Sangha of Auspicious Companions

June 9, 2017

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My Year Reading a Book from Every Country in the World

Several years ago, Ann Morgan, a writer from London, looked at her bookshelf and realized it held almost no books from other countries — an oversight she called a “massive cultural blindspot.” In a nod to the Olympics, she decided to read a book from every country (196 total) and blog about it. But she quickly learned that finding books in English would be a challenge. Only about 4.5 percent of literary works published in the U.K. were translations. So she turned to the Internet for help. There, she learned about kindness when strangers went above and beyond to help her select and translate books. She learned that stories have the power to connect us despite our differences. And she learned about the richness and diversity of our world. In this 12-minute TED talk, a bubbly and enthusiastic Morgan recounts her journey in international literature. . . and shares lessons in human nature. { read more }

Be The Change

Read a book mentioned in the video or choose one off of Morgan’s master list. { more }

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June 8, 2017

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Why Defending Human Rights Is Womenâs Work

Whether it is Black Lives Matter activists working to encourage and support school-age black girls so that they can thrive, formerly incarcerated black trans women fighting police brutality, Muslim women debunking dangerous stereotypes besetting their communities, or undocumented Latina women promoting the rights of domestic workers, women human rights defenders in America are building solidarity across movements to resist xenophobia, transphobia, and repression of free speech and the right to dissent. Here are four groups led by women and trans women human rights defenders whose work is rooted at the intersection of race, gender, immigration, and religion. { read more }

Be The Change

How can you support the women in your life? How can you use your hands and your head and your heart for the good of others? For more inspiration, join this Saturday’s Awakin Call with Lakota elder, and lifelong water protector Cheryl Angel, who helped initiate and maintain the camp at Standing Rock. More details and RSVP info here. { more }

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June 7, 2017

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She Gave Street Children Her Cell Phone Number and That Changed

Jeroo Billimoria isn’t one to see a person in need and hope that someone else will take action. She is a social entrepreneur who responds by getting involved in big and small ways. She became a social activist many years ago at the age of 11 when she encouraged her neighbors to open bank accounts and become financially literate. She wanted to enable their freedom from poverty. In recent years, Jeroo began helping the homeless children of Mumbai by giving them her phone number to call in emergencies. Children were soon calling every night, and their lives were changed. She eventually created an organization of trained street children to help their peers, and this became Childline.org. It is now working to help children all over the world in 143 countries. Learn more about how Jeroo continues her efforts to help and inspire others. { read more }

Be The Change

In your part of the world, what small action can you take today to make a difference for someone in need? To read more stories like Jeroo’s visit Ashoka’s Lead Young site. { more }

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June 6, 2017

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Our Greatest Obstacle to Happiness and How to Transcend It

Maria Popova of Brain Pickings points out that “perhaps the greatest paradox of human life is that although happiness is the most universal of our longings, it is unobtainable by striving. The more ferociously we try to attain it, the more it eludes us.” Join Artist Agnes Martin as she examines this paradox. { read more }

Be The Change

Martin says “What we really want to do is serve happiness.” Why not experiment with finding satisfaction by doing something for someone else today that might make them happy. It is often in giving that we receive.

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June 5, 2017

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The CEO Who Gave 90% of His Salary to His Staff

In April 2015, Dan Price, CEO of a Seattle-based tech company Gravity Payments, did something with barely any precedents in the modern business world. He gave away 90 per cent of his own pay to raise the salaries of his employees to a minimum $70,000 a year. Price’s decision came after reading a study from Princeton University, which found that emotional wellbeing rises with income up to a cut-off point of $75,000 dollars, after which extra pay has no effect on happiness. At first Price struggled to make the numbers work, but after a while he realized that by cutting his own pay and using some company profits, he could afford it. This article explores Price’s own motivations in making this revolutionary move, as well as what effects such a decision could have across the business world where pay scale inequality is the norm. { read more }

Be The Change

Reflect on an aspect of your life where you feel privileged, and consider how you can share your unique “wealth” with others around you.

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In Other News

• KarmaTube Video: Sacks of Hope: Classroom Acts of Kindness
• DailyGood: Life is the Network Not the Self
• Awakin Reading: Is There Righteous Anger Ever?

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June 4, 2017

Small Acts of Kindness

Featured Kindness Stories

	Could giving heal the giver? Her experience certainly did.
	An experience in “being that someone” that she really needed.
	Thanks to all of your stories, she saw see her connectedness to this creature on the road.

Idea of the Week

June 4, 2017

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The Promise & Paradox of Community

We human beings have a great need for one another, “an instinct of community.” However, today this instinct to be together seems to be fragmenting as we experience increasing ethnic wars, militia groups, specialized interest clubs, and chat rooms. Are we using the instinct of community to separate and protect us from one another? It’s ironic that we live surrounded by communities that succeed in creating sustainable relationships over long periods of time. These are the webs of relationships called ecosystems. Margaret Wheatley shares more in this thought-provoking piece. { read more }

Be The Change

Consider how uncertainty plays into your relationships with community and family and whether you might find the way to influence a different outcome. For more inspiration here’s another excerpt by Wheatley: Love is the Source of Fearlessness. { more }

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June 3, 2017

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The Axis & the Sycamore

Sitting in his newly built tree-house, Paul Kingsnorth muses about the situation the world is in. German philosopher Karl Jaspers coined a term, the Axial Age, referring to an historical period when five distinct civilizations, those of Greece, Palestine, Persia, India, and China, experienced profound transformations, led by spiritual pioneers such as the Buddha, Plato, Socrates, Zarathustra, Elijah, Jeremiah, Confucius, and Lao Tzu. It was a period of collapse, which led to “the foundations upon which humanity still subsists today.” Are we living through a second Axial Age? { read more }

Be The Change

Since everything has two sides, you might try seeing the other side of whatever seems confused, chaotic, or in need of serious contemplation. Is there perhaps a new point of view from which it can be digested?

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