Sangha of Auspicious Companions

March 9, 2021

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Eldering in the Age of Consumption

“In modern Western society, we want to preserve everything and we want to live forever. We wage war on old age and write songs about being forever young. Because death is seen as no more, no less than the end of the line–something to be held off and resisted–we live in constant fear of it. But to the Celts, death was inextricably intertwined with life. Every month the moon died and was reborn. Every winter the Sun died and was reborn. The tide came in and the tide receded. To think that you could avoid these natural cycles was not only unthinkable but undesirable. Out of all the dying, something precious and new is always born.” Sharon Blackie and Stephen Jenkinson share more in this thought-provoking piece.
{ read more }

Be The Change

For more inspiration, check out this powerful conversation, recorded during the beginning of the pandemic, with Parker Palmer and other luminous voices: Courage & Vulnerability- Corona & the Wisdom of Elders. { more }

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March 8, 2021

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All You Need Is Love?

“‘Can we dare to think people are kind, and shape organisations around this view?’ That’s the question Rutger Bregman examines in his latest book ‘Humankind’, and it’s one that anyone involved in youth and community work like me wrestles with on a daily basis. But is Bregman’s optimistic analysis grounded in reality?” More in this piece from OpenDemocracy. { read more }

Be The Change

For more inspiration, check out this reading by George Saunders, “Kindness Includes Everything.”

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March 7, 2021

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Speaking River, Speaking Rain

“Are languages then just a collection of words, syntax, and semantics? I’d like to sometimes see them as seeds and sometimes as fields – alive as the minds, tongues, throats, bodies and air they pass through; germinating, growing roots, bearing fruit, evolving like beings. But also holding space, expanding out like a unique land of perception. A non-physical geography hosting human and non-human drama. A living medium, a speech-scape.” In this evocative piece, writer and teacher M. Yuvan layers anecdotes that shine a small, bright light on India’s linguistic diversity and weaves in similar stories from around the world. What does it mean for the future of the human species to keep the richness of our multiple languages alive? How does language tether the soul to the wisdom of the Earth? { read more }

Submitted by: Gayathri Ramachandran

Be The Change

Do you speak more than one language? If yes, could you connect more deeply to the layered texture and sensations of words that contain the same meaning, but across languages? If no, could you learn a new language and possibly, a different world-view?

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March 6, 2021

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A Few Words on the Soul

“We have a soul at times.
No one’s got it non-stop,
for keeps.”
In an article in the New York Times, Edward Hirsch called Wislawa Szymborska “a philosophically inflected poet who investigates large unanswerable questions with terrific delicacy. She pits her dizzying sense of the world’s transient splendor against unbearable historical knowledge.” Here the Polish Nobel laureate explores the nature of the soul with her characteristic wit, keen observations and attentiveness to the buried implications of the human journey. { read more }

Be The Change

For more inspiration, read Szymborska on, “The Creative Power of Uncertainty.” { more }

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March 5, 2021

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Bloom

Neighbors and plants can surely help us bloom, especially in the hard times. Stuck in her apartment, a lonely woman waits for time to pass until one day she hears a knock at the door. On her doorstep, she finds a plant left by a friendly neighbor and discovers the joy that caring for others can bring. This tender animation was made by students of the Animation & Illustration department at San Jose State University. { read more }

Be The Change

What can you do today to help a lonely neighbor who needs a visit or a little sunshine in their life?

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Bloom

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March 4, 2021

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Rough Initiations

“To heal from our traumas, from soul loss, we must restore the conditions which offer something alluring and compelling to coax the soul back home. In other words, what reconstitutes the psyche after trauma, in addition to understanding what happened, is reestablishing our place within the wider cosmological context. We must be restored and re-storied to complete the rough initiation that was precipitated by the trauma. In other words, we must return to our lives as vital and engaged participants in the deep song of the world.” After studying initiation practices in various cultures, Francis Weller distilled a set of variables that must be in place in order for a successful transition from youth to adulthood. “These same conditions,” he says,”are what help us restore the psyche after trauma.” He explores further in this excerpt. { read more }

Be The Change

Have you experienced any rituals of initiation in your own life? Of the five conditions for initiation that Weller names in his article, which ones do you relate to most strongly? Which ones, if any, do you feel a need for at this time?

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March 3, 2021

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James O’Dea: Conscious Activism

From award-winning author James O’Dea comes a handbook for Sacred Activism, where spiritual insight and radical action meet. O’Dea shares the arc of his own development as both an activist and mystic. He explores what it means to be conscious activists, and what it takes to move beyond rigid belief systems and outdated structures of power and control, and to accelerate the possibilities of collective evolution. Read an excerpt here. { read more }

Be The Change

Join this Saturday’s Awakin Call with James O’Dea, and ServiceSpace founder, Nipun Mehta. More details and RSVP info here. { more }

DailyGood is a volunteer-run initiative that delivers “good news” to 245,272 subscribers. There are many ways to help. To unsubscribe, click here.

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