Sangha of Auspicious Companions

April 30, 2024

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Conversation with Peacemaking Mystic, Orland Bishop

“What are the questions being asked of me?” and “Why would I do something my heart is telling me not to do?” Orland Bishop addresses these two questions in his interview with Berry Liberman, spanning from his emigration to the United States to his social healing work. Bishop discusses how what is happening in the world today due to the collective unconscious reflects the unconscious of individuals, and impacts the ability to answer these questions. Yet the answers will not come from rational, scientific, evidence-based activities, the mode of the last 400 years: Bishop, through personal experience knows that each individual must “learn how language [of the heart] is structured from a feeling [found] in relationship to another human being and the truth we could share.” Between the seemingly paradoxical idealism of purpose and meaning attached to pain and suffering and the pragmatism of diminishing and relieving real pain and suffering, Bishop advocates for a middle way: “Prepare every day to communicate with [my inner awareness] then allow teachers in the invisible realm to guide me through the rest of the day [toward action].” This approach is radical according to Bishop: “Healing is becoming more radical because it will transform what we have inherited.” { read more }

Be The Change

What are the questions being asked of me from the agents outside myself? What are the questions being asked of me from within? Where am I conducting action that my heart is telling me not to do? Contemplate these answers remembering to extend grace for the gap that emerges between them. What gratitude is available for the increased awareness you were gifted today?

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Inspiring Links of the Week

April 29, 2024

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The Scientists Learning to Speak Whale

Two research initiatives — Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI) and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) — are exploring not only what it means to collect data on how whales communicate, but to listen and understand what they are saying. Listening to whales ends up reflecting much more about humans, than anticipated: it highlights our relationship not only to another species, but to technology including the technology of our own language. While we have intentions of using the technology for good, including inviting better stewardship of our shared planet, the opportunity to use the technology to hunt with greater efficiency tempers the researchers’ hubris. “We should probably do more listening, and less talking,” is one way to responsibly use the technology says Samantha Blakeman, a marine data manager for the National Oceanography Centre. More listening, less talking is a prevailing theme across both initiatives, and the nature of their work a testament to what is available when listening is practiced: “This is such a unique, gentle creature, and there’s just so much going on. Each time we look, we find deeper complexity and structure in their communication.” This complexity allows whales to ‘see’ their world in a way research is just beginning to understand. { read more }

Be The Change

Find 15 minutes. Close your eyes (or even wear a mask). Attune your ears. Note the sounds around you. Move from those closest to you, toward your body, your breath. Now use your ears to reach for those farthest away. Release the concentration on the sounds themselves, and let the sound waves blend together into a symphony of vibration.

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April 28, 2024

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Behind One Mother’s Whimsical Fairy Forest

Therese Ojibway wanted to be able to “find things” with her son, who has autism, in their walks on a local forest trail in Millburn, New Jersey. She built and placed tiny fairy homes in the nooks and crannies they could “discover” together. As time went on and she added more and more homes, it became known as the Fairy Trail and loved by locals. “She thought this was a dynamic way of getting little children into nature, getting them to use their imaginations, getting them to tap into their creativity and stimulate both early childhood and special needs children.” The local conservancy thought it was great, too. When Therese and her son moved away, the conservancy recruited Beth Kelly and Julie Gould, called “Keepers and Makers,” to help. Along with volunteers, they continued the tradition and there are now nearly 100 eco-friendly fairy homes. Beth and Julie are among the lucky ones who have seen the fairies “ride the backs of chipmunks” and “swing on leaves.” Some children also report seeing the fairies. While not everyone sees them, what everyone does see is the sparkle in the eyes of the children as they explore the magical wonders of the forest. { read more }

Be The Change

Take a nature walk through the eyes of a child. What kind of “fairy trail” would you create, even if only in your imagination, that would bring the magic to light?

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April 27, 2024

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Design Behind a Ten Thousand Year Clock

Danny Hillis, a pioneer in super computing, shifted from high-speed tech to contemplating time on a larger scale. He initiated the Clock of the Long Now project, to build a clock that will last 10,000 years, to challenge how we think about our relationship with time. { read more }

Be The Change

What area of your life would you design differently if you were going to live for the next 10,000 years? What is one step you could take to move in that direction?

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April 26, 2024

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Luminous Darkness: A Journey Through Suffering

Mystic-poet Lucy Grace shares her profound insights around human suffering and its transformative potential. Recalling a pivotal insight at school, the day after a frightening encounter with a gang at the age of eight, she describes, “I looked at my thumb and I said to myself, ‘Lucy, don’t worry, it’s really hard now, but this thumb is part of your future. This thumb exists on the adult that you are gonna be when you make your life better for yourself.’ And so I held that thumb and I felt like, here’s a piece of my life when it’s good. It’s not good now, but it will be. I used to hold my thumb often.” From that childhood insight, she delivers a strong, broad message: suffering is a part of our existence that has the power to ‘break us open’, revealing the ‘light of existence’. This isn’t something we own, but something we channel while grappling with our own sorrows. Discomfort, it turns out, can be a catalyst for a deeper opening of our hearts. { read more }

Be The Change

Join an Awakin Call conversation this weekend with Lucy Grace. Details and RSVP here: { more }

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April 25, 2024

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World’s Largest Musical Instrument is Hiding in this Cave

A father-son trip turns out to be the beginning of a 3 year journey into inventing the world’s largest percussion instrument spanning 3.5 acres across a cave, Luray Caverns, in Virgnia, U.S. In 1954, mathematician and electronics scientist Leland Sprinkle invented the Great Stalacpipe Organ. The mesmerising otherworldly sound created by the mallets striking against the perfectly tuned stalactites selected by Sprinkle is a marvel that brings your whole being to the point of stillness in the now. Otto Pebworth, a long time cave organist says, “It’s like you are becoming one with the instrument in a true way. You sit and go ‘YES’.” Words clearly won’t do justice to the sound created by the Stalacpipe. { read more }

Be The Change

What would it feel like to slow down and listen to the “music” around you? Take a moment today to listen to the various sounds in nature: the chirping of the birds, the gush of wind, or even the sound of the silences.

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April 23, 2024

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The Inner Sense Driving Your Thoughts

While hiking and allowing his mind to wander, Alex Messenger suddenly started to notice his body. “My breath quickened, my eyes widened, my pulse doubled immediately, my airways opened.” It took some time for his conscious brain to catch up in time to see a 600 pound bear that “swatted him to the ground with a blinding blow to the head.” Alex survived and, looking back, wondered how his body knew danger was coming before any of his five senses, and long before he was consciously aware of the bear. BBC Correspondents, Matt Warren and Miriam Frankel, highlight Alex’s experience and numerous other examples, research, and studies from their book about the inner sense called interoception defined as “our ability to perceive and interpret signals coming from within our own bodies.” Most of us may notice a speeding heart, nervous butterflies, or hunger, but there are many other more subtle messages our bodies are communicating that could prove beneficial. Mysteries remain and messages are subject to interpretation and context, yet we could all benefit from listening to our bodies. One researcher recommends meditation as a way to begin. “One thing you’re doing when you learn to meditate is to pay attention to your body, to what’s happening in your body…” { read more }

Be The Change

Meditate or simply be still. Explore your “inner space.” Be patient. Listen. What are the signals your body is sending?

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Inspiring Links of the Week