Menelaos Tzafetas #EmergesProud with his handpan music to feature in the film.

When I put out a request for music to feature in the #Emerging Proud film, Μenelaos Τzafetas from Larisa in Greece graciously responded saying that he resonated with the campaign. Discovering and playing the Handpan helped Menelaos out of his darkness, and I am extremely grateful to him for his willingness to share his emerging talents with us:

Here Menelaos describes how isolating the spiritual emergence journey can be, and what has helped him to manage his ongoing process:

Since i was little i felt a big respect for some people..the indigenous people..the people that live in the forests away from our modern world or generally older generations from ours. It didn’t matter if it were ancient Greeks or just two centuries ago anywhere in the world or even now the last tribes at Amazon, i felt that real knowledge was there and slowly but steady it would start to disappear for the shake of evolution..but was it actually evolution?

I sense that i am too little to speak about spirituality and i think we use these words nowadays without giving them the proper respect they deserve so i will call some matters sacred and not spiritual . Everything in life is sacred for me now, the way we talk, the way we cook , the way we make love or the way we look at each other. Even a beautiful conversation can be more erotic than some casual exchange of energy with our bodies. My biggest disappointment the last years and i know this will change is that i find more meaning being around animals nowadays and plants than humans. I am sure it will change as i am realizing that my people are out there and i hope i will find them soon. I know now that we are all connected and all actions affect each others lives therefore we have to be careful what words we use and what actions we do. The simplest example is when you dream someone you haven’t seen or thought for a long time and after some days you see them in the street.

My first spiritual experience was at 2002 as i was introduced to some medicinal plants from Mexico. It was the first time that i came close to the spirit of the particular plant..i saw her..she talked to me and since then nothing is as it was. Plants have energy and they are alive and by consuming even the simplest broccoli we get their energy , healing or nutritients. Meat has no energy as it is dead therefore we get nothing out of it i believe. These beliefs came stronger after 2010 when i started yoga and it was the first time i sensed that i was doing that practice in the past. Therefore my diet changed by itself as i never force myself to nothing. Of course we sacrifice plants as well so that we can survive but this is the sacrifice of life in order to continue, the only thing is that we have to do it with respect and thank them.

I have realized that everything in our world has life, life is everywhere. Plastic , oil, my couch , my chair , my pencil and everything around me has life,maybe tree life and life is everywhere even at death. Humans see the whole of the picture but in reality it is atoms connected to each other . We see a human being but if we could see with real eyes we would realize real lies as they say..it is all atoms connected to form that image and this is magical.

People are looking out of their body to find liberation but i believe the answer is inside..it is not the medicinal plants or the books we read, it is us and everything around us are tools so we can understand if we want of course. My ex girlfriend Elena proved to me that with serious meditation practice we can see things that are beyond imagination and help ourselves move forward in life..no need for spiritual plants or any kind of ‘drug’, all the answers are inside . My experience in meditation is very limited still but i believe it is real and the key to live a happier life. As the last years my best friend is my horse I am seeing that even animals are more spiritual than humans cause they help each other no matter what…their ego if it is there is much lesser than human ego which i believe is the root of all suffering around us.

Of course i don’t lose my hope and i am optimist by choice as i believe all behaviors of my people showed me the way to think and act like that now..yes i made mistakes and i hurted some people and i want to apologize to everyone i hurt, but most of all i want to thank them. I don’t believe there are bad experiences, just ugly ones and i strongly think that spirits are around us and they are waiting for our calls. If we align with spirits that bring happiness, love, joy, compassion, forgiveness , understanding, acceptance and so on we will act like that. If we align with spirits that bring hate, negativity, anger or fear we will behave exactly like that. The conclusion to everything though is love. We love all people the same and there is no distinguish in love, if you love someone you love him/her for ever .

So when everything fell apart, my hobbies were there and i discovered an amazing instrument, the hang drum or handpan. Since then i never felt alone and i am very thankful to the universe and some people for its creation. I learned last year that if you leave your comfort zone and you do something with love, the universe will respond back and send you the right people. Even that story now is an example of what i am talking about. Follow your heart and your dreams without expectations and live the life you are dreaming and not anyone’ else because simply anyone else it’s not you.Of course in order to do that you will hurt some people’s expectations like family and friends. If you realize that there are no actual families and everyone is just people maybe you will succeed. A stranger can be your brother for ever and vice versa. If you are afraid to hurt these people you will live your life in fear and become another clone in the system. So my only real share here to everyone is the production of endorphins, the key is to live happy and the way to do it it will be decided by you and no-one else..happiness is the only real medicine and it doesn’t really matter what you eat or what you have learned, if you are happy you will live a beautiful life.

As the song says ‘ United we stand divided we fall’