Zoë Keating. And the last voice that you hear singing at the end of our show is Cameron Kinghorn. On Being is an independent production of The On Being Project. It is distributed to public radio stations by PRX. I created this show at American Public Media. Our funding partners include: The John Templeton Foundation. Harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest and most perplexing questions facing human kind. Learn about cutting-edge research on the science of generosity, gratitude, and purpose at templeton.org/discoveries. The Fetzer Institute, helping to build the spiritual foundation for a loving world. Find them at fetzer.org. Kalliopeia Foundatio... posted on Apr 20 2020 (6,758 reads)

art gives us, above all else, is a warm and welcoming regard for what is other than ourselves: I would like to say that all great artists are tolerant in their art, but perhaps this cannot be argued. Was Dante tolerant? I think most great writers have a sort of calm merciful vision because they can see how different people are and why they are different. Tolerance is connected with being able to imagine centres of reality which are remote from oneself. There is a breath of tolerance and generosity and intelligent kindness which blows out of Homer and Shakespeare and the great novelists. The great artist sees the vast interesting collection of what is other than himself and does not p... posted on Jul 16 2020 (5,919 reads)

often see him sporting the same grey t-shirt since last 15 years, and using the same laptop bag and the rumors are that he doesn’t lock his small house at night.  “When you simplify, you start getting a lot of freedom to do what you really want to do” says Venkat. Venkat’s story is of mass-scale tangible impact, yet it’s also an equally powerful invisible story of ripple effect of being-the-change - his life has deeply inspired many to adopt a life of greater generosity. Venkat deeply cares about social impact and at the same time, he sees giving as its own reward and has actually turned down many prestigious awards and is not driven by milestones, but dee... posted on Jul 28 2020 (5,680 reads)

is growing Critics like Anand Giridharadas worry that asking philanthropy to solve society’s problems means the return of ‘unfettered paternalism’. Elizabeth Kolbert asks “Are today’s donor classes solving problems–or creating new ones?” and possibly, also answers her own question when she says that “We live, it is often said, in a new Gilded Age—an era of extravagant wealth and almost as extravagant displays of generosity”. Or perhaps as David Remnick comments “Philanthropy isn’t only fascinating in itself; it’s also a window into the structure of the contemporary wor... posted on Oct 9 2020 (4,972 reads)

said it really clearly. As you know, we live in this moment where — “divided” doesn’t do it. We have chasms between us. And there’s a lot of enemy feeling and language and posturing. And you said, “Loving your enemies is science.” Yes, it’s a teaching of lovingkindness, it’s a spiritual teaching, but that it’s actually the most pragmatic teaching. Salzberg:Sometimes people feel, or they say, “If I hear something like ‘generosity or kindness will help you feel more free, and free up that energy which you will need,’ then I think that’s selfish. That’s bad, because then my motive is impure.” A... posted on Oct 24 2020 (7,863 reads)

very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides. Let me begin that way: with an invocation of your own best hopes, thrown like a handful of rice over this celebration. Congratulations, graduates. Congratulations, parents, on the best Mother's Day gift ever. Better than all those burnt-toast breakfasts: these, your children grown tall and competent, educated to within an inch of their lives. What can I say to people who know almost everything? There was a time when I surely knew, because I'd just graduated from college myself, after writing down th... posted on Nov 4 2020 (10,231 reads)

the struggles of marriage,work, and raising children; in social responsibility and in the effort to make a just and peaceful world.  In this worldview, “spiritual activism” is not a contradiction in terms but a concrete expression of love in action.  The truth is that we need both: the ascending path, which seeks the source through vision, wisdom and detachment; and the descending path,that finds the divine here on Earth and strives to express it through service,generosity and compassion.  In our lives, we naturally move from one polarity to the other: we seek out silence in search of inspiration and contentment; then we return to the world and shar... posted on Nov 18 2020 (7,334 reads)

with these experiences. Then by doing so, we not only create the neural pathways, Tami, we also stimulate the release of feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, or feel-good hormones like estrogen and oxytocin, even the very genes involved in the body’s stress response can begin to function in an improved way. These images, these experiences can be receiving comfort and support like I teach in my book, or feelings of feeling compassion or gratitude or practicing generosity, lovingkindness, mindfulness—ultimately anything that allows us to feel strength or peace inside. Experiences like this feed the prefrontal cortex, as we know, and can help us refr... posted on Dec 4 2020 (10,304 reads)

but I also texted a few dear friends to tell them I care, and to express that I am grateful for their presence in my life and in the world. My encouragement today is to claim agency and to claim love. Text, zoom, call or somehow connect with someone who you think of as a treasure in your life, someone that illuminates your life, who reminds you of the power of love and the remembrance of radiance. Reach out and affirm what keeps saving us - goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gratitude, generosity, hospitality, justice and love...always love. Lay your hand on your heart and know that you also illuminate the lives of others around you. You are also doing what you can each day, in your... posted on Jan 9 2021 (8,955 reads)

realities of life: Why choose to take the umbrella into the downpour, why choose to eat this piece of mango and not this piece of cardboard? But Watts observes that the only real contradiction is of our own making as we cede the present to an imagined future. More than half a century before psychologists came to study how your present self is sabotaging your future happiness, Watts offers the personal counterpart to Albert Camus’s astute political observation that “real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present,” and writes: I fall straight into contradiction when I try to act and decide in order to be happy, when I make “be... posted on Apr 4 2021 (7,620 reads)

disband altogether to become food for the worm and fertilizer for the mycelial wonderland from which bluebells will rise some future spring. None of this we can resist. But maybe — and that is what redeems and consecrates our finite human lives and our limited powers — within those parameters, there is space enough and spirit enough to resist what is poisonous to the ideological soil we call culture and persist in planting, for as long as we have to live and with as much generosity as we have to give, something lush and beautiful. That we might never live to see it bloom might just be okay. To have planted the seeds is satisfaction enough worth living for. Hare... posted on Apr 24 2021 (6,196 reads)

Maurice had been my father’s best friend from infancy. My father had died when I was 14 years old, before I knew the questions I would one day want to ask him about his early years. When I reached out to Maurice 28 years after my Dad’s passing, he answered all of my questions. In gratitude for all that Maurice shared with me and my family, giving my father back to me in such a vivid way through his stories, I made a living memory quilt in gratitude for Maurice’s generosity and friendship. Each block on the quilt represented something from Maurice’s life story, his 4 grandparents from Ireland, his faith, his fellow classmates of the Class of 1935, his fr... posted on Apr 29 2021 (7,261 reads)

reverence to emerge in our heart. Bowing increases goodness because the “self ” shrinks. Things that we do with a reduced sense of self, and we’re not talking about low self esteem, but things we do without the big “ME” in the middle, tend to turn out better. Bowing is the first of the ten practices recommended by Samantabhadra (Universal Worthy) Bodhisattva, one of the four revered bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism. Bowing is a foundational practice, along with generosity, and ethics, for preparing someone for a spiritual life. Loc: Buddhism does emphasize reducing arrogance and pride. Rev. Sure: Bodhisattvas in the Buddhist sutras, no matter how high ... posted on Jun 1 2021 (6,543 reads)

not bring gentle, caring touch directly into healthcare?  Beider would eventually create a new therapeutic approach called Integrative Touch Therapy. ITK would, in addition to providing hands-on therapies for kids, organize large scale retreats, playdates, community events, and support groups at little or no cost to the families. “When a child has special needs,” says Beider, “the whole family has special needs—period.” The organization operates by the generosity of its donors and its volunteers, including young children and teenagers. During Covid-19, the TeleFriend and TeleWellness programs have continued to serve children... posted on Jun 18 2021 (4,573 reads)

has four parts. There’s self-awareness and meditation, definitely improved self-awareness. There’s self-management. And I think being aware of what you’re feeling is the first step in handling a negative feeling or generating positive feelings, as they were just saying. Then, there’s empathy tuning into other people’s emotions. I think the data that we’ve reviewed suggests that lovingkindness practices improve empathy. They also improve actual generosity. They make you kinder. The fourth part of emotional intelligence is the social skill or relationship. I think it supports every part of emotional intelligence, meditation does. TS: Can y... posted on Jun 28 2021 (5,735 reads)

of a value-free account of life prevailed. For a long time, scientists have argued that there is no reality apart from dead matter and that, therefore, all life must be reduced to the blind laws of survival and selection. This approach defines how mankind is treating the planet. The science-based ideology of efficiency recognizes no values apart from egoistical greed, which it elevates to a law of nature. According to this view, everything else, and particularly feelings such as awe, love, and generosity, are viewed as mere illusions invented by our genes for better survival. We tend to banish and ignore that which we know in our hearts is true and to cling to ‘facts’ that we fe... posted on Jun 29 2021 (4,033 reads)

the GGCS’s own Dacher Keltner believe there is something else going on as well: awe.  That’s the feeling we get from encountering something vast and wondrous, that challenges our comprehension. In an awed state, our jaw drops and we get goosebumps. But more than that, we have the same physiological effects we see in forest bathing, where heart rate and blood pressure drop. Beyond the physiological, there are prosocial effects to awe: less concern for self, increased generosity, and more cooperation. This might be why research suggests there is less violence when trees are incorporated into low-income housing developments. What a prescription looks like Rese... posted on Oct 25 2021 (6,857 reads)

ancient white pines. I watch the dawn light play on the surface of the water. I come face to face with the same white-tailed deer, watch bald eagles fly upriver, and witness beaver at her breakfast. This land, these waters are teaching me a deeper story. There are songs in my bones, won’t leave me alone Calling for creation And some that fly on the whispering wind Seeking incarnation. Whenever my attention reaches out into the world it is met by a blast of lavish generosity. Whenever I look, I see something wondrous. Whenever I listen, I hear music all around me. Whenever I breathe deep, I smell the exhalations of creation in my nose. It happens ev... posted on Nov 16 2021 (5,861 reads)

radishes, crimson, white, and dark purple, laid out in worm-eaten decrepitude on a chipped platter. “Life is one continuous mistake,” Shunryi Suzuki Roshi, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, used to remind his students. When he shopped he sought out the rattiest vegetables at market, all the discarded and maimed culls, and his meditation grew strong, nourished by the continuous mistakes of human life. 7. Be Generous with the Harvest My seventh principle is generosity with the harvest. In the biblical book of Leviticus, one of the laws of Jewish life was not to cut the corners of the fields after the main harvest but to leave them standing so there would... posted on Nov 19 2021 (5,485 reads)

been reflecting on the environmental crisis, and as I do, I find myself in the darkness, as I imagine we all are to some degree. And that says something, something we shouldn’t brush aside or try to make go away. This is a place for sharing truth—and the truth right now is darkness. I sometimes reflect on how I’ve been practicing meditation, morality, restraint, generosity, sharing, and simplicity for more than forty years with as much integrity as possible. I shouldn’t have to feel this bad, this hopeless, this guilty. Yet when I look at this crisis, I’m in the dark. Recently I’ve been on retreat in the woods at Cittaviveka Monastery. Back i... posted on Dec 3 2021 (4,939 reads)