Swami Dhyan Giten's Blog, page 50
July 2, 2012
The Silent Revolution of the Heart – The Challenge for the 21st Century
From Fear to Love, from Darkness to Light and from Separation to Wholeness
An excerpt from Giten’s new book Presence – Working from within. The Psychology of Being (Lulu.com, 2012)
The challenge for the 21st century is The Silent Revolution of the Heart. It is not a revolution within an organization or a land in the traditional sense with violence, madness and blood shed. It is a revolution in human consciousness.The Silent Revolution of the Heart is an inner revolution from fear to love, from darkness to light and from separation to wholeness.
In society today there exists a deep split between the inner and outer world, between intellect and intuition, between male and female qualities, between rest and activity and between outer knowledge and inner wisdom. There is a rapid technological development in the society, but we seem to forget the most important factor: our self.
Humanity as a whole is in-between power and the heart in its psychological and spiritual development process towards spiritual maturity. The next step for humanity as a whole is to realize that real power is love and compassion.
The power chakra is the centre of the ego, the separated sense of “I”. The power chakra is about control, power and dominance over other people. A person who is on the development level of the power chakra wants to change other people, but he does not want to change himself.
Ordinary relationships are often power relationships, which is a fight and struggle between the partners needs and mine. Often the partner in a power relationship has the same strength to develop the power chakra.
The society is created out of the ego, and the need of the ego to create a hierarchy with power, status, respect, position, norms, roles and conformity. Many people in the West live in the power chakra, and are occupied with competing with others, to prove that they are somebody important, and finding their place in the hierarchy.
During the 20th Century has the psychological development level of humanity been on the awareness level of the power chakra? The focus of humanity has been on power, dominance, position, money and control over energy resources. We are technologically developed and this technology governs the development of the society, but this technology is at the same time destroying the earth. Energy resources are also a distinguishing theme in the power balance between countries.
Acting aggressively has its roots in fear, judgments and insecurity. Violence and aggressiveness is about control and dominance over another person. To judge and to be loving is two sides of the same coin. Judgments about another person are really about yourself. When we stop judging others and ourselves, our hearts opens. The heart is a healer that transforms fear to love, judgments to acceptance and separation to wholeness. The heart heals.
The 21st century means an inner awakening. It means a time to grow up. Many people talk about spirituality, meditation and inner development but it does not seem to change their lives. Our spiritual development depends on our commitment to our own development. We can use our free will to take on the challenge of life to grow or we can choose not to grow. This is the freedom that life gives us and it our own responsibility, but it seems that it is few people that accept life’s challenge to grow.
The 21st century represents a choice between the separation of ego and the vision of the heart. The silent revolution of the heart is a shift in human consciousness from the short-sighted perspective of the ego of “me” and “mine” to the focus of the heart on love and the needs of the other. It is a shift in consciousness from the short-sighted separation of the ego to the vision of the heart.
When we follow the way of the ego, the path of endless desires, it leads to struggle, conflict, exhaustion and separation from the Whole. The way of the heart is about learning to listen to our heart, to our inner source of love, joy, truth and wisdom. It is to be in a deep harmony with Existence.
When our heart is closed it creates an isolated and lonely feeling together with the attitude: “Nobody loves me”, “nobody cares about me” and “life is a struggle”, which makes us not see the love that is all around us.
A silent revolution of the heart happens when we start to care about another person, and it is a joy to put the needs of the other person before our own needs. It is on the awareness level of the heart that we begin to develop the sensitivity and awareness that makes us care about another person. The heart operates from the premises: I am responsible and only love works.
Love is to eat pizza with our beloved partner even though we hate pizza.
Our heart is the door to unconditional love both for ourselves and others. Our heart is really always open, but our judgments about ourselves and others keep it closed. When we stop judging ourselves and others, our heart begins to open. The way to healing is to learn to love and accept ourselves unconditionally. It means to embrace both our positive and negative sides with love and understanding. It means to learn to love everything that we find within ourselves.
We have been taught to love others, but not to love ourselves. But how can we love others without loving ourselves? The ABC of love is that we first need to learn to love ourselves before we can love anybody else.
Trust is a prerequisite for love. Without trust, love is without depth. It is like a plastic flower, instead of an alive, fresh and fragrant rose. Even if some people will let us down and make us sad and disappointed, it is no reason to let it undermine our basic trust in life. It is better to allow some people to let us down than not allow our basic trust in life to develop. Many people are so sleeping and unconscious that they really do not know what they are doing. They make us disappointed even if they do not really mean to. Even if we feel hurt, disillusioned and disappointed with people, see if you can give them love and understanding. A criterion for spiritual growth is that we begin to give love, rather than needing love.
Exactly as the rhythm of in-breathes and out-breathes of the physical body, the heart has also two poles: to give love and to receive love. Certain people are easier to give love to and other people are easier to be open to receive love. But to allow our love to become whole, we need to learn both to give love and to receive love.
Animals are great teachers in friendship and unconditional love. One of my course participants commented in a course, “I prefer animals before people, because animals cannot hurt me in the same way that people can. I myself still find it difficult to really trust that I am loved as I am. Even if I am aware about this, there is still a small part of myself that wants to contract, and which does not really trust that I am loved as I am and that life takes care of me. I find it easier to be present for others than to allow others to be present for me.”
Love and fear are two sides of the same coin. In the absence of love fear arises. In the light of love fear disappears, like when you turn the light on in a dark room. Fear is a contraction of our life energy together with an attitude of loneliness and isolation. Love creates an expansion of our life energy together with a feeling of love, joy and belongingness.
Love is the strongest power there is. There is no stronger force than love. Love is pure magic. Love transforms people without really doing anything. The sheer presence of love transforms people. There is nothing more holy than love, since love makes people whole.
Love accepts a person as he is. Love creates the freedom, which allows a person to be himself. Love creates the relaxation, which allows a person to relax into his inner being, into his authentic self. Love allows us to appreciate the beautiful being that we already are. Love allows a person to discover his true individuality.
Love is not an exclusive relationship with another person; love is a quality of our inner being. It is to discover the source of love deep within ourselves, which is our true nature.
In the depth of our heart, we already know that we are perfect as we are. In the depth of our inner being, we already know that life is perfect as it is.
It is on the awareness level of the heart that we begin to understand that we are not separate from life. We begin to understand that we are not small separate islands in a large ocean, but that life is one and that we are all small parts of the same whole. It is on the awareness level of the heart that we begin to understand what is important and meaningful in life. We begin to understand that life is about sharing, rather than hoarding, that life is about giving, rather than taking.
It is when we open our heart that we discover a sense of unity in love with other people, with the trees, with nature, with the sea and with the blue sky.
This is the silent revolution of the heart.
The human heart is the solution to the problems of the world.The human heart contains all the answers.
The human heart has the capacity to expand and embrace the whole earth.
— GITEN
June 26, 2012
New Summer reading! Spiritual teacher and author Swami Dhyan Giten’s book “The Silent Whisperings of the Heart” is now available as eBook
Spiritual teacher and author Swami Dhyan Giten’s book The Silent Whisperings of the Heart consists of a collection of quotes about life, love and truth. Each page inspires you to see yourself and life in a new way, from a new dimension. Swami Dhyan Giten has been compared with Kahlil Gibran, author of the famous book The Prophet.
Buy the ebook now at Lulu.com:
June 25, 2012
Healing is Pure Love
An excerpt from Giten’s book Presence – Working from Within. The Psychology of Being (Lulu.com, 2012)
Within each one of us there is a healer. Healing has always been a way and a deep source of healing for me. Healing is basically our own energy, which overflows from our inner being, from the meditative quality within, from the inner silence and emptiness.
Healing is pure love in essence. Love is what creates healing. Love is the strongest force there is. The sheer presence of love is in itself healing. It is more the absence of love – than the presence of love – which creates problems. Healing is a quality, which we can freely share without any ownership. Healing is not something that we can claim as our own, healing is to be a medium, a channel, for the whole.
Healing is a medium through which we can develop our inner qualities of presence, love, joy, intuition, truth, silence, wisdom, creativity and inner wholeness. Healing comes originally from the silence within, where we are already in contact with the whole, with the divine. Healing is what makes us spread our inner wings of love and silence and soar high on the sky of consciousness and touch the stars. Healing is to be in service of God.
People who have a quality of heart and a sensitivity are naturally healing. With some people that we meet, we feel naturally uplifted and inspired. With other people that we meet, we become tired and heavy. With people, who can listen without judging and evaluating, it is easy to find the right words to share problems and difficulties. And with other people, it seems almost impossible to find the right words.
People, who have a healing presence and quality, can support our own inner source of love, truth and silence through their presence. These people also seem to have an intuitive sensitivity to say the right words, which lifts and inspires us. This is the people, whose presence can mirror the inner truth, which we already know deep within ourselves.
The human heart is a healer, which heals others and ourselves. It is the hearts quality of love, acceptance and compassion plus communication through words, which creates healing. Words which comes from the heart creates healing. A silent listening with a quality of presence and an accepting attitude creates space for healing to happen.
The gift of healing comes when we see the other person with love and compassion. It is the quality of heart, which creates the love and the genuine caring for the other person. When our words are carried by the quality of heart, you can say almost anything to the other person and he will still be able to be open and receptive. But if our words lack the quality of heart, it also becomes difficult for the other person to continue to be open and receptive. Even if a therapist is very skilful on a technical plane or have a clear clairvoyant ability and still lacks the natural roots in the soil of the heart, then his words will not touch the heart of the other person.
When I began to work with people almost 18 years ago, it was an insight for me that I really cared about the other person and that it was this love that was communicated beyond the words to the other person. One of my course participants – who is a teacher – described this very beautifully when he said that he was impressed by my intuition and by my way of conducting therapeutic work – or if he would rather call this giving insights into love. Love is what allows us to go beyond the surface of the other person and to touch his inner being, his inner essence. Without love, it is only possible to reach the personality of the other person, to reach the surface and periphery of the other person.
Meditation is the way to develop our natural healing abilities. Healing comes originally from our inner being, from the inner source of silence and wholeness. In the silence, we can let go of all our problems, frustrations, fears, anger and sorrow. Healing happens when we bring everything that we find inside ourselves out into the light. Healing is to embrace and accept everything that we find inside ourselves without judgement or evaluation. Healing happens when we discover an unconditional love and acceptance for ourselves as we are with both our light and dark sides.
A male meditator says that he made a deepgoing insight in a course about what healing is, which has guided him much in life. He says: “I did a course and had been feeling very good during the week before the course. The first two days of the course I still felt very good. But the third day of the course, I began to feel uncomfortable. The question why I suddenly felt uncomfortable arose in me. But instead of asking somebody else, I asked myself this question and the answer I got was: “To receive attention”. “Well, was it so simple”, I thought”, and then I closed my eyes, went inside myself and gave myself attention. Through this I discovered that I could give myself healing. There were also many things that I suddenly understood through this about the question: “What is healing?” It became clear to me that healing is to give attention and that healing and giving attention is synonymous terms”.
Healing is not only a specific method, healing is also to invite another person into our own inner light, to invite another person into our presence, love, joy, acceptance, humor, understanding, playfulness, meditation and silence. Healing can also be a loving word, an understanding glance, a present touch, a silent listening or simply joking with another person and making him or her happy. Humor is also one of the strongest healingpowers to see our situation and ourselves in a new and creative light.
When I did an education in healing in USA 1984, I was told that I had the capacity to become a crownchakrahealer, a spiritual healer, to act as a channel and catalysator for spiritual energy from the 7th chakra through the heart. At that time I had no idea what a crownchakrahealer really was and since than it has been a continuos process during the last 17 years to deepen and develop my understanding about what a crownchakrahealer is. This process has resulted in a way of working I call “Synchronicity – Transmission of the Light”, which uses healing and energywork from the Source on a formless level. With this way of working I have worked with groups up to 80 people. It is really a way of working, which goes around the ego and speaks directly to the heart. It allows a person to come in direct contact with his own inner being, with his own life source. With my intellect I still do not understand how this way of working functions. It is not a way of working, which can be understood on a method plane. It is a way of working, which relates directly to the heart and which can only be understood through insight and experience. One participant in Gothenburg described his experience of Synchronicity like thousand suns suddenly had been lit in his own consciousness. He says: “It was like an inner explosion, an expansion of my own consciousness – and I felt only love for the other people in the room”.
The greatest teacher in healing is nature itself. To be out in the nature is like being surrounded and embraced by love. Trees are also very beautiful people, who have their own innate wisdom and who are already in oneness with Existence. And the sky whispers it’s silent message that beyond everything, there is only one sky. A female meditator describes it like there is a basic meditative quality in nature. She says: “There is nothing in nature that questions each others existence like people do. Everything is allowed to exist and everything is allowed to be exactly as it is – and seasons come and goes. It is not strange that people love to be out in nature and experiences that they come in harmony with themselves, because there is nothing that tries to change them out in nature. There is a quality in the air, which can be called a meditative quality”.
Healing is to be in the light of our own consciousness. Healing is an inner light, which exist as a natural radiance around a person. This inner light is in itself a healing force beyond words. This inner light disperses darkness like when you lit a candle in a dark room and the darkness disappears by itself. This inner light exudes a subtle influence just through its presence. The more the light in our own consciousness is lit, the more it creates a subtle effect in the world.
June 18, 2012
SONG OF MEDITATION – An Inner-view with Swami Dhyan Giten
spiritual teacher and author of the best-selling book Meditationens Sång – Om meditation, relationer och andlig kreativitet (Swedish edition, 2001), The Silent Whisperings of the Heart – An Introduction to Giten’s Approach to Life and Presence – Working from Within. The Psychology of Being
The inner journey
Can you say something about your own inner journey?
Life is like playing hide the key with God. God has hidden the key and now it is up to us to find the key again. It also takes us a while to realize that the key is hidden in our own heart. The heart is the door to allow life to guide us. The heart is the door to say “yes” to life. The heart is the door to surrender to life.
The most valuable insight I have got through my own inner journey is how Existence continuously has guided me towards a greater awareness that life is fundamentally one. Existence has continuously guided me with a greater lovingness and caring than I ever could imagine. Long before I was even aware of it, life has continuously guided me through periods of love and aloneness, joy and sadness, light and darkness, success and failure and negative and positive experiences. My own inner journey towards awareness and meditation has step by step developed the trust, sensitivity and subtle listening, which is necessary to surrender to life and to allow life to be my teacher.
Life is continuously communicating with us and it is a valuable experience to look back and see how life — despite my sleep, unconsciousness, lack of trust and resistance — continuously has guided me towards a greater awareness that life is one. Life has continuously lead me to the people I need to meet, to the situations I need to experience and to the places where I need to be. There has never been any real reason to worry since we are all small rivers already leading to the ocean, to the whole. Awareness is not about swimming faster or fighting with life, it is about relaxing and floating with life in a basic trust that life is already leading towards the ocean of consciousness, towards the whole.
The deepest pain in my heart is to be separated from life, to be separated from the inner song of meditation, to be separated from the Universal song. The most important thing in my life is to discover the inner song of meditation in my own heart and being. Sometimes I hear this song further away, sometimes I hear it closer to me – and sometimes I am one with it. But the most important thing is that I hear it, which shows that I am on the right track. Being and working with people in courses has also been a meditation in itself for me. It has been a valuable experience in learning to trust and listen to my intuition, to the inner source of love, truth and wisdom, to the Existential voice within. It has been a lesson in how we through our intuition, through the silent whisperings of our heart, is in continuos contact with Existence.
An early meeting with death
You began to meditate when you were 15 years old. Can you say something about your own way to meditation ?
Early in this life I lost two of the people, who I loved immensely. First when my mother died when I was 15 years old and then when my father died when I was 21 years old. This early meeting with death lead to an early spiritual awakening and awoke early the fundamental existential questions in me: “Who am I?” “What is the meaning of life?” and “Where am I going?” It made me ask myself early what is really important and meaningful in life.
This early meeting with death created a fundamental inner feeling of aloneness in me, a sense of not being loved and a feeling of meaninglessness in me. It was an insight for me, when I many years later in a relationship with a woman could express that I felt alone, and the other person did not leave me or stopped loving me. This meeting with death created also early an independence and a fundamental sense of aloneness in me.
In the beginning this aloneness was only painful and every time I went deeper into love and relationships, it was like death was staring back at me. This made me painfully aware of my own fundamental inner aloneness. It also made me aware that the deeper we go into love, the more we find our own inner aloneness.
This meeting with death also early made my intuition, my inner source of love, truth and wisdom, my inner teacher and guide in life. Instead of being directed from without, of being directed by other people and outer circumstances, it early made me directed from within, from my inner source of love, truth and silence.
It was first after many years that I had short glimpses of another kind of aloneness. It was a meditative aloneness in which I could rest in myself and in my own inner aloneness as a source of love, joy and silence. It was glimpses of a pure aloneness in which I could be so happy and satisfied in myself that I did not need anybody or anything outside of myself. And I also noticed that this meditative aloneness could be an inner door to that which is larger than myself, that it could be a door to oneness with Existence.
Before I was 15 years old, I was also close to die two times through drowning. I can still remember with crystal-clear sharpness how this experience gave me an ice-cold insight that I will never die. It was an insight that there was something inside myself, which will never die and which is part of the deathless and eternal. This insight shock up my whole image about myself and about life. This early meeting with death created a kind of spiritual dissatisfaction in me. It created a thirst, a longing and a restlessness in me after something that I could only vaguely sense, but which I did not really know what it was. This spiritual dissatisfaction, this thirst and my own intuition became my beacons far out on an unknown, dark and open sea after something that I did not really know what it was. This led me to begin to meditate when I was 15 years old.
My first passion in life when I was 15 years old was to become an actor, which I also worked with until I was 23 years old. Working as an actor taught me a lot about empathetically understanding other people and about life. It was first after I had worked as an actor for a number of years, that I realized that this early passion for theater was really an unconscious search for a spiritual discipline. It was when I realized that I had been a disciple to the russian enlightened master George Gurdjieff in my former life, that I understood my early passion for theater. Gurdjieff used intensive theatertechniques in his way of working with his disciples to take them from a state of mind to a state of no-mind, to meditation. When I realized this, I began to feel a thirst to be and work with people in a more direct way in awareness and meditation.
Teaching awareness and meditation
What do you work with in seminars and courses?
I do not work with a specific technique anymore — or even a goal. I work with meditation. But not meditation as a specific technique or as a static sitting, but meditation as the capacity to be aware. To do whatever we do with awareness. That is meditation. Awareness is meditation. Awareness is acceptance. Awareness is the capacity to be aware of thoughts, feelings, sensations in the physical body and outer stimuli without evaluation or judgement.
There are basically two different ways of working with people. The first way is personality- therapy and the other way is beingtherapy. Personality therapy includes what conventionally is described as therapy, which focus on analyzing and solving the individuals internal conflicts and psychological problems. The focus in Being therapy is to awaken and develop the inner being, the inner essence and authentic self, of the individual. The term beingtherapy is really a paradoxical term, since the inner being is already perfect as it is and needs no therapy. But it is also paradoxical, that at the same time as the inner being is already perfect, it also develops. This is the focus in Being therapy.
When I began to work with courses 18 years ago, the emphasis was on a personalitylevel. The emphasis was on personality therapy and to solve the internal conflicts and psychological problems of the individual. But as I went deeper within myself, this level became more and more unsatisfying for me and the emphasis in the courses changed to awaken and develop the inner being, the inner essence and authentic self, the meditative quality within. The emphasis moved from solving the psychological problems of the individual to find that which is already perfect within a person. The courses did not focus anymore on fighting with psychological games, problems, darkness, drama and defenses on the personality plane, but the courses was about becoming aware, to turn on the inner light. The courses was about realizing the deeper inner potential of the individual to live his or her life with love, joy, trust, intelligence, truth, silence, freedom, wisdom and creativity. The courses was about finding more space and freedom in the movements of the individual. The courses was about living one´s own truth.
In the hands of Existence
After teaching awareness and meditation for almost 16 years, I did a course for myself with a therapist. The theme for me in this course was my role and identification with being a therapist and courseleader. This therapist said to me: “You do not need positions to be loved”. This made me aware about my identification with being a therapist and how much this role was an investment in being special and being loved. This course created a process in me of letting go of my identification as a therapist and I noticed how this awoke feelings in me of not being special and of not being loved for who I am. This therapist also said to me: “When you let go of leading groups, Existence will invite you to lead groups”. This awoke all my fundamental doubts about that I am OK as I am and that life really takes care of me. It was really a period of letting go of my role as a therapist and about finding a deeper trust in life and Existence.
During 6 months, I simply let go totally of courses and the therapist role and left the whole question in the hands of Existence. It was like letting go of this whole question in the trust that if it is authentic and genuine, Existence will support and upheld it – and if it is not authentic, it will change. After these 6 months, strange things began to happen by themselves. Unexpectingly, it suddenly began to come invitations and support from different directions. At this time, I no longer knew how to do a course. These invitations also resulted in the book “Song of Meditation — About Meditation, Relationships & Spiritual Creativity” and in the website “Gitens World — A School for the Heart, which has been visited by thousands of people. This made aware that I actually have a deep trust in my heart and being that Existence will use me as a facilitator. Not as an egogratification, but as an expansion of being, an expansion of love, joy, truth, silence, wisdom and creativity.
I still have a wish that people will understand the difference between saying “yes” and “no” to themselves. But in one of my recent courses, I felt that what I can do is to present two choices and possibilities and then it is up to each person to chose for themselves how they want to live. People are like plants on different stages in their psychological development process towards spiritual maturity and our spiritual growth basically depends on our thirst and commitment to our own growth. Some people will understand what they can of meditation and some people will understand something deeper. I no longer feel identified with if people understand this now, if they understand this in 10 years or if they understand this in the next life.
To be and work with people on a spiritual plane is also the deepest source of joy for me. To be and work with people, who have enough life experience to say “yes” to discover their own authentic inner being, means that I also continuously can go deeper within myself. This also made me aware that I had created a space and an invitation to allow things to happen by themselves through letting go of my identification and involvement with being a therapist and courseleader. This allowed me to discover a deeper trust to life and Existence. And to those moments when Existence lifts and turns you in an unexpected dance.
The difference between the personality and the inner being, the authentic self
How would you describe the difference between the personality and the inner being?
The human consciousness concists of two general layers: the personality, the psychological I, and the inner being, the authentic self. The personality is the surface of our total consciousness and the inner being is the depth of our consciousness. It is like the relationship between the waves on the surface of the sea and the depth and silence at the bottom of the sea. The personality is the created sense of “I”, which concists of all our accumulated experiences of the past. The personality concists of 3 layers: thoughts, feelings and the physical body. The personality concists of all ideas, feelings, and learned concepts, which we have been taught by parents, by teachers and by society.
The personality is also a defense and a separation from life. The personality is an “no”-attitude towards life though our separate ideas, desires, ambitions and concepts. The inner being, the authentic self, is a “yes”-attitude towards life. The inner being is the door to oneness with life. In the inner being, we begin to experience the original life source beyond the layers of personality. The inner being is the inner place, which is beyond conflict and duality. In the inner being, we can rest in ourselves. We can rest in a presence, in a silence and emptiness, without fighting, without trying. In this presence, there is no sense of “I”. Just a presence, a light, a joy and a truth in the moment. The personality gives us the feeling that we are somebody special, but in reality we are no one at all.
And to be nobody is the greatest joy there is. To be a nobody, a presence, a silence, a nothingness, is to be one with ourselves. And to be one is to be in joy.
The inner being, the authentic self
How can we develop the inner being?
Meditation is the way to awaken and develop the inner being. Meditation is about finding that which is already perfect within ourselves. The process to develop the inner being can be described as the process of step by step emptying a room from furniture until the room is completely empty and only a silence, a space and an emptiness, remains. Meditation can be described as 4 qualities: a watchful awareness, an accepting attitude, a non-judgmental attitude and relaxation.
Awareness is another word for meditation. Awareness is the single factor, which can transform our whole life. Awareness is about discovering the beautiful being we already are. In the light of awareness, everything that is authentic and real grows and expands — and everything that is false falls away by itself like dead leaves from a tree during the autumn.
Meditation also includes an accepting attitude. An accepting attitude means to learn to say “yes” to all that arises in our consciousness without evaluation and judgement. It means to include and embrace both the “yes” and the “no”, both the light and the darkness and both the love and the fear, that we find within ourselves. An accepting attitude means to lovingly embrace everything we find within ourselves – like a mother embraces her child. An accepting attitude means that the moment is perfect exactly as we find the moment within ourselves. An accepting attitude means to not have a desire or wish that the moment should be different than it is. It is to embrace the moment exactly as we find it within ourselves with a love and acceptance for how the moment is. This accepting attitude teaches us to love and accept ourselves as we are in the moment. This accepting attitude develops our inner being and creates a freedom and relaxation within ourselves.
A non-judgmental attitude means to learn to love the imperfect within ourselves. Normally we judge and evaluate our behavior, rather than simply be aware of our behavior. Since early we have been taught to judge ourselves, so that it is even easier to not judge others than ourselves. A non-judgmental attitude means to learn to say “yes” to and accept even that which we say “no” to and judge in ourselves. This watchful awareness, accepting attitude and non-judgmental attitude leads to a deep sense of relaxation. It leads to a rest in ourselves together with a feeling that it is Ok to love and accept ourselves as we are.
This relaxation makes us appreciate the beautiful being we already are. We can rest in that which is already perfect within ourselves.
Yes and no to life
Can you say something more about the “yes” and “no”-attitude towards life?
Imagine life as a fast flowing river. In this flowing river we have two possibilities. We can either chose to swim upwards in opposition to the current of the river or we can simply chose to let go and allow ourselves to float with the river.
The first choice is a “no”-attitude towards life and the second choice is a “yes”-attitude towards life. The “no”-attitude means to relate to life through our ego, through our separate ideas, desires, ambitions and preconceived conceptions of how life should be. The “no”-attitude means that we separate ourselves from the continuos flow and change of life. The “no”-attitude is a defense and a separation from life.
When we did some practical exercises in a course about the “no”-attitude towards life, one of the participants exclaimed surprised: “This is exactly how I have always reacted to people and situations”. She had not been aware before that this was her automatic way of reacting to life.
Our heart is the door to surrender to life. Our heart is the door to a “yes”-attitude to life. Our heart is the door to learn to say “yes” and to allow life to guide us. The “yes”-attitude means to relate to life through our inner being, through the meditative quality within, through the inner silence and emptiness, through the capacity to surrender to life. The inner being is an openness and availability to life.
The “yes”-attitude is a deep acceptance of the reality of the moment without any desire or wish that the moment should be different than it is. It is to move with life in a deep harmony without expecting life to fit with our ideas and expectations.
An awareness exercise we can use in every moment in life is to ask ourselves if we act out of a “yes-” or “no”-attitude both in relation to ourselves, in relation to other people, in relation to creativity and in relation to life itself.
Meditation, relationships and creativity
Can you say something more about the relationship between meditation, relationships and creativity?
Meditation, relationships and creativity are the three lifeareas. These lifeareas describes the three areas in life, which creates a rich, creative and satisfying life when all three areas are developed and functions in balance and harmony. The three lifeareas also describes a balance between the inner and outer world, which simultaneously relates to and enrich each other.
The first life area is meditation, which is about creating a conscious relationship to oneself. This life area is about discovering the authentic inner being, the authentic self, the meditative quality within.
The second life area is relationships, which is about creating a conscious relationship to other people. The second life area is about learning to relate to other people from the inner being, from the authentic self. This life area is about learning to relate to other people in love, joy, trust, acceptance, friendship, playfulness, sincerity, truth, silence and freedom. It is about learning that relationships are not a chain, but an invitation to follow the silent whisperings of our heart. Often we can be when we are alone, but we reduce ourselves together with others. We have forgotten the true nature of love.
Our male and femine sides express themselves in the form of outer relationships. The second lifearea also includes developing and embracing both our male and female sides. It is then that the spark of love is lit naturally within ourselves.
The third life area is creativity, which is about finding and developing our inner talents, passions and gifts. The third lifearea is about learning to follow the silent whisperings of our heart in creativity. It is about expressing our love, joy, intelligence, silence and passion through creativity. This life area also includes the professional area through which we love to express our creativity and which gives us a deep feeling of joy, meaning and satisfaction. The third life area also includes the theme generating and attracting money with the basic understanding that Existence is abundance.
The criteria for how our meditation is growing in our life are that it begins to enrich both our relationships and our creativity. It also means that we develop a balance and harmony between all the three lifeareas. It is to understand that meditation is not a phenomenon, which is separate from life. It is when the meditative presence and quality begins to overflow from our inner being, from our inner lifesource, that we understand that meditation and life are not two separate things. It is then that we understand that meditation and life are one.
SWAMI DHYAN GITEN, therapist, course leader and author, has more than 30 years of experience in individual counseling and in teaching awareness and meditation. He is trained in both modern psychology and in classic Eastern methods for awareness and meditation in USA, Italy, Sweden and India. He received further education in advanced spiritual psychotherapy at Institute for Spiritual counseling and Training in USA and Academy of Meditation in Italy.
Since he began to meditate when he was 15 years old, he has dedicated his life to the study and exploration of the inner journey in order to move out of his own way, to be in a flow, and to discover the authentic inner being, the meditative quality within, the inner silence and emptiness, the capacity to surrender to life.
Giten’s first professional passion when he was 15 years old was to become an actor. After training as an actor, he worked as an actor until he was 23 years old. Working as actor taught him a lot about life and to emphatically understand the situation and life of other people, since acting is really a spiritual occupation. It taught him about spirituality, since working as an actor means to play a role totally, while at the same time as you know deep down that you are not the role you are playing. After working as an actor for a number of years, Giten began to understand that his early passion for theater was really an unconscious search for a spiritual discipline. When he realized this, he began to feel a thirst to work with people in a more direct way in awareness and meditation.
In 1982, when Giten was 23 years old, he was directed by the Divine presence in a trance session with the American trance chancellor Lin David Martin: “You have listened to your intuition, to your true inner voice, more than most. You have been searching for the contact with the Spirit for a long time and now it is beginning to manifest on the outer plane. You have been gifted many times in previous embodiments and now everything will come rather easy for you. I want you to put your energy into the lives of others, because you can”.
He is author of the book in Swedish Meditationens Sång – Om meditation, relationer och kreativitet (Solrosens forlag, 2001, available from Internet book store Adlibris: www.adlibris.com)) and The Silent Whisperings of the Heart – An Introduction to Giten’s Approach to Life (2008, available at Internet book store www.lulu.com) and Presence – Working from Within. The Psychology of Being (2011, available at Internet book store www.lulu.com). Giten’s first book in Swedish describes how the three life areas, Meditation, Relationships and Creativity, create a loving, creative and satisfying life when they are developed and function in harmony. The book was selected book of the month by the book club Life Energy, one of the largest book clubs in Sweden.
Recommendations, quotes and discussions of Giten’s articles and books and its content are also beginning to appear with increasing frequency in magazines and on sites ranging from USA Today, the largest daily newspaper in the US, the US news site Newsblaze, Edge Life Magazine, a leading source for psychology, education and world transformation in the US, and Sentient Times Magazine to the large Internet communities MySpace.com, a large Internet community for young people,Wasteland, the American online magazine Alternative Approaches, Motivateus.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com, newsletters of American High tech companies to small discussion forums and blogs focused on spirituality, health, art and literature.
On September 8, 2008, The American presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign site Obama Campaign Today: An Ein News Service – The World’s Leading International News Monitoring Service – also shared Giten’s article on The Silent Revolution of the Heart – The Challenge for the 21st Century.
Visit Giten’s official website Giten’s World – A School for the Heart. 350 Pages of Medicine for the Soul: www.giten.net
Giten’s Blog: http://authorscribe.com/giten/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=18920847531&id=501488158&view=user#/group.php?gid=18920847531
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SwamiDhyanGiten
June 14, 2012
Giten quoted in the book Words of Wisdom
Giten is quoted in the book Words of Wisdom together with Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Dalai Lama, Walt Whitman, Oprah, Shakespeare, Goethe, Gandhi, Einstein, The Beatles, Martin Luther King and others.
Read more at:
calltoawaken.s3.amazonaws.com/WordsOfWisdom.pdf
June 11, 2012
GITEN ON LOVE
An excerpt from Swami Dhyan Giten’s book The Silent Whisperings of the Heart – An Introduction to Giten’s Approach to Life
Love is not an exclusive relationship with another person; love is the quality that arises when we are in contact with our inner being, with our authentic self, with the meditative quality within, with the inner silence and emptiness. This inner emptiness is experienced by others and is expressed on the outside as love. This love is not addressed to a specific person; it is a presence and quality that surrounds a person like a fragrance.
The human heart is a healer, which heals both other people and ourselves. The open heart is like a fountain, which no longer make any distinction between:”I like you – I do not like you”. The open heart does not make any difference between friends and enemies. The open heart is open both for ourselves and for other people. The open heart is unconditional love.
Intuition is our true inner voice, the ever-present inner source of love, truth and wisdom, and the silent Existential voice within ourselves. Through the intuition, we are in contact with the Whole.
Our heart is the door to allow Existence to guide us – instead of being directed by our own ideas, attitudes and preconceived expectations of how life should be.
When our heart is closed, it can create a lonely and isolated feeling together with the attitude: “Nobody loves me” or “Nobody cares about me”, which can make it hard for other people to love us.
The basic problem with the world is that there is too much hate and too little love.
The fourth level of consciousness is placed in the middle of the heart. The fourth level of consciousness is the human heart. The heart relates to unconditional love and acceptance both for ourselves and for other people. The heart relates to qualities such as empathy, joy, acceptance, trust, intuition, understanding, compassion, playfulness, healing, friendship, sincerity and a sense of oneness in love.
The human heart has both an active and outgoing quality and a receptive and ingoing quality. The outgoing quality is active love and the ingoing quality means to allow both others and ourselves to love us.
Love is not an exclusive relationship with another person; love is the quality that arises when we are in contact with our inner being
A silent revolution of the heart happens when we begin to care about another person and it is a joy to put the needs of the other person before our own needs. It is on the consciousness level of the heart that we begin to develop the awareness and sensitivity, which makes us begin to care about another person.
When our heart is closed, it creates a lonely and isolated feeling. It prevents us from seeing the love that surrounds us all the time. It is when we begin to open our heart that we discover a feeling of oneness in love with other people, with nature, with the trees, with the stones, with the ocean and with the blue sky.
I remember when I had a painful relationship with a woman and did not know what I wanted to do with the relationship. Then I closed my eyes and asked my own intuition, my inner source of love and truth, Existence within myself, what I should do with the relationship. The answer that came in a silent whisper was: “Focus on love, not on a specific person.”
It is on the consciousness level of the heart that we begin to understand that we are not separated from life. We begin to understand that we are not small separate islands in a great ocean, but that life is one and that we all are small parts of the Whole. We begin to understand what is really important and meaningful in life. It is on the consciousness level of the heart that we begin to understand that life is about sharing, rather than hoarding. We begin to understand that life is about giving, rather than taking.
Above the consciousness level of the heart, we need a teacher and a guide. It is somebody who “knows”, who has walked further on the path than us and who can guide, encourage and inspire us. There is an Indian saying: “When the disciple is ready, the teacher occurs.”
Our heart is actually already open, but it is our judgements about others and ourselves that keep it closed. When we stop judging others and ourselves, our heart begins to open. The way to healing is to learn to love and accept ourselves unconditionally. It means to embrace both our positive and negative sides with love. It means to love everything that we find inside ourselves. Healing happens when we bring everything that we find inside ourselves out into the light.
The Silent Whisperings of the Heart Trust is a requirement for love. Without trust, love becomes without depth. It becomes like a plastic rose, instead of a fresh and alive rose. Even if some people will use and betray our trust, it is not a reason to allow them to undermine our basic trust in life. It is better to allow some people to betray our trust than to not allow our basic trust in life to develop. Many people are also so sleeping and unconscious that they do not even know what they are doing. Even if we feel hurt, disillusioned and disappointed with people, try to give them love. One criterion for spiritual maturity is that we begin to give love, instead of needing love.
The really poor are those that think that money are the meaning of life. When we lack love in our life, money becomes a substitute.
Love is to eat pizza with our beloved even though we hate pizza.
We have been taught to love others, but not to love ourselves. But how can we love others if we do not love ourselves first? The ABC of love is that we first need to love ourselves before we can love anybody else.
Exactly as the rhythm of the in breath and out breath of the physical body, love has also two poles: to give love and to allow ourselves to be loved. Some people can easier give love, while others can easier be loved. But for our love to be whole, we need to learn to both give love and allow ourselves to be loved.
Love and fear are two sides of the same coin. In the absence of love, fear arises. In the light of love, fear disappears. Fear is a contraction of our life energy together with a feeling of loneliness and isolation. Love creates an expansion of our life energy together with a feeling of love, joy and belongingness with life.
Love is the strongest force there is. There is no stronger healing power than love. Love is pure magic. Love transforms people without really does anything. The mere presence of love transforms people. There is nothing more holy than love since love makes people whole.
Love accepts a human being as she is. Love creates the freedom for a human being to be who she is. Love creates the relaxation, which helps a person to relax into her own inner being, into her own authentic self.
Love allows us to appreciate the beautiful being we already are.
Love is not an exclusive relationship with another person; love is the quality of our inner being. It is to discover the source of love deep within ourselves, which is our true nature.
In the depth of our heart, we already know that we are perfect as we are. In the depth of our inner being, we already know that life is perfect as it is.
Love is the most valuable gift we can give to another person. What we need to do is to open our heart and release our love to the world, to the people, to nature, to the animals, to the trees and to the sky – and this love will be returned a thousand times to us.
The basic fear with love is that love is larger than ourselves.
Love means to realise that we are one with life. Real love means to realise that we are one with the other person, one with nature, and one with the trees, the stones, the earth and the blue sky. It means to realise that all of life is God.
SWAMI DHYAN GITEN, spiritual teacher and author, has more than 30 years of experience in individual counseling and in teaching awareness and meditation. He is trained in both modern psychology and in classic Eastern methods for awareness and meditation in USA, Italy, Sweden and India. He received further education in advanced spiritual psychotherapy at Institute for Spiritual counseling and Training in USA and Academy of Meditation in Italy.
Since he began to meditate when he was 15 years old, he has dedicated his life to the study and exploration of the inner journey in order to move out of his own way, to be in a flow, and to discover the authentic inner being, the meditative quality within, the inner silence and emptiness, the capacity to surrender to life.
Giten’s first professional passion when he was 15 years old was to become an actor. After training as an actor, he worked as an actor until he was 23 years old. Working as actor taught him a lot about life and to emphatically understand the situation and life of other people, since acting is really a spiritual occupation. It taught him about spirituality, since working as an actor means to play a role totally, while at the same time as you know deep down that you are not the role you are playing. After working as an actor for a number of years, Giten began to understand that his early passion for theater was really an unconscious search for a spiritual discipline. When he realized this, he began to feel a thirst to work with people in a more direct way in awareness and meditation.
In 1982, when Giten was 23 years old, he was directed by the Divine presence in a trance session with the American trance chancellor Lin David Martin: “You have listened to your intuition, to your true inner voice, more than most. You have been searching for the contact with the Spirit for a long time and now it is beginning to manifest on the outer plane. You have been gifted many times in previous embodiments and now everything will come rather easy for you. I want you to put your energy into the lives of others, because you can”.
His three creative areas to express the mysteries of meditation in outer form are teaching, writing and painting. His meditative art is internationally recognized and have been nominated for the international art exhibition The Florence Biennale in Italy, which is arranged in cooperation with The United Nations.
He is author of the book in Swedish Meditationens Sång – Om meditation, relationer och kreativitet (Solrosens forlag, 2001, available from Internet book store Adlibris: www.adlibris.com), The Silent Whisperings of the Heart – An Introduction to Giten’s Approach to Life (2008, available at Internet book store Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-silent-whisperings-of-the-heart—an-introduction-to-gitens-approach-to-life/12863990 and Presence – Working from Within. The Psychology of Being (2011, available at Internet book store Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/shop/giten-swami-dhyan/presence-working-from-within-the-psychology-of-being/paperback/product-20093624.html). Giten’s first book in Swedish describes how the three life areas, Meditation, Relationships and Creativity, create a loving, creative and satisfying life when they are developed and function in harmony. The book was selected book of the month by the book club Life Energy, one of the largest book clubs in Sweden.
Recommendations, quotes and discussions of Giten’s articles and books and its content are also beginning to appear with increasing frequency in magazines and on sites ranging from USA Today, the largest daily newspaper in the US, the US news site Newsblaze, Edge Life Magazine, a leading source for psychology, education and world transformation in the US, and Sentient Times Magazine to the large Internet communities MySpace.com, a large Internet community for young people,Wasteland, the American online magazine Alternative Approaches, Motivateus.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com, newsletters of American High tech companies to small discussion forums and blogs focused on spirituality, health, art and literature.
On September 8, 2008, The American presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign site Obama Campaign Today: An Ein News Service – The World’s Leading International News Monitoring Service – also shared Giten’s article on The Silent Revolution of the Heart – The Challenge for the 21st Century.
Visit Giten’s World – A School for the Heart. 350 Pages of Medicine for the Soul:
www.giten.net
Presence – The Inner Source of Love, Truth and Wholeness
An excerpt from Swami Dhyan Giten’s new book
Presence – Working from Within. The Psychology of Being
What is presence?
Presence is:
Our Inner Nature
Love
Joy
Awareness
Freedom
Intelligence
Acceptance
Non-judgement
Understanding
Compassion
Clarity
Playfulness
Truth
Silence
Growing Up
Resting in Oneself
In The Moment
Emptiness
Wholeness
What is presence? What does it mean to be present for oneself and for another person? What awareness components contain the therapeutic process based on awareness? How can we develop our presence so that our presence and intuition becomes a source of healing in the contact with another person? How can we be in contact with the Whole?
Working with people is basically a question of energy and awareness. Part of the therapist’s ability comes from technical skills and part comes from the inner being. The first part of this book is about discovering our inner being, to develop a meditative presence and quality. It is about developing our own presence so that our presence and intuition becomes a source of love, joy, acceptance, awareness, healing, silence, wisdom and creativity in the contact with a client. The meditative presence aims at helping the therapist to increase the joy, depth and effectiveness in the healing and therapeutic work.
This book is designed to create an understanding for how healing happens in therapeutic work. The underlying theme of the book is meditation – but not meditation as a static technique – but as the capacity to BE with ourselves and with another person in a quality of watchful awareness, acceptance and relaxation.
The most important therapeutic capacity is the ability to be present with an open heart and to be grounded in our inner being, in our essence and authentic self, in the meditative quality within, through which we can meet another person. It is to meet that which is already perfect within a person.
Working with people from awareness is about shifting dimension from a personality oriented way of working to a being oriented way of working. It is about shifting focus from the personality, the psychological “I” to the inner being, the authentic self, the meditative quality within, the inner silence and emptiness, the capacity to surrender to life. The basic awareness component in working with people from awareness is to develop a presence and an inner quality to work from. Presence means to be grounded in our being, in our essence and authentic self. Presence is to work from a meditative presence, from the inner “yes”-quality, from a state of non-doing. Presence is to be in the moment, in the here and now.
Presence is about being available and to respond to the truth of the moment. It is to respond to the moment in a way that creates a fragrance of love.
Presence is not about trying to change another person our trying to make things happen, it is about being available and to respond with the truth in the moment.
Presence is about how every action can arise from the quality, which we call awareness – the presence of our soul.
Presence is not really something new. Presence is simply to rediscover the inner quality, which is already present within ourselves. Presence is the capacity to be present for another person with an open heart and to be grounded in our inner being. It is to be present for another person as a supporting light, a supporting presence – and simply to be present for another person can basically help.
Presence is a double and paradoxical phenomenon. It means both to be present and to be absent. It means to be present with our inner being and to be absent from our idea of a separate “I”.
Presence means to come in contact with a deeper quality within ourselves. Presence is like a flowing inner river, an inner source of energy, which gives vision, joy, inspiration, direction and creative impulses. Presence is our essence. We all have this place deep inside ourselves, but it is often covered with personality aspects, unconscious attitudes and experiences from the past.
Working with people from love and awareness means to develop the capacity to respond to the inner being of another person, to his essence and authentic self.
Presence means to respond to another person in a way that makes his inner being deepen and expand. It is about developing a presence so that our presence and intuition becomes a source of healing in the contact with another person.
Presence is the inner being, the inner “yes”-quality, the meditative quality within, the inner silence and emptiness. Presence is to meet another person in meditation. Presence is to invite another person in meditation. It is a meeting in meditation. It is a meeting in love, joy, acceptance, sincerity, understanding, silence and oneness. It is a friendship, cooperation and an investigation after truth. And when the truth is discovered, it is larger than the two people, who are investigating it – and both people are enriched by this investigation.
Working with people from presence and awareness means to meet a person beyond the personality. It is to meet the being of another person. It is to meet the soul of another person.
Neuroses and psychiatric problems basically has its roots in a feeling of not being love, of not being part of the Whole. People with psychiatric problems have lost their contact with their own roots. They have lost contact with the inner being, with their inner center. They have lost contact with their own inner source of love, truth and wholeness.
In reality, we are really one with the other person. We are not separated from the other person. Through giving love to the other person, we are really giving love to ourselves. When we give love to another person, we are really giving love to the Whole.
When two beings meet, a presence, a love, an acceptance, a silence, a meditation and a meeting beyond separation occurs. There arises a sense of perfection, a feeling of coming home.
I think that I have always had the ability to turn my attention within myself and to go into the inner presence, to go into the inner silence and emptiness, when I have needed it. In this inner silence, I can let go of all frustration, fear, anger and sorrow.
The spiritual dimension in therapeutic work basically works, because we are all one.
Working with people from awareness is basically about working out of that which is already perfect within a person.
Working with people from awareness is basically about seeing what develops and expands the inner being of a person. It is about bringing forth into the light of awareness the unconscious psychological patterns that prevents a person from being in contact with his own authentic being. It is about seeing what prevents a person from being nourished from his inner source of love, joy, acceptance, truth, silence, wisdom and wholeness. It is about seeing what expands the total being of a person both in relation to himself, in relation to other people, in relation to creativity and in relation to the Whole to be able to take further steps in his spiritual growth.
Working with people from awareness means to develop and expand that which is already perfect within a person. It is about seeing what expand the inner being of a person and to see where the development potential is in the life of the person for example in meditation and inner growth, in relationships or in creativity. It is about seeing what creates difficulties in a person’s inner growth, in his relationships with other people or in his work and creativity.
Presence is about finding our own unique way of being and working with people. It is about working from the authentic inner being, from the meditative quality within ourselves, from the inner source of love and truth. It is about discovering what we really want to share with other people. It is about discovering that which makes our heart dance with joy to share with people. It is about discovering that which really touches us and awakes a deep feeling of joy and meaning to share with other people.
When we are authentic, when we act from presence and awareness, it also gives nourishment to the inner being of the people around us.
Life does not come with a manual. The challenge of life is to learn to trust life. In courses, I create a situation where course participants can discover their own inner being and to learn to listen to their own heart, to trust their own intuition, joy, intelligence, inner light and understanding. The courses are a situation to learn to live their own truth.
Working with people from awareness is based on the understanding that our advice is only authentic when it comes from our own insight, understanding and experience.
Sometimes my course participants have complained that I do not give them specific advice about what to do or not to, but giving advice is easy. And it takes away the person’s own responsibility to listen to his own inner source of love, truth and wisdom, which already know the right answer. This may also be an answer that I do not see.
The atmosphere and climate of a group of people can either be a “yes”- or “no”-climate. The atmosphere in a group of people can either be uninspiring, dull and boring when the people of the group says “no” to listening to their own truth and do not chose activities that are nourishing for their souls. The atmosphere of a group of people is loving, creative, exciting and inspiring when the people of the group says “yes”, listens to their own truth and chooses activities that are nourishing for their souls and have a high level of joy and satisfaction.
In my own life, I took a conscious decision many years ago that I wanted quality in my life. It was a conscious decision that I wanted people around me that are prepared to say “yes” and to take responsibility for themselves – and who do not just take energy by saying “no”, not taking responsibility for themselves and resist being present in different ways
Truth is a quality in the moment. It arises when we have trust to what happens and when we are in contact with what Existence wants us to do. This quality makes the moment shine with an inner joy and satisfaction. It gives a deep inner satisfaction, which radiates on the outside as love like pebbles creates waves on water.
When we say “yes” to the truth of the moment, our whole being expands.
Presence is about daring to stay in a quality of “not knowing”. Presence is about resting in the silence and emptiness within without knowing what the next step will be. Presence is about daring to rest in the emptiness within, which has no past or future, and where authentic impulses arise in the moment.
In the therapeutic process based on love and awareness, there exists no “I” – just a presence, a love and a truth in the moment. It is to live in trust and appreciation for what life chooses to offer. It is to float with the river of life; it is to rest on the river.
The depth in healing- and therapeutic work comes basically from the capacity to allow things to be as they are, without any wish that they should be different than they are and without any will to change them. This means for the therapist to develop an accepting attitude, a trust and a compassion, for how life develops moment to moment.
To work from our inner being is to meet another person in love, joy, meditation and silence without any barrier in-between.
When the therapist can rest in himself, without intention, without ambition, without trying and without fighting, then every new opportunity to meet a client becomes a source of joy.
It becomes a joy to work with people on a spiritual plane, to act for that which is larger than ourselves.
SWAMI DHYAN GITEN, therapist, course leader and author, has more than 30 years of experience in individual counseling and in teaching awareness and meditation. He is trained in both modern psychology and in classic Eastern methods for awareness and meditation in USA, Italy, Sweden and India. He received further education in advanced spiritual psychotherapy at Institute for Spiritual counseling and Training in USA and Academy of Meditation in Italy.
Since he began to meditate when he was 15 years old, he has dedicated his life to the study and exploration of the inner journey in order to move out of his own way, to be in a flow, and to discover the authentic inner being, the meditative quality within, the inner silence and emptiness, the capacity to surrender to life.
Giten’s first professional passion when he was 15 years old was to become an actor. After training as an actor, he worked as an actor until he was 23 years old. Working as actor taught him a lot about life and to emphatically understand the situation and life of other people, since acting is really a spiritual occupation. It taught him about spirituality, since working as an actor means to play a role totally, while at the same time as you know deep down that you are not the role you are playing. After working as an actor for a number of years, Giten began to understand that his early passion for theater was really an unconscious search for a spiritual discipline. When he realized this, he began to feel a thirst to work with people in a more direct way in awareness and meditation.
In 1982, when Giten was 23 years old, he was directed by the Divine presence in a trance session with the American trance chancellor Lin David Martin: “You have listened to your intuition, to your true inner voice, more than most. You have been searching for the contact with the Spirit for a long time and now it is beginning to manifest on the outer plane. You have been gifted many times in previous embodiments and now everything will come rather easy for you. I want you to put your energy into the lives of others, because you can”.
His three creative areas to express the mysteries of meditation in outer form are teaching, writing and painting. His meditative art is internationally recognized and have been nominated for the international art exhibition The Florence Biennale in Italy, which is arranged in cooperation with The United Nations.
He is author of the book in Swedish Meditationens Sång – Om meditation, relationer och kreativitet (Solrosens forlag, 2001, available from Internet book store Adlibris: www.adlibris.com)) and The Silent Whisperings of the Heart – An Introduction to Giten’s Approach to Life (2008, available at Internet book store Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-silent-whisperings-of-the-heart—an-introduction-to-gitens-approach-to-life/12863990 and Presence – Working from Within. The Psychology of Being (2011, available at Internet book store Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/shop/giten-swami-dhyan/presence-working-from-within-the-psychology-of-being/paperback/product-20093624.html). Giten’s first book in Swedish describes how the three life areas, Meditation, Relationships and Creativity, create a loving, creative and satisfying life when they are developed and function in harmony. The book was selected book of the month by the book club Life Energy, one of the largest book clubs in Sweden.
Recommendations, quotes and discussions of Giten’s articles and books and its content are also beginning to appear with increasing frequency in magazines and on sites ranging from USA Today, the largest daily newspaper in the US, the US news site Newsblaze, Edge Life Magazine, a leading source for psychology, education and world transformation in the US, and Sentient Times Magazine to the large Internet communities MySpace.com, a large Internet community for young people,Wasteland, the American online magazine Alternative Approaches, Motivateus.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com, newsletters of American High tech companies to small discussion forums and blogs focused on spirituality, health, art and literature.
On September 8, 2008, The American presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign site Obama Campaign Today: An Ein News Service – The World’s Leading International News Monitoring Service – also shared Giten’s article on The Silent Revolution of the Heart – The Challenge for the 21st Century.
Visit Giten’s World – A School for the Heart. 350 Pages of Medicine for the Soul:
