Fear and Honesty

Jul 31
2009

The municipal officials looked just like little Hitlers as they strutted into the hearing room. They refused to look at us. The first one on the stand stated my client should camp out in his tenants’ yard to make sure the tenants behaved.

I can’t say I felt fear before the hearing, but I did feel tension. I was not primarily a litigator, this was not my usual territory, and I wasn’t familiar with the procedures or personalities of that particular municipality before I stepped into the hearing room. 

I had, however, prepared both law and facts thoroughly. As the hearing progressed, it became obvious that the municipal officials were familiar with neither. 

I knew the police chief’s list of violations was inconsistent with the notices he had sent my client. After he haughtily read his opening testimony listing all the violations of which my client was guilty, I simply asked him to show me where my client had received notice of the violations. He spent a full two minutes looking through his file. Every eye in the hearing room was on him. 

Both my client and I sat respectfully silent while he looked, but we were both chuckling inside. Finally, he had to admit on the record that my client had never received notice. The police chief’s arrogance suddenly evaporated. 

The Code Enforcement Official, hands trembling, testified that the last time he had viewed my client’s property was over four months ago. He nevertheless adamantly stated that the property did not meet the Code requirements as of the hearing date. Did I hear that right? 

When I asked him how he could possibly testify that my client’s property didn’t meet Code requirements today when he hadn’t viewed it for four months, he backed down, retracted his statement, and suddenly started testifying honestly. Interestingly enough, his hands also stopped shaking.

Resisting Evil

Jul 25
2009

A visitor to one of my other websites, http://wordsculptures.com, asked an interesting question:

“Do you resist evil 100%? Does the impulse come to resist, and what do you do with the impulse?”

What do we mean by the word “evil”?

Personally, I don’t much like that word. It smacks of judgment, and judgment is not my job. Discernment, however, is.

Discernment is just noticing and making choices about how I am going to respond to behavior I prefer to call “dysfunctional.” Dysfunctional behavior is behavior that is win/lose. Functional behavior is win/win. That means doing the best I know how to bring harmony into a conflicted relationship or situation. Sometimes, I just have to walk away. That, in itself, often leads to harmony, as well as a lesson to the person who is stuck in win/lose thinking.

As far as impulses go, I always notice them and listen to them, but I rarely act out on them. Instead, I make choices about them. It’s called “being the witness.” Impulses and emotions are generally bringing me a message I need to hear, decipher, and understand. Once I understand what I need to change in my own life to restore peace and harmony, I can make a conscious choice about the appropriate action to take. It is never about taking action against another. It may be about protecting myself from dysfunctional people and situations.

By making choices about how I am going to change, I put my power back where it belongs – in my own hands.

TOOLS FOR TRANSFORMATION – LABYRINTH WALKS

Jul 23
2009

Two Perspectives on Labyrinth Walks as a Tool for Transformation

Dr. Amit Nagpal, New Delhi, India, and

Dr. Janet Smith Warfield, Florida, USA

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Dr. Amit Nagpal’s Perspective

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Amit NagpalThe labyrinth reminds me of the character ‘Abhimanyu’ and the song, “Abhimanyu, chakravyuh mein phas gaya hai tu.” (Abhimanyu, you are caught in the labyrinth.) In the battle of Mahabharata in India, the son of the great warrior Arjuna, Abhimanyu was caught in a labyrinth and died since he did not know how to come out. I wonder if the entire humanity is caught in the labyrinth of the rat race.

There is something about life which is difficult for an average mind to understand. Call it the good karma vs bad karma, call it positive energy vs negative energy or call it the cycle of Satyuga vs Kaliyuga, whatever makes sense to you.

The terms which I use to define life are virtuous cycle vs vicious cycle. Though the term cycle is used, they are more like positive and negative spirals. Once you get into a negative spiral (or vicious cycle), you become more and more cynical and one day you have no option left but to seek positivity. As they say, it is darkest before the dawn. The positive spiral or virtuous cycle is similar to the law of attraction. You become more and more positive and over a period of time, more and more successful also. Since they are not simple cycles but rather spirals, it is difficult for cluttered minds to understand these concepts.

I once wrote, “The mind puts us into vicious cycle. The soul puts us in virtuous cycle” The soul can also be called deeper self in simple words. The solutions to the problems of humanity, will come from this deeper self. As Daniel H. Pink, rightly points out in his book, “A whole new mind”

“The future belongs to a different kind of a person with a different kind of a mind: artists, inventors, storytellers- creative and holistic ‘right brain’ thinkers.”

Is there a difference between maze and labyrinth? Wikipedia points out, “In colloquial English, labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze, but many contemporary scholars observe a distinction between the two: maze refers to a complex branching (multicursal) puzzle with choices of path and direction; while a single-path (unicursal) labyrinth has only a single, non-branching path, which leads to the center. A labyrinth in this sense has an unambiguous route to the center and back and is not designed to be difficult to navigate.”

If you are caught in a labyrinth and want to come out, I have one quote for you to ponder over, “When we speak, God listens. When we become silent, God speaks.” Simple, the answers can only come in silence. Your labyrinth is unique and the inner voice can answer best how to navigate it.

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Dr Amit Nagpal is a Personal Branding Consultant and Deepest Passion Coach. He is based in New Delhi, India and specializes in personal branding with a holistic touch. His philosophy is, “Enlarge as a Human Being, Excel as a Social Media Being and Evolve as a Personal Brand.” To learn more, visit www.dramitnagpal.com.
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Dr. Janet Smith Warfield’s Perspective

Dr. Janet Smith WarfieldLabyrinths appear throughout history, beginning as early as 2500 B.C. in Goa, India. Later, they emerged in Greece, Egypt, Italy, France, and Native American cultures. The word labyrinth is derived from the Lydian word labrys, meaning double-edged axe.

The significance of labyrinths differs from culture to culture. Grecian labyrinths were believed to house the minotaur, a mythical creature that was half man and half bull. Other cultures associated the labyrinth with death and a triumphant return. Today, labyrinths serve as a form of modern pilgrimage for those with no ability to travel to distant lands. They are walking meditations, allowing each of us to sort out the chaos of modern life and find the spark of divinity that lies within.
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Labyrinth Walks

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The walk into the center of the labyrinth provides a wonderful opportunity to meditate on our life purpose. Who are we? Why are we here? What are our unique gifts and talents?

Once we reach the center of the labyrinth and the core of our being, we know who we are, what we’re here to do, and what our unique gifts and talents are.

As we walk out of the labyrinth, the questions change. How can we serve? How can we give back to the world what has been so freely given to us? How can we allow the gift we have been given to flow through us and back out into the world?

Both the path in and the path out twist and turn. We think we are reaching the center of the labyrinth and the core of our being, when suddenly, we find ourselves on the outer edge of the circle, far from where we expected to be. We walk next to another spiritual seeker, then suddenly, our paths turn in opposite directions and we separate. As we follow our own path, we pass the same people over and over again and see the same archetypal patterns from new perspectives.

If you’ve never walked a labyrinth, try it. I think you’ll find it offers new insights into who you are and what your purpose is on this planet.

For more information about labyrinths, see www.labyrinthsociety.org/. To find a labyrinth near you, see www.labyrinthlocator.com/.

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Dr. Janet Smith Warfield serves wisdom-seekers who want understanding and clarity so they can live peaceful, powerful, prosperous lives. Through her unique combination of holistic, creative, right-brain transformational experiences and 22 years of rigorous, left-brain law practice, she has learned how to sculpt words in atypical ways to shift her listeners into experiences beyond words, transforming turmoil into inner peace. To learn more, go to www.wordsculptures.com,  www.janetsmithwarfield.com, and www.wordsculpturespublishing.com.

Spirituality and Religion

Jul 17
2009

Spirituality is an attitude, a consciousness, a way of seeing life. Religion is an attempt to put spirituality into words – an effort that can never be adequately accomplished because of the nature of words. Words divide. Spirituality is whole and integrated. Words are only reflections. While often, they can guide the seeker to Truth, they are not Truth. Using words to communicate the spiritual experience and consciousness is like trying to hammer a nail using a screwdriver.

A major reason we have war is because some people set their own words up as Truth and then fight with others who have set up different words as Truth. The fact is that neither has evolved to a consciousness where they understand that words are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. This is the huge danger of religion. Religious doctrines are created to codify the spiritual experience and guide the seeker to it, yet in the process of codifying it, they frequently destroy it. Used correctly, religious doctrines guide one’s own actions. They should never be used to control the actions of others.

The spiritual experience is pure awareness, beyond dualistic words, beyond my words, beyond the word “awareness.” And yet it can also include dualistic words. Sometimes, it needs to because they can be wonderful catalysts when used in context to shift energy. They just pop up and they’re there. 

Despite the inadequacy and imperfection of words, we have to put them out there in the best way we know how. It is through putting our words out there and engaging in dialog that we clarify, both for ourselves and others.