Hello dears!

This weekend was such a wonderful weekend for me in the part of the planet we now call Spain :)

Me and Miki were invited to talk about our experience in India and with Generosity experiments in the context of a Degrowth gathering in Madrid. Degrowth is an economic paradigm and social movement which proposes us to reduce our consumption and increase the quality of our relationships through a process of slowing down and creating more collective and horizontal spaces of participation and decision.

Just one day before traveling to Madrid from Burgos for the sharing, I got to know that our dear friend Satish Kumar was coming to Madrid to offer a talk :). Not only that, but he offered a walk in one of the greatest parks in Madrid, El Retiro (The Retreat ;) Saturday morning around 40 of us gathered in the park to follow the steps of our dear elder in silence :). We walked for about half an hour, and for a little while we even removed our shoes to feel the touch of the grass and the earth. It was beautiful. It felt really special to walk behind this man that has shared time and space with saints like Vinoba Bhave and has walked more than 8000 miles for World Peace during the cold war. It truly felt like a gift, and as he said, the “real talk” that he came to give :). The true talk was the walk :)



Then we listened to him and made questions in a beautiful circle space. He shared stories of his peace walk, Schumacher College and most of all, he shared his wisdom around the two pillars that for him, sustain a happy and fulfilled life: service to the planet and the people and meditation. I was surprised on how the Q&A session became purely spiritual almost at the second question. Happily surprised. Being back in this land from India and encountering this kind of conversation is a noble pleasure :).

For the evening Satish's talk, Miki, I and another friend were not sure if we were going to be able to make it. The free tickets were already reserved, FREED OUT :). But Miki and I always joke around with the idea that “Allah is Great when you have Faith” :). We arrived at the gates and pronounced those words again: “Allah is Great when you have Faith”. Amazingly, Miki started to talk about our need for 3 tickets and the fist people he met offered him 3 spare tickets they were not going to use. We had to go in! :)

Satishji gave his “secondary speech” to a packed hall of around 1000 people. It was electrifying as Nipunji would say :). I haven't listened to many talks like this in Spain :). I think we all came out of the room with an intention of serving more or maybe going deeper into our own transformation to be better tools for the Common Good.

To start with he guided a collective meditation (!) and then started sharing a lot of jewels. He had just visited the Guernica painting, by Pablo Picasso in Madrid, and he was really moved by it and the love and consciousness that he felt was behind the painting, made during the Spanish civil war. He went on saying: “Many of us relate to each other with some labels in front of us: race, job, social status, gender... But behind all that there is a true artist, our truer self, which is nothing but an unique and wonderful artist. All of you are artists, amazing artists.” Chills for all :)

He also talked a lot about the need to balance our job as activists with a profound spirituality. Certainly his approach to spirituality looks very close to the middle way. He talked a lot about celebration, the need to celebrate life and small achievements and wonders. He talked with such a sense of wonder and reverence for life. “Celebrate, celebrate!”. I could see how he has celebrated life in the smallest details. While walking in the morning it was incredible to see the way he pulled his jeans up... Being 80, he bent down as the most energized child. Always wearing a smile, a deep and awaken look, gratitude in the heart and kindness in every little movement.

He also talked about the need to balance the Head, Heart and Hands, specially in our education systems. Kids need to engage in educational spaces which involve the Heart and the Hands too, he said. And it's so beautiful to listen to this in Spain since we are one of the countries where education is more intellectual and less practical and experiential. “We learn by emotion” When emotion and body are there then we can let the wisdom arise from within.

He also said few disruptive sentences like: “We are all so attached to our monthly salaries”. And he went on: “At Schumacher College, I always tell my students, don't look for a job, create your own, create your own opportunities, your own spaces, your own systems”. :)



At the end of the speech I asked him about Vinoba Bhave since in Spain people don't know that much about this amazing man. “What does Vinoba mean to you?” He shared about the Bhoodan Movement were they walked together and about how it all started. I knew Vinoba went to south India because there was a lot of struggle between landlords and landless labors. But I din't know some of the details that Satishji shared. He shared how Vinoba came to one village with the intention of bringing some peace and understanding between both “worlds”. He gathered the whole village in a public space and he gave a speech that went into everyone's hearts. He told people: “You usually have 5 brothers and sisters; consider me the 6th. I am here for the people that don't have land and are starving. Would you leave your brother or sister without land, or the capacity to work or food? I ask you for part of the land you are not using so I can share it with your landless brothers and sisters”. After a long speech, there was a 20 minute silence breakthrough. None said a word. But then one person came out, one landlord, and he offered more than double of what Vinoba asked for. Everyone started clapping. After him, many people offered their land too. Satishji shared how Vinoba couldn't sleep that night. He felt something special had just happened. After this unplanned event, deep inside he felt the urge to start a journey which would take him to walk thousands of kilometers during more than 12 years and getting 1 million acres (4,000 km²) of land donated.

The amazing force Vinoba carried inside I felt this weekend when walking and talking with Satishji.  We were lucky enough to share dinner table with him and our dear friends of the Asociación Despierta, who are organizing wonderful events to help inspirational and spiritual capital to flow to Madrid.

Next day, our speech came and we couldn't have better context and background to offer the gift of our presence, experience and stories.

We shared stories of the Gandhi Ashram, Jayeshbhai, ServiceSpace, Manav Sadhna, Seva Café, Nimo, Raghubhai, Udaybhai and so many other dear noble friends. Then we brought that “field of possibility” to Spain and offered stories of Karma Kitchen Burgos, Awakin, small acts, smile cards or the yoga lessons Miki is offering as a gift.

Humbly speaking, electricity was also there :)



And more beautifully, partially because of Miki and I, partially because of the stories, but mostly due to the wonderful attention and heart nature of all the Artists that were there in the room. Miki and I offered our stories but then created a circle on the Gandhi 3.0 mode, which brought together all the voices and all the listening. There was so much gratitude for what was shared and the space in between. An amazing Gift to witness. It felt like a leap of Love happened :)

I have no idea of what will emerge after that, but many of us felt our true artist coming out in such space.

Link with Photos & Spanish Version: â€‹https://joserrag.com/2016/05/10/infinitas-posibilidades/