The Heart of the Matter
August 30, 2019
Creating a Stage Upon Which the Heart Can Dance

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In my life, I've had the good fortune of having some extraordinary coaches -- people who had the knack for being able to bring out the best in me and spark meaningful insights and behavior change. Bill Stevenson, for example, my high school soccer coach. Stan Silverberg, my summer camp basketball coach. And Tim Gallwey, the Founder of The Inner Game. But of all the coaches I've had, the most extraordinary one has been Prem Rawat.

Allow me to be more specific.

A few years ago, I found myself in a room with him, having a conversation about writing and storytelling. I don't remember how we got onto the topic, but there we were, poised to explore it. The first thing he did, was raise his right hand and circle it around his head three times, a non-verbal clue that I interpreted to be an expression of the state of my writing at the time -- Prem's sign language for "dizziness" and "too much" and "too heady." No words were spoken, but I completely got what he didn't say. His gesture cut to the chase.

It was true -- my writing often was too much, too heady, and too dizzying. Where one word would suffice, I'd write five. Where pausing would have been the right move, I did the hoky poky. Where pointing at the moon would have been enough, I tried to build a space station.

In one gesture, Prem cut through it all. And then, in the silence that followed, he spoke (and I paraphrase).

"When I do an event in India," he said, "there are sometimes 250,000 people in the audience. When I tell a story there, I say just enough so people can fill in the spaces with their own imagination. Storytelling is all about evoking a feeling. What I do," he went on to say, "is create a stage upon which the heart can dance."

Photo: TimelessToday
PremRawat.com
Video: Language of the Heart

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August 28, 2019
Prem Rawat's New Book To Be Released on September 1st

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Global peace ambassador, Prem Rawat, has spent his entire life traveling the world to deliver one timeless message: Peace is Possible. Conflict, he explains, takes place at three levels: between countries, between people, and finally within each of us as individuals. These levels are all interconnected. Hence the conflict that rages within a person will lead them to seek out conflict with another. Similarly, conflict between people of one nation is likely to result in conflict between many nations.

So the first step to world peace is a simple one: we must first find peace within ourselves.

Peace is Possible draws together age-old stories which, as they have been passed down over generations, inspired and transformed the lives of millions. From the power of adaptability, to the importance of trust, to the sticking-place of courage, these are the messages that will change the world. For good.

Available on Amazon
PremRawat.com

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August 23, 2019
The Impact of a Living Master

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Friends sometimes ask me what the impact is of having a living Master, or, in my case, Prem Rawat. Every once in a while, in response to their questions, I try my best to quote from one of his talks, not wanting my words to be interpretations of anything he's said, knowing how easy it is to confuse the people I love with my own, imperfect translations.

There are other times, however, when words, even his, will not suffice -- when the feeling is so absolutely radiant that I am taken back to the time before language, the time when not even a single song had yet been sung. And often this happens at one of his events.

There, I see people from many different countries having traveled great distances to see this man. These people are being lifted by something lighter than air, unseen. After hearing Prem speak, they do not want to rise from their seats. They just sit there, beaming, breathing, beholding something sacred within themselves. They have nothing to say. They have nothing to do. They have nowhere to go, having already arrived.

If it wasn't for the ushers on the evening shift, they might still be sitting there, smiling, soft eyes focused on nothing in particular. I watch them stand and walk, eyes to the ground like divining rods tracking an invisible current of love. Others feel their way forward, slowly adrift, it seems, in some kind of all-pervading buoyancy.

They are not so much moving as being moved.

And while they clearly notice others on their way to the exits, they are not engaging in the usual conversations. Why speak of 9-5 when you are, through no effort of your own, abiding in the timeless?

Out the door they go, into the night, surrounded by friends, known and unknown, equally enjoying the gyroscopic center of every dervish's dance since the beginning of time. Home base. The alchemist's stone. The sword. And the rock from which the sword was unsheathed.

Much laughter. Huge embraces. A hearty round of ordering something everyone shares, remembering a word, a phrase, a story told just minutes before -- a word, a phrase, a story that continues reverberating, at such a rate, that at least one waitress wonders, aloud, why the drinks she is carrying to her guests, on the tray above her head, all seem to be swirling from the inside out.

Photo: TimelessToday
Prem Rawat
PEAK

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August 21, 2019
The Beautiful Stillness After Prem Rawat Speaks

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After great performers come to the end of a performance, it is not uncommon for grateful audiences to give them a standing ovation. They clap, they cheer, they focus all their attention on the one who has just opened the door to magnificence. Think Pavarotti. Think Martin Luther King. Think anyone you've ever stood your ground for and loved.

What I find amazing is this is how Prem Rawat's presentations begin. Before he utters a single word, audiences are on their feet, applauding. And when he's done? Pin drop silence. Somehow, through his own unique alchemy of wisdom, humor, and insight, he finds a way to bring everyone to a place of perfect stillness, back to the very beginning, where there is nothing left to do, but be.

When Prem Rawat is done speaking, I find myself barely able to move. I am stunned, pinned to the back of my chair by the invisible arrow of love. All dramas in my life disappear and there is no me left to applaud the end of the show. What remains is a feeling.

Sitting in the afterglow of this man's communication of truth is a complete and total joy. Oh yes, I know I must move from my seat eventually. Oh yes, I know I will soon be walking and talking and asking someone to pass me the grated Parmesan in that great little Italian restaurant just up the road, but now -- here in this sacred moment after he speaks -- nothing else matters.

I close my eyes and breathe. Then I open my eyes again. I see people sitting. I see people standing. I see people wanting to linger just a little longer in this extraordinary state of arrival. Some walk in silence toward the exits, eyes down, not wanting anyone or anything to distract them from the deepest of feelings welling up within them far beyond time.

Photo: TimelessToday
PremRawat.com
Splitting the Arrow

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August 04, 2019
Being Human

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PremRawat.com

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August 01, 2019
The Pause that Refreshes

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Calligraphy by Barbara Bash

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Welcome to Mitch Ditkoff's blog about what's really important in this life: Peace, gratitude, love, joy, clarity, and the effort required to wake up and smell the roses. Enjoy!

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