Sangha of Auspicious Companions

October 15, 2019

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The Religious Value of the Unknown

In an age when the fate of the world is unknown, George Prochnik makes a case for uncertainty as a form of faith and hope. Restoring a sense of the unknown requires unlearning, calling into question our way of life. In uncertainty, reason fails whereas love guides. This love can be exemplified by those who spend hours practicing arts and handicrafts with no concern for real-world application, but which may give the skills and imagination necessary to envision and resurrect what war and disease have destroyed. In dark times, hope can emerge from a religious sensibility that proclaims, “I do not know what happens next.” Faith can emerge when we ask questions until the context deepens and evil is transformed. Faith, hope and love of service can be the beginning of creation. { read more }

Be The Change

Of what are you certain? How has this belief served you? What would your life look like if you released that certainty, replaced it with a deep love, and embraced asking questions? Can you sit with the statement, “I do not know what happens next?”

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October 14, 2019

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Teaching Brain Science to Monks and Nuns

Where do compassion and empathy come from? What makes life sentient?
This summer, as they have the past several years, professors from across the United States and elsewhere are traveling to three major Tibetan monastic universities in Southern India to train monastics in the philosophy of science, physics, biology, and neuroscience. Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns have grappled with these questions for centuries but, for the first time in their history, they are using science to help find the answers.For monks and nuns, the program organized and operated by Emory University is the most far-reaching update to their curriculum in 600 years. And for scientists who usually reduce complex systems like the human body into smaller parts, the program is a window into a way of thinking that emphasizes the interconnectedness and cyclical aspects of nature. { read more }

Be The Change

For more inspiration, read “The Science of Compassion.” { more }

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October 13, 2019

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Humanizing Aid with Dignity

A small but increasingly influential British NGO called Refugee Support aims to deliver what it calls “aid with dignity” by adding a sense of normality and respect to its food distribution efforts. Refugee Support co-founders Paul Hutchings and John Sloan met in 2015 in Calais’ notorious Jungle camp. They were both drawn to help alleviate the suffering of the thousands of migrants and refugees living in deplorable conditions while the French and British governments watched with indifference.”The idea of aid with dignity came from our experiences in Calais,” says Hutchings. Read more here. { read more }

Be The Change

For more inspiration, here is an interview with the remarkable Jean Vanier: The Wisdom of Tenderness. { more }

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October 12, 2019

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Creative Chaos

The transcendent artistry of Green Renaissance Films allows us to enter into the life of a young man who has journeyed through mental disorder and arrived at a place of wholeness with an openness to the chaos of life. He has come to realize that he does not need to hold fear at bay by trying to order his world, controlling everything. Rather he embraces the chaos and unpredictability of daily living as the magic of the real world, allowing more beautiful things to happen, a world full of possibilities. The beauty of the film’s location in South Africa adds an even deeper dimension to this young man’s profound insights. { read more }

Be The Change

Has darkness, or chaos helped to illuminate your life in any way?

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October 11, 2019

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The Understory: Life Beneath the Forest Floor

“The first time I heard anyone speak of the “wood wide web,” more than a decade ago now, I was trying not to cry. A beloved friend was dying too young and too quickly. I had gone to see him for what I took to be the last time. He was tired by pain and drugs. We sat together, talked. My friend was a woodsman. Trees grew through his life and thought. His grandfather’s surname was Wood, he lived in a timber-framed house that he had built himself, and he had planted thousands of trees by hand over the years. “I have sap in my veins,” he wrote once.” Excerpted from his recently published book, Underland: A Deep Time Journey, “The Understory” is an examination of the life beneath the forest floor. Encountering the depth and complexity of communication that happens underground, Robert Macfarlane returns to the entangled mutualism at the root of language. { read more }

Be The Change

Our lives too have a richly interconnected understory. Reflect on the many subtle and invisible forms of support and nourishment you receive.

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Creative Chaos

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October 10, 2019

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Ian Chillag: Everything Is Alive

Ian Chillag is the host and creator of the original podcast ‘Everything is Alive,’ in which inanimate objects are interviewed. The inventive, funny and frequently poignant series is almost entirely improvised. “We cast actors, and I have a running list of objects. When we find someone we like, and we have a couple objects that we’ve vetted through some research, we give them a couple to choose from. They pick the one that speaks to them. Then I get on the phone with them, and talk for about 20 minutes just about basic character notes –like, if you’re playing a piece of tape, what about tapeness would inform your personality. Do you feel — do you have attachment issues because you’re always sticking to things. Are you constantly worried about things breaking, because your only encounter with the world is broken things. Are you tense and kind of clenched up because you live in a coil. We ask those questions just as a way to get at the core of what the personality is.” Chillag shares more in this engaging interview. { read more }

Be The Change

How might your experience of life be different if you walked through this world rooted in a belief that everything is alive? For more inspiration you can check out the podcast here. { more }

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October 9, 2019

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How the Sound of a Space Influences Our Mood

“Step into the underground concourses of New York’s Penn Station and you might just feel an uneasy sense of claustrophobia that’s hard to explain. Stroll across the hardwood floors at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and a sense of calmness might descend on you. Why? Each of these buildings has its own unique voice –the way sound behaves in the structure. Think of the way whispers travel in the circular dome of St Paul’s Cathedral in London and how the curved ceiling of the lower floor of Grand Central in New York can carry voices. Then there is the satisfying click of heels walking through an deserted hallway or the way your bathroom makes your singing sound better. This “aural architecture” can have a profound effect on the way you experience a building.” { read more }

Be The Change

Notice the sounds of the different spaces you move in today. What impact do they have on you?

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