two people who have been strangers, as all of us are, suddenly let the wall between them break down, and feel close, feel one, this moment of oneness is one of the most exhilarating, most exciting experiences in life. It is all the more wonderful and miraculous for persons who have been shut off, isolated, without love. This miracle of sudden intimacy is often facilitated if it is combined with, or initiated by, sexual attraction and consummation. However, this type of love is by its very nature not lasting. The two persons become well acquainted, their intimacy loses more and more its miraculous character, until their antagonism, their disappointments, their mutual boredom kill whatev... posted on Jan 12 2016 (19,212 reads)

a word — you use the word “mysticism” in Western culture, and people might think of something very abstract and very elite. BR. STEINDL-RAST: No, no. I believe that every one of us is a mystic because we have this experience of belonging once in a while, out of the blue, this — women often say when they give birth to a child, they have it, or when we fall in love, we have this sense of belonging. Or, sometimes, without any particular reason, suddenly out in nature you feel one with everything. And every human being has this. But what we call the great mystics, they let this experience determine and shape every moment of their lives. They never forgot it.... posted on Feb 9 2016 (21,026 reads)

acts, and so is actionable, liable. It is in the idea of action that the legal and the theatrical sources of the concept of person come together. Central to the concept of the person — unlike the character and the figure — is the idea of free will, which springs from our capacity for making choices and implies the responsibility for those choices. Rorty explains: If judgment summarizes a life … then that life must have a unified location. Since they choose from their natures or are chosen by their stories, neither characters nor figures need be equipped with a will, not to mention a free will… The actions of characters and figures do no emerge from the exer... posted on Mar 7 2016 (17,489 reads)

and problem-solving. As a result, our attentional resources become drained. When those attention resources are depleted, we become distracted and mentally fatigued, and may struggle to focus, solve problems and come up with new ideas. But according to attention restoration theory, the brain can restore its finite cognitive resources when we're in environments with lower levels of sensory input than usual. In silence -- for instance, the quiet stillness you find when walking alone in nature -- the brain can let down its sensory guard, so to speak. 3. In silence, we can tap into the brain's default mode network. The default mode network of the brain is activated when we ... posted on Mar 14 2016 (81,321 reads)

find ourselves in turbulent and unpredictable times. From the horror at the Bataclan, to the upheaval in Syria and the senseless bloodshed in San Bernardino, we live in a time of great confusion and pain. As an artist, creator and dreamer of this world, we ask you not to be discouraged by what you see but to use your own lives, and by extension your art, as vehicles for the construction of peace. While it’s true that the issues facing the world are complex, the answer to peace is simple; it begins with you. You don’t have to be living in a third world country or working for an NGO to make a difference. Each of us has a unique mission. We are all pieces in a giant, flui... posted on Mar 16 2016 (17,509 reads)

speaker, board member, role model and mentor. But what binds all these personas is Bloom’s deep and unyielding spirituality. SEPARATION PAINS “Our current world lens is that we see ourselves as separate – separate from the earth which gives us life; separate from the cosmos that gave us birth; separate from each other, and without each other life has no meaning. Ultimately, many of us are even separate from ourselves. So we have lost our connection with our inherent nature,” he says, slowly, melodiously. “But every decision we make on the basis that we’re separate is a fracture, a schism and a breakdown; while every decision based on the fact... posted on Mar 19 2016 (12,177 reads)

my wish is to be more whole—more wholly myself—I will have to include more of the complexities of my nature. Yet my behind-the-scenes hope has often been to get rid of what I don’t like in myself, so I go about my conscious life denying certain disagreeable features or squishing them into more acceptable traits. Yet there are other aspects that I approve of and freely lay claim to. If you too seek wholeness, you might want to join me as I try to look at the whole picture, warts and all. Ugh! That means we’ll have to include the wimpy self we’re ashamed of, the angry self we revel in but hide from others, the confused self we re ashamed of, and even the dow... posted on Mar 26 2016 (16,711 reads)

you at it, don't you think? RW: I'd say there's a certain feeling that perhaps I bring to the effort already, and that sometimes something happens which involves a change in my state which brings another kind of feeling that wasn't there when I was beginning my effort. NH: It's the second kind of feeling that I refer to. I start out with ordinary feelings. But if I can stay with that, the thing that makes it possible to stay with it is really something of a higher nature, something more true. I don't really know it thoroughly. I'm still exploring. I'm still discovering. I hope it remains this way always. But I do know that craft, if you pursue craft... posted on Apr 2 2016 (10,475 reads)

It's a word that has tumbled out of use and favor in today's world. And humanity has paid a high price for that loss. In this piece, eight writers, including Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver, speak up in voices that are lyrical, incisive, and urgent, drawing us back to the luminous heart of what it means to live reverently.  So ... why does reverence matter? Paul Woodruff: Because It Is A Forgotten Virtue Power without reverence is aflame with arrogance, while service without reverence is smoldering toward rebellion. Politics without reverence is blind to the general good and deaf to advice from people who are powerless. (…) Because reverence fosters lead... posted on Apr 14 2016 (38,323 reads)

good books, have good sentences in your ears,” the poet counseled in her beautiful advice on writing — Dillard asserts: The body of literature, with its limits and edges, exists outside some people and inside others. Only after the writer lets literature shape her can she perhaps shape literature. […] You adapt yourself, Paul Klee said, to the contents of the paintbox. Adapting yourself to the contents of the paintbox, he said, is more important than nature and its study. The painter, in other words, does not fit the paints to the world. He most certainly does not fit the world to himself. He fits himself to the paint. The self is the servant who ... posted on Apr 15 2016 (13,125 reads)

found inspiration for her painting in the therapy cat, reported The Independent. “She has been at Iris’s side since she arrived and slept in her arms during her first night here,” Iris’ mother, Arabella Carter-Johnson, wrote on their website soon after getting Thula. “It seemed like they were old friends as I watched them on the sofa, the kitten attentively looking at the iPad screen with Iris.” “Thula’s constant presence and gentle nature is having a remarkable effect upon Iris who is nonverbal most of the time,” Carter-Johnson continued to write. “I am hearing more words. Iris is giving instructions to Thula ... Iri... posted on May 14 2016 (20,367 reads)

Electric machine. The Machine gives people the power to generate electricity themselves – pollution free. The machine is small, light and simple. Here’s how it works: A person pedals a hybrid bicycle. The bicycle wheel drives a flywheel, which turns a generator, which charges a battery. Pedaling for one hour yields electricity for 24 hours with no utility bill, and no exhaust, no waste. The Rain Maker Another creation is a machine called Rain Maker. It mimics nature, turning seawater or polluted water into fresh water suitable for drinking and agriculture. Rain Maker makes more than just a little water. One machine the size of small car can make a thous... posted on May 16 2016 (21,349 reads)

us to pay certain kinds of attention to our experiences, seems to have succumbed to the speed of our times. We have gotten used to writing in bite-sized pieces for a public looking for ease and entertainment, and hungry for information. No wonder, there are nearly 200 million bloggers on the internet and a new blog is created somewhere in the world every half a second. Instead of adding to our collective wisdom, these writings are largely saturated with the vulgarities of human nature and the superficiality and impatience of our day and age. There are “3 easy steps” to whatever your imagination can conjure up, and endless trivial newsfeeds that shift miles in min... posted on May 23 2016 (15,079 reads)

is work I love. I began this book suggesting that it starts with getting our thinking straight. Since we create the world according to ideas we hold, we have to ask ourselves whether the ideas we inherit and absorb through our cultures serve us. We can only have honest, effective hope if the frame through which we see is an accurate representation of how the world works. The good news is that we face this historic challenge just as our understanding of life's rich complexity, and human nature itself, is expanding exponentially. I am pretty sure, for example, that I'd never even heard the word "ecology" until I was in my twenties. And that was only because I was fortuna... posted on Jun 3 2016 (12,957 reads)

effort to compete at the Olympics. He says she and her sister “represent an impressive example” of the refugee population in Germany, which grew by more than 1 million in the past 15 months. Because refugees give up their homes and suffer through perilous journeys, Shirp says, they offer inspiration to Germans. That inspiration and talent is evident from the Mardinis’ arduous trip to Europe. At a press conference in Berlin in February, Mardini recognized the inspirational nature of her personal story. “The problem [in Syria] was the reason I am here and why I am stronger and I want to reach my goals,” Mardini said. “I want to inspire everyone tha... posted on Jun 10 2016 (12,545 reads)

solitude is found in the wild places, where one is without human obligation. One’s inner voices become audible. One feels the attraction of one’s most intimate sources.In consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives. The more coherent one becomes within oneself as a creature, the more fully one enters into the communion of all creatures. One returns from solitude laden with the gifts of circumstance. VI And there is no escaping that return. From the order of nature we return to the order and the disorder of humanity. From the larger circle we must go back to the smaller, the smaller within the larger and dependent on it. One enters the larger circle by ... posted on Jul 18 2016 (34,584 reads)

the person to good relations in solidarity with his or her surroundings and self. Patients consult Navajo healers to summon outside healing forces and to marshal what they have inside themselves for healing. The term "solidarity" is essential to an understanding of both Navajo healing and justice. The Navajo understanding of "solidarity" is difficult to translate into English, but it carries connotations that help the individual to reconcile self with family, community, nature, and the cosmos – all reality. That feeling of oneness with one’s surroundings, and the reconciliation of the individual with everyone and everything else, is what allows an alterna... posted on Jun 30 2016 (22,933 reads)

happens when we become too dependent on our mobile phones? According to MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle, author of the new book Reclaiming Conversation, we lose our ability to have deeper, more spontaneous conversations with others, changing the nature of our social interactions in alarming ways. Turkle has spent the last 20 years studying the impacts of technology on how we behave alone and in groups. Though initially excited by technology’s potential to transform society for the better, she has become increasingly worried about how new technologies, cell phones in particular, are eroding the social fabric of our communities. In her previous book, the bestselling Al... posted on Jul 31 2016 (31,299 reads)

of integrative medicine is a bold invitation to go beyond the clinical, into regions that capture our hearts and imagination. Caring is fundamental. Nothing else really matters without love as an organizing principle. Or as one patient I know told her physician, "I just want someone who gives a damn." Caring relationships can and should be with our care providers, but they must also be evident in our social networks, our family, and our community, and in our relationship with nature. Beyond the particular type of care we receive is a broader view of health that includes the social and relational. Caring is about how we manifest love in the form of looking out for each othe... posted on Aug 4 2016 (16,559 reads)

universe itself … has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” But the poetic beauty of this sentiment crumbles into untruth for anyone who has ever been buoyed from the pit of despair by the unrelenting kindness of a friend, or whose joys have been amplified by a friend’s warm willingness to bear witness. Illustration by Maurice Sendak from a vintage ode to friendship by Janice May Udry I often puzzle over the nature, structure, and function of friendship in human life — a function I have found to be indispensable to my own spiritual survival and, I suspect, to that of most human beings. But during a ... posted on Sep 1 2016 (15,025 reads)