Devo dire che questi miei primi “45 giri” (gli anni che ho compiuto il 14 di giugno) mi elettrizzano, non so come spiegarlo, ma é come se da sempre necessitassi dell’Oceano e del deserto per sentire anche i miei spazi interiori dilatarsi. Vi avevo mai detto che ho vissuto i primi 7 anni della mia vita a Civitavecchia? Beh, questo fatto di essere tornato a vivere in riva al mare (l’Oceano, per la veritá, che é altra cosa che il Mediterraneo) mi riporta indietro di quasi 40 anni, memorie d’infanzia di grandi scoperte e di spazi ed orizzonti molto piú aperti. Grazie a Dio, é tornato ad essere cosí, tanto geograficamente come emozionalmente.
Io sto bene, direi benone. In questi giorni stiamo festeggiando varie ricorrenze: il 10 giugno (1 anno nella casa di San Miguel), l’11 (2 anni che stiamo in Messico), oggi (il mio compleanno) ed il prossimo 19 qui é stata la festa del papá (non so perché, peraltro). Comunque, sono tutte occasioni per fare un po’ il punto della situazione: queste latitudini, un po’ marginali rispetto ai “centri” produttivi e storici dell’umanitá e del pianeta si addicono al desiderio che ho di approfondire delle dimensioni di silenzio, di lavoro all’ombra e, soprattutto di un altro modo di gestire il tempo. I messicani non si stressano mai…questo, peraltro, per me é abbastanza stressante, e mi crea problemi professionali, ma tant’é, comincio ad accettarlo.
Ormai tutto il mio lavoro si concentra sul versante “culturale” (corsi di italiano e di inglese, organizzazione di viaggi in Italia), spirituale (corsi e seminari di meditazione e filosofia-psicologia integrale) e “di cura” (counseling individuale ed alle organizzazioni): tutte attivitá magnifiche e che faccio con entusiamo. Nel preparare tutte queste attivitá, naturalmente, studio, scrivo, leggo, prego, medito: che dire? Tutto ció che amo. Il mercato é difficile, qui, la domanda non é tanta, per ora, ma, insomma, questa cittá, Ensenada, ha solo 70 anni di storia e non c’é dubbio che con l’evoluzione della stessa verrá anche una domanda di servizi personalizzati ed un po’ piú sofisticati, come quelli che offro.
La vita di famiglia, ora: Esteban ha quasi 10 anni, ormai. Frequenta una scuola sperimentale Montessori che é completamente incentrata sulle scienze naturali e sull’etica evoluzionista, e soprattutto, é molto pratica e concreta. Pensa che non assegnano compiti, non danno voti, mai e non fanno esami…Lui é felice, anche se gli manca tanto l’Italia.
David é una piccola peste, intelligente, vivace, bello provocatorio (una volta, appena alzato, mi ha visto arrivare in cucina ed ha esclamato: “Ecco il tonto’”, avrá ragione?). Pensa che l’altro giorno la sua maestra ci ha detto che le ha chiesto di fare un gioco di guerra e le ha detto “Tu sei la cattiva, ed io sono quello ancora piú cattivo!!!”. Ma é anche un bimbo pieno di sensibilitá e tenerezza: da mangiarselo. Fa simbiosi con la sua mamma: sono inseparabili di giorno e purtroppo, spesso, anche…di notte (sigh!).
Martha sta lavorando come interior designer per la gestione delle varie propietá del padre: un primo, timido, tentativo di entrare nel mondo del lavoro e scommettere sulle sue potenzialitá che, come sappiamo bene tutti (tranne lei, purtroppo) sono senza limiti. Per il resto, ovviamente, fa la mamma e la donna di casa e, di tanto in tanto, prende lezioni di ceramica, pittura e scultura. Qui, per fortuna, nel suo settore delle arti plastiche e figurative, non mancano le opportunitá, ma deve un po’ crederci lei. Credo che l’Italia manchi molto piú a lei che a me.
Luna, ora, l’altro vero amore della mia vita: la mia cagnetta é un fascio di raggi di luce, che proiettano affetto, fedeltá, protezione, simpatia ed umorismo in ogni cosa che fa. Non so come ho potuto vivere tanto senza di lei. Ora c’é, per fortuna. E ci sará per tanto tempo. Oggi anche lei compie un anno: che coincidenza, no? Bene.
Per ora, credo che sia tutto: la speranza é quella di venire in Italia tra il prossimo inverno e la prossima primavera, ma, insomma, dipende dalle risorse economiche che avremo a disposizione. Dell’Italia mi mancano i film di Verdone, le pastarelle della domenica, l’ombra umbra e le sagre. Ma anche molto altro, piú evocato che reale.
Vi voglio bene. Vi considero amici con cui la condivisione emozionale, mentale e spirituale é fertile e preziosa. E finalmente non penso piú che tempo e spazio siano ostili. Cosí, sentiamoci vicini e non perdiamoci di vista…
Se inspira en una innovadora visión del desarrollo personal, salud y transformación consciente, propia de la Teoría Integralde Ken Wilber, el filósofo y místico norteamericano más traducido en el mundo.
El compromiso del Consultor consiste en utilizar sus conocimientos profesionales al servicio de los proyectos personalizados de “life coaching”, combinándolos con otras metodologías psico-sociales (counseling y coaching en grupo, familiar, trabajo de comunidad, mediación de conflictos, formación, supervisión, etcétera)
Los servicios están dirigidos a personas adultas y adolescentes, familias, maestros, profesores, psicoterapeutas, médicos, profesionales y organizaciones (ONG, instituciones , empresas).
La misión del proyecto consiste en ofrecer a las personas y a las organizaciones un “camino evolutivo positivo”, para realizar sus potencialidades en todo ámbito de la vida: el amor, la conciencia, el cuerpo, las relaciones personales y profesionales, el trabajo, la salud personal y de las organizaciones, las emociones y por supuesto, el misterio de la existencia.
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F.A.D.
Qué es el Life Coaching?
El “Life Coaching” es un proceso orientado a la acción, diseñado para ayudarte a identificar tu plan de vida y sus objetivos, tus puntos de fuerza y puntos débiles, para alcanzar un mayor equilibrio y una mayor satisfacción en las relaciones personales y sociales.
Qué significa “Crecimiento Integral”?
El objetivo de “Life Coaching”, en una perspectiva “Integral” del desarrollo humano, consiste en producir un cambio positivo en la calidad de la vida de las personas (y de los sistemas organizacionales).
Para producir este cambio, se te propone un programa (denominado “plan personalizado”) que trabaja, simultaneamente, en los cuatro niveles de la personalidad (física, mental, emocional, espiritual).
Es el “Coaching” un servicio de salud mental?
El “coaching” no es un servicio de salud mental, aúnque muchos médicos y psicoterapeutas trabajan en colaboración con Coach y Consultores y viceversa, compartiendo la visión “integral” del desarrollo humano y la necesidad de un abordaje multidisciplinar a la salud humana.
A qué tipo de personas se dirigen los servicios de “Life Coaching”?
Sus servicios de consultoría y de coaching están dirigidos a personas adultas y adolescentes, familias, maestros, profesores, psicoterapeutas, médicos, profesionales, trabajadores sociales como también a organizaciones (ONG, instituciones, empresas). El “Life Coaching” consiste en ofrecer a las personas y a las organizaciones un “camino” individual, o en grupo, de desarrollo y crecimiento en todo ámbito de la vida: el amor, la conciencia, el cuerpo, las relaciones personales y profesionales, el trabajo, la salud personal y de las organizaciones, las emociones y por supuesto, el misterio de la existencia.
Es el “Life Coaching” una práctica para solucionar problemas o alcanzar objetivos especìficos (en la vida, el el amor, en la familia, en el trabajo, en las organizaciones)?
El “plan personalizado” de “Life Coaching” puede enfocarse en objetivos especìficos o parciales de la vida de las personas o de las organizaciones.
A través de su abordaje integral, “Life Coaching” te permite ser más conciente de tu manera de enfrentarte a las situaciones, para percibir nuevas posibilidades y lograr los resultados que representan importantes objetivos para tí.
Los métodos de“Life Coaching” son los mismos para el trabajo en las organizaciones?
El “Life Coaching” se aplica, con métodos diferentes, a temas como la salud/bienestar, la espiritualidad y la intimidad en las relaciones, como también a temas de liderazgo empresarial o de conflictos organizacionales.
Cómo puedo conseguir más informaciones sobre “Life Coaching”?
Con mucho gusto contestaré personalmente a todas tus preguntas.
Post is her third studio album: Björk named the album Post for two reasons. First, she saw Debut and Post as a series; the songs on Debut were written before her move to England, while the songs on Post were written after moving to England and dealt with her experiences there. Second, she saw the album as posting her feelings (“for me, all the songs on the album are like saying, ‘listen, this is how I’m going’”). The white shirt with blue and red markings that Björk wears on the cover is an allusion to an air mailenvelope, thus giving Post an additional meaning of “mail“.
“It’s Oh So Quiet” performed by Björk is a renamed cover of the Betty Hutton song “Blow a Fuse”.
The music video, directed by Spike Jonze, which was shot in New York City, features Björk emerging from an extremely dirty washroom in an auto shop. She strolls down the main street of an American town and she is joined in song and dance, musical-style, by the local residents she meets along the way, including a group of elderly women, a dancing mailbox, and people dressed as Roman columns. Björk herself performs some tap-dancing and also other kinds of dancing.
The pace of the video corresponds with the song’s tempo—during the slow portions of the song, the video runs in slow-motion but returns to regular speed for the uptempo parts of the song. The video ends with her floating up into the air in front of the camera while the entire town dances behind her.
Despite being Bush’s most successful album commercially, 1985′s Hounds of Love is no less experimental from a production standpoint than its predecessors. Not only did she produce it herself, but for this album, stung by the huge costs she had run up hiring studio space for her previous album The Dreaming, she built a private 24 track studio near her home where she could work at her own pace.
The album is split into two sides, with the first side, “Hounds of Love”, containing five “accessible” pop songs, including the four singles: “Running Up That Hill,” “Cloudbusting,” “Hounds of Love,” and “The Big Sky“. “Running Up That Hill” became one of her biggest hits in the UK, and re-introduced Bush to American listeners, receiving considerable airplay at the time of its release. The second side is entitled “The Ninth Wave”, whose title is taken from a poem by Tennyson.
As part of a concept, each track helps to convey the story of a woman who is lost at sea, facing death by drowning, and the tortured night she spends in the water. Bush uses samples and vocals played in reverse to synthesized sounds and folk instrumentation.
Living Deeply – The Art & Science of Transformation in Everyday Life
This exciting book, written by Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, PhD; Cassandra Vieten, PhD; and Tina Amorok, PsyD; draws from the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)‘ thirty years of groundbreaking research on human consciousness. The authors’ premise is simple, yet radical: your behavior, attitudes, and ways of being in the world are changed in life-affirming and lasting ways only when your consciousness transforms, and you commit to living deeply into that transformation. There is also a companion DVD that introduces powerful practices for Living Deeply, and there are workshops with the authors, eLearning and more.
IONS is a nonprofit membership organization located in Northern California that conducts and sponsors leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness—including perceptions, beliefs, attention, intention, and intuition. The Institute maintains a commitment to scientific rigor while exploring phenomena that have been largely overlooked by mainstream science.
The word “noetic” comes from the ancient Greek nous, for which there is no exact equivalent in English. It refers to “inner knowing,” a kind of intuitive consciousness—direct and immediate access to knowledge beyond what is available to our normal senses and the power of reason.
The vision for creating the Institute of Noetic Sciences came in 1971. Nations throughout the world had galvanized around the exciting frontier of space exploration. The potential for scientific understanding of our world seemed unlimited to a naval air captain named Edgar Mitchell. He was a pragmatic young test pilot, engineer and scientist; a mission to the moon on Apollo 14 was his “dream come true.” Space exploration symbolized for Dr Mitchell what it did for his nation as a whole—technological triumph of historical proportions, unprecedented mastery of the world in which we live, and extraordinary potentials for new discoveries.
But it was the trip home that Mitchell recalls most. Sitting in the cramped cabin of the space capsule, he saw planet Earth floating freely in the vastness of space. He was engulfed by a profound sense of universal connectedness—an epiphany. In Mitchell’s own words: “The presence of divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes. . . . The knowledge came to me directly.”
Mitchell faced a critical challenge. As a physical scientist, he had grown accustomed to directing his attention to the objective world “out there.” But the experience that came to him in space led him to a startling hypothesis: Perhaps reality is more complex, subtle, and inexorably mysterious than conventional science had led him to believe. Perhaps a deeper understanding of consciousness (inner space) could lead to a new and expanded view of reality in which objective and subjective, outer and inner, are understood as co-equal aspects of the miracle and mystery of being.
After his safe return “home,” Mitchell sought out others who likewise felt the need for an expanded, more inclusive view of reality. They resolved to explore the inner world of human experience with the same rigor and critical thinking that made it possible for Apollo 14 to journey to the moon and back.
The mission of these noetic scientists was, and has been, to expand our understanding of human possibility by investigating aspects of reality—mind, consciousness, and spirit—that include but go beyond physical phenomena. They seek to seek to understand the inner world as thoroughly as we have the outer world—based on the premise that what finds expression in the world at large is a reflection of our interior landscape. Today, three decades later, the institute carries out its mission as a worldwide research, education, and membership-based organization in Petaluma, California.
Over the years, we have sponsored hundreds of projects, including a comprehensive bibliography on the physical and psychological effects of meditation, an extensive spontaneous remission bibliography, and studies on the efficacy of compassionate intention on healing in AIDS patients (see our Research section for detailed information on our scientific endeavors).
In the year 2000, the institute expanded its scope by purchasing 200 acres of land in Northern California for our offices, scientific laboratory, and retreat center. Today we have nearly 30,000 members and close to 300 community groups worldwide. We invite you to join our organization and get involved as we continue to actualize Dr Mitchell’s vision of deep exploration of consciousness, self, and society.
Stefano Monellini is a spiritual seeker and practices different forms of meditation and prayer, both inspired by traditional and contemporary mysticism. He works as a psycho-social counseler and vocational trainer, as well as social entrepreneur commited to nonprofit activities.
Born in 1966 in Italy, he currently lives and works in Mexico. Stefano has a catholic background, but is a strong supporter of ecumenism, dialogue between different cultures and religions, science and faith.
At the age of 18, he achieves his bachelor in classical and humanistic studies. He loves travelling and different cultures: as a result of this, in 1991, Stefano graduates in tourism (cum laude, thesis entitled “The phenomenology of Christian religious tourism. An interdisciplinary approach) and learns 3 foreign languages (English, French and Spanish).In 1991, after painful personal and family experiences, he begins a personal research that leads him to meet different spiritual experiences.
In 1992 he starts his professional activity as a helping professionist, focusing primarily on social work aimed to children, teen-agers and their families. Meanwhile, he continues his academic studies, achieving, in 1996, a second university degree in human sciences and helping professions (cum laude, thesis entitled “The choice of the profession of social worker. Research on students of the university of Perugia).
In 1996, he moves to France, near Lyon, where he works as a volunteer at the “Communauté de Taizé”, an ecumenical Christian monastic community. He shares the monastic life, praying 3 times a day and working in the welcome activities. In Taizé Stefano knows Martha, his mexican wife, married in 1998. They have 2 children, Esteban (8 years) and David (2 years).
In the same period he starts studying the works of Ken Wilber, the American most translated philosopher and mystic. Through his work Stefano begins to deepen the Integral Thought and Theory. He is interested in the dialogue among human sciences and spirituality: ILP (”Integral Life Practices”) methodologies become his main counselling activity tools.
Besides his counselling and training activities, from 1997 to 2008, he works in a big Italian nonprofit company, as fund-raiser, project manager, trainer and researcher, as well as writer and congressist.
In June 2009, he moves with his family to Mexico (Ensenada, Baja California Norte), where he works as psycho-social counseler and vocational trainer with different kinds of target.
He is commited to his family and children, to meditation and prayer, and to ILP practice. Stefano practices tennis, swimming, running and weightlifting. Plays keyboards and guitar. He continues travelling in his free time.
Carlos Santana defies cynicism. A half-million people watched the electrifying performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival that catapulted him to stardom. And since then, millions upon millions, one generation after another, have been touched by his music. However, few may realize that Santana’s life is dedicated to keeping alive the utopian ideal of the sixties: the dream of equality, unity, and love that so many of us have since abandoned as naive or nearly impossible to fulfill. And perhaps even fewer realize that this dream is inspired by his deeply felt spirituality that transcends race, culture, and religion. “To live is to dream,” he said at the 2000 Grammy Awards. And because he continues his passionate commitment to the dream of human harmony, Santana is a global ambassador of optimism, opportunity, and love. The goal of his music—and his life’s purpose—far transcends entertainment. “It’s not just to make people happy or make them dance,” he explains. “It’s to change things—so that we can have a clearer vision of our life and ourselves, so there won’t be so much disharmony in the world.”
WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT: Over the course of your career, your spiritual beliefs have changed and evolved, and yet spirituality continues to be the foundation of your life. You have said that “everyone has divine qualities to be able to heal and transform. . . . Once you believe, the rest will follow.” What constitutes the essence of your own beliefs today?
CARLOS SANTANA: Your intention, motives, and purpose really define who you are. It’s not whether you’re Santana or Smith or Jones, or whether you’re Mexican or Hebrew or Catholic or Buddhist. I don’t think God and the angels see any of that stuff. They just see your intention, your motives, and your purpose. And once those three are crystallized and sharpened and are tuned into something, things open up for you—supreme synchronicity and blessings, opportunities, possibilities. Everyone is destined to prosperity, to progress, and the keys that humans need to find are intention, motives, and purpose, because that is who you really, really are. I’m surprised they don’t teach those three things in school. That’s the gasoline that you need to take you to the next destination, not all the other stuff. The other stuff is just dust. But for me, what I’m learning more and more is that those three things—intention, motives, and purpose—really define who you are.
WIE:You grew up Catholic, and then at a certain point became interested in Eastern religion, and then returned to Christianity. Does Christianity, or any traditional religion, continue to play a role in your life?
CARLOS: Well, it’s indoctrination; that’s just what it is. It’s like branding a cow with guilt, shame, judgment, condemnation, and fear—that’s what religion has meant to me. I get in trouble a lot with the press and with TV because I say that I don’t subscribe to the three P’s: politicians, pimps, and the Pope. I think that all three of them are designed to sell you fear. And if we are going to move to a new world, we’ve got to work with joy—the opposite of guilt, shame, judgment, condemnation, and fear. There’s nothing spiritual about telling people, “You’ve got to be like a Christ. You’ve got to carry your own cross.” What the hell is that? Are you telling me that we only come to this world to suffer? What kind of perverted God would do that? But nevertheless, a lot of religions have that as their basic foundation. And people swallow it, believe it, and then you have a whole bunch of seriously professional victims.
In my life, I don’t want to be a victim and I don’t want to be a tragedy. I want triumph—spiritual triumph—with humility and grace, beauty, elegance, and excellence. You know, I learned a lot from Duke Ellington about class, and from Nat King Cole and Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Coltrane about humility. So I have crystallized all my religion into no religion—into spirituality. Religion is finely designed to divide and separate; spirituality brings unity and forgiveness and compassion.
WIE: Can you elaborate on how spirituality, in the way that you’re describing it, changes or impacts our fundamental perspective on life?
CARLOS:When you give birth to your own sense of clarity, that’s when you realize that spirituality can turn people around to the fact that we have choices, that we’re not stuck with our karma. Most people give up, thinking, “My astrology says this, my karma says that, and my parents were no good so I’m acting no good.” So people resign themselves, but it’s because they don’t realize that in every breath, you have a choice. Whatever you think, you say, you do, it creates a momentum.
Spirituality to me is water. Religions are like Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, wine, beer, or whatever. But spirituality is what’s really going to save you in the battle, man. Champagne is not going to do much for you in battle. And so that’s how I look at things. To me, it’s very clear. And I think the more we get people this information, spiritual information, they will be able to choose, to realize the power of choice because, again, that’s the most empowering thing you can give people. And I’m really happy to say that I’m not the only one waking up to this new dimension.
WIE: You seem to be suggesting that choice and free will are really the cornerstones of spiritual life. Can you say more about that?
CARLOS: When we die, when you die, when I die, we will get a standing ovation from demons and angels because we did things that they cannot do, because we have free will. Angels and demons cannot create a Golden Gate Bridge. We come out of a woman and are so frail and so weak, yet we dream. People may tell us, “It could never happen. It will cost too much money; it will take an army of people; it will take a long time; it will be tough—concrete and cement and steel.” But there’s the Golden Gate Bridge! Jesus didn’t do that. And after all, he told us, “You would do things that I cannot do.” That’s spiritual.
But most people are not in a place where they can hold their worth. God made me worth something, but we’re not programmed to think like this. Most people squirm or interrupt you when you give them a compliment because they think, “I’m not worthy” or “It will go to my head.” Man, suck it up; be gracious and say, “Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Because when we wake up to the fullness of the world, the foundation being spiritual principles, then we can see what Jesus wanted, or Buddha, Krishna, Allah, Rama, Jehovah—what they really wanted from us.
WIE:Where do you find your greatest source of spiritual inspiration?
CARLOS: My meat and potatoes is my intention, motives, and purpose, and the company that I keep. My phone rings and it’s Mr. Desmond Tutu or Mr. Harry Belafonte. It’s okay to brag because they are the people that I would rather have calling me—and people like Miles Davis or Wayne Shorter. If I never got an award, that would be fine with me, because the company that I keep is very inspiring and stimulating. I love hanging around vibrant people, people who don’t walk around with a tag. You can never put a tag on a Mandela or a Desmond Tutu or a Harry Belafonte. You cannot buy these people, and once they set out to do something, you can’t bribe them. Those are the kinds of people that I’d like to be center stage with.
WIE: You have said of the 1960s that you “miss those days, the fire and the hunger that people had and the urgent sense that things had to change.” How do you experience that urgency now, at the threshold of a new millennium that’s fraught with unprecedented global crisis?
CARLOS: I bring practical spirituality together with the rebel from the street, because I still live the principles of the sixties. I’m still a hippie. We were rainbow warriors, reincarnated Native American Indians who wanted a different dimension of existence. And it may sound idealistic, but it’s working for me. It’s working for me better than the so-called meat-and-potatoes reality of a lot of people. To me, being spiritual is not being meek. I don’t know anything about turning the other cheek. I don’t believe in violence, but I believe in taking action. And I guess that’s why my wife, Deborah, and I are so involved with children, because if you change the children, you can change the world. The older people, they’re already set, but we feel very passionately that if you put new data and new information out, something miraculous is possible.
I think we have to tell Dunlop, Nike, Starbucks, all the biggest tobacco and oil companies, all those people: you can make a difference in the world. You can do something from your heart that will benefit a lot of people on the planet, and you’ll still be profitable. That’s spiritual. And if you’re not doing that, then you’re basically retarding the existence of this planet. I do believe what Thomas Jefferson used to say—that tyrants are disobedient to God, and we can’t let them continue to destroy this planet, the people, and the ocean. So obviously, I’d like to change the powers of the world because they’ve had their turn. I think it’s important to see a new parade of people who are in a position to change the consciousness—not just the same creepy old guard.
WIE: You have been quoted as saying that through your music you “want to connect the molecules with the light.” Can you explain what you mean by that?
CARLOS:When you hear something incredible that moves you to dance, to cry and dance at the same time, your molecules change. To a meat-and-potatoes person, the first time your molecules change is when you French kiss or when you play hide-and-seek and you touch someone’s hand; something happens to your body. But how do you put spiritual principles into practical everyday reality that people can digest? Well, it’s not impossible.
So in conclusion, I’m happy to tell you that we’re not alone; there are a lot of people who are resonating with this and want the same thing. I think the door is open; we want it now. We want spiritual revolution, consciousness revolution. That’s what the Beatles and Marvin Gaye and John Lennon and John Coltrane were talking about. We all want the same thing, and that can be attained! It’s not impossible. And more than anything, I invite you to crystallize your intention, motives, and purpose, because if you don’t do that, you’re always going to blame somebody else for what you didn’t get to do.
Deborah and Carlos Santana share the heartfelt conviction that the responsibility of success is to “give back” to the world. During the early 1970s, they began working with international aid organizations, such as Save the Children, to support children living in poverty around the world. Over the last decades, their humanitarian impulse has only grown—resulting in the founding, in 1998, of the Milagro Foundation to meet the needs of underprivileged children, and more recently in their commitment to Artists for a New South Africa (ANSA), which is addressing the AIDS pandemic ravaging that country. Despite their high-profile stature, the Santanas are choosing to work at the grassroots level through these organizations. Supported by donations as well as through proceeds from ticket sales (twenty-five to fifty cents from each ticket sold for Santana’s concerts goes to the foundation), Milagro has aided a youth enterprise and leadership program in Zimbabwe, a youth theater-project in San Francisco, an integrated school for Arab and Jewish children in Israel, and more. As the Santanas both emphasize, their philanthropic work is not to procure more fame but to spread the miracle of a new possibility to those who need help. “To me,” Carlos says, “Milagro is the hand of God, picking us up when we fall, raising consciousness, healing.”
WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT: How would you describe the mission of the Milagro Foundation?
DEBORAH SANTANA:We created the Milagro Foundation as a repository for all of the thousands of requests that we received for help. Milagro means miracle, so the philosophy is basically that through serving children and youth in the areas of health, education, and the arts, we are helping each child to reach their destiny as the miracles that they were created to be.
CARLOS SANTANA: Our mission is healing and restoring some of the things that children might lose by being in the wrong environment, sometimes not having parents, or having parents who are not spiritually evolved. It’s very much about giving the gift of the awareness that you have a choice, that you’re not always stuck with karma or with the worst mom and dad. And for that, we are getting requests for help from all over the world.
It’s somewhat like irrigating. I always think of Milagro as being like the people who open those irrigation wheels and let the water come out from the Sierras all the way to LA, Fresno, and Bakersfield, all the places that are basically desert. So we’re like people who turn those wheels and are able to give money, which is time and energy. Since I was a kid, I understood that if you put time and energy into something, they give you a check, whether it’s washing dishes or whatever. And so we like to share this energy and time and love with all the people who are deeply dedicated all over the world to rescue children and teenagers.
DEBORAH: One of the things that I think is important to understand about everything that we do is that it comes from the same source and it’s a spiritual source. Whether it’s getting the band out on the road, making a new CD, or working with children and youth in Milagro, we try to be completely organic in terms of asking for direction from within ourselves from that place of light and peace—asking from a selfless place of service. So whatever we’re doing has that same thread. And in that, you have to constantly be open to growing and changing.
Milagro is not stagnant. We started off with the vision to serve youth and children and have become very, very interested in the disparity between economic classes, because in reality, the children and youth who are underserved and underrepresented are often children of color and children in urban areas. We’re noticing that the theme of spiritual equality—of putting that light out there for everybody—is really the driving force behind everything that we do.
WIE: What are some of the most inspiring results you’ve seen from the work you’ve supported?
CARLOS: The letters and paintings that children send, the smiles before and after. My whole life has been about feedback, whether it’s feedback from my guitar to my amplifier, from us to the audience, from God to us and the angels—it’s all about feedback. So the only thing that I do request once in a while is that I get to see letters and the videos of an organization before and after it has received funding.
WIE: How does being world renowned and having celebrity status impact the philanthropic work that you’re doing?
CARLOS: Look at a person like Paul Newman who very quietly gives away millions a year. That’s my true bona fide hero, because he very quietly does the salad dressing and the popcorn and the lemonade, but man, a lot of that money is helping the world. So we want to help but be invisible and anonymous as much as possible, because you get more done when you’re invisible. To be able to be anonymous is one of the supreme luxuries that people don’t realize they have. Because when you’re visible, man, it’s like duck hunting season. So I’m saying from experience that it’s more productive to be invisible and anonymous and to help and be of service to the world.
DEBORAH: And even though we have this other life and people may look at us and think, well, he’s a musician, she’s a writer, they have a company, they drive this kind of car—people may see something external about us, but our intention is to keep our lives in tune with who we are inside. And who we are inside is spiritual beings. So that’s always my intention.
WIE: You have also made large donations to Artists for a New South Africa, which is addressing one of our greatest humanitarian crises—the AIDS pandemic in that part of the world. Can you speak about the impact your support is having?
CARLOS: I had a dream about going to Africa with two 747s full of medicine and musicians and doing a concert there. Although, you know, it’s nothing new. Bill Graham did it with Peter Gabriel, and Sting, and Bruce Springsteen. Anyway, my dream wouldn’t fly, because by the time you pay the gasoline and the hotels and the crew and everything, you don’t have any money to give away to anybody. But I refuse to become cynical. I put that dream aside and I mentioned to Deborah last year, “Why don’t we just give the money from the whole Shaman tour (2003). Let’s pay the taxes, pay the bills, and give them the whole thing.” Because a lot of concerts that people do for benefit never benefit the people who really need it, because the money ends up with the lawyers and the accountants and the business.
So we did that, and we feel very confident and very at ease that once you have a gentleman like Mr. Desmond Tutu as the administrator who’s going to distribute the funds, you can’t do anything better than that, because it’s not going to go into somebody’s pocket other than the organization’s. And I feel very honored and very grateful to be of service to the ground zero of AIDS in Africa. The statistics just break your heart. There are hundreds of thousands of orphans. And it impacts the world when children grow up without parents because they grow up very hateful and very resentful. You need nurturing, you need the mother’s touch, you need a father—it’s that balance. So we feel very honored and very grateful to be part of that.
DEBORAH: And both of us talked about feeling the tremendous amount of love that came from our hearts and went to South Africa, and came back in phone calls from Desmond Tutu telling us how excited he was that we would make that kind of offering to his country and his people, and how excited the people were, and that maybe two or three people had more hope because someone like us cared. Our hearts swelled with that response. The money would do tons because it’s going to go through Artists for a New South Africa, which we totally trust. Already the result from that act is that there are generic drugs that are going to be produced in South Africa that people will actually be able to afford. So the ripples that came from that act have been very heartwarming and wonderful. But I think the most important thing we felt was love, and it was immediate. And it wasn’t always spoken, but what could be better thing than to have your heart feel like it was expanding from something you couldn’t even see was coming back to you.
CARLOS: Deborah told me that Mother Teresa once said, “You don’t have to be Mother Teresa and do it the way I do it. Just do it wherever you are, whoever you are.” You don’t have to be able to heal or clean leprosy or feed the poor in Calcutta. Whoever you are, just do it in your own time, on your own block, in your own district. Deborah and I can only react and respond to my heart and to her heart. We have been given so many blessings. And so for us, it’s a joy to be of service, and we’re just starting; we’re just rolling up our sleeves. People can really live their truth according to their immediate passion for life. We call it spreading the spiritual virus, and it’s very contagious.
Kid A is the fourth album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released in October 2000. A commercial success worldwide,Kid A went platinum in its first week of release in the UK. Despite the lack of an official single or music video as publicity, Kid A became the first Radiohead release to debut at number one in the US. This success was credited variously to a unique marketing campaign, the early Internet leak of the album, or anticipation after the band’s 1997 album, OK Computer.
“Optimistic” is the video I choosed for you.
Here are the the lyrics of the song:
“Flies are buzzing around my head
Vultures circling the dead
Picking up every last crumb
Big fish eat the little ones
Big fish eat the little ones
Not my problem give me some
You can try the best you can
If you try the best you can
The best you can is good enough
(x2)
This one’s optimistic
This one went to market
This one just came out of the swamp
This one dropped a payload
Fodder for the animals
Living on an animal farm
If you try the best you can
If you try the best you can
The best you can is good enough
(x2)
I’d really like to help you man
I’d really like to help you man…..
Nervous messed up marionette
Floating around on a prison ship
If you try the best you can
If you try the best you can
The best you can is good enough
If you try the best you can
If you try the best you can
Dinosaurs Roaming the earth (x3)”
Bjork
Stefano Monellini is a spiritual seeker and practices different forms of meditation and prayer, both inspired by traditional and contemporary mysticism. He works as a psycho-social counseler and vocational trainer, as well as social entrepreneur commited to nonprofit activities.
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