Awakin Calls Record! Posted by Preeta Bansal, Feb 22 2019 We had a remarkable Awakin call with Allan Wallace on Saturday, led by the volunteer team extraordinaire of Galaxy (biographer), Pavi (host), Richard (moderator), Vishesh (streamer) and Prabha (audio). And now another extraordinary volunteer team of scribes, anchored by Gayathri, will lovingly and deeply listen to the call and prepare a transcript of the wisdom. Hard to describe to the outside world how many moving parts, and how many loving hearts, help bring these offerings into the world week after week. Thanks for all the labor of love that occurs week in and week out by the amazing team of ServiceSpace volunteers. In all, 414 people RSVP’d for the call! An Awakin calls record. And far beyond quantity of participants was the quality of the feedback received, and the ripples that are already ensuing. Here is just a very small sampling of some of the feedback received from call listeners from this ... Read Full Story

My Daughter's Smile Deck Experience Posted by Devanshi Gandhi, Feb 21 2019 Few years ago, Nipun had come to our home for an Awakin Circle. He had left us with a Smile Deck, and our daughter just used it to create this video: I hope all of you will like it. :) And thank you!

Nuggets From Alan Wallace's Call Posted by Pavi Mehta, Feb 20 2019 Last Saturday, we had the privilege of hosting an Awakin Call with Alan Wallace. A call with a record number of RSVPs and truly vibrant engagement from our listeners. After dropping out from university in 1971 and immersing himself for 14 years in Buddhist studies with some of his generation’s greatest lamas, Alan Wallace became a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by H.H. the Dalai Lama, for whom he also served as translator. He began then to integrate the Western perspectives of his first 20 years with his 14 years of Buddhist studies. He graduated summa cum laude in physics from Amherst College and then got a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford. He is a prominent and important voice in the discussion between Buddhist thinkers and scientists who question the materialist presumptions of 20th-century paradigms. He has written and translated more than 40 books and founded the Centers for Contemplative Research ... Read Full Story

Multiple Forms Of Capital -- With 7th Graders! Posted by Melissa Stephens, Feb 20 2019 I wanted to share an incredible service project one of my 7th grade kiddos presented today! This young woman is rather introverted (although she still gets a hug from me every day!) but she expresses herself through art and so, for her service project, she created an original animation to tell her story! It just blew me away, and I was so grateful that she is one of my teachers, showing me that we all serve from where we are and the space that feels safe. :)

Welcome Home! Posted by Ashima Goyal, Feb 18 2019 [Originally posted in January 2019] “You left the door open and I walked in” So many of us walked into that open door and found ourselves at home in the circle. “There is an immediate sense of trust and respect and everyone feels belonged.” From 3 people sitting in silence on a Wednesday evening in a home in Santa Clara, Awakin circles have organically spread to 100+ cities around the world and every week so many people come together to co-create the circle. One person at our circle recently shared, “It’s small and yet it is so big!”. I don’t think I can find the right words to describe the extraordinariness of the ordinary Awakin circles. Which is why we asked Awakin hosts from around the world to share their reflections of 2018. Below are some highlights from those reflections! The journey of self Reflecting on the 10th year anniversary of Awakin circles in ... Read Full Story

Regenerative Service, And Heading Towards Zero Posted by Jignasha Pandya, Feb 18 2019 [For more than a year, ServiceSpace anchoring working on creating local offline communities have been coming together for a monthly call. We have some readings, share reflection on the feed and then jump on a video call. In our February call, our guest speaker was Nipun. :) We are deeply grateful to him for joining us and for always offering inspiration, stillness and lived wisdom from his 20+ years of making pathways of serving the inside and outside in innumerable ways. Below is a transcript, edited for readibility, offered in gratitude.] Nipun: On this topic of regenerative service, let me first build on Ragu's comment -- how do you choose between broccoli and ice cream? One is stepping up and another is self-care. Well, I don't know if ice cream is actually self-care, but it is for me. :) I'll start with some reflections from my meditation retreat. One recurring ... Read Full Story

Latest Love News From Spain :) Posted by Joserra G., Feb 17 2019 Lately it has been marvelous to see the plethora and warmth of stories, reflections, experiments in generosity and noble friendships that emerge from local and global communities and ecosystems! We can see the 4 shifts happening (consumption to contribution, transaction to trust, isolation to community, scarcity to abundance) and it’s a beautiful thing! Awakin Circles keep on and on in Burgos every week! And it’s because of volunteers like Arianna and Sylvia that we can make them possible! Now we are offering dinner every week and you can feel the magic of our interconnections growing! Every circle is a chant to collective wisdom and transformation like this one where we listened to few incredible kindness stories! And many of them inspired by what happens in and around awakin circles! It’s amazing to see how initiatives like the circles change the culture of a place without having anyone say: ‘this is the way ... Read Full Story

Awakening RAK  - Jan 2019 Posted by Pooja Zaveri, Feb 17 2019 We welcomed th New Year in style and had a great awaking circle sessions all round the year and looking forward to many more such circles in 2019. Our session for Jan 2019 was on Jan 25 2019 and was a very welcoming one. We had our one hour of silence and we were all able to sit in Silence in a very calm manner. We had the passage reading which was My Word of the Year by Nancy Gibbs and it was the word "LISTEN". Often we all come across many situations we were do not listen and start talking without even appreciating when the person wants us to listen. A key aspect of listening is to listen silently and be empathetic towards the person who is speaking ,understand and allow the person to speak. The word LISTEN also has in itself the word SILENT. We had lots of discussions and then the day was called off with a hot home cooked meal by the host. As the weather was lovely, we enjoy having the meal under the stars!!! Till Next time, keep smilin!!

21 Days Of Opening The Heart Posted by Giang Dang, Feb 15 2019 Our local community in Vietnam recently printed a 21-day challenge booklet in Vietnamese! On "21 Days of Opening the Heart". :) We had a beautiful gathering of volunteers and wrote the text together (children, farmers, students, teachers, aged from 7 to 67)! The drawings were made by one of our volunteers. We have printed 150 books for our local community so far, and people love them. I think of this ecosystem often, with so much gratitude for showing me the path and laddering!

Nuggets From Maya Soetoro-Ng's Call Posted by Preeta Bansal, Feb 14 2019 Last Saturday, the extraordinary Nimo and I had the privilege of hosting a beautiful Awakin Call with Maya Soetoro-Ng, where we heard about her speak about a wide range of topics: from her expansive view of the role each of us can play in building peace, to how the Presidency of her brother, Barack Obama, as well as the divisive aftermath of the past several years, both transformed and reinforced her vision of the work of building peace. By way of brief background, Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng is a peace educator consulting for the Obama Foundation, and previously directed the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Hawaii. Her brother is former US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama. But Maya says we can't leave conflict resolution up to governments: resilience will come from ordinary people, not from centralized, powerful institutions or well-tested solutions alone. "It's imperative ... Read Full Story

London Feb Update: Awakin Circles & Global Inspiration Posted by Trishna Shah, Feb 14 2019 February 2019 - London Gatherings Awakin Circles: Harrow, Shoreditch, Pimlico Each month, you're invited to join Awakin Circles at locations around London, where we meditate for the first hour, engage in a circle of sharing based on a reading, and conclude with a home-cooked vegetarian dinner together. Weds, Feb 20th at 7:00pm (Harrow, Northwest London) Fri, Feb 22nd at 7:30pm (Shoreditch, Central London) Weds, Mar 13th at 7:00pm (Pimlico, Central London) To RSVP, visit Awakin London and use the drop-down box in the top right corner to select a date/location. *Note: Mill Hill Awakin is on break in February and will resume in March Inspiring Tidbits from Around the World... Top 10 Kindness Stories of 2018: Looking for inspiration for your next kind act? These Top 10 Kindness Stories via DailyGood will surely move you :) Wisdom of Circles: This recent conversation with an elder, who has 50 years of ... Read Full Story

KindSpring Weekly: Spotlight On Kindness: Listen With Posted by Ameeta Martin, Feb 12 2019 Latest issue of 'KindSpring Weekly' newsletter is themed Spotlight On Kindness: Listen With An Open Heart. We spend more time composing our responses than actually listening when talking to someone else. When our attention is completely consumed by other thoughts, we miss out on the richness of what is unfolding at the moment. This Valentine's week, let's try to really be present with another person's words and experience. Listening with an open heart is one of the richest gifts we can give. - Ameeta

Heart Mob In Ventura California Posted by Bonnie Rose, Feb 08 2019 Dear Friends, One of our local synagogues was recently vandalized with a hateful message. Someone painted a swastika on their sign. The message was quickly erased. But Inspired by ServiceSpace, Gandhi 3.0 and Nimo Patel's We Shall Overcome video, our congregation decided to drive out hatred with love. We made a bunch of construction paper hearts and staged a Heart Mob. We went to the synagogue, took a group picture near the sign, and sent lots of love to our Jewish brothers and sisters. A local paper is going to feature the picture in a "Kindness Corner." So many ripples, inside and out. Thank you ServiceSpace! - With Love, Bonnie

Nuggets From Abbot Sojun Mel Weitsman's Call Posted by LuAnn Cooley, Feb 07 2019 Last Saturday, we had the privilege of hosting Awakin Call with Abbot Sojun Mel Weitsman, expertly moderated by Stephanie Nash. Stephanie guided a delightful conversation that evoked the calm presence of this extraordinary teacher. In his modest way, Abbot Weitsman tells of how Suzuki Roshi walked up to him one day and said, “Just being alive is enough.” This became a touchstone for Abbot Weitsman who, after more than 50 years of practice, continues to draw on Suzuki Roshi as his role model at the San Francisco Zen Center, where he is a senior dharma teacher, and at the Berkeley Zen Center where he is Abbot. Abbot Weitsman says some people come to practice thinking the purpose is enlightenment. He explains that “reality is beyond your understanding, and so if you presume to have a God-like understanding, that’s arrogance…Enlightenment is a kind of arrogance.” Instead, to practice is to give ... Read Full Story

My First Corporate Job Interview In 1981 Posted by Aryae Coopersmith, Feb 07 2019 This week's Awakin reading brought to mind my very first job interview in high-tech. It was for a job in corporate sales in Silicon Valley in 1981. They didn't have LinkedIn then, but same idea. I had previously been teaching at a community college, and I had a small business called Right Livelihood Workshops. But I needed to change after my daughter was born, because the income stream wasn't quite what I needed it to be. So I thought, okay, I'll apply to a tech company in Silicon Valley and try corporate sales. Why not? I knew how to do career workshops and good job search techniques, and had coached others in writing resumes and doing job interviews. So now, my task was to create a story about myself -- the story of how what I've done all my life has really led me to this job: corporate sales and computer ... Read Full Story

"I Seem To Be Called Ted" Posted by Anuj Pandey, Feb 07 2019 [At Awakin Santa Clara, you would see Ted do so many little things, from the dimming the lights to organizing Smile Cards stuffing. And in each circle, he starts with his trademark "I seem to be called Ted" opening. This week, he expanded on that. See below for the transcript from last night's share. ] I seem to be called Ted and, and so the first thing that struck me is that, you know, Ted is a label. It's a role that I play. It's something that exists only in this lifetime. Ted didn't exist in any past lifetime. Ted's not going to exist in any future lifetime. And that brings up the, the realization that all of the things in our LinkedIn profile, the jobs, the roles that I've played, everything like that can be seen as just conditioning. Those causes and conditions happened, and now I have something to ... Read Full Story

How I Learned Generosity Through Meditation Posted by Dustin Harber, Feb 07 2019 [Few reflections from my opening share at last week's Awakin Circle, around the reading on generosity.] I'm super excited to open today because when I was reading it, I was thinking, "Oh, I have this great story about that. I hope I get to open!" It was during a meditation sit that I first learned to be 100 percent generous, and forgive myself unconditionally for the first time in my life. Two years ago, during my first silent meditation retreat, about halfway through the ten days, we were sitting still without moving for the entire hour! And this is so hard for me. Oh my gosh. I would try and sit still and about 25, 30 minutes in, some pain would arise on my body and I would have to shift positions. My dad-like voice, that has somehow always been with me when I can't do something, would say, "Uh, if you can't ... Read Full Story

The Ability In Disability Posted by Nisha Srinivasan, Feb 07 2019 Our good friends Gopal and Drishti who enthusiastically and tirelessly work with young people with disabilities, were visiting. And we got into a sort of unplanned circle with a small group of neighbors for shared learning on the subject of disability. Having a friend with a disability changes how you view the world. For instance, a friend told me how when she befriended someone with a hearing and speech disability, so much changed. When he visited her house, he looked at everything intently because that was his main modality of understanding more about her. Only then did she, (and I), realize how much we depend on sound to understand or get to know a new friend or even our surroundings. Similarly, having Gopal and Drishti as bridges to these seemingly other worlds, could help deepen our understanding. We started with a circle of sharing about one person with disability that we have known ... Read Full Story

Charles Einsenstien: Until The Cosmic Egg Cracks Posted by olivia yu, Feb 05 2019 [Below is a transcript of a talk that Charles shared at our local Awakin Circle.] After that sacred hour of silence, I'm not really sure what to talk about. The Quakers have a saying in their meetings as a guideline about when to speak and when not to speak. They say, ask yourself, is this an improvement on the silence? :) That's a very high bar! Maybe I'll just start with what I've been thinking about today. I'm here on the West Coast by myself. I was with Stella, my partner and Cary, our son, until a few days ago, and then they went back east and I stayed here because I have some events this week, meetings and things like that. So I've been on my own and despite my intentions to the contrary, ended up getting sucked into the inter-webs and getting a big dose of the public discourse today. ... Read Full Story

KindSpring Weekly: Spotlight On Kindness: Kindness Is A Posted by Ameeta Martin, Feb 05 2019 Latest issue of 'KindSpring Weekly' newsletter is themed Spotlight On Kindness: Kindness Is A Skill. As David Brooks states in his article linked below, most disagreements are not about the subject purportedly at hand. They are over issues that make people feel their sense of self is disrespected and under threat. Skillfully discovering why someone feels disrespected goes a long way towards mutual understanding, as Patton Oswalt also found after responding to a disgruntled tweet. - Ameeta