Fear, Anger, and Love

Serving a community of private individuals and professionals who have the desire to cultivate a life of clarity, compassion, and creativity. We warmly welcome our new subscribers. Thanks for joining! Today, we are happy to greet our 7,000th subscriber - Veronica Lim, who is an inspiring coach, author, speaker and seminar leader. Read more about Veronica in Our Subscribers' section.

* * *

We are continuing to translate some of our newsletters
into French and Dutch. Here are newly translated issues:
Vivre avec la peur
Imperfections parfaites
Volmaakte onvolmaaktheden

Once again, as I do every year, this issue is dedicated to my wife's grandmother, Koma Matsuda, who passed away peacefully at 97 years old, on August 2, 2003.

In rereading this newsletter prior to sending it out, I realized that what is written here can also have great relevance for all those involved in the catastrophe of hurricane Katrina. I thus further dedicate this issue to all people in the process of rebuilding their lives in the face of such destruction, loss of life, and hardship.

1. A Story

The birth of babies, the death of loved ones, natural disasters, marriages, divorces. All of these events give us cause to stop and reflect on our lives, and the lives of those we have been in relationship with.

Each time I look back on the life of my wife's grandmother, I also look back at my own life. I find such reflection to be inspirational because the atmosphere around this regal lady was always special. Hopefully the words of grandma that you receive through me. will lead you to reflect on your life, and the lives of those you love.

What follows are snippets of some of what she taught me over the years.

"World War II taught me a lot." she would say.
"It seems to me that in all wars, both sides tend to be correct in standing up for the values they believe in, and quite wrong in denying their shortcomings."

"I think this is also true in personal relationships that aren't going well. People fail to realize and acknowledge their own shortcomings, and this prevents them from recognizing there are always two people responsible for a failing relationship."

"The war taught me to be grateful. I was still alive and I knew that at some point good things would start to happen again. The war helped me to redirect my life, and led me to be passionate about the future."

"A lot of precious lives were lost, and some people died at a very early age. The war broke my heart and caused me to reexamine everything that I thought I knew. I was quite certain that my heart would break at least several times more before I died, and I knew I needed to take some time to sit and better understand how life is full of suffering and joy, love and anger."

"I found myself wondering what all the killing had accomplished. What truths had the war revealed? What lessons were to be learned by every Japanese person? Surely our culture needed to somehow redirect itself, and I wondered how this would be accomplished, and if indeed it would be accomplished. After the war no one seemed to have the time to sit and reflect. Everyone was too busy rebuilding and trying to catch up."

"I realized that I was going to have to let go of great sadness in order to begin the next stage of my life. I had seen a lot of people die, and yet somehow, knowing that there would shortly be brand new babies popping up in our community that would need a lot of love, gave me great hope! Life was indeed continuing to spring forth, and I needed to find a way to continue as well."

"The war led me to understand that the world really can't afford all the anger and resentment it has, because beneath the anger and resentment lies a deep fear that is big enough to destroy the quality of everyone's life. When our fear, anger, and resentment are so big, it squeezes all the love out of our hearts, and there are no winners. Only survivors."

"Over the course of my life," grandma said, "I have come to realize that God is the Spirit that lives within each of us and gives us life."

"Who we are, depends to a large extent on who and how we love. We need to nurture our fear and our anger with kindness, so that hope, health, and compassion will spring forth in each of us. Regardless of the country we were born in, or the values we hold to be dear."

How about you?

Who do you love, and how do you love?

There is a great deal of fear and anger in the world today. Please consider how you can nurture with kindness all those you meet and enter into relationship with.

2. Commentary

Today, Inessa and I want to use this space to tell you how wonderful it was to get so many heartfelt responses to our last newsletter, "Living with Fear." You can read some of them here.

Thanks so much to all of you. We put our heart into our work, and your kind words mean a lot to us. We always look forward to hearing from you!
charlie

3. Practice

Whole Body Breathing
This is a wonderful Practice for calming down and really coming in touch with yourself. I use this Practice pretty much every day (especially just before drifting off to sleep), and I find it really makes a difference how I feel emotionally and physically, and how I feel about life, and the challenges and rewards available to me.

I myself have rarely had trouble sleeping, but numerous clients who do have trouble sleeping, have said this Practice really helps them to fall asleep if done at bedtime.
Enjoy!

4. Links

I want to suggest that you make your own links this week. Not necessarily in the cyber world, but in the world of people and heartfelt relationships. Link to your friends, link to your parents. Link to those you work with and those you live with in community. Let them know that you are making a heartfelt connection and that you appreciate and love them.

Also, please take some time and think of one or two people that you do not appreciate. Maybe a certain politician or a leader of a particular group. Maybe someone close to you. Take a moment, and from your heart, send them your best wishes. Let them know you are connecting to them and that you hope that they will feel the presence of God in their life.

Private Sessions with Charlie Badenhop Calgary, Canada: October 13, 17, 18 Antwerpen, Belgium: October 24, 25 Washington, DC: November 7, 8, 9 New York City: November 11, 12 If you would like to: Explore core issues, such as your current identity, your health, or destructive habit patterns, Feel more fully alive and emotionally balanced, Explore the direction of your professional or personal life, A Seishindo in-person private session can prove to be of great value. Read more about how you can benefit from a Seishindo private session. Read what other people say about Seishindo sessions. If you think you might be interested in a private session, please contact Charlie directly at charlie@seishindo.org.

5. Our subscribers' section

We warmly welcome Veronica Lim, our 7,000th subscriber we got five days ago. Veronica is an inspiring coach, author, speaker and seminar leader, and the Founder of Inner Thinking, established in 1999. Her vision is for individuals to realise their worth, to unleash their own natural leadership and have the courage and freedom to be who they are as they live to their full potential; and for organisations to be thriving workplaces where people love to come to work and have time for both work and play.

If you are looking to make positive change to the results that matter to you, visit Veronica's website at http://www.innerthinking.com.

Inner Thinking Limited
3 Charleville Mansions, Charleville Road
London W14 9JB, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 800 195 2078 or +44 20 7610 2073
Fax: +44 871 224 7248 Email: info@innerthinking.com

Veronica writes:
"I'm thrilled to be the 7000th subscriber! I came across Seishindo as someone had mentioned it on an egroup... and as I used to always "live in my head" and am learning better to listen to my body, it would be good to receive a somatic reminder into my Inbox every so often. I'm looking forward to it."

* * *

Every week new people are signing on as subscribers. We are very glad to meet all of you, and hope that you will feel at home with us. Our ONGOING growth depends on all of you. Please help us to spread our life affirming message by passing our newsletter along to others. Thanks so much!

* * *

If you have a business, hobby, group, or organization that you would like other members of the Seishindo community to know about, then please send us a short write-up (two or three sentences) here. You don't have a website? Then let us know how other members might contact you by phone, fax, in person, or in writing.

We also invite you to send in:
A) Questions and comments relating to what you read here.
B) Experiences that relate to the "Practices" presented.
C) The names of books/music/services/products, etc. you feel might be of interest to the Seishindo community. Please include a short write-up (two or three sentences) about your selections and send all input here.

6. Copyright

Unless otherwise attributed, all material for the newsletter "Pure Heart, Simple Mind"(tm) is written and edited by Charlie Badenhop ©. All rights reserved.

You are encouraged to send our newsletter in its entirety to anyone you think might like it.

If you would like to reprint our newsletter for other than your personal use, you are invited to do so, provided you: a. Receive our written permission (which is likely) b. Attach the above copyright notice to our material. c. Do not sell our material to others. d. Keep the content of our material intact without any editing whatsoever.

7. Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Delivery

Please subscribe or unsubscribe here.

Is our newsletter only arriving sporadically? Our "Pure Heart, Simple Mind" newsletter is meant to come to you twice a month, on or about the 1st and 15th of each month. If you aren't receiving every issue it could be because of the filtering systems your Internet Service Provider (ISP) uses to keep unwanted messages out of your inbox. In attempting to block unwanted mail, your provider will sometimes wind up blocking email like this newsletter, that you DO want to receive. If you are having delivery problems, send a blank e-mail to delivery@seishindo.org and we will send you a list of tips that can help ensure delivery. You can use these tips for other email as well.