Archive for April 2011

The Art of Giving

April 19, 2011

Where there is no gift, there is no art. — Lewis Hyde

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Inspiration of the Day:
First there was Ehren. Then Fariba, and Ashley. Ehren Tool: “Literally a woman took a photograph of a bowl that I made for her and sold the photograph of the bowl for thousands of dollars in New York. You can’t ask for thousands of dollars for a ceramic bowl. [laughs] But the photograph will last only fifty years; the ceramic piece will last a couple of thousand. So rather than accept five dollars for a cup and say that’s what it’s worth, I just give it away.” Fariba Safai: “I feel that in the process of giving, you’re receiving. You can’t change anybody else. So all you can do is hopefully start with yourself. So in the end, in that process of giving, you’re really self-healing. I think that’s the greatest aspect of the true artist.” http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4505

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Be The Change:
Make something artful and give it to someone.

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Restaurant Chain Displaced By Students

April 18, 2011

Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves — and be free. — Cesar Chavez

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Good News of the Day:
When a 1,300-outlet fast-food chain announced plans to open a branch on the campus of the University of California Berkeley, a group of students protested. Given the nature of the city’s resonance with local, seasonal and organic food, this wasn’t a surprise. However, the students not only defeated the chain but also took their victory one step further by raising $100,000 to replace the fast-food joint with a student-run co-op carrying fresh, local, healthy, sustainable, and fairly produced food that would be sold at affordable prices. As if that weren’t enough, the students have even started an organization to train students nationwide how to open their own campus food co-ops. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4514

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Be The Change:
Get your next produce from local farmers.

**Share A Reflection**
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Smile Newsletter: Confronting Road Rage With Compassion

April 17, 2011
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Apr 17, 2011
“Even after all this time, The sun never says to the earth, “You owe me.” Look what happens with A love like that. It lights the whole sky.” — Hafiz of Persia
Idea of the Week
128.jpg“Two years ago, on the day before Easter, I gave my three children money instead of Easter baskets. Later that evening, we were all sat watching television, when an infomercial came on about starving children. I couldn’t help tearing up when my children said, “Mom, can we give our Easter money to these children?” I said “yes” and told them that God was going to bless them for this. I wrote a cheque and sent it off in the mail. I wanted to go get them Easter baskets for their kind act, but I didn’t have any more money. To my surprise, on Easter morning, a couple of ladies from a church we used to attend came over with a big box. I didn’t open it until they left, and when I did, tears started streaming down my and I fell to the floor with gratitude. It contained Easter baskets for my children and a gas card for my family. The universe sometimes knocks you on your knees in tears from the way it works…” — god4me

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Stories of the Week
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Dinner With An Unexpected Friend Changed My Life >>
A Bus-Load of Appreciation >>
Confronting Road Rage With Compassion >>
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Bell Curve of Empathy

April 17, 2011

It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to. — W. C. Fields

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Good News of the Day:
Rhesus monkeys can be trained to pull a chain to obtain food but will refuse to do so if this means another monkey receives an electric shock. How do those monkeys compare with Nazi concentration camp guards? It was childhood tales of Nazi atrocities that first set the Cambridge psychologist, Simon Baron-Cohen, on the path of studying human cruelty and empathy. Instead of “evil”, Simon frames such acts as “empathy erosion” in his book, Zero Degrees of Empathy. Unempathic acts are simply the tail end of a bell curve, found in every population on the planet, and thus, any problem immersed in empathy becomes solvable. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4561

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Be The Change:
Take the empathy test and figure out what is your EQ — Empathy Quotient. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4561a

**Share A Reflection**
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Our Mentors Are Where We Are

April 16, 2011

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. — The Buddha

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Tip of the Day:
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Wherever you go, there you are”? The same could be said for our mentors. Shannon Cutts spoke to a crowd of several hundred students at Truman State University about body image and eating disorders. The truth she shared with students is that most of us simply don’t have time to stop and analyze all of the messages that come at us each day. Most of us don’t even have time to stop and notice that those messages are there. Yet they mentor us. They sink into our awareness anyway — whether we invited them to do so or not. Wherever we go, there we are. And our mentors will go with us… both the mentors we consciously choose, and the mentors which we allow to choose us unconsciously. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4510

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Be The Change:
Reflect on the thoughts, messages, and mentors that influence you.

**Share A Reflection**
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Dalai Lama Quote from Snow Lion Publications

April 15, 2011
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Dalai Lama Quote of the Week

Practice of the morality of individual liberation, whether lay or monastic, leads to contentment…. Examine your attitudes toward food, clothes, and shelter. By reducing expectations you will promote contentment. The extra energy which is released should be devoted to meditation and to achieving cessation of problems, corresponding to the fourth and third noble truths. In this way, contentment is the basis, and the resulting action is called “liking meditation and abandonment.”

We should be contented in material areas, for those are bound by limitation, but not with regard to the spiritual, which can be extended limitlessly. Though it is true that a discontented person who owned the whole world might want to own a tourist center on the moon, that person’s life is limited, and even the amount that can be owned is limited. It is better right from the beginning to be contented.

However, with regard to compassion and altruism there is no limit, and thus we should not be content with the degree that we have. We are just the opposite; in the spiritual field we are content with slight amounts of practice and progress, but materially we always want more and more. It should be the other way around. Everyone needs to practice this, whether lay or monastic. (p.67)

–from How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins

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Video of the Week: The Orangutan and the Hound Dog

April 15, 2011
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Apr 15, 2011
2311.jpg The Orangutan and the Hound Dog
Suryia and Roscoe are the best of friends. What makes their story unusual is that Suryia is an orangutan and Roscoe is a Blue Tick hound that became friends instantly, when they crossed paths at a South Carolina preserve for endangered animals. Now they swim together, play together, share cookies, take each other out for walks…and generally bring a smile to the faces of all that see them together.

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The Chef’s Way of Giving Back

April 15, 2011

Down in their hearts, wise men know this truth: the only way to help yourself is to help others. — Elbert Hubbard

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Good News of the Day:
When, Haley, who had struggled through poverty most of his life, finally started garnering success in his restaurant business, he realized that he still wasn’t happy. So, while he was searching for something that would make his life more meaningful, that something found him instead: the children. At a charity event, Haley agreed to sponsor two orphaned girls. Back then, he had no clue that these girls would become the reason he would travel half way round the world, meet a new bunch of joyous kids, cook meals for them, reunite them with their families, and receive a striking sense of inner peace in return. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4512

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Be The Change:
Think of ways of giving back to a community or person for whom you are grateful.

**Share A Reflection**
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Dharma Quote from Snow Lion Publications

April 14, 2011
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Dharma Quote of the Week

The spiritual path is truly simple. It is simple because it is not about acquiring, accumulating, or achieving anything. It is all about giving up what we don’t need. It’s about giving up what isn’t useful instead of acquiring things with the idea of going somewhere or achieving something. That was the old game. That game which we have been playing for a long time is like a vicious circle. It has no end.

Sometimes the spiritual search itself prevents us from seeing the truth that is always one with us. We have to know when to stop the search. There are people who die while they are searching for the highest truth with philosophical formulas and esoteric techniques. For them spiritual practice becomes another egoic plot which simply maintains and feeds delusions. Amazing! Buddha, God, truth, the divine, the great mystery, whatever you have been searching for, is here right now. (p.37)

–from No Self, No Problem by Anam Thubten, edited by Sharon Roe, published by Snow Lion Publications

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Connecting for Good: Social Networks in 2015

April 14, 2011

Social networks are not new. The difference is we have the ability to bridge to each other in ways we never did before. — Trabian Shorters

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Good News of the Day:
New networks are emerging everywhere. It’s exciting, and daunting. What is this new network-centric world? What could it mean for community and social change? A new report by the Knight Foundation and Monitor Institute explores how an increasingly connected world – where social networks are proliferating on and off-line- will affect the way people push for social change by 2015. Drawing from more than 70 rich examples of how networks are being used to build better and more engaged communities, the report highlights 5 promising ways people can use networks for social action. They include: listening to the crowd to gain new perspectives and designing for serendipity. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4558

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Be The Change:
Leverage social networks for good. Learn more:
http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4558a

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