Lessons, by Tracy Cochran November 27, 2015 Vincent Van Gogh, The Red Vineyard at Arles, 1888, oil, on canvas (Puskin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow) One morning last October, I experienced a moment of grace. It happened as I was walking my black Labrador retriever, Shadow, on one of those warm autumn days when everything looks edged in gold. But I was shuffling along like a waif in a storm because I had just learned that a project I had counted on had fallen through. Shadow staged a sit-down strike when we came to a little lake. Head high, back straight, she refused to budge until she had a chance to explore the shore. So I stood and waited. A pair of white swans and a d... posted on Oct 9 2017 (9,535 reads)

When we have a family reunion, we all tell stories about our own childhood, and everybody always listens to everybody else’s stories — says, “Did you grow up in the same family as I did?” MS. TIPPETT: Right. There are five versions of every story. DR. VAN DER KOLK: Yeah. There’s all these very, very different versions, and they barely ever overlap. So, people create their own realities in a way. What is so extraordinary about trauma, is that these images or sounds or physical sensations don’t change over time. So people who have been molested as kids continue to see the wallpaper of the room in which they were molested. Or when they exami... posted on Oct 20 2017 (1,562 reads)

one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life,” wrote the thirty-year-old Nietzsche. “The true and durable path into and through experience,” Nobel-winning poet Seamus Heaney counseled the young more than a century later in his magnificent commencement address, “involves being true … to your own solitude, true to your own secret knowledge.” Every generation believes that it must battle unprecedented pressures of conformity; that it must fight harder than any previous generation to protect that secret knowledge from which our integrity of selfhood springs. Some of this belie... posted on Jan 8 2018 (11,317 reads)

was underway. They were in town for a weekend showing at Davies Symphony Hall of Reggio’s Qatsi Trilogy: Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi. Phillip Glass, along with his ensemble, would be performing the music he had composed for the films.  Koyaanisqatsi left a deep impression on me when I’d first seen it in 1983, as did Powaqqatsi, which came out five years later. This full-length, commercial film consists entirely of a stream of images accompanied by music and was revolutionary at the time. Glass’ music and the film’s dramatic imagery are powerful in themselves, but it’s what they are saying and how it corre... posted on Oct 25 2017 (11,689 reads)

lead the climb instead of this other presence inside you. When you’re climbing there’s always lots of excuse and temptation at the periphery to panic. The more experienced you are as a climber, the less you panic, and the more panic-stricken the circumstances become, the more centred you actually are. So you could say that’s very close to the dynamics of beauty that occur in poetry when you are trying to find the central image that will hold all the thousands of besieging images at the periphery together. It’s what Coleridge and Keats called “The Primary Imagination.” The ability to think up new things is only the secondary imagination, but the primar... posted on May 23 2018 (22,478 reads)

receiving his doctorate in neuroscience in 2011, artist Greg Dunn made an unconventional decision: to dedicate himself to his art. A long time observer of human consciousness, his images of the human brain have been displayed in museums all over the United States, including the Franklin Institute. He recently spoke with the Garrison Institute about his art, philosophy of the mind, and why he compares his work to that of Zen artists. How did you get started as a professional artist? My original plan was to go the academic route. Then I started painting the first year into my neuroscience degree. At some point, I realized that I just wasn’t producing anything in the... posted on May 7 2018 (11,895 reads)

April, 1951. India was burning with a communist revolution where the landless had erupted violently against centuries of exploitation by landlords. The communist leaders in Telangana had been arrested by the government and were in jail. On this day, they were surprised to hear that someone had come to see them. Their elderly visitor was a strange skinny man with a beard, who was interested in their well-being. He had come a long way to talk to them and challenge their views on communism. He listened deeply to what had turned them onto communism, and then presented his views with so much love that something shifted within these young men, who then agreed to create space for nonviolent reso... posted on Jun 18 2018 (13,960 reads)

to me as the fresh cold alpine wind off the slopes I loved to ski: I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not ever complete the last one, but I give myself to it.   I circle around God, that primordial tower. I have been circling for thousands of years, and I still don’t know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song? I felt a sense of release, as if I had been let out of a cage I had not known I was in. Rilke’s images lent some pattern, even meaning, to a life I thought had failed in its spiritual vocation. Once I had imagined that my journey would be like the Pilgrim’s Progress, where each adventure b... posted on Jun 25 2018 (11,019 reads)

note: I met José Juan in 2013. I had just returned to Spain from India and was participating in a 21-Day Kindness Challenge. During a 21 day period 5000 people from all over the world performed an act of kindness every day, totalling almost 11,000 transformative actions! The first day of the challenge I decided to buy a cake and gift it to someone random on the street. I wanted it to be anonymous so I needed to enlist a partner in kindness. The first person I met was José Juan! He gave away the cake and since then we have been connected in many adventures of service and generosity, including community experiments like Awakin Circles (which we started in his ... posted on Sep 2 2018 (15,504 reads)

are lots of ways to consider how what we do impacts the people around us, both right away and in the future. Perhaps the most common is the idea of the “footprint” we leave behind. Me, I prefer the image of a boat’s wake and used it for years in my conversations with the teenagers I taught. Among the things I like about the wake image is that a wake is strongest when it’s new and close, and it comes in contact with lots of things as time passes. In this way it is significant both right away AND in the future, the form of significance just being different. Understanding this, I think, helps people become more mindful of their actions, their words, and th... posted on Dec 15 2018 (7,816 reads)

things in life are more seductive than the artificial sweetness of being capital-R Right — of “winning the narrative,” as my friend Amanda likes to say. This delicious doom and glory of being Right — which is, of course, a matter of feeling rather than being it — tends to involve framing our emotional triggers as moral motives, then thundering them upon those we cast in the role of the Wrong, who may do the same in turn. How, amid this ping-pong of righteousness grenades, do we maintain not only a clear-minded and pure-hearted relationship with reality, but also forgiveness and respect for others, which presuppose self-forgiveness and self-respect —... posted on Jan 8 2019 (7,151 reads)

many times have artists thought, while working on a project, "Will I ever get this completed?" How often do we face seemingly unsurmountable obstacles on the path to turning our vision into reality? And when will we reach the level of proficiency and excellence we aspire to? Anyone engaged in creative activity of whatever form is familiar with this terrain. Yet to overcome doubt and frustration, to master any craft or art, we have to cultivate a particular quality. It is one that appears opposite to what we want, which is usually immediate gratification: Patience, a virtue extolled by spiritual traditions around the world. Given the nano-second nature of our technological... posted on Jan 11 2019 (8,016 reads)

of our front door. Papyrus, with its echoes of Egypt and ancient paper, thrives in areas lacking good drainage, where the soil stays moist while everything else bakes. Inspiration sprouts everywhere. Lady Murasaki’s Tale of the Genji about 11th century court life in Japan (which begins by her saying “My thoughts this morning are as tangled as my hair–”) describes extraordinary ‘moon-viewing’ gatherings to see white flowers by moonlight. Her images at once flood my concept of whites along the whole west fence: an ‘Iceberg’ rose; the pallor of a flowering potato vine (Solanum jasminoides); white tulips, daffodils, narcissus, bl... posted on Feb 16 2019 (5,008 reads)

author, speaker, cinematographer, sound recordist, and photographer Lang Elliott of musicofnature.com, shares the arc of his experience recording the sublime sounds of nature. Here is one of his immersive binaural recordings from a remote canyon in Arizona that you might enjoy listening to while reading his essay. Dawn at Willow Narrows. Aravaipa Canyon in southeastern Arizona. May 1, 2017. © Lang Elliott. Please listen using headphones! I’ve been recording nature for nearly 30 years. Early in my career, my primary goal was to capture close and clean recordings of particular species with the help of highly directional microphones. The object was to extract a spec... posted on Mar 27 2019 (5,746 reads)

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March, I interviewed Nipun for our magazine, Dumbo Feather -- and I left so energized by our chat! It left a deep impression and we locally got active in trying to create an Awakin Circle in Melbourne, we've published another article on "multiple forms of capital", our founders are coming out for a ServiceSpace retreat, and most recently we've been doing some kindness experiments too. I feel so grateful to know ServiceSpace, and look forward to supporting the "ripples". The photo-essay looks gorgeous in the print magazine, but below is a snapshot with some interspersed photos by the talented Ramin Rahimian. Hope you enjoy! For more than 2... posted on Nov 19 2019 (8,077 reads)

The second photo, taken from the National Museum of Australia’s Benny Zable collection, shows a barge set up to resemble a coffin taking part in a 1986 protest against the 75th Anniversary of the Royal Australian Navy, which included nuclear capable ships from other countries. Brand correction During physical distancing those seeking to ensure truth in advertising and brand correction can still do so through the addition, deletion and alteration of text and images via stickers, posters and other means. Back in the 1980s and 1990s Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions (BUGA-UP) revised hundreds of misleading advertisements around Au... posted on Jun 2 2020 (4,981 reads)

paper on my desk listing all the people I was about to write to say, “I’m really sorry I just can’t do this, it’s too big, I’ve bitten off too much. Can’t find my way through it.” And it was actually Roman, my partner, who’d say to me, “Just keep going past tomorrow. Give it another day, another week. Just see what happens.” And then suddenly – one morning sitting in a café – I had an epiphany of clarity around the images I was working on, and from then on there was no stopping me. But I never imagined the book would have the scale of traction it’s had. So of course I’m completely delighted. And to m... posted on Jul 19 2020 (8,439 reads)

Hattori on the meaning of Aloha... Probably the most important concept or word in Hawaii is Aloha. Aloha has been commercialized so much that the original meanings were lost. So what I've been feeling into is the deepest aspects of Aloha. And what it comes down to for me is what they call Kapu Aloha. Kapu means 'sacred'. It's actually the same word that the word taboo came from. Taboo is actually Polynesian word. The Hawaiian K was originally a T. Kapu Aloha is sacred Aloha, which is “I’m going to love no matter what.” If you come and steal my land, I’m going to love you. You come and beat me, I’m going to love you. You come and stri... posted on Mar 2 2021 (8,756 reads)

judge it. It is to name it as what it is: a psychological process with which we have become overly accustomed to identifying. The false self has no enduring quality—it is neither thing, noun, nor person. It is a process that we mistake for who we are. I often call this false self the thought-created self or the psychological self. The false self grows and thrives in unconscious being. When we are asleep to Being, our attention becomes entranced by mind—the vast array of ideas, images, beliefs, habits, opinions, and judgments that we have been conditioned to identify as self. However, these are not self; they are conditioned psychological processes masquerading as who you ar... posted on Mar 22 2021 (7,784 reads)