UBUNTU - I am because we are & The Sharing Experiment

UBUNTU - I am because we are

An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that whoever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run, they all took each other’s hands and ran together – and then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said, “Ubuntu.” And asked him how anyone can be happy if all the other ones are sad?

UBUNTU in the Xhosa culture means: “I am because we are.”

The above reminded me of an experiment by “Action Against Hunger”

that took place to show us how kids react when they feel inequality between them.

Please take 2 minutes to watch this video about sharing.

We can definitely be taught from children.

An African tribe that does the most beautiful thing!

When someone does something hurtful and wrong, they take the person to the center of town, and the entire tribe comes and surrounds him. For two days they’ll tell the man every good thing he has ever done.

The tribe believes that every human being comes into the world as GOOD, each of us desiring safety, love, peace, happiness.

But sometimes in the pursuit of those things people make mistakes. The community sees misdeeds as a cry for help.

They band together for the sake of their fellow man to hold him up, to reconnect him with his true Nature, to remind him who he really is, until he fully remembers the truth from which he’d temporarily been disconnected: “I AM GOOD”.

The crisis is a crisis in consciousness - Jiddu Krishnamurti

Consciousness Crisis

“The crisis is a crisis in consciousness, a crisis that cannot anymore accept the old norms, the old patterns, the ancient traditions.

And considering what the world is now with all their misery conflict, destructive brutality, aggression, and so on, man is still as he was: is still brutal, violent, aggressive, acquisitive, competitive, and he has built a society along these lines.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Yoga Inspiration

"When the heart opens, the life opens. When your body opens your mind opens.

It’s not the yoga that you do. It’s the courage that you bring to your practice.

Even when you want to stop, that’s exactly when you don’t stop.

Sweat & laugh every day. That’s what makes a person healthy, happy and whole.

If you don’t start in life somewhere, then your life will be nowhere. So you must start where you are.

If you fall over, you fall over, but you start again.

May you come to know your true identity and find the peace within yourself.

May the sun shine upon you, all love surround you. The pure light within you guide your way on."

Thank you Gurmukh

* Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa: Kundalini Yoga teacher and a pioneer in the field of pre-natal yoga.

The orange girl

She became so intoxicated by the sun's juice
That she bowed her head and consented
very slowly to become: the Orange Girl !

So while the seven skies glittered with blue
So while the crystals touched a fire
So while swallow-tails flashed
Angels above were bewildered and girls below
Storks above were bewildered and peacocks below
And all together gathered and saw her
And all together called her: the Orange Girl !

Vine shoots and scorpions reel drunkenly

the whole world is drunk

But the sting of dawn will not leave pain alone
The dwarf heron says it amid the earthworms
The drip-drop of water says it amid golden moments
And the dew says it to the lips of the good North Wind

Get up small small small Orange Girl !
No one knows you as the kiss knows you
Nor does the laughing god knows you
Who with his hand open to the flaming glare of the sun
Exposes you naked before his thirty-two winds

Odysseus Elytis -" the sun-drinking" poet, recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Make your own dream

That's the Beatles' story, isn't it? That's Yoko's story, that's what I'm saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It's quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don't expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.

That's what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshipped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be.

There's nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you.

John Lennon, 1980

Our Beauty Lies Within Us!

Audrey Hepburn's Beauty Tips

For attractive lips,
speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes,
seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure,
share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair,
let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.

For poise,
walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things,
have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed;
never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand,
you will find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands;
one for helping yourself,
and the other for helping others.

The greatest speech in history. Make this life free and beautiful...Let us all unite!

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

from the movie: The great dictator (1940)

written, produced, directed, starring: Charlie Chaplin

An Inspirational story - The fisherman



An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The fisherman replied: only a little while.

The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The fisherman said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The American then asked: but what do you do with the rest of your time?

The fisherman said: I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my friends. I have a full and busy life.

The American said: I have an MBA from Harvard  and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the revenue, buy a bigger boat.  With the revenue from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Los Angeles and even New York City where you will run your expanding enterprise.

The fisherman asked: But, how long will this all take?

The American replied: twenty to twenty five years.

But what then?"

The American laughed and said that's the best part. When the time is right you would start selling stocks and make millions.

Millions.. Then what?"

The American said: Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your friends.

Words of Inspiration : Steve Jobs

“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”

“I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.”

“I read a quote that went something like:"If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”


Thank you Steve Jobs. You were and will be an Inspiration.
Rest in Peace.