Centre for Vital Elders

Are you one of a growing number of busy, successful managers who have lost their enthusiasm for work? It just does not seem to engage or excite you in the way it once did.

Increasingly managers are stressed and, despite how much they have to do, they often feel bored. They have lost their zest for work and even face anxiety, burn out and depression.

In “Personal Renewal”, John Gardner tells the story of the barnacle. He says “The barnacle is confronted with an existential decision about where it’s going to live. Once it decides…  it spends the rest of its life with its head cemented to a rock.” For a good many managers, it comes to that.

We’ve all seen men and women, even ones in fortunate circumstances with responsible positions who seem to run out of steam in midcareer. They stop learning in important areas of their lives and find themselves in a rut that they don’t know how to get out of.

You know how it is, you have problems motivating yourself to go to work in a morning, and when you get there you procrastinate a lot, spend your time on level ‘c’ priorities, surf the net or talk with colleagues about non-work subjects. You know this is happening but you don’t understand the causes or know how to cope.

Read Green Lightning now and learn how to regain your enthusiasm and energy for work.

I came across the following in a great book I’m reading Presence by Peter Senge, C Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers, and wondered what your views where on old and new ideas about leadership:

“Yet the old idea that those in positions to influence an organisation’s power must be committed to cultivation or moral development has all but completely disappeared. I doubt that few have even thought what such cultivation means - what it takes to develop a capacity for delayed gratification, for seeing the longer-term effect of actions, for achieving quietness of mind.”

“But many people seem to feel these old ideas don’t speak to the realities of today’s technology driven world”, said Betty Sue. “Our leaders are more likely to be technocrats than philosophers, focused on gaining and using power, driving change, influencing people and maintaining an appearance of control.”

“Yes, old ideas are not very popular,” agreed Peter. “Somewhere in the last generation or two, the very world ‘old’ became a pejorative term. Now its synonymous with worn-out and obsolete, and ‘new’ automatically means improved and superior. This is fine in talking about machines, but its tragic for living systems.

“Several years ago, Debashish Chatterjee, a good friend and well-known author on leadership, opened a seminar on leadership at MIT by saying ‘I’ve been guided in my work by the notion that older is often better. If an idea has been around for a few thousand years, it’s been submitted to many tests - which is a good indicator that it might have some real merit. We’re fixated on newness, which often misleads us into elevating novelty over substance.’”

Regards

Mike

“The model that I’m proposing does more than restore the elder to a position of honor and dignity based on age and long life experience. It envisions the elder as an agent of evolution, attracted as much by the future of humanity’s expanded brain-mind potential as by the wisdom of the past. With an increased life span and the psychotechnologies to expand the mind’s frontiers, the spiritual elder heralds the next phase of human and global development.”
–Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

All of us — children, adolescents, young adults, middle-aged people, and seniors — recognize that we are a part of the process of aging. Until recently most Americans accepted and understood aging as a process of gradually increasing personal diminishment and disengagement from life. Schachter-Shalomi’s book From Age-ing to Sage-ing proposes a new model of late-life development - called sage-ing - a process that associates old age with self-development and spiritual growth. Sages, he claims, draw from the growth techniques of modern psychology and contemplative spiritual practices of the world’s wisdom traditions. Schachter-Shalomi’s model of spiritual eldering draws on three sources: The model of the traditional tribal elder whose wisdom guided the social order for thousands of years; state-of-the-art breakthroughs in brain-mind and consciousness research; and the ecology movement, which urges us to live in harmony with the natural world.

Heart Seeds, a Message From the Ancestors is a loving, heartfelt and wise offering for the people of the world. Powerful, transformative, and beautifully written, this book will appeal both to seasoned spiritual seekers and novices, to individuals pursuing personal growth and to business leaders searching for deeper understanding and a better way. The profound and timeless stories—and lessons—the book conveys have implications for individuals, families, organizations, and nations.

Heart Seeds draws on an authentic spiritual framework with enduring philosophical lessons that have been passed orally across continents and through the centuries. Dedicated to remembering our relatedness and what is needed to come together as a people on the planet, the book stimulates the reader’s remembrance of being part of a whole, human family.

Written in story form, drawn from the oral tradition of native people, Heart Seeds conveys the intimacy of experience of an old culture of consciousness and wisdom. Sharing ancient wisdom through teaching stories, the authors call us to remember that we are indeed able to change what is happening on our planet, and help us recognize what we need in order to change. Sprinkled with evocative line drawings, the book helps awaken the “seeds of remembrance” of an old way of balance and harmony and stimulates our collective consciousness.

In the beginning of the book readers are invited to the Hill of Remembrance, where they hear the elders tell stories of the old way. This part of the book takes us to a time when many still lived in tribes and shared a life filled with community connections and rich interdependence. While the book starts in the past, the present story takes form as several men and women are called to journey from Mexico to the far north. Continuing to draw on medicine stories, the seekers and the reader experience powerful ceremonies and deepen their understanding of the “heart seeds.” The book culminates with a vision of the future and offers guidance for what is needed to get us there.

Contact us to buy the book if you are in UK and Europe. You can buy the book here if you are in the USA

After teaching separately for many years, WindEagle and RainbowHawk joined together to become “Keepers of the Origin Teachings of the Delicate Lodge”, a body of self-knowledge and Earth Wisdom Teachings that derive from ancient indigenous American cultures.

Teaching together since 1987, they created WindTree Teaching Center, located in the Santa Cruz Mountains of northern California. In 1995 they founded the Ehama Institute, a not-for-profit teaching institute, with a vision to share the Earth Wisdom Teachings with circles of people around the world, in order to once again create a culture of harmony and respect for life.

They work with those individuals and organizations that choose to claim their part in creating the change toward wholeness in human affairs. Some of their worldwide business clients include BMW, Honeywell, Inc., Lucent Technologies, Mattel Media, the US Air Force, Volkswagen, and the World Business Academy.

Praise for Heart Seeds

“These ancient voices and stories are essential teachers to those of ustrying to restore life and possibility to these dark times. I pray that many will be nourished by these stories, as I was. They reminded me that I am part of a great unfolding of history, where many peoples have worked courageously to love and cherish Life.”

Margaret Wheatley, Author of Leadership and the New Science and Turning to One Another

“One needs only to read the headlines to see that our corporations and institutions and culture are suffering. As a people we are clearly at a time of great turning, and our response will define the fate of our world. If ever a people needed wisdom breathed into them, it is this day. Heart Seeds offers a deep collective wisdom, which is the medicine our ailing world so badly needs. WindEagle and RainbowHawk offer this gift, outlining the path developed over many centuries to becoming a ‘true human’–deeply connected to the community and focused on the well being of the whole. These lessons give us hope as we begin to remember and relearn how to live in relation to natural cycles, and are filled with the magic of life expressing itself.”

Michael Thomas, Vice President HR & Corporate Social Responsibility, Granite Construction Inc.

“Heart Seeds, A Message from The Ancestors helps us remember a way of living on the earth with respect for nature and for each other. For today’s leaders in any field, it is a must read.”

George E. McCown, Chairman and Managing Director, McCown De Leeuw & Co.

“This is a textbook told in the style of indigenous oral history. To receive its wisdom, the reader must leave western mind and discover tribal mind. WindEagle and RainbowHawk share their inherited knowledge in the Native voice in which these teachings have survived for centuries, waiting for our need and readiness.”

Christina Baldwin, Author of Calling the Circle, the First and Future Culture

“12,000 years ago the American continent was popularized by native people crossing the Bering Straits. The wisdom they evolved guided their view of the world, their sense of interconnectedness, and their ways of making decisions. Today this wisdom, an oral tradition, is almost extinct. In Heart Seeds, WindEagle and RainbowHawk breathe immortality into this ancient wisdom. With an engaging, story-telling style they capture the ancient wisdom and provide the ‘developed world’ a unique opportunity to benefit from these time-tested perspectives on life and nature.”

Eric E. Vogt, Co-founder and President, InterClass

“Being raised in western civilization Heart Seeds, A Message from The Ancestors helped me to understand on a deeper level, why my energy is not balanced and why I often feel exhausted and stressed. The wisdom in the stories can unfold our potential for regaining individual wellness and becoming peaceful members in the global family”.

Helga Breuninger, Breuninger Foundation—Germany

“One of the great religions of the world belonged to the Mayas, whose brilliant culture and insight vanished with the Spanish conquest of the American continent but which lies hidden like a seed in the wisdom of the North American Indians. It is now springing forth again. This story is about an American couple with Native American roots who receive a revelation atop a Mayan pyramid, summoning them to awaken the seed of this ancient wisdom. The book is a fascinating and inspiring depiction of how this awakening is happening today.”

Sven Damsholt, Wisdom Books—Denmark

“There are many ways to walk into a circle, and many books out there about the ancient wisdom of indigenous American peoples. To those who want to learn more of this spirituality, Heart Seeds offers a new way to make that walk. The book opens the door to a sensitive, clearly laid-out step-by-step journey for the seeker. Woven through the book are many rich and beautiful historical stories and traditions, which the authors use to reveal these old teachings. They were never more vital and needed than today, when both our beautiful Mother Planet and the freedom of the individual are falling under deadly attack.”

Patricia Nell Warren, Author of One Is the Sun, The Wild Man and other novels.

“In the aftermath of the annual International Day of Peace and being in conversation with organizations and Peacebuilders throughout the world, I can truthfully attest to the need for this gift to humanity—Heart Seeds, a Message From the Ancestors. There is a deep yearning for the wisdom of those who came before us to guide our pathways into the future and to remind us of the essential unity of Spirit that unites us amidst our diverse ways.

Avon Mattison, Founder and President, Pathways To Peace International Secretariat, “WE THE PEOPLES” INITIATIVE, a United Nations-Designated Peace Messenger Initiative