Sangha of Auspicious Companions

Inspiring Links of the Week

April 8, 2024

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Inner Worlds

“Each of us lives in many different worlds. There’s the world of work, the world of our family, and our inner worlds. These worlds inside are the ones we’re most responsible for, because no one else can take care of them. So we have to learn how to make them nourishing. If they’re starved, if all we can talk to ourselves about is how miserable we are, how impoverished we are, how much we’re in danger, it spills out to our other worlds as well,” American Buddhist monk Thanissaro Bhikkhu shares. “We’ve seen this with hummingbirds. On the days when the feeders are empty, they don’t come and attack the human beings who forgot to fill the feeders. They attack one another. ‘It’s your fault,’ they say, ‘that I’m hungry.’ That’s because they’ve forgotten the flowers and other places where they can go for their food. In the same way, we take things out on one another because we’ve forgotten where our real nourishment should lie: inside. … No one else can do this work for us.” Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s words from March 2020 remind us that the way we see the world around us is inextricably tied to the way we engage our inner worlds. { read more }

Be The Change

For related inspiration, tune into an Awakin Call this weekend with Ajaan Geoff, discussing “Mastering our Inner World”. RSVP and details here: { more }

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April 7, 2024

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John Toki: Earning It

“There’s always a lot one won’t learn about someone, especially those not asking you to focus on them — and John Toki is one of those people. … It must have been twenty-five years ago and I was purchasing some clay … The little store had been around for decades and it seemed that every potter and clay artist in the [area] knew the place and felt at home there. … As no one was waiting for service, I started asking him about himself. Within ten minutes, and without fanfare, I learned that the quiet man at the sales counter was essentially conducting five careers,” recounts Richard Whittaker on his first encounter with a memorable artist. In a rare and intimate conversation, much-loved San Francisco Bay Area artist, mentor, and polymath, John Toki unearths portraits of wisdom steeped through his life: “I visualize the process of making art as going on a long walk for miles and miles and miles and miles, and you get up over the hill — maybe the hill symbolizes the artwork — then you see the beautiful ocean, and this sunset. But you have to earn it.” { read more }

Be The Change

Carve out space to create art in some way today. Draw a doodle, arrange flowers, watercolor, lay out a meal in an artful way. However you do it, allow your art to guide you to a new perspective.

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April 5, 2024

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Friend or FOMO?

Ever felt like something was missing in your life while mindlessly scrolling through social media feeds filled with seemingly perfect connections and adventures? Well, you’re not alone. A fresh look reveals the often overlooked social pressures and one-sided portrayals of social media that can cause one to question their own friendships. Understanding that meticulously curated posts might be glossing over complex realities can help combat the feelings of isolation when we’re seemingly on the outside looking in. YES! Magazine reminds us that the trick lies in remembering everyone grapples with ups and downs in their friendships, and less-than-perfect moments aren’t shared with a click or swipe. It takes time and commitment, care and shared experiences, mistakes and forgiveness, to cultivate a deeper context of genuine friendships. { read more }

Be The Change

Take a moment to reflect on your friendships. Send a heartfelt message or call a friend with whom you’d like to reconnect or deepen your relationship. Build on genuine connections rather than comparing yourself to the images portrayed on social media.

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April 3, 2024

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How to Reboot After Disappointment at Work

“You might experience disappointment at work in many ways: a long-term project does not come to fruition, a new position opens up and you don’t get it, or your hard work does not pay off. Faced with a sense of loss and disappointment, we have no choice but to respond.” Greater Good Magazine outlines three practices with relevant research that can personally alchemize a setback into possibility. Through paying attention to our internal dialogue and applying positive affirmations, exploring uncharted territories within our mindsets, and asking big questions, our responses to unmet expectations can be doorways into moments of grace, learning, resilience and transformation. { read more }

Be The Change

Reflect on a recent disappointment in your life. Observe your reactions and emotions as data that mirrors your stance of the situation, and give yourself the grace to be in a process of learning. { more }

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Inspiring Links of the Week

April 1, 2024

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How Sisterly Love Transformed a Brothel in Delhi

Fresh out of her university studies, Gitanjali Babbar embarked on a two-year fellowship that had her conducting health surveys with women in Delhi’s red light district. Struck by the raw humanity she encountered in the brothel workers, Gitanjali began visiting the women in her free time, sharing meals and listening to stories from their harrowing life journeys, where they were often trafficked at young ages. Then, one of the women asked Gitanjali to teach her how to read and write. Having never been an enthusiastic student herself, Gitanjali was caught off guard. But she agreed. Soon, impromptu classes sprang up for the women. Not long after, a school for their children began. And eventually, a “dream village”. For thirteen years and counting, through a foundation of deep mutual respect and kinship, a community of selfless love continues to blossom in one of the most unlikely places. { read more }

Be The Change

Ask someone you about their life journey. Listen with an open acceptance, and connect with the humanity in their experience.

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March 31, 2024

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When Melodies Unlock Memory Reservoirs

Candy Cohn often would speak with her late mother, Lillian, in English, with a few words here and there in Yiddish. Then, one day, Lillian “started singing a beautiful Yiddish love song called Sheyn Vi Di Levone. ‘I’d never heard her sing it. I never heard her play it. The look on her face and the joy. I hadn’t seen that in her in a long time,'” Candy Cohn described to WLRN Public Radio. Cohn started playing a video of that very song. “It brought back so many memories for her,” she noted. “She started telling me how she first heard it, what she was doing, and when she would sing it.” Music can get encoded in the brain through an episode of our lives; the trigger of a song from one’s youth can unlock a storehouse of experiences from that same time. Tino Negri, who’s brought interactive music programs to people with memory disorders told WLRN, “Music is the one thing that opens up people’s brains, and it helps fire off neurons on both hemispheres of the brain.” Through music therapy personalized with songs that deeply resonate with patients, people with dementia have a chance to tap into vibrant memories. { read more }

Be The Change

Make a new memory through the joy of music shared: play or sing a song that has a significant meaning for you to a friend or loved one or complete stranger. Relish in its expression of the human spirit.

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March 30, 2024

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Transforming Stress into Self-Identity

Ever noticed how your ‘stress’ becomes who ‘you’ are? This intriguing characteristic suggests that unresolved emotions get stored in our physical and emotional bodies; and, over time, these built-up residues create a ‘state’. This state, if sustained, soon morphs into our identity, becoming our new ‘normal’. We start identifying ourselves with these states, for instance, ‘I am an anxious person’, when in reality, these traits reflect our past troubles, not who we truly are. Even our cultural and familial traits share this quality. Real healing comes from identifying these states as survival adaptations rather than our true identity, thus allowing space to process, understand, and release them. { read more }

Be The Change

Take a few minutes each day to introspect your emotions deeply. Try to identify if any trait or state that you identify with is a result of past unresolved emotions. Instead of resisting, try understanding them better. This could be a step towards healing.

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How Language Shapes the Way We Think

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