New Dimensions

DeSilver describes how writing from the body rather than the head is a visceral experience that connects us with our intuition. He says, “Everybody is a creative person. It’s a matter of where you have been putting your attention.” This conversation is filled with encouragement that will help you on your road to being a better writer.Tags: Albert Flynn DeSilver, silent retreat, Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones, Beryl Markham, Carl Sandberg, poetry, imagination, intuition, Robert Bly, Walt Whitman, devotion, discipline, Ann Waldman, Vow to Poetry, free writing, photography, talent, courage, dictionary, Writing, Self Help, Art & Creativity, Meditation, community, personal transformation

When Irving’s father signed on as an agricultural missionary in Haiti, she was transported from a sparsely populated desert in California into the lush terrain of the densely populated island of Haiti. She describes with great insight the challenge of building a deep democracy in a culture in crisis.Tags: Apricot Irving, memoir, Haiti, Christopher Columbus, Taino people, wailing at funerals, beauty, NGOs, earthquake in Haiti, Steve James M.D., democracy, Einstein, History, Writing, Health & Healing, Parenting, community

People are living longer but this new longevity is not equivalent to an extension of old age or years added on at the end of life. Bateson describes a whole new stage of aging: Adulthood II. It is a time endowed with wisdom, health, and energy. It is a time to become the needed visionaries society is calling for. She’s the author of Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom.Tags: Mary Catherine Bateson, Aging, Adulthood II, ageism, friendship, post-reproductive women, intergenerational relationships, longevity, Social Change, Politics, Community, Family, Philosophy

An awakening is taking place planet-wide and it is a channeling of healing, peace, and higher consciousness. Stocker suggests that we are not alone in this evolution of awareness. Each one of us is divinely designed toward love. He calls this “holy electricity” and shares ways to activate this potential. Ricardo Stocker, Ph.D. grew up in Argentina, moved to Europe when he was 25 years old and now lives in California. He studied at Emerson College in England, Prescott College in Arizona, and at the Saybrook University in Oakland, CA. He’s a counselor, homesteader, musician, and professor of Psychology and Communication at Mendocino College. He is the author of Our Compassionate Kosmos: Awakening to the Presence of Celestial Love (Balboa Press 2016)Tags: Ricardo Stocker, night sky, original sin, Big Bang Theory, Rupert Sheldrake, gravity, speed of light, impermanence, vertical intelligence, horizontal intelligence, guardian angel, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jesus, father mother god, holy electricity, prana, meditation, grace, age of Pisces, age of Aquarius, the Kalpas, Kali Yuga, negative corporate media, silence, compassion, exuberant universe, optimism, Philosophy, Personal Transformation, Self Help, Psychology, spirituality

Buddhist teacher Namgyel points out that “everything leans.”She frames this statement with the reminder, “[W]e live in a world where ‘it all depends’ and everything is influencing everything else. We might think we know something at one moment but everything is always interrupting and influencing and so it’s always changing. Life, as we know it, is very dynamic.” Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel is a Buddhist teacher and teaches throughout the U.S. and Europe. She’s the wife of Tibetan Buddhist master Dzigar Kongtrul and has studied and practiced in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition since 1985. After many years of solitary retreat, Dzigar Rinpoche appointed Elizabeth as Retreat Master at Longchen Jigme Samten Ling, retreat center in southern Colorado. Her books include It's Up to You: The Practice of Self-Reflection on the Buddhist Path (editor) (Shambhala 2006), Light Comes Through: Buddhist Teachings on Awakening to Our Natural Intelligence (editor) (Shambhala 2009), The Power of an Open Question: The Buddha's Path to Freedom (Shambhala 2010) and The Logic of Faith: A Buddhist Approach to Finding Certainty Beyond Belief and Doubt (Shambhala 2018)Tags: Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, faith, faithing, logic, grace, suffering, spiritual comparisons, the church, dogma, Sam Harris, Thomas Merton, spiritual doubts, joy, wakefulness, Joanna Macy, Chernobyl, Mother Teresa, disciples, awe, everything leans, the Buddha, awakening, Dave Chappelle, atom, reify, karma, evolution, Buddhism, Spirituality, Philosophy, Personal Transformation

This dialogue with the daughters of Alan Watts takes a deep dive into the colorful and controversial life of this late philosopher and popularizer of Zen Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies. Through his collected letters they show how he was always learning something new, how he was clear that wisdom is not a static thing and his views will always be under revision.Tags: Alan Watts, Joan Watts, Anne Watts, Joan & Anne Watts, Joan and Anne Watts, Christmas Humphreys, Toby Humphreys) Buddhist Society of London, LSD, genetic code, Mandalas, Native Americans, Buddhist term tathāgata, psychedelics, History, Philosophy, Psychology

Kaufman grew up in the Bronx, the Jewish son of a Holocaust survivor. He recounts a most poignant tale of his trek to follow the footsteps of his mother’s escape from the Nazis. His two traveling companions are inexplicably sons of Nazis. With disarming candidness, he shares his story of sinking into alcoholism and his road to sobriety and writing.Tags: Alan Kaufman, Holocaust, Israel, alcoholism, addiction, Jim Brodey, Holocaust survivor, Second Generation Writers, Jewish, Jews, poetry, 12 step program, recovery, sobriety, History, Writing, Alcoholism, Personal transformation

Ora Nadrich shares a series of fundamental and effective questions we can ask ourselves when we pay attention to our negative thoughts. Her “Says Who!” Method can transform fear-based and worried thoughts into thoughts that serve our well-being and support positive action. Tags: Ora Nadrich, Jungian analysis, fear-based thoughts, worry, negative thoughts, neural pathways, busyness, monkey mind, isolation, beliefs, mindfulness, thoughts as a cheering squad, road rage, Pollyanna, baby steps, Spirituality,Personal Transformation, Self Help, Psychology, Relationship

This dialogue is filled with practical wisdom to support us in growing calmness and well-being so we may be more effective and resilient in our lives. Hanson assures us that the core of our being is “calm strength.” It is the background of who we are; it is a fundamental quality, the “wallpaper of our mind.”Tags: MP3, Rick Hanson, resilience, resilient, neuropsychology, resistance, persistence, developmental psychology, calmness, calm, Foundations of Well-Being, desire, neuroscience, brain, motivation, liking something, wanting something, brain science, motivational brain circuit, dopamine, neurochemicals, empathy, mirror neurons, empathic, generosity, Forrest Hanson, Health & Healing, Psychology, Science, Personal Transformation, Self Help

Sometimes our activity for positive change in the world makes a visible leap and other times the impact of our work takes a seemingly long time to show any results. As Loeb points out, “You draw hope from the knowledge that whatever it is that you do, something unexpected is going to happen. And, it often happens at the periphery of your vision.”Tags: Paul Rogat Loeb, Paul Loeb, Vaclav Havel, Velvet Revolution, Keystone Pipeline, Rosa Parks, Raymond Parks, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Anti-Nuclear Proliferation, grassroots movements, Clarence Jordan, Koinonia Farm, Tiananmen Square, Tank man, Tolstoy, David Roberts, Grist Magazine, Climate Change, hope, optimism, renewable energy, Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington State, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Dan Savage, Gay Rights Movement, getting out the vote, Walter Wink, Jesus and Alinsky, Bible stories, Turn the other cheek, nonviolent resistance, minimum wage, bike lanes, Cuiritiba Brazil, Bill McKibben, Peace/Nonviolence