Flourishing Archives - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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Flourishing

Thursday, November 5, 2026

Posted on November 4, 2026
in Flourishing, Imagination, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Mindfulness and Travealing, Travel
2 Comments

Manoj and I on the rooftop deck of our cruise ship in France. It has nothing to do with today's text. Just for fun. Hope you enjoyed the Halloween Eve with your family and friends. The website is finally fixed and I can continue to post short pieces about mindfulness, meditation, reading, walking, and journaling. We begin a new month today: Mindfulness, and Awe, Wonder, Delight. For this eleventh month I'll write about my experiences in nature mostly National Parks, experiencing art, and looking at sacred images. Awe, Wonder and Delight are sacred emotions that kindle spiritual delight, tenderness, and kindness. Ancient Hindu texts teach that within us there is an innate force of joyful wonder, but we must create outer circumstances for it to sprout and surface. This may happen...

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Tuesday, October 26, 2026

Posted on October 26, 2026
in Flourishing, Last Quarter of Our Lives, Travel
0 Comments

With our Captain, co-captain, three tour guides, and 103 co-passangers. Manoj and I are in the middle front row on the roof of our boat named SERENE. Dear Readers,Greetings! Hope all of you're doing well. I know, I know before I went for France I had promised that I'll be back within three weeks from the day I left. That was September 27th. But I just couldn't. Yes we had an amazing trip in France experiencing Bordeaux, Paris, Rouen, Les Andelys, Versailles, Geverny and Normandy. We returned home on October 10 late at night. So where was I for the last sixteen days? Both, my husband Manoj and I were severely exhausted with common cold and cough, so much so that even going to the dining hall for meals was a...

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Sunday, September 27, 2026

Posted on September 27, 2026
in #Authentic Self, Flourishing, Meditation, Mindfulness and Travealing, Spirituality, Travel, Well Being
2 Comments

Our Itinarary (September 27-October 10 2026) Dear Readers, My husband, Manoj and I are going away for about two weeks on a river cruise on Seine River, France. We are leaving on Sunday and will return on October 10. For the next two weeks please enjoy reading the "Reflections" below about the meaning of God, Allah, Yahweh, Dao, Buddhachitta, Atman or any other name we give to the Cosmic Intelligence or Divine Within.Do you sometimes feel that something within you is wiser, kinder and more peaceful than you? Have there been moments when you’ve experienced this Self?For the next two weeks, I’d like you to read and reread what different philosophical, spiritual and religious traditions say about this wiser and kinder jewel deep within each one of us that I call...

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Thursday, September 24, 2026

Posted on September 23, 2026
in #Authentic Self, #Awareness, #Stillness, Silence, Solitude, Attention and Awareness, Flourishing, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
1 Comment

Do not confuse the whispers of the Authentic Self with the voice in your head. Perhaps you’ve not yet separated yourself from the chain of thoughts and still unconsciously identify with that voice that is loud, pessimistic and never stops talking. Begin to be more attentive. Learn to differentiate between that critic’s voice (harsh and unproductive) and gentle nudges of your Self that are unexpected, productive and wise.  When you make “focus on the breath” a daily routine, you’ll experience the presence of Awareness, presence of your higher Self. The whispers of your Authentic Self are from the one who is within you, who knows you, knows you more than you know yourself. This Self provides you freedom from your separate ego self. You may believe that your small ego self...

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Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Posted on September 7, 2026
in #Authentic Self, #Nature Lover, #Stillness, Silence, Solitude, Awareness, Being in Nature, Flourishing, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
3 Comments

The practitioners of mindfulness meditation who sits in silence and solitude elevate themselves as they realize what it means to live in the awareness of the present moment. When we are aware we are lifted beyond our fleeting emotions and thoughts—painful or cheerful. We feel serenity and true peace. We sense, I’m not my ego self. I’m awareness that is one with the awareness of all—always peaceful and joyful. We are one with our Authentic Self which is always here, now and awake.  What is a life of contemplation? It is to realize that we come to the world alone and we leave alone. Our solitude may be absolute but our life is as meaningful as we make it. Our feelings, thoughts, sensations, activities and relationships are fleeting; but our Authentic Self abides. Those...

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Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Posted on August 24, 2026
in #Authentic Self, #Nature Lover, Being in Nature, Flourishing, Travel
4 Comments

On our way to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, the bus stopped for a photo break of the spectacular peaks of the Teton mountain range. The driver pointed to a log cabin in the distance, a cottage in the middle of a meadow of swaying yellow flowers and wild grass. Behind these was the restroom. I hurried toward it when I noticed a sign board: “The Episcopal Chapel of the Transfiguration” in front of a chapel. I wondered, what exactly does transfiguration mean? When I returned, people had already seen the chapel and left. I entered, looked around its sparse decoration and plain walls constructed with logs. It moved me. The space felt cool and comfortable. In front of a large rectangular glass window was a table on which was placed a cross flanked...

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Posted on August 3, 2026
in #Nature Lover, #Stillness and Quietude, Awareness, Being in Nature, Flourishing, Mindfulness and Travealing, Travel
6 Comments

Month 8, “Mindfulness and Travel” is dedicated to traveling within the country and around the world. I’d like to share with you how I discovered awe and beauty in American National Parks.  While trekking in Sedona, Arizona my fleeting thoughts subsided amidst the fiery, awesome, sacred red rock mountains. Other worldly natural beauty felt like possessing some sacred power. I breathed in the sage-scented mesas and walked on orange-dusted pathways. The sun scorched my skin and frequently made me close my eyes. But my deeper Self awakened coalescing with surrounding spirituality. The magnificent Cathedral and Bell Rocks mesmerized. The cliffs, mesas, and fringes of juniper forests set against searing blue sky impressed. Taking our fill we continued our bus ride toward Grand Canyon, arriving at our cottage late at night. Next morning we rose early and realized...

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Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Posted on July 27, 2026
in #Nature Lover, Being in Nature, Creativity, Flourishing, Imagination, Mindfulness and Travealing, Travel
3 Comments

Ashby Ponds under Harvest Moonlight Walking after sunrise and before sunset is popular. But have you walked under a moonless night when the sky is inky black-blue and stars twinkle bright, or when the moon is full? If you have, you know how nighttime walks heighten our senses of hearing and smell, titillate our body and mind. In the dark, the sense of sight diminishes but hearing takes over. Focus on the breath, and the inner stillness feels stronger. Slow your pace, stop, tilt your head upward and gaze at expanse of stars. Wonderment! Awe! You have to walk under the majesty of the night sky to feel it’s serenity and magical spell. It clears the mind, it calms, it makes you forget petty problems that had earlier in the day made you...

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Thursday, 16 July 2026

Posted on July 16, 2026
in Being in Nature, Flourishing, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Walking
0 Comments

Another Peacock Dance, New Delhi, India. Summer 2026 Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) firmly believed that people should regard themselves as part and parcel of nature rather than members of society. In nature one has absolute freedom and wildness. To his consternation he wrote, “only one or two persons in the course of my life understood the art of walking” or who had “a genius for sauntering.” Legs were not made to sit upon, he declared, but to stand or walk upon.  People walk in the highways and across parking lots, “I walk out into nature much the way the old prophets and poets, Manu, Moses, Homer and Chaucer walked in.” True sauntering takes place in the woods and meadows” and not in parking lots and on highways. “The moment my legs begin to...

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Tuesday, 14 July, 2026

Posted on July 13, 2026
in #Authentic Self, Awareness, Death and Dying, Flourishing, Nonverbal Activities, Old Age and Death, Walking
2 Comments

Walking through a well-maintained cemetery is a unique experience. Observing the headstones and monuments of those who have gone before us not only grounds us but also stirs a feeling of serenity that stirs contemplation. For the preliminary exams for my doctoral work, I was to collect the rubbings from the headstones from three New England cemeteries. My topic was symbols and rituals of death from four different cultures. India, China, Mexico and New England. I didn’t find these resting places of long-gone ancestors morbid or depressing. On the contrary, walking through these was calming and tranquil. After making drawings and collecting rubbings, I was inspired to take longer walks on the pathways that webbed the greenery. The moment we’re born, we begin our journey toward death. Each human life’s path might...

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