Dalai Lama Foundation Study Circle Montreal

October 31, 2012

a project of ServiceSpace

Lessons Learned from Writing Love Letters to Strangers

“I began leaving love letters all over New York City for strangers to find nearly two years ago. Though the idea sounds romantic, it was really a way to forget about my own feelings of sadness and loneliness for a while and focus on others in the big city who may have been feeling as let down as me. Every morning since that first love letter, I’ve pinned my cursive to writing and mailing love letters to people all over the world, packed with words that hopefully will help, heal, and hold them during a tough time. With every stroke of the pen and sealing of the envelope, I’ve gathered life lessons that I know will never leave me no matter where my letters go.” Hannah Brencher founder of The World Needs More Love Letters shares more. { read more }

Be The Change

Learn more about “The World Needs More Love Letters” movement that Hannah started. Write a note with an inspiring quote, a beautiful poem or some simple words from the heart, and tuck it somewhere for a stranger to find.

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October 30, 2012

a project of ServiceSpace

When I Walk: A Filmmaker’s Journey with MS

30-year-old Jason DaSilva has worked as a filmmaker for ten years. His work has been screened at Sundance, on PBS, HBO, and came close to receiving an Academy Award nomination. Currently Jason is the director and star of an unusual documentary titled, “When I Walk”. The film documents his journey with Multiple Sclerosis. In Jason’s own words it,”provides information and inspiration to those affected by MS and their supporters, and gives a wider audience a unique insight into what happens when a person faces the challenge of living with a disabling chronic illness — while pursuing an artistic career and a busy, wonderful, full life.” { read more }

Be The Change

Practice listening to the way you communicate with yourself and others this week.

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UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Attachment and love are similar in that both of them draw us to the other person. But in fact, these two emotions are quite different. When we’re attached we’re drawn to someone because he or she meets our needs. In addition, there are lots of strings attached to our affection that we may or may not realize are there. For example, I “love” you because you make me feel good. I “love” you as long as you do things that I approve of. I “love” you because you’re mine. You’re my spouse or my child or my parent or my friend. With attachment, we go up and down like a yo-yo, depending on how the other person treats us. We obsess, “What do they think of me? Do they love me? Have I offended them? How can I become what they want me to be so that they love me even more?” It’s not very peaceful, is it? We’re definitely stirred up.

On the other hand, the love we’re generating on the Dharma path is unconditional. We simply want other to have happiness and the causes of happiness without any strings attached, without any expectations of what these people will do for us or how good they’ll make us feel.

October 29, 2012

a project of ServiceSpace

Jacob Needleman: Probing Higher Intelligence

Renowned writer and philosopher, Jacob Needleman, talks about his life: “I began to feel, without knowing how to say it, that when I was looking at a grasshopper or a frog, I was looking at a great idea. The ideas were like living beings! And the living beings were ideas! And so I wanted to go into this field. I wanted to be a philosopher.” Further on in this interview, he says, “No matter how many explanations you make of how things work mechanically, there’s no explanation, really, about why? And there’s no explanation, really, about how? I’m just not impressed by the belief that the brilliance of science means we can conclude that there’s no higher intelligence in the universe.” { read more }

Be The Change

See if you can remember a moment when it seemed like another intelligence was at work in you.

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October 28, 2012

a project of ServiceSpace

Lessons in the Old Language

“90% of the world’s languages are dying and will be gone within decades, displaced by the cold, placeless tongues of global commerce and colonization. Millions of voices…are going silent and with them the local wisdom borne of millennia of intimate and sustainable communion with place extinguished. The very fabric of life on the planet is also under siege by the same forces. The problem of endangered languages and cultures is, thus, everyone’s problem. To paraphrase the great Japanese poet Issei, “if we look carefully into the dragonfly’s eye, we can see the mountain behind our shoulder.” { read more }

Be The Change

Try to use language today that reunites the human and more-than-human worlds.

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October 27, 2012

a project of ServiceSpace

One Hat, One Heart

Seeds of Light is the humanitarian service arm of CoreLight, an international non-profit organization practicing “love-in-action.” One Hat One Heart is a project that provides handmade, warm winter hats to orphans and vulnerable children in Mpumalanga, South Africa. These hats are the medium through which joy and open-heartedness are being expressed. This short video on their work demonstrates what’s possible through love. { read more }

Be The Change

Try handcrafting a gift this week for someone you care about.

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CULTIVATE A COMPASSIONATE MIND

The fundamental teaching of the Buddha is that we should view others as being more important than we are. Of course, you cannot completely ignore yourself. But neither can you neglect the welfare of other people and other sentient beings, particularly when there is a clash of interest between your own welfare and the welfare of other people. At such a time you should consider other people’s welfare as more important than your own personal well-being. Compare yourself to the rest of sentient beings. All other sentient beings are countless, while you are just one person. Your suffering and happiness may be very important, but it is just the suffering and happiness of one individual, whereas the happiness and suffering of all other sentient beings is immeasurable and countless. So, it is the way of the wise to sacrifice one for the benefit of the majority and it is the way of the foolish to sacrifice the majority on behalf of just one single individual. Even from the point of view of your personal well-being, you must cultivate a compassionate mind—that is that source of happiness in your life.