Paying Tribute To Alice Herz-Sommer Posted by Ani Devlia, Feb 24 2014 Paying tribute to Alice Herz-Sommer oldest holocaust victim who passed away aged 110. "I am looking for the nice things in life. I know about the bad things, but I look only for the good things.” Everything is a Present KarmaTube video:   

Google To Know You Better Than Your Spouse? Posted by Peter Ruan, Feb 23 2014 In a recent article, Are Robots About to Rise?, Ray Kurzweil believes that Google will soon "know the answer to your question before you have asked it. It will have read every email you've ever written, every document, every idle thought you've ever tapped into a search-engine box. It will know you better than your intimate partner does. Better, perhaps, than even yourself."  That doesn't sound like good news, but maybe meditation will help us outsmart the machines. :)

India, Part I Posted by Tracy Cochran, Feb 23 2014 As I write this, I am sitting in a pool of lamp light, watching snow fall, watching the pines and cars and the road outside fill up with white, contrasting the snowbound hush, the cocooned feel of the house, like a ship at night, with the sights and sounds and the sometimes spicy and delicate, sometimes acrid smoky smells and most of all the feeling of being in India. Contrast is a key to understanding–and not just in the senses but in the heart, in the shift from thinking in the mind to feeling in the heart. Think of what it is like to be outside in the cold and then to come in and be warm, how it can sting and burn at first. Think of what it is like to go off alone to an unknown place–now make it a place vast and complex and famous for beautiful and dangerous extremes. "Be safe," everyone said, even in line at the gate at JFK and in the airport in New Delhi. "Be careful…Don’t drink the water." So off I went to India.  India, Part I  

Unbelievable Kindness & Generosity, From Someone ... Posted by Aryae Coopersmith, Feb 23 2014 Unbelievable kindness & generosity, from someone with nothing of his own, in Bulgaria. There don't seem to be any national boundaries on kindness!    

Today The Posted by Audrey Lin, Feb 21 2014 Today the "in-turns" had a beautiful circle with Siddharth (who happens to be this Saturday's Awakin Call guest speaker)! Lots of stories and experiments shared on the topics of money, types of capital, and an ecosystem of love, including this one: “One of the experiments I’ve committed for this year is that every time I feel like I have less money, I will create value from something very intangible. I will write a letter to someone. I will go out and do an act with smile card. Because over time, you realize that these small acts are creating so much value. And if you actually spend a whole day doing 15 acts like this, think about how abundant you will feel? When we feel scarce, we feel like, “I have nothing.” But it’s actually a frame of mind. So how can we think about money not as notes, but as our ability to tap into that flow? And yes, material money does have value. I think we have to all understand where we are at— that we are not all Jesuses and Buddhas... So it’s important to embrace money, but to understand that the root cause is scarcity, and how we can work on that more and more.”

Awakin Call With Rick Hanson Posted by Anne Veh, Feb 20 2014 A joyful collaboration by Bethany Lyttle and Anne Veh~ Dr. Rick Hanson is a neuropsychologist and an authority on self-directed neuroplasticity. Wondering what the heck that really means? Think of it this way: You have a physical brain and neurology tends to focus on that. Then you have emotions, moods, and feelings and psychologists tend to focus on that. What Dr. Hanson does is meld the two, suggesting a two-way street of sorts. The brain’s structure, he says, influences our emotions, but our emotions also influence (very literally) the structure of our brains. In his books Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture, Hanson asserts that the active use of good experiences can be harnessed to alter our overall response to the world. Hanson was in college when he first noticed that even the most trivial-seeming positive experiences made a difference to his mental health and wellbeing. A smile from ... Read Full Story

Drawing For Empty Hands Music Posted by Meghna Agrawal, Feb 20 2014 Just saw this beautiful note to Nimo: "I have been helped by you in many, many situations. Thank you! Your help has been received by listening "Be kind" and "Grateful" on repeat, one after another, again and again. They lift me up and create huge feeling of gratitude and kindness. And by feeling like that, I spread kindness everywhere. (And in that inspiring feeling I have also made huge steps forward on my own mission in life, so amazing!!) I have been thinking how to thank you, and because I best express myself by drawing - I thank you with this drawing I did for you. Thank you once more!"   

Ripples From The London InnerService Retreat Posted by Ani Devlia, Feb 20 2014 As part of our one-day retreat in London, we wrote anonymous love letters to women at a local homeless shelter and bundled them up with lovely canvas totes, which said "A smile is the best thing a girl can wear!":) along with a wooden heart ornament that had a positive message on it.  Last week, on Valentine's Day, I went to visit the Women's Group at the Whitechapel Mission, as I do every Friday. It was a day that flowed with much love and good energy.   Following a delicious lunch of chilli/rice/ salad and fresh raspberry  sundae, I explained to the women how friends of a meditation circle had been inspired to gift these bags...(thunderous clapping when I read the caption :) )... and that these friends had written anonymous love notes...more clapping with loud "oohs". :) We didn't give the bags out until the end of the afternoon.  However, as the women ... Read Full Story