Salvation Within Paradox

Sara Zaltash reviews FutureNOW – the pioneering Spiritual Ecology conference with Tim Freke, Chloe Goodchild, Joe Hoare, Peter Owen Jones and Satish Kumar.
We met there on a grey Saturday drenched with autumn rains, perhaps 120 of the West Country’s bright-eyed devout; activists and herbalists, healers and meditators, growers and thinkers, each seeking the sound and vision offered by the pioneering pilgrims on the panel. As I looked around and locked eyes with a neighbour over here or smiled at a stranger over there, I knew that I had personally been called by the promise of a community coalescing around a certain truth: “that unless you have some roots in a spiritual practice that holds life sacred and encourages joyful communion with all your fellow beings, facing the enormous challenges ahead becomes nearly impossible.”

Ecology. Economy. Humanity. Spirit. Challenges indeed for a consciousness that is making leaps toward to collective realisation everyday. The Internet, of course, has gifted me the above quotation from Joanna Macy’s contribution to the community-defining collection of essays Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth, edited by contemporary Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. At futureNOW I asked myself the same question as in present times: if all beings were truly to be given equal internet access, then why would some choose to become more enlightened than others? Perhaps because enlightenment is shrouded in mysticism, in mandala graphics and incense smoke, and social conditioning against such motifs is so strong that even a geezer like Russell Brand has to mind his patchoulis and quantum realities if he’s to get his meaning made. I confess that I am from another community too: I am an artist, an e’er-do-well and erstwhile academic. But that’s alright. Queuing up for morning tea I asked Will from Wiltshire, a university lecturer in environmental literature, whether he knew anyone else at this rock star convention of spiritual ecology leaders. “Not a soul,” he said, “But that’s alright. It’s important to be brave sometimes.”

Brave words indeed flowed from the radical Church of England priest and BBC TV presenter Rev. Peter Owen Jones, from stand-up philosopher and acclaimed author Tim Freke, and from the ultimate guru of this movement, the environmental activist, magazine editor and spiritual guide, Satish Kumar. These men spoke in turn about the need for humanity to relinquish its delusion of dominion over the planet and about accepting the ultimate mystery of existence. Kumar spoke about the loving sacredness of the soil, of society, of sacrifice – the necessary sacrifices of the mother, of the planet and of ourselves. Inspirational speakers, Rev. Jones and Kumar both upheld the twin peaks of land and spirit in their humbly ad libbed sermons, calling for the acknowledgement of the essential present-ness of our future responsibility to “eco”, our home. Bursting with insight, Freke offered paradoxological thinking as a salvation from the impotence that may come from abiding the mystery of all-being.  A proponent of love as a political act, Freke claimed “You Are The One” in a perfect paradox of consciousness consciously recognising itself, of humanity living its own dream.

As an artist-thinker, I enjoy a bit of practical guidance to usher in my cerebral shift. Noting that only in Western cultures does laughter need to be externally provoked, Bristol’s own laughing yogi, Joe Hoare, led us in several easy standing laughter practices. Stellar spiritual vocalist and teacher Chloe Goodchild was full of her own bright chuckles as she gathered us under the wings of her naked voice practice. Leading singing meditations throughout the day, Goodchild opened and closed the proceedings with her adaptation of Rumi’s well-loved verse: ‘Beyond ideas of right and wrong doing there is a field, I’ll meet you there.” Goodchild’s field is a singing field; in that field we met and she shared the seeds of various Eastern spiritual practices that combined with the voice carry our hidden gift for future generations.

Resounding from that day like the oft-rung meditation bell are some provocative unanswered questions from the closing Q&A session: when does mysticism first appear in children? How can we revere the earth? Are species other than humans involved in the evolution of consciousness? Perhaps the answer, as Hoare offered, is that ‘when you know how to listen, everything is your guru’. Rev. Jones spoke about the need to keep talking, to create space for conversations and community to bring about the changes we wish to be. For a novice pilgrim like me, practical guidance to walk in nature, to wash in the dew and to learn to bake my own bread were as comforting as the evolution of consciousness that is enacted by these actions towards personal, spiritual and environmental empowerment. The challenge of living a peaceful, respectful and unified future now is as real as our fields of land, of work and of energy. Let’s meet in that field, in the future, now.

FutureNOW was presented by Conscious Frontiers and took place on Saturday 8th November 2014 at Trinity Centre, Bristol. For more information visit FutureNow

Sara Zaltash is a British-Iranian live artist and performer. www.sarazaltash.com

Time to Get Serious About Laughter?

“Laughing Yogi” Joe Hoare explains the remedial benefits of laughter yoga.

‘It’s time to take laughter seriously’, says Dr Madan Kataria, founder of laughter yoga. Laughter has benefits on every level, including mindfulness and presence. These benefits are activated by the act of laughing itself and not by humour, and this is the basis for laughter practices world-wide.

Laughter yoga practices have a long pedigree. In Awakening the Laughing Buddha within my co-author Stephen Russell, the Barefoot Doctor, writes that the state of laughter readiness is a core Taoist principle, one with great antiquity. The Taoist insight is that sometimes laughing at the madness of life is the only sane response. As my valued co-author, his Taoist perspective on modern laughter practices adds depth to contemporary techniques.

The heart of laughter practices, whether in laughter yoga, laughter therapy or my own nls: natural laughter skills is the practice of laughter for its own sake. The benefits come from the act of laughing itself, not from waiting to find things funny. The curious and rather lovely spin-off is the more you laugh, the more you find to laugh about. This is where the mindful, empowering and healing dimensions take effect.

Laughter practices make you present. Whether you use them as a meditative practice or as a distraction, they pull attention into the present moment. When we have our attention in the present moment, we are not fretting about the past nor worrying about the future. This is the state of mindfulness. Associated with this state is a sense of peacefulness and happiness because except in exceptional circumstances, when you bring your attention into the ‘Now’ you experience joy. The progression, therefore, is that via mindfulness and empowerment, laughter practices help you access your own innate sense of joy. After all, as Deepak Chopra says: “True spirituality means not taking ourselves too seriously.”

As we outline in Awakening the Laughing Buddha within, laughter practices are easily initiated by smiling exercises, the experiential approach to Louise Hay-style affirmations.

They are surprisingly effective: ‘Vedant has really taken what you said on board and now everyone at our hospice is doing their 15 second smiles morning and evening. The patients respond really well to such a simple device - it is lovely to see the effect it has.’ (Christine West, Chair, National Association of Complementary Therapists in Hospice and Palliative Care)

Smiling exercises are exactly what they say – exercises in putting a genuine smile on your face and holding it there for at least 10-15 seconds. To keep it genuine requires an effort of will, also known as willingness. This willingness changes your mindset by inducing a sense of positivity in the same manner as a classical Louise Hay affirmation.

Smiling exercises are an easy starting point into the 5-stage model of walk the walk, feel the feelings, speak the words, think the thoughts, and live the life. Using this model, your whole being becomes engaged with the process. The cumulative effect transforms people’s lives, as a student of Joe’s laughter therapy testified:

‘I am writing to tell you what a positive and lasting effect the Laughter workshop has had on me. The workshop itself was fun, but also deeply serious in intent. Since then my husband’s deteriorating condition has put an almost unbearable strain on me. I have been practising the techniques I learned that day and sometimes they transform the situation and lift my spirits. I can’t begin to tell you what a difference that makes.’ (Carer delegate, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust).

With evidence like this, isn’t it time for us all to add this approach to our spiritual tool-kit?

Joe Hoare is one of the UK’s leading Laughter Yoga therapists. He has dedicated himself to encouraging people to connect with their benign, creative individuality and to perform at their best. A charismatic facilitator of courses, workshops, retreats and one-to-one sessions, he is author of new book Awakening the Laughing Buddha Within, co-authored with Barefoot Doctor.

Joe is facilitating his next LFS: Laughter Facilitation Skills course on Friday 25th & Saturday 26th April at the Unitarian Chapel in Bristol. This course includes his nls: natural laughter skills. He is also hosting a laughter yoga seminar with the legendary “Grandfather of Laughter Yoga”, Dr Madan Kataria of India, founder of laughter clubs international, on Monday 9th June in Bristol.
For further details visit Joe Hoare’s website: www.joehoare.co.uk