enjoy the Fruit 179
18. Free Will Over Destiny 190
PART III: The Enlightenment Business
19. Nothing But The Sweet Truth 203
20. Research and Developments 214
21. Dawning of a New Age 227
22. Superpowers 238
23. Quest for Utopia 252
24. At the Hop 263
25. Corporate Structure 274
Jyotirmath: Seat of the Shankaracharya Vasudevananda Saraswati
SHORT SUMMARY of the 12th January 2011 speech of His Holiness Sri Sri Sri Vasudevananda Saraswati Maharaj, Shankaracharya of JyotirMath:
Maharaj Shankaracharya mentioned that about 75 years back, when Maharishi went to the feet of Guru Dev, on that time no one in the world would anticipate that a young man in this age, will establish the rule of Dharma in the whole earth. He was mentioning that on that time there were 4 Bramacharies who came to get the blessings of Guru Dev, one of them was from Maharashtra and he was sent to Randhavan. The rest of the 3 were working under the guidance of Guru Dev, and Maharishiji, at that time was taking care of all the writing work and whatever other work that has to be managed for Guru Dev.
Dandi Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati.
He also mentioned a very nice point – Adi Shankara established 4 seats of knowiedge, all over India he divided India to bring the knowledge in 4 parts. It will not be an exaggeration to say that Maharishi single handedly brought the knowledge to the whole world himself. Maharishi was forgetting whether he needs to eat, or whether he needs to do any other work, he was always busy bringing the knowledge to the whole world.
At that time itself Maharishi took Sankalpa that: I wil! bring this knowledge to the whole earth, all over the world. And that Sankalpa he actually not only established, but he really brought it into the practice as weil. In a practical shape he has really given the message of Guru Dev to the whole world. Shankaracharya also mentioned that no where
there is such an example in any religion or in any aspect of knowledge that any person who has taken the picture of the Guru to the whole world, and got the whole world enjoying the blessing of Guru Dev.
Another event in Africa, in 1983, Maharishiji brought the Shankaracharya of that time to Africa, and Maharaja the current Shankaracharya was a Bramachari and was there in Africa with them as weil. He mentioned the cook, who told Shankaracharya, that for 3 days, Maharishi did not take any food. So when Maharishi came to receive the blessings of Shankaracharya, he was told to stay in the room. When Maharishi asked what is the matter, Shankaracharya told him:
You did not take any food for 3 days. Maharishi replied: Oh, I completely forgot that I have to take the food. On that time Shankaracharya advised him that we have to take care of the body also, because only through that we will be able to bring the knowledge to the whole world. Because it is said:
Sharir Madham Kal Dharma Sadanam.
This body, also is needed in order to bring Dharma to the whole mankind.
Maharishi got this knowledge from Guru Dev, so from this seat Maharishi got this knowiedge, and Maharishi was not keeping anything to himself, always giving to others. And after bringing this knowledge to the whole world he left everything at the feet of Guru Dev, at the seat of Sankaracharya.
So gaining the victory of knowledge in the whole world, he just offered it at the seat of Guru Dev. Shankaracharya mentioned also that Maharishi called him and told him about the Brahmananda Saraswati Trust, which Maharishi established and he offered the whole trust at the seat of Knowiedge. The Patron of the trust was offered
to the seat of Guru Dev. Jai Guru Dev, -V.
Duane Elgin is an author, speaker, educator, consultant, and media activist. For more than three decades, Duane has been in the forefront of exploring humanity’s evolutionary journey, sustainable ways of living, media accountability and citizen empowerment, and the convergence of the new science with the world’s wisdom traditions. For more of Duane Elgin’s videos, check out http://www.globalonenessproject.org
Bounce or Crash: Will Humanity Wake up in Time?
Duane Elgin explores the choice to either pull apart in conflict or to pull together in cooperation. http://www.duaneelgin.com/
Is humanity waking up to a new level of consciousness? What changes in consciousness are underway? Can we wake up in time?
Pete and Duane’s Window is a series that explores our world in transition including topics such as consciousness, world trends, sustainability, spirituality, and our common future. http://www.PeteAndDuane.com
Awakening Earth: Pilot pt 2 (Pete and Duane’s Window)
Happiness is available to all of us—right here, right now. All that’s required is that we learn to let go of our expectation that life should go according the agenda we have in mind. Zen teacher Ezra Bayda provides the teachings and practices we need to learn to let go into true happiness—the kind that goes far deeper than the kind that’s about getting what we think we want.
Most of our unhappiness, he explains, is the result of seeking satisfaction in things external to us: new jobs, better relationships, luxury vacations. By liberating ourselves from expectations about these outward things and looking inward instead, we can find a deeper and unshakable kind of satisfaction that not only makes things a lot more pleasant for us, but that generates in us generosity and compassion toward others.
Beyond Happiness includes simple meditation and mindfulness practices you can use to access true happiness, including basic sitting meditation, gratitude practice, loving-kindness practice, and the Three Questions practice, in which we ask ourselves: Am I happy now? What blocks happiness? and Can I surrender to what is?
Ezra Bayda on Beyond Happiness
Ezra Bayda, author of Beyond Happiness: The Zen Way to True Contentment, gives a teaching on happiness and how we mistakenly seek it from external sources like relationships and possessions. Bayda explains how happiness can be found in looking inward and in acts of generosity and compassion for others.
WIE: Back when the great religious traditions were developing, nobody knew about evolution. It hadn’t been discovered yet. Therefore, all the transformative spiritual practices that emerged within those traditions naturally lacked an evolutionary worldview. But times have changed. What does our growing understanding of evolution mean for spiritual practice today? Does the evolutionary perspective change the spiritual path itself?
Michael Murphy: Absolutely—because this evolving universe is now the context of spiritual practice. I think that today, anybody who is the least bit thoughtful has to slow down enough to say: “Okay, evolution is a fact.” Any educated person has to say that. The evolutionary story is continually being disclosed to us. Literally every day, there’s some new discovery in some field.
The story of evolution is bringing all other stories together. It’s the great myth of our time, if you want to call it a myth. So if you’re thoughtful and you accept that fact, then you have to conclude that all human activity has that as its context, including all long-term transformative practice of any kind. Today, practice means getting yourself in sync with the most fundamental urge of the universe itself—namely, to develop, to evolve in a progressive way.
If all transformative practice—including all contemplative practice, Buddhist practice, shamanic practice, whatever—is indeed embedded in an evolving world, we need to find out what that means. We’re driven to find out more and more about it, to become conscious of the fact that evolutionary progress is in our being as well. Spiritual practice is evolving; vision is evolving; realization is evolving.
Enlightenment itself is evolving, no matter what you mean by enlightenment. The experience of consciousness is changing, in all sorts of unexpected ways. Take golf for instance. Why is it that thousands of people are now having these mini-satori experiences playing golf? That’s fascinating in its own right. People who’ve never heard of satori, who’ve never even heard of Zen, who have no spiritual aspiration whatsoever—all these guys out there having spiritual experiences. I think that golf is a mystery school for Republicans.
We could make a catalogue of the ways in which the evolutionary vision serves transformation, but one of them is that it’s a paradigm buster. So there’s the thrust of the new, but there’s also the death of the old. Just look at the troubles of the church. Look at the hideous forms of Islamic and Christian and Jewish fundamentalism—it’s like we’re witnessing the decay of these old religions right in front of us while this new thing is being born. And more and more people are disaffected.
The snake is growing a new skin, but the old skin is really getting old and it’s ready to slough off. It’s like Yeats’ line from “The Second Coming”: What rough beast, its hour come round at last/ Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? It’s this worldview that’s slowly emerging, this rough beast. But it’s unfinished. And folks, we’ve all got to go out there and contribute to it. I mean, either we do it, or we don’t and we sink back into the next cataclysm. Because it ain’t predetermined. It’s all up to us. And we know that deep down—we know it’s up to us. Now, we can work at it in many different ways. We don’t all have to be philosophers. But at the heart of it is transformative practice itself, which is about what you actually do. Because in the end, we have to live it. We have to want to live it.
Michael Murphy is the cofounder of Esalen Institute and author of Golf in the Kingdom.
The research and writing of this book is a personal journey that not only brings together forgotten wisdom about the origins of sacred female power and Durga, but changes the author in the process. Her personal story is compelling and it shows us that this ancient myth and Goddess are a living, transformative power that is completely relevant to our daily lives and a much-needed guide at this time in our history.
Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power explores the many faces of the Goddess Durga in ancient and contemporary culture. This book takes us on a pilgrimage to goddess temples and natural shrines, to visit shamans and living goddesses in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, and to India for the annual ten-day Durga Festival. The mythology, rituals, philosophy, and spiritual practices of this distinctly female-centered and millennia-old tradition of Durga offer an alternative model of female potential and empowerment, focusing on peace, healing, spiritual liberation, and realization of inherent divinity
We are at a global crossroads. Environmental devastation, economic upheaval, political corruption and unconscionable acts of man-made violence threaten the precious equilibrium of our planet. Racism, sexism, homophobia, war, violence, genocide, human trafficking — it is hard not to feel overwhelmed by the massive injustice perpetuated by humans against our own species and ultimately the fragile web of all life on this planet. How do we make sense of the destruction? When all seems futile, how do we approach formidable life experiences from a place of compassion for both self and other? To whom do we turn for guidance?
To many in the West, the orthodox religious traditions we grew up within have failed to provide solace. Many of us are looking for a spiritual model that addresses the needs of the tumultuous 21st century and yet is grounded in respect for the interconnectedness of all life. While some have found guidance in indigenous beliefs, western mystical traditions or eastern philosophy, the ululating call of the divine feminine seems to be making itself heard across the board.
Most of us are familiar with Greek mythology and its pantheon of goddesses and gods; however, fewer are aware that there is a thriving tradition of goddess worship in South Asia where devotion to the divine as Compassionate Mother and Fiercely Protective Female Warrior has existed for millennia. In fact, there is not one, but thousands of manifestations of goddess in South Asia. In Hinduism human diversity is expressed by this vast pantheon of deities; and yet, as one of the most popular goddess myths reminds us, despite our differences, we are indeed all One.
The Devi Mahatmya or the Great Glory of the Goddess is a 5th century myth that offers potent teachings relevant to this day and age. The heroine of this story about the victory of good over evil is Durga, Goddess of Divine Justice, Invincible Power, and Impenetrable Compassion. Her name, Durga, means fortress, and speaks to the unassailable essence of our inherent nature. Durga is also known as the Remover of Fear and Difficulty for she always comes to the aid of any who call on her in distress.
According to the myth, demonic forces are threatening to conquer the world and take down any who do not agree with their agenda. Despite the gods’ intentions to stop the demons, the methods they use only perpetuate the violence. Moreover, this demon king has received a boon from the creator God Brahma, which makes him undefeatable by any man, god or demon. When Brahma asks the demon if he wants to be exempt from defeat by a female as well, the demon’s inflated ego puffs up with pride. To the demon, battling a woman is an easy win — he declines.
After eons of senseless violence, the male gods convene and call forth the Supreme Mother Goddess behind all existence. Only she is powerful enough to stop the bloodshed. The initial chapter of Durga’s mythic journey of restoring harmony to the world tells how the demon king learns a beautiful female is waiting to engage in battle with him. He orders his two favorite demon generals to bring her to him so he can force her into wedlock. However, the generals do not have a chance against the all-powerful goddess. As they approach her, the composed goddess emits a flame from her finger that restores them to a state of tranquility and compassion. Outraged, the demon demands that the goddess engage directly with him in battle. She does.
The demon becomes more and more furious as he faces the great goddess. He hurls mountains, uproots forests and causes earthquakes with his all-consuming anger against the possible loss of power and control. Every time one of Durga’s arrows flies at him, the demon changes form from water buffalo, to tiger, to man until finally she grabs him, pins his neck down with her foot and sends a spear through his heart.
Metaphorically, we can consider Durga as the wisdom of the heart, untainted by cultural, religious and societal conditioning. The buffalo demon symbolizes our ignorance, reactions and ego attachments. The constantly shifting appearance of the demon speaks to our irrational behavior and the need to pin down the destructive causes of our negative emotions: anger, jealousy, pride, greed and delusion. His shape shifting is symbolic of the grasping ignorant mind that continuously jumps from one desire to another.
The demon’s uncontrollable rage, destroying everything in its path without regard for the consequences, is a fitting analogy for the violence we face today. This myth asks us to consider how we choose to express our anger — whether we will use our rage against injustice in constructive ways, or if we will be divisive, fearful and blaming, thereby poisoning our environment. The fiercely compassionate divine feminine nature will help free us from the afflicted ego and return to the penetrating wisdom of divine love. Goddess Durga may not solve all the world’s problems at the moment, but as this ancient scripture teaches, she is the impenetrable place of calm within our hearts from which we can choose actions that promote harmony and unity rather than selfish harmful acts.
In the myth, after the demon has finally been defeated and the gods gather to celebrate, Mother Durga promises to return whenever any of her children are in distress. As we face crises on both a personal and planetary level, might we call on this ancient divine female force of compassion and courage to help us confront and transform that which threatens the well being and contentment of all beings on this planet?
The Devi Mahatmya teaches that the grace of goddess is unconditional and will never be withheld from anyone — ego demon or not. Through her fierce love toward self and other, harmony will be restored within and around us. We need only invoke Durga to help us remember our true nature and that divine love conquers all.
Happy Navratri – Durga Sooktam (Sanskrit Hymn)
Durga Sooktam
(Lyrics with meaning)
Jatavedase sunavama soma marathee yatho nidhahadhi veda,
Sa na parshadathi durgani viswa naaveva sindhum durithathyagni. 1
Our oblations of Soma to the fire god,
May he, the all knowing one destroy all those who do not like us,
May that divine fire lead us out of all perils,
Like a captain takes his boat across the sea,
And also save us from all wrongs.
I take refuge in the divine mother Durga*,
Who shines like a fire due to her penances,
Who resides in actions and their fruits and makes them effective,
And I salute her who helps us cross our difficulties.
* It could be translated as Mother of difficulties also
Oh God of fire, you are worthy of praise,
For by novel methods you help us cross,
The difficulties and make us happy,
May our land in this earth become extensive,
May the land for growing crops become large,
And be pleased to join our children and,
Their children with joy and happiness.
Vishvaani no durghaa jathaveda sindhunaa nava durithathi parshi,
Agne athrivan manasaa grina no asmakam bodhayithwa thanoo naam. 4
Oh Jatha Vedas who is the destroyer of all sins,
Make us cross all our troubles like a boat,
Which takes us to the other shore without problems,
Oh Fire, protect us like the sage Athri, who would take care of us,
Mindful of our safety and our happiness.
Prithana jitham saha mana mugram agnim huvema paramath sadhasthath,
Sa na parshadathi durgani viswa kshamaddhevo athi durithatyagni. 5
We invoke the fierce Fire God who is the leader of us all.
And who is the killer of all our enemies from the highest place,
To take us across all difficulties and all that is perishable and protect us.
Oh Fire God, you are praised during sacrifices,
And always increase our happiness, and exist as sacrifices,
Which are olden and those which are new,
Please make us, who are only yourself, happy,
And grant us good fortune from all our sides.
Oh Lord, you are not connected with sin and sorrow,
Permit us to always serve you who pervades all wealth,
May the Gods who live in the highest region make me,
Who adores Vishnu, delighted and happy and grant my wishes.
Duane Elgin explores our existence and the idea of living in a living universe. He discusses both scientific and spiritual perspectives, from cosmological dark energy to Native American beliefs.
As a futurist and author of Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future, Awakening Earth, and Voluntary Simplicity, Elgin has anticipated some of the most important trends of our time. According to a 1997 Trends Research Institute report, “voluntary simplicity. . . is now spreading throughout the industrialized world. . . . Never before. . . has a societal trend grown so quickly, spread so broadly, and been embraced so eagerly.”
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