sculpture by Robert Indiana in New York. Photo from Wikimedia commons. Can love be a positive force for change in the public sphere as well as in our private lives? If not, Transformation is in trouble: openDemocracy’s new section has staked its future on demonstrating that radical changes are possible in politics and economics when approached in a spirit of human connection and solidarity.  At first glance, there’s an obvious problem with this thesis: can we really “love our enemies,” or even our friends and colleagues who we don’t know very well? Is there any scientific basis for believing that love can stretch beyond the boundaries of our ... posted on Oct 17 2013 (23,208 reads)

side of Anderson Auditorium were at least ten deep with students all but on fire to have her respond to their questions. In fact, “fire” was an operative word for Kaur, an American interfaith leader, lawyer, filmmaker, Sikh activist, and founder of The Revolutionary Love Project based at the University of Southern California. She had so galvanized the conference by charging her listeners “to have the courage to walk through those flames of hatred and bigotry and rage, and love anyway,” that attendees were eager to stay well beyond Kaur’s allotted time just to remain in her presence. The 2017 conference entitled, “Beyond Babel,” based on Genes... posted on Mar 10 2017 (12,956 reads)

is much more than a medical event. It is a time for important psychological, emotional and spiritual work – a time for transition. To a large extent, the way we meet death is shaped by our habitual response to suffering, and our relationship to ourselves, to those we love, and to whatever image of ultimate kindness we hold.” - Frank Ostaseski Frank Ostaseski is a Buddhist teacher, international lecturer and a leading voice in contemplative end-of-life care.  He is the Guiding Teacher and visionary Founding Director of Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America, in San Francisco, and also author of  The Five In... posted on Jan 26 2018 (31,023 reads)

But then you describe this day — and you said, “When I was a skinny kid in short pants, butterflies entered my soul.” [laughs] So would you just tell a little bit of that story and why that is a vantage point for you on, again, this large, civilizational issue? MR. MCCARTHY: Well, it was really just a personal way, a way — through my own personal experience, of beginning to explore the strange conundrum, which is what it seems to me, that we can actually love, very fiercely, the natural world. I say that everybody may have their own stories, but this was simply mine. It was the way in which, at the age of seven, in a time of great trauma in my fa... posted on May 28 2018 (6,536 reads)

book, which has now been translated into 27 languages, and is called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. In this conversation, Bronnie shares with us these top five regrets, and how at the core, it really comes down to living a life with tremendous courage. Here's my conversation with Bronnie Ware: Bronnie, to begin with, you're incredibly well known for writing a blog post that then became a book, called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. To start our conversation, I'd love to know, what led up to you writing that now famous blog post? BW: I'd just finished working with dying people, and I'd set up a songwriting program in a women's jail, and an ... posted on Aug 12 2019 (13,128 reads)

from Be Love Now by Ram Dass, Rameshwar Das Imagine feeling more love from someone than you have ever known. You’re being loved even more than your mother loved you when you were an infant, more than you were ever loved by your father, your child, or your most intimate lover—anyone. This lover doesn’t need anything from you, isn’t looking for personal gratification, and only wants your complete fulfillment. You are loved just for being who you are, just for existing. You don’t have to do anything to earn it. Your shortcomings, your lack of self-esteem, physical perfection, or social and economic success— none of that matters. No one can tak... posted on Dec 24 2019 (23,274 reads)

to do. AURA:   That is so true, Richard. I have an appreciation for putting words together that are unexpected and paradoxical. RICHARD:   And that’s an art. I have to share this quote from Gertrude Stein. She says, “Now listen, can’t you see that when the language was new as it was with Chaucer and Homer, the poet could use the name of the thing and the thing was really there. He could say, ‘Oh, moon,” “Oh, sea,” “Oh, love,” and the moon, and the sea, and love were really there. And can’t you see that after hundreds of years had gone by and thousands of poems had been written, he could call on those wor... posted on Oct 14 2021 (3,321 reads)

follows is the transcript of an Insights at the Edge interview between Tami Simon and Deb Dana. 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 chall... posted on Nov 12 2023 (5,104 reads)

I spoke with her in 2010 in a moment not wholly unlike this — after a man-made national ecological disaster: the Gulf Oil Spill. Now in her 80s, Joanna Macy says we're at a pivotal moment in history — with possibilities of unraveling, or of creating, a life-sustaining human society. Joanna Macy: You're always asked to sort of stretch a little bit more, and actually we're made for that. But in any case, there's absolutely no excuse for making our passionate love for our world dependent on what we think of its degree of health, whether we think it's going to go on forever. This moment, you're alive. Ms. Tippett: I'm Krista Tippett. This is ... posted on Nov 3 2013 (34,630 reads)

of years humanity has been divided by mistrust engendered by ethnic, racial, gender, religious, and other differences. Now the circle has closed, the Earth is seen as a single interdependent system, and the future of humanity is inescapably bound together in our collective choices. A promising future requires that we transcend our history of mistrust and find common ground. In turn, to achieve authentic and lasting reconciliation as the foundation for our future, we require the power of love and compassion as a practical basis for organizing human affairs. Awakening compassion is a realistic foundation for human relations as it is a part of the “common sense” of humanity.... posted on Aug 7 2015 (16,429 reads)

into organizations that deal with the intersection of money and value. Then we'll have Barbara Sargent from the Kalliopeia Foundation, who has not only been embodying these questions, but also helping dozens of organizations into the inquiry.      To illustrate a bit about my own edge, I'll share a personal story. A few years ago, I was working at a company and was pulled in for my year-end review. My boss, who is part of an investment firm said, "I'd love to reward you for your good performance this year, so what would you like?"      I'm sure a certain kind of answer was expected, but what I asked for was a moment of... posted on Oct 2 2017 (10,663 reads)

night, one night I got on a bus and just left town. I called my parents. I travelled hundreds of miles to another city and a couple weeks later, I talked to my parents and told them I would only come home if they would send me away to boarding school. They agreed, and I spent a year in boarding school. That was a year that really turned my year around because I became a kind of monk of knowledge. I had always read a lot, but for the first time I really disciplined myself and just fell in love with learning. That is the background of my philosophical interests. Although it took me a really long time to actually settle in to being a philosopher in the sense of devoting my life to lea... posted on Dec 28 2019 (6,790 reads)

a sense of place merges with human emotion to form the meaning of home and belonging. In 2013, he became the fifth poet to read at a presidential inauguration — also the youngest and the first immigrant. At Chautauqua, I invited him to speak and read from his books. The wit and the deep thoughtfulness and elegance of Richard Blanco’s poetry and his person captivated the crowd. The most recent — and very resonant — question he’s asked by way of poetry is: how to love a country. [music: “Seven League Boots” by Zoë Keating] Richard Blanco:“We hold these truths to be self-evident… We’re the cure for hatred caused by d... posted on Nov 22 2020 (4,367 reads)

we might be experiencing. Tara and I also discussed her new online course on Meditation and Psychotherapy, and the importance of therapists being trained in the practice of awareness and mindfulness. Here’s my conversation with Tara Brach. Tara, I think of you as the self-acceptance lady, the self-acceptance expert, someone who has really studied this and put a lot of time and energy into cultivating self-acceptance and teaching people about it. And what I’d love to know is, why is this so hard? Why is treating ourselves even reasonably kindly, consistently, the way we would of course treat other people, why is it so hard when it comes to treating ourselv... posted on Jan 5 2021 (5,911 reads)

“Oh, this is when you pack up and you move.” And I even had a pet mouse named Fred, which you would think I would’ve had a more creative name for the mouse, but his name was Fred. [audience laughs] And he had a little cage, I would make sure he was — And he would get bundled up and carried from house to house. So Sundays were a different kind of practice, if you will, a different kind of observation. [laughs] Tippett:And you have said that you fell in love with poetry in high school. Limón:Yeah. Tippett:And poetry is absolutely — this is not something I knew would happen when I started this — but poetry now is at the heart ... posted on Apr 22 2023 (3,122 reads)

I have been trafficked. Rather than doing something, you're coming and asking questions and you're clicking my pictures."That had something, some message for me.I came down crying, and then this another lady who shares my name -- her name is Gita -- she followed me. She knew there was something; I was very hurt. She came and I was just standing downstairs and crying. And she said, 'Don't cry. People like you have come many, many times in our lives." And she made me question the whole term 'love'.After that, even today, I'm figuring out what love is. We are talking about love here, right? Like we use the word love. Love is such a heavy word. If you say, "I love you," what does that mean?... posted on Apr 1 2024 (2,357 reads)

there. So what happens beyond that level of pure consciousness, I can't really speak to. I wish I could. If we are alive, it is not—in my opinion—appropriate to ever say that we died because we didn't die. We're still connected. As long as we're still connected, the experience will be of, somehow, experiential in the relationship to the tissue that makes up our body. I will say that I evaporated—if you will—into a flow of energy that was peaceful love. Pure love. The feeling of love. I'm hoping that—when I do have that final disconnect and the thread of me finally is no longer tethered at all to this form—that it is that evapor... posted on Aug 24 2014 (35,407 reads)

lineage, as well. MS. SHLAIN: Yeah. I think a lot of my — the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. He wrote this this book, Art and Physics, which looked at the parallel visions in these two worlds, and how artists and scientists are often talking about the same ideas, but one’s with images, and one’s with equations. And then ended up — actually, the way I met my husband, who is an artist and a scientist, is he went to hear my dad speak, and we fell in love that night. And a lot of our — we collaborate on a lot of stuff, projects, together, and exploring art and science is a strong connection. And then my mother, when I was growing up, was get... posted on Apr 11 2016 (10,129 reads)

always says, "If you're going to march for civil rights, for justice, and you're going to be arrested, always be arrested with two or three hundred of your closest friends." Then they put you into “pretend Jjail” and you're allowed to bring guitars. Martin Luther King was there, talking. It just became another sermon or rally.      I've been privileged to meet, in an almost Forrest Gumpian way, some of the greatest teachers of kindness and love and benevolence and altruism and compassion: Martin Luther King, Wavy Gravy, Neem Karoli Baba, the Karmapa, Lama Govinda, the Dalai Lama—any number of crazy wonderful Jesuit priests, Sufis,... posted on Nov 8 2017 (15,350 reads)

the rest of your life, straddling a border like that in your person, from the very beginning of your life? MR. URREA: A couple of things: I was — I don’t know why, but I’ve always been God-crazy. I have been drawn toward whatever the cosmic mysteries are, from boyhood on, to my father’s chagrin. Even though he was Mexican, he was not pro-clerical in any way, [laughs] and he didn’t like church, and he didn’t like religion. I don’t know why I loved the concept of God so much; perhaps that I, even then, needed some kind of transcendence, some kind of hope because things were a bit rough. And honestly, back in those days — I’ll r... posted on Jul 15 2018 (8,922 reads)