Dalai Lama Foundation Study Circle Montreal

A work of art is a gift, not a commodity. Where there is no gift, there is no art. — Lewis Hyde

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Inspiration of the Day:
One day, San Francisco artist Jane Baker realized something. Now she operates from a new place — new, but also very old: “I don’t know art history that well, but it is only in the last few hundred years that art has been a commodity. Before that, most artists were doing it out of their love for, frankly, for God or their church. Most of the art that’s been made has not been made for money. So I’m standing with a group that has been around for a lot longer! It’s not a weak, touchy-feely place. What I’ve started feeling is that, yes, they really knew what was right! And it lasted a long time before this particular period we are all in.” Works & Conversations interviews Baker, who has a practice of donating one hundred percent of the income from sales of her artwork to charities. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4660

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Be The Change:
Consider how your own art making can rest on a foundation of service.

**Share A Reflection**
http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?qid=4660

Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness. — Marshall McLuhan

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Inspiration of the Day:
Daniel Simons has become one of the most influential young cognitive scientists in the last decade, co-authoring smash-hit studies in two different fields. He’s best-known for his “Gorillas in our Midst” study, co-authored with Christopher Chabris, where viewers are shown a 45-second video of six students tossing around basketballs. Viewers are instructed to carefully count only the passes between players dressed in white. What they aren’t told is that halfway through the video, a woman dressed in a gorilla suit will walk into the middle of the screen, beat her chest, and walk off. Amazingly, when viewers don’t know about the gorilla in advance, about half of them miss it completely. Seed Magazine interviews Simons. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4653

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Be The Change:
Question intuitions and assumptions about how your mind works. Check out the Gorilla demo, a top 10 illusion of the year, and more. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4653a

**Share A Reflection**
http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?qid=4653

Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. — Rumi

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Inspiration of the Day:
“Every single day, I went out into the world to seek out someone I had never before met. I introduced myself and asked them if I could photograph them. I took something valuable away from every encounter and did my best to pass that along.” Artist Joshua Langlais started the “I Heart Strangers” project as an attempt to love his neighbors. Starting it in 2008 with the intention of doing it for a year, he kept it up for 625 days. “I get all my inspiration from meeting people and developing relationships. I see community and conversation and loving people as the only things that matter,” Langlais explained. As he went on with the project, he realized that it was actually transforming him. “I learn about myself through the daily processes and continue to grow and better relate to others and genuinely feel more compassion for what is happening to the world around me.” http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4628

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Be The Change:
Connect with someone you’ve never met — and pour your full presence into that interaction.

**Share A Reflection**
http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?qid=4628

If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. — Pearl Buck

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Good News of the Day:
The world’s 6,000 or so modern languages may have all descended from a single ancestral tongue spoken by early African humans around 50,000 years ago, a new study suggests. The finding could help explain how the first spoken language emerged, spread and contributed to the evolutionary success of the human species. Quentin Atkinson, an evolutionary psychologist and author of the study, found that the first migrating populations leaving Africa laid the groundwork for all the world’s cultures by taking their single language with them — the mother of all mother tongues. “It was the catalyst that spurred the human expansion that we all are a product of,” Dr. Atkinson said. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4579

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Be The Change:
“Each day, our tribe of language holds what we call the ‘world’ together.” John O’Donohue explores the depth of language. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4579a

**Share A Reflection**
http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?qid=4579

The human heart feels things the eyes cannot see, and knows what the mind cannot understand. — Robert Valett

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Good News of the Day:
Did you know that briefly re-experiencing a cherished memory creates synchronization in your heart rhythm in mere seconds? It increases the release of healthy, energizing hormones, while decreasing levels of damaging stress hormones, and strengthening the immune system. HeartMath, an emotional physiology research institute, has also discovered that if someone has a coherent heart rhythm, it has a demonstrably positive effect on other people in close proximity. Their cutting edge research establishes the physical heart as central to human health, success and fulfillment. But how do you ‘change your heart?’ According to their research, “If you consciously shift your attention to a positive emotion, like appreciation or care, or if you allow your thoughts to return to the feeling of a cherished memory, your heart rhythm changes immediately.” http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4609

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Be The Change:
Make an effort today to be aware of how your state of mind is affecting your body.

**Share A Reflection**
http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?qid=4609

All models are false but some are useful. — George E. P. Box

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Tip of the Day:
Edge Magazine called for eminent scientists, philosophers, and artists to submit responses to the question, “What scientific concept would improve everybody’s toolkit?” The results have recently been published online. A common basis among the responses was that many people currently misunderstand the scientific process, undervalue the need for scientific doubt, and fail to recognize the role of failure. As remedies, the world’s biggest brains suggest better understanding the limits of what science can tell us, being comfortable with uncertainty, and knowing the worth of failure as valuable tools that would improve our lives. http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4608

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Be The Change:
What are some open questions that excite you? For inspiration, a short passage by celebrated poet Rainer Maria Rilke on “Living our Questions:” http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4608a

**Share A Reflection**
http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?qid=4608