Sangha of Auspicious Companions

June 5, 2017

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The CEO Who Gave 90% of His Salary to His Staff

In April 2015, Dan Price, CEO of a Seattle-based tech company Gravity Payments, did something with barely any precedents in the modern business world. He gave away 90 per cent of his own pay to raise the salaries of his employees to a minimum $70,000 a year. Price’s decision came after reading a study from Princeton University, which found that emotional wellbeing rises with income up to a cut-off point of $75,000 dollars, after which extra pay has no effect on happiness. At first Price struggled to make the numbers work, but after a while he realized that by cutting his own pay and using some company profits, he could afford it. This article explores Price’s own motivations in making this revolutionary move, as well as what effects such a decision could have across the business world where pay scale inequality is the norm. { read more }

Be The Change

Reflect on an aspect of your life where you feel privileged, and consider how you can share your unique “wealth” with others around you.

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In Other News

• KarmaTube Video: Sacks of Hope: Classroom Acts of Kindness
• DailyGood: Life is the Network Not the Self
• Awakin Reading: Is There Righteous Anger Ever?

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June 4, 2017

Small Acts of Kindness

Featured Kindness Stories

	Could giving heal the giver? Her experience certainly did.
	An experience in “being that someone” that she really needed.
	Thanks to all of your stories, she saw see her connectedness to this creature on the road.

Idea of the Week

June 4, 2017

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The Promise & Paradox of Community

We human beings have a great need for one another, “an instinct of community.” However, today this instinct to be together seems to be fragmenting as we experience increasing ethnic wars, militia groups, specialized interest clubs, and chat rooms. Are we using the instinct of community to separate and protect us from one another? It’s ironic that we live surrounded by communities that succeed in creating sustainable relationships over long periods of time. These are the webs of relationships called ecosystems. Margaret Wheatley shares more in this thought-provoking piece. { read more }

Be The Change

Consider how uncertainty plays into your relationships with community and family and whether you might find the way to influence a different outcome. For more inspiration here’s another excerpt by Wheatley: Love is the Source of Fearlessness. { more }

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June 3, 2017

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The Axis & the Sycamore

Sitting in his newly built tree-house, Paul Kingsnorth muses about the situation the world is in. German philosopher Karl Jaspers coined a term, the Axial Age, referring to an historical period when five distinct civilizations, those of Greece, Palestine, Persia, India, and China, experienced profound transformations, led by spiritual pioneers such as the Buddha, Plato, Socrates, Zarathustra, Elijah, Jeremiah, Confucius, and Lao Tzu. It was a period of collapse, which led to “the foundations upon which humanity still subsists today.” Are we living through a second Axial Age? { read more }

Be The Change

Since everything has two sides, you might try seeing the other side of whatever seems confused, chaotic, or in need of serious contemplation. Is there perhaps a new point of view from which it can be digested?

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June 2, 2017

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Life is the Network Not the Self

What if the fundamental unit of biology is not the self, but the network? What if plants, and really, all species, are made of interacting relationships and networked connections that are intertwined? A simple backyard experiment looking at the biological make-up of a maple leaf revealed to Professor David Haskell that a maple leaf is not an individual made of plant cells, but “a community of cells from many domains and kingdoms of life” — fungus, bacteria, protist, alga, nematode, and plant. As scientists know, “microbe-free plants likely do not exist in nature and, if they could be constructed, would quickly die for want of the vital connections that sustain life.” In this article, Haskell, professor of biology at the University of the South, Tennessee explores these ancient and dynamic biological networks, and the practical and metaphorical consequences of holding the perspective that all life is connected. { read more }

Be The Change

Take a moment today to observe the interconnectedness of life around you.

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Sacks of Hope: Classroom Acts of Kindness

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June 1, 2017

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Addressing Social Justice with Compassion

Professor Rhonda Magee is a faculty member at the University of San Francisco law school, an expert in contemplative pedagogy, the President of the Board of the Center for Contemplative Minds in Society, and a teacher of mindfulness-based stress reduction interventions for lawyers and law students. She has spent her career exploring the interrelationship between law, philosophy, and notions of justice and humanity. Having grown up in a segregated North Carolina, Magee developed an early interest in racial and social justice, as well as a deep sense of spirituality and inner work – both aspects of her personal life that profoundly inform her daily work. In this Awakin call conversation, Professor Magee shares of her commitment to inner transformation work, and the role of the inner dimensions in “ensouling” the justice system and resolving conflicts. { read more }

Be The Change

How can you bring more compassion and your “inner dimensions” to a problem you are facing today?

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May 31, 2017

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Sleeping Enough to Be Truly Awake

“Human beings are the only species that deprives themselves of sleep. No other species that we see will do this… And what that means is that evolution has never faced the challenge of insufficient sleep since the dawn of time. As a consequence, Mother Nature has never had to solve this problem of insufficient sleep — so there is no safety net [to bank on when it comes to sleep loss.]” In this Awakin call, guest Matt Walker, a professor of Neuroscience at UC Berkeley and director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory, describes the critical importance of good sleep for learning, memory, creativity, emotional regulation, cardiovascular health, and healthy aging. Calling the global sleep loss epidemic “the greatest public health challenge we now face in the 21st century,” Matt examines the impact of sleep loss on the human brain function. In this lively discussion, Matt also answers several pertinent questions from participants on issues ranging from the use of electronic devices during bed time to working late-night shifts to napping during the day to long-term use of sleeping pills — and helps demystify this fundamental biological drive. { read more }

Be The Change

What is one thing you could do differently during the day that would positively impact the quality and quantity of your sleep? For more inspiration, join the upcoming Awakin Call with dedicated yoga teacher and gift ecology practitioner, Pranidhi Varshney. RSVP info and more details here. { more }

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May 30, 2017

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Why Is It So Hard to Take Your Own Advice?

Melissa Dahl says she loves to give advice to friends on how to solve their problems but rarely takes her own advice. Sound familiar? It’s a question of perspective, she points out. We are too close to our own stuff. Nevertheless maybe we should listen to the advice we give others as she also says, “There’s a good chance you’re saying something you need to hear, too.” { read more }

Be The Change

Next time you give advice to someone else, listen closely and share with the other person that you have similar troubles too. Then ask yourself if it might be worth applying your advice to your own situation.

DailyGood is a volunteer-run initiative that delivers “good news” to 243,752 subscribers. There are many ways to help. To unsubscribe, click here.

Other ServiceSpace projects include:

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