Tag Archives: BUGS

BUGS Book Review

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In the last BUGS session, we decided to do book reviews, starting with Erich Fromm‘s classic Art of Loving.
Erich Fromm was among other things a social psychologist, psychoanalyst and humanistic philosopher. This book was written in 1956 but remains a popular read even today, for those trying to understand the nature of love, being unconditional but most importantly for those interested in the question – what does it take to create a loving relationship?
All participants are required to read the book before Saturday Aug 22. (Don’t panic, the book is a little less than 200 pages and is a fairly easy read!). The book review itself is over 4-5 days, each session focussing on different chapters of the book.
The tentative schedule:
  • Day 1: Is love an art?
  • Day 2: Love as an answer to the problem of human existence
  • Day 3: Objects of love (love between parent and child, brotherly love, motherly love, erotic love, love of self, love of god)
  • Day 4: Love and its disintegration in modern society
  • Day 5: The Practice of Love
The schedule is flexible depending on which parts the group wants to spend more time on.
If you can’t get around to acquiring a copy right now, you can download a PDF copy of the book from here (you’ll need to create a free Scribd account to get to it though…)
Email us or call us for more details

Brainstorming “Balance”

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The last session of BUGS turned out to be thinly attended (thanks in large measure to Sonia Gandhi and her travels across town!) but very interesting (thanks in large measure to enthusiastic sharing and discussion on the topic of Balance).

Some of the thoughts that surfaced: Balance is about

  • Creating a congruent self (in other words, saying what I mean and meaning what I say + acting in line with what I say and mean)
  • Learning when to say yes and when to say no (and by extension, learning when to work, when to rest, when to stretch and when to be go with the current rhythm…)
  • Recognizing that we have choices. When we do, there are fewer “automatic decisions” that lead to imbalance
  • Being aware. It’s probably the single largest step to being in balance. (The single largest step to any sort of growth, really)
  • Generating a “creative tension” between what we are and what we desire to be
And since all the participants happend to be parents, we agreed that parenthood offers all the opportunities we’ll ever need to practice all these nice thoughts on Being in Balance.

Launching a Spiritual Study Group

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Kaleidoscope begins a new learning adventure this week.

We’ve launched a study group for those interested in spiritual advancement. The aim of the group is to 

  • Work towards becoming unconditional in our thoughts and actions
  • Grow spiritually, on the path that most appeals to us, using group processes to support our journey
  • Learn new tools for spiritual growth and practice using the tools that are most applicable to our context
  • Share spiritual experiences, aspirations and resources
Each session of the study group is chaired by a group member. There is no formal leadership, coaching or mentoring for the group.

The session are usually on alternate Saturdays between 3 and 5 pm. Please check the calendar in the sidebar for the exact details of upcoming sessions.

Anyone is welcome to attend the sessions. There is no fee.

In keeping with our sense of humor at Kaleidoscope, we’ve called the group BUGS (Be Unconditional, Grow Spiritually).

What’s been happening at the BUGS sessions since its launch:

  • Back to Basics: An overview of Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Step process
  • A screening of the flim “What the bleep do you know?”
  • Grounding Meditations
  • Book reading