MBL Call Updates, July 30th

This month's MBL call started with a J Krishnamurti reading on Simplicity of the Heart. Deven opened the share with a story of 2 monks and a woman. He reflected on the importance of the inner bhaav. The compassion of the elder monk to put the needs of the woman before his own vows, and his inner ability to then let go of the fact that he had strayed from his vow, without being attached to any guilt or disappointment, is a great lesson. He opened the mic to everyone and asked us all to share on "learnings of aha moments from being inwardly simple".

Neeti read the passage and then shared about a personal story of her struggle around the journey of simplicity. She shared about her silent competition with her sister-in-law and how she was constantly comparing herself to everything that she did or wore or behaved, resulting in a lot of inner stiffness. One day she chose to reverse this feeling by taking up a challenge to not purchase any new clothes for a whole year. And asked her sister-in-law to share the used clothes if it were ok. This surprised both of them and in the process found herself transformed. Not only that, this little act of sharing built a bridge between the two and a new relationship based on deep understanding friendship culminated over the years. Which is equally strong even today. Her reflection on this entire journey was that "being simple is not simple."

S2 (Sheetal Vaidya) shared about her experiences of a retreat in Kutch which Jayesh Bhai had taken them to. At first the day started by living amongst the local families in their little mud houses and sleeping outside in the open, under the stars. The next day, they found themselves resting in a 5 star hotel. Not dressed appropriately and having such an unexpected turn into the trip, Sheetal reflected with Jayesh Bhai about her inner discomforts. To which Jayesh Bhai replied, "sometimes it's road-star, sometimes it's five-star. Clothes or spaces don't determine anything. You just be who you are, wherever you are." She reflected on how everything was an attachment. We keep looking for outside gratification, which is a bigger trap. She reflected more on simple people like Dada Vaswani, Dalai Lama and other such noble souls who she had an opportunity to interact with. And wondered how they were all so child like, who laughed at most stupid joked, carried no baggage, no judgments and met everyone wherever they were. To her that was more inner simplicity.

S1 (Sheetal Sanghvi) shared that the complexities lie in the mind, while we need to cultivate more of simplicity of the heart. He shared of how it's a field that you have to constantly keep working on. Noticing the weeds along with planting seeds. He quoted Eckhart Tolle at the end that summed up everything he felt about being simple inside and outside, "Look at the lilies, of how they grow; they neither toil or spin" and questioned, "what would it take to be like a little flower?"

Sachi shared about an incident at the children's home which clearly expressed simplicity in the now for her. One of the volunteers was holding a circle with the juveniles at the home. This time the circle focused on gratitude and grateful moments that the children had that week. These kids are between the ages 12 - 18. One of the 12 year old boy, shared about how he was grateful for a glass of Bournvita (chocolate milk) that morning. While most other kids were sharing about materialistic things like a mobile or their house, or the valley in their villages - all which were not 'here' but outside; this boy was able to be in the now and see what was his reality and reflect on that. Which was a grace for him that day. She also shared about her experience at Manav Sadhna once, where she had lost her only pen. She had vowed to not buy a new pen for some time since she always kept losing them. But she lost this one too. Right then Jagat Bhai, one of the mentors in that organization pointed out to her that it was ok that she lost one pen, now she had an opportunity to buy another pen, and help someone else with their livelihood. When asked "what is the purpose of life", another of her mentors responded, "the only purpose of life is to live it."

Pratyush responded that this was a trick title and questioned, what else is the heart if not simple? He happened to speak with one of his inspirations about "What is the heart really?" This person has spent most of his time in silence and responded by saying that "heart is silence". He remarked, can anything be any simpler than that? He also shared about his recent change in trajectory. He connected to the idea of when a sapling is planted, there is a wired fence that's built around it for support. Once a plant is able enough to stand tall, that support is removed. He's now more into the external world and noted that sometimes external simplicity might support the inner work. Once that's cultivated deep enough to then it can be dropped.

Neerad questioned whether can one really 'cultivate' simplicity of the heart. It is a virtue, like humility. Perhaps you cannot attain it through effort, it has to come effortlessly. He also shared if you see a dog crossing the road with multiple vehicles speeding through, how you would react to that situation will explain a lot to you about yourself.

Meet shared about a shift in his life that has happened over the last six months and questioned how can he keep things simple. Knowing himself and people around him, how could he be more simple was something he wishes to strengthen. He feels that accepting himself for what he is and behaving accordingly is simplicity for him.

Smita Ben shared whenever she is 100% in the present, which is rare, but that's when she thinks there is simplicity. When there is congruence in what her heart, body and eyes speak then it is simplicity.
 And like S2 shared, children are the best examples of simplicity to her. When ego and other things are shed what is left is simplicity.

Khush echoed Neerad that Humility and Simplicity are interconnected. She shared about Jadi Baa and Sajan Baa from ESI, that every time she'd meet them, they would be giggling like little kids and always ended up giving her the warmest hugs. She shared about an experience of a recent retreat participant Turya. She is a doctor who once shared with her colleagues that instead of doing regular rounds, could they do love rounds, where they could sit with each patient and talk to them about their lives instead of just checking in medicines and pulses. During one of those love rounds, she came across a patient who just went through a chemo and that he was really sad that day. When asked what had happened, he shared that it was his daughter's graduation day and that he was unable to attend one of the very important days of her lives. When Turya asked what she could do to make him smile, at first he couldn't think of anything and then he responded after a few moments that he'd like some ice cream. This patient was diabetic and it was definitely a challenge to go out of her rules and authorities to get him an ice cream. When she shared this with her colleague, he shared that service is not about being perfect, but about being loving. This became her motivation and decided to sneak out of the hospital and get her patient an ice cream. An experience that was thoroughly satisfying to her in that moment of being simple.

Darpan shared of how it had been 3.5 years since he was involved with the MBL community and found that something is constantly shifting for him. There have been many times when he has questioned why he's been doing this. Earlier all he dreamt about was being a business man. Now, it's still about the same thing but with redefined values. At first he never did anything nice for anyone other than family. He still does everything for the family, but has noticed that his family is getting bigger. He remarked that "simple is being me, not materialistic, but by nature, with what I am in this moment."

Drishti shared very innocently about how she did not know so much about herself. This journey was helping her really question about her opinions and what does she want in the moment. The kind of questions that she had never asked her self.

Bhumika shared about feeling really light after listening to everyone. She also shared about yet another participant at the recent retreat. A young boy Bhargav, who spoke only Gujarati and was very shy and quiet, surprised everyone by walking into the room where a few of volunteers were having some masti post retreat. He sat down amongst them and shared that he had never cried like this as it was not acceptable in his family for men to cry. He broke down and said that he had never felt so good in his life before and shared deeply about himself for almost 15 mins. She along with all volunteers were amazed by his bhaav and courage to do so. She reflected on how that simple gesture of opening up made her feel grounded and humble.

Shaalini remembered her mother when thought about simplicity. She reflected on how her mother would call her every other day only to ask her how she was doing and what she had eaten. She reflected if she could ever recreate that simple relationship with her daughter Simran? She notices that in the desire to be something, so many complexities rise up. She shared of an experience of a friend who always traveled sleeper class in trains to avoid carbon footprints. Shaalini would often think of her incapability to do so with a child and felt that she wasn't doing enough. However, in time she realized that someone's effortless truth was more effort for her. Her learning in this was that the inner alignment is to be one with one's own truth. If it's effortless inside, it's effortless outside.

Deven felt the beauty of the deep relationship we share because our friendships blossomed when we came together to serve others with simple acts of kindness. "When I "do nothing" with stillness inside then what follows is the effortless action on the outside." He also reflected that sometimes in the act of coming together for service, we can overlook the thin line that separates amplification of good from exaggeration of good. We have to be mindful that we don't put anyone or anything on a pedestal because everyone is exploring their own truth and it would be a disservice to exaggerate. He feels it's important to be real to our own truth instead of a desire to be something or like someone else.

Ashima who couldn't make it on the call sent her moving story via email. She shared of her experience of not being able to go out alone because the many warnings of favelas and fishermen on the beach. The sight of seeing big policemen with machine guns always scared her. She recently gathered the courage to not let any fear stop her from doing what she loved. In that process landed up connecting with a stranger cleaning the beach and found spaces, depth and effortlessness to connect more with everyone and looking at them with different loving eye. She reflected on the question "what stops us from giving our inherent gifts?" and learned that "a more beautiful world is possible right now if we all just perform little acts of love wherever we are, with whatever we have and to whoever is in front of us."

The call ended with a beautiful song from S1 and we opened our eyes to a beautiful set of smiling faces, including Kavita Aunty. These calls over and over again, remind us of such deep Maitri that we carry with ourselves. It's a blessing to continue these experiences of deep listening and sharing month after month as we all engage in our day to day lessons and moments of cultivation. From sometimes simplicity to sometimes our effortless truth. It's a beautiful journey at the end of it all!