Sangha of Auspicious Companions

July 9, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

The Gift Economy

“Want to fix the economy? Next time you buy coffee, purchase a cup for the person behind you. Or as you grind your way through the morning commute, pick up the tollbooth charge for the driver behind you, draped over his steering wheel and ranting at the long delay. You’ve heard that famous Gandhian quote about being the change, well these are good measures to start with, packing more punch than you might imagine. This approach to life starts with the following premise: What exactly did I (or you) do to deserve to be alive? If you can process that question and come out thinking it was a gift that you can’t ever pay back, then beginning a life of greater giving is the only logical and remotely reciprocal way to go.” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Van Slambrouck reflects on the gift economy. { read more }

Be The Change

Think of an experience of gifting (either receiving or giving) that has stayed with you, and share it with others here. { more }

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Wind Powered Art!

Amazingly, these machines are made completely of recycled items. The ‘stomach’ of the sculpture is made with retired plastic bottles that capture the air pumped by the wind. To harness the wind, Jansen employs bicycle pumps, plastic tubing and rubber rings! Witness beauty through ingenuity 🙂

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July 8, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

High Schooler Pays Forward $40,000

They wanted to show kids in Compton, CA, one of the most dangerous cities in America, how to create community spirit, and so organizers put on a basketball contest for top academic students. But following a tear-jerking gesture from the winner — it appears the true lessons learned were by the adults. Senior Allen Guei won in front of a packed house. And three months after winning the $40,000 top prize, he donated all of his winnings to the seven other finalists. Guei, a star player on the basketball team has a full scholarship, and wanted to give his classmates a chance to make their academic dreams come true, too. “I’ve already been blessed so much and I know we’re living with a bad economy, so I know this money can really help my classmates,” he said. “It was the right decision.” { read more }

Be The Change

The next time you receive something, consider how you could share it.

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July 7, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Bill Moyers: Naomi Shihab Nye

Renowned poet Naomi Shihab Nye writes about button-hooks, onions and her grandmother’s tea. Her poems speak of ordinary things — things we take for granted until it’s almost too late. For her poetry is a “conversation with the world, conversation with those words on the page, allowing them to speak back to you — conversation with yourself.” The daughter of a Palestinian father and an American mother, she’s lived in old Jerusalem, in St. Louis, and now with her own family in San Antonio, Texas. Bill Moyers carries a poem of hers in his wallet, and interviews her here. { read more }

Be The Change

Ponder on the power of words. A poem of Naomi Shihab Nye’s, “Before You Know What Kindness Really Is:” { more }

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July 6, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

7 Must-Read Books on Education

Education is something we’re deeply passionate about, but much of today’s dominant formal education model is in need of a paradigm shift. While lots has been said and written about education reform over the past couple of years, the issue and the public discourse around it have been going on for decades. So how does the free speech movement of the 1960s relate to digital learning and The Beatles? Via popular internet publication Brain Pickings, here is a round-up of the most compelling and visionary reading on reinventing education from the past century, including videos that feature Isaac Asimov and Howard Gardner. { read more }

Be The Change

Share a life lesson with a student.

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July 5, 2011

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The Blind Man Who Taught Himself To See

Daniel Kish has been sightless since he was a year old. Yet he can mountain bike, navigate the wilderness alone, and recognize a building as far away as 1,000 feet. How? The same way bats can see in the dark. Since his infancy, he has been adapting to his blindness in remarkable ways. He has learned to use what he calls “Flashsonar,” or echolocation. He produces a brief, sharp click with his tongue, and the sound waves bounce off every object around him, returning to his ears vastly decreased in volume, but perceivable. Kish has trained himself to hear these slight echoes and to interpret their meaning. Standing on his front stoop, he can visualize, with an extraordinary degree of precision, the two pine trees on his front lawn and the curb at the edge of his street. { read more }

Be The Change

Practice the art of “seeing” something that is invisible to you. Some inspiration on vision-making regularly: { more }

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July 4, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

A 10,000 Year Clock in the Mountains

There is a Clock ringing deep inside a mountain. It is a huge Clock, hundreds of feet tall, designed to tick for 10,000 years. Why would anyone build a Clock inside a mountain with the hope that it will ring for 10,000 years? Part of the answer: just so people will ask this question, and having asked it, prompt themselves to conjure with notions of generations and millennia. If you have a Clock ticking for 10,000 years what kinds of generational-scale questions and projects will it suggest? If a Clock can keep going for ten millennia, shouldn’t we make sure our civilization does as well? If the Clock keeps going after we are personally long dead, why not attempt other projects that require future generations to finish? The larger question is, as virologist Jonas Salk once asked, “Are we being good ancestors?” { read more }

Be The Change

Reflect on your own life, and how you can be a good ancestor.

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July 3, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

A Love Affair With Questions

In this beautiful black-and-white vignette, filmmaker Nic Askew interviews a man named Julio Olalla. Julio candidly speaks about an encounter with his father that changed his life, and what he learned: “Gratitude in so many ways is so dramatically missing in the world today. Without gratitude nothing is enough.” Over this 10-minute video, he reflects on his own experiences, ranging from exploring the spirit of true conversation to the wisdom of falling in love with questions. Watching this everyday hero exhibit a characteristic joie de vivre perhaps inspires a shift from the notion of gratitude as being an expression, to gratitude as being an embodiment. { read more }

Be The Change

Consider all the gifts in your life, and practice embodying gratitude as a response.

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July 2, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

20 Untranslatable Words From ‘Round The World

There are at least 250,000 words in the English language. But to think that English — or any language — could hold enough expression to convey the entirety of the human experience is naive. For example, ‘Toska,’ from Russian, which is a kind of dull ache of the soul. Or ‘Mamihlapinatapei,’ from Yagan, describing the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start. Here are twenty such examples where other languages have found the right word and English is either speechless — or too verbose. { read more }

Be The Change

Learn or share a meaningful word from another language with a friend today.

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An Unlikely Crusader for Food Safety

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