the introduction to Gold by Rumi, translated from the Farsi by Haleh Liza Gafori, published by NYRB Classics. Rumi was a preacher before he was a poet. Born into a line of Islamic theologians, he was a celebrity delivering sermons to hordes of followers by the time he was thirty-eight. Eloquent and magnetic, dressed in a crown turban and silk robe, he evangelized in mosques and theological institutions throughout Konya. Disciples and admirers from Nishapur to Damascus to Mecca called him Molana—our Master. He was growing weary of fame. It was a trap, he would later suggest in his writings, as was dogma, as were the obsessions with title, rank, a... posted on Aug 12 2022 (4,020 reads)

follows is the transcript of an Awakin Call with Matthew Fox. You can watch the video recording of the call, or listen to the audio here. These transcripts, as with all aspects of Awakin Calls, are created as a labor of love by an all-volunteer team located around the world. ]   Host: Aryae Coopersmith Moderator: Rahul Brown Guest: Matthew Fox Rahul Brown:  Matthew Fox really needs no introduction. He's regarded as one of the foremost influential spiritual figures of modern day. So, Matthew, if it's OK with you, I would just love to just jump right into our conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. It's a real honor to have you here to... posted on Sep 8 2022 (3,055 reads)

follows is the transcript of an interview between Tami Simon of SoundsTrue and James Hollis. You can listen to the audio version of the interview here. Tami Simon: Welcome to Insights at the Edge produced by Sounds True. My name is Tami Simon, I’m the founder of Sounds True, and I’d love to take a moment to introduce you to the new Sounds True Foundation. The Sounds True Foundation is dedicated to creating a wiser and kinder world by making transformational education widely available. We want everyone to have access to transformational tools such as mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion regardless of financial, social, or physical challenges... posted on Oct 1 2022 (4,273 reads)

typical American life in 2022 might include spending 50 hours a week mostly alone in a cubicle, riddled with chronic stress but on track for a promotion. Evenings pass isolated in a tower, where a doorman ensures strangers and even neighbors are kept at bay. You swipe down into the bowels of Instagram until you fall asleep. Something on Netflix plays in the background, but only so you don’t have to listen to your own thoughts. Typical, perhaps. But none of that should be accepted as natural, argues Dr. Gabor Maté in his new book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture. Our cardiovascular systems were not built for the stress of a Wall Street... posted on Oct 2 2022 (6,095 reads)

through the ages, a traditional form has evolved for this type of speech, which is: Some old fart, his best years behind him, who, over the course of his life, has made a series of dreadful mistakes (that would be me), gives heartfelt advice to a group of shining, energetic young people, with all of their best years ahead of them (that would be you). And I intend to respect that tradition. Now, one useful thing you can do with an old person, in addition to borrowing money from them, or asking them to do one of their old-time “dances,” so you can watch, while laughing, is ask: “Looking back, what do you regret?” And they’ll tell you. Sometimes, as you ... posted on Feb 11 2023 (49,794 reads)

Sabrina Imbler was in college, they enrolled in a class they thought was about whales, but which turned out to be about whaling. In one of 10 brilliant essays in their new book, Imbler recalls the class, which focused on “the systematic hunting and harvesting of the animals that brought human populations to the verge of unimaginable prosperity and whale populations to the brink of extinction,” with their ex, during the denouement of their relationship. Contemplating the necropsy of a whale and how this might be a way to analyze the death of a relationship, Imbler was reminded of “all the ways we shoehorn distinctions between ourselves and other animals, often harming b... posted on Mar 30 2023 (1,725 reads)

follows is the syndicated transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett and Vivek Murthy. You can listen to the audio recording of the interview here.  Krista Tippett:We need a modicum of vitality for what simply being alive in this time asks of us. And we’re in an enduringly tender place. The mental health crisis that is invoked all around, especially as we look to the young, is one manifestation of the gravity of the post-2020 world that each of us is carrying. Even as we try to power through in the face of ungrieved losses and unnerving change. I’m longing for us to find ways to name and honor this more openly. Because it is showing up sideways in our... posted on Apr 14 2023 (3,889 reads)

following is the transcript of the Awakin Call with Barbara McAfee, hosted by Aryae Coopersmith, and moderated by Mia Tagano Aryae: Welcome, everyone. My name is Aryae, and I'll be hosting today's Awakin Call. Thanks for joining us from wherever you are in the world. The intention behind these calls is to plant seeds of awareness and transformation within ourselves and our communities through conversations with individuals whose journeys and work inspire us. Awakin Call is an initiative of ServiceSpace — a distributed, global, all volunteer community committed to the principle that, by changing ourselves, we change the world. Behind each of these calls is an en... posted on Apr 28 2023 (2,473 reads)

must remember we are exhaustible. We need renewal. Silence, quietude, time alone, naturally gives that. Then we can come back in to serve others in small ways. That we do. Then we take time for renewal. Jesus, the Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi and all the great sages recognize the importance of connection with others to serve, then step back from that into quietness, then renewal, and then serve. This is the great rhythm of life." Christopher Titmuss, a former hippie turned Theravada Buddhist monk turned social critic, is Britain's senior Dharma teacher. Having once lived on 39 British pounds per year for ten years, he has sat beneath The Tree of Enlightenment in Bodhgaya, Indi... posted on Jun 6 2023 (2,213 reads)

certain dreams in life just don’t pan out, like if all you wanted growing up was to fly, but fate saw fit to furnish you with bad eyes, complete with a shot of red-green color-blindness—the sum of which can disqualify you from becoming a pilot. Grounded by such shortcomings, you may find yourself commiserating with the ratites, a motley clan of birds that includes the emu and the kiwi and the cassowary, most born sans a keel bone upon which to hang their aerial ambitions. Unlike them, you can flunk your vision test and still be cleared for takeoff; all that is required is a statement attesting to your demonstrated abilities to soundly operate an aircraft. But ... posted on Jul 10 2023 (2,626 reads)

is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started with such tremendous hopes and expectations, and yet, which fails so regularly, as love,” the humanistic philosopher and psychologist Erich Fromm wrote in his classic on the art of loving. In some sense, no love ever fails, for no experience is ever wasted — even the most harrowing becomes compost for our growth, fodder for our combinatorial creativity. But in another, it is indeed astonishing how often we get love wrong — how, over and over, it stokes our hopes and breaks our hearts and hurls us onto the cold hard baseboards of our being, flattened by defeat and despair, and how, over and over,... posted on Jul 14 2023 (2,397 reads)

century has witnessed an incomprehensible savaging of flesh.  Its global and local wars, genocides, politically directed torture and famine, terrorist attacks, the selling of children and women into prostitution, and personal wanton violence to family members and street victims would be more than enough evidence for a non-terrestrial to condemn us for criminal disregard for the muscle fibers, fluids, and neural networks within which we live.  An alien visitor might not notice, however, that these painfully tangible wounds to the body politic are symptomatic manifestations of highly abstract ideas that rapidly gained a disproportionate amount of physical power.  While viol... posted on Sep 17 2023 (2,327 reads)