Sangha of Auspicious Companions

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July 2, 2019

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If Life Wins There Will Be No Losers

Many, many people are feeling the widespread longing for a tenable alternative to capitalism – an urgent need for new regenerative ways of living. We feel this need both in our individual lives and in the larger ways we live together; in neighborhoods, cities, nations. We can’t create a regenerative culture solely by trying to “smash capitalism”. Instead, we need to understand and heal the underlying disease that generates all such systems of oppression – our separation from life, or “wetiko,” as it was named by the North American Algonquin people. If we resist only the external effects of wetiko, maybe we can win a victory here or there, but we can’t overcome the system as a whole because this ‘opponent’ also sits within ourselves. It is from within that we constantly feed and support this monstrous system. { read more }

Be The Change

Find out more about the people organizing this year’s Defend the Sacred gathering, and explore all the ways you can engage with Life. { more }

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July 1, 2019

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Rachael Flatt: From Olympic Rink to Research Lab

There’s little Rachael Flatt, former Olympic figure skater, can’t achieve on or off the ice. Flatt’s impressive skating career includes being the 2008 World Junior champion, a winner of four silver medals on the Grand Prix series, and the 2010 U.S. national champion. Flatt went on to represent the United States at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver during her senior year in high school and placed 7th. Now a graduate Clinical Psychology student at the University of North Carolina, she’s set her sights on developing digital mental health tools to help athletes struggling with body image concerns and eating disorders. In this piece, writer Emily Barr gives readers an inside look at what it was like for Rachael to grow up under the spotlight, how she learned to make peace with public scrutiny, and why she’s determined to change the mental health landscape for future generations. { read more }

Be The Change

One in five Americans is affected by a mental health condition with many suffering from associated shame and stigma. Visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness to learn more about warning signs and symptoms and take the pledge to be stigma-free. { more }

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June 30, 2019

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Farewell to Jean Vanier

Jean Vanier, philosopher, theologian, humanist and founder of L’Arche departed our physical world on May 7, 2019 at the age of 90. His heart, his love and his compassion live on in the hundreds of communities that have sprung from his love and compassion for humanity. This world wide movement is based on Vanier’s belief that people with disabilities are teachers, rather that burdens to society. { read more }

Be The Change

Reflect on your beliefs about others, is their a group of people that you tend to marginalize – how can you change your perspective – to see the value and gifts that they bring to you, to the world? { more }

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June 29, 2019

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Coastal Communication: A Mother and Son’s Moving Collaboration

When New York based author and social activist, Jane Jackson suffered an aneurysm, it affected both her memory and language skills. Over the months that followed she recovered through the unconditional support of her family, and the power of poetry. As a way to promote healing and reestablish language skills, she and her son began writing poems together. The poems were crafted line by line in emails sent back and forth across the continent. Together they wrote about the simple memories they shared and of the beautiful and difficult moments they were experiencing as her mind regained facility with words. Their unique collaboration resulted in a book of over 70 poems titled Coastal Communication. The following excerpts from it reveal not just the healing power of words, but also the power of love to find a way through our greatest challenges. { read more }

Be The Change

Send a note of appreciation to Jane and Aaron for their inspiring collaboration. { more }

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June 28, 2019

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What We Should Know About Animals

It’s easy to assume that animals experience happiness (just think of a dog wagging its tail), but what about higher-level emotions and qualities like selflessness, empathy, or even love? In “Beyond Words: How Animals Think and Feel,” conservationist Carl Safina shares stories from decades of observing animals and combines it with new brain research to paint a picture of animals’ emotional landscape that sounds remarkably like our own. In this interview, he shares a story about a wolf who selflessly tries to distract other wolves from attacking his sister, and a whale who saves a seal. He also suggests that animals’ experience of life is not a limited version of our own, but rather a more vivid one. These theories are just part of a growing body of evidence that there is much more to our living environment than previously thought, and knowing this, we cannot continue on the same path. { read more }

Be The Change

Take time today to observe animals and imagine what’s going on inside their minds.

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June 27, 2019

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A Primer for Forgetting

“We live in a culture that prizes memory–how much we can store, the quality of what’s preserved, how we might better document and retain the moments of our life while fighting off the nightmare of losing all that we have experienced. But what if forgetfulness were seen not as something to fear–be it in the form of illness or simple absentmindedness–but rather as a blessing, a balm, a path to peace and rebirth? A Primer for Forgetting is a remarkable experiment in scholarship, autobiography, and social criticism by the author of the classics The Gift and Trickster Makes This World. It forges a new vision of forgetfulness by assembling fragments of art and writing from the ancient world to the modern, weighing the potential boons forgetfulness might offer the present moment as a creative and political force. It also turns inward, using the author’s own life and memory as a canvas upon which to extol the virtues of a concept too long taken as an evil.” Here is an excerpt from Lewis Hyde’s latest work. { read more }

Be The Change

For more inspiration join this Saturday’s Awakin Call with Lewis Hyde: On Creativity, the Commons and Forgetting. More details and RSVP info here. { more }

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June 26, 2019

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The Table of Voices

Richard Kamler was drawn to art’s potential to touch people deeply and, in that way, bring about real change. In this interview, he talks about the evolution of his work with prisoners. “During that first year, I began to change – dramatically. I began to really think about art, and in a much different way than I did when I went to school. I began to see art as something that really could reveal things, reveal inner aspects about one’s life – and certainly that could heal.” { read more }

Be The Change

For more inspiration, check out this story on “Buddhas on Death Row” — a stunning collaboration that shares the art, story and spirit of a young man who has been in solitary confinement for over 15 years. { more }

DailyGood is a volunteer-run initiative that delivers “good news” to 245,101 subscribers. There are many ways to help. To unsubscribe, click here.

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