Ambition and Spiritual Life

Dr Eve Poole

Jeremy Sinclair

Eve Poole was one of a panel of speakers addressing this question at Just this Day in London in November.  Click on her name or her picture to hear what she had to say.  She also has a live journal, a blog, Eve's Commonplace which is a marvellous window onto a well used life. The other speakers, Jeremy Sinclair and Rosalind Wyatt are also available to listen to via You Tube, just click on their names and hey presto you may learn more about where ambition fits into spiritual life or you may, like me, end up questioning your own life, its spiritual aspect and where ambition sits within that reality.  I have come to think that ambition is just a name for the creative driving force

Rosalind Wyatt with someone who recognises creativity!

which is part of every being and part of what makes them particular.  Eve is a wonder, a young woman with charm and intelligence and with many interests and talents.  The world has been charmed by her and no wonder.  She uses that special charm to connect with people in an easy way and then to simplify what they need to hear, what they need to be able to understand and helps them to realise their own ambitions in an ethical manner.  That to me is what she must have been made for by the Creator who is the One and only one who knows what and who the world is going to need.  Listen to her and you will smile and come away a bit clearer about what ambition might be. Jeremy Sinclair is interesting too.  Admitting to knowing that he wanted to be successful, he explained that success is perhaps just wanting to do things well, to do a thing as well as you are able to.  You can find out whether he has done that by finding out who he is!  That is your Christmas test!
Rosalind Wyatt is an artist and when she talks, you are right with her at the end of her pen or her brush or then her needle and you feel the way that ambition has taken her to create works which are beautiful, careful and which reveal the fulness of human nature.  You can find out about her and what she does by listening to her recent interview 

I have just listened to these three again and what I hear is an expression of each speaker,  an expression of spirit, an expression of the ambition of the One we call God.  He or She didn't put us here to do nothing, he made human beings in his own image to do the best they could for one another and to use every inch of their creative talent to do it with.  Besides for which he made us able to smile and to make others smile too so even if you aren't a chief executive or a brilliant artist or musician, you have the ability to smile and to make others smile too.  Go on, you know you can and you probably know you should.

Being happy just by yourself

Do you think you could be happy without your own place to live?  Do you think you could be happy without a family?  Do you think you could be happy without what you think your life is?
Here is Isabelle, a modern day renunciate with the Brahma Kumaris.  She looks happy and she is happy and when you meet her you are happy too.  Hear why she is happy and why giving up the things of the world doesn't matter to her by clicking on this link.  She is leading a meditation and reflection on the meaning of being a soul right in the centre of London at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Junior Doctors Beware, there is a Jeremy Hunt er outside your door

You know we're on your side

come to negotiate my dears

I am sure you know the story of the 7 little kids and the big bad wolf who dressed up in a grandmother's clothes and put white flour on her wolf like mits in order to trick the innocent kids to open the door and let her in. This blogging Granny is on the inside of the door and with Grandpa is standing by you oh you kid doctors saying beware oh little kids BEWARE of the Hunt-er outside.  He is dressed up in his negotiating clothes and has floured his hands but I feel in my Granny bones that he is playing you into a corner.  This is what I think he may be after and it won't be good for you if I'm right.  He wants to get you into a position where he appears to be the innocent negotiator and you are the wicked ones who don't care about your patients.  We all think that he probably wants to privatise that national treasure, the National Health Service rather than face up to the fact that it must go through a very intelligent process to get it working for everyone even if we all have to pay a little more for it.  He wants to appear to negotiate with you which will be reported in the Press as a kind and open minded way of going forward when he really wants to squeeze you into a place where you still strike and then he will be able to paint you as Voldemort with an inky black heart, uncaring, idle, self-seeking shirkers upon whom he as saviour of the NHS will be bound to impose a contract.  You will be sad and cross and out of pocket in the long run and off you will have to go to New Zealand and Dubai and other parts of the world with your good training and your high set of values and then doctors trained in other places with other values will come in and take your place.  Believe me, and believe Grandpa, we don't want you to go.  We want the National Health Service to be funded properly and if Jeremy Hunt would like to call Grandpa he has a few good ideas for how he could do it.

It isn't too late but it maybe too late if you don't see who is really outside the door little kids.

From one world to another

From this one 

to this one

I have taken a both physical and spiritual journey from my cosy Aga in the kitchen to the top of Mount Abu in India with my friends the Brahma Kumaris.  Here is a picture of their kitchen store. This week they are feeding at least 400 people each day out of that store!  In my kitchen I feed Grandpa and a few other souls who happen to be passing by.  I have gone from one world to another in more ways than one!

The Brahma Kumaris are a modern miracle and here is why.  Started in the 1930s, a small group with a visionary leader arrived in Mount Abu with nothing but faith and love of God and one another.  And their faith translated into a spiritual discipline of love which they still maintain and which is probably why they are so successful.  So successful that they are in over 100 countries, so successful that here in India at the centre nearby they provide 75000 meals a day!  That is 25000 people 3 times a day and that is with solar powered cooking not an aga.  I am not here though for the cooking, I am here to learn a little more about their meditation and way of life.  I came thinking I knew a thing or two about it but will be leaving in a couple of days time realising that I have a long way to go.  However they are the nicest company to be in for those miles .  If you want to hear a Brahma Kumaris leading a meditation, come to St Martin-in-the-Fields on Wednesday next week in the morning or listen by live stream.  Follow this link for the morning event  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ0gjnYGBIg   And in the evening come to St James's Piccadilly to hear some other marvellous people or follow this link to watch it by live stream  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mVq8NUZZyc

Dadi Janki giving out the gift of toli (sweeties)

Buffeted by the news. Meditate

Battle between the Gods and the Giants.

We are shocked by the terrible outrage in Paris unless we are amongst the fanatics.  We are delighted at the results of the election in Burma if we are fans of Aung San Suu Kyi.  We love one thing and deplore another according to our own sense of self.  The battle between the good and bad goes on interminably, one day a good thing, another day a bad but somehow inside us we believe in the Good, we know when a thing is good or bad unless our judgment has been warped by some propaganda.  We have the power to judge these things and we also have the power to judge the good and bad things inside ourselves.  The reason is that we can see the way the good ideas and bad ideas crowd into our minds firing up a response, sometimes good and hopefully not too often bad.  Keeping your eye on the good things helps especially when there are events which we can't understand.  We have to cling together with family, look after our neighbours and praise good works that good people are doing all over the world.  The other thing is to find a space beyond the good and bad, to aim for the space beyond the words and actions and let that space help you make any changes that are needed.
Use your mind and heart and all your strength to go forward towards the source of goodness.  If you want to hear some remarkable people speaking about how to do this, check this newsletter out and on November 25th follow the links to hear them wherever you are.
Laura Hyde, David Horan, Valery Rees, Morning Event Live Stream:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ0gjnYGBIg  St Martin in the Fields
Eve Poole, Jeremy Sinclair, Rosalind Wyatt, Emily Johnston. Evening Event Live Stream:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mVq8NUZZyc  St James's Piccadilly

Hunting down the doctors Jeremy Hunt

maybe we aren't the only ones after you

You are hunting down the junior doctors Jeremy and I don't think that you have really thought it through.  Grandpa and I have sat down with our doctor daughter and her doctor husband to work out how this is going to affect them and although we understand the NHS is unwieldy and costs too much we think you don't realise that you are going about your cuts in the wrong way.  You are heading for a fight when they really don't want it.  They want to be able to look after their patients but they realise that the N.H.S will lose doctors who can't afford to work for you and won't attract young people to train.  I am sure that you think that you aren't disadvantaging them but you are and remember  a Junior Doctor will probably have incurred a large debt whilst qualifying, will have paid tuition fees, accommodation and food over their long training period.  They will be in their mid twenties to early thirties and will have no chance of paying the debt off for years.  Being that age, they will hope to have some personal life, to find a partner and may hope to have a home and start a family.  They will already have less time to spend doing this than their friends who are in different professions.

We notice that MP's have changed their own hours to make the job sociable and family friendly so you must understand that sociable hours mean functioning families, unsociable hours might create dysfunctional ones.  We hope you have read this article about picking the wrong fight.   You probably won't read this meditating Granny blog!  We think that we will have to meditate our way to healthy old age because there may not be enough doctors to help us when we need them.

You say that their basic pay won't go down but think of this.  Their basic pay will now cover what has already been thought of as working unsocial hours.    Their hours will mean that they will be working later and on the weekends for no extra pay.  You are riding on the back of the feeling that the National Health Service is failing and doctors are part of the problem but if you think about it, when you lose doctors and can't attract people into the profession, the National Health Service will be worse.  The trouble with the hospitals isn't the junior doctors, it maybe that there aren't enough of them.  You seem to have spoken to the press a lot and given them a story which puts these doctors in a bad light.  They don't want to strike, of course they don't but they don't see how you will ever listen to the reality of the impact of your contract on them. Grandpa and I are having to jump up and down and write about this because our two doctors are working their socks off already as well as having long journeys, large mortgages and little expectation of being able to start a family.  Don't Hunt them to death Mr Hunt.

Can you be ambitious and spiritual at the same time? Find out!

Olivia Emden

Emily Johnston

Last year, Olivia from the Footfall Theatre, asked two women in a discussion at St James's Church Piccadilly if it was possible to be ambitious in the world and retain a spiritual life.  I am interested in the question because to succeed as an actress and for her company to succeed meant that she understood the nature of ambition.  When you read the Footfall mission statement, you will see that they are an all-female theatre company with a passion for Shakespeare's texts and collaborative theatre.  They know that a lot of theatre makers tackle Shakespeare but what makes them different is their emphasis on illuminating the female voice and gender within his plays.

Jeremy Sinclair

Rosalind Wyatt

Dr Eve Poole

 Olivia's question remained with me and it will be up to you and your questions to help
find out if the apparent two paths, the ambitious and the spiritual end up in the same place.  To help, on November 25th at St James's Piccadilly, Emily Johnston, life and well being coach will chair the three remarkable people who you can see pictured.  All of them have outer lives that are quite different from one another except that all three are creative.  They have been asked to speak because their inner lives are all motivated by and centred on a spiritual curiousity.  They will be facing YOU alongside an audience with their own questions.  You can be there if you are in London but even if you live at the other end of the world you can join in.  Go to www.justthisday.org at 7.00 pm GMT on November 25th and starting with Don Kipper, two musicians who are ambitious to succeed will play you into the mood to listen. Then our speakers are guaranteed to give us a really interesting evening.  Jeremy Sinclair, Chairman of M&C Saatchi, Rosalind Wyatt, artist and calligrapher and Dr Eve Poole, writer and lecturer, all three are deeply impressive people.  I really want to know where ambition fits in to spiritual life because I recognise that I am ambitious in many ways, ambitious for Just this Day, ambitious for my children and Grandchildren to succeed and at best, ambitious for society in general to be happy.  Come along and help me to find out more.

Andrew Gorman and Don Kipper