I am, because we are… remembering our connectedness
Mandela’s Ubuntu
Ubuntu: I am, because we are. We are, because I am. The African philosophy that changed my life almost 9 years ago, when Mandela passed. This was the red threat of his life, thus of his funeral. I was on fire, dived in the tv to suck up every word that was being spoken. It resonated so deeply, it was as if I remembered a deep Truth. Imagine we would all remember this original connectedness. On World Peace Day, today. Wouldn’t that be a gift? Like Yoko Ono said, end of the sixties during the Vietnam War: ‘World Peace is one project that we have to do together’.
Learning from Africa
Now I am definitely not the person to lecture you about world peace, nor am I a hippie speaking out of desperate naivety. I am just a human being, caring for Humanity and Earth anno 2022, longing to bring some collective awareness to this topic. My heart jumped, when I woke up this morning and my attention was led to this interview with a few amazing people, that made a documentary ‘Ubuntu’. Learning from all People around Africa: how we are one human family and to behave like that. To collectively protect our human rights. Whether from a scientific, social, economic or nature perspective, from all angles this is being acknowledged at the moment: if we could ‘humanize’ our way of living a bit more, we would solve a lot of today’s problems. Thomas Hübl talks about the three human rights we all have: to be, to become and to belong. I would say it is the rights of all forms of life: to be, to become and to belong.
Connectedness
In our world, where we are 24/7 connected to each other, the news, all around the globe and beyond, there has never been so much disconnection, ironically. Otto Scharmer’s work beautifully explains this as the current divides in our society that are at the root of all our global issues:
The ecological divide: the disconnect between ourselves and nature
The social divide: the disconnect between ourselves and others
The spiritual divide: the disconnect between ourselves and.. our selves.
Actually, the funny thing is, it is impossible to be connected to nature or others, if we are not connected to our selves. Please sit with that for a moment: impossible to connect to nature or others, if we are not connected to our selves. Hence, let’s get over our judgement about hippies, the word spiritual or whatever our excuse to stay disconnected to our selves. Let’s try to remember the ancient wisdom of true connection, connectedness. Let’s not try, let’s remember.
(Un)grounded spirituality
A nice example is Bali, Ubud, where I currently am. My expectation (still haven’t learned how to ditch expectations fully ;-)) was, that I would feel a lot of connectedness here. The combination of the Hindu tradition, the gentle Bali people, the digital nomads gathering from around the world, would be an enormous source of connected inspiration, I imagined. I have felt it with the local people I meet: I meet truly friendly smiles and gentle eyes. I have felt it in the amazing nature here, that is so abundant and welcoming. I have felt it in the sacred places I visited, where so many prayers have been heard over thousands of years. So I was a bit ‘shocked’, when I attended this yoga class with mainly ‘white descended’ brothers and sisters in it…
Now, I am not the ‘perfect body’ type of yogaperson, far from it. And I admire people that are taking such good care of their bodies, that they look like models, I really am. So that was not what the shock was about. The shock was about the incoherency, the non-connectedness of a group of people, not laughing, not saying hi to each other, everybody to themselves, ‘performing’ physically, instead of using yoga as a grounded physical portal to access another level of consciousness. An Indonesian colleague of mine, spoke about ‘ungrounded’ spirituality, that she observed when living here. Her framing it this way, helped me to understand this can only be sensed when a majority is disconnected to themselves, to their selves. A real pity, by the way. Now this is just a ‘one of’, so it is not a judgement about this village, these people or yoga, in any way. It made me realize though, how much I have come to love the grounded spirituality that I experience with most indigenous people. And that that is not a given. Like so many things, I think we, especially in the so-called developed part of the world, sometimes just misunderstand what is at the root of these ancient ways, like yoga or meditation. Or dancing, or any other activities that are so healthy for our body, mind and soul. It is ‘I am, because we are’, togetherness, connectedness that creates joy, love and wellbeing. Ubuntu.
Inner peace
I’d like to close this blog and start this day with an invitation of the Dalai Lama to contemplate.
He says: ‘World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion’. I love the whole quote, but mainly I love the ‘I think’ part, which is such a beautiful reflection of his humility. Isn’t it comforting, that nobody knows, even not the Dalai Lama, and we are just on the journey to explore together? And if we do so in a humble and connected way, that might be the best way to Ubuntu for All. I think, maybe.