rare individuals quietly reaching down to us from another level of understanding, calling us to search—with their help—for our own real mind and heart? Could all this be actually true of ourselves now and here, and not merely an “ancient” or “academic” question? Or perhaps the text is the Bhagavad Gita, the most widely revered scripture of India. From its very first pages, the students find themselves plunged into a strange and sublime ocean of ideas and images, by turns stormy and divinely serene. Here they are offered visions of the cosmos transcending everything that modern science gives us to believe about a heartless universe in which humanity an... posted on Mar 25 2019 (9,307 reads)

a world it could no longer fly toward or away from. My friend’s husband would make his request casually, as if he were merely curious, and then, after a few minutes, he would suggest she switch back to the original program. The truth, she told me, was that the sight of those helpless animals made him so sad he couldn’t bear to look at them. This man felt that he himself was being assailed when the TV network forced him to consider wildlife being tortured to death by oil. Those images opened in him a reserve of sorrow and pity that threatened to release a flood of something overwhelming if he didn’t move quickly to contain it. Because, really, what could a person do? V... posted on Apr 1 2019 (6,417 reads)

following piece is based on an August 2nd, 2014 Awakin Call interview with Kazu Haga. You can listen to the full recording of the interview here. Kazu Haga’s dream is that one day, children in every school in the United States will not only learn traditional subjects like math and history but also how to practice nonviolence. As they grow up in our society and confront conflicts that will inevitably arise, they will know how to relate to each other as human beings instead of enemies. Kazu is the founder of the East Point Peace Academy, an organization that is dedicated to bringing about a culture of peace. Just close your eyes for 20 seconds and imagine what a culture of... posted on Apr 8 2019 (6,445 reads)

the place. I spent one week in Bangkok acclimating to the weather and food and making arrangements with the Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees for my assignment. Then I rode twelve hours north-by-northeast on a train to the village of Nong Khai, the location of the refugee camp where I began teaching English. During the ensuing months, as I worked side-by-side with the La refugees who lived within the barbed-wire enclosure of that dusty forgotten corner of the Earth, those images of myself as Super-nun wilted completely. The Vietnam War had ended six years earlier, but its proxy war in neighboring Laos was still simmering. Organized resistance to the Communist g... posted on Apr 24 2019 (8,031 reads)

will be forever grateful to Coleman Barks for many things, but there is no doubt that his greatest gift to me was introducing me to his friend, my hero, the poet Mary Oliver. As the first raw days since her death have stretched into two months, I am learning that it is nearly impossible to name my love for her, nor my awe for how she lived her life and what she accomplished with it. So since I can’t quite name the grief nor the wonder, nor my sadness for the honey locust tree, the grasshopper, the red fox and the sun in the morning, now that she is no longer here to celebrate their beauty—what I’ll do is tell you a little about the Mary Oliver who was my friend. Mary w... posted on May 26 2019 (31,871 reads)

thought” for any object? Answer: move it around. And therein lies a problem with the “place system,” that old technique of artificial mem­ory in which an image is committed to memory (committed!—as if to prison) by fixing it in a specific location. The whole apparatus freezes meaning, solidifies it, produces durable, fixed ideas, useful in the short term, to be sure, but what happens to those ideas when they are in need of change? Just to take the Virtues and Vices images that Giotto painted in the Arena Chapel in Padua: What if, as the centuries unfold, it turns out that the sword by which Fortitude is figured has outlived its usefulness? What if ques... posted on Jun 27 2019 (5,180 reads)

the Era of Princes, Abyssinia had no king. It had an emperor in name alone, locked in his fortress to the north. He wore a crown of gold and bore the blood of King Solomon, but he did not rule. Instead, he was ruled by his regent, who in turn tried to rule over the warring princes spread across the land. Abyssinia knew no peace. One of those princes lost his title when he lost his father. He fled his homeland, known as “the taste of honey,” for school where he learned poetry, history, and the art of war. But his new home fell under the rule of another prince and he ran once more, lest he lose his head like he lost his crown. With the cunning he had learned, the prince... posted on Aug 29 2019 (4,673 reads)

fuel those kinds of tragic incidents  are in us. We've been schooled in them as well. I believe that we can stop these types of incidents, these Fergusons from happening, by looking within and being willing to change ourselves.  So I have a call to action for you. There are three things that I want to offer us today to think about as ways to stop Ferguson from happening again; three things that I think will help us reform our images of young black men; three things that I'm hoping will not only protect them but will open the world so that they can thrive. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine our co... posted on Dec 13 2019 (8,912 reads)

way of living. This was a developmental step too, because we're letting go of who we think we are. It's a natural developmental step to create an image of ourself and to differentiate and individuate to feel ourself as a unique human being. It's a very healthy developmental step. But, there is another step to go, which is not to deny that level, but to recognize that there is actually a deeper truth as to who we are and to begin to question our stories and our images and our ordinary egoic identity. And as that happens, attention is less fixated in the prefrontal cortex. There is a natural shifting of attention and dropping of attention down into the depth ... posted on Dec 23 2019 (8,879 reads)

never know when your kind words may be just what someone needs. In the summer of 2016, I attended a ServiceSpace Retreat. I was new to the group, writing for Kindful Kids and then Daily Good. I was eager to meet in person the people I had come to love virtually. On Community Night, I was invited to share a bit about my experience at the retreat. I told a story I had heard of an African tribe that, when a woman was pregnant, learned the song of the unborn baby, and then sang that song to the child as they faced various milestones, hurdles, and challenges, calling the child back to who they really were if they strayed. The ServiceSpace community feels like that to me, a place where you are... posted on Jan 30 2020 (4,238 reads)

we’ve sort of come up against the wall and maybe the best thing that we can say about ourselves at this point is we’re reaching the end of that delusion. Tippett:Right. And there’s something very striking also in looking at kind of the sweep of where your thinking has taken you, where your studies have taken you that — you know, I mean, at the one and the same time, there’s a new association and a new sense of the relevance and the present resonance of these images of Genesis and these meanings of it. And also this prophetic message, also in the sense of needing to wake people up, right, being a voice of — judgment is a hard word; it’s not eve... posted on Apr 20 2020 (6,660 reads)

May of 2019, Rabbi Dr. Ariel Burger sat down with educator and writer Parker J. Palmer for an unscripted conversation. What emerged was a wide-ranging contemplative dialogue on suffering, healing, and joy. Parker is the author of “Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy”, The Courage to Teach, Let Your Life Speak, On the Brink of Everything, and seven other life-changing books. Ariel is the author of “Teaching and Learning from the Heart in Troubled Times” and Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom. Ariel Burger: Parker, thank you for making the time to have this conversation. Parker Palmer: Th... posted on Jun 9 2020 (7,806 reads)

our relationships become. So-called relationship becomes simple relating. The noun transforms into a verb – an apparent thing opens up into an alive process. If I no longer take myself as an object, I also cannot make you into one. Nor can I create what is happening between us into something. We may call it friendship but it is really a dynamic mystery, a lively, unfolding, open-ended process of listening, sharing, and discovery. When we are no longer protecting our images and exchanging news reports over a wall, a completely new level of intimacy unfolds. Yes, I may be called your partner, friend, parent,  child, sister or brother, but if I know that I am n... posted on Jul 4 2020 (6,488 reads)

seems like our society is at a low point in terms of how we talk about challenging, controversial topics within our political discourse and even our spiritual reflections. I believe the only way through this polarization is a re-appreciation for silence. Silence has a life of its own. It is not just that which is around words and underneath images and events. It is a being in itself to which we can relate and become intimately familiar. Philosophically, we would say being is that foundational quality which precedes all other attributes. Silence is at the very foundation of all reality—naked being, if you will. Pure being is that out of which all else comes and to which all th... posted on Aug 5 2020 (7,209 reads)

Jewish mom, she slowly but determinedly adopts the whole group. One day, Radha asks me if she can bring the quilt into the prison. I tell her I think we can arrange for that. She smiles, as if secretly knowing that something is about to happen. When I walk Radha into San Quentin that day, she hugs tight her precious quilt, smiling even more broadly. When the quilt is unfurled in the classroom, Radha explains the significance of each square. The men listen intently and nod their heads as the images from the 21 patches are explained. At the end, the quilt is carefully folded and Radha asks if it can be passed around the room for everyone to touch. She explains, “Quilts are made for t... posted on Sep 7 2020 (5,514 reads)

forces at work. To have a concept of the unique gift that each of us brings to this world: your calling, or soul purpose, if you like. Stories can help us tap right into that place. There is an ancient Sufi idea that was expressed by French philosopher Henri Corbin that between the physical world of our senses and the mental world of the intellect lay a third world, which he translated as the mundus imaginalis, the imaginal world. Corbin said the Sufis believed that stories, metaphors, images, and archetypal characters had actual independent existence in that third world. So stories—the images, or archetypal characters, or plots, or symbols and metaphors—are, quite simpl... posted on Oct 17 2020 (7,874 reads)

Writer Amritha Mandagondi had a chance to sit down and interview Elizabeth Buechele, the Founder of SmileProject. Here's her inspiring interview on how Elizabeth has found happiness every single day, for the past 3,307 days.) They say life happens to those who pause and listen. Listen intently to that voice that’s calling out the boundless possibilities from within. Our friend in New York, Elizabeth Buechele from the age of 17 has set out on a journey to find the true meaning of happiness. There was no mentor or guide reaching out to help her define what qualifies as “happiness” and what doesn’t. She may continue to be on her quest bu... posted on Feb 2 2021 (6,033 reads)

past. To meditate on grief, let yourself sit, alone or with a comforting friend. Take the time to create an atmosphere of support. When you are ready, begin by sensing your breath. Feel your breathing in the area of your chest. This can help you become present to what is within you. Take one hand and hold it gently on your heart as if you were holding a vulnerable human being. You are. As you continue to breathe, bring to mind the loss or pain you are grieving. Let the story, the images, the feelings comes naturally. Hold them gently. Take your time. Let the feelings come layer by layer, a little at a time. Keep breathing softly, compassionately. Let whatever feelings are t... posted on Feb 20 2021 (14,632 reads)

and suddenly I could be enveloped by a palpable sense of profound meaning and mystery, a palpable sense of a thinning veil between the ordinary “me” and an enfolding and very lively psychic field populated by wilder or mysterious Others. It is a strange and wonderful revelation to burst into a mystical view while reading the visionary evocations of other people. In another version of unexpected enlivenment that I can’t explain but only honor, I’ve noticed that films, images, or written texts that illustrate the intelligence and beauty of fungi or mycelium will blow open my dusty windows of perception almost without ffail. *** In our time of change and uncert... posted on Mar 14 2021 (4,981 reads)

1924 Postcard Photograph of Giuseppe Benincasa, taken in Canada A genealogy search can yield many things and go down many paths, but at its core, it is a story waiting to be told and a person to tell it. My grandfather, Giuseppe Benincasa’s story began 10 years ago, when my cousin Helen Salfi Gorday gave me a charred book of Italian love poems. She said that it belonged to our grandfather and that I should have it. The book is, “Postuma” by Lorenzo Stecchetti, an author who didn't exist, yet became a leader  of the Veristi Literary movement in Italy after it was published in 1877.  The Veristi were the anti-Romantic, Bohemian new reali... posted on May 16 2021 (4,573 reads)