So, at the age of nine, I became a monk, and from then on I was there practicing that kind of nonviolence.
We are dependent on each other. Therefore, replenishing the soil, replenishing society and being part of one continuum – that’s the new story.
We need to learn to live in the here and now; this moment is the best moment. Live it fully.
All the big problems of the world today are routed in the philosophy of separateness and dualism.
We need to develop a sense of sufficiency to be happy.
Quality and perfection are achieved with time. You do not create a perfect painting or a perfect poem by hurrying. Time is always coming.
Each of us needs to eliminate our anger, fear and greed. The roots of social conflicts and political tensions are in personal anger, fear and greed.
Through yoga, meditation and other spiritual practices, we can learn the ways of personal equanimity. We can also learn how to use language in beneficial ways.
If individuals start to walk on the path of spirit and feel a sense of the sacred connectedness, then social, economic and political problems will also begin to get resolved.
Wars and conflicts begin in the mind, then they are expressed in words and then executed through physical action, so personal transformation is intricately connected with the social and political transformation.
If happiness was in money or power, then America should be the happiest country in the world, but it is not.
The old story is a story of measurement. And the New Story is to bring measurement and meaning together. You cannot measure meaning.
We change by changing our consciousness and by saying, money should not be a commodity. Money should be a means to an end.
Our modern world of old story is completely failing humanity. This is the reason that increasing numbers of people have become and are becoming disillusioned from politics. People don’t like voting. Whoever you vote, government gets in. Whatever they promise, they never fulfill.
Education provides you a profession. But not vocation. You do it only because you need to work to earn money to buy your food, buy your clothes, pay the bills. Our life has a greater meaning, and a greater purpose.
I want New Story education to be skilling human beings and young people to provide basic human needs. Technology and all other things are icing on the cake.
Before the scientific rationalism took hold of our minds and before we became succumbed to a materialistic worldview, the Western philosophy was holistic and relational, and even now there are many scientists in the West seeing things totally interconnected.
Because the Western civilization is dominated by dualistic thinking, holistic scientists and philosophers don’t get the recognition they deserve.
If we had kept the vision of interconnectedness, we would not have created the kind of environmental crisis facing the world today.
I want to see a New Story education, which is not only about intellectual knowledge – not only about measurement – not only about academic achievement. It is also about heart, feelings, emotions, relationship, love, compassion, generosity, beauty. All these values are part of the heart.
Large numbers of young people are waking up. And they are saying, “We are not here just to work for multinational corporations and make money for them. We are here to live. We have to find the meaning of life.”