Thích Nhất Hạnh: You Are Like a Candle

You are like a candle. Imagine you are sending light out all around you. 

All your words, thoughts and actions are going in many directions. 

If you say something kind, your kind words go in many directions, 

and you yourself go with them. We are ...transforming 

and continuing in a different form at every moment.

 

-  Thích Nhất Hạnh

 

Some Day We Will All Die

That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, is the first mark of existence. It is the ordinary state of affairs. Everything is in process. Everything—every tree, every blade of grass, all the animals, insects, human beings, buildings, the animate and the inanimate—is always changing, moment to moment.

- Pema Chödrön

Wayne Muller: Great Healing

As Gandhi wisely points out, even as we serve others we are working  

on ourselves; every act, every word, every gesture of genuine compassion 

 naturally nourishes our own hearts as well.  It is not a question of who is  

healed first. When we attend to ourselves with compassion and mercy,  

more healing is made available for others.  And when we serve others 

with an open and generous heart, great healing comes to us.

- Wayne Muller

Bernie Sanders Is Actually Quite Serious About This ‘Political Revolution’ Thing

With a rock concert, a rally, and a key speech in Iowa, 

the insurgent signals that he intends to remain an insurgent.

by

John Nichols

Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders reacts to supporters during a concert hosted by his campaign in Davenport, Iowa. (Photo: AP / Charlie Neibergall)

“What this campaign is about is not just electing a president, it is transforming America,”the candidate told the crowd of young people, labor and community activists that assembled to march him into the hall where the dinner was to be held. “To do that we need millions of people—people who have given up on the political process, people who are demoralized, people who don’t believe that government listens to them. We need to bring those people together to stand up loudly and clearly and to say ‘Enough is enough.’ This country belongs to all of us, not just wealthy campaign donors.”

For the full article, please go here: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/10/27/bernie-sanders-actually-quite-serious-about-political-revolution-thing

Thomas Merton: The Interdependence Of All Living Beings

The whole idea of compassion is based on a 

keen awarenessof the interdependence of all these 

living beings, which are all part of one another, 

and all involved in one another.

- Thomas Merton

 

Rachel Carson: Wonders

I believe that the more clearly we can focus our attention 

on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, 

the less taste we shall have for destruction.

- Rachel Carson

 

How the Toddler Shooting Epidemic Debunks the Biggest Myth About Gun Control

By Feliks Garcia

On Saturday night, a Chicago six year-old allegedly shot and killed his three year-old brother while playing a game of cops and robbers. The Chicago Tribune reports that their father’s loaded gun had been stored on top of the family’s refrigerator. It was wrapped in his pajama pants.

Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham found that in 2015, at least one person per week has been shot by a toddler, three years of age or younger. Using data gathered from news reports, he found that so far this year, “13 toddlers have inadvertently killed themselves with firearms. 18 more injured themselves, 10 injured other people, and 2 killed other people.”

A go-to argument for gun rights advocates on the Internet is that guns make Americans feel safer, but the very ubiquity of guns in U.S. households increases the odds of firearm-related death. The problem of gun violence isn’t solved with more guns, and if you’re the kind of person who shares NRA photos on Facebook, ask yourself: Would arming a three-year-old really have saved his life?

Please continue this article here: http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/toddler-gun-control-child-accident-death/?fb=ss&prtnr=salon&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Norman Cousins: Great Compassion or Great Indifference

The individual is capable of both great compassion

and great indifference.  We have it within our means

to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.

- Norman Cousins