Another one would be Ganshinkei [Ch Yanzhenqing, 709–785], the Tang Dynasty general and imperial bureaucrat; his sho is dynamic and masterful. Among the Japanese calligraphers who I especially like is Ryōkan [1758–1831]. His calligraphy is very, very difficult to—“copy” is not a good word—but to study because of its very delicate lines, but also because it involves quite a bit of breathing rhythm; so one gets to read or breathe, as it were, life into lines. PD:  So it’s not just exemplary technique, but also exemplary moral spirit? RN:  I don’t know if we’d call it “moral spirit,” but somehow... posted on Feb 22 2017 (7,821 reads)

has a popularity rating most teenagers can only dream of. Her main Facebook page has more than 160,000 likes. Her musings about life with her two dads in Ontario, Canada, draw thousands of comments. And while she can’t take selfies, her photos get forwarded around the world. Here’s Esther cuddling with Shelby, one of her two canine roommates. Esther stretched out on the couch. Esther rooting through the laundry. One picture shows Esther sitting in her kiddie pool. The caption reads: “The hardest decision I want to make today is piña colada or strawberry daiquiri.” But Esther the Wonder Pig does more than make people laugh. Evidence of what her human guar... posted on Mar 3 2017 (21,932 reads)

1978 In honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.’s memory we also acknowledge non-violence as a truly powerful weapon to achieve equality and liberation, in fact, the only weapon that Christians who struggle for social change can claim as their own. Dr. King’s entire life was an example of power that nonviolence brings to bear in the real world. It is an example that inspired much of the philosophy and strategy of the farm workers’ movement. This observance of Dr. King’s death gives us the best possible opportunity to recall the principles with which our struggle has grown and matured. Our conviction is that human life is a very special possession given by... posted on Mar 31 2017 (17,607 reads)

stoned/sober; each chapter is independent and autonomous and makes decisions using the consensus process; they are not a charity, but people dedicated to non-violent direct action to change society. Keith McHenry is an actor and activist behind Food Not Bombs. He was one of eight co-founders of Food Not Bombs in Massachusetts and a co-founder of the second chapter of Food Not Bombs in San Francisco. Despite being arrested over 100 times for serving food to the homeless and then facing life in prison, he has persisted in expanding his belief in an alternative model to a capitalistic, exploitive system of government. In 1995, He co-founded Indymedia, a global open publishing network ... posted on Jul 7 2017 (8,325 reads)

knowing the extremes of sadness and joy we can never fully know or feel all that life is.   Melancholy by Edgar Degas. Credit: Edgar Degas [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. “There is something so enchanting in the smile of melancholy. It is a ray of light in the darkness, a shade between sadness and despair, showing the possibility of consolation.” Leo Tolstoy What if melancholy can be passed down through generations, not just culturally but at the level of our DNA? Melancholia has long been seen as a key element in artistic inspiration, along with a way of turning pain and sorrow into healing, and ultimately, an acceptance of life’s ... posted on Jun 26 2017 (12,482 reads)

to Bust Myths About His Faith" from PBS News Hour, Shams travels to 4 western U.S. cities to combat prejudice and open up a dialogue about the fears and prejudices people may have about Muslims and immigrants, often finding common ground with those who stop to talk to him. The more we view each other as people, rather than stereotypes, the more the channels of communication open and fear dissipates.  To truly understand another person, we must try to walk in their shoes, to see life from their perspective.  On this quest, we can look to some remarkable empathy role models from the past: St. Francis of Assisi, the son of a wealthy merchant, exchanged clothes wi... posted on Jul 2 2017 (9,076 reads)

of transformation near the end of their lives. One through which they emerge as someone larger, more expansive, more essential and real than the small, separate selves they had previously taken themselves to be. This is not a fairy-tale happy ending that contradicts the suffering that came before, but rather a recognition that transformation is possible even in tragedy. The discovery of this capacity regularly occurs for many people in the final months, days, or sometimes even minutes of life. “Too late,” you might say. And I might agree. However, the value is not in how long they enjoyed the experience, but in the possibility that such transformation exists. If... posted on Aug 2 2017 (51,379 reads)

of his father might be, that were leading to this long-held strategy of criticism. This inquiry allowed him to shift the momentum of the discussion with a simple question, "Dad are you concerned and just want me to benefit from your experience?  Seeing into his father's needs allowed Thom to halt the patterns of judgment in that moment. To shift from seeing his father as a didactic, know-it-all to a caring parent who wanted to contribute to his son's life, and help trouble-shoot his problems. "It was instantaneous for me, and the thing I noticed was -- he didn't have to change, but I got to hear him differently. Right after that I was hoo... posted on Jul 9 2017 (20,530 reads)

slows my work; I attend more carefully and work more precisely. Transplanting tomato seedlings, I feel the fine furry texture of their stems. The impossible delicateness of celery brings protective and gentle caution, my awe renewed as I wonder, “How can these tiny plants become so strong?” Celery seeds are so small, as are their emerging leaves, their stems more like thin threads than stalks – yet look what they become.  I feel encouraged with the potential of my life, any life, to evolve beyond what is currently evident, in the same way that these celery beginnings give no hint of how they will stand lush and strong in a couple of months. That will happen, ho... posted on Sep 27 2017 (8,113 reads)

are often thought of as these very abstract things, on walls in offices, but ultimately have little meaning. But actually every single day all of us have hundreds of opportunities to make choices that are towards or away from our values. If we can start recognizing that values are actually qualities of action rather than abstract things, it helps us to thrive. Maria: What’s important about agility and resilience is that everybody needs resilience to get through life, because no matter who you are, stuff happens. We hear a lot about how to raise resilient children, but what about adults who weren’t raised to express their emotions, to think about their ... posted on Dec 11 2021 (30,625 reads)

heart of hearts I’d betrayed my purpose? So I consented to its offer. Of course, time would tell that it wasn’t actually either-or. What was important in that clarifying moment was that I declare my ultimate loyalty. Once that happened, recognition and prestige might or might not come as a byproduct, but it wouldn’t be the goal. After all, the work I do isn’t “my” work. These are ideas whose time has come and they need capable scribes. Our true wages in life consist of the satisfaction we get from a job well done. Aside from that, well, the rain falls on the just and unjust alike. That was part one of the disintegration of my ambition. The first p... posted on Nov 9 2017 (15,676 reads)

and I wanted to be a cowgirl, and I wanted to be Mowgli from "The Jungle Book." Because they were all about being free, the wind in your hair -- just to be free. And on my seventeenth birthday, my parents, knowing how much I loved speed, gave me one driving lesson for my seventeenth birthday. Not that we could have afforded I drive, but to give me the dream of driving. And on my seventeenth birthday, I accompanied my little sister in complete innocence, as I always had all my life -- my visually impaired sister -- to go to see an eye specialist. Because big sisters are always supposed to support their little sisters. And my little sister wanted to be a pilot -- God help he... posted on Aug 10 2017 (12,927 reads)

by counting the number of steps they have taken during the day. These insights are the result of deep inquiry on the nature of value. All metrics are systemic values — artificial constructs created in our minds to make our world more manageable. They cannot even come close to capturing the practical value that we derive from our world (as we can see from the brushing example), and we can forget about coming anywhere close with metrics to the deeply meaningful intrinsic value of life itself that cannot even be enumerated. As I slowly started to accept the truth of this assertion on counting, I found myself questioning the prevalent worldviews on profit and impact. What fol... posted on Oct 17 2017 (14,234 reads)

your memories impact your immune system, why moving is one of the most stressful life-events, and what your parents have to do with your predisposition to PTSD. I had lived thirty good years before enduring my first food poisoning — odds quite fortunate in the grand scheme of things, but miserably unfortunate in the immediate experience of it. I found myself completely incapacitated to erect the pillars of my daily life — too cognitively foggy to read and write, too physically weak to work out or even meditate. The temporary disability soon elevated the assault on my mind and body to a new height of anguish: an intense experience of stress. Even as I consoled myself wi... posted on Oct 8 2017 (29,694 reads)

of our childhood; or cities where there is an enormous reservoir of human nature and activity, such as New York, London, Benares, and Tokyo; or places where energy is impregnated in the land itself, regions of power and grace, such as Mount Fuji, Canyon de Chelly, Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, or the Himalayas. These places provide sanctuary and renewal. They remind us of the fortitude and unquenchable desire of the human spirit—for relationship with the otherness of life. The wahi pana (storied places) found in the islands of Hawai‘i are a profound source of energy and inspiration for those fortunate enough to experience them. James Houston writes of cer... posted on Oct 5 2017 (9,503 reads)

big data has certainly opened up a whole new range of possibilities, I would like to suggest a distinction between surface big data and deep data. Surface data is just data about others: what others do and say. That is what almost all current big data is composed of. Deep data is used to make people and communities see themselves. Deep data functions like a mirror: it makes you see yourself—both as an individual and as a community. Over the past twenty years of my professional life I have been helping teams and organizations go through processes of profound innovation and transformative change across sectors and cultures. The one thing that I have learned from all these pro... posted on Oct 4 2017 (10,205 reads)

It struck me that there was a living presence, a shining awareness behind this world. My heart reached out. It was like a fist unclenching. It let go of all the ideas I had been carrying about what success and fulfillment are supposed to look like, scattering them on the water like bread crumbs for the geese. “Thy will, not mine, be done,” I said, and I meant it. There was a lightening inside. It was as if I had walked out of a small, dark room into the beautiful flow of life around me. Later that day a friend phoned and urged me to call Chuck Hornsby at Lyon Travel in Brattleboro, Vermont. Hornsby was organizing a group of wine journalists to fly to the south of F... posted on Oct 9 2017 (9,149 reads)

this turning in humanity’s journey, science and spirituality converge, and we can glimpse new possibilities for a life-sustaining civilization. But the going is rough. One mega-disaster follows another. Economic, political, and ecological systems spin out of control, in what David Korten aptly calls the “Great Unraveling.” As the rug is progressively pulled out from under us, it is easy to panic, and even easier to simply shut down. These two instinctive reactions — panic and paralysis — are the roadside ditches that border our pathway to a livable future. To fall into either one is the greatest of all the dangers we face, for they deaden the heart and der... posted on Jan 29 2018 (47,779 reads)

especially among activists, is to recognize that the global problems of this time--poverty, economics, climate change, violence, dehumanization-- cannot be solved globally. Even though the solutions have long been available, the conditions for implementation are not: political courage, collaboration across national boundaries, compassion that supersedes self-interest and greed. (These are not only the failings of our specific time in history; they occur in all civilizations at the end of their life cycle.) Pope Francis's 2015 encyclical "On Care for Our Common Home" (Laudato Si) was a brilliant systemic analysis of causes and solutions to climate change. But these solutions re... posted on Dec 8 2017 (23,482 reads)

of the heart” (a phrase coined by Alexis de Tocqueville) are deeply ingrained ways of seeing, being, and responding to life that involve our minds, our emotions, our self-images, our concepts of meaning and purpose. I believe that these five interlocked habits are critical to sustaining a society. 1. An understanding that we are all in this together. Biologists, ecologists, economists, ethicists and leaders of the great wisdom traditions have all given voice to this theme. Despite our illusions of individualism and national superiority, we humans are a profoundly interconnected species—entwined with one another and with all forms of life, as the global econo... posted on Jan 2 2018 (22,496 reads)