Cute Baby Responses To Meditation Posted by Rahul Brown, Jul 11 2014 I do my best to meditate in hours when my baby daughter is asleep so my practice doesn’t steal time from her or my wife, but every once in a while, they are both awake and around while I am sitting. Its been very cute to watch how baby Uma responds to sitting. First time she sat with me (outside the womb), she quickly fell asleep and sat for the rest of the hour. Before she was walking, she would ask to see me if I was sitting. Asha would carry her to the door, open it, and quietly whisper to her that I’m meditating. I’m told she would point and whisper some baby babble in return  :-) Since she’s been walking she’ll come an quietly sit in my lap while I'm meditating. She usually is still for about a minute (though this morning she sat for maybe 3 minutes!) and ... Read Full Story

Summer Interns 2014 Week 1: Generosity Posted by Anne-Marie Bauer, Jul 03 2014 What insightful reflections from our bright summer interns who shared on our first weeks theme: Generosity.  During our call, we discussed the wealth we experience when we give unconditionally, truly giving without seeking anything in return, and how this helps us to undo the patterns of greed we may have unconsciously built up.  We touched questions around how we each practice generosity, what prevents us from giving, how to move from 'me' to 'we', to how well we receive generosity.   Mira shared that she practices generosity by doing random acts of kindness and likes this form of generosity.  She was handing out sandwiches to homeless people and despite being met with doubt, judgment and skepticism from peers at school she continued to practice giving because it brings her a lot of joy.  She hopes her peers will one day experience that joy for themselves too.  Often we have fears around giving ... Read Full Story

Entirely Volunteer-Run Posted by Sunaina Chugani, Jul 03 2014 Infinite Love just got an email from a perhaps puzzled lady browsing our website: "Good evening. I was browsing through your website and I just wanted clarification. Does your organization hire employees that get paid or is it strictly volunteers that run it? I know it said something like that on the home page, but I've never heard of an organization that runs strictly on volunteers. I just needed clarification on that." I enjoyed sharing with her the power of an organization that runs on love. :)  

Reflection On A Walking Pilgrimage Posted by Nipun Mehta, Jul 01 2014 This morning, I got an email from Shirin about an issue they hosted on walking.  It happened to be a great day to reminded of our walking pilgrimage. :)  Shirin – Hi Nipun, thank you so much for talking with Courageous Creativity!  Your wife Guri and you did a walking pilgrimage in India where you lived on a dollar a day. Can you talk about the surrender and faith that goes with that? Nipun – Six months into our marriage, my wife and I dropped all our plans, went to the Gandhi Ashram in India and decided to embark on a walk. We had no plans and no end date. Humanity poorest billion live on dollar a day, so we decided that’s what we’d have between us. We would serve wherever an opportunity showed up -- from pushing stalled cars on the highways to helping old farmers carry loads to cleaning community places ... Read Full Story

An Interview 14 Years Ago Posted by Richard Whittaker, Jul 01 2014 Just got a card from a man I interviewed over 14 years ago, a total stranger. I struck up a conversation because I liked the small painting he was making as he sat in the coffee shop I often stopped at. I was surprised to find someone making art in this place frequented by the comfortable bourgeoisie. In 18 years of taking care of my caffeine needs there, I’d never seen anyone openly drawing or painting at one of the tables. So I walked over quietly and watched a little while. He was good. I complimented him and before long we were pretty deep in conversation. It was so interesting I asked if he’d be willing to be interviewed. The interview appeared in issue #4. Out of close to 400 features on conversations.org, it ranks #25 in number of reads. So today I got this card from Terrance Meyer and since ... Read Full Story

Last Month, I Shared A Story ... Posted by Mia Tagano, Jul 01 2014 Last month, I shared a story about my grandmother and a woman named Andrea. Andrea had had a stroke and was learning to talk again and move her legs. When I wrote last, she was barely getting one word out at a time and had just relearned to bring her knees together while lying down. I have been gone a week and my grandmother was moved to another part of the facility. I went to Andrea's room to see how she was doing. She practically leapt out of her bed! You came back! She said along with other full sentences filled with joy. She hugged me so tightly as we laughed and I shouted, you're talking, you're talking! I told her that I had shared her story and that people from all over the world were thinking of her and praying for her. She stopped then and started to cry. She held my hand. They are praying for me? Yes, I said. Tell them thank you she said. Tell them that I walked for the first time - 15 steps. Tell them, there will be more she said. Tell them, Thank you.     

At Karma Kitchen DC yesterday, A Few ... Posted by Audrey Lin, Jun 30 2014 At Karma Kitchen DC yesterday, a few of us got to help spruce up the ambiance with some sidewalk chalk art outside the restaurant! In the process, I was reminded of how making inspiring quotes visible, or just doing an act of kindness helps to break the ice to bring out the "giver" in each of us. While chalking out the quote, "An act of kindness, no matter how small, is never wasted," a man walked by, pointed at the quote, and called out, "That's a good point!" It made me smile and recall an Awakin Call we had with Adam Grant-- he said that while most of us are "givers," we often don't show it because we don't feel like we have permission to reveal that side in most public settings. But when a few people or a space emerges that breaks the ice for our inherent generosity to emerge, the ... Read Full Story

Meditating In The Rain Posted by Aryae Coopersmith, Jun 29 2014 Meditating in the Rain If you go out to meditate only when there is no rain or wind, your practice requires sheltering yourself from the wholeness of life. It is weak and will not endure. If you go out to meditate in every storm no matter how fierce, you are a fool. The sage goes out like a leaf in the wind, allowing the weather to take her where it will. By letting go of the controls, she aligns with the One.  

Summer Internship Begins! Posted by Amit Dungarani, Jun 28 2014 We've got a wonderful roster of interns this summer -- Vishesh, Mira, Priyal, and Nilay.  And an equally wonderful roster of mentors -- Karuna, Nipun, Anne Marie and myself, with Pavi and Afreen as mentors to the mentors. :)  We had our first call last week, and you can just sense the bubbling potential of goodness.  Vishesh wowed us all last week, with stories of what attracted him to spend his summer learning from ServiceSpace -- "I remember being at the job fair in my freshman year at Stanford and everything was so ambitious, starting the recruiters whisked the resume out of my folder before I could even hand it to them.  I then contrasted that to the one evening I had spent in an Awakin Circle -- compassion, empathy, generosity, attention.  That is what grow in." Outside of their projects and meetings, every week, we select a value, explore its edges, assign a reading and a video around its edges, and offer 3 practices to do.  Before is a snapshot from our call last week:      

"The Seat Of The Soul" Posted by Guri Mehta, Jun 27 2014 When Oprah read, "The Seat of the Soul," she was so moved, she called up the author. Although Gary Zukav had written international bestsellers, he was living in a cabin in Mt. Shasta as a "secular monk". And he hadn't watched TV in more than 20 years, so had never heard of her. It turned out that Oprah's life was transformed by Gary's ideas and she invited him on the show in 1998 (and 35 times thereafter!) to discuss ideas like cause and effect, consciousness, and intention. More than that, it paved the way for such memes to be shared on mainstream media. This afternoon, Nipun and I were delighted to have lunch with Gary and his "spiritual partner," Linda Francis. Rather spontaneously, one of the first stories he shared was about meeting an uncommon teacher named Master Hua. He shared many touching stories and quotes by him, like: "Even for ... Read Full Story

Homage To Empty Hands Pilgrimage Posted by Chris Johnnidis, Jun 26 2014 Moved to share a few tidbits about recent experiences with the Empty Hands Tour, which is truly a thing of authentic beauty and humbling, nod-your-head awesomeness. Seeing Nimo in action -- nay, being with him in action :) -- it's astounding to ponder the sheer level of inner-oriented practice through quiet, personal cultivation and simple, outer service leading up to this point in his journey... Which is intersecting so elegantly and serendipitously with so many other journeys. For example, at last night's gathering in Philadelphia, anchored by the indefatigable Audrey and creativity-superstar Lahar (who recently crafted these gorgeous gratitude journals), the space witnessed a wonderful confluence of paths with such wonderful souls as dear brother Chaz, recent awakin call guests Sunil, and Vilma (who drove all the way from Connecticut and back!), Karmatube volunteers Vicky and Shail, Nandita who wants to start an awakin circle in Philly -- even Drew who didn't know exactly ... Read Full Story

Our Little Apartment In DC Was ... Posted by Arathi Ravichandran, Jun 26 2014 Our little apartment in DC was wet with sweat and humidity last night, as a small group of 4 of us sat around candle light for our weekly Awakin Wednesday gathering. An intimate conversation about gratitude lead to a surprising revelation, where one girl spoke about her recent trip to New Mexico, where she entered into a 5 day intensive grief therapy program to deal with the loss of her entire family. In the past 10 years, her mother, father, and brother had passed away, leaving her young, alone, and grief stricken with no family for love or support. The succession of loss in her life forced her to re-consider what was important, and although she is still struggling from this loss, she spoke mostly about her appreciation for what is true in her life. "I was playing soccer the other day, down by the Washington ... Read Full Story

A Serious Frivolity Posted by Sunaina Chugani, Jun 25 2014 We have so many poets in the ServiceSpace community! I recently discovered a new gem. Dearest Bernie of Canticle Farm has an endless stream of poetry flowing through her, and I felt so blessed to be able to hear some of it during my visit over the past two weeks. She recently started posting her poems online. Below is one of my favorites. Visit her blog for more! A Serious Frivolity Savoring the substance of existence is a serious frivolity. Someone must do it. Someone must love luminous hours when leaves marry light and refuse to stop shining. Someone must speak the sweetness of lilacs or it will be lost beneath smog. Someone must bask in the beauty of blessing because the news knows only brokenness. When you give yourself to a particular place the power and peace of that place give themselves through you. So savoring the substance of existence is a serious frivolity. Someone must do it. Will that someone be you? 

Video With Tom Mahon: Tools Of Our Tools Posted by Richard Whittaker, Jun 24 2014 Just saw this thoughtful video by fellow ServiceSpace ambassador, Tom Mahon -- and it's something that many of us will want to spread in our communities. It's a marvel of compression and eloquence in terms of both its scope and depth. I think most of us feel there's a growing recognition already underway that's quite resonant with Mahon's cogent reflections here.    

Just Wanted To Share A Message ... Posted by Mia Tagano, Jun 23 2014 Just wanted to share a message that came today from a new friend of Karmatube's facebook page - Nice way to start a Monday :-) "Found this because I was looking for something really rotten to send to someone. The moment I saw Mr Rogers...well, I think you have made an impact on me that will stay forever. I looked all over your page, shared one thing, and hope to see lots of inspiring things in the future. (for me) Thank You, Laurie"

Tools Of Our Tools Posted by Tom Mahon, Jun 22 2014 We’ve become the tools of our tools;  And the fault – and the solution – lies not in our tools, but in ourselves. The digital revolution promised so much at the outset: computers would make air travel safer, health care more affordable, and education more widely available. But for all the evident benefits – and there are many – the tools have taken over the toolmakers.   --Complex algorithms, beyond human understanding, replace even the most high-valued jobs, including the jobs of algorithm writers; --Yet even as jobs and income disappear, mobile devices bombarded with messages urging endless consumption of finite resources. The resulting frustration is leveraged by powerful media to keep the public in a state of fury and frenzy; --What jobs do remain demand that we work at superhuman speed to keep up with superfast silicon systems; --Opaque institutions demand that our lives be absolutely transparent to them, even as hackers can rob us of our ... Read Full Story

Dalai Lama's Bow Posted by Duane Elgin, Jun 21 2014 In the late nineties, few of us were summoned to spend five days in deep dialogue with the Dalai Lama.  Among the many admirable traits of the Dalai Lama, the one that I'm always moved by is his humility. Every morning, as he came in, he would first look at all of us, scan the width of the room, and smile big with folded hands and love-filled eyes. It took me a few days to really understand what he was doing.  He was scanning the room for the person who bowed the lowest, to be sure to bow even lower! 

Ni Hao From The Nuns Of Taiwan Posted by Nipun Mehta, Jun 19 2014 Ray and Priscilla are two of the sweetest people one can meet. Originally from China, grew up in Taiwan and raised their two daughters in Texas. Both had illustrious careers, and later in their life, built up two successful companies. Neither were particularly spiritual, until they received a phone call from their elder daughter one day. "There's a ceremony happening in ten hours, and I need your permission to take part in it," she said. It was a ceremony to become a nun, and dedicate her life to serving others and purifying her mind. The whole thing unfolded because Ray himself had lightly taken his daughter to meet a Chinese teacher, Master Hsuan Hua, at a local event in Texas; he thought it'd be a good father-daughter thing to do. At the end of the event, Ray -- former Dean of two top ranked computer science departments, a professor at ... Read Full Story

Mark Dubois: What I Learned From Rivers Posted by Audrey Lin, Jun 19 2014 Listening to Mark Dubois is like watching the constellations of a night sky light up around you. There’s a quality to his voice that cuts to the core, a delicate balance of humility and strength that unearths a deep surrender, an awed reverence, for existence, the environment, and the rhythms of nature that pulse through the depths of rivers and oceans and, ultimately, our own internal veins. Fueled by a passion, courage, and inner conviction in our Earth’s majestic ancestry, Mark has devoted life to the preservation and awareness of our planet’s irreplaceable resources. A decades-long familiar face at the forefront of the environmental movement, he’s grown multiple conservation organizations, organized global campaigns to redirect international funds for the planet, and even put his life on the line in 1979 when he chained himself to the bedrock of Stanislaus River Canyon for seven days, as a new reservoir filled. Yet beyond the ... Read Full Story

Emotions That Make Online Content Go Viral Posted by Bhoutik Mehta, Jun 18 2014 If a piece of content makes a reader feel a certain way, the reader is more likely to share it on social media.  Which emotions lead to the most shares?  BuzzSumo's Noah Kagan analyzed the top 10% of articles that get shared online. From those articles, he found that articles that make a reader feel "awe" get shared most. Making a reader laugh means a higher probability of sharing too. Articles that make people feel sad get shared infrequently.  Other factors that contribute to an article's shareability include length (aim for about 2,000 words) and use of photos. [Via Business Insider]