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The Happiness Project (Original)

By on March 29, 2011 in Creative Alchemy, Self-Realization, Videos

Nearly all humankind is more or less unhappy, because nearly all do not know the true Self. Real happiness abides in Self-knowledge alone. All else is fleeting. To know one’s Self is to be blissful always.
~ Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, the sage of Arunachala

arunachala
APPROACHING ARUNACHALA – TIRUVANNAMALAI, SOUTH INDIA

I originally started the Happiness Project as a quest for true happiness and the holy grail of eternal bliss in 2003 in New York (way before the happiness craze and any New York Times bestsellers on the Subject). I ended up in India a year later with nothing but my video camera and a few personal possessions, as I adventured in search of the illustrious goal until spring 2005.

Here’s a fun clip from the video in India:

I think you can get a sense of the energy there…

Upon my return from India the world fell apart beneath my feet, compounded by the loss of my sister, Ananda Colombo, in a car accident in 2006. I spent a couple years scrambling to keep it all together, and eventually realized that it was far better to actually be in a state of grace than try to explain what a state of grace looked and felt like.

That’s when it all started to finally come together, leading to where you are now.

More of the incredible footage and interviews I captured from those earlier days of my journey will all eventually be revealed — much of it here — in due time. The original website (www.thehappinessproject.com) has been redirected to this site here at Fierce Wisdom.

From the Archives: I published this piece in October 2008, on my second trip to India. I think it captures the essence of the whole issue, and is surprisingly relevant to what I’m investigating now —

What does it mean to truly be a master of yourself?

That’s the question I’ve asked myself over and over since I met the tantric yogi master, Swami Amrit, who asked me the same question four years ago on my last visit to India. I think this last week I may have come up with the answer…

himalayas

Crouching at the Edge - Himalayas, North India

I’m writing from an internet shop in Pondicherry, India, drenched in cold sweat. The heat is syrupy and thick in the air, stifling any progress with the energetic pull of quicksand. The power is out again, it drops out intermittently day and night and everyone waits…we’re running on backup power now – any minute without warning the battery charge is finished and all systems are down. This is the tenuous nature of life here – the relentlessly stifling flow of time that forces me to reconsider the worthiness of just about every dream and goal I’ve ever considered undertaking.

I’ve been in India for a month and a half now – it’s taken me this long to just get to the point where I can begin to process this whole experience in a way that can reasonably be put into words. Here I begin to make an attempt at the endeavor: Continue Reading →

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The Power and Practice of Mindfulness : Jack Kornfield + Jon Kabat-Zinn – Wisdom 2.0 Conference

By on February 26, 2011 in Fierce Wisdom, Human Evolution, Videos

Friday, Feb. 25th 2011 – Wisdom 2.0 Conference Evening talk:

Jon Kabat-Zinn and Jack Kornfield discuss the accelerating expansion of human consciousness and the implications of living mindfully, from a perspective spanning 40 years at the leading edge of this work.

A level of discussion which would only have been found in very exclusive circles just a few years back. Impressive and a joy to witness. Full talk.

The Power and Practice of Mindfulness
With Jon Kabat-Zinn and Jack Kornfield

Interviewed by Soren Gordhamer.

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How one small idea can and does change the world: The Girl Effect

By on November 18, 2010 in Human Evolution, Soul Family, Videos

A short intro:

Tara Sophia tweets about her project to get 100 bloggers involved in writing about The Girl Effect — a new initiative to help fund education and entrepreneurial efforts by girls in developing countries. If you watch this video, you’ll get it. A brilliant idea, and a growing movement:

The premise is simple and brilliant. The movement is powerful. The problem is epic, as Sunitha Krishnan explains in this engaging and important video on child sex slavery:

What I love about this, is it just demonstrates the power of a single idea, coupled with the initiative to take action around it. (A lot like what Tammy Strobel talks about in our interview for the Freedom Business Summit Small Steps to Making a Big Impact and Changing the World.)

I re-tweeted Tara’s post, and then she took the step to say — “hey, we’re waiting for your post too” — so I did. That was the little extra step it took for me to jump in, and Tara was willing to take the initiative to make that. There can not be enough support given to the children in developing countries, who die at the rate of 30,000 a day, mostly from starvation-related disease. Especially the girls, who suffer the most.

When you get to that point where you’re really at the brink, don’t back down – that’s the tipping point. If you really want to make a difference it takes extraordinary persistence, and the willingness to push past the final inertia to make it happen. That’s the hardest bit.

Are you willing to take that one extra ounce of effort when you’ve gone past your limits, and you don’t think you can handle any more? Make sure what your spending the majority of your time and effort on is really worth fighting for. Then you can’t fail. No matter what.


Click here to get involved. Add your own contribution to Tara’s girl effect blogging campaign here.

Love,
Satya

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