Paulo Freire: Teaching Children To Participate in the Transformation of Their World

Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. 

 ― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

 

Jack Kornfield: Embracing the Sacred

We can bring our spiritual practice into the streets, 

into our communities, when we see each realm as a temple, 

as a place to discover that which is sacred. 

 

– Jack Kornfield

 

The Dalai Lama: Healing Our Hearts, Healing the World

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until 

we make peace with ourselves. 

 

– The 14th Dalai Lama

 

Pema Chödrön: Impermanence

Impermanence is a principle of harmony. 

When we don’t struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality.

 

- Pema Chödrön
 

Thích Nhất Hạnh: Because Of Your Smile

Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful. 

 

– Thích Nhất Hạnh

 

 

John Muir: To See Better What the Sun Sees

Fresh beauty opens one's eyes wherever it is really seen, but the very abundance and completeness of the common beauty that besets our steps prevents its being absorbed and appreciated. It is a good thing, therefore, to make short excursions now and then to the bottom of the sea among dulse and coral, or up among the clouds on mountain-tops, or in balloons, or even to creep like worms into dark holes and caverns underground, not only to learn something of what is going on in those out-of-the-way places, but to see better what the sun sees on our return to common everyday beauty. 

- John Muir,

 The Mountains of California

Wendell Berry: A Spiritual Journey

A Spiritual Journey

 

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, 
no matter how long, 
but only by a spiritual journey, 
a journey of one inch, 
very arduous and humbling and joyful, 
by which we arrive at the ground at our feet, 
and learn to be at home.

 

- Wendell Berry

 

 
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/A_Spiritual_Journey.html

 

Maya Schenwar: Prison Does Not Keep Us Safe

As massive numbers of homeless, hungry, unemployed, drug-addicted, illiterate, and mentally ill people vanish behind its walls, the social problems of extreme poverty, homelessness, hunger, unemployment, drug addiction, illiteracy, and mental illness become more ignorable, too...

Isolation does not “rehabilitate” people. Disappearance does not deter harm. And prison does not keep us safe.
 

― Maya Schenwar, Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn't Work and How We Can Do Better

 

 

 

Pema Chödrön: One Inspires Us, the Other Softens Us

Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into somebody's eyes because you feel you haven't got anything to lose--you're just there. The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We'd be so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn't have enough energy to eat an apple. Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.
 

― Pema Chödrön, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living

Pema Chödrön: Appoaching Life As An Experiment

My teacher Trungpa Rinpoche encouraged us to lead our lives as an experiment, a suggestion that has been very important to me. When we approach life as an experiment, we're willing to try it this way and that way because, either way, we have nothing to lose.

This immense flexibility is something I learned from watching Trungpa Rinpoche. His enthusiasm enabled him to accomplish an amazing amount in his life. When some things didn't work out, Rinpoche's attitude was "no big deal." If it's time for something to flourish, it will; if it's not time, it won't.

The trick is not getting caught in hope and fear. We can put our whole heart into whatever we do, but if we freeze our attitude into for or against, we're setting ourselves up for stress. Instead, we could just go forward with curiosity, wondering where this experiment will lead.

- Pema Chödrön

from The Pocket Pema Chödrön  

and No Time To Lose