different forms. And ServiceSpace is like the magnet that the metal filings can orient to. It helps inform why we do what we do when we acknowledge that we're at the edge of humanity. It reminds me of a tour guide when you got to another country -- and the tour guide has a little flag which guides people where to go to. Shifting our perception of what it means to be human is, I think, the most powerful we can do. When I was thinking about the impact of ServiceSpace's essence of generosity and service, I see it as ripples of kindness. ServiceSpace has encapsulated the fundamental idea that while you can count the number of seeds in an apple you can't count the number of a... posted on Oct 25 2018 (5,457 reads)

understand as well.” Bhoodan’s primary contribution was in demonstrating to the world that our strong assumptions about human nature being primarily exploitative are incomplete. People everywhere do respond to selfless love. Yes, they can fall back into hatred, but if love is nurtured and valued as the bedrock of a community, then seemingly impossible solutions become possible. Vinoba has given us a compelling invitation to try the unthinkable — trust our own generosity and that of others. He did not give us cookie-cutter answers. But he did show that when we walk our talk with authenticity, amazing things happen. Things we cannot possibly anticipate. When... posted on Jun 18 2018 (13,422 reads)

trigger pro social behavior through the messages and commitments of our society. As individuals, we can put our fingers on the scale of the collective good—which is really not the opposite of the individual good because everything we use or rely upon comes from so many sources that the collective good is our individual good. P: Does the emphasis of spiritual practice have to change now to keep the global picture and our impact in mind? JR: Every spiritual tradition has a lineage of generosity. But what we really have to do is to shift our behavior. At Garrison Institute, we have a program called Climate, Mind, and Behavior, in which we look at how we behave and how we shift. One... posted on Jul 14 2018 (9,308 reads)

mothers who needed furniture. When school began the next year, she was at it again, donating reams of school supplies she had collected from businesses and individuals. “Everything was being done out of my home when I started,” Ramirez says. Recognizing her efforts, the property manager of an abandoned local storefront gave her use of the facility. That’s when her charitable acts became a community shop—Detroiters Helping Each Other (DHEO)—where kindness and generosity, not money, is the currency of exchange. Their motto: Teamwork makes the dream work. “I would love to see us not need this anymore,” she says. “In the meantime it&rs... posted on Aug 21 2018 (5,962 reads)

Viola has called it ‘the best book I have read on what it means to be an artist in today’s economic world.’ Robin McKenna is the writer, director and producer of a new feature-length documentary inspired by Hyde’s bestseller. Her film, GIFT, takes us to settings as varied as the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, a potlatch ceremony in British Columbia, and an art museum in Melbourne, to explore some contemporary ways of being where artistic expression and generosity of spirit have primacy. A celebration of ‘gift culture’ and the positive impact of sharing on the individual psyche as well as the collective, GIFT offers a welcome antidote... posted on May 23 2019 (5,434 reads)

that’s what my life is about.”   TS: So, I think for a lot of people, there’s a sense of, I’ve given over a portion of my heart to this, but I’ve kept a little portion over here that’s in reserve. I’m not really giving it over exactly. I’m just going to keeping it over here for times when I might need it for myself, something like that. What do you think about that?   SS: Well, I think that’s the quandary of generosity. Do we ever end up with less through giving? That’s something to check out. That’s the experiment. Are we depleted? Are we bereft? If so, it really wasn’t generosity, or w... posted on Apr 8 2022 (2,682 reads)

this question that Brother Orland, and this is why I spoke about co-learning here, asked. What happens when we outlive, we grow bigger than our lives, so to speak? What happens then? What’s the ritual for that? And then I wrote that down just now, and I heard myself saying to myself that that’s where the crack is. That’s where something outside, so to speak, something parabolic passes and breaks the ritual. And then the invitation is, experiment here. This is the space of generosity and generativity and experiment. Resmaa, you’re shaking, you’re into it? Resmaa Menakem: That’s it, that’s it. Bayo Akomolafe: Right? This is... posted on Jul 3 2023 (2,107 reads)

into a remarkable incubator for dozens of gift-economy projects, touching millions of people. While the external impact of these projects is tremendous, what is most striking is the fact that ServiceSpace doesn't fundraise, has no staff, and remains 100% volunteer run. Everyone involved is driven simply by a volition to grow in service. In a world dominated by financial incentives that appeal to a mindset of consumption, ServiceSpace is a counterculture invitation to engage in small acts of generosity, continually shifting the mindset towards one of inspired contribution. It's a beautiful fact that in practicing kindness, we can't help but deepen our understanding of how inner and outer... posted on Dec 27 2011 (37,734 reads)

deeds are contagious We naturally imitate the people around us, we adopt their ideas about appropriate behavior, and we feel what they feel. Acts of charity are no exception. In our 2010 generosity experiment, we showed that every extra dollar of giving in a game designed to measure altruism caused people who saw that giving to donate an extra twenty cents. 2. The network acts like a matching grant That same experiment showed that contagious generosity spreads up to three steps through the network (from person to person to person to person), and when we added up all the extra donations that resulted at every step, we found that an ... posted on Mar 21 2012 (46,216 reads)

generously  gave us water when we were extremely thirsty -- only to later discover that she had to walk 10 kilometers at 4AM to get that one bucket of water. These people knew how to give, not because they had a lot, but because they knew how to love life.  They didn’t need any credit or assurance that you would ever return to pay them back.  Rather, they just trusted in the pay-it-forward circle of giving. When you come alive in this way, you'll realize that true generosity doesn’t start when you have some thing to give, but rather when there’s nothing in you that’s trying to take.  So I hope that you will make all your precious moments ... posted on May 14 2012 (394,433 reads)

with our own predicament, we can expand our thinking by offering blessings to others who might be involved in similar situations: “May we all find resolution and clarity.”  Such shifts in our awareness can help us to broaden our patterns of thinking so that we don’t get caught up in a tight web of repetitive and consuming thoughts. When we find ourselves responding to numerous requests for money and time, it’s also helpful to have ways of initiating acts of generosity.  When we don’t have time to do this by engaging in “random acts of kindness,” offering blessings gives us something we can do in no time at all—just by thinkin... posted on Jun 25 2012 (23,002 reads)

mask covers his bald head. She told me that made her sad, so she made an extra trip to the fabric store and crafted a mask too. The donations and kind acts continue to pour in. My friends asked if we could go to the hospital on Halloween to hand out goodies to the kids. The community has pitch in to offset some of the medical costs. More than $1,200 has trickled in. It is hard to sit back and not take action after meeting this inspiring family who embody the real meaning of family, generosity and being present. "If you would have asked me a year ago that my son would be battling brain cancer and I would be going to the hospital daily, I would have never believed it," M... posted on Nov 1 2012 (12,595 reads)

to love this deeply…" 9. The Man Who Dined With His Mugger: In this inspiring audio clip, Julio Diaz tells the story of how he offered his coat to the man who stole his wallet, and of how the two ended up having dinner and a life-changing conversation together. Diaz's unassuming manner and steadfast compassion shine through his words making this a story hard to forget. 10. Designing for Generosity: What would the world look like if we designed for generosity? Instead of assuming that people want to simply maximize self-interest, what if our institutions and organizations catered to our deeper motivations? This compelling TEDx talk exp... posted on Nov 13 2014 (227,449 reads)

way with other employees for no particular reason. In other words, if a manager is service-oriented and ethical, he is more likely to make his employees follow suit and to increase their commitment to him or her. Elevation may even be a driving force behind creating a culture of compassion and kindness, whether in a workplace or in society at large. Social scientists James Fowler of UC San Diego and Nicolas Christakis of Harvard have demonstrated that helping is contagious: Acts of generosity, compassion, and kindness beget more generosity in a chain reaction of goodness. This is how culture is formed. Isn’t that the kind of workplace culture you would want to work in or l... posted on Nov 25 2013 (29,601 reads)

suggestions for keeping your students’ holiday spirit going throughout the year. With the holidays upon us, many teachers use this time to encourage students to express the spirit of generosity and kindness—and with good reason: it’s not only a selfless way to help others, research suggests it can also help them enhance their own relationships, health, and happiness. But encouraging the spirit of giving among your students doesn’t have to start and end with holiday-time. The key, though, is for teachers to create a classroom environment that fosters children’s natural altruistic tendencies—which researchers have documented in children a... posted on May 16 2014 (14,995 reads)

has now garnered close to 300K views and Being Kind close to 90K views on KarmaTube.org. The sharing of Nimo's special journey from “Solving to Service to Surrender” has been documented in a TEDx Talk in Bangalore. But beyond these surface milestones, the stories and ripples below the surface are what make up the essence of the Empty Hands Music Pilgrimage. With no agenda, expectation, or strings attached, the tour is a vehicle for the emergence of compassion and generosity in our own unique ways. Nimo never asks for compensation nor expects a set outcome, even for his physical album which he gifts to every person that attends his events. With that depth of in... posted on Jun 16 2014 (48,279 reads)

continued as more people were swept up in the tide of kindness and cooperation, according to the researchers. In short, Fowler said: "You don't go back to being your 'old selfish self.'" "Though the multiplier in the real world may be higher or lower than what we've found in the lab, personally it's very exciting to learn that kindness spreads to people I don't know or have never met," Fowler said. "We don't typically see how our generosity cascades through the social network to affect the lives of dozens or maybe hundreds of other people." 5: Change yourself with kindness, change the world with kindness: History in... posted on Sep 23 2014 (142,773 reads)

Kat-Katha is skillfully bringing about radical change, quietly replacing the usual commerce of the brothel with community, caring, hope. Gitanjali and her fellow volunteers take inspiration, as do many other “servant leaders,” from Vinoba Bhave (1895–1982), a scholar, activist, and trusted spiritual friend and advisor of Gandhi. Called Acharya (teacher in Sanskrit), Vinoba cared deeply about creating a just and equitable society, about helping good triumph over evil, generosity over greed. A frail man, he walked all over India, asking the rich to donate land, which he gave to the landless poor. Vinoba taught a new movement of social transformation, not dependen... posted on Jun 30 2015 (10,241 reads)

World is a mysterious, sometimes scary, place filled with vulnerable people capable of feeling immense pain. However, at the same time, it’s also full of love, caring and empathy which is spread by awesome, heart-warming people… Awesome people like Michael Swaine. In 2002, Swaine turned an old-fashioned ice cream cart into a mobile sewing table. Now he can be regularly found in San Francisco’s neediest neighborhood, the ‘Tenderloin’ , perched behind his vintage sewing machine, stitching patches onto worn jacket linings, hemming trousers, repairing tears in ladies’ blouses — all for free. ​ His mending is not on... posted on Jun 9 2015 (28,201 reads)

led by computerized curriculum. The upside to online, personalized learning is that it can create dynamic lesson plans based on the student aptitude, and indeed, Newsweek pegged Summit Prep in their 10 Miracle High Schools for "taking students at all skill levels, from all strata, and turning out uniformly qualified graduates."  Yet, from the perspective of CQ, uniformity is actually a cost -- not a benefit. Qualities like compassion, kindness, and generosity can only thrive in a context of diversity, because inner transformation tread a unique journey for every mind. Moreover, if we strip out the nurturing care and presence of an intrinsically ... posted on Aug 14 2015 (20,094 reads)