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Jungle Of Love

3 min read
Dear Friends,

When we were all sitting under the banyan tree one morning I whispered to Nipun, “I must've something good in the past, that I’m here today”. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to join Gandhi 3.0 with you all. What we brought home from G3 was so huge as we carried the whole jungle of love in our heart.

G3 had pulled out many reflections from my mind, just like a garden after rain, abundant with seeds germinated, plants & weeds grown. Therefore it was not easy for me to unfold all my reflections into words. However, I try my best to share with you some of them.

1. From spinning to peace

We visited Gandhi Ashram twice. Everyone seems received some message from Gandhi but we both (Chau and I) felt like he didn’t tell us anything.

Having chance to learn how to spin every morning during G3, we realized that spinning is an exercise for the synchronizing of our both hemispheres. Then we think that we got his message through spinning and maybe we understand why he said: “If everyone in the world spun an hour a day, there would be no more wars”. When our reason and emotion are in harmony, we have our inner peace. “Peace in yourself, peace in the world”.



2. Jungle of love

“Both in the past and at present, human beings, with their “superior” knowledge, have been the ringleader in turning the earth and the human heart into wastelands.”

“There has never been a generation like the present where people’s hearts are so badly wounded. This is true of every area of society—politics, economics, education, and culture. It is reflected in the degradation of the environment, which comes about through the material path humanity has chosen.”

“Gradually I came to realize that the process of saving the desert of the human heart and revegetating the actual desert is actually the same thing.”

Those quotes are from the book ‘Sowing the seeds in the desert’ of Fukuoka-san.

I think I understand his message “The healing of the land and the purification of the human spirit is the same process” only that night, in Gandhi ashram, by seeing the jungle of love; seeing love manifests in different forms; feeling the lineage - the roots of the jungle.

It explains the magic that we see every day in ESI campus: ‘Angels are hidden in the details’ from petals to love letters on our bed.

Love and water are so alike.

Rivers, lakes, ocean are where water arrives, not where water comes from. Water mainly comes from the rain (the sky) and then it is ‘caught and stored’ by jungle, by its root system.



Water for the actual desert.

Love for the desert of the human heart.

3. From transaction to trust

I realized that we do transaction in everything, not only in business. Or because we turned everything into business with our transaction mind?

We do transaction with Buddha too. We bring him 1 banana and ask him for a fortune. I guess you remember that joke.

Transaction mind needs immediate result and an efficient ROI. Small investment and big return is the goal. And then we talk about scalability: scale up, scale out.

What about scale deep? Or Service Space uses the term scale-in-time -- ‘Doing small thing with great love’ consistently, enduringly and TRUST.

"Whether autumn will bring wind or rain, I cannot know, but today I will be working in the fields." --Fukuoka in One Straw Revolution



Thank you all G3 and ServiceSpace fellows for being our eye-openers, our mind and heart washers.
Posted by Hang Mai on February 15, 2020
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Community Reflections

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6 Reflections shared

Trupti Pandya Feb 16, 2020
Loved this quote, "Gradually I came to realize that the process of saving the desert of the human heart and revegetating the actual desert is actually the same thing.”

This really caught my attention- "Water for the actual desert & love for the desert of the human heart":)
David Bonbright Feb 16, 2020
Me too. Water is contemplative for me.
Rohit Rajgarhia Feb 16, 2020
Thank you Hang and Chau for your active presence in the retreat and crystallizing these insights. :) :)

I remember we were together at Gandhi ashram during your first visit, and you both read the ashram precepts and Chau was like, "seems like we have been followers of Gandhi(an values) without knowing so". :)

If there was any doubt, now this photo with the spinning wheel has removed it. :-D Chau looks completely at home now with the charkha.

Many of us who have no direct link to farming or (part of the planet called) japan, are lucky to know of fukuoka-san through nipun, and now we even know you, living those insights in the farm. :)
Preeta Bansal Feb 16, 2020
So grateful for your very clear hearts, so apparent from the moment I was first in both of your presence. :)
Audrey Lin Feb 16, 2020
So beauuuuutiful, Hang Mai. Very grateful for your insight and sharing and the spirit that you and Chau carry! Beautiful to see the photo of spinning in Vietnam, too! :-)
Parag Shah Feb 16, 2020
love for Jungle is quite popular but what Jungle of love looks like?

In our mainstream life, How do we create or who do we have to be to create such Jungle? Nipun would say- A great question to hold !!

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