through kitchen balconies and open fridges and help themselves to plates of cut papaya, cool and sweet, perfect for hot dry summer days. When my mother was away at college so many years ago, she remembers the monkeys that used to come to her hostel and how they loved to steal combs and small hand-held mirrors. They would then sit in the trees and comb their monkey hair while looking at themselves in stolen mirrors, mocking everything that my mother and her friends had achieved with their education and their steel trunks and their occasional letters to their fathers. In Madurai, the monkeys have learned to unlatch locked doors by slipping their hands in the small spaces underneath. The... posted on Jun 29 2022 (3,566 reads)

our species, our people, and our loved ones, from the inside out. One of the first steps we can take towards generating internal accountability is to develop an assessment of why the world is as it is. This requires us to leap from the uninformed faith we have in the societal myths we were given as children, to the informed faith that we need in order to co-create the real world as adults. This informed faith is based not in cultural myths, but instead in lived experience, political education, and analysis. And this informed faith can allow us to embark on the right assessment, which then helps us find the balance between understanding the systems that have most deeply shaped us,... posted on Jun 30 2022 (3,499 reads)

follows is the transcript of an interview between Tami Simon of SoundsTrue and James Hollis. 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 challenges... posted on Oct 1 2022 (4,325 reads)

create, she set out to singlehandedly preserve a vital aspect of indigenous culture, the one art that is the heartbeat of every culture: music. Frances Densmore Thomas Edison had invented the phonograph — a mechanical means of recording and reproducing sound, using a wax-coated cardboard cylinder and a cutting stylus — when Frances was ten. Around that time, listening to the songs of the Dakota Indians near her home, she fell in love with music. In an era when higher education was closed to women with only limited exceptions, she spent three years studying music at Oberlin College — the first university to admit women, and the first to admit students of... posted on Nov 10 2022 (3,555 reads)

awakens a sense of awe at the mystery of life, a sense of wonder, a sense of humility in the face of something so much bigger than we are,” says Harper. “A sense of appreciation and of gratitude. Sometimes a sense of fear — a healthy recognition that we’re not the center of the universe.” Harper, an Episcopal priest, is Executive Director of GreenFaith, an international interfaith and multi-faith environmental organization that conducts education and advocacy, and provides environmental sustainability services, to faith-based groups. GreenFaith uses the power of religious networks to help people from diverse backgrounds put their bel... posted on Nov 17 2022 (1,976 reads)

trainer, so thank you. Seriously. Right now, during this time that we’re in, I think for a lot of people it’s hard to see the possibility of this time. We see the despair and feel the pain of this passage that we’re in—hopefully a passage to something filled with possibility. How do you see this time we’re in? LT: Well, I see it as a massive breakdown in every sector of society: the economy, our health, our democracy, our political landscape, our education system, even our religious faiths. In many cases, in breakdown—and the big one is the climate crisis, global warming, everything related to that, species extinction. I could go on and ... posted on Dec 31 2022 (4,032 reads)

Namati, he co-founded an organization called Timap (which means “stand up”) to help rural Sierra Leoneans address injustice and hold government accountable. Realizing that a conventional legal aid model would have been unworkable, as there were only 100 lawyers in Sierra Leone (more than 90 of which were in the capital rather than in rural areas), he instead focused on training a frontline of community paralegals in basic law and in tools like mediation, advocacy, education, and organizing. Just like a health care system relies on nurses, midwives, and community health workers in addition to physicians, he saw that justice required community paralegals (sometim... posted on Jan 26 2023 (1,130 reads)

of an Insights at the Edge interview from Sounds True, between Tami Simon and Michael Singer. You can listen to the audio version here. Tami Simon: Welcome to Insights at the Edge produced by Sounds True. My name’s Tami Simon, I’m the founder of Sounds True and I’d love to take a moment to introduce you to the Sounds True Foundation. The goal of the Sounds True Foundation is to provide access and eliminate financial barriers to transformational education and resources such as teachings and trainings on mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion. If you’d like to learn more and join with us in our efforts, please visit Sounds... posted on Feb 3 2023 (5,836 reads)

through the ages, a traditional form has evolved for this type of speech, which is: Some old fart, his best years behind him, who, over the course of his life, has made a series of dreadful mistakes (that would be me), gives heartfelt advice to a group of shining, energetic young people, with all of their best years ahead of them (that would be you). And I intend to respect that tradition. Now, one useful thing you can do with an old person, in addition to borrowing money from them, or asking them to do one of their old-time “dances,” so you can watch, while laughing, is ask: “Looking back, what do you regret?” And they’ll tell you. Sometimes, as you ... posted on Feb 11 2023 (50,191 reads)

of today's society is designed through the lens of financial wealth, but is our world richer for it? Nipun Mehta uses that question as a springboard to make a compelling case for alternative forms of wealth that are often overlooked -- like time, community and attention. Drawing on his personal journey with ServiceSpace, as well as fascinating research and real-world examples, below is the transcript of an inspiring TEDx talk that invites listeners to consider a catalytic question: what forms of wealth do we care to amplify?] Decades ago, one of my friends was volunteering with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, and one of these major donors walks into the place, checks ... posted on Apr 19 2016 (51,420 reads)

in the forest to seeing what might be done through action in the world, I started—because I have this addiction to writing books, I started pursuing how to get these ideas together. I actually assembled a group of about two dozen people from all walks of life to do a pre-book book club to offer insights into what they would like such a book to be, for it to be useful across all these different backgrounds that they had—racial backgrounds, gender identity, sexual orientation, education, culture, age. It was an incredibly diverse group. That input was very important to seeing how to put words to this and then, turning to Indigenous teachings, which in many ways, for thousan... posted on Mar 10 2023 (2,373 reads)

had been living in London. It was Sunday, July 27, 1980…a day that changed my life forever. I got up before dawn and went for a long, slow, easy run in Hyde Park. When I returned, I picked up the Sunday Times and went into my flat. After showering, I was thumbing through the newspaper, and when I got to page fourteen, I saw a headline in the education section: “How the Universe Hangs Together”. There was a picture of Dr. David Bohm, Professor of Theoretical Physics at London’s Birbeck College, with a caption underneath: “Bohm and his Algebra of Algebras: Religion is Wholeness.” I knew at that moment that this article was speaking to me and tha... posted on Mar 15 2023 (3,869 reads)

So it started out. I used to call it something else actually, and then switch it to calling it Soul Biographies. I can't remember more on why actually, but it seemed a relevant title. And the way of it, the way that I would sit with someone is how I've described. So seldom, especially now, I don't have anything to ask someone because I'm not looking for an answer to something, unless we have a context for a film. Sometimes I've made films on the re-imagining of education or the conflict, or something like that, schizophrenia, things like that. There's a context, so sometimes I have to ask a few things. But generally, if I was making a free form soul biog... posted on Apr 11 2023 (3,139 reads)

is an act of reciprocity, generating wonder and joy, perpetuating the gift. When we fall in love with the living world, a profound intention emerges from our attention, a longing to protect and honor her. This intention transforms into action, and we become agents of change, fueled by our love for our Mother Planet and a compelling sense of well-being for future generations. Explore a lesson plan that was designed to accompany Granddaughter' Eyes as a way to spread climate education. For more music from Nimo, visit "Empty Hands Music". ... posted on Apr 19 2023 (4,109 reads)

leaders who are going to make a difference in the world. But something went wrong. And that's why we created business leaders who did something without knowing or with knowing, which put the world at crisis, at the edge of a collapse in order to just gain profits, in order to satisfy their ego of getting more money, and doing the very bad thing on the society as a whole. So the school started to self-reflect and it came out with this new framework for the direction of the education for the next hundred years, which was, as you pointed out, a knowing/doing thing. So knowing is about knowledge, your head, brain. And doing is practice, implementation, and learning from do... posted on May 3 2023 (2,387 reads)

of overcoming a lack of supermarkets. So in addition to its efforts to provide access to healthy food, Soul Fire operates immersion training programs for black, Latinx, and indigenous farmers. The goal is to enable a new generation of farmers to connect with and revive a largely forgotten cultural legacy of food sovereignty. All author proceeds from the book will go to fund scholarships for these training sessions. “Even if there was a grocery store, that’s not a replacement for education on where the food comes from, or an appreciation of how long it takes, or an appreciation of your culture, of what foods mean to your background,” says Mia Nilo, Frederick Douglass Fel... posted on May 13 2023 (1,761 reads)

one else,’” Brown says. So what can parents and teachers do to support positive creative growth in children and students? Here are six simple guidelines. 1. Recognize your biases “The first thing to do is heal our own,” says Brown. “We need to recognize our own wounds around creativity in order not to pass them down. . . . You need to model what you want to see.” Professor Ron Beghetto, an internationally recognized expert on creativity in educational settings, experienced creative mortification around his poetry as a student. “If the poetry teacher had said, ‘Hey, you’re no John Keats, but let me show you how to impro... posted on May 29 2023 (3,127 reads)

future that a soul must host so that the repetition of this horrific mistake of projecting upon Black men the biggest fear is not going to allow us to get past this tragic circumstances. Bayo Akomolafe: I’m just going to add something to that as well, to that altar of insights from my big brother. I grew up in the city in Lagos, Nigeria, and that meant I was cut off from some of the very rich African Yoruba traditions that I read about but I was too educated to experience. My education meant that I was closer to the United States than to my own context, but I was still alive to stories of the masquerade. The masquerade is a monstrous figure. The masquerade is a refusal ... posted on Jul 3 2023 (2,107 reads)

drawing. The left hemisphere is not specialized for the function of realistic drawing. It would be like trying to write without using the verbal system. I am not a cartoonist, but cartoon drawing often uses memorized sets of symbols that can be repeated, much like the letters of the alphabet, and therefore that style of drawing is better suited to left‐brain processes. 10)         MFS/CKK:  What do you think drawing and art would contribute to the education of our students, and how would you propose convincing teachers and administrators? BWE:  Drawing is probably the best way to train perceptual skills—meaning how to see—an... posted on Jul 9 2023 (2,611 reads)

values might be different. You might be more of an animal person. Or someone who thinks we can’t go further as a society without learning how to be more vulnerable. The point is: if you can’t articulate the things that are most important to you, how can you ensure you’re focussing your energies in the best way? A good way to discover what you care about is by doing volunteer work. If you know which area you want to volunteer in—children, homelessness, environment, education, health etc.—then you’re sorted. If you don’t, try a few new projects until you’re hooked on something. From this, a list of values should emerge. 2. Align yo... posted on Aug 21 2023 (2,930 reads)