AHYMSIN NEWSLETTER, ISSUE - December 2015 | ||||||||
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Dharma in the World Todayby Sabina Cesaroni…an article recently written about an interesting Congress held in Varanasi in November. I participated together with Swami Nitya…Many Dharma teachers were present and it was an amazing sharing of so many different traditions. GPIW, Global Peace Initiative of Women, recently held a gathering in Varanasi, India, about “Awakening the Light of Dharma: How to Uphold Dharma in the World Today". From November 6 to 9, this 4 day dialogue was an opportunity to reflect and explore the concept of Dharma in the world today. How to transform our relationship with the natural world, how to truly respect animal and plant life as sentient beings, how to live accordingly to the dharmic traditions, understanding how all natural world is alive and sacred. How to reclaim this Sacred so commercialized and secularised, especially for what concerns spiritual practices in our daily world. The deep meaning of self-realization, meditation, yoga as a capacity to co-create and transform our actual modern crisis, has become just another “market”, making people ready to consume and create other marketing again!1 How to go back to that source, that starting "tradition”, when life and gender, all beings, were the same seed of Divine manifestation… Living the Dharma is living in accord with the principles of the Universe itself, behaving in such a way to support that order and harmony which are the Sacred ancient laws of our principle of life. How then can we reclaim the sacred nature of our spiritual practices? The impact of excessive consumption on the environment is growing more and more... and we are not more capable to see the law of cause and effect and their interdependence in our lives, our relationships... the whole planet. We should understand how these cosmic laws really affect our lives and our future. We should aim to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption... less attention to material gain and more values to knowledge and self development...awareness and discrimination, observation and understanding. To live Dharma is living in awareness and compassion, love, sharing unity and leaving anger and fear out of the main door! It is a way of living day by day, not just through speech or thought, asking to ourselves which are the priorities, considering our actual destruction of earth life system, all kind of violence against children, women, men, plants, animals....a big economic disparity, differences between genders and its imbalance… What can a practitioner of Dharmic principles add to his, her practice?! No intellect but true love, no judgment but humbleness, being One and all together. Only a deep change of consciousness will help us to face the ecological and climate crisis we are living right now, and crisis, since ever, are a good occasion to change and transform. Energy, that vast unique wise field of energy we are, is telling us that a new foreward is about to come and each of us can witness it. No doubt the actual global development model based on the exploitation of the natural world, today cannot work anymore! Possibly going back to small communities and locale initiative...possibly creating circles of people moving in life with awareness and communication, aiming not to satisfy our personal egos, but for the welfare of all, all creatures, all being. The Benares Congress was a good occasion for sharing the many experiences, thoughts, suggestions from the many participants coming from the various parts of the world, India as well as Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tibet; many Dharma teachers also joined by Dharma practitioners; and other well known teachers from Denmark, Italy, Iran, Japan, Poland, Uganda and USA. Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati from Meran, Italy, spoke about the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers and their work all around the world dedicated to the female principle, that seed of everlasting Creation, and the need to care about mother Earth rejuvenating that female power of caring and nurturing. Inspired by this vision, recently, in Italy, Meran, a Sangha of women, called from all Europe, was held resulting in the creation of an organism of women, the European Grandmothers, active in the field of Dharma, with their knowledge, experience of human life and their vision and mission aiming to actively participate in this new forward for Humanity and the planet. [Please see: http://www.athayoga.info/event/meran-italy-2/ ] Seeds were spread......words and inspirations. The world, somewhere, is activating a change; let's be part of it. Let's move and dance in between the polarities learning how to center our capacity of upholding Dharma in the world today. Hari Om Sabina Cesaroni Florence- Italy Editor’s Note:For more about Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati: http://www.athayoga.info/
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