this great line by Ani Tenzin Palmo, an English woman who spent 12 years in a cave in Tibet: “We do not know what a thought is, yet we’re thinking them all the time.” gobyg It’s true. The amount of knowledge we have about the brain has doubled in the last 20 years. Yet there’s still a lot we don’t know. In recent years, though, we have started to better understand the neural bases of states like happiness, gratitude, resilience, love, compassion, and so forth. And better understanding them means we can skillfully stimulate the neural substrates of those states—which, in turn, means we can strengthen them. Because as the... posted on Sep 15 2012 (147,595 reads)

to things she had bought a few flowers on the way back from church which were in a vase on the table. Somehow, over the hours spent painting what she was actually doing was standing witness to the situation I was in. In the hours spent in silence she was letting me know that she was there for me even if I didn’t want to talk. She was screaming ‘I UNDERSTAND’ without saying a word. After a long spell of time away from home, I experienced the unconditional, mindful, total love that only a parent can provide. And in that experience my life was transformed. 5 days on I was talking possibilities and after a good sob, feeling much more optimistic about the future. I of... posted on Sep 23 2012 (23,348 reads)

Doctor-esque style, the musician belted out a catchy tune called, “I Love My Mom.” It was impossible not to laugh or stand still as he amused the huge crowd that congregated around him. Suddenly a woman approached us and said, “Excuse me. I couldn’t help but notice these two little girls.” She smiled at my daughters who couldn’t tear their eyes away from the most original live entertainment they had seen in their life. “I just love how they are appreciating the musician and clearly enjoying themselves. It is just a beautiful sight.” What is the point in being alive if you cease to delight in life’s simple jo... posted on Oct 8 2012 (67,165 reads)

13th is World Kindness Day! In honor of this, we've compiled 10 diverse and heart-warming pieces honoring extraordinary acts of kindness, love and compassion by ordinary people. These stories include bus-drivers, bakers, basketball players, canine heroes and much more...reminding us of just how universal and essential the spirit of kindness is in our world. Read on and be inspired to do an act of kindness of your own today. 1. The Angel of Queens: Jorge Munoz is a school bus driver by day and an angel by night. Every night for more than 5 years, he has gone home and cooked food for hundreds of people on his old stove. He then goes to a street corner in Quee... posted on Nov 13 2014 (227,009 reads)

aspects of business, especially during certain times and in certain industries. So, I think that like everything else, to be a good writer you need to be a good writer in an abstract sense and to have a passionate and real connection with the subject matter that you're writing about. Useem: If business and business writers can benefit from having at least some contact with the world of poetry, you've also written somewhat colorfully about keeping your early writing a secret. And I love the story about how you used to grab the 5 copies of The New Yorker that would arrive in the company store before any of your colleagues could buy one. That was quite a while ago, better than fif... posted on Jan 28 2013 (14,593 reads)

the naysayers. To pessimists and the procrastinators. Here’s to the ones who believe in Away. And Going. And Newness within Newness. And a world made to wash us and move us and sculpt us and change us. And the courage it takes to believe in all those things. Here’s to the ones who have uncovered the recovery from darkness. Who have cried on bathroom floors. Who have found pockets of strength in cracks in the sidewalk. Who have declared new days and brighter days and lovelier days than this. Here’s the ones who say, “I’ve moved on” and “I’m stronger now” and “You never completed me. No, that never happened.”... posted on Feb 6 2013 (24,187 reads)

the same story…or one a lot like it. I used to be too embarrassed to tell this story….but I am not anymore. This is a human story that everyone needs to hear, I truly believe this. I hope you will stay with it, it’s kinda long. As we move along…I want you to think about some of the big signs with big messages that I bet you wish you could wear around your neck sometimes so that people would be more gentle, or even that you could put around the neck of someone you love -- so that you didn’t have to go into a big long story to defend yourself or someone else-- so that people would just stop judging and and just be kind. I need to start this story ... posted on Mar 19 2013 (74,217 reads)

think there's definitely an idea in our culture that if it's that simple, it's simplistic or lacking sophistication, or not really going to take you all the way, or something like that. How would you respond to that? JC: I would say 3 million people have worked with the tools, and that must mean that they're not gullible. TS: Strong response. Now, one of the metaphors you use, Julia, that I find really interesting—and maybe it's because I've loved the radio my whole life—is the human being as a type of radio that can receive transmissions. I wonder if you can talk a little bit about that, about this metaphor of the radio and what it... posted on May 7 2013 (26,364 reads)

thoughts slip away with the winter that never came. Clean. Your room. Your car. Your pocketbook. You’ll feel lighter. You will find that you don’t need all of it. Get rid of the things that hold you down. Back. Standing still in a spot that expired two years ago. If it is too hard to let go, then throw a Going Away Party. Pack all the memories in a box and whisper lies to them, “You are just going on a vacation. You’ll come back soon.” Love notes without the lovers. Old shirts without the arms to wrap them in. Make room for new love notes. New shirts. New arms. Buy new doormats. New can openers. Take time on people, as if it were the only thing you had... posted on May 28 2013 (35,976 reads)

words have been exchanged; Now at last let me see some deeds! ...What does not happen today, will not be done tomorrow. - Goethe I can almost pinpoint the moment when I decided to save the world. It was sometime after my Mom died—my Mom who was the secret solar center of my life; whose letters always ended in exuberant sign-offs (lovelovelove, three exclamation points); who’d insisted, despite her terminal diagnosis, that I not cancel my book tour because the subject—compassion—was, for her, life’s indispensable thread. I’d begun writing my book The Compassionate Life to blow the dust off my bodhisattva vows, little suspectin... posted on Apr 13 2014 (13,184 reads)

space for quite some time, imploring for donations. This could have been another trivial occurrence of the day, another detail soon forgotten, except the person standing there — that was me . . . As a development executive at a film studio, I am fortunate to work at a great company, surrounded by incredibly talented individuals. We make movies. Movies that everyone in the world wants to see (or at least, that’s the goal). My life has a paycheck, a house, nice car, and people who love me and I can count on in any circumstance. My biggest fear is that I lose my ability to see, to connect, to be in touch with the world around me. If this were to happen, I would not be able to... posted on Aug 4 2013 (43,711 reads)

carefree child was a gift to my Type A, task-driven nature—but I didn’t see it. Oh no, when you live life distracted, you have tunnel vision—only looking ahead to what’s next on the agenda. And anything that cannot be checked off the list is a waste of time. Whenever my child caused me to deviate from my master schedule, I thought to myself, “We don’t have time for this.” Consequently, the two words I most commonly spoke to my little lover of life were: “Hurry up.” I started my sentences with it. Hurry up, we’re gonna be late. I ended sentences with it. We’re going to miss everything if you don&rsq... posted on Sep 13 2013 (131,726 reads)

change is possible and 100% achievable in my lifetime.  I see this every day in front of my eyes.  I am convinced that we can end world poverty for good and we can do that by educating and caring for our world’s children. 3. What do you get from giving?   I get a bursting heart and 300 of the happiest most amazing little kiddos in the universe; hugs every day,  lots of laughs, family games of capture the flag,  too many Birthday parties to count, and more love than I could have ever imagined. 4. Who is a living hero and what would you ask them if given the chance?   I love Melinda Gates and everything she is doing to change the world fo... posted on Sep 17 2013 (70,759 reads)

as trace memories of what we have repressed in the name of our technical mastery. They are the ecological unconscious. So, of course, they show up in poetry. "I do not know much about gods," T. S. Eliot wrote, who grew up along the Mississippi in St. Louis, "but I think that the river is a strong brown god." "Under various names," wrote Czeslaw Milosz, who grew up in Lithuania along the Neman, "I have praised only you, rivers. You are milk and honey and love and death and dance." I take this to be the first stirrings, even as our civilization did its damming and polluting, of the recognition of what we have lost and need to recover. When human p... posted on Oct 20 2013 (21,747 reads)

exposure to a certain way of thinking that can change our brain. And you also mentioned that there is a technique that helps people to develop their altruism: it’s through meditation… The term meditation is mystical, exotic, but its meaning is to educate oneself, to become familiar with a new way of thinking and acting while developing one’s qualities. Let’s consider the altruistic behavior. It’s obvious that throughout our life we feel unconditional love for our children, for someone else, or even for an animal, and that feeling doesn’t require any effort in showing altruism: wishing they were healthy and happy in their lives. The problem i... posted on Jan 27 2014 (7,813 reads)

lived and gardened at Green Gulch Farm for twenty-five years, settling my life, practicing Zen, and deepening my understanding of the earth under my fingernails. Green Gulch has a second name, one woven out of poetry and meditation practice: Soryu-ji, or Green Dragon Zen Temple. I love this name that so deftly describes the sinuous valley of Green Gulch, which uncoils between high, dry hills like an ancient green dragon with its tail stirring the sea and its fire-breathing head held high in the mysterious clouds that rise like primordial vapor from the coastal mountains. I now make my primary garden at my home a scant mile north of Green Gulch, almost where the dragon's tail lashes ... posted on Jan 30 2014 (20,754 reads)

criticisms of policy, the assertions of dogma, the declarations of fact that you hear every day — and just imagine if all of these could be infused with the proper intellectual humility that comes from appreciating the amount unseen.” Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, who authored one of the best psychology books of 2011, contemplates the “focusing illusion” — or tendency to misjudge the scale of impact certain circumstances, from a pay raise to the death of a loved one, will have on our actual well-being. Marketers exploit the focusing illusion. When people are induced to believe that they “must have” a good, they greatly exaggerate the diff... posted on Jan 14 2014 (34,881 reads)

civil rights issue of our day.” Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud. […] The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us. In his 1995 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom (public library), Mandela speaks to the conditioning that produces both love and hate: No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taug... posted on Dec 6 2013 (40,543 reads)

a weird time to be a photographer. I love being a photojournalist. But I don’t love that everybody with an iPhone thinks it’s OK to photograph and post anything, anytime, anywhere,” says Feldman. “There are boundaries. It’s a recording device. When young people ask me ‘How did you get to photograph these people?’ I say it’s partly earned trust. Knowing when not to shoot is important. Sensitivity with a camera is essential.”  “I may not have the most wonderful bank account, but my spiritual bank account is overflowing,” says Jane Feldman of her career as a social justice photojournalist and aut... posted on Feb 3 2014 (18,460 reads)

the chasm between the human realm and the wild world of nature. In every program, the animals and their stories are used to teach children not just about the biology of life but also about empathy, caring and the profound interconnections that link all of us together.        One of the most important animal companions in Steve’s life was Susie Bear, a 330-pound American black bear. He says simply that Susie Bear was his most powerful teacher and a beloved friend. One of the most extraordinary stories about Susie Bear began many years ago at an elementary school in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. —Anne Veh Steve Karlin:  ... posted on Jan 6 2014 (52,611 reads)