 |
| Our first Europe retreat, with friends from 18 countries |
Ancient Wisdom,
Modern Emergence
“What we observe is not nature itself,
but nature’s response to our method of questioning.”
– Werner Heisenberg |
|
| Thank you for weaving an incredible year through our online pods, offline circles, and global ripples. In the second quarter, we launched the pioneering Awakin AI platform and DailyGood 2.0. In the third quarter, two in-person retreats across two continents – one in America and another in Europe, with change-makers from 18 countries – opened into non-linear potential. And to close out the year, we’ve just launched our Pod website, are hosting our Interfaith Compassion Pod, and working to challenge the dominant AI narrative.
It’s hard to make sense of today’s world. Amidst existing crises, we face radically new ones. In the Wall Street Journal, Mark Zuckerberg recently spoke about a “trillion-dollar vision” to “solve loneliness” with AI companions. Meanwhile, 72% of teens are already using them – and alas, a third find them more satisfying than human connection.
For decades, ServiceSpace has quietly paved an alternate path: growing in generosity, trusting in kinship, tuning into collective emergence. As Heisenberg discovered in the quantum realm, the questions we ask shape what unfolds. This season, we offer two interconnected journeys – not as programs to complete, but as invitations to ask questions worthy of this threshold moment. |
| Journey of Heart
Starting November 30th
Journey through world faiths with daily prompts from Baha’i equality to Sufi chanting, Sikh langaar to Quaker silence. Each day offers practices for heart, head, and hands – 21 traditions flowing into the ocean of compassion. With weekly calls led by luminaries, poets, and mystics, we explore together:
How does compassion arise from holding multiplicity?
|
| ❤ Heart
Daily prayers and contemplations from each tradition |
| 🧠 Head
Sacred readings and teachings to deepen understanding |
| 🙌 Hands
Acts of service rippling compassion into the world |
|
|
| ❄ ❄ ❄
Ancient wisdom, modern emergence
❄ ❄ ❄ |
| Journey of Emergence
A Multi-Part Series • November 2025 – April 2026
A living murmuration weaving ancient wisdom with modern technology. This journey includes three visionary calls with changemakers (including founders of Twitter and Pinterest) starting November 29th, a transformative peer-learning pod in January, and intimate in-person retreats in Silicon Valley in April. Through these interconnected experiences, we explore together:
How can AI deepen our humanity rather than diminish it?
|
| ME • Becoming
Heart intelligence beyond the mind |
| WE • Belonging
Authentic kinship & connection |
| US • Birthing
Collective emergence in service of life |
|
|
Why Both Journeys Matter
The Interfaith Compassion Challenge asks: “What arises when we hold multiplicity?” The AI series asks: “How do we remain human amid godlike technology?” Together, they weave the threads of ancient wisdom, deep kinship, and modern emergence – changing not just what we see, but how we see.
The questions we ask shape the arc of what unfolds. In a world accelerating toward fragmentation or false unity, we gather to ask questions worthy of our shared humanity – questions that honor kinship and possibility, that change the very nature of emergence itself. |
The Sound of the Genuine
In September, on the last day of our California gathering, a volunteer surprised us with a video made purely from the sights and sounds of our time together. Most of us had goosebumps. Its backdrop was a Howard Thurman quote that Stephen Lewis had spontaneously shared the night before:
| “Now if I hear the sound of the genuine in me, and if you hear the sound of the genuine in you, it is possible for me to go down in me and come up in you. So that when I look at myself through your eyes having made that pilgrimage, I see in me what you see in me and the wall that separates and divides will disappear and we will become one because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.”
– Howard Thurman |
|
| In service to that eternal sound 🙏
|
|
P.S. Recent Tidbits
Ripples from our community |
| Connection
On the streets of Vienna, Bernard’s gift of a sleeping bag flows hundreds of kilometers apart: “The shortest distance is between two hearts →“ |
|
| Love & Loss
Rebecca M. Henderson, University Professor at Harvard, thought she understood service — until her husband’s death taught her that real giving → begins when we notice life’s fragility. |
|
| Joy
In Spain, Joserra, Lulu, Neida, Oscar and friends hosted a Giftival retreat alongside Karma Kitchen Cantabria. Watch what happened → when diners discovered their servers were also singers! |
|
| Convergence
In Vienna, 400 people gathered for a pre-retreat community night to listen to ServiceSpace friends from 18 European countries. See retreat photos → and video → |
|
| Education
At UPenn, Chaz and Nimo teamed up to support a new kind of leadership class. Student Piper Slinka-Petka wrote in the school newspaper → how it raised “questions my world-renowned Penn education didn’t ask me to answer.” |
|
| Deepcasting
Hot-off-the-press talk from Nipun in North Dakota: Deepcasting in an AI World → If broadcast uses fiber optics to reach our minds, deepcasting uses the web of consciousness to relay presence heart-to-heart-to-heart. |
|
| Sacred Space
For five decades, no life has been killed on the sacred soil of City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. They hosted us for an “immersion” where magic unfolded →—from Gary Zukav’s bow to Stephanie’s inner voice, each of us moved by the grace of connection. |
|
| Science
Striking research on the crucial distinction between pain and suffering from mindfulness expert Cortland Dahl in this illuminating talk →. |
|
| Pilgrimage
In December: Kotaro, Chen and friends are hosting the annual KUNI pilgrimage in Japan, while in India, Meghna, Apurva, Jayesh-bhai and friends are welcoming volunteers from Vietnam (and other countries) for a “Spirit of Service” retreat → |
|
| Poetry
Poet Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez reflects on sharing poetry → in prison on a recent Awakin Call – a glimpse of how words can unlock healing and humanity in the most unexpected places. |
|
 |
|
Awakin Retreat in California, right before silent dinner
when the monks served food to the guests |
|
DailyGood
Sangha of Auspicious Companions 