familiar practice, and serves as a building block to all that follows. For example, even accomplished musicians practice the basic scales. No scales, no Beethoven. Same with athletes: no jogging, no marathons. Spiritual teachers: no regular contemplation, no wisdom to share. Underlying all of this is repetition and commitment, but also a certain elegant simplicity. The form an effective practice takes is rarely complicated, maybe because we are complex enough inside ourselves, and the real work remains in grappling with the mind and persisting until something shifts and the heart knows it. Placing these ideas about practice and opportunity within the context of our day-to-day lives, it ... posted on May 18 2017 (21,852 reads)

overcoats. Being a vegetarian, I gave him back the contents of the sandwiches and just ate the buttered white bread. His face darkened; I didn’t know real hunger, he said. But in less than a minute he was back to his cheerful self, giving me advice on everything from the Scottish history they don’t tell you in school to how to find out if a rabbit’s at home using a twig, and the best way to find a sandwich: look for the back door of a hospital kitchen, since the people who work there are always willing to help. After an hour or two I reminded myself that my companion was a hitch-hiker’s hindrance and declared that we should go our separate ways in order to incr... posted on Jun 10 2017 (9,589 reads)

lines of force are revealed, for example, through patterns that can be seen in iron filings sprinkled on a sheet of paper covering a magnet. Without digressing too far from our topic, many physicists now believe that all matter is composed of vibrating 10 or 11 dimensional strings or “branes,” that vibrate at different frequencies to produce all the known elementary particles. A super-symmetrical unification of all known forces and particles within a single vibrational framework would tell us that the universe does not consist simply of lumps of matter separated by vast reaches of empty space, but of a constant translation of matter into energy and back again, that is ex... posted on May 24 2017 (8,901 reads)

against each other as leaders of countries facing conflict or crisis. "The students scheme and negotiate, compete and cooperate, wage war and make peace. But the game is not won until all countries enjoy security and prosperity. Says one fourth grader, “One of the things I learned is that other people matter. In this game one person can’t win, everyone has to win. That taught me a lot about cooperating with other people, being generous, and having an attitude that, if you work together, you can achieve anything.” Moved by a story about 7-year old, Owen Shure's heartwarming letter to a football player who missed a vital kick, one mother considered... posted on May 26 2017 (10,071 reads)

This experience recalled the former one at the compost. This time I wasn’t mired in grumpiness, I just wasn’t really there at all. Where had my mind been when suddenly this luminous deep purple red pulled it into the now? Now was full, rich, alive. That other place? I don’t even know. Pulling a red onion from the soil, peeling the hard, dirt-encrusted outer skin away, I see a white layer pasted against the dark red. The dark color behind the pale layer reveals a network of pattern, similar to brick work, to skin cells seen under a microscope, to the strata of layers in the inner bark of a tree. Again, I am arrested with beauty and the marvel of the patterns in N... posted on May 29 2017 (13,468 reads)

at an exhibit of paintings and sculptures of wild animals. There I met and touched a rescued Barred owl named Luna. How exciting to be so close to wildness. This past summer, I lost my best friend of 50 years and in the fall, I was diagnosed with cancer. The fragility of human life was put right in front of me. I sought solace in nature, seeking solitude, silence, and hibernation. And nature is not something out there. I got it that I am nature--we are nature---we are a part of this vast network of life. Oregon naturalist, Loraine Anderson says, “Our bodies are the earth of us, and a wild river pulses in our blood.” Some Native American tribes thought a person could lean a... posted on Aug 12 2017 (16,721 reads)

social entrepreneur known for building huge, global coalitions, Jeroo first started in Mumbai, working with street children. She gave them her private phone number in case of emergencies. Soon every night it was ringing. From that caring and then recognition of system need came Childline. Any street child could call a free number and be answered by a trained and sympathetic street child. Shortly thereafter help would be on the way. The consequences were profound. Services could connect with need. Bad and good performance became clear. Areas of shortage gained resources. And police exploitation fell sharply because a call to a sympathetic operator from half a block a... posted on Jun 7 2017 (9,781 reads)

word that tempts us to think outwardly, to run bravely against opposing fire, to do something under besieging circumstance, and perhaps, above all, to be seen to do it in public, to show courage; to be celebrated in story, rewarded with medals, given the accolade, but a look at its linguistic origins is to look in a more interior direction and toward its original template, the old Norman French, Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of ... posted on Jun 15 2017 (17,831 reads)

the Hood’s mission: Prepare young people of color for rewarding careers in tech. For Zakiya Harris, growing up in East Oakland, Calif., meant navigating between two acutely different worlds every day. “I grew up in the hood, but I went to a very affluent school,” she says. “So I spent my days being one of few black people, and I spent my nights being in a predominantly black neighborhood. I believe that really shapes the work that I do, because I’ve always been a bridge-builder.” Today, Harris is building bridges in the Bay Area as the co-founder of Hack the Hood, an Oakland-based nonprofit that introduces young people of color to career... posted on Jun 18 2017 (7,068 reads)

us to react to immediate danger. If there’s a rhinoceros coming at a group of people full speed, everybody gets up and runs. If you say, “There’s a rhinoceros coming in 30 years,” people will ask, “What’s the problem?” Moderator: The reason I’m interested in this question of emotional responses is because behavioral scientists say that people are frozen by bad news and motivated by positive messaging. This creates a challenge for those working for environmental change. Matthieu: All my photographic work is about showing the beauty and the wonder we have in terms of nature—implying, of course, how incredibly sad it woul... posted on Jun 19 2017 (16,475 reads)

told the officer, "The amount you have quoted would require me take out 4 women and 6 of these kids and put them back on the streets. Can you tell me which ones you would like me to take out?" Within 3 weeks the government permission was with her. She didn't shame them, or embarass them, but gently and skilfully ignited their compassion for the future of these 4 women and 6 kids. She has helped awaken not just these officers, but so many others like you and I. Sister Lucy's work has garnered so many awards -- Nari Shakti award, Vanitha, Women of the Year in 2016, and so many more -- but lovingly, people call her, "Mother Teresa of Pune."    &n... posted on Jul 1 2017 (12,150 reads)

too late; when I am washing them the next day. I place my mother’s alarmingly large red sticker pottus approximately where I feel the center of my eyebrows must be and I hope for the best. My hair is an awkward untie-able length. I feel a little guilty as I ride in my auto rickshaw to class alone . In just a few hours, this very auto will be filled with six adorable, freshly bathed and laundered schoolchildren, smelling of face powder, coconut oil, and jasmine. This was how I went to work in Chennai for years, alone, half-awake, not really wanting to go, but now traveling from my mother’s house into the sleepy old town, it seems extravagant, selfish.  The sides of the r... posted on Feb 2 2018 (6,205 reads)

reason, it still has a lot of residual value.” She points to Phillips as a good example. “Phillips will take not just outdated, but also faulty or broken parts, and entire products — medical imaging equipment, for instance — restore them to good-as-new-condition, and then redeploy them to the market.” These remanufactured products appeal to smaller hospitals that cannot always afford the newest and best equipment but cannot accept anything that is not in good working order. Caterpillar is another leader in remanufacturing: 65% of the company’s costs are generated by materials, giving it a strong incentive to fully embrace the concept. Through its ... posted on Jul 18 2017 (7,065 reads)

takes a three-pronged approach to help every kid reach their potential. Elisabeth Stock has always been driven to work toward a more just world. It was what led her to volunteer as a teacher for the Peace Corps in West Africa in her early 20s, and it’s what ultimately motivated her to found PowerMyLearning, an educational technology nonprofit, in 1999. “I wanted to join the Peace Corps because I felt like there was this deep unfairness in society,” she says. “Is it just and fair that where you are born predicts whether you can reach your human potential?” The key to providing equal opportunity for everyone, says Stock, is through educa... posted on Jul 30 2017 (68,692 reads)

dying, it exists here and now. Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight. She helps us to discover what matters most. And the good news is we don’t have to wait until the end of our lives to realize the wisdom that death has to offer. To imagine that at the time of our dying we will have the physical strength, emotional stability, and mental clarity to do the work of a lifetime is a ridiculous gamble.  And so, I want to extend an invitation—five invitations, actually—to sit down with death now, to have a cup of tea with her, to let her gui... posted on Aug 2 2017 (52,808 reads)

powerful. In the information age it’s tempting to think of the whole world as a story. If the world is a story then the perfect world is only a story away. We need only spin a message, an advert or campaign to bring about successful change. We all know of indigenous tribes whose worlds are shaped by the stories that they’ve heard, so we believe our own storytelling will shape society too. The trouble is that the kind of stories that are told in such societies are part of a network of mythology—not media to be consumed but realities that are lived. Such stories aren’t just heard; they are enacted through ritual. Listeners become participants in ways that shape a... posted on Sep 1 2017 (8,906 reads)

brother, husband, mother and sister, circa 2004 About seven-eight years ago, we were hosting a get-together at my parents home, and like most Punjabis (actually I think all :), she has a second stove set-up in the garage. I wish I'd kept to myself that day but I was trying to be of some help to her. We were running a bit behind schedule and she was just about finished with everything else, so now we just needed to make the rotis before the guests started arriving. I tried to work quickly, knowing that I was probably rushing her. As I was hurriedly moving everything closer to the table next to the stove, something happened that I wish I had the power to undo. The marble ch... posted on Nov 19 2017 (16,577 reads)

and the things I am grateful for. My role in the project was minimal. I proofread the English translation of the book, helping with the museum setup, and mostly just stood there to greet the occasional foreign guest and laugh at the crazy situations we found ourselves in. Nevertheless, the stories that I heard from “war children”–both in the context of the project and in my friends’ and sometimes even random acquaintances’ stories once they heard about my work on the museum–drastically changed the way I view the world, and the things I am grateful for. Before I moved to Bosnia, I was under the impression that stories of life during a war would... posted on Aug 1 2017 (7,233 reads)

Make contact with people whom you normally ignore—eye-contact at least—with the cashier at the supermarket, someone on the elevator, a beggar. Look a stranger in the eyes today and realize that there are no strangers. 4. Give someone an unexpected smile today You can feel either grateful or alienated, but never both at the same time. Gratefulness drives out alienation; there is not room for both in the same heart. When you are grateful you know that you belong to a network of give-and-take and you say “yes” to that belonging. This “yes” is the essence of love. You need no words to express it; a smile will do to put your “yes” int... posted on Aug 9 2017 (11,058 reads)

and experience peace. This was the peace I remembered as a child while standing by my mother’s side in the kitchen where we made peanut brittle together, canned tomatoes and washed dishes. It was the peace I felt sitting next to her in church.  It was the peace many others felt too as they would sit with her at the kitchen table, drinking endless cups of coffee as she would laugh and talk with visitors—anyone from my father’s legal clients, to neighborhood women, to the workmen fixing up our old house. All felt welcome in her kitchen. Traveling to France was a little like trying to find that peace again. The irony of course, in traveling far to find inner peace, is t... posted on Jul 26 2017 (17,822 reads)