Me to We: A Path of Heart
Location: Ahmedabad
Duration: --
In India, when we meet and part, we often say, ‘Namasté’, which means: I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides; I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where, if you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us. – Ram Dass
The world’s longest study on happiness reveals that the quality of our relationships is the most important determinant of our happiness. Quantum science confirms what sages have long maintained: we are fundamentally inter-connected to each other and all life.
However, in a "me"-oriented culture, we are rapidly losing our ability to live in alignment with this truth and build thriving relationships. In 2009, the word “unfriend” entered the dictionary and was declared Oxford’s "word of the year." Last year, a major study revealed that 2 billion people globally are so dissatisfied with their communities that they wouldn’t recommend them to anyone.
Market-driven technologies lure us with cheap solutions like the “metaverse” and “artificial intimacy” to fill this void. But can we collectively forge a deeper pathway to rediscover that “place of love and light in which we are one”? How would our institutions (schools, businesses, NGOs, government, media & technology) look like if more of us cultivated ourselves to lead from that place -- not with short-sighted transactions but long-term emergent relationships?
In this 3-day experiential retreat, we aim to shift from "me" to "we," integrating the two synergistically. Through small acts of kindness, we will explore four key shifts: from transaction to relationship, isolation to community, scarcity to abundance, and consumption to contribution.
Designed with a holistic head-hands-heart approach, we will practice deep listening to each other’s stories, engage in acts of kindness, soak in nature, reflect on practical challenges, and listen to guest speakers. If you’ve been holding similar questions on your journey and feel inspired to be the change and cultivate compassion, we warmly invite you to join this collective experiment.
To learn more about our upcoming retreat, please see the presentation below:
To join the retreat, please click on the 'Apply For Retreat' button below and complete the application below (in English or Hindi) and we'll get back to you.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Today's world is designed around cultivating the intelligence of the head and hands, but we have very limited spaces to understand and grow our hearts. If we can tap into the intersection of hands, head and heart and even go a step beyond to lead with our heart's intelligence, we can ignite the 'law of love' that Gandhi said would work with just as much precision as the laws that govern gravity and electricity. In this retreat, we aim to collectively ignite that intelligence of heart and reflect on its skilful application for personal and collective transformation. (For a bit of a flavor of the emergence, here are some glimpses from a recent gathering.)
Simply put, we are a group of ordinary individuals, who come alive in doing small acts of kindness. Volunteers behind this particular retreat have hosted thousands of circles and hundreds of Moved by Love retreats; moreover, they have supported many ServiceSpace projects from Karuna News to Karma Kitchen.
- Inspiring participants. Lots of great hearts are coming together!
- Uncommon questions. For quick-fix, binary, either-or answers, we already have Google; we aim to hold questions to lean into its nuances first.
- Noble Friendships. Our hope is to nurture a rich matrix of friendships among unlikely friends.
- Gandhi. Being on sacred Gandhian land in Ahmedabad, we hope to tap into vast reservoir of inspiration and practicing Gandhians. (More: Standing Up)
- Volunteer Run. It's run entirely by volunteers, so there's no solicitation, pitches, agendas. Just practice of love.
A beautiful and serene campus on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, the heartland of Gandhian revolution, will be our home for the retreat. Built by legendary social entrepreneur Ishwar Patel, the space is an architectural blend of activism, work for humanity, spirituality and modernism.
All Moved By Love retreats are offered as a no-strings-attached gift, made possible by gratitude offerings from past alumni. At the end of all retreats, everyone has an opportunity to keep the chain alive and pay it forward with money, time or other expressions of wealth -- for future guests.
The retreat formally begins on 9:30AM on Jul 19th (Friday), 2024. We encourage you to plan to arrive by 8:30am, for breakfast and settling down. If needed, outstation guests are welcome to arrive on the previous evening.
Retreat ends at Sunday, Jul 21st @ 3PM. Most participants will leave during the evening, but in case you need to stay back for the night, we will be happy to arrange that.
Please note that is mandatory to be present with us for the entire duration of the retreat. And during the retreat, you won’t have space to take other meetings or step out of the campus.
Through our time together, we will sit in circles to learn from each other’s experiments and challenges; hear and engage with some innovative speakers across sectors; engage in many group practices that nurture our collective inner transformation. Plenty of opportunities to engage the head, hands and of course the heart. Plus a few surprises!
Over last twelve years, thousands have joined from a wide-ranging backgrounds. Perhaps what brought them together was a simple organizing principle: We are not merely what we do, but who we become by what we do. If you resonate with the notion that inner change and outer change are intrixicably intertwined, and if you are moved to cultivate deep connections with kindred spirits, this retreat will likely speak to you! Beyond that, we'd recommend leaning in your heart's intuition -- more often than not, 'heart knows today what the mind will know tomorrow.' :)
To facilitate deeper connections, we limit the group size of our gatherings -- and give priority to project initiators who are anchoring local projects in their contexts.
If you have any questions, please contact us anytime. To co-create our sacred field of emergence, we welcome you join us!
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