that comes with what could feel like an obligation. Metta Meditation by Sylvia Boorstein (7:30): This meditation, offered as a resource through On Being, invites us to cultivate loving-kindness toward ourselves and others. This simple practice can profoundly impact the way we orient toward ourselves and others, especially during this time of hardship. Practicing Faith in Life: Using the foundation of Stop. Look. Go., this practice helps us let go of our need to control life, inspiring us instead to be with the unknown. Karuna Virus: Make a practice of reading uplifting news stories. Our partners at Service Space have created the Karuna Virus site to catalogu... posted on May 12 2020 (7,022 reads)

beings are part of nature and are thus capable of manifesting the natural beauty of li. The philosopher Lao Zi (fourth century B.C.) says, “People follow the earth; earth follows heaven, heaven follows Tao, Tao follows its own nature.” Li is inborn; zi is acquired — unfortunately it is too easily acquired in a society that urges us to follow clocks rather than the cycles of nature. Rushing about from one place to the next, spending more time reading or thinking about life than living it, we lose the grace of our animal-nature. “Slowness is beauty,” declared the artist, Rodin. The flowing, graceful exercises of Taiji Quan help us to slow down and pay... posted on Aug 17 2020 (9,349 reads)

the boy, and said, “This'll make it better.” The little boy got up, and he and the rest of the runners linked their arms together, and joyfully walked to the finish line. They all finished the race at the same time. And when they did, everyone in that stadium stood up, and clapped, and whistled, and cheered for a long, long time. People who were there are still telling this story with great delight. And you know why. Because deep down, we know that what matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too. Even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius&mdash... posted on Aug 31 2020 (12,037 reads)

do business and spirituality meet? How does one use creativity to unite? How might we walk our unique path in solving problems outside and dissolving the ego inside?    A weekday brand-consultant, a weekend rock-climber, author during nights and a lifetime seeker of Truth -- Kiran Khalap’s journey is a striking example of a life of emergence which defies linear planning.  At the early age of 17, when most are concerned about grades and friends, Kiran’s strongest yearning was “to know the Truth”. He read most contemporary philosophers and ancient scriptures, but finally it was J Krishnamurti’s words which c... posted on Sep 25 2020 (4,352 reads)

living in an era of deep divisions. Cable television, social media feeds, and fraying personal relationships all reflect the same troubling pattern: Differences of opinion quickly escalate into attacks, mistrust, and civic stalemates. In this contentious climate, many Americans have retreated from civic life, or have responded to social conflict with calls for civility. But abstaining from civic life only cedes our public dialogue to the most contentious and polarizing voices. And too often “civility” means the mere absence of argument, or politely ignoring our differences. We believe that American civic life doesn’t need fewer arguments. Instead... posted on Sep 30 2020 (8,821 reads)

going on inside of it. So, you might break your inquiry down into even more specific questions, as suggested by UC Berkeley’s Dacher Keltner and Colorado State’s Michael Steger: Is the election disrupting my sleep? Is it interfering with my ability to concentrate? Do I feel breathless, or feel any pressure in my chest? You can also look to your mind for information: Is the election bringing back bad memories—for example, of abusive men in your life? Do thoughts of the election intrude or arise when you wish they wouldn’t? Do you find yourself thinking of the election even when you would rather be thinking about other things? ... posted on Oct 21 2020 (11,318 reads)

and instead desecrates and destroys the earth on a global scale. The earth needs our prayers more that we know. It needs us to acknowledge its sacred nature, that it is not just something to use and dispose. Many of us know the effectiveness of prayers for others, how healing and help is given, even in the most unexpected ways. There are many ways to pray for the earth. It can be helpful first to acknowledge that it is not “unfeeling matter” but a living being that has given us life. And then we can sense its suffering: the physical suffering we see in the dying species and polluted waters—the deeper suffering of our collective disregard for its sacred nature. Would we... posted on Nov 20 2020 (7,962 reads)

labor of reckoning, reimagining and remaking our nation block-by-block, heart-to-heart.” Learn more + sign up at https://tinyurl.com/ybvn88sb - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - More from Parker Palmer here. Rhonda Magee:Law professor, mindfulness teacher, social justice activist I teach about the history and dynamic maintenance of White Supremacy through law. We need to study this to understand how systemic racism has been preserved-through-transformation over our very lifetimes, and what we can do about it More from Rhonda Magee here. Bishop Steven Charleston ,Native American elder, author Stay steady in the Spirit. We knew these days would be difficult.... posted on Jan 9 2021 (8,752 reads)

is an appreciator of earthly gifts and a professor and past president of the US Society for Ecological Economics. Ecological economics is a growing economic theory that expands the conventional definition by working to integrate Earth’s natural systems and human values. But it has not been standard practice to include these foundational elements—they are usually left out of the equation. Valerie prefers the definition that “economics is how we organize ourselves to sustain life and enhance its quality. It’s a way of considering how we provide for ourselves.” The words ecology and economy come from the same root, the Greek oikos, meaning “home&r... posted on Jan 19 2021 (10,954 reads)

following passages are excerpted from Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, by Katherine May, published by Riverhead Books, Nov 2020  Everybody winters at one time or another; some winter over and over again. Wintering is a season in the cold. It is a fallow period in life when you’re cut off from the world, feeing rejected, sidelined, blocked from progress, or cast into the role of an outsider. Perhaps it results from an illness or life event such as bereavement or the birth of a child; perhaps it comes from a humiliation or failure. Perhaps you’re in a period of transition and have temporarily fallen between two worlds. Some winterings cree... posted on Feb 17 2021 (11,620 reads)

an unsettled, lonely. time and  I started taking walks in the evening to relax. It was spring.  Lemon blossoms.  Amazingly, I felt something in me wanting to flow out and dance-- and words-- short poems tumbled out of me.  I was surprised, encouraged, and felt happily hooked. Then one day I serendipitously discovered another poet, and then a small community of poets. For the next 25 years I shared poetry with them. Poetry is a discovery I have made on my way to finding my life. ***   “Slow Road” Last year, my partner and I spent time at an artist residency in Chianti, Italy.  A long winding road led through the countryside,  past... posted on Feb 22 2021 (4,920 reads)

protesting apartheid.   That’s not all.  My mother organized support for people  forcibly removed from towns where they had lived for generations. This was occurring regularly as White areas were “cleansed” of Blacks.  And she offered daily, practical help to a constant stream of Black South Africans caught up in the bureaucratic nightmare of dispossession.  She found allies in government agencies who could keep families together and get life-saving pension and disability payments through the almost impenetrable Catch 22 of South Africa’s many new laws and regulations.  She marched into police stations demanding t... posted on Mar 24 2021 (4,599 reads)

is what love seeks,” Hannah Arendt wrote in her superb 1929 meditation on love and how to live with the fundamental fear of loss. “Such fearlessness exists only in the complete calm that can no longer be shaken by events expected of the future… Hence the only valid tense is the present, the Now.” Half a century before her, Leo Tolstoy — who befriended a Buddhist monk late in life and became deeply influenced by Buddhist philosophy — echoed these ancient truths as he contemplated the paradoxical nature of love: “Future love does not exist. Love is a present activity only.” That in love and in life, freedo... posted on Apr 4 2021 (7,418 reads)

(as opposed to the mental operations of the mind), and so the instruction will be inevitably heard as “get out of your mind and into your emotions”—which is, alas, pretty close to 180 degrees from what the instruction is actually saying. Yes, it is certainly true that the heart’s native language is affectivity—perception through deep feelingness. But it may come as a shock to contemporary seekers to learn that the things we nowadays identify with the feeling life—passion, drama, intensity, compelling emotion—are qualities that in the ancient anatomical treatises were associated not with the heart but with the liver! They are signs of agitation... posted on Apr 10 2021 (8,835 reads)

a National Science Foundation grant a few years earlier to recycle steel waste, and as the first Native American to receive such a prestigious grant, he shared that he was feeling pretty cocky. He said that when he first approached the enormous mound of steel waste, his inclination was to think of it as something to be overcome, battled against. Then he told me, “I realized that the waste was not an enemy to be conquered. It was an orphan that had gotten separated from the circle of life. My job was to bring it back to the circle of life.” I was very touched by these words. This concept of waste seemed like a way to recycle damaged, toxic places in the mind as well as in... posted on Apr 26 2021 (4,979 reads)

far into Spring. The crops failed, people starved. At first they burned women as witches as a way to placate the gods. But this did not help, the Winters turned colder, the rivers froze. It makes me wonder how we will react—who will we demonize as a way to assuage our fears? Will we seek refuge in authoritarian regimes, which promise us stability; or populism, nativism, which promise us a voice? I am sure we will find a victim to blame, anything to escape the deep knowing that our way of life is over, that we cannot continue with this story of exploitation and consumerism, this plague that is burning the land. There are stories that destroy us, and stories that sustain us. This S... posted on Aug 19 2021 (6,840 reads)

didn’t expect or desire a real answer. If we got one, it had better be brief, and not too grim or involved. We weren’t up for longwinded or dreary responses. That’s not how the game was played. The pandemic might have altered our customary “How are yous?” a bit. It might have made them less superficial, and more sincere. Those three words definitely mean more to me now than they used to. How about you? As we begin to navigate the waters of postpandemic life (some of us sooner than others), I wonder: Would it be possible for us to move forward more in the spirit of Oliver Sacks? Can we ask each other, with empathy and curiosity, “How are you?&n... posted on Oct 1 2021 (3,954 reads)

I could teach, right? So that's where it started. When you were somewhat immobilized, you were discovering a new capacity for movement -- a movement almost like motionless dancing-- It certainly started out motionless, but I think even more importantly, I was finding that you could refine your awareness. You can get to a more subtle level of your whole being, and that was completely new to me. I began to be interested enough in it that I lost my despair about having lost my previous life, and began to focus on this -- because this seemed really interesting. And then I started to go to bookstores and grab books that might explain this -- books on yoga, books on martial arts- like,... posted on Oct 19 2021 (3,058 reads)

Phillip Ramakers “It’s time to shed our skins, not just confess our sins, it’s time to shed our skins, to feed the hunger within, for the paradise we have lost…” - Kira Kaipainen Nils Kercher and Kira Kaipainen are life partners and unique world musicians who take listeners on multidirectional journeys. Their music simultaneously draws listeners out into the stark realities of our greater world, while also drawing them inward into the dazzling potentials of the human spirit. Theirs is a music that believes deeply in our fundamental interconnection, and the capacity we have to heal together. They... posted on Dec 8 2021 (4,885 reads)

detailed images, and colours reveal a hidden depth, a reflection of a timeless soul, rich with experience, empathy, love and generosity.” —Paul Destrooper, Artistic Director, Ballet Victoria All photographs by Stefan Cremers.  My winter garden is quiet and lovely, with snow piled onto the shrubs and outlining the trees. For me, this is a time for resting and reflection, reading, drawing, and planning next year’s garden. Gardening has always been a part of my life. As a child, I spent summers playing in my grandfather’s stately and formal garden in Rochester, New York, where my great grandfather had managed the Ellwanger and Barry Nursery. Composed o... posted on Dec 9 2021 (6,253 reads)