The Skills Necessary to Deal with Anguish, by Darlene Cohen
have had rheumatoid arthritis, a very painful and crippling disease, for 22 years. For the first year of the disease, I was an invalid in bed. Because of my pain and extreme weakness, changing my posture was a dramatic event. I needed to heed every little sensation in my legs and feet in order to go from sitting to standing. Getting out of my bed and going to the bathroom took the same kind of focus and attention as going on safari. The people in the zen community where I lived put up a sign-up sheet for volunteers to clean my room, do my laundry, and wash my hair. At first my conscious life was all pain. Swept up by the power of the pain, overwhelmed and consumed by it, I couldn't ... posted on Apr 26 2023 (3,436 reads)

Albert Camus on Writing, Creativity and Stubborness, by Maria Popova
years after he became the second-youngest laureate of the Nobel Prize, awarded him for literature that “with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience,” Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) died in a car crash with an unused train ticket to the same destination in his pocket. The writings he left behind — about the key to strength of character, about creativity as resistance, about the antidotes to the absurdity of life, about happiness as our moral obligation — endure as a living testament to Mary Shelley’s conviction that “it is by words that the world’s... posted on Sep 1 2023 (3,522 reads)

An Awe Walk, by Dacher Keltner
gives you a sense of awe? That word, awe—the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world—is often associated with the extraordinary. You might imagine standing next to a 350-foot-tall tree or on a wide-open plain with a storm approaching, or hearing an electric guitar fill the space of an arena, or holding the tiny finger of a newborn baby. Awe blows us away: It reminds us that there are forces bigger than ourselves, and it reveals that our current knowledge is not up to the task of making sense of what we have encountered. But you don’t need remarkable circumstances to encounter awe. When my colleagues and I as... posted on Dec 31 1969 (30 reads)

How The Luddite Teens Of New York Changed My Perspective On Social Media, by Natalie DeVille
gained access to social media around age 9 or 10. Social media and the internet have always been there. It feels natural. I hadn’t ever questioned what it would be like if I stopped using social media altogether. I was aware of the negative effects of Instagram, but I thought I could handle it; that I was above it. After a year of using TikTok, I started thinking more critically about my media consumption. Why is it so compelling to spend hours looking at a screen when half the time I’m not paying attention or following investing, meaningful content? Social media is designed to draw you in and keep your eyes glued to the screen. If you’ve ever told yourself you will st... posted on Jun 15 2024 (2,789 reads)

Love and Philosophy Between Prison Walls and Ivory Towers, by Awakin Call Editors
1987, while teaching a class at MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] on nonviolence, philosophy lecturer Lee Perlman had a novel idea: Why not take the students to a prison, to talk with men who had committed extreme forms of violence?  Needless to say,” an MIT publication reported, “the experience was an eye-opener for students — a powerful way to help them understand, at a visceral level, the nature of violence. And it also sparked Perlman’s lifelong professional and personal interest in the prison system.” What follows is the edited transcript of an in-depth Awakin Calls interview with Dr. Perlman. You can listen to the recording ... posted on Dec 28 2019 (7,017 reads)

Integrative Touch Therapy: A Catalyst for Healing, by Awakin Call Editors
Saturday, Cynthia Li and I had the privilege of hosting an incredibly inspiring and illuminating Awakin Call with Shay Beider. Shay Beider had a moment of clarity while still a pre-med college student at UCLA. Shadowing doctors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and watching a girl tremble with fear before surgery, she suddenly awakened: “It doesn’t have to look like this.” Shay realized she could serve children and their families with something she’d already been delivering—healing touch. To put herself through college, Beider had been working as a massage therapist. Why not bring gentle, caring touch directly into healthcare? Beider would ev... posted on Dec 31 1969 (185 reads)

The Core of Belonging, by Tami Simon
Simon:  Welcome to Insights at the Edge, produced by Sounds True. My name’s Tami Simon. I’m the founder of Sounds True. And I’d love to take a moment to introduce you to the new Sounds True Foundation. The Sounds True Foundation is dedicated to creating a wiser and kinder world by making transformational education widely available. We want everyone to have access to transformational tools such as mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion, regardless of financial, social, or physical challenges. The Sounds True Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to providing these transformational tools to communities in need, including at-risk youth, prisoners, v... posted on Jan 18 2022 (4,125 reads)

Shay Beider: Resilience is Rooted in Source, by Awakin Call Editors
follows is the transcript of an Awakin Call with Shay Beider. You can watch and/or listen to the recording of the conversation here. Cynthia Li:  I am delighted to introduce you all to Shay Beider. She feels like a soul sister. Shay is the founder of the nonprofit organization, Integrative Touch for Kids. She is a true visionary in pediatric integrative medicine for the past 15 years. Integrative Touch for Kids was born from a moment of clarity when Shay was a college student at UCLA. She was a pre-med major at the time, focused on becoming a pediatric surgeon. And one day when she was shadowing doctors at Children's Hospital, she watched a young girl freeze in terro... posted on Mar 16 2023 (2,752 reads)

Parker Palmer on the Heart of a Teacher, by Parker J. Palmer
text is an adaptation of the first chapter in The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life (Jossey-Bass, 2007) by Parker J. Palmer. We Teach Who We Are I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy. When my students and I discover uncharted territory to explore, when the pathway out of a thicket opens up before us, when our experience is illumined by the lightning-life of the mind—then teaching is the finest work I know. But at other moments, the classroom is so lifeless or painful or confused—and I am so powerless to do anything about it that my claim to be a teacher seems a tra... posted on Oct 3 2016 (34,560 reads)

How to Fight Racism Through Inner Work, by Jill Suttie
meditation may hold the key to grappling with interpersonal racism, says Rhonda Magee, because it helps people tolerate the discomfort that comes with deeper discussions about race. And it can help cultivate a sense of belonging and community for those who experience and fight racism in our everyday lives. For more than 20 years, Magee has worked to address issues of race, racism, and identity-based conflict while teaching law at the University of San Francisco. Over the years teaching hundreds of students about the many ways that racism affects law and justice, she came to realize that we can’t just think our way out of racism or other biases—we need to go de... posted on Jun 10 2020 (10,322 reads)

Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic, by Tami Simon
follows is the syndicated transcript of a SoundsTrue interview between Tami Simon and Dr. Paul Conti. TS: Welcome to Insights at the Edge, produced by Sounds True. My name is Tami Simon. I’m the founder of Sounds True. I’d love to take a moment to introduce you to the new Sounds True Foundation. The Sounds True Foundation is dedicated to creating a wiser and kinder world by making transformational education widely available. We want everyone to have access to transformational tools such as mindfulness, emotional awareness and self-compassion, regardless of financial, social, or physical challenges. The Sounds True Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to... posted on May 17 2023 (8,879 reads)

Greeting the Light: An Interview with James Turrell, by Richard Whittaker
was thanks to artist Walter Gabrielson that I was able to get in touch with James Turrell. Gabrielson was an old friend of Turrell’s from Pasadena and, like Turrell, also a pilot. The prospect of meeting this remarkable artist was exciting and arranging it took some persistence. Michael Bond, who managed Turrell’s projects around the world, was encouraging, but he suggested some homework. I should go to Los Angeles to experience one of the artist’s pieces in a private collection there, The Second Meeting. Although I was already familiar with Turrell's work from reading about it, the visit to LA underlined my sense of his unique place in the art world. Eve... posted on Mar 26 2017 (15,440 reads)

When the Market is Our Only Language, by On Being
revere the creation of wealth. Anand Giridharadas wants us to examine this and how it shapes our life together. He knows, from the inside, the web of Wall Street and Silicon Valley; think tanks, foundations, and convenings from TED to the Aspen Institute; and book and speaking circuits and media that confer power. I had interviewed Anand before and wanted to draw out the generative aspect of a confrontational and thought-provoking message he’s now bringing about the implicit moral equations behind a notion like “win-win” and the moral compromises in cultural consensus we’ve reached, without reflecting on it, about what and who can save us. What follows ... posted on Feb 22 2019 (4,962 reads)

First Aid for Spiritual Seekers, by On Being
follows is the syndicated transcript of an interview between On Being's Krista Tippett and Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie Krista Tippett, host: Forms of religious devotion are shifting, just like every institution right now, but there’s a new world of creativity towards crafting spiritual life while appreciatively exploring the depths of tradition. Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is a fun and forceful embodiment of this evolution. Born into an eminent and ancient rabbinical lineage, as a young adult he moved away from religion towards storytelling, theater, and drag. These days, he leads a pop-up synagogue in New York City with a global profile that takes as its tagline: “eve... posted on Feb 23 2020 (4,402 reads)

The Company We Keep: Deborah Meier, by Deborah Meier
ANNUAL E. F. SCHUMACHER LECTURES OCTOBER 1998 SALISBURY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, SALISBURY, CT Edited by Hildegarde Hannum Introduction by Susan Witt EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SCHUMACHER CENTER FOR A NEW ECONOMICS In preparation for introducing Deborah Meier I called a friend of mine in New York whose family knows her personally. A radio was playing in the background when a man answered the phone. I assumed he was my friend’s husband, so I said, “Andrew, this is Susan Witt, and I’m calling to ask about Deborah Meier.” He said, “Just a minute please,” went and turned down the radio, came back, and said, “Deborah Meier the... posted on Feb 13 2023 (2,585 reads)

Maggie Smith: Writing in a Way that is Brave, Real, and True, by Tami Simon
follows is the syndicated transcript of an Insights at the Edge podcast from SoundsTrue, between Tami Simon and Maggie Smith. You can listen to the audio version here. Tami Simon: In this episode of Insights at the Edge, my guest is Maggie Smith. Maggie Smith is an award-winning poet, writer and editor. She’s the author of the New York Times bestseller, You Could Make This Place Beautiful and we’ll be talking about that new book by Maggie. She’s also the author of Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change, along with several books of poems including Goldenrod and Good Bones, which was named one of the bes... posted on Aug 10 2023 (3,107 reads)

Why is the World So Beautiful?, by On Being
is the transcript of an interview between On Being's Krista Tippett and Frank Wilczek MS. KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: “Having tasted beauty at the heart of the world, we hunger for more.” These are words of the Nobel physicist Frank Wilczek in his book A Beautiful Question. It’s a winsome, joyful meditation on the question “Does the world embody beautiful ideas?” — probing the world, by way of science, as a work of art. Frank Wilczek is the unusual scientist willing to analogize his discoveries about the deep structure of reality with deep meaning in the human everyday. My experience of how his mind makes connections took off as we bantere... posted on Jul 25 2016 (12,183 reads)

The Whisper of the Order of Things, by On Being
Martínez Celaya, Image by Ann Herold / Los Angeles Magazine A philosopher’s questioning and a scientist’s eye shape Enrique Martínez Celaya’s original approach to art and to life. A world-renowned painter who trained as a physicist, he’s fascinated by the deeper order that “whispers” beneath the surface of things. Works of art that endure, he says, possess their own form of consciousness. And a quiet life of purpose is a particular form of prophecy. The following is the audio and transcript of an onbeing.org interview between Krista Tippett and  Enrique Celaya. Krista Tippett, host: I love finding... posted on Nov 12 2017 (9,468 reads)

Milo Runkle: Expanding Our Sphere of Concern, by Awakin Call Editors
Runkle is an author, an activist, an investor, and a nonprofit leader. He founded Mercy for Animals when he was 15 years old and, at the time, was part of a beginning of a plant-based farm animal advocacy group movement that has now become the largest plant-based environmental advocacy organization in the world. This came out of an experience Milo had when he was young, growing up in rural Ohio, where a teacher brought in a baby piglet for dissection. That baby piglet was not fully dead and he saw it recklessly thrown against the floor in standard factory farming practices to kill it. He wanted to press charges around that treatment of the animal.  Seeing that the legal system woul... posted on Dec 5 2019 (4,962 reads)

Micah Mortali: Rewilding, by Tami Simon
You're listening to Insights at the Edge. Today, my guest is Micah Mortali. Micah is the director of the Kripalu Schools, which includes the School of Yoga, Ayurveda, Integrative Yoga Therapy, and the School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership, which he founded in 2018. With Sounds True. Micah has written a new book called Rewilding: Meditations, Practices, and Skills for Awakening in Nature. To be truthful, this conversation dropped me into a place that I wasn't expecting; a place of deep grief and longing about our disconnection as a human species from our very ground, the ground of the Earth. Micah Mortali, I think, has some powerful suggestions for how we can come a... posted on Jan 14 2020 (8,338 reads)