following is an excerpt from Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu's book, "From Mindfulness to Heartfulness: Transforming Self and Soceity with Compassion"(Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2018) Why Heartfulness? Heartfulness describes a way of being in mindfulness, in compassion, and in responsibility. The word mindfulness, by itself, seems insufficient to explain how mindful consciousness extends into compassion and is expressed in active caring. Heartfulness portrays this expansive sense of living with openness and clarity, being true to ourselves, acting in sympathy with all beings, resonating with and being part of the world around us. The word com-passion literally means &ld... posted on Mar 8 2018 (14,132 reads)

about this time in the long stretch of winter that I begin to ache for spring. By March, I tend become a bit dulled to the beauty of winter. Though my prayer and meditation keep my heart open to seeing the passage of time and seasons with appreciative eyes, mostly I just want the cold days to be over. As the earth begins to thaw, we often want the process to hurry up.  I long for bright flowers blowing in a spring breeze and warm summer evenings on the porch. While impatience with winter is only human, I pause and remember the need to move slowly through this time of year.  If we rush through the change in seasons in nature and in our lives, we will find ourselves... posted on Mar 25 2021 (13,308 reads)

are graduating to the most amazing and stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation,” he told them. When Paul was a young man, the world had other problems, many of which persist today: the war in Vietnam, civil rights abuses, racism. At just 18, he became Martin Luther King Jr.’s press co-ordinator, helping to organise the historic March on Montgomery. He photographed voter registration drives in Bogalusa, Louisiana and Florida. Later, in Mississippi, he captured images of the Ku Klux Klan—the group kidnapped Paul and held him prisoner. At 20, Paul moved into business, opening one of America’s first natural food stores, Erewhon. With every step ... posted on Apr 13 2018 (13,847 reads)

time to celebrate crooked things. We often seek perfection but will we ever get it all straight? I don’t think so. Maybe we once believed that “straight is the gate and narrow is the way” and went in search of it. But by now most of us are pretty sure we’re not going to find it. And even if we did manage to squeeze through that narrow aperture from time to time, didn’t our pathbecome pretty crooked from then on? How often do we stray from our intention out of curiosity or stupor or to smell the roses! Nature moves in curves and curlicues. Perhaps that’s why I love the many crooked trees even more than the few arrow-straight ones. They look li... posted on Apr 16 2018 (10,789 reads)

Note: From Chelsea Green Publishing, the publishers of Human Scale Revisited: There was a time when buildings were scaled to the human figure, democracies were scaled to the societies they served, and enterprises were scaled to communities. Against that backdrop, author Kirkpatrick Sale revisits his classic book Human Scale against recent global developments and offers compelling new insights on how to turn toward a scale that allows humanity to not only survive, but thrive. In this excerpt from Human Scale Revisited, Sale tackles the notion of human-scale technology. There is no such thing as a society without technology. Homo erectus and Homo sapiens for nearly two million years... posted on May 4 2018 (8,109 reads)

by Bharat Chauhan The love you bear for yourself is never unrequited. You are the generous giver and the sole receiver. You do not have to wonder if your sentiments will be echoed or your kind gestures returned. You need only love yourself fully. The love we bear for ourselves is guaranteed, each return exceeding its investment. Perhaps you're longing to experience this kind of love from someone you care about, or maybe your heart aches from loving someone who cannot fully love you back. The more we seek love like this, the harder we struggle, and the less we come to love ourselves. But who is more worthy of the careful attention and thoughtful affection we so readily dole... posted on Apr 5 2018 (39,983 reads)

winter, I went camping with my friend Bob in the backcountry near Sequoia National Park. After spending the day slogging uphill through deep snow, we were exhausted but needed to make camp. As the temperature rapidly dropped, Bob began shivering uncontrollably. He had poured out so much energy without refueling himself that he was sliding into hypothermia, the first stage of freezing to death. We hurried to set up the tent, get into our sleeping bags, light the stove, drink hot water, and eat hot food—and soon Bob’s teeth stopped chattering. Luckily, we had just enough resilience to turn this misadventure around. Mental resources like calm, grit, and courage kept us goi... posted on Apr 24 2018 (27,041 reads)

Brown is a professor of economics and director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. Her recent book, Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science (Bloomsbury), draws upon simple Buddhist ideas to argue for an economic system based on environmental stewardship, shared prosperity, and care for the human spirit. Brown measures economic progress by the well-being of all people, not Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or average national income. She advocates creating an economy that recognizes the interdependence of people with each other and the planet, and works toward achieving the goals of reduci... posted on Jun 22 2018 (9,268 reads)

“Moss-in-Prison” project helped me bring my love for trees and forest to men and women in the deepest windowless reaches of the prison system. “We learned that the inmates who viewed nature videos committed twenty-six percent fewer violent infractions than those who did not view them, a convincing result for the prison officers and administrators—and for ourselves.” Photo by Samuel Zeller/Unsplash When one is in love—especially with something as huge and beautiful and complex as trees—there is an urge to share this emotion with everyone, especially to those who have no opportunity to experience s... posted on Jul 2 2018 (11,474 reads)

Scolaro on Sarah Kay For over a decade, 28-year-old Sarah Kay has touched millions of people with her exquisite spoken word poetry. Her TED Talk, “If I should have a Daughter” has had over 9.5 million views, showing us the power of poetry in an often-cynical world. Whenever I watch Sarah perform, something remarkable happens. My heart rate quickens, I want to be more present. I want to feel more, love more, because she holds up a mirror to the deepest parts of our humanity—highlighting life’s nuances to make us taste, touch and feel the moment. Growing up in New York City the daughter of two photographers, Sarah was... posted on Jun 17 2018 (10,901 reads)

use of the term “empathy” has been expanding in recent years, from workplaces to prison systems to conversations about gun control. Research into mirror neurons in the 1980s and 1990s brought sharper focus to the notion of empathy, but it has since acquired numerous dimensions, according to Cris Beam, a professor at William Paterson University in New Jersey and the author of  a new book titled, I Feel You: The Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy. Empathy is ingrained in the psyche from birth, although sociopaths and psychopaths may be born with a “disability” — that of missing empathy. Empathy skills also can be enhanced. Beam explored the var... posted on Jun 26 2018 (10,813 reads)

Alberto Gutiérrez is known as the “Lord of the Books” to the thousands of book-loving children he’s helped in Bogotá, Colombia. The garbage collector, featured in an AJ+ video posted Monday, takes discarded books from wealthy neighborhoods and adds them to a makeshift library in his home. The collection of over 20,000 books is open to the kids in the low-income neighborhood where he lives on the weekends.  “This should be in all neighborhoods, on each corner of every neighborhood, in all the towns, in all departments, and all the rural areas,” Gutiérrez told The Associated Press in 2015. “Books are our s... posted on Oct 16 2018 (13,664 reads)

something larger than myself.” Rilke’s words left no doubt. He had known this trapped place of grief. He had felt his way in the dark, touching the hard walls, realizing there was no escape from pain. He’d experienced the blocked path and felt the paralyzing thickness of sorrow. You might think a poem describing grief’s trapped darkness would depress me. You might imagine I’d long for poems about life everlasting and continuing bonds. Instead, Rilke’s images of helplessness and human smallness filled me with gratitude. Someone had been where I was and survived. Someone had found beauty in our human anguish. Rilke’s poem helps us endure the... posted on Jul 7 2018 (37,425 reads)

I was 6 years old, I began to go for an hour every day, before school had started, to work with a speech therapist who taught me to put my hand on her throat, and my throat, and then focus on matching her vibration as she would make a sound, because I had to learn how to talk. One of the things I noted right away was that when we matched vibration, I became really connected with her. It was a feeling of connection in my heart, a feeling of love that I would feel for her in those moments." Myron Eshowsky is a shamanic healer, mediator, consultant and author who was born with congenital severe hearing loss that he learnt to adapt into a skill for deep listening. He serves curre... posted on Oct 8 2018 (9,973 reads)

from Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times by Kate Davies, New Society Publishers  April 201 Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life. --Attributed to the Buddha The first habit of hope I’d like to discuss is being present. This means paying attention to whatever is going on and not getting sidetracked or distracted — in other words, living where life is actually happening rather than in our heads. To understand the difference between being present and not being present, think of a time when you felt completely alert and aware. What was happening? Where were you? What did you see and hear? Chances are you can probably remember ... posted on May 3 2021 (59,618 reads)

from: In the Business of Change: How Social Entrepreneurs are Disrupting Business as Usual (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018, and is reprinted with permission from the publishers) Disruptive. Innovative. Creative. An increasing number of social entrepreneurs have come to realize that moving from ideation to success often requires going beyond the usual, the traditional, the expected. They need to shake   things up, turn ideas upside down and infuse their solutions to challenges with a creative twist, new technology and/or a bold rethink. Of course, innovation is not an approach unique to social entrepreneurs. It’s a popular tool for any entrepreneurs who... posted on Aug 10 2018 (7,968 reads)

Orians is a staff attorney at The First 72 Plus, a New Orleans nonprofit founded by six formerly incarcerated people to help other formerly incarcerated men and women navigate the first 72 hours of their release. She is also the co-founder of Rising Foundations, a partner nonprofit that provides pathways to self-sufficiency for formerly incarcerated people, with an aim to stop the cycle of incarceration in low-income communities through small business development and home ownership.   Even as a high school student growing up in Castle Rock, Colorado, and then as an undergraduate at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Orians was attuned to the failure... posted on Jul 16 2018 (7,782 reads)

in the business of creating a miracle here on earth.” – Charles Eisenstein What is it like to be in the midst of a miracle? The idea of a miracle sounds so warm and delicious, the kind of thing you would aspire to experience in a minute, right? Well, in fact, here on earth we are in the middle of miracle school, whether you remember enrolling or not. And, much like life itself (a miracle in its own right), it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s very important to know the signs that one is participating in a miracle so you can see it through and not mess it up. Because miracles inspire panic, not awe, while they are in process. Keep this... posted on Jul 25 2018 (13,409 reads)

a good question, and it’s a tough question because so many are driven by the last opportunities to protect wild areas and to reconnect isolated pieces of nature that I don’t think there is sufficient attention to how to “green” cities. That has a really serious consequence because it’s not only the quality of life, it’s people’s opportunity to react with a little bit of nature. Jonathan Rose: What’s very interesting is if you look at images of the future that came out of what I’m going to call the conquering nature period of time – from the late 1800s through World War II – they were all entirely gray, dark, conc... posted on Jul 30 2018 (9,044 reads)

release of the Mister Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? calls to mind the essential message of Rogers’ long-running children’s program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Fred McFeely Rogers, who died in 2003, was also an ordained Presbyterian minister. Over the course of three decades on public broadcasting, he brought to millions of children what his faith’s General Assembly referred to as “unconditional love.” In preaching love, Rogers wasn’t just attending to the moral character of his youthful audience. He believed that he was also promoting their health. As he said in 1979, “My whole ap... posted on Jul 19 2018 (20,716 reads)