Awakin Readings, Now In Turkish And Romanian! Posted by Somik Raha, Feb 20 2018 For our weekly Awakin readings, we typically get five language translations each week: English, German, Hindi, Gujarati, and Spanish. Few weeks ago, Aslinur added a six language: Turkish. And as of this week, Ashima's circle in Bucarest has now become our seventh language: Romanian.

Everyone Does It In Their Own Way Posted by Nimo Patel, Feb 20 2018 It's nice to see someone like Drake do this kind of a video: “The budget for this video was $996,631.90,” it tells us. “We gave it all away. Don’t tell the label…” From handing out literal stacks of cash to a shocked family sitting on a curb to announcing over megaphone that all the shoppers in a grocery store are getting their food for free, Drake comes through like an unexpected angel of generosity, leaving emotional fans in tears in his wake. But he’s having fun while he’s at it: working with his signature “Hotline Bling” moves, Drake does take time for a dance break in a shopping mall and at a school. The video serves as a kind of early campaign piece for the return of Drake. And this time, he’s leaning fully into his soft side, distributing hugs and grins like candy. “We’re nothing without our mothers, so thank you,” a clip shows him saying to a woman at the end of the video.

Bringing Gandhi Into Our Lives Posted by Yoav Peck, Feb 20 2018 During the week we spent together at Gandhi 3.0, I became aware of the emphasis I put on the "doing" of life, of activism. And that doing-ness has to be. The question that arose during the week is: on what basis does the doing rest, from what wellspring does the activism spring forth? In what way is the inner Yoav getting expressed in all the meetings and arrangements and army permits and sound equipment handling?? I am not a praying sort of guy. But I am connected to God in my own way -- in the forest, when sailing a small boat, and in the moments of grace between people at Sulha gatherings. But it does seem like I don't bring my reverence, my gratitude, my vision into my daily work. Not enough. So I'm now looking at possibilities for bringing my experience in India into my daily living/working. In Ahmedabad, among you ... Read Full Story

A Revolutionary Amongst Us At Kindness In The Park Posted by Poonam Singh, Feb 19 2018 He came walking toward us. I said “Here. Please take a flower.” He said “oh wow. I will, but I have nothing to give back.” We said that is ok. There is no agenda here. It is kindness in the park. My sister Marie holds space like this regularly in the park. We call it Disruptive Kindness. He said he comes from South Africa. He had lived in the US for many years, but then he went back to his home in South Africa. He is now back in the United States just for a few days to finish up some work. He has no place to sleep, he said casually and with a big smile on his face. He said he is facing some hard times. Again that smile. He said: “Challenges are opportunities upside down, right?” You really made my day, he said. His smile got bigger. He said he would tell his family back home ... Read Full Story

Having A Choice To Make A Choice Is A Priviledge Posted by Trupti Pandya, Feb 18 2018 We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid or we can let them soften us, and make us kinder. You always have the choice- Dalai Lama While I was at work yesterday at the women's rescue home, I heard a girl calling out my name out of joy saying, look didi who is here. I looked back and I saw a little girl who looked quite baffled with all the new faces around her. Her name is Aliya. She is around 3 years old. I was seeing her after a year so it took me awhile to recognize her. She is the daughter of a sister who is specially-abled. She was abused while she was staying on the streets. She delivered her baby in a public garden when she was less than twenty years of age. She was later brought to ... Read Full Story

Geese Inspired Goose Bumps Posted by Rajesh Kadam, Feb 16 2018 At last Wednesday's Awakin Circle, we heard the remarkable story of Dacher's encounter with the geese -- and his subsequent research on awe. I was in Bhutan with my dear friend, Lief. We were in a little village that revolved around these snow geese that migrate to Bhutan. They're big birds. The villagers see them, they name them, they each have individual identities. The whole village revolves around them, and they have this great relationship to them. They're these big, beautiful birds, and I think there are only 5,500 in the world. They migrate to Siberia. As we were about to head to this monastery to visit this Buddhist monastery, people were telling us, "Well, you know, this monastery is special because when the birds migrate to Siberia, they fly up through this valley and they go seven miles away to this monastery, and then they fly around the prayer ... Read Full Story

Inspiring Link Posted by Michaele Premet-Rosen, Feb 16 2018 Opinion: Van Jones and Valarie Kaur: Americans need to love each other Today Van Jones and Valarie Kaur want to talk about a different kind of love: How Americans can start loving each other in 2018 — even the people we disagree with the most.

21 Day Pilgrimage Reflections Posted by Zilong Wang, Feb 16 2018 Past the point of no return No backward glances The games we've played till now are at an end Past all thought of if or when No use resisting Abandon thought and let the dream descend -- Phantom of the Opera Another volunteer at Gandhi 3.0 said it well: "I come this year to volunteer, hoping to repay in a small way the life-changing gift I have received at last year's retreat. But I am leaving with even greater debt of gratitude." Volunteering at this year's Gandhi 3.0 retreat has definitely been a life-changing gift which I could never repay. But before I could think of how to pay forward the blessings, I was blown away by another gift. Before I could even thank the volunteer team for allowing me to join the caravan at the last minute, they had the "insanity" of thanking me. When they handed me the exquisite, hand-made booklet of "21-Day Pilgrim's Challenge", I couldn't ... Read Full Story

Passing It On, With Gratitude And Humility. Posted by Jyoti , Feb 16 2018 I recently taught an intense immersive story telling course to college seniors who surprised me with the very positive feedback they gave for the course. On a question of rating the course on a scale of 1 to 5, several students wrote kind words which jumped off the page to hit me with the obvious: these were compliments that belonged to my noble friends and unknown teams of volunteers from ServiceSpace. So many ideas I used in the class came directly from my engagement over the past few years with the ServiceSpace community. My first experience of ServiceSpace was at an Awakin Circle. I started the class daily with a circle. Something magical about a group of 26 people holding empty space in the middle as they stand in a circle. Birju's idea of a minute of silence was borrowed to say, let us arrive fully in the present with a ... Read Full Story

A Radiologist Who Held Space Posted by Devendra Tayade, Feb 15 2018 [Last week, we had a stirring call with doctors. It was the third of our six weekly calls as part of our Laddership Circle for doctors, and the theme we explored more deeply was on "holding space". Venu Julapalli, a gastroenterologist who's co-conspiring a Health 3.0 movement and a thoughtful member of our circle, shared a stirring encounter with an "old-timer " radiologist who simply held space. Below is a transcript of his story.] My friend had an experience around the death of his father. He had a decision to make in terms of withdrawing support and his family convinced him to withdraw it. Medically, after he told me the details, I think it was the only decision he could have made. But he had never forgiven himself for essentially -- in his perception -- giving up on his father. By pulling the plug, he destroyed himself for it for years. As ... Read Full Story

A Ripple Of Karma Kitchen Posted by Thuy Nguyen, Feb 15 2018 I think a lot of you know of my healing journeys to New Mexico, but I wanted to send heartfelt gratitude -- because it all started at a meeting with Justice Yazzie at Karma Kitchen! Our friendship has grown and I will be traveling back this Spring to set up a pop-up Chinese Medicine clinic for the Navajo people there. I've written about the whole thing in my latest musing, and also mentioned ServiceSpace. I think back with wonder at the divine plan that created my first meeting with Justice Yazzie. At that time, I was struggling to express my understanding of the heart of Chinese Medicine. The root of Chinese Medicine seemed so breathtakingly simple, so overlooked, so misunderstood and so needed in this world but I was filled with trepidation and self-doubt about my ability to teach such startlingly simple yet profound ideas. Meeting Justice Yazzie was just the right medicine at the right time for me to grow in my work. This healing journey has helped me overcome my small self, the source of my self-doubt, and re-connects me to the bigger truth of healing. Thank you many times over.

Here Is The Statement We At ... Posted by Yoav Peck, Feb 15 2018 Here is the statement we at Sulha will hand out in Arabic and Hebrew and English at tonight's gathering. I was thinking of Ahmedabad and all of you as I wrote it. Welcome to the Sulha Peace Project! Since 2000, Sulha has brought Israelis and Palestinians together for the purpose of enabling face-to-face connection among us. At this time, when many on both sides are losing hope for substantial change, Sulha offers heart-to-heart engagement between the sides. At Sulha, we go beyond political discussion and direct our attention to the human issues that concern us. We ask questions like, "How is it to live your life in this reality? What do you feel when you face the tasks of your daily life? What are your dreams for the future?" At Sulha, we believe that we all have the right to live our lives in peace and freedom, without oppression and fear. The ... Read Full Story

Patrick Cook-Deegan: Re-Imagining High School Posted by Preeta Bansal, Feb 14 2018 This week's Awakin Call guest: 'Patrick Cook-Deegan: Re-Imagining High School Reflection questions: What would our education system look like if it focused on helping students develop purpose, a healthy sense of self, and a vision for their lives? Our guest this week believes that we have been conditioned by the rewards of our educational system to aim for "compliance and blind drive over purpose and self-actualization." How do you distinguish purpose from drive?

KindSpring Weekly: Spotlight On Kindness: Amor Fati Posted by Ameeta Martin, Feb 13 2018 Latest issue of 'KindSpring Weekly' newsletter is themed Spotlight On Kindness: Amor Fati. How much are we actually in control of the path of our lives? I think our actions (and inactions) move us along and on/off our paths, but the main path we are asked to travel on during our lifetime is well beyond our control. Many wisdom seekers have come to embrace our chosen paths: "amor fati", literally "love of fate" - to love what is put before us; not just bear it, but love it. -- Ameeta

Gary On The "Universal Human" Posted by Nisha Srinivasan, Feb 13 2018 [Towards the middle of our Gandhi 3.0 retreat, we had a stirring Community Night at the Gandhi Ashram -- where Gary Zukav lucidly spoke to the crowd of 250 friends from around India. Through his books, Gary's message has reached millions and transformed the lives of many -- including mine. His books, Dancing Wu Li Masters and Seat of the Soul, were formative influences in my college years. Yet after having spent last couple days with him, I would introduce him as just a loving grandfather. Below is a lightly edited transcript of Gary's luminous remarks from the evening, on the Universal Human. He later remarked, "For the first time, I spoke of the Universal Human, which I have been writing a book about for thirty years. Gandhi's ashram seemed the perfect place to introduce the Universal Human because I think of Gandhi as a Universal Human when few existed."] I ... Read Full Story

Two Stories Of Kindness I Won't Forget Posted by Anuj Pandey, Feb 12 2018 [Beautiful story that was shared recently at our local Awakin Circle.] Hi, my name is Arvind. This is my second time joining this circle, but before speaking on the topic, I just want to say that I came in here feel very heavy hearted and right now, I'm feeling very light hearted. I don't know how that happened, but thank you. So, I don't know if this is spiritual activism or not, but here are two stories I won't forget. One I received, and another I offered. I remember, on second day in the United States, more than 20 years ago, I was driving out. Now, I thought, "If I get lost, I can just stop a tea shop or somewhere and figure it out. Like how we do in India." So I didn't do any homework. And here, all roads look alike. No GPS. I have a little baby in the back, ... Read Full Story

Laddership News: Laddership News: The Power Of Kindness Posted by Jane Murray, Feb 11 2018 This month's 'Laddership Newsletter' was just posted online. 'Kindness', 'kindfulness', 'being kind' - beautiful words that have a gentle warmth to them that disguises the life bending power of the meaning. This month we have two pieces that describe the extraordinary depth and reach of these soft words in action.

3 Weeks Into A Laddership Circle For Doctors Posted by Devendra Tayade, Feb 10 2018 Last Spring, I participated in a 6-week Laddership Circle with many inspired project initiators. I was inspired by the quality, depth, caliber, and tremendous value of many forms that emerged in that space. Lara eloquently described the experience. The dedication was so rich amongst volunteers and fellows alike -- for instance, a member of our circle was traveling one week, and still dialed into our call at 2AM in the local time of the city he was in! Fueled by that inspiration, I wanted to bring that spirit into the doctors I work with at Aravind Eye Hospital -- and with much excitement, we are now midway through a Doctors Laddership Circle -- with both doctors from various branches of our specific eye hospital in India, as well as a few who've been holding questions of healing and transformation in the U.S. After three weeks together, lots of interesting themes are surfacing. ... Read Full Story

21 Day Pilgrim Challenge! Posted by Drishti Trivedi, Feb 09 2018 At the Gandhi 3.0 retreat, we had a small "Secret Service" team, whose job was to figure out unsuspecting acts of kindness to make people's days. It's hard to determine the extent to which it made others smile, :) but it certainly made them incredibly happy to pour so much love into the smallest of things! Two days after the retreat, a final assignment arrived -- Zilong! In gratitude for the deep inspiration he keeps sharing, we wondered if we could offer him a blessing for his journey ahead. But for someone who travels like a pilgrim and lives out of his back-pack, what can we possibly give? Few of us started brainstorming, and quickly an idea emerged: 21-Day Zilong Challenge! We came up with 21 qualities about Zilong that inspires us (that was easy!), wrote a description of each, and crafted a hand-made diary. All who sign up would embark on ... Read Full Story

What *Really* Breaks Your Heart? Posted by Anuj Pandey, Feb 09 2018 [Last Wednesday's beautiful opening by our former summer intern!] Hi, my name is Priya. When I first read the passage, I wanted to make sure that it was something that a 21 year old could kind of speak to all of you who have been through much more than I have. As I was reading the article, sitting with my mom and my siblings in the living room, I decided to read it out loud. I kept nodding along even vocally saying like, yeah, that really makes sense. It was really resonating. But then, when I went upstairs later, my Dad and I started talking about it article and we ended up kind of disagreeing about what the article means. What breaks your heart? There are so many injustices in the world, whether it's about education system or universal healthcare foreign policy or whatever it is -- so many things that break ... Read Full Story