The Body's Grace, by On Being
follows is the transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett and Matthew Sanford: Ms. Krista Tippett, host: Matthew Sanford says he's never seen anyone live more deeply in their body — in all its grace and all its flaws — without becoming more compassionate toward all of life. He's a renowned teacher of yoga. And he's been paralyzed from the chest down since a car accident in 1978, when he was 13. He teaches yoga to the able-bodied. He also adapts yoga for people with ailments and disabilities, including military veterans. But Matthew Sanford has wisdom for us all on the strength and grace of our bodies, as we move through the ordinary s... posted on Jun 29 2016 (30,194 reads)

How To Train Your Brain To See What Others Don't, by Carolyn Gregoire
Darwin had one of the greatest "aha!" moments in all of history when writing his magnum opus On The Origin of Species. After reading a book written 40 years earlier on population growth and resource competition, Darwin immediately saw the connection to the variation among species that he had observed in the Galapagos -- and voila, the theory of natural selection was born. "Darwin reads this book and says, 'Wow, that's it!' That exemplifies the 'aha!' of getting the new piece of information, and seeing the implication and seeing how it fits," cognitive psychologist Gary Klein, author of Seeing What Others Don't: The Remarkable Ways We... posted on Sep 8 2013 (108,246 reads)

Talking Good With Maggie Doyne, by Rich Polt
morning at the age of 18, fresh out of high school, Maggie Doyne awoke with the feeling that she was not yet ready to move into her freshman dorm. Instead, she wanted to defer college for a year to travel and discover her “inner-self.” It was a decision that would change her life in ways she could never imagine. Four countries in and thousands of miles later, Maggie found herself in the midst of a remote, war-torn village in Nepal. She watched in despair as the Nepalese children would break down rocks into gravel and then sell them for one dollar a day just to buy food. Maggie was compelled to take action. One young girl in particular had touched her heart, so Maggie paid ... posted on Sep 17 2013 (71,353 reads)

40 Days: The Productivity of Retreat, by Paul Kingsnorth
order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." Albert Camus When I was a child, I wanted to be a hermit. I can remember in particular a strange background desire I had for some years to live alone in a pine forest. Why a pine forest? I have no real idea. I have never spent much time at all in a real pine forest (as opposed to the serried ranks of plantation pines which layer the hills of the north of England.) But that was where I wanted to be. I could imagine myself dwelling in the dark, dank heart of a pinewood. Life there, I knew, would be more intense, more magical, than life at home. For a time, as a romantic and imaginative child, I en... posted on Nov 7 2013 (25,800 reads)

Beyond: Eat, Pray, Love, by Chantal Pierrat
Chantal Pierrat elizabethgilbert.com Chantal Pierrat: I have to just take a moment here. I can’t believe I’m talking to you. Elizabeth Gilbert: Oh, you are sweet! CP: I just had to get that out of the way. EG: Oh, you’re lovely. Thank you. I’m sitting here in the airport for Toronto, eating a terrible chicken Caeser salad, and feeling very unglamorous at the moment. So that’s a nice thing to say. CP: What is it right now that is stoking your passion? What perspective or practice is setting you on fire? EG: Returning to writing fiction after thirteen years away from it. Returning to the rootstock of ... posted on Sep 30 2013 (23,671 reads)

The Last Quiet Place, by On Being
for The Last Quiet Places: Gordon Hempton on Silence and the Presence of Everything May 10, 2012 Krista Tippett, host: Gordon Hempton says that silence is an endangered species. He's an acoustic ecologist — a collector of sound all over the world. He defines real quiet as presence — not an absence of sound, but an absence of noise. The Earth as Gordon Hempton knows it is a "solar-powered jukebox." Quiet is a "think tank of the soul." We take in the world through his ears. Gordon Hempton: Not too long ago it was assumed that clean water's not important, that seeing the stars is not that important. But now it is. And... posted on Oct 18 2013 (39,535 reads)

Unlocking the Mysteries of Time , by Maria Popova
Time Slows Down When We’re Afraid, Speeds Up as We Age, and Gets Warped on Vacation “Time perception matters because it is the experience of time that roots us in our mental reality.” Given my soft spot for famous diaries, it should come as no surprise that I keep one myself. Perhaps the greatest gift of the practice has been the daily habit of reading what I had written on that day a year earlier; not only is it a remarkable tool of introspection and self-awareness, but it also illustrates that our memory “is never a precise duplicate of the original [but] a continuing act of creation” and how flawed our perception of time is — al... posted on Dec 12 2023 (20,149 reads)

Voluntary Simplicity, by Duane Elgin
kind of "stewardship" fits our emerging world? When we consider the powerful forces transforming our world — climate change, peak oil, water and food shortages, species extinction, and more — we require far more than either crude or cosmetic changes in our manner of living. If we are to maintain the integ­rity of the Earth as a living system, we require deep and creative changes in our overall levels and patterns of living and consum­ing. Simplicity is not an alternative lifestyle for a marginal few. It is a creative choice for the mainstream majority, particularly in developed nations. If we are to pull together as a human commu­nity, it will... posted on Oct 22 2013 (54,792 reads)

Camille Seaman: We All Belong to Earth, by Richard Whittaker
first thing that captured my attention upon stepping into Camille Seaman’s home was one of her stunning photos, a large framed print centered on one wall.  And then I noticed two large, wolf-like dogs in kennels. They regarded me silently. About forty-five minutes later, having looked at scores of Seaman’s sublime Arctic and Antarctic photos, she let one of the dogs out. It came over quietly to check me out. As I looked down at the animal’s long face and erect ears, it wasn’t apprehension I was feeling—let’s call it mobilized attention. The dog looked up at me and I was mesmerized. I’d never seen eyes like that in a dog before. Yellow, and t... posted on Dec 1 2013 (22,292 reads)

When You Listen to a Child, by Rachel Macy Stafford
younger daughter and I were the first ones to arrive home from an evening swim meet. Although I knew my husband would be arriving shortly with my mom and older daughter, my heart was heavy that I had to come home first. I had an overwhelming feeling of dread about what I might find. My dad, who was visiting from Florida, had fallen ill that afternoon and was not able to go to the meet. Although he’d promised not to descend the stairs while we were gone, I couldn’t help but worry about my 74-year-old diabetic father during the swim meet. That feeling of angst I’d endured for hours was now going into overdrive as my daughter and I ascended the stairs. We expec... posted on Nov 26 2013 (88,747 reads)

Truth Demands To Be Lived, by Richard Whittaker
few years ago Americ Azevedo sat in a college classroom with about 15 students. It was a meditation class and he was the instructor. This past fall, that same class enrolled 603 students and took place in one of the largest lecture halls on the UC Berkeley campus. A philosopher, author and lecturer of peace studies, Americ slips through all of these categories. Serendipitously he became the acting CEO of a company in a field for which he had no formal training. He's taught an unlikely mix of university classes (philosophy, religion, leadership, finance, business and information systems), developed several virtual companies, directed the Innovation Center at Golden Gate Univer... posted on Nov 12 2013 (29,580 reads)

How to Think Like A Wise Person, by Adam Grant
I asked you to judge how smart someone is, you’d know where to start. But if you were going to assess how wise that person is, what qualities would you consider? Wisdom is the ability to make sound judgments and choices based on experience. It’s a virtue according to every great philosophical and religious tradition, from Aristotle to Confucius and Christianity to Judaism, Islam to Buddhism, and Taoism to Hinduism. According to the book From Smart to Wise, wisdom distinguishes great leaders from the rest of the pack. So what does it take to cultivate wisdom? In an enlightening study led by psychologists Paul Baltes and Ursula Staudinger, a group of leading journalist... posted on Nov 20 2013 (58,163 reads)

This Will Make You Smarter, by Maria Popova
Will Make You Smarter: 151 Big Thinkers Each Pick a Concept to Enhance Your Cognitive Toolkit The importance of “the umwelt,” or why failure and uncertainty are essential for science and life. Every year for more than a decade, intellectual impresario and Edge editor John Brockman has been asking the era’s greatest thinkers a single annual question, designed to illuminate some important aspect of how we understand the world. In 2010, he asked how the Internet is changing the way we think. In 2011, with the help of psycholinguist Steven Pinker and legendary psychologist Daniel Kahneman, he posed an even grander question: “What scientific concept will improve... posted on Jan 14 2014 (35,425 reads)

A Labor of Love, by MAUREEN PURTILL
September 26, 2013, a mass movement succeeded in persuading Governor Jerry Brown to sign the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. How did they do it? By inventing a new way of combating injustice. Credit: Maureen Purtill. All rights reserved. Elizabeth Flores leaned forward to the microphone and fixed the crowd with a smile. “Why is it acceptable that dogs are treated with more dignity and respect than I am”, she said, “as an undocumented immigrant domestic worker in America?” Half-laughing, she pulled away to watch the audience react. Her words might suggest a disempowered victim, but her smile and laughter said something more prof... posted on Jan 9 2014 (15,499 reads)

Six boys, one cop, and the road to restorative justice, by Molly Rowan Leach
a warm summer night in Longmont, Colorado, a vibrant midsized city in the Rocky Mountains.  On a dare, six young men aged between ten and thirteen years plan to break into a giant chemical processing plant. High levels of alcohol and testosterone, peer pressure and a moonless night propel the group towards the locked gates of the factory, and they break in. Across town at the Police Department, Officer Greg Ruprecht is about to embark on night patrol.  A former Army Captain and top of his class at the Police Academy, Ruprecht believes his job is to arrest everyone who commits a crime and throw away the key. Justice means punishment: an eye for an eye, no questions... posted on Dec 21 2013 (26,323 reads)

The Pain & Beauty of Life Changes, by Leo Babauta
reason for our suffering is our resistance to the changes in life. And life is all changes. While I resist change (and suffer) just like anyone else, I have learned to adapt. I’ve learned some flexibility. I’ve realized this: Everything changes, and this is beautiful. The Pain of Life’s Changes What do I mean that our suffering comes from resistance to the changes in life? Let’s take a look at some things that give us trouble: Someone yells at you at work. The change is rooted in the fact that we expect people to treat us kindly and fairly and with respect, but the reality is that they don’t always. When they don&rs... posted on Feb 13 2014 (44,773 reads)

6 Habits of Highly Grateful People, by Jeremy Adam Smith
terrible at gratitude. How bad am I? I’m so bad at gratitude that most days, I don’t notice the sunlight on the leaves of the Berkeley oaks as I ride my bike down the street. I forget to be thankful for the guy who hand-brews that delicious cup of coffee I drink mid-way through every weekday morning. I don’t even know the dude’s name! I usually take for granted that I have legs to walk on, eyes to see with, arms I can use to hug my son. I forget my son! Well, I don’t actually forget about him, at least as a physical presence; I generally remember to pick him up from school and feed him dinner. But as I face the quotidian slings and arrows of pare... posted on Mar 19 2014 (182,254 reads)

The Ancient Heart of Forgiveness, by Jack Kornfield
Kornfield shares extraordinary stories of forgiveness--and explains how the next story could be yours. On the train from Washington to Philadelphia, while on my way to my father’s memorial funeral service, I sat down next to an interesting fellow who worked with young boys, particularly those in jail and prison, as part of an inner-city project in Washington, DC. He told me this story. A young kid, 14 years old, wanted to get into a gang. The way that he proved himself to enter the gang was to shoot somebody—it was an initiation rite. He shot this kid he didn’t know. He was apprehended, brought to trial, and at the end of the trial, convicted. Just bef... posted on Mar 15 2014 (63,195 reads)

Brene Brown on Shame & The Courage to be Vulnerable, by On Being
Tippett, host: In a culture where we like to fix or prevent vulnerability, Brené Brown is reviving the knowledge that our struggles make us who we are. And it's based on data — social scientific research she conducted first into shame and then into qualities that distinguish lives with a strong sense of worthiness. She's frank about the resistance her own findings awakened in her, a classic American perfectionist who wore exhaustion as a status symbol. She also discovered a stark gulf between what we want to be true — and what is true — in vulnerability between men and women. And she exquisitely uncomfortably describes the difference between m... posted on Mar 21 2014 (33,601 reads)

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, by Knowledge@Wharton
cheats a little from time to time. But most major betrayals within organizations – from accounting fraud to doping in sports – start with a first step that crosses the line, according to Dan Ariely, a leading behavioral economist at Duke and author of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves. That step can start people on a “slippery slope.” In this interview with Wharton management professor Adam Grant, Ariely helps leaders understand how to prevent people from taking that first step, how to create a code of conduct that makes rules and expectations clear and why good rules are critical to organizations. A... posted on Apr 8 2014 (25,359 reads)