What is life without challenges? Dig deep and bring out the creativity concealed in you. If one trusts oneself, one does not question the presence of challenge. One does not ask: Can I face this challenge adequately? In questioning challenge, we convert it into a problem. Problems are the creation of the human mind, whereas challenges are the creation of the ‘law’ of life. Challenges are like the waves on the ocean. They are not problems. Ask any lover of swimming. They play around with those waves. If you consider every wave as an ordeal or a problem, there will be no joy in swimming. So we meet the challenges as they come. And finish them off the very day they arise, not leaving any residue to be carried in memory for the next day. One has to be very alert.
Vimala Thakar
The educational website www.vimalathakar.com with numerous audios and videos of speeches by Vimala Thakar is now ready. More videos, audios and texts will be uploaded over time.
CHALLENGES WHEREVER YOU TURN / ONLINE SEMINAR
‘Challenges wherever you turn’ is a One-day Dialogue Seminar based on the documentary “In the fire of Dancing Stillness – Reflections with Vimala Thakar” by Renata Keller.
More information about Vimala Thakar
Videos and audios by Vimala Thakar
Trailer
In this dialogue seminar, we will pursue the questions that are addressed in the film in individual and shared reflection, from a point of silence with a dialogical approach: What is the essence of life? What is really important to us and what do we want to work for?
An open and reflective space will enable participants to explore new perspectives with the potential of consciously redesigning their own life and relationships. The seminar will provide the opportunity to practice a way of observation based on being awake and deeply still. Observing oneself and our environment allows for new and creative ways of responding to life, so that we can find fresh approaches to its challenges.
Where do we stand today?
Challenges wherever we turn. From the beginning of this new decade, it is clearer than ever that the coexistence of people, planet and nature has been disrupted and is extremely vulnerable. We experience this on all levels of life: be it through devastating fires, new viruses or the excessive exercise of power, and violence in armed conflicts. We are also individually confronted with a life rooted in a modern capitalist system that relies on acceleration, consumption and distraction. The increasing sense of meaninglessness brings us to big questions more urgently than ever before: Where are we? And what kind of future do we want to create?
In the film we get to know Vimala Thakar (1921 – 2009), an Indian mystic, visionary, philosopher and grassroots activist, who perceived life in a very pragmatic but bighearted way. She experienced much suffering, political corruption and power inequalities, yet she fought for justice, loving cooperation and independent thinking, on all levels. As a young girl, she had an urge to know and live what in India, is still called divinity and truth. She trained herself at an early age to take up a holistic approach to life and to be uncompromising about the truth. She inspired many people to always question authority. Her lifelong inner training enabled her to communicate a larger perspective and vision for humanity, one that could be lived and applied pragmatically at all levels of life. Appealing to our common sense and simple humanity, she encouraged everyone to realise what a privilege it is, to live in the 20th and 21st century. She made it very clear that it is the urgent responsibility of those of us living on this planet now, to develop radically new and creative answers to the big questions; answers that are based on a non-separate relationship with all of life.
The goal in this process-oriented dialogue seminar, ‘Challenges Wherever You Turn’, is to create an experimental field in which constructive and focused dialogue emerges from a creative space beyond the known. In an open and authentic exchange, we will explore how our creative potential can be developed and trusted, so that we can face the challenges of our time in a collaborative manner.
We will deal with the following questions:
- What is silence?
- How do I/we relate to thought? And who are we?
- What does it mean to experience connectedness instead of separation?
- How do we learn to think independently, and how do we trust our experience?
- How can scientific research be combined with intuition?
- What is still sacred to us?
- Are we emotionally prepared for the challenges of the 21st century?
How will we address these questions?
Being able to create positive, creative dialogues, spaces for conversations where we can discover innovative solutions together is one of the most important skills we need in order to create a future, in which we want to live and grow.
In these online seminars, an experimental field is offered in which we practice the skills and abilities to become creative, open dialogue partners. We learn to practice unconditional respect, deep listening and communicative design within a group situation. This form of shared enquiry into the content and questions raised by the film, is deepened through emergent and artistic dialogue. The guidelines for this form of dialogue will be presented at the beginning of the seminar and developed in various individual and group exercises throughout the day.
We will engage in certain preparatory exercises for the online seminars, so that we can tune into the dialogical field, even if we are not together in person in one room.
Programme
Friday evening 7 p.m. Film screening with Q&A.
During the seminar there will be plenty of opportunities to do reflecting work away from the computer so that we will not sit in front of the screen for 7h!
Saturday morning 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Round of introductions, silence, individual and shared reflection. First questions and rounds of dialogue
1pm – 2:00 pm Lunch break / individual walks
2.00 – 5:30pm Second round of questions, exercises and dialogues.
Shared conclusions.
Seminar Cost
100 Euros
If the cost of the seminar is too high for you this should not be a barrier. Please just email us under inthefireofdancingstillness@posteo.de and we will find for sure a good agreement.
Facilitators and Co-Facilitators
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No Events
If you are interested in one of these Seminars please contact inthefireofdancingstillness@posteo.de
4-part Online Dialogue Seminar / FROM STILLNESS TO ACTION
The 4-part Online Dialogue Seminar FROM STILLNESS TO ACTION is based on the documentary film “In the Fire of Dancing Silence – Reflections with Vimala Thakar”. On four evenings we have the opportunity to deepen the themes of silence, observation and activism and to explore together how our perspective on life and the world is changed by Vimala Thakar’s thinking. For the fourth round of dialogue we will choose a theme together.
This dialogue space will enable us to deepen our own exploration of Vimala Thakar’s work but also the assessment of the current changes in the world, which emphasize the urgency of an inner transformation. As a group we will enter this creative field together.
Mehr Information zu Vimala Thakar
Videos und Audios von Vimala Thakar
Trailer
THIS COURSE IS CURRENTLY ONLY AVAILABLE BY DEMAND. PLEASE WRITE TO inthefireofdancingstillness@posteo.de IF YOU ARE INTERESTED TO PARTICIPATE.
Seminar costs
4 dialogue sessions: 150 Euro
The price of the course should not be an obstacle to taking part in the seminar. If you want to pay less, write a short mail to imfeuerdertanzendenstille@posteo.de and we will be happy to accommodate you.