Sangha of Auspicious Companions

Are You Willing to Be Changed?

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Jeff Skoll on Story-telling & Social Change

If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. — Barry Lopez

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Good News of the Day:
One of Jeff Skoll’s passions is storytelling. It stems from his youth, when he hoped to be a writer and inspire people to help solve the world’s biggest problems. Skoll took a detour on that path when he met Pierre Omidyar and became eBay’s first employee and president. Ultimately that detour enabled him to tackle his early passions on a scale that he could only have dreamed of before. He is famed not just for the fortune he made, but also the fortune he continues to give away in innovative ways. In this interview with the Stanford Social Innovation Review he discusses his wide-ranging philanthropic efforts.
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Be The Change:
Consider the stories that have helped inspire and shape you. Find a way to share them with the world.

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Kindness Daily: Proof That What Goes Around Comes Around

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Proof That What Goes Around Comes Around March 13, 2012 – Posted by Namaste I was in a health food store when I heard a woman say her foot was hurting and she was going to call a cab. I paid for my purchase and left to pick up some dry cleaning from the eco-friendly cleaners next door. I was walking back home when I saw the woman outside the health food store, presumably waiting for the cab. I knew I wanted to make a trip to a craft store later that day and that I’d be driving. I asked her where she was going. She told me a place which was actually on the way to the craft store. So I said, "I’ve got a crazy idea. How about you cancel the cab and I’ll give you a ride? It will save you some money and besides, I only live a few minutes away." To my amazement she said okay without any hesitation or questions. (I don’t know if I would have been so trusting if a stranger made me the same offer!) So I walked home, hung up my dry cleaning, got in my car and picked her up. Where she was going was so right on the way that I would have taken almost the same route to get where I was going. She thanked me, then I gave her a Smile card saying maybe she could do something kind for someone else. She said she would. It was such a beautiful interaction. But there’s more! So, I get to the craft store, pick up what I went for and then, as I’m waiting at the checkout, the woman behind me says that she has a coupon for 50% off any item in the store. She gave it to me because she had an extra one! I was floored – and struck by the perfect timing of it all! I thanked her, let her go ahead of me in line, and gave her a Smile card. She said she would check out the website when she got home. They say "what goes around comes around" and "as you sow, so shall you reap," but sometimes it is hard to see how that works as often there is a "manifestation delay." Each action creates a ripple that eventually comes back to us, but sometimes it is a lot later so we forget the connection. It was just really fun for me to experience today how God (or "the universe" if one is uncomfortable with God) orchestrates the causes and effects in a discernable, linkable, manner where it was clear to me how in giving I’m also opening myself to receiving gifts, now or in the future. And I can learn so much from others as to how open they are to receiving in a way I might not have been if offered the same gift. So cool! Add/View Comment >> About Newsletter Kindness Daily is an email that delivers today’s featured story from HelpOthers.org. If you’d rather not receive this email, you can also unsubscribe. Similar Stories Free Pizza For Class, by SmileMU What I’m Doing With Smile Cards, by KC Kindness with my Son, by Karen Carnations with a Smile at a Supermarket, by Kat C. Smile Cards Transform Nigerian Kids!, by ADEMI Helpful Links Smile Cards: do an act of kindness and leave a card behind to keep the chain going. Smile Decks: 52 cards with a kindness idea on each! Smile Groups: share your own stories, make friends, spread the good. Smile Ideas: loads of ideas that can support your drive of kindness. Unsubscribe If you’d rather not receive these stories by email, you can remove yourself with two easy clicks. Community

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3 Little Monks and a Moment of Truth

This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love; the more they give, the more they possess. — Rainer Maria Rilke

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Inspiration of the Day:
“This is Ankur,” our host Sachi had said, with the catching enthusiasm she’s known and loved for, “He’s an amazing photographer and has recently gone totally ‘gift economy’.” Meaning that he offers his photography unconditionally as a gift, inviting recipients to ‘pay it forward.’ I look over at the young man seated in front of me. An unguarded face lit now by a smile both shy and warm. “What’s your experience been like so far?” I ask him. “Beautiful,” he says, “I love gifting people my work and having them let their heart decide how much to give.” “But what made you decide to work in this way?” I ask him. “Three eight-year-old monks stood on a cliff edge and saved my life,” responds Ankur, his voice bland and friendly, as if the occurrence he speaks of was the most natural thing in the world.
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Be The Change:
Write Ankur a note of appreciation and support.
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InnerNet Weekly: Nothing Left to Fight Against

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Nothing Left to Fight Against by Zenkei Blanche Hartman [Listen to Audio!] During the Vietnam War, I was a political activist. I fought for peace. There was some contradiction. There wasn’t any peace in me. I hated the people who disagreed with me. That was a kind of war within myself. In 1968, I was just beginning to look at the way in which I was vigorously clinging to my opinions about things and denigrating others who had different opinions, when there was a strike at San Francisco State University. The police came with their masks and clubs, started poking people. And without thinking, I ducked under the hands of people to get between the police and students. I met this riot squad policemen face-to-face with his mask on and everything. He was close enough to touch. I met this policeman’s eyes straight on, and I had this overwhelming experience of identification, of shared identity. "This was the most transformative moment of my life — having this experience of shared identity with the riot squad policeman. It was a gift. Nothing had prepared me for it. I didn’t have any conceptual basis for understanding it. The total experience was real and incontrovertible. My life as a political activist ended with that encounter, because there was no longer anything to fight against. The way I described it to my friends was the policeman was trying to protect what he thought was right and good from all of the other people who were trying to destroy it — and I was doing the same thing. "Since I had no basis for understanding the experience of shared identity with someone whom I had considered complete "other" (i.e., the riot squad policeman), and because the experience had been so real and so powerful, I began to search for someone who would understand it. How could a riot squad policemen and I be identical? In my search I met Suzuki Roshi. The way he looked at me, I knew he understood. That’s how I got here [as an ordained monastic.] –Zenkei Blanche Hartman, former abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center Share the Wisdom: Latest Community Insights Nothing Left to Fight Against Conrad P Pritscher wrote: Zenkei’s story is very touching. Thanks for sending it. My fights with my self are still ongoing. As I age and become wiser, the fights are less frequent and less fierce. I… MomentofLearning wrote: I used to have arguments with peopl when I felt they were not following what is correct and value-oriented. This was a common ground for my being angry and expressing it too on few people. This was co… David Doane wrote: It’s crucially important to have the experience/awareness/realization of shared identity, however it happens, whatever precipitates it. It’s important to get to the point of lookin… Share/Read Reflections >> Wednesday Meditation: Many years ago, a couple friends got together to sit in silence for an hour, and share personal aha-moments. That birthed this newsletter, and later became “Wednesdays”, which now ripple out to living rooms around the world. To join, RSVP online. Audio Reflections From last week’s Bay-Area circle on Making Friends with the Present Moment … Some Good News The Power of Introverts 9 Essential Skills Kids Should Learn Five Tips For Making Travel Meaningful Video of the Week Charlie Chaplin: Let Us Free the World Kindness Stories Flowers For A Stranger About Back in 1997, one person started sending this simple “meditation reminder” to a few friends. Soon after, “Wednesdays” started, CharityFocus blossomed, and the humble experiments of service took a life of its own. If you’d like to start a Wednesday style meditation gathering in your area, we’d be happy to help you get started. InnerNet Weekly is an email service that delivers a little bit of wisdom to 70,628 subscribers each week. We never spam nor do we host any advertising. Archives, from the last 10+ years, are freely available online. You can unsubscribe anytime, within seconds. A Gift Economy offering of CharityFocus.org (2008)

Year of Dancing with Life – Week 23

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Week 23: Abandoning Attachment to Desire To receive Phillip’s weekly teaching, click here: http://www.lifebalanceinstitute.com/ dharmawisdom/dancing-with-life/ teaching/abandoning-attachment-desire May your study of this material deepen your meditation practice and inspire your dance with life. If you are interested in studying Dancing with Life in more depth, sign up to receive your on-line study guide and other supplemental materials.

Office Workers Raise 5 Day Old Kitten

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded — Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Good News of the Day:
“He was all soaking wet. The house had been power washed earlier but no one knew there was a baby kitty over in the bushes or that he had gotten wet. I cleaned him off with paper towels in case he had offensive tasting soap on him and put him back down and went back inside so the mama could get her baby. After much sitting there watching him cry, she walked away and didn’t come back. I ran over to Wal-Mart, got a kitten bottle and kitten replacement milk and took the baby home. I got up throughout the night to feed him and help him with his toilet needs and he slept in my drawer. That night, I thought, I will sneak him into the office in a shoe box on Friday morning.”
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Be The Change:
Reach out with an act of kindness that might help make “one life breathe easier” today.

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Smile Newsletter: Changing A Tire And Teaching A Son

Mar 11, 2012 “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” — TS Eliot ” I found a wallet in the road while I was on my way somewhere. There was no money inside. I drove to the address on the drivers license not far from where I had found it and gave it to the person who answered the door. I put $10 in the wallet before returning it.” — anonymous [ share your story >> ] You can also contribute comments on each story! Flowers For A Stranger >> Changing a Tire and Teaching a Son >> The Security Guard’s Idea! >> More Stories >> “Being kind is a way of life. It’s a choice each day. There is somethimg magical and whimsical about being kind. The ripple effect is fun to observe and quietly recognize your tiny part in what may be a miracle in the making for someone.” — TheBrokeGiver What is a “smile card”? It’s a game of kindness — do something nice for someone and leave a card behind asking them to pay it forward. To date, 1,014,181 cards have been shipped without any charge. The ‘Smiles’ newsletter is emailed to 88,799 subscribers with the intent of spreading more smiles in the world. You can unsubscribe anytime. get smile cards | donate | write to us

How Language Enabled Innovation and Evolution

A different language is a different vision of life. — Federico Fellini

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Good News of the Day:
“How did ‘culture’ develop, exactly? Language, says evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel, was instrumental in enabling social learning — our ability to acquire evolutionarily beneficial new behaviors by watching and imitating others, which in turn accelerated our species on a trajectory of what anthropologists call ‘cumulative cultural evolution,’ a bustling of ideas successively building and improving on others. It might seem, then, that protecting our ideas would have been the best evolutionary strategy. Yet that’s not what happened — instead, we embraced this ‘theft,’ a cornerstone of remix culture, and propelled ourselves into a collaboratively crafted future of exponential innovation.”
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Be The Change:
Use language to enable innovation and collective evolution: share your best ideas freely today.

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9 Essential Skills Kids Should Learn

He who learns teaches, he who teaches learns. — African proverb

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Tip of the Day:
“Unfortunately, I was educated in a school system that believed the world in which it existed would remain essentially the same, with minor changes in fashion. We had no idea what the world had in store for us. And here’s the thing: we still don’t. We never do. We have never been good at predicting the future, and so raising and educating our kids as if we have any idea what the future will hold is not the smartest notion. How then to prepare our kids for a world that is unpredictable, unknown? By teaching them to adapt, to deal with change, to be prepared for anything by not preparing them for anything specific. This requires an entirely different approach to child-rearing and education. It means leaving our old ideas at the door, and reinventing everything.” Author Leo Babauta shares further.
http://premiere.whatcounts.com/t?ctl=16A8936:C3009629A010612C8D0D4BAF7C4C4A02B4B847859706E37D&

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Be The Change:
Learn twice: teach a child in your life some life skills.

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