Wisdom 2.0 comes to Europe

Ireland is known to have a number of “thin places”. 

In these places the veil between this world and what is referred to as the eternal world, is very thin. Such places are thought by many to have a special energy which can be sensed by those drawn to such sites, and which is said to often transform the one visiting. They are said to be stopping places where one can pause and ponder and catch a glimpse of something that lies beyond every-day living, and which is much greater than ourselves.

They are sacred, mystical places of listening, connection and creativity. 

The travel writer, Eric Weiner, writing on thin places in a wonderful piece in The New York Times, quotes Mircea Eliade who observed that “some parts of space are qualitatively different from others”, and an Apache proverb that takes the idea a step further: “Wisdom sits in places.”

I had researched the whole idea of “thin places” before I visited Ireland for the first time in 2013, and had visited some such sites.

I had not, however, expected to encounter another when I signed up for the Wisdom 2.0 Europe conference in Dublin!

Wisdom 2.0 conferences and events address the great challenge of our age: to not only live connected to one another through technology, but to do so in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work and useful to the world.

Wisdom 2.0 is a global community of people dedicated to living with deeper wisdom, compassion and awareness in the digital age, and I have been following the conferences via the internet and social media since the first one, started by Soren Gordhamer, @SorenG, was held outside of San Francisco in 2009.

Many of the themes of my website here2here - connectivity, cyberspace, interconnectedness, compassion and mindfulness would be looked at closely at Wisdom 2.0 Europe. 

That the conference was to be held in Europe was my opportunity to attend and so I set off from AbuDhabi2Dublin!

AbuDhabi2Dublin - an edit I came up with on the way over 

The conference far surpassed my expectations. 

Excellent presentations and workshops looking at Mindful Living and Mindful Business filled the three days.

Highlights for me were:

Otto Scharmer, @ottoscharmer1, explaining holding the space which allows creativity to come forth.

Tania Singer, social neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, presenting “Training your Mind and Heart towards a Caring Society: A Social Neuroscience Perspective”.

Gelong Thubten, Buddhist monk of the Kagyu Tibeten tradition, speaking on “The Power of Forgiveness”.

Tsewang Namgyal, Vice President of the Bank of Tokyo, sharing his personal story aided by images and leading us on Day 3 in a compassion exercise.

Rohan Gunatillake, @rohan_21awake, named in 2012 by Wired magazine in their Smart List of 50 people who are about to change the word, presenting “Redesigning not Retreating: the Future of Mindfulness and Technology” 

Conference participants have shared experiences, photos and even notes online (check the hashtags #wisdom2europe #wisdom2conf)

Between talks, over tea and meals, new and special connections were established.

There was an almost palpable energy that filled the air.  I have thought about it and can only describe it as a great sense of Presence. 

The event was held at Googles Offices in Dublin. (More photos can be seen in this gallery).

Who would have thought that this space in the midst of Dublin’s docklands district would be so thin!

During the closing ceremony one of the participants spoke as the voice of Ireland and encouraged us to find some place after the conference to connect with the earth and listen to what it had to say.  

Walking home I entered the grounds of  Trinity College and sat down to be still on a park bench.  Near me there was a tree.  As I became mindful of the sounds around me, birdsong from the tree filled the air.  I had never heard such a bird before and was struck by the beauty of its sounds.

When I shared this story with a friend back in Abu Dhabi, she picked up a poetry book and read me a poem by Rumi which contained the following words: 

“The bird of my heart has again begun to flutter.....

The water is flowing again in this river; by the riverbank the grass has begun to shoot. 

The dawn breeze is blowing again in the garden, it has begun to blow over rose and rosebed. 

Love sold me for a single fault; Love’s heart burned, and has begun to buy back.

He drove me away; compassion came to him and called; Love has begun to look kindly upon me....” 

Was this the voice of Ireland? Was this the voice of my heart? Was this the song needing to be heard in the digital age? Perhaps all of these and much more.  

She’s here! A new piece for LindArt inspired by Wisdom 2.0 Europe. 

I recalled what had been said at the start of the conference:

There is a need to connect with self before connecting with others via technology.

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Social Media - Bridging Cyberspace

Mobile Technology and The White Rabbit

Linda in Wonderland

Cybeflanerie: Deep Listening in Cyberspace

Mindfulness and The Flaneur

Whirling Dervishes - lessons for cyberspace

A short while after leaving the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul last week, I looked up and saw a billboard advertising a Whirling Dervishes Sema Ceremony and Sufi Music Concert.  It was to take place that evening and as it turned out was not very far from where I was staying. I decided on the spot that I would attend and arrived there early that evening to take my place.

After a short film explaining the history and traditions of the whirling dervishes the ceremony began. 

It is difficult to put into words what I experienced and I am not sure whether I have as yet totally processed the whole experience.  I find myself returning to the images of what I saw and watching them again in my mind’s eye.

This whirling originated with Rumi, who is said to have dictated his poems while whirling. 

In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art. Rumi

As the dervishes began to whirl, at first slowly and then picking up speed as the ceremony progressed, one young dervish in particular captured my attention. His arms unfolded with grace as he began to whirl and I had the feeling that I was watching a flower of rare beauty unfurl before me. 

Whirling Dervish of Light 

(You can see further images in the gallery: Whirling Dervishes of Light)

Whirling dervishes, I believe, have much to teach us about making our way in cyberspace. 

Their whirling is not haphazard but takes place with intention. Aware that everything in the universe, from the smallest cells to the largest planets, is constantly revolving, the whirling dervishes whirl anti-clockwise, imitating the flow of blood from right to left in the heart, and the rotations of almost all planets. 

Modern technology allows us to access a wealth of information and provides us with wonderful tools of communication, but without intention one can easily get distracted. 

Distraction online is so easy, with tempting links opening onto inviting corridors of cyberspace. It is not uncommon for users to get  totally lost in this space and whirl about aimlessly, often forgetting the reason why they had gone online in the first place. 

As they dance, the right palms of the whirling dervishes are turned up towards the sky and the light, and the left palms are pointed to the earth.  They open themselves to blessings but then transmit these in service to others. They are a reminder to use the possibilities offered by modern technology for good. 

The whirling dervish always has to be aware of where he is, be aware of the space he is moving in, be aware of the music, be aware of how fast he is turning and be aware of the other dancers.

We have to learn to listen carefully in cyberspace, take note of the sites we visit, and remember to treat other online users with courtesy and respect.

Abstract: Online Whirling Dervish

An ambient awareness of other digital users can develop with time. We begin to pick up on moods through data shared and so begin to share in each other’s lives without being physically present. Used responsibly, this awareness can be a source of encouragement and support.   

As the whirling dervish begins to spin, one foot is grounded on the earth and the other gives momentum.  Groundedness is so vital to maintaining balance.

We can no longer talk about the “real” world and the world online, as if the world online is not real.  Both the physical world and cyberspace are very real and form an integral part of most people’s daily lives. With the current rapid rate of development in technology, however, the danger these days is to forget that the physical world is still very much there and that we need to be grounded.  

Electrical circuits are grounded to prevent users coming into contact with dangerous voltages should insulation fail. We need the grounding power of the earth and an awareness of the body as we decode and process all the incoming information from the web so that we do not become overstimulated. 

We instinctively know that grounding is essential.  There are numerous technologies that help us to find our location.  We often tweet or message about where we are. We share what we are doing or where we are going. 

When we log into computers to complete electronic business transactions we have to be very aware of our geographic location and the locations of the systems we are  using. In public places and using public systems one can be at risk.

There are times, however, when the importance of grounding is forgotten.  Recent studies have shown that some people hold their breath when they email or text. When I tweet a reminder to encourage people to stop for a moment and just breathe in and out, I always get a thankful response.

The web has its own monkey mind of constant chatter, and regular pauses to simply breathe encourage a gentle stream instead of a rapid! There are even apps providing such breathing reminders.

The whirling of the dervishes is a strong reminder that everything is in a constant state of motion.  Nothing is permanent.  Anthony Lawlor has recently written an excellent blog on this topic, entitled, “Each Place is a Bardo, A Fluid In-Between Space” 

In their training, the dervishes are guided to find a still point within themselves, revolve around that still point and dance around that still point. 

Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance.  T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets. 

Those watching, although they are watching motion, have an experience of the calm from which the movement arises. 

Seated at our laptops, holding tablets or other mobile devices, we operate in outward stillness. Have we found the inward still point? Do others experience calm from the movement we are making in cyberspace? 

Grounding ourselves..., we repeatedly reestablish the still point, the clean slate from which we can encounter ourselves and the world afresh. John Daido Loori, Riding the Ox Home. 

In 2010 I attempted to capture some of these thoughts in a poem entitled “Awakening” which you can read in my post “Awakening to Light”.

Before they begin to dance, the dervishes stand with their arms folded together across their chests. 

 

Each dervish appears to represent the number “one” and this is a symbol for unity.  

It is my opinion that as we meet others of different nationalities, cultures and upbringing in cyberspace, we are beginning to recognize that our similarities are much greater than our differences. We are finding unity within diversity.

As the whirling came to an end, those of us present were strangely silent. There was a distinct pause before some applauded. 

What we had witnessed was both otherworldly and at the same time, very much in the present moment. 

Notes on the Skyline

For a while now words have been hiding from me. Or perhaps they are always there and it is I who have failed to find them. This evening they flow from my fingers as if asking me to let them loose to speak of the spoken and attempt to point to that which is beyond mere letters.  

While attending a poetry recital this afternoon by Bahareh Amidi, I was aware that  words filled the room but that so much more that was unspoken permeated the air. 

The lady who hugged the poetess afterwards, clearly deeply touched; the college professor standing, clapping and calling for more; a chat with a young man, Abhinav Chauhan, whose desire in life is to get rid of the word hunger from the dictionary; the two calligraphers I met afterwards whose work spoke of an inexplicable beauty; all these little happenings and others were filled with an energy which words could not express.

The poet Rumi wrote,

“Explanation by words makes many things clear,

but love unexplained is clearer.”

And so I write - if only to allude to the unexplained love which is everpresent.

As I drove home from the Emirates Literature Festival, the skyline at sunset was breathtaking.  I attempted to capture it and have called this piece, “Notes on the Skyline”.  Each building seemed to be singing its own note to make up a beauty which far surpassed the sum of the parts.

The architectural beauty of Dubai has been part of my life these last few weeks where the weather has allowed the flaneur in me to stroll Dubai’s streets.  I have attempted to capture the beauty of Dubai in my instagram pics and to allow these photos to speak for me. 

It might sound like a cliche but we are all notes on the skyline of life. Each note is vital for the symphony of life to be heard. 

Each one of us is also a stroke in the calligraphy of life. The flow and patterns of our beings interweave and become an expression of beauty and significance. Those with ears to hear, will hear this beauty.  

The words of one of Bahareh’s poems still ring in my ears:

“Life is knowing that we are all here and we are all connected”.  

This evening I celebrate life.