it can be said that we are always practicing something. Most often, we are practicing what is habitual, familiar, and mostly unconscious… All the great wisdom traditions teach us that life is precious; that what is happening right now IS life, not some future destination, time, or state of mind. “Carpe Diem,” they say, implying that we must take none of this moment, and its opportunities, for granted. But as we all know, this is easier said than done, especially when our lives deliver us genuine challenges to living out this simple and profound philosophy. Fortunately, wisdom traditions, including gratefulness, offer a wide range ... posted on May 18 2017 (21,346 reads)

to you — may be entirely different from what it means to me. The kids are often disappointed, even shocked. I think they see me as irresponsible. I know their teachers do. They may be right. Maybe all writing, even literature, is not an end in itself but a means to an end other than itself. But I couldn’t write stories or poetry if I thought the true and central value of my work was in a message it carried, or in providing information or reassurance, offering wisdom, giving hope. Vast and noble as these goals are, they would decisively limit the scope of the work; they would interfere with its natural growth and cut it off from the mystery which is the dee... posted on Jun 27 2017 (8,151 reads)

she finally found herself standing in Jeong Kwan’s kitchen. “In her kitchen for the first time, I was swept immediately into the warmth and bustle of a morning at Chunjinam…  I was in Jeong Kwan’s kitchen. I tried not to pass out. ”  Kwan is full of warmth and laughter in her kitchen, yet has a focus on her food preparation that is akin to meditation.  People come not only for her good food, but because she is a force of love in her simple wisdom.  The Garden is the Kitchen Writer Jeff Gordinier is a New York Times writer who was lucky enough to make a trip to meet Kwan. In an article about his expedition in 2015, he illumina... posted on Jul 26 2017 (17,195 reads)

I think what people are calling "compassion fatigue" is a kind of “empathetic overload” where they get so entangled in the suffering of another that they can't separate themselves out. Compassion is something a little bit different than that. Empathy is "I feel with,” and compassion is "I feel for." So, I can sit here and have an empathetic relationship with you and the suffering that you've experienced, but I can also have access to my own wisdom and skillfulness so I can be some real support in actually eliminating or at least reducing the suffering in your life. The other is to realize is that I come from a Buddhist tradition, and ... posted on Jan 26 2018 (31,243 reads)

deeds, beautifully explained, can have on you. He said, “Does it not elevate his sentiments, does it not dilate the breast and elevate the sentiment” — a sort of a feeling of opening — “as much as any example in real history can furnish?” And he talked about how it makes us more open, and then new things are possible. Ms. Tippett: It seems like he almost had an intuition of what’s being learned in social psychology now, or that he had a wisdom. Mr. Haidt: Jefferson was a fantastic — Jefferson and Ben Franklin. We had a few founders who were great psychologists. Ms. Tippett: Yeah. So let’s just talk about y... posted on Sep 21 2018 (17,327 reads)

reputation as much for its pioneering approach to student life as for its innovative courses. Students experience what is described by some as ‘deep immersion’ as they explore themes around ecology, economics and spirituality, while sharing the responsibilities and the struggles of living together as a community. One of the college’s founders, Satish Kumar, believes that this approach has lifelong benefits: “We are not just in a pursuit of knowledge but also of wisdom,” says the former Jain monk and now peace activist: “Community learning is learning in a collective way with a collective consciousness and collective ideas, but it’s als... posted on Dec 11 2017 (9,012 reads)

large-scale perturbations in ecosystems. When we finally understand the difficulty of predicting the outcome of any large scale perturbation, we’ll approach them much more cautiously—as the Iroquois Confederacy advised, with an eye to the seventh generation. It’s exceedingly difficult to anticipate how an action taken today will affect people seven generations out; not many actions will pass that test. We may still make mistakes—all of us do on the way to wisdom—but they generally won’t have the same degree of severity as they do when we assume we know what we are doing. An example is our response to invasive plant species. I often say t... posted on Mar 9 2018 (24,565 reads)

Watts began introducing Eastern teachings into the West with his clarion call for presence as the antidote to anxiety, Chödrön points to the present moment — however uncertain, however difficult — as the sole seedbed of wakefulness to all of life: This very moment is the perfect teacher, and it’s always with us. […] We can be with what’s happening and not dissociate. Awakeness is found in our pleasure and our pain, our confusion and our wisdom, available in each moment of our weird, unfathomable, ordinary everyday lives. Illustration by Lisbeth Zwerger from a special edition of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales Remainin... posted on Mar 13 2018 (17,369 reads)

it’s extremely intense in Jerusalem, and in many places in the world where you work, Lucas, but it’s here now too, that there’s all this fear all around. And it’s like our different fears are pitted against each other. And these different kinds of fear from living in different parts of the country — what’s happening with the economy; what’s happening with — we can talk about all these layers — immigration policy — I wonder what wisdom you have about the spiritual discipline of being a citizen in this moment. And I think part of it is that those of us who do have the privilege to be standing on the solid ground, to not be imm... posted on Aug 19 2018 (5,359 reads)

like Reloveution. José Juan is a permanent source of inspiration for those who meet him. - Joserra G. José Juan Martinez (JJ) is no stranger to success. An industrial engineer by training he built an impressive career at Bekaert, a multinational automobile company. But despite a string of professional accomplishments, when he hit 40, the predominant feeling he experienced was that of emptiness. Seeking to address this void he began an exploration of the world’s wisdom traditions that continues to this day -- and alongside his personal evolution he’s also built valuable bridges across geographies, cultures and fields of endeavor. In this edited inter... posted on Sep 2 2018 (15,062 reads)

own social organizations may seem at best romantic, and at worst a cheap stretch. We are not animals, we tell ourselves, and our brains function differently, and besides, horses can’t balance a budget. But this thinking not only over estimates our superiority, it underestimates the intelligence of nature. And, in fact, as mammals, our brains are hardwired for the same need for safety and success as the horse. It is our nature-deficient culture that robs us of true insight, robbing us of wisdom that could prevent professional and organizational demise. According to Arie de Gaus former executive with Royal Dutch Shell and author of The Living Company: Habits for Survi... posted on Sep 22 2018 (20,682 reads)

can be hard to find joy in failure. But welcoming the “negative” feelings will help. As we welcome, we witness our inner chatter from an objective standpoint. We listen. We love. And ultimately, we laugh. Something opens within us and we realize that failure is funny.  Seriously. Google “blooper reels,” “stage fails,” “animals behaving badly,” and you’ll see how we love to laugh at ourselves. Igniting candles of wisdom, compassion, and joy helps us see failure as a friend.  In the spirit of Failure Clubs, springing up all over the world, we may even decide that failure is a goal to be achieved. ... posted on Oct 27 2018 (8,233 reads)

Tippett:I couldn’t help wondering as I’m reading you and reading about the life you’ve crafted, you really have chosen a simplicity that — I think you even use the word “luxurious.” You talk about being with Leonard Cohen, and he uses the word “luxurious” — and in such a contrast to the you at 29, living the American dream. But I couldn’t help wondering how much of what you’ve been able to choose and create also is about the wisdom that comes just with growing older, with age, that stillness becomes more natural and more enjoyable somehow, I think, inherently. I’m not sure everyone leans into that. In fact, I know t... posted on Feb 5 2019 (8,388 reads)

One of our greatest inspirations to make the film was witnessing how Steve Karlin and John Malloy do not teach the children—rather, they create a “safe space” where the children  learn experientially. As we began screening the film in schools, juvenile detention centers, community groups and spiritual institutions, we experienced that the film was also naturally culminating in creating a safe space. Although hurt and vulnerable, the children in the film share deeply with wisdom and clarity. Both the children and the animals visibly heal, creating a container that allows for deep reflection. The film naturally became “the fire” to anchor healing circles&... posted on Mar 20 2019 (8,322 reads)

Refusal to live within these demands is part of what makes death so difficult for contemporary Westerners; we have no experience with it. Contrary to everything we hear from those around us, Jenkinson reminds us that “Death is a gift. It’s the fact that your days are numbered that makes each one precious.” Stephen is the author of several books. His 2015 Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul describes his approach to coming to terms with death, with wisdom drawn from indigenous peoples, as well as Buddhism. Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018) calls for a new generation of elders who are willing to serve ... posted on Apr 26 2019 (21,098 reads)

and how they will be in the world. At Stanford University this year, I was part of a searching conversation about this. I found faculty as well as students eager to join me. How we educate for success is strangely at odds with what we’re learning on our scientific and medical frontiers about everything from the power of rest to the interactivity between our minds and bodies and emotions, to our need for others. From where I sit, our view of success is also at odds with what we know of wisdom — of social and moral capacities like friendship and courage, dignity and hospitality — that make for a deeply satisfying life. I’m Krista Tippett, and this is&nb... posted on Jun 7 2019 (6,117 reads)

it, is what Toni Morrison (February 18, 1931–August 5, 2019) — one of the titanic thinkers and writers of our time, and the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature — returns to again and again throughout The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations (public library), the final nonfiction collection that gave us Morrison on the singular humanistic power of storytelling and the search for wisdom in the age of information. In a timely piece titled “The Foreigner’s Home,” originally delivered as a lecture at the University of Toronto in 2002, Morrison reflect... posted on Aug 7 2019 (7,563 reads)

to you — may be entirely different from what it means to me. The kids are often disappointed, even shocked. I think they see me as irresponsible. I know their teachers do. They may be right. Maybe all writing, even literature, is not an end in itself but a means to an end other than itself. But I couldn’t write stories or poetry if I thought the true and central value of my work was in a message it carried, or in providing information or reassurance, offering wisdom, giving hope. Vast and noble as these goals are, they would decisively limit the scope of the work; they would interfere with its natural growth and cut it off from the mystery which is the dee... posted on Sep 9 2019 (4,864 reads)

and dynamic. And it requires—and helps us along in—transcending the collective trance. Spiritual life involves growing into a wise and healthy relationship to reality. The word “spiritual” points to the deepest level of being—essential and existential. Spiritual growth and development enable us to glimpse the bountiful grace in which we live—the beauty of the world, and the privilege of conscious embodied existence. Gratitude is universal spiritual wisdom, and it is sufficient. Such gratitude is awake. It is realistically in touch with loss and death and threat—not in denial. Saints are grateful even while resonating empathically with s... posted on Feb 3 2020 (8,762 reads)

very thin line, that very tight rope between — we’re loyal to the past, and we’re loyal to our audience, and we’re finding the in-between. And it’s how to be cheeky without being cheesy, and how to be profound, how to bring the sacred in many ways. I think we’re starving for the sacred in so many ways. In the Jewish world, there’s this renaissance of various attempts to both bring social justice and human dignity and spirituality and practice and wisdom to the forefront. And it does take rebranding. It takes reimagining what we have to offer and how we get to mix and match with other traditions. And that is a historical precedent that I think ... posted on Feb 23 2020 (4,309 reads)