Teens On Wisdom Posted by Sophie Wu, Jul 16 2018 As we round out Week 4 of our Summer Internship, I'm smiling wide just reading the insights of our teenage interns, Ellie and Adi! Here's a few excerpts from their experiences this week -- on the theme of "Wisdom"! ... In his dialogue, Satish Kumar says, "You cannot change the world. You can change yourself." Do you agree? Why? I think it is more important to change yourself internally rather than the external world because you will not be able to change your surroundings with a genuine intention unless you are internally ready. In his talk, Barry Schwartz describe the unsung wisdom janitors tap into on the job. This week, you actively thanked public servants. What did you learn? I learned so much more than I had expected by thanking public servants this week. I spent this past week at an overnight summer camp and I found several wonderful opportunities to thank public workers, ... Read Full Story

Nuggets From Sheryl Davis's Call Posted by Pavi Mehta, Jul 16 2018 Last Saturday, we had the privilege of hosting Awakin Call with Sheryl Davis. Sheryl Evans Davis, Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, has provided life-changing public service and advocacy for almost thirty years. In her current public role, she continues her untiring work towards increasing access, opportunity and equity for vulnerable populations. Whether volunteering to teach low-income students when she was a teacher at a more affluent school nearby, or spearheading a collaborative partnership of organizations to address community issues in underserved neighborhoods, Sheryl has acted on her core belief that we all have the power to help...it's about "being a human bridge, making that meaningful connection, and changing someone's life, sometimes just by seeing them." Davis learned early on from her mother that you can't change others; "the only person you have control over is you. So... figure out what you can do that can help ... Read Full Story

Yuval Noah Harari And Vipassana Posted by Somik Raha, Jul 15 2018 Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, shares his experience with Vipassana. Many gems in it. Like the sign of something being real is whether it suffers, "In a war, nations don't suffer. Soldiers do. Civilians do." He calls nations unreal - a fiction.

Laddership News: Laddership News: Enthusiasm Posted by Jane Murray, Jul 15 2018 This month's 'Laddership Newsletter' was just posted online. The stories this month reminded me of how beautiful the word 'enthusiasm' is - the divine within. Its synonyms equally so: ardour, devotion, spirit, passion, warmth and zeal. All of these words are fractals of the vibrant energy that moves through our ecosystem, whether its an 'en theos' retreat in the Philippines or a heArt circle by Trupti - all united by the many colours of enthusiasm.

Nuggets From Myron Eshowsky's Call Posted by Gayathri Ramachandran, Jul 15 2018 Myron Eshowsky is a mediator, shamanic healer, and community trauma healer. Author of Peace with Cancer: Shamanism as a Spiritual Approach to Healing, he was the first to be covered by a U.S. health insurance plan specifically for spiritual healing. Watching his own father struggle with and ultimately succumb to cancer deepened his commitment to explore the spiritual, physical, and environmental terrains of illness. Born with congenital severe hearing loss, he spent years developing and recognizing skills for being in the hearing world -- and came to appreciate how much the skill of listening is core to the process of peacemaking and healing. He listens with his heart and something he calls intuition. In the healing practice he conducts, he listens to what is going on in this world and also to the other world, the spirit realm that requires a type of going in and connecting where he hears ... Read Full Story

Nukta Posted by Micky O'Toole, Jul 14 2018 Yesterday's "Inclusion" prompt was about "Celebrating the Pillars in Your Life." I wrote about a book I read years ago called Pillars of the Earth that told the story about people who worked on a beautiful cathedral that most would never in their lifetimes see finished. The paragraph and poem below is an excerpt from that post. I'm sharing it here too since the inspiration originally came from Service Space and an article by Nipun about Dada Vaswani. The older I get, the more connected i feel to those who have come before me. It's as though, in my youth, formed from the stream of all humanity, I, liquid, walked around in human form. I was still a part of the ever-flowing stream comprised of every creature with a soul that has ever been, is now, and ever will be. As I grew older, I collected debris and solidified, and this became ... Read Full Story

Manila Update: Many Ripples From Your Seeds! Posted by Ana Valdes, Jul 14 2018 Dearest Family, We have been writing you many times in our heart. A few stories to share. En Theos We did two En theos retreats ! En theos means “in God” and it is also the root word for enthusiasm. We held circle for 40 people, and began to practice a culture of kindness outside school walls. We did this by enabling “invisible service” and “silent service” for each other. Each day, we took some 25 people to wrap and package lunch in banana leaves, and gifts for street people, and we took a van to the streets to distribute lunches, sandwiches, and gifts of love. We served 190 meals each day (380 meals in total of 2 days). We hugged the police men, the street vendors, construction workers, and anyone who would accept our love. One mother, Nati, had 5 children, the youngest a 3 month old baby was sleeping in a cardboard box ... Read Full Story

Scribbles On The Wall Posted by Nisha Srinivasan, Jul 14 2018 When I was 2 years old, my parents stretched their finances and loans to build a moderate house in the outskirts of a small town. And when I was 9, they planned to have the house re-painted with their scanty savings. Every day, a few men would climb on a ladder and do some work with strong smelling paints of different colors. One day, as I returned home from school, those men had disappeared. I was so surprised to find this fresh, sky blue canvas in our living room ... on all four sides! So I did the most natural thing that came to me -- took the two sketch pens we had and started drawing (what most others would call scribbling) over the walls. As a habit, every day, at 5 p.m, I would stop playing, climb onto a platform in our backyard and start looking over our fence for my father's red ... Read Full Story

Sunshine (Awakin) Sit In The Chi! Posted by Roshni Shah, Jul 14 2018 Our Awakin Circle in Chicago this week ...

The Horse In The Sky Posted by Jay H Patel, Jul 13 2018 I'd like to share a short story about one's relation to the larger universe. It's called.. The Horse in the Sky "As we get ready for landing in India, please return to your seats and fasten the seat belts. It's 7am at our destination, with a temperature of 30 degrees celsius on land. If all goes well, we should hit the ground running in about 15 minutes." Mann was awakened from his sleep by the lights coming on in the cabin. He sensed activity around him as other passengers also woke up, some talking to each other, others standing up to make a last trip to the bathroom. He was too tired to pay any attention to his surroundings, or even to blink his bloodshot eyes. Finals week had taken a toll on his body, leaving him with barely any sleep in the last two days. Confined to a narrow window seat ... Read Full Story

Posted by Nipun Mehta, Jul 12 2018 Dada Vaswani passed away today, just a few days before his 100th birthday. A monk for 80 years, he had a Sufi background but lived a truly interfaith life. For his millions of followers, he is their link to God. From the Pope to Mother Teresa to Dalai Lama, he was known to practically all of the world's great leaders of his time -- and everyone had a very common refrain about him: this man emanates love. Love. There's really no other way to describe him. A few years ago, I remember a dialogue he held with the ServiceSpace community in Pune, India. Audrey happened to be in the crowd and later told us, "Right as he walked in, I had tears in my eyes. I don't know why. And they continued for the whole hour, until he left." That's just what it's like to be around him. Whether you cry or not, ... Read Full Story

Thai Boys Were Meditating In Cave! Posted by Smita Navare, Jul 11 2018 *Meditation kept the Thai boys trapped in a cave astonishingly calm* July 10, 2018 by PAUL RATNER The story of the Thai boys soccer team trapped in a cave for two weeks has captivated millions of people around the world. Lost since June 23rd, the group spent ten days without any contact with the outside world. It was finally discovered on July 2nd and rescued on July 10th. It turned out that Ekapol Chanthawong, the 25-year-old coach of the 12-player Wild Boars soccer team, is a former Buddhist monk. He spent a decade living as a monk and is a practitioner of meditation. It is that skill that has been credited with keeping the boys calm during this ordeal. In fact, when the British divers discovered them after ten days, the group was meditating. Aisha Wiboonrungrueng, the mother of the 11-year-old Chanin, who was trapped in the cave, thinks the coach’s background definitely helped ... Read Full Story

KindSpring Weekly: Spotlight On Kindness: Finding Your Posted by Ameeta Martin, Jul 10 2018 Latest issue of 'KindSpring Weekly' newsletter is themed Spotlight On Kindness: Finding Your Truth. Truth is more than an external set of facts. It is a wisdom deep within each of us that reveals itself through our feelings and intuition, often best accessed when we are in silence. We are born with love and kindness embedded in us, and yet often all we can feel is a kind of fear that suppresses this deep wisdom. Let's stop listening to our minds' fears and tune in to our hearts more.- Ameeta

Teaching+T: Simple Humanity Posted by Audrey Lin, Jul 10 2018 Latest issue of 'Teaching + Transformation' newsletter is themed Simple Humanity. From higher ed best practices, to multimedia lessons, to a compassionate educator's end-of-life gift, these stories stir up compelling reminders of our simple, shared humanity.

The Very First “Awakin Circle” In Hue, Posted by Pham Thi, Jul 10 2018 In 2016, a small group including staff, volunteers and good friends of a small local NGO called Action for The City in Hue, Vietnam gathered almost every week to have lunch in circle, followed with heart to heart sharing or playing fun games together. It then became our weekly circle of mindful lunch and sharing, a so called “Circle of Togetherness”. Inspired by Awakin Wednesdays and celebrate the spirit of community, we have recently shifted our local circle into Awakin Circle format. Last Saturday July 7, our very first Awakin Circle was hosted in a small, cozy living room in Citadel, Hue. A group of 8 young friends started the evening with an hour of stillness. Most of us are new to meditation but we surprised ourselves by remaining sitting meditation till the end. The sharing session after that was a great chance of listening to each other from the heart. Many beautiful ... Read Full Story

Awakin Kids Circles Continue In Surat! Posted by Parag Shah, Jul 09 2018 Email from Manish in Surat: After completion of 6th Awakin Kids circle, children are inspired to meditate and open up more with their sharing. It is a great time with meditation, story reading, art & crafts, learning with video, sharing of kids and parents, game playing, prayers inchorus, and yummy food. For us, their love = time spent incircle. :) Thank you!

Nuggets From Michael Penn's Call Posted by Preeta Bansal, Jul 08 2018 We had the privilege of hosting a remarkable Awakin Call with Michael Penn this past weekend. Dr. Penn's extraordinary life's journey as well his life's work embody the nature of hope, the theme of the call. Please forgive the extensive notes from the call, but there were just so many wisdom nuggets to savor and capture! By way of background – around the age of twenty-two, a near death experience transformed Dr. Michael Penn into a seeker. Following this profound encounter with his own mortality, he began an extensive study of sacred texts and the works of the founders of the world’s religions. Today, following a remarkable life's journey growing up in an abandoned school bus to seemingly miraculous and coincidental opportunities, Professor Penn is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Franklin & Marshall College. His research interests and publications include works in the pathogenesis of hope and hopelessness, ... Read Full Story

Definition Of Genius Posted by Jon Madian, Jul 08 2018 I pray all is well with all of you. I've been thinking of all of you since my memorable visit to the Bayarea last month. Below is a video that seems very much aligned with all we do at ServiceSpace ...

10 Kinds Of Circles Volunteers Can Start! Posted by Swara Pandya, Jul 04 2018 When I talk to volunteers, a commonly asked question is often, "What can I do?" Our main response is "join a circle" or "start a circle". For the latter, most people think Awakin Circles are the only kind of circles, and hosting an Awakin can be intimidating for many. But in practice, there are actually lots of different circle options. Few of us just made a list of 10 different kinds of circles that are now also featured on the MBL site. Any more to add?

Life After Facebook Posted by Zilong Wang, Jul 04 2018 "The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, ... was all about: 'How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?'… It's a social-validation feedback loop ... exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you're exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology… The inventors, creators — it's me, it's Mark [Zuckerberg], it's Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it's all of these people — understood this consciously. And we did it anyway… It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains." -- Sean Parker, the founding president of Facebook It's been over two months since I've gone off of Facebook and other social media platforms (Instagram, WeChat Circle, etc). I have almost forgotten about Facebook's existence until it came up in conversation. I do ... Read Full Story