But her brand new book, Becoming Wise, is, for me, her most eloquent and passionate book yet. And it’s really a call to hope and a call to action. And it looks at how age-old issues are taking new forms and perhaps inviting new responses as we try to chart our way through this young century. So, please join me in welcoming Krista Tippett. [applause] Of course, you know how I’m going to begin, because it’s how you begin all your shows. [laughter] And it’s a lovely soft way to begin, which is to go to the roots and the childhood of your guests. And ask them about how, as children, they first began thinking about larger things. And I know that you are the ... posted on Jul 10 2016 (14,007 reads)

does it mean to live wisely and well and what does it take? How can we cultivate qualities such as love, wisdom, kindness, and compassion?”  Our guest today, Dr. Roger Walsh, addresses these questions. A man with an eclectic past, Roger has explored contemplative life as a professor, physician, therapist, celebrated author, spouse, spiritual practitioner, and inquisitive human being.   He is a former circus acrobat, as well as a record holder in the fields of high diving and trampolining. Roger claims to have no final answers about life and meaning; yet through a combination of spiritual wisdom and practical tools, he offers hope and healing for us all, individually... posted on Jan 17 2019 (6,160 reads)

midwife in Oslo, Norway. | Karen Beate Nøsterud/norden.org via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.5 DK. "Who is there in this world but Mother? I am Mother, you are Mother, Mother is mine, Mother is yours, Everything is Mother." Traditional Baul Song from Bengal. Since 2012 I have walked thousands of miles throughout the United Kingdom and spoken with people around the world, asking them to share their experiences of love and connection. What are the loving narratives of their lives? What does love mean to them? As the journey has grown so the experiences have deepened, and the sharings with others have deepened too. What started as a personal jour... posted on May 14 2019 (5,556 reads)

rest of the world in order to protect her daughter in the way that she thought she could, and to protect herself, ultimately, from this enormous, inconceivable loss. And incrementally, we worked with that family for about a year and worked with that child right up until her death. And we have a team approach, so our entire team works together with that family. And that mother became an extraordinary teacher for us, in particular, because she was able to transform that anger and rage into love -- and into a place of peace and acceptance with her daughter's passing, even as extraordinarily painful as that was. And the ultimate shift that allowed her to do that was a shift from th... posted on Dec 31 1969 (144 reads)

rest of the world in order to protect her daughter in the way that she thought she could, and to protect herself, ultimately, from this enormous, inconceivable loss. And incrementally, we worked with that family for about a year and worked with that child right up until her death. And we have a team approach, so our entire team works together with that family. And that mother became an extraordinary teacher for us, in particular, because she was able to transform that anger and rage into love -- and into a place of peace and acceptance with her daughter's passing, even as extraordinarily painful as that was. And the ultimate shift that allowed her to do that was a shift from th... posted on Mar 16 2023 (2,563 reads)

time to upgrade our view of love. First and foremost, love is an emotion, a momentary state that arises to infuse your mind and body alike. Love, like all emotions, surfaces like a distinct and fast-moving weather pattern, a subtle and ever-shifting force. As for all positive emotions, the inner feeling love brings you is inherently and exquisitely pleasant -- it feels extraordinarily good, the way a long, cool drink of water feels when you’re parched on a hot day. Yet far beyond feeling good, a micro-moment of love, like other positive emotions, literally changes your mind. It expands your awareness of your surroundings, even your sense of self. The bound... posted on Dec 13 2014 (32,993 reads)

the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives.” Although Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used Christian social ethics and the New Testament concept of “love” heavily in his writings and speeches, he was as influenced by Eastern spiritual traditions, Gandhi’s political writings, Buddhism’s notion of the interconnectedness of all beings, and Ancient Greek philosophy. His enduring ethos, at its core, is nonreligious — rather, it champions a set of moral, spiritual, and civic responsibilities that fortify our hum... posted on Jul 20 2015 (22,081 reads)

I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison. – Nelson Mandela To love our enemies does not mean that we suddenly become their friends. If it is our enemies we are to love, they must remain enemies. Unless you have enemies, you cannot love them. And if you have no enemies, I wonder if you have any friends. The moment you choose your friends, their enemies become your own enemies. By having convictions, we make ourselves the enemies of those who oppose these convictions. But let’s be sure we agree on what we mean by terms like Friend, E... posted on Apr 17 2017 (15,985 reads)

Perel was a therapist for 20 years before she began to write about sexuality. She studied Jewish identity in different national contexts, and focused on relationships between different minority groups in the U.S., the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. She grew up speaking multiple languages at home, above her family clothing shop in Antwerp in Belgium — a child of Polish Holocaust survivors. Both of her parents were the only people left of their families; they literally met and fell in love on a road out of the concentration camps and into freedom. Ms. Tippett:I start almost all of my conversations inquiring about the spiritual background of someone’s childhood. In my mind,... posted on Dec 18 2019 (10,451 reads)

Callander has a room of healthcare workers in tears when I hear her speak for the first time. I’m at the Gathering of Kindness—an annual conference founded by Dumbo Feather alumni Catherine Crock about bringing more empathy and compassion into healthcare—and Rachel is sharing the story of her daughter Evie, who was born with a rare chromosomal condition. Named Evie Amour, which for Rachel and her family means, “Life is possible because of love,” Evie was constantly in and out of hospitals for tests and procedures, and Rachel became attuned to the varying ways medical staff communicated her daughter’s condition to her. She s... posted on Jan 16 2022 (3,798 reads)

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 (23,194 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 (12,948 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 (31,014 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 (6,530 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 (13,106 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 (23,251 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 (3,314 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 (5,079 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 (34,594 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 (16,411 reads)