Dear Friends,

It's been an incredibly moving couple of months here in London with so many deeply inspiring international guests visiting our living rooms and sharing wisdom from their personal journeys.  We've also been blessed with the coming together of many circles and even a remarkable one-day retreat to cultivate collective wisdom and shared intentions while holding space for the many-to-many connection that Nipun often speaks about.

This Wednesday, all the way from Nepal, we'll learn more about the inner journey of Milan Rai, the young artist behind the White Butterflies art project that's found its way to 40 countries including here at the Southbank Centre in London!

Awakin Circles: Pimlico, Harrow and Mill Hill

Awakin Circles are about sharing. In the spirit of an ashram, we offer the space for everyone to walk their own walk.  No teachers or gurus. No set agendas or proposed beliefs either. Just one strong principle -- when you change within, the world changes.  When we come together, we meditate for the first hour, engage in a circle of reflective sharing reflections in the second hour (inspired by an Awakin reading), and conclude the night by sharing a home-cooked vegetarian meal.   

We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming Awakin Circle this month...
Wednesday, June 28th at 6:30pm (Harrow, Northwest London) - RSVP here -- Special Guest Speaker Awakin Circle with Milan Rai (see below for more info) Wednesday, July 12th at 7pm (Pimlico, Central London) - RSVP here Wednesday, July 19th at 7pm (Mill Hill, North London) - RSVP here

Please note, there are no Harrow Awakin Circles in July and August, they will resume in September.

Guest Speaker Awakin, June 28th - An Artist's Labour of Love Offering (Harrow)

Four years ago, a young man in his late 20's in Nepal planted seeds in the form of art as an outer expression of the inner transformation he was experiencing on his own personal journey -- he made art installations featuring thousands of white butterflies!   From an aha moment that Milan Rai experienced at a young age, his labour of love offering, White Butterflies, was born and has gone on to inspire thousands of people in 40+ countries around the world! 

A few of us from the ServiceSpace community discovered Milan's work at an art installation at the Southbank Centre in mid-May and were blown away by the deep alignment he shared with the values of this community.   RSVP to join on Wednesday, June 28th at 6:30pm in Harrow to hear more about Milan's journey!  *Please note only a few spaces remain for this circle, so RSVP soon if you'd like to attend.

Walking Into Stillness: July 30th (Ruislip Lido)

Every month, Anil and Nisha host mindful nature walks called "Walking Into Stillness", where a depth of stillness unfolds within ourselves and our surroundings as we surrender to the beauty and mystery of nature.  To learn more, you may enjoy reading about the first walk in Epping Forest and May's walk, shared by one of the guests.  The next walk will be on Sunday, July 30th from 10:30am-3:00pm in Ruislip Lido -- for more info and to RSVP, please visit this link. 


Love-Bombed by Inspiration in June :)

   

It's been wonderful to see many of you at the special heart-filling gatherings that have taken place this past month!   We are deeply grateful to all of the visible and invisible hearts and hands that helped to co-create each of these gatherings with so much love.

Shishukunj Talk - June 15th: Nipun's visit to London this month kicked off with a talk on "Cultivating Compassion Quotient", which he shared with parents and mentors who are part of the Shishukunj community (an organisation that is inspired by the values of Gandhi, Maria Montessori, Vivekananda and others).  It was a deeply resonant audience who was really moved to step things up after hearing Nipun share story after story about the inner shifts that take place when we lead with inner transformation and practice generosity in our every day lives.   [View Photos]

Awakin Circle with Masami - June 16th: We were blessed to host Masami Saionji and her eldest daughter Maki at an Awakin Circle in Pimlico, where Nipun engaged in a joyful dialogue with Masami-san about her life's work, praying for peace in the world.  It's so humbling to have a guest like Masami-san join us for Awakin Circles in living rooms, when we know she's also invited to speak at the United Nations every year and is a spiritual leader for thousands of people in Japan :)  What a gift it was to have her and Maki-san join us for the three days of events while Nipun was in town to share their lived wisdom with the community with such a deep sense of humility.     [Read Blog -- View Photos]

Fifth Monk Circle - June 17th: On Saturday an intimate "Fifth Monk Circle" of 25 folks came together in Pimlico for a deeper dive on designing for inner transformation.  Everyone shared reflections on their own labour-of-love projects, how they are experimenting with multiple forms of wealth and some of the questions and edges they are holding on their journeys before enjoying afternoon tea together :)   [View Photos]

One-Day Retreat- June 18th: We concluded this month's series of gatherings with a deeply meaningful One-day Retreat on the theme of "Reconnection" in Mill Hill with 65 people, including many inspiring international guests like Nipun, Maki, Zilong (who is on a bicycling pilgrimage from the US to China) and Joserra (who hitch-hiked from Spain for the gatherings to grow his trust in the universe).  Throughout the day, we shared hugs, smiles, deep reflections and even tears as we reconnected deeply with ourselves and each other.  As the day came to a close, we gathered in one large circle in the garden, around a peace pole that Maki had brought from Japan, which was handmade with love by volunteers.  One by one, each person shared a prayer for the world and, as always, we concluded with a giant group hug singing along to Nimo's Grateful :)     [Read Zilong's Blog Post -- View Photos]

Following this month of inspiration-filled gatherings, many people have been holding questions around the design principles of ServiceSpace.  We were reminded of a couple of resources that many in this community may find helpful to read:  Nipun's Q&A a few years back in which he elaborates on the ServiceSpace Design Principles, and also the audio recording and transcript of the only Awakin Call that ever featured Nipun as a guest speaker :) Where Do We Find Gandhi Today.

In his blog post after the one-day retreat, Zilong beautifully concluded...
"As we sit in these many-to-many circles -- the oldest of our spiritual technology, we are witnessing the emergence of myriad generosity experiments to reconnect the human hearts. To borrow Darwin's metaphor, "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

We look forward to holding space together with each of you in coming months to collectively plant seeds for many more "simple beginnings."

May peace prevail on earth.

With love and gratitude,

Trishna and Ani



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