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Desmond Tutu, The Wisdom of Forgiveness
In our country, we speak of something called ubuuntu. When I want to praise you, the highest praise I can give you is to say, you have ubuuntu — this person has what it takes to be a human being. This is a person who recognizes that he exists only because others exist: a person is a person through other persons. When we say you have ubuuntu, we mean that you are gentle, you are compassionate, you are hospitable, you want to share, and you care about the welfare of others. This is because my humanity is caught up in your humanity. So when I dehumanize others, whether I like it or not, inexorably, I dehumanize myself. For we can only by human, we can only be free, together. To forgive is actually the best form of self-interest.
Ubuuntu the highest praise I can give you
Margaret Silf, Wayfaring
Cells grow by division. Jesus "divided" himself by sharing his love and his meaning with a small group of friends. . . .
We could even call this first group of friends a "starter kit" for the Kingdom, as a lump of leavened dough starts the next loaf going.
Cells grow by division
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Celebrating Silence
Austerity comes out of abundance, and austerity brings abundance. If you feel a lack in any area of life, immediately start austerity. Austerity not only brings freedom but nurtures sharing and caring.
Austerity comes out of abundance
Laughter in My Heart
By Meenu Ravi for the KidSpirit Exploring Humor Issue
Laughter is the world’s most common language. I can’t imagine life without laughter. It’s like cake without the yummy frosting.
I think of humor as a sister to love, because when someone is laughing, it seems they beam. When I’m laughing, the air smells sweeter to me, the colors around me are more vivid, nothing else seems to matter much at that moment.
By Meenu Ravi for the KidSpirit Exploring Humor Issue
Laughter is the world’s most common language. I can’t imagine life without laughter. It’s like cake without the yummy frosting.
I think of humor as a sister to love, because when someone is laughing, it seems they beam. When I’m laughing, the air smells sweeter to me, the colors around me are more vivid, nothing else seems to matter much at that moment.
At the Movies
"There are many reasons we find movies entertaining. We get a chance to escape our mundane, predictable lives and get into someone else's shoes. Good movies have a way of drawing us into the characters' consciousness, values, and lifestyle. We, the audience, empathize with the characters, often to the point of feeling their fear or sadness. We leave the theater with the thought that our connection with the characters, at least in a small way, has changed our lives. Our mood and our scope of understanding have been altered by forgetting ourselves for a while to view another's perspective. In real life, speakers often invite us to get into their movies with comments like, 'Do you see it my way?' or 'Put yourself in my place.' If we approach a listening opportunity with the same self-abandonment as we do at the movies, think of how much more we stand to gain from these encounters."
To Practice: Notice how well you need to listen to the characters in a movie to understand their actions and reactions. Then bring the same kind of focus to your next conversation with a friend.
Remarks about listening like we're at the movies.
Rejoice
The Tibetan Buddhist tradition also speaks of empathetic joy, but it places even more emphasis on rejoicing in virtue, which is the root of happiness. They say this is a direct antidote for jealousy, inasmuch as jealousy is the inability to bear another person's happiness and success. Note that in the Theravada practice, the first step is focusing on a joyful person other than yourself. In the Tibetan Buddhist practice of rejoicing in the good, it's perfectly appropriate to start with yourself. This is a tremendously rich practice, and it's so simple. There's no notion of achievement, you just do it and it's immediately beneficial.
How rejoicing in the happiness of another person is an antidote to jealousy and a path to joy.
Ellie
Many young boys and girls come to believe creativity is only for artists. Mike Wu is an animator at Pixar, and this is his first book. Ellie the elephant, along with all the other animals at the zoo, is shocked to learn that it is soon going to close. "There must be something we can do," Ellie whispers to her friends. "The zoo is our home."
The animals decide that they might be able to save the place by fixing it up. Everyone finds a task to do, except for Ellie who feels she has no talent whatsoever. Then, she discovers painting and soon is hard at work holding the paint brush in her trunk. Ellie realizes that she has a special gift for painting portraits of people. Word spreads about the painting elephant, and she is soon known around the world.
Wu shows us how Ellie's creativity helps her bring her fondest dream alive and encourages others to get involved. This gladsome children's picture book is suggested for children from ages 3 to 5 years.
A tale that shows that everyone can be creative in some way.
Super Cooperators
Martin Nowak is Professor of Biology and Mathematics at Harvard University and Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. In his first book he has chosen to work with bestselling science writer Roger Highfield. Nowak is firmly convinced that along with mutation and selection, cooperation is the major domo behind everything from primordial soup to the galaxies. In other words, "cooperation is the master architect of evolution." Not competition. Here is a concrete example of what he means:
"Human society fizzles without cooperation. Even the simplest things that we do involve more cooperation than you might think. Consider, for example, stopping at a coffee shop one morning to have a cappuccino and croissant for breakfast. To enjoy that simple pleasure could draw on the labors of a small army of people from at least half a dozen countries."
In his explanations for this controversial vision of cooperation, Nowak discusses the link between language, social life, and brain power. He presents five qualities which lie behind the rise of cooperative behavior: direct reciprocity, indirect reciprocity, spatial games, group selection, and kin selection. Whether writing about HIV infection, irregular verbs, the game of Prisoner's Dilemma, colon cancer, or ant colonies; Nowak is consistently cogent. He celebrates the universality of the Golden Rule among different religions as an example of how cooperation can establish new beachheads in this century. We also need to work together to stop the advance of global climate change.
In his speech to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, Al Gore cited an African proverb which says: "If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." Step right up! Today is the day in which you can become a super-cooperator to help save the planet and the future for your children and grandchildren.
A respected scientist's affirmation of cooperation, not competition, as the master architect of evolution.
Returning Home After Work
At the end of the day, we return home to pass the evening hours before going to bed. We spend time relaxing and doing household chores. If we live with others, this is our principal time to reconnect with them. The spiritual challenge is to leave behind the stresses of the workday to make room for a heightened awareness in all our evening interactions.
Upon reaching your doorway, pause and look at or kiss the mezuzah on your doorpost and say:
Let me rejoice in my return to the warmth of my home. This day, as all workdays, was filled with a mixture of accomplishments and missteps. If I can, let me leave the anxieties and problems of the day ensconced in my briefcase. If I am struggling with a major issue at work, let me reflect upon it in a manner that leads to clarity rather than overwhelming anxiety. Let me share it with those who love me in an open and honest manner so that I may be nurtured by them. Let me not displace that anxiety on the people with whom I share the intimate aspects of my life. Let this be a homecoming to all that I treasure.
A way to leave our workday stresses behind and reconnect with all that we treasure.
The Language of Life
This astonishing book is a companion to Bill Moyers' 1995 public television series The Language of Life. Airing as an eight-part series, it was filmed on location at the fifth annual Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in Waterloo, New Jersey. In Moyers' inimitable style of interviewing, we recognize his blend of enthusiasm, wonder, and the zest of a lifelong learner. He is obviously fascinated by the poet's cultivation and nurturing of the language of life.
In this book, you will find 29 conversations with famous and not-so-famous poets along with many of their favorite poems. This is a treasure-trove for poetry lovers who will want to read and re-read the comments these poets have about their work, their lives, and their vision and understanding of the world.
Here is a sampler of provocative quotations about this popular art form:
• "Poetry is like bread — everybody shares it."
— Claribel Allegria
• "When you work at a poem long enough — if you just do that one poem and don't worry about anything else — then the imagery of one verse line exudes a sparkling fountain of energy that fills your spirit."
— Jimmy Santiago Baca
• "It's important that the words in your poems be those you could speak to your friends."
— Robert Bly
• "A poem is anything said in such a way, or put on the page in such a way, as to invite from the hearer or the reader a certain kind of attention."
— William Stafford
• "Poetry allows the human soul to speak."
— Carolyn Forche
• "Ultimately, a poem has an electrical force field which is love."
— Joy Harjo
• "Poetry is the most difficult, the most solitary, and the most life-enhancing thing that one can do in the world."
— Stanley Kunitz
• "Poetry can bring together those parts of us which exist in dread and those which have the surviving sense of a possible happiness, collectivity, community, a loss of isolation."
— Adrienne Rich
• "I think the mission of poetry is to create among people the possibility of wonder, admiration, enthusiasm, mystery, the sense that life is marvelous. When you say life is marvelous, you are saying a banality. But to make life a marvel — that is the role of poetry."
— Octavio Paz
A stirring tribute to poetry with 29 interviews of poets and selections from their works.