Sangha of Auspicious Companions

August 19, 2012

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Love is the Answer

Filmmaker Ian Watt had an epiphany: today’s creatively-oriented young generation could make great things happen by linking artistic talent with change-making movements. This film tells the story of the organization he started to help youth serve the world with art. But it also shows Ian’s first experiment in change-making, as he used his filmmaking skills to help bring attention to K.I. Nepal, an organization dedicated to ending human trafficking of young girls. { read more }

Be The Change

Call upon a creative talent to make at least one other person smile today.

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August 18, 2012

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The Spirit of Gift

A gift. It is a simple gesture of care. Like an open palm, it is an invitation to connect … But can it be more than that? Can gifts restructure our monetary system? In a recent interview, teacher and writer Charles Eisenstein shared insights from his own journey with a gift-economy. His unique journey includes the raising of three kids, the writing of three books, going broke, facing his fears around money, and learning the gifts of receiving. { read more }

Be The Change

This article offers up an exploration of the gift-economy. { more }

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Bringing Joy To Everyday Moments

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MovedByLove // CF Sites // Karma Kitchen // More

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August 17, 2012

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Global Warming: A Case for Inner Change

“Alarming data and warnings about climate change have been with us for twenty years. The issue has morphed into something like a low-level toothache. […] If human nature is to evolve, a new set of assumptions would look something like the following: Human life isn’t set apart from life on earth. We must live in balance with Nature. Consumerism isn’t unlimited and doesn’t lead to happiness. Toxic pollution harms life and cannot be justified. As a conscious species, humans must be stewards of the ecology. None of these are surprising ideas; they are common coin in the environmental movement. But to make them viable on a mass scale, the tide must turn. Will that happen? No one can tell, but it’s important to see that the world “out there” has no chance of changing until there’s real transformation ‘in here.'” Deepak Chopra shares further. { read more }

Be The Change

In this short passage, Masanobu Fukuoka, shares his thoughts on aligning with nature through “Do Nothing Farming.” { more }

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EMPTINESS AND NON-EXISTENCE

The doctrines of emptiness and selflessness do not imply the non-existence of things. Things do exist.

When we say that all phenomena are void of self-existence, it does not mean that we are advocating non-existence,

that we are repudiating that things exist. Then what is it we are negating? We are negating, or denying, that

anything exists from its own side without depending on other things. Hence, it is because things depend for

their existence upon other causes and conditions that they are said to lack independent self-existence.

August 16, 2012

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The Man Who Planted A Forest

The year was 1979 in Assam, India. Floods had washed a great number of snakes onto a barren sandbar. When Jadav “Molai” Payeng — then only 16 — found them, they had all died. “The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless forms.” Then he dried his tears and asked forest officials if they could plant trees in that area. When they told him nothing would grow there Payeng quietly began to plant seeds anyway. Thirty years later the 1,360 acre forest he created on the land where “nothing would grow” is home to birds, deer, apes, elephants and even tigers. { read more }

Be The Change

Plant a small seed of goodness today.

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DRIVE ALL BLAMES INTO ONESELF

There’s a slogan in the mahayana teachings that says, “Drive all blames into oneself.” The essence of this slogan

is, “When it hurts so bad, it’s because I am hanging on so tight.” It’s not saying that we should beat ourselves

up. It’s not advocating martyrdom. What it implies is that pain comes from holding so tightly to having it our

own way and that one of the main exits we take when we find ourselves uncomfortable, when we find ourselves in an

unwanted situation or an unwanted place, is to blame.

This slogan is a helpful and interesting suggestion that we could begin to shift that deep-seated, ancient,

habitual tendency to hang on to having everything on our own terms. The way to start would be, first, when we

feel the tendency to blame, to try to get in touch with what it feels like to be holding on to ourselves so

tightly.

Of Interest to Readers

Tell all your Spanish-speaking friends: this book is now available en Español (as an eBook, too)!

Has Pema’s teaching been important to you? Contribute to a new anthology by those who’ve put her wisdom into action—to benefit the Pema Chödrön Foundation. Read the call for submissions.

August 15, 2012

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The Measure of Meaning: Visiting Wendell Berry

“One of my favorite moments was when Wendell said that he is a member of two organizations: 1) The Slow Communication Movement and 2) The Preservation of Tangibility. He noted that anyone can join these and added with a grin, ‘Actually, I think I founded them.'” In this beguiling article, a young singer-songwriter, describes the pilgrimage she took with three friends and a baby to visit Wendell Berry, the famed farmer, writer and preservationist from Kentucky. { read more }

Be The Change

Do something away from your computer screen in the spirit of ‘slow communication’ or ‘preserving tangibility’ today.

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