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NOW Creations founded on ‘power of goodness’
By LINDA M. LINONIS
BOARDMAN
The “power of goodness” motivated Vince Lisi and Bob Cene Jr. to found NOW Creations in March 2005.
The nonprofit organization will celebrate its 10th anniversary Sunday with a program of music, mindfulness and meditation at Immaculate Heart of Mary parish center in Austintown.
Recently, Lisi, principal teacher and program director, and Cene, who handles administrative duties and is certified to teach meditation, discussed the evolution of NOW Creations.
A spiral with multiple rings is a graphic associated with the company. “It represents the present moment and our part in the evolution of time,” Lisi said.
Lisi said NOW Creations is based on the belief of “the good in me sees the good in you.” He said NOW Creations focuses on teaching people to understand their own self-identity. “When you know yourself, that self-knowledge is part of the universal God energy,” he said.
Lisi said NOW Creations has 14 study groups in five cities in Ohio including Youngstown, two in Pennsylvania and one in Indiana. The groups help people “develop a better understanding of the consciousness within ourselves,” Lisi said. “It is coming to know who we are and how we can fulfill the God presence within us and manifest our gifts.”
Lisi emphasized that NOW Creations is not a religion and does not proselytize any religion. “Study of universal spiritual principles of consciousness” helps each person find the “God spirit” in themselves, he said. NOW Creations meets at churches and social centers but is not affiliated with the sites.
“The heart and soul of the study is regular attendance to grow in understanding and awareness,” Lisi said.
He said a book that he uses is “Oneness” by Rasha. “The study emphasizes the oneness we have with each other, nature and everything that is.”
Cene said among techniques that help people achieve understanding is primordial sound meditation that includes repetition of a phrase known as a mantra that leads to silence. “Silence is the space between thoughts,” Lisi said. “Meditation is a technique for spiritual growth.”
In primoridal sound meditation, there is optional use of a bowl crafted of 12 metals. When struck with a cloth-covered baton, it emits a resonating sound that is calming in its steadiness and clarity. Cene studied meditation for nine years with Dr. Deepak Chopra, an alternative-medicine advocate who promotes various forms of spirituality.
Cene said the mantra-based meditation focuses on these questions: Who am I? What do I want? What is my purpose? What am I grateful for? But, he said, “It’s not what happens during meditation that’s important but what happens between meditations as you live your life. ... Your life becomes a living meditation.”
Lisi said meditation doesn’t make a person “oblivious to life” but gives them “inner peace and a grounded presence.” With that, people feel more directed and empowered. Those qualities give people confidence, he said.
“People know who they are and what they are doing,” he continued. “They are heaven on earth. ... They are what God is doing.”
Meditation helps people “clarify and resolve problems, bring their best presence to everyday life and makes them open to future possibilities of life,” Lisi said.
“Mindfulness is the thoughtful response, not emotional reaction, to people and situations,” Lisi said, adding mindfulness is a bridge to meditation. “It moves us out of our own consciousness to a higher consciousness within our souls.”