Wisdom from the Elders

“To succeed in the new economy, we must operate by the design principles of the rainforest”

Mr Tachi Kiuchi – Managing Director of Mitsubishi Electric USA & Chair of Future 500 USA

Every gardener knows you don’t cause a plant to grow … Sooner or later we’ll all wake up and realize that the industrial system is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nature”  …… Peter Senge senior lecturer at MIT, chairperson of SoL

“I am working for the creation, I refuse to take part in it’s destruction” – American Indian Elder

“These are our times and our responsibilities. Every human being has a sacred duty to protect the welfare of our mother earth, from whom all life comes. In order to do this we must recognize the energy there is within us. We must begin with ourselves.” – Tadadaho Chief Lean Shenandoah

Keeping the water pure is one of the first laws of life – American Indian Elder

“When I’m on a high mountain, looking out over the country, my unggur (life force) flows out from inside my body, and I fall open with happiness.”

 – David Mowaljarlai – Ngarinyin Elder

We must widen the circle of our love till it embraces the whole village: the village in it’s turn must take into it’s fold the district, the district the province, and so on till the scope of our love becomes coterminous with the world. – Mahatma Ghandi 1929

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end up by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning. – Mahatma Ghandi 1937

Our people believe that on the day we start communicating with dolphins and whales, great doors of knowledge and wisdom will be opened to us because these marine animals, the umkhoma (the conqueror) and the ihlengethwa (the redeemer) are custodians of knowledge that we wretched beings have not dreamt about – Credo Mutwa – African Zulu Elder

“Great Spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein

Perception depends on your energy and ability to receive – build your abilities purposefully

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed it is the only thing that ever has” – Margaret Mead

The great strength of prominent cultures is unity

Yoda – “My ally is the force and a powerful force it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the force around you, here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes even between the land and the ship.”

Luke Skywalker – “You want the impossible, I don’t believe it.”

Yoda – “That is why you fail.”

  From “The Empire Strikes Back”

“The only significant things in life are how much you have loved, and how much you have let go”

– Buddha 500 BC

Nelson Mandela – About Personal Power

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous ?

Actually, who are you NOT to be ?

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

You were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us: it’s in EVERYONE ! And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others !

Integrating Love & Power

Power properly understood is the ability to achieve purpose … Power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love ….

What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.

Nelson Mandela 1994 Inaugural speech