all know that what will transform education is not another theory or another book or another formula but a transformed way of being in the world. In the midst of the familiar trappings of education—competition, intellectual combat, obsession with a narrow range of facts, credentials—we seek a life illumined by spirit and infused with soul. This is not romanticism, as John Cobb (President of the Naropa Institute and host of the Spirituality in Education conference) has properly cautioned us. I saw the other day a remarkable documentary called The Transformation of Allen School. Allen School is an inner-city school in Dayton, Ohio. It was for many years at the bottom of the l... posted on Aug 25 2017 (15,407 reads)

taking long walks, playing ping-pong every day. And sitting on my terrace in the blazing November sunshine, usually with a cup of tea and a few sweet Japanese tangerines and a good book. And the deeper the conversation with the book, the better the questions I come out with at the end. So somehow my mind has been going back to the fact that I never trust what I can explain. “You never trust what you can explain.” In other words, as I go through the autumn of my own life, I realise that everything essential in it has happened without a reason. I have my own little plan that I’m trying to foist on life, but life has a much wiser and more inscrutable pla... posted on May 11 2018 (12,127 reads)

The Sounds True Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to providing these transformational tools to communities in need, including at-risk youth, prisoners, veterans, and those in developing countries. If you’d like to learn more or feel inspired to become a supporter, please visit SoundsTrueFoundation.org. You’re listening to Insights at the Edge. Today my guest is Paul Hawken. Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, an entrepreneur, author, and an activist, who has dedicated his life to environmental sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. Paul Hawken is the founder of Project Drawdown, a nonprofit dedicated to researching when and h... posted on Sep 29 2021 (2,916 reads)

is an invisible epidemic that we all face, and how knowing this can dramatically further our healing in profound ways, both individually and collectively. Here’s my conversation with the very warm and insightful Dr. Paul Conti. Great to be with you, Paul, and thank you for making the time for this. Thank you. PC: You’re very welcome. Thank you for having me. TS: To begin with by way of introduction, can you let our listeners know a bit about your early life, your upbringing, and how you decided that psychiatry was going to become your profession? PC: Sure. I was born and raised outside of Trenton, New Jersey. It was a normal middle class... posted on May 17 2023 (8,576 reads)

a half-century into the future to explore our world in a time of unprecedented transition. Duane offers a whole-systems view of the converging adversity trends facing humanity and three major scenarios for the future that are most likely to emerge from these powerful trends. By illuminating deep psychological, spiritual and scientific changes that are already underway, it offers hope for the emergence of a mature, planetary civilization beyond our times of crisis. Based on a lifetime of research and a decade of community organizing by the author, Choosing Earth is an unvarnished look at the reality of our world in crisis and an invitation for us to actively shap... posted on Jan 6 2021 (5,219 reads)

Star dedicated unprecedented coverage to the funeral of 55-year-old Shelagh Gordon – interviewing more than 100 of her friends and family – to show how a modest life can have a huge impact. I met Shelagh Gordon at her funeral. She was soap-and-water beautiful, vital, unassuming and funny without trying to be. I could feel her spirit tripping over a purse in the funeral hall and then laughing from the floor. She was both alone and crowded by love. In another era, she’d have been considered a spinster — no husband, no kids. But her home teemed with dogs, sisters, nieces, nephews and her “life partner” —a gay man — who would pas... posted on Jan 18 2016 (110,218 reads)

bestselling author. In 2014, she received the National Humanities Medal at the White House for thoughtfully delving into the mysteries of human existence. On the air and in print, Krista Tippett avoids easy answers, embracing complexity and inviting people of every background to join her conversation about faith, ethics, and moral wisdom. She is the host of the award-winning public radio conversation and podcast, On Being, which opens up the animating questions at the center of human life. She is also the author of the recent book, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Krista and I spoke about journalism... posted on Dec 31 2016 (13,081 reads)

is one that has been conveyed by poets, philosophers and spiritual teachers throughout the ages. One of its most beautiful expressions is found in the celebrated speech attributed to Chief Seattle of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes of what is now the state of Washington in the north-west of the USA: This we know: all things are connected like the blood that unites one family... Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. The same idea is at the very core of the Earth Charter, that remarkable declaration of 16 fundamental princi... posted on Jan 31 2017 (18,449 reads)

you ever wondered what makes it easier for some to bounce back after a tragedy than others? Or why hundreds facing the same life-changing event wind up on drastically different paths? Imagine a young woman whose childhood was rife with trauma: perhaps she grew up in impoverished conditions, where she experienced chronic abuse, and lacked a proper support system. Now imagine this same young woman went on to earn an advanced degree and developed a nonprofit organization to help youth living in poverty. Though not often so cut and dried, stories like this are not uncommon. But unfortunately, neither are their counterparts. Imagine this woman had a sister, who began using drugs at an... posted on Mar 1 2018 (39,159 reads)

upon simple Buddhist ideas to argue for an economic system based on environmental stewardship, shared prosperity, and care for the human spirit. Brown measures economic progress by the well-being of all people, not Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or average national income. She advocates creating an economy that recognizes the interdependence of people with each other and the planet, and works toward achieving the goals of reducing inequality, sustaining the planet, and supporting a meaningful life for all people. In the economy she envisions, societies choose their social-environmental outcomes, while the government provides social services, structures markets, and regulates business in or... posted on Jun 22 2018 (8,910 reads)

a gamer, so I like to have goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. So here's my special mission for this talk: I'm going to try to increase the life span of every single person in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.  Some of you are looking a little bit skeptical. That's okay, because check it out -- I have math to prove that it is possible. It won't make much sense now. I'll explain it all later, just pay attention to the number at the bottom: +7.68... posted on May 10 2019 (17,065 reads)

after he had "changed address." She writes them from Mornese -- the Italian town she and Blyden had dreamed of visiting together, and that Jane pilgrimaged bravely to alone after his transition. She finds miraculously waiting for her there in a community of less than a 1000 people-- a deep sense of home, and a sense of belonging." What follows is an excerpt from 'Love Letters from La Pineta' Introduction Writing has served as a source of healing for me twice in my life when it appeared that the bottom had fallen out of my world. Both times writing was of great comfort, taking a different form each time. First it was in the form of simple poems written in tandem... posted on Feb 14 2020 (4,705 reads)

of time, you have probably heard me invoke Rainer Maria Rilke. His works of prose and poetry are enduringly beloved — the Sonnets to Orpheus; the Duino Elegies; the Book of Hours. But none of his words have carried more persistently across time than his Letters to a Young Poet. It’s a small volume of ten letters Rilke wrote between 1903 and 1908 to a young military cadet and would-be poet, named Franz Kappus. Kappus reached out to Rilke, full of anguish about life, about love, about adulthood. But Rilke’s way of addressing these questions from an ordinary life touched on the enduring dramas of creating our lives — prophetic musings about solitu... posted on Jul 9 2021 (4,357 reads)

can we live sustainably on the Earth when our actions are already producing dramatic climate change, species extinction, oil depletion, and more?”  For a generation, a diverse subculture has grappled with these concerns and, in the United States and a dozen or so other “postmodern” nations, this subculture has grown from a miniscule movement in the 1960s to a respected part of the mainstream culture in the early 2000s.  Glossy magazines now sell the simple life from the newsstands across the U.S. while it has become a popular theme on major television talk shows.  More significantly, surveys show that at least 10 percent of the U.S. adult populatio... posted on May 1 2012 (34,405 reads)

and promptly sold everything off and moved to rural Tamil Nadu. They wanted to farm, but had no experience in it. They jumped in with the intention of living and being in a way better aligned with their inner voices, and learning what they needed along the way. Many people talk about such a shift, very few actually do it. By my count, I only know these two. Over two days of rest, reflection, and farmwork, Ragu and Nisha shared many stories on the ups and downs of establishing their new life. Ragu related how he had to gather Lakhs of cash from acquaintances they'd never met to pay for a piece of land he had hardly seen to sellers he hardly knew, facilitated by a local guy he had... posted on Aug 23 2012 (25,503 reads)

follows is the transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett and Matthew Sanford: Ms. Krista Tippett, host: Matthew Sanford says he's never seen anyone live more deeply in their body — in all its grace and all its flaws — without becoming more compassionate toward all of life. He's a renowned teacher of yoga. And he's been paralyzed from the chest down since a car accident in 1978, when he was 13. He teaches yoga to the able-bodied. He also adapts yoga for people with ailments and disabilities, including military veterans. But Matthew Sanford has wisdom for us all on the strength and grace of our bodies, as we move through the ordinary s... posted on Jun 29 2016 (29,718 reads)

visceral memories of what really gave you joy, you'll have some sense of what was natural for you and where your talents lie. Krista Tippett, host: Who knew that we learn empathy, trust, irony, and problem solving through play — something the dictionary defines as "pleasurable and apparently purposeless activity." Dr. Stuart Brown suggests that the rough-and-tumble play of children actually prevents violent behavior; that play can grow human talents and character across a lifetime. Play, as he studies it, is an indispensable part of being human. I’m Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. Stuart Brown founded the National Institute for Play at the age of 63... posted on Jul 18 2014 (31,814 reads)

forms and institutions we are dealing with don't need smashing. Most of them are imploding all on their own. Many of our acts of rebellion are in the first instance acts of creation. And that may be something importantly different, as Courtney Martin has written, from the mantra many of us grew up internalizing that we are supposed “to save the world.” COURTNEY MARTIN: I needed to reorient myself. Have a totally different relationship with rebellion that would last me a lifetime. And was honoring of the lifetimes of rebellion that have come before me that — here I thought I was just going to like graduate and head out into the world, and like, be super-efficien... posted on May 8 2015 (16,190 reads)

“How are you today? I know you are suffering. If you want to talk about it, I’m here,” then people can bring it up. Ms. Tippett: I’m Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. [music: “Seven League Boots” by Zoe Keating] Ms. Tippett: Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook. Adam Grant is a professor of psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. They’ve previously written together about gender and working life. Now they’re launching a book and a non-profit together called Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy. Ms. Tippett: Where I think I’d like to start with t... posted on Jun 17 2017 (17,454 reads)

services in the palliative care department at a major Canadian hospital  in  Toronto for several years, where he encountered the deep “death phobia” and “grief illiteracy” that most of his patients and their loved ones brought to their deathbeds. This work motivated Jenkinson to encourage people to prepare for their death well before its arrival so that they might be free to “participate emotionally in their deaths as they participate in other major life events.” In 2010, Jenkinson founded the Orphan Wisdom School, at his farm in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada. The school provides experiential learning in the skills of “... posted on Apr 26 2019 (21,007 reads)