think of a better quote to celebrate Zen Pencils 100th comic. I’ve been wanting to adapt it since I started the website, but I knew I needed a decent amount of time to do it justice. Luckily, my recent two week break over the holidays allowed me the time to get a start on it. And I couldn’t think of a better person to feature. Carl Sagan is someone I admire greatly. More than any other writer, Sagan opened my eyes to the wonders of the universe, the beauty of science and the incredible achievements of humanity. This is a double celebration because besides being the 100th comic, it’s also (kind of) Zen Pencils one-year anniversary... posted on Apr 15 2014 (23,360 reads)

for justice. But they didn't have much about spirituality. They didn't talk about it. They didn't have meditation classes. They didn't have, we had prayer of course, but they didn't really have any kind of emphasis upon the contemplative life or the spiritual life.And after we wrote about spiritual literacy, we found a lot of people came to us to talk about spirituality, because the ministers weren't doing that. And at that time, we discovered Rumi. And for a person who had been a political science major, I never understood poetry until I found Rumi. And then it just totally touched my heart. I got it, I understood what he was saying.  Kabir and Camille Kaminski were offering a work... posted on May 5 2024 (3,190 reads)

and analyses of the movement with the concepts of general systems theory. Equally insightful regarding theory and practice are observations offered more recently by scholars such as George Bond and Sallie King, who interpret Sarvodaya both historically and through the lens of engaged Buddhism in order to understand what can and cannot be seen (Bond, 2003; King, 2006). SHIFTING PARADIGMS, CROSSING DISCIPLINES A different set of lenses may also be employed to affirm Sarvodaya’s prescience. In the 1980s and 1990s, for example, psychologists and youth development specialists deservedly trumpeted the findings of breakthrough studies on resil- iency and protective factors, painstak... posted on Jun 21 2024 (1,900 reads)

come back. Animals on the brink of extinction can be given another chance. My next reason for hope, the biggest difference between us and other animals, is this explosive development of our intellect. Yes, other animals are far more intelligent and sentient than used to be believed. We’ve designed a rocket that went up to planet Mars with a robot that took photos. And so, our hope of finding a planet where life could continue, a kind of life we know, was doomed. Fortunately, today, science is coming out with innovative solutions like capturing carbon from the atmosphere and renewable energy. This is a big step forward. I wish more people were talking about this type of technolog... posted on May 10 2024 (4,051 reads)

And I realized I felt out of sync with the perspective that these people were sharing. I was coming from this possibilist mindset and I thought, “Huh, I don’t know exactly even how to have these conversations without feeling at odds with other people.” And yet the whole point that you talk about is how we can connect with other people. So how do we talk to people who are definitely not in a possibilist set of being?   WU: Well, simply, I mean, none of this is rocket science. This is all about tapping into our own innate human potentials. The phrase I like to use is meet animosity with curiosity. In other words, bring your natural inherent curiosity to the situati... posted on May 13 2024 (2,896 reads)

in nature to similar benefits I get from practicing mindfulness. I believe that it’s not just about the trees that I’m seeing or the cold water that’s lapping around me. The setting becomes the doorway to a deeper connection with my body, which gives me the space I need to mindfully observe all the things happening within and around me—something I wouldn’t be able to tap into if I were distracted by my phone or hurrying through a park to get to a destination. The science agrees with me: the mindful component of time in the outdoors could be one of the key reasons we experience such significant changes in our psychological and physiological health. Other resea... posted on Jul 12 2024 (2,213 reads)

new study finds that when people multitask, they enjoy pleasant activities less and tend to overindulge afterward to compensate. Many mornings, I eat breakfast while doing the New York Times crossword puzzle. It seems like a fun, harmless distraction; alas, I often end up barely remembering what I ate, let alone savoring it. A new study from Germany and the Netherlands suggests that this may be a problem. Distracting yourself this way can lead to what researchers call a “hedonic shortfall” that may prompt further, mindless indulgence. The wages of multitasking In the study, 122 mostly young adults were contacted before they ate lunch and randomly assigned to one of three si... posted on Jul 16 2024 (2,543 reads)

together”—in practice they are two different constructs, especially as it relates to structures, norms, and boundaries. Although some of us may be “ambidextrous,” others, like myself, tend to flourish in one versus the other. Here’s what I think is going on—and some ideas on how to potentially infuse the best parts of communities into groups. First, let’s define what I mean when I say groups. Groups can be informal or formal, but, according to social science, they all adhere to a few basic tenets. They tend to operate based on status structures, where there’s a clear delineation of who has the most power or influence in the group and who has... posted on Aug 9 2024 (1,982 reads)

of us don’t necessarily have the kind of lives we want. We may not enjoy intimate relationships, jobs that fulfill us, the ideal home, or enough income to do what we want to do. But do these circumstances dictate our happiness? According to a new study led by René Mõttus of Edinburgh University and the University of Tartu in Estonia, they don’t—at least not exclusively. Instead, our personalities play a significant role in determining how satisfied we are with our life, and changing our circumstances doesn’t really matter as much as we think. “You can think, Oh, if I get these 10 papers published and I get this promotion, that’ll make ... posted on Sep 20 2024 (921 reads)