Page 2 - Light Meditation

American Ingenuity

Friday, November 4, 2011 by Ted Ning

Contributed by Scott James

This month I spoke with Matt Bogoshian in DC. He is the Senior Policy Counsel for the Environmental Protection Agency. One of the ways I reconcile being apolitical and staying as far away from DC as possible is because I know I have kindred spirits like Matt fighting the good fight there. He works quite a bit with businesses, so I asked him about CSR this month.

Scott: Tell me about a company that is doing something in CSR that would be a model for the future.

Matt: Staples and Wegmans are two recent examples who, in a partnership with us, worked collaboratively with the thermal paper manufacturers to explain that a key to their business model is supplying products that people want to buy because they are safe and healthy. The retailers convinced these suppliers that thermal paper with bisphenol A (BPA) does not meet their needs as it is associated with adverse effects in the environment and may be problematic for people. Thanks to these business leaders, the EPA is now examining 19 alternatives to BPA with the active engagement of the full supply chain.

Scott: So Staples and Wegmans have made a real commitment to that project.

Matt: Yes. I’d like to see a corporate model for the future that incorporates sustainability much more broadly and deeply than what some might consider CSR being capable of doing. Model companies in the future will be ones that make more money than their competitors by producing products and services that directly or additionally address social and environmental needs.

Scott: Tell me about a specific CSR effort in another country you find inspiring, that could serve as a model for the US.

Matt: Our sustainability efforts with American manufacturers routinely afford us an opportunity to see the positive effects of corporate sustainability efforts both domestically and abroad. Take Steelcase Furniture in Grand Rapids, Michigan as an example. Under our Green Suppliers Network program – which is designed to improve manufacturing supply chains’ process efficiencies and environmental performance – we’ve seen their sustainability efforts result in $1MM+ annual savings for seven of their powder coating lines. Steelcase has now taken these lessons learned and is applying them to their operations in Germany, France, Mexico and China.

We also watch with interest the water conservation efforts of Coca Cola and other large corporations as they demonstrate sound corporate social responsibility for water conservation in India and other countries.

Scott: And how about the other way around? Is anyone internationally watching the US for CSR inspiration?

Matt: Yes, sometimes we learn from our friends abroad about efforts underway here in the US which inspire them, and give us extra energy to expand what we have already begun to do. Brazil, Chile and Singapore were excited to find out from us about one of our newer efforts called E3, which stands for Economy, Energy and the Environment. E3 draws together the resources of five U.S. federal agencies, the utility industry and local communities who then work together to help tune-up factories to reduce wasted time/motion/material/energy to help them become more profitable and sustainable at the same time.

Scott: Wow. That’s a lot of coordination! Tell me another example of what we are doing right here in the US.

Matt: Well, the EPA has a mark, a label called Design for the Environment (DfE). We evaluate products that have been designed or reformulated to contain safer chemicals and allows these products to display the label.

More than 500 companies with serious CSR leadership have reformulated more than 2,700 products to meet EPA’s stringent, science-based criteria so that their products can display the DfE label. They do this because they see a substantial return on their investment and the DfE label opens doors to new markets.

Scott: What new markets?

Matt: States and municipalities adopting green purchasing requirements, retailers who demand greener and safer products to enhance their sustainability profiles, and citizens who want products that are safer for their families and the environment. Companies large and small – from Colgate-Palmolive, Clorox, S.C. Johnson to Jelmar (CLR products), Phurity and Earth Friendly Products – are willing to invest heavily to earn the DfE label. DfE also fuels innovation among chemical manufacturers, such as BASF, Dow, and Akzo-Nobel, who have developed chemical ingredients to meet the stringent DfE criteria for use in DfE-labeled products. So in addition to gaining new market share, the DfE label helps companies meet independent sustainability measures like the Dow Jones Sustainability index.

Scott: OK, let’s talk about where we could improve. Could you illustrate one of our failures and what we can learn from it…where we are not succeeding as much as we could?

Matt: We have collectively failed to build genuine American consensus between citizens, businesses, governments, NGOs and others that ensures America will continue to be the leading economy and example for decades to come. The world is evolving from the agricultural, industrial and information ages toward the age of sustainability and we want to continue to lead in this new age. The good news is that useful lessons can be drawn from the many innovative sustainability efforts already underway by people and organizations throughout the nation.

Scott: In that vein, what question are we not asking ourselves that we should? And what would you imagine the results to be if we did ask ourselves that question?

Matt: We should be asking ourselves, “Is there a smarter, more sustainable way, to make and grow the things we need?” Sticking with the manufacturing sector as an example – with the possible exception of the electronics industry – many manufacturing processes have changed little over time. This may be due to unchanging manufacturing specifications, economic uncertainties or just plain human reluctance to change. Whatever the reason, these barriers are man-made and must be overcome.

If we answer that question with American ingenuity and innovation, we will see our manufacturing sector grow and lead our economy toward the kind of long term strength and prosperity we have come to enjoy for so many decades.

Mindfulness in the Workplace

Monday, October 24, 2011 by Ted Ning

I recently had the opportunity to present at Naropa University in Boulder with Google’s Chade Meng Tan who has a job that I wish I had. He gave me his business card and his job title is Google’ Jolly Good Fellow (which nobody can deny). Really! He is one of the earliest engineers hired by Google and his job description is "Enlighten minds, open hearts, create world peace". I had a chance to speak with him about his role and his goals. The guy is a real gem - funny, unassuming and very approachable.

How did you come up with your job description?
One of the unique work policies at Google is the ‘20 percent time’. This means that throughout your work time at Google they allow employees to work 20 percent on anything that they want. One day I went on a walk and decided that I want to work on world peace through compassion.

That is great. Many people have dedicated their lives to this cause. How does yours differ?
My approach is a little different since I am an engineer and hardwired in logic and practicality. I want compassion to be a part of modern day living in the U.S. I believe that in order for this to take root it needs to have proven positive results.

Wouldn’t we all? Do you have an example of this?
In 1927 Harvard created the fatigue lab and wanted to study exercise to prove exercise is healthy. At the time this was thought of as nonscientific and no one would support the funding of the research. The only support they got was from the Army. The study had some amazing results and found that a fit person is a fit person is physiologically different from an unfit person. Today health is universal and everyone knows the following: 1. Everyone knows health is good. 2. All know how to get fit and information is available and accessible. 3. People can do it at work. 4. It is completely integrated into society. My goal is to apply the same principles to meditation.

That would be great! There are plenty of people who are stressed at work don’t you agree?
Yes indeed. At Google people wear stress as a badge of honor to show how strong they are and how much they can endure. I want to change the concept of stress reduction to a model of success. I want to create this to be customer focused and the by product will be world peace.

So world peace is a bi product and not the focus?
Yes mindfulness leads to emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence, if properly trained, leads to inner peace, inner joy and compassion. All 3 are needed. Inner peace alone will not do it. You must have all 3 at a global scale.

How do we implement this?
At Google we have the motto launch early and launch often. Some other engineers and I sat in the room trying to figure this out. We created the ‘Search Inside Yourself’ initiative and a building authentic relationship course and empathy course. This helped create the Google University.

Impressive! What does the ‘search inside yourself initiative’ teach?
The search inside yourself initiative focuses on attention. A calm and clear mind creates the foundation. How this is done is through mindfulness. Moment to moment non judging attention. A study was done on the brain. The amygdala is part of the brain that contains our emotions. If you perceive a threat your amygdala takes over. People with mindfulness training can downgrade the amygdala take over. When meditating we are calm and joyful. This joy is non energetic, is highly sustainable and subtle therefore takes a quite mind. This inner joy can be called on demand. Happiness is not what we pursue but what we allow.

And what do we do with our attention?
We create what I call ‘high resolution perception’. This causes subtle changes in process of emotional perception. We can experience the detection of emotion and create the option of choice. This leads to emotional mastery and develops confidence. Body emotional awareness increases empathy. Empathy reflects others emotions in and on my body and therefore I can view the emotional process. Emotions are physiological processes, and recognizing that allow us to change from ‘I am angry’ to ‘I am experiencing anger in my body’. The emotion is not a part of being. Kindness and goodness are mental habits. Compassion fosters habit of helping others. These are trainable. If you want to be happy change your interactions with others. What you think you will become.

How do you bring this to the corporate world?
We must bring science and statistics to it. We need to own the knowledge and be customer oriented and meet people where they are in order to have it be applied to daily life easily.

How can it be communicated in business to those who don’t believe in the theory or think it is too strange?
There are 3 things that need to be implemented to be affective. The first thing is the correct language. Language is extremely important. We cannot go beyond the current level of expertise of people or it will be over their heads. At Google ‘deeper awareness’ training has been reworded to ‘high resolution perception’ training. This is much more acceptable to employees and human resources department. Remember human resources is coming from a place of caution and risk prevention for the company. Therefore you need to have empathy for their point of view in order for them to support a companywide initiative. Secondly, we need to use the minimum affective dose. If we overdose we will push people away. We teach people a simple 2 minute meditation exercise. This is about the same amount of attention time that my 12 year old daughter has for this so I think it is a short enough time for people to practice. Thirdly, is to get an appropriate instructor. You need someone with a deep practice who owns the science and provides credibility and speaks the language of the audience. Saving the world will fail as a goal. But if you work on mindfulness and compassion it will be a byproduct of the end results.

LOHAS Goes Urban

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 by Ted Ning

Earlier this year I attended the Urban Green Summit. This was an event that focused on the inner city citizens of Denver to promote better awareness of green and sustainable business opportunities. It was definitely a crowd that I wanted to connect with and peaked my curiosity to know if LOHAS aspects penetrate different cultures and economic circumstances. I was not disappointed. The event was developed by CURE-T’s Dr. H. Malcolm who received federal funding to promote green jobs and education in Colorado. Dr. Malcolm is a mover and a shaker and you can’t help but be magnetized to his presence and his message. He is always deflecting praise and bringing in others to highlight. This is a sign of a great leader in my book. He also echoed a concern that I have myself: Why is it that the urban communities of color always appear absent in green initiatives, conferences and activities? The LOHAS market tends to target the largely affluent caucasian market. But there is plenty of opportunity unseen and untouched in the minority dominant urban markets as well.

The summit had a star studded panel that included Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All, environmentalist and author, John Francis III and founder of Green for All and current president of Rebuild a Dream, Van Jones. These heavy hitters were mixed with other local movers and shakers in the green movement. Unfortunately I was hoping that there would be more people in attendance at the event. I was told from an insider that having an event on a Saturday morning early is not so PC in the African American communities. There were indeed more people who were there as the day progressed. I found it to be a very interesting event and demonstrated that green needs to be connected to the urban community by education and clear benefits. The best presentation for me came from Van Jones.

Here is what Van had to say to the urban based audience. See if it resonates with you:

“These days people are gathering in unusual groups. Not large groups but different ones. They are the ones who grew were the sensitive children. These are the ones that wanted to save the polar bears and save the world and were disturbed by the mistreatment of others. This tribe is just beginning to find each other. There are more people entering life who are sensitive. Something happening where humanity is being tested and if we don’t pass nothing will be left. Will humanity prove to be a blessing or a curse. This the first time technology and size make up a force of nature. The creator could have made us as robots he did not. We are something more interesting. We have free will, choice and decision making abilities. All other species are set in process.

Will we be locusts or honey bees? Both work hard but one is destructive and one is constructive. Locusts wipe out everything in its path. Destroy habitat until there is none at which point they die. Bees work is a blessing. It makes life of others possible. This movement is deeper than just solar panels and part of interest is the growing sense of peril. I cannot believe that only one race cares for the earth. The U.S. colonization was just as much about land as it was about labor. Land is sacred. We need to remember to view it as such instead of a commodity. We need to remember the difference between a tree and lumber, an animal vs. a pelt, a person vs. a slave. These sacred beliefs were considered paganism. Indigenous peoples of the world have this wisdom and are outcasts in modern society. They are called witches, druids, and pagans. It turns out they are quite wise. They are also known as the highest ecological wisdom. It is only now after 500 years of colonization that the children of the colonizers are coming around to honoring this wisdom.

Do we belong to the earth or does the earth belong to us? An economy that is run by fossil fuels equals trouble in the future. We run a civilization that runs on death. Coal is 40 million years old. Oil is 60 million years old. Both are made up of dead materials. We burn death in our cars and as electricity but are shocked when death shows up as asthma and global warming. We are much better when we have a living economy. One that runs on life such as the sun, wind and water.

So how do we get there? We need to change our ways. Change has 4 drivers. There are the mystics. They see the vision of what we are to become. Then there are the artists who popularize the vision. The entrepreneurs who create the technologies and then the politicians who create the rules. The current culture is not ready for change. The Tea Party is a buzz saw. And yet the biosphere is so small that we need change. We are a soap bubble in the universe. What can we do? The last economy had 3 mistakes: 1. Consumptions 2. Credit 3.Ecological destruction

Production has moved overseas and our economy was based on spending. Kill it, shrink wrap it, sell it, trash it was the method. The past 18 months has seen the most wacky weather and environmental changes. Mother earth is telling us something. We need to adopt a strategy of green growth, restoration and conservation. Create local consumption that respects the earth. If I had talked to you all in 08’ it would have been very different. You would have all been smiling. Obama will take care of us. Now everyone is looking gloomy. This was only 2 ½ years ago. Do you remember where you were when he was elected? When he was sworn into office? How you felt? We forgot how we got to that moment. Obama was not the author for hope. The movement for hope didn’t start with Obama it started in 03’. When Bush went to war you stood up. More people mobilized in the 1st week than Vietnam did in 6 years. We lost but we didn’t quit. In 06’ Kerry ran and was only 100K votes short of an Indiana win and lost but we didn’t quit. In 05’ Katrina hit as did the Huffington Post and YouTube. We had the 1st speaker of the house. Obama was out there as an unknown Senator selling a book and ran into the movement and found us. Don’t insult yourself. Obama inspired us but we inspired him first. Now it is time for the movement of hope and change. This can’t be about things we are against but things we are for. We need to be willing to connect people with work that needs to be done. Soldiers are coming home to nothing. Nation building needs to be done here too. There is a saying – bankers get rich in good times, the people go broke in bad times. We need to praise and support our public employees – teachers, fire fighters, nurses and police. Now rich people don’t pay tax and communities are abandoning them when they never have abandoned us.

You were born for a reason. You are sensitive for a reason. Depression is terrible. It clouds you so you can’t see the opportunity. They tried to kill hope in 68’ when Kennedy was assassinated. We are throwing away our efforts because FOX TV is mean. We have been through much more than the tea party. In 1906 no woman could vote, no paid holidays, no weekend, no child labor laws. People fought year after year until today. You fought when they had clubs and guns. We didn’t have social media and yet we mobilized. Are you going to be locusts or honey bees to make the next century ordinary or extraordinary and beautiful.”

Love to hear what you think of what Van Jones has said and if you feel LOHAS can be intergrated into urban markets is a better way.

There Is No Yoga Without Love

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 by EdandDeb Shapiro

Yoga has lost its essence, its core meaning, from what it was originally meant to be. It is wonderful that what is popularly known as yoga has reached millions of people, as the physical practices are brilliant in promoting health and well-being, but this is a bit like having a tiny slice of delicious pie and thinking you have the whole pie. There is so much more pie to go, as the vastness of yoga takes us into deepening our understanding of the whole of ourselves.

Unfortunately, yoga's very popularity has led to the loss of the key ingredient: love. Without love, yoga is dry, a physical and mental exercise that doesn't truly touch our inner being. It lacks what yoga is authentically meant to be about, which is a direct way to realize our full potential, our creative nature, our pure understanding and transcendence. We can read all the books and know the teachings, such as the Vedas, yoga sutras, and specifically the Bhagavad Gita, but these just point the way and are not enough to awaken.

With love, yoga comes alive, opening the heart wide with compassion, awakening kindness, joy, generosity, caring and laughter. The real joy, the heart of yoga, is love. Love reveals the way for us to live in truth.
If you are doing it to look better or lose weight then it may be good but it isn’t yoga. If it is a physical exercise class or a social event to have fun then it isn’t yoga. But if it is touching your heart, if it is reaching deep into your being and revealing the goodness of who you are, if it is giving you a glimpse into what is possible, then you are tasting of the beauty of yoga. If you feel joy and peace beyond understanding, that is yoga!

Rather than struggling to perfect awkward-looking postures, we learn to transform our minds and emotions and to connect deeply with our inner selves. Ultimately, this leads to awakening, the discovery of who we really are, free from obsessive ego identification. En route to awakening is the heart.

Opening our heart as wide as the universe is one of life's most powerful experiences. The heart is the core of our being, the place we point to when we refer to ourselves. And it is the center of love. The purpose of yoga is to realize our authentic true self, rather than focusing on the egoistic and superficial self we relate to daily. To do this we have to be in love, we have to be in the heart.

We do not have to go in search of this love, or fear giving away so much that we have none left. We can never lose love; we can only lose sight of it. Love could not happen if it was not already an integral part of who we are. How can we lose what is our nature? How can we be left with nothing when love is the source of all life? This is the fearless embracing of ourselves and all others, enemy and friend alike!

When we complete the journey to our own heart, we will find ourselves in the hearts of everyone else—Father Thomas Keating, from our book, Be The Change

This is seen in the following Native American story of a child learning the lessons of life from his father. “There are two wolves that are fighting each other in my heart," his father says. "The first wolf is angry, jealous, dishonest, bitter, and hateful. The second wolf is kind, caring, compassionate, generous, and honest.” The child asks which of the wolves will win the fight. His father replies, “The one I chose to feed.”

We recently led the Sunday morning service at our local Unity Church. At the end of our talk, over the loud speakers, came the Beatles' famous song: All You Need Is Love! The only way out of political madness and confusion and world suffering is love. Yes, what the world needs now is love.

Do you do yoga from your head or from your heart? Do comment below. You can receive notice of our blogs every Tuesday by checking Become a Fan at the top.

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See our award-winning book: BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You and the World, forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman, with contributors Richard Freeman, Seane Corn, Jane Fonda, Jack Kornfield, Marianne Williamson, Ram Dass, Byron Katie, and many others.

Our 3 meditation CD's: Metta—Loving kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi–Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra–Inner Conscious Relaxation, are available at: www.EdandDebShapiro.com

International Day of Peace and My Dream

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 by Alisa Spirit

The International Day of Peace is this Wednesday- September 21st- and being an inspired visionary, I was wondering about my vision for global peace. There are so many really interesting trends happenings on the planet- the positive includes the blossoming of yoga classes, widespread accessibility of Traditional Chinese Medicine, all the way to how people are beginning to live their lives with greater integrity and intention throughout the planet. At the same time I see so many heart wrenching statistics and facts- people living on the street, the inequalities of life, high unemployment rates, and financial stressors, not to mention the environmental degradation, occuring on the planet. All of these factors have been percolating in my mind.

I was thinking of how I vision peace- not so much in terms of what is "good" or "bad", but more in terms of my heartfelt desire for peace among all nations, all people, all beings. And from this place is where I have written the "I have a dream..." piece below. This is based on an exercise from Rob Breszny's awesome book "Pronoia: The Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower you with Blessings". I hope this piece inspires you, and perhaps leads you into considering penning your own "I have a dream..." manifesto for creating peace on our beautiful, precious planet.

I have a dream…

I have a dream that every person in every nation remembers and identifies with their life as a global citizen, each person responsible for the well being of every member of their global tribe.

I have a dream that every child grows up with an awareness of the potential bubbling within their own hearts- all the life waiting to explode forth.

I have a dream that each human looks in the mirror to see the absolute beauty shining back at them- and feels cherished beyond measure.

I have a dream that the symbol of true wealth is the amount of love we generously share, and the depth of wisdom we can articulate in every interaction.

I have a dream that healthcare is universally free- freely given, freely received.

I have a dream that commerce, as we know if, becomes obsolete. Every gift is freely offered, in love…and every creature is respected and gently, tenderly provided for.

I have a dream that true service is being aware of how to encourage people to remember their own magnificence.

I have a dream that artwork and beauty are a cultural extravaganza.

I have a dream that sexuality is expressed with kindness, honesty and joy.

I have a dream that communities dance and sing their visions, evoking the visions of the tribe, for the benefit of all life.

I have a dream that homelessness is fully abolished, put into the realms of an ancient, barbaric distant past.

I have a dream that the overriding passion is ignited in the heart of each human being.

I have a dream that we are not alone, not any of us, ever.

I have a dream that miracles are as near as every breath we take, every sweet creative idea unfolding into forms of beauty, wisdom, tenderness and play.

I have a dream that the intense focus on technology softens and eases its tight grip, and the more receptive fields of art, music, touch and sensual reflections take root in our consciousness, as equally valuable, rewarding and integral to our wellness and health.

I have a dream that guilt, shame and worry are obliterated from all family ancestral lines and from the depths of our being.

I have a dream that sitting in old growth forests becomes a global pastime, and the deep woods share their patient wisdom to each willing journeyer.

I have a dream that theft is no longer a concept, action or within the realm of possibility here. People openly share things, and the idea of ownership becomes antiquated. The ideal of stewardship and councils for the care of shared resources becomes prominent.

I have a dream of an empowered culture based on flow, acceptance of both similarities and differences, and the overriding dedication towards creating peace.

-Alisa Spirit of the Wind
Under a Tree
www.underatree.com
alisa@underatree.com

3 Keys to Activating Your Life Purpose

Thursday, September 8, 2011 by Ted Ning

Written by Jean Houston

As I travel around the globe speaking and training, I have consistently found that most people ask me the same question, ‘how do I discover my purpose in life?’ In the past, who you became was determined by your family and circumstances. You didn't have much choice. But now there is an open moment in history where you have the chance to tap into the soul of your purpose.
Millions of people right now are experiencing a yearning and desire to awaken to their unique gifts and offer them in service to the world—while living a life of joy and fulfillment. It's a surging of the human spirit, a virtual global awakening, at a scale that no one has ever seen before. Simply put, people are longing to finally feel fully alive and to fulfill their unique purpose in life.
So then why is living a life of meaning and purpose so difficult? It is because our current social systems have not been set up to prepare us to live a life of true purpose. That's because today's culture exists not to nurture our highest aspirations, but to ensure our basic survival.

Our educational system is designed to create good workers who will slot into jobs and careers later in life—not to empower fiery, creative people who are forging the path ahead together.

Our social contracts exist to perpetuate the status quo—not to encourage our highest potentials to blossom. Is it any wonder why so many people's best attempts to evolve themselves and our culture fall short of the goal? We simply haven't been trained in how to bring the possible future into the present.

It's not that they don't have the talent or interest to live purposeful, meaningful life. The issue is far simpler. People struggle to activate their "purpose code" because they haven't woken up to--or are only partially awake to--our situation as a human race. Most people hold on to old, limiting beliefs of themselves and our human story. Overwhelmed by all the changes in the world around them, most people live their lives within a "small story," and therefore confine themselves to a "small self." That's why so many people feel that they don't have a purpose, or that they aren't able to actually *live* the life they were born to live.

There is a saying that “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” I believe that it is butterfly time. Just as the guidance cells in the mush that is the caterpillar in its cocoon suddenly begin to activate the transformation of mush into butterfly, so too this is the time when we realize that the guidance or imaginal cells of our bodies, our communities, and, yes, even of the cells of our planet are calling us to come together in all our parts to form something gorgeous, interdependent, living lightly on the Earth, cross pollinating cultures, ideas, spiritual forms, glowing with the light that suffuses us, becoming transparent to transcendence. And to rise out of the mush we have been caught in these many hundreds of years and to take flight in the air of the new story which is emerging in our time.

For the fields we traverse, the many flowers of mind states and soul knowings we now enter are those that belong to the whole, earth, to many cultures, to what I am calling PanGaia. And as the butterfly pollinates and cross pollinates from place to place, flower to flower, so do we also if we have the will and the willingness to discover our purpose and be part of this extraordinary moment in time.

Three Keys to Empowering New Beliefs

The first key to activating your life's purpose is to hold new beliefs about yourself and about your role in the Great Story of where humanity is headed.

Living a great life, requires that you understand the challenges and opportunities of our moment in history. To understand this for myself, I've gathered information from my work in over 100 countries and 40 different cultures and what I've discovered has served as a sure guide on my path. Specifically, I have found five great shifts in our understanding of the story of our time that are affecting everything we do today. I believe that awakening to the power of these shifts will help you cultivate your sense of compassion and of the infinite possibilities of this moment.

The five shifts are:
• Our understanding of who and what we are and what we need to become in order to be able to deal with the complexity of our time is evolving.

• Human societies are in the process of re-patterning. Social constructs are dissolving and whole new stories are trying to emerge, such as the rise of women to a full partnership with men across the globe, and many others.

• How we conduct business and governance is shifting in the midst of vast ecological and financial changes. This is perhaps the most important social event of the last five thousand years, because these issues impact almost everything in our lives.

• The rise and fusion of different cultures--we are swiftly moving towards a planetary civilization that accentuates the uniqueness of each culture while blending them together. Think of the great fusions of food and of music and of beliefs.

• Whole new orders of spirituality are emerging that are not about religion. The new cosmologies are giving us a view of ourselves that we never had before. For the first time ever, we find that we don't just live in the universe, but that the universe lives in us.

This journey begins by letting go of old beliefs and patterns to make room for the new beliefs and capacities that will empower you to awaken to and live your higher purpose.

The Second key allows you to discover and realize the vast field of inner intelligences—using multiple means of knowing and being in order to gain insight into life at a level to which that most people rarely have access. These skills are to be found on four levels of your human capacity, sensory-physical, psychological-emotional, mythic-symbolic, and unitive-spiritual. As you learn how to utilize the extraordinary capacities to be found at each of these levels you literally move into new ways of being. For example, you will learn how to play with time in such a way as to take five minutes and experience it internally as hours—these are "hours" you can use to develop a skill or move a project forward.

You will learn to access "inner experts", willing helpers or personas that will help you navigate the complexity of life with elegance and confidence.

The third key gives you the means to break free from unconscious, habitual ways of reacting to life that were born thousands of years ago, and embrace higher ways of being for a new era.You will discover ways to move through life with ebullience in your bones and an appetite for celebration—seeing everything as an expression of the Creator. You will move through life, motivated not by guilt or obligation, but by gratitude and an abiding zest for doing the things that are called forth by living out of your higher purpose.

Dr. Jean Houston is presenting a FREE 75 minute downloadable audio seminar entitled 3 Keys to Discovering and Living Your True Purpose Available Now at www.DestinyandYou.com .

Dr. Jean Houston is a Scholar, Philosopher and one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time. She is considered one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement. A powerful and dynamic speaker she has served as consultant to several agencies of United Nations including UNICEF and the UNDP. She has worked in over 100 countries training leadership at every level to enhance skills and purpose so as to bring a new mind to bear upon challenging issues. A prolific writer and author of 26 books including A Passion for the Possible and The Mythic Life, Dr. Houston has recently joined the faculty of Evolving Wisdom, today's fastest growing global e-learning company specializing in transformative education, to provide her wisdom online in a cutting edge format.
www.DestinyandYou.com

There Is No Yoga Without Love

Tuesday, September 6, 2011 by EdandDeb Shapiro

Unfortunately, yoga's very popularity has led to the loss of the key ingredient: love. Without love, yoga is dry, a physical and mental exercise that doesn't truly touch our inner being. It lacks what yoga is authentically meant to be about, which is a direct way to realize our full potential, our creative nature, our pure understanding and transcendence. We can read all the books and know the teachings, such as the Vedas, yoga sutras, and specifically the Bhagavad Gita, but these just point the way and are not enough to awaken.

With love, yoga comes alive, opening the heart wide with compassion, awakening kindness, joy, generosity, caring and laughter. The real joy, the heart of yoga, is love. Love reveals the way for us to live in truth.

If you are doing it to look better or lose weight then it may be good but it isn’t yoga. If it is a physical exercise class or a social event to have fun then it isn’t yoga. But if it is touching your heart, if it is reaching deep into your being and revealing the goodness of who you are, if it is giving you a glimpse into what is possible, then you are tasting the beauty of yoga. If you feel joy and peace beyond understanding, that is yoga!

Rather than struggling to perfect awkward-looking postures, we learn to transform our minds and emotions and to connect deeply with our inner selves. Ultimately, this leads to awakening, the discovery of who we really are, free from obsessive ego identification. En route to awakening is the heart.

Opening our heart as wide as the universe is one of life's most powerful experiences. The heart is the core of our being, the place we point to when we refer to ourselves. And it is the center of love. The purpose of yoga is to realize our authentic true self, rather than focusing on the egoistic and superficial self we relate to daily. To do this we have to be in love, we have to be in the heart.

We do not have to go in search of this love, or fear giving away so much that we have none left. We can never lose love; we can only lose sight of it. Love could not happen if it was not already an integral part of who we are. How can we lose what is our nature? How can we be left with nothing when love is the source of all life? This is the fearless embracing of ourselves and all others, enemy and friend alike!

When we complete the journey to our own heart, we will find ourselves in the hearts of everyone else—Father Thomas Keating, from our book, Be The Change

This is seen in the following Native American story of a child learning the lessons of life from his father. “There are two wolves that are fighting each other in my heart," his father says. "The first wolf is angry, jealous, dishonest, bitter, and hateful. The second wolf is kind, caring, compassionate, generous, and honest.” The child asks which of the wolves will win the fight. His father replies, “The one I chose to feed.”

We recently led the Sunday morning service at our local Unity Church. At the end of our talk, over the loud speakers, came the Beatles' famous song: All You Need Is Love! The only way out of political madness and confusion and world suffering is love. Yes, what the world needs now is love!

When one has once fully entered the realm of love, the world – no matter how imperfect – becomes rich and beautiful, for it consists solely of opportunities for love. -- Kierkegaard

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See our award-winning book: BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You and the World, forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman, with contributors Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jane Fonda, Jack Kornfield, Marianne Williamson, Ram Dass, Byron Katie, and many others.

Our 3 meditation CD's: Metta—Loving kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi–Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra–Inner Conscious Relaxation, are available at: www.EdandDebShapiro.com

CSR Means True Partnerships

Wednesday, August 10, 2011 by Ted Ning

Written by Scott James economic hitman

This month I sat down with John Perkins, the author of the New York Times bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and many other titles, and former chief economist at a major international consulting firm.

Scott: Tell me about your work with business students around the US, particularly as it relates to Corporate Social Responsibility.

John: We talk about what’s really important for any business leader to understand today. We have moved into a new era where people understand we’ve created a failed system. When less than 5 percent of the world’s population live in the United States and consume more than 25 percent of the world’s resources, while roughly half the world is either starving or on the verge of starvation — the only way you can define that system is as a failure.

It’s not a model that we can sell to Africa or Latin America or India. It’s not something we want to pass onto our children. And an awful lot of business people are beginning to understand this. Young people are getting it, including young MBA students. Those who are going to be running our companies in the future years are waking up to these facts. I’m very familiar with this, because I’m going out and meeting with them, speaking to them in large assemblies and at much smaller gatherings, going to classes with them, and teaching classes for them.

Any responsible executive today of any corporation needs to understand that this is the future. And let’s face it: people who stay with the status quo have never been the really successful ones in history. The ones who understand future trends have always been the ones to prosper most.

When city-states became nations, very few people understood the implications, but the Medici did. They knew that their bank wasn’t any longer just about Florence. They needed to go to Venice. They needed to go all over Europe. They got it, and as a result were very successful.

We’re in a stage like that today where things are changing radically. We’re moving from this time that was defined, when I was a young person in the ’50s and ’60s, as the time to just continually expand materialism, produce things that seemed to make life easier – vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, mass-produced food, etc. Now we’re moving into a time when people are really getting the fact that we have to be sustainable, that that has to be the driving force.

And sustainability includes social justice. So we can’t be sustainable if people in the world are starving and being exploited. That’s not working. It seeds the roots of turmoil, even terrorism, and it creates tremendous problems for our children. We’re now finally beginning to understand these new facts of life, and our young people are waking up the fastest.

Corporate executives who understand these new trends and steer their companies in directions that recognize(s) that they are not just about making profits regardless of the social and environmental costs will thrive.

When I went to business school in the late ‘60s we were taught that a good CEO is like a good soldier – he protects the long-term interests of his employees and the communities where they live and work, as well as looking out for the interests of his stockholders. That all changed in the ‘70s and 80’s with the adoption of what we now think of as the theories of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics. They said that the sole responsibility of business is to maximize profits regardless of everything else. They said: to hell with the long term and the idea of being socially and environmentally responsible! But today we are understanding that profits are not the sole responsibility of business.

We recognize – as our grandparents did – that to be responsible and successful, businesses are going to have to pay decent rates of return to their investors while taking into account the creation of a world that we want to pass onto our children; a sustainable world, a just world, a world where everybody can thrive on some level.

All executives – even executives of corporations that today appear extremely successful and profitable – need to understand that their corporations are very vulnerable to these future trends. They need to get on the sustainability bandwagon; the ones who do so are going to be successful in this new era.

But many business leaders who are already CEOs and CFOs, who graduated with my generation – 30 or more years ago, often take the attitude that this is their system, and that as far as they’re concerned, everything’s working just fine. They are wrong and ultimately they – or their companies – will pay a very high price for these outdated attitudes.

Scott: What does a world look like without CSR…where corporations are all simply responsible enough that we don’t need to tack a CSR department onto them?

John: We have a precedent in this country for that. For the first hundred years that the United States was a nation, no corporation could get a charter unless it proved that it was going to serve a public interest. Charters lasted on average for ten years. There were exceptions – such as building a highway or a bridge – but on average ten years. Then the corporation had to go back and prove that IT had met the public interest and would continue to do so, in order to renew its charter.

That all changed in the 1880s when the Supreme Court decided that corporations had the rights of individuals but not the responsibilities, and we’ve been moving further and further in that direction ever since. “Citizens United” is the most recent example.

There’s a backlash today. The general population – despite the recent Supreme Court rulings that seem to favor corporations – are really beginning to get it. that backlash is going to increase as people decide they only want to support corporations that really are committed to creating a better future, to serving a public interest.

Scott: As this backlash is happening people are not only reacting against the negative but also moving towards the positive. What are the positive aspects within CSR that you’re seeing abroad from which the North American CSR community could benefit?

John: In the last decade, we’ve witnessed a revolution in Latin America against the form of capitalism that I call “predatory capitalism,” the Milton Friedman form of capitalism. We’ve seen ten countries which represent roughly 80 percent of the population of South America vote during democratic elections for presidents who campaigned with the promise of reigning in the corporations.

These countries are not getting rid of the corporations, not nationalizing them, not driving them out – because they recognize that they need them – but saying to these corporations, “If you’re going to drill for oil here in Ecuador, or if you’re going to drill for gas here in Bolivia, or grow bananas in El Salvador, that’s okay, but you must share a larger percentage of the profits with our people. You’ve got to pay higher taxes, and you’ve got to pay higher wage rates. You must make sure that the people working on these projects are adequately compensated and that they’re not working as slaves to you. And you have to offer the same protections for our environment as those required in alaska and other states.”

The old model used to be that when a foreign corporation went into another country, it would set up a contract whereby it got about 80 percent of the profits, and the country got 20 percent. The new leaders are changing this. For example, Rafael Correa who’s president of Ecuador and has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois understands the system, he’s a capitalist. He’s not trying to get rid of corporations, but he is asking the corporations to stop externalizing the costs associate with destroying the local environment and exploiting local populations. Correa, like other latin leaders, is demanding that corporations internalize those costs and that they return a much larger percentage of the profits to the people. These presidents are not asking for a reversal of the 80-20 formula but they are asking for something that is fairer for their people.

Every one of these countries, for most of my lifetime, was run by brutal dictators often put into power by our own CIA. Now, in peaceful, democratic elections all that has changed. I want to point out that these countries are not opposed to the United States. They’re not anti-American. They’re not anti-corporation. They’re just trying to say, “Listen, you’ve got to be socially and environmentally responsible if you want to work on our lands.” And the interesting thing is that many of the corporations – the ones that will truly thrive – are getting it.

I recently was a keynote speaker at a conference which was held in Panama which was primarily CEOs and CFOs of extractive industries in Latin America, mostly Canadian companies.

Before I accepted the invitation, I asked them, “Why me? What do you think I’m going to offer you?”

They said that policies in Latin America have changed. These elections have proven that business is not “as usual.” They told me, “We still want the minerals, and we understand we have to be good neighbors. We hear what they’re saying, and we want to cooperate.” these are very forward-looking senior business leaders saying they get it, and that they want to move forward. They want to be at the top of the curve, to continue to innovate and be the pioneers in this new and changing business environment.

That’s the real message today from all over the world – what I find in China and Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. People understand that capitalism is a very effective system to channel human and natural resources and to apply creativity in areas that result in very productive activities. Now it simply needs to redefine its objectives. Capitalism must accept a goal not just of making profits but also of serving a public interest. When it does that, we arrive at a win-win, a true partnership. Those who understand this will become leaders in this new era. They will thrive, prosper, profit, and create beneficial environments for themselves, their customers, their suppliers, their employees, and the communities in which they work. And for their progeny.

Scott: Yes, definitely a more equitable and respectful relationship, one that can be sustained indefinitely. Any parting words of wisdom?

John: Simply this – that any truly responsible businessperson has to look to the long term. Bonuses may be measured by the quarterly profit statements but true success has to be long-term. As a society, as a species, it is imperative that we understand the importance of creating a world our grandchildren will want to inherit.

Even Politicians Need Love – Ask The Buddha!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011 by EdandDeb Shapiro

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. -- Abraham Lincoln

The political arena right now can make any sane person feel sick and angry, because of the few selfish leaders imposing their own egocentric whims. As we have seen in the last few weeks in Washington, politicians appear to enjoy butting heads, creating chaos, and getting close to ruining millions of people's lives while they're at it. Granny may not get her Medicare or Ginger be able to pay her college tuition, but do they genuinely care about this, about the pain and suffering of others? How many lobsters, fancy cars, houses or private jets do they need? The awful horror is that these things can never make anyone happy but they certainly can pay for a hospital bed, overdue bill or foreclosure. We're pretty sure they didn't include such greed in their election campaigns.

It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways. -- Buddha

Seems like the Buddha got this one right as there is no doubt the majority of politicians appear sleazy, selfish, stubborn, and focused only on what they think is right, regardless of anyone else. The late senator Ted Kennedy was one of the few who really cared, but as President John F. Kennedy said: Mothers may still want their favorite sons to grow up to be President, but . . . they do not want them to become politicians in the process.

For example, during his recent TV show Lawrence O'Donnell played a video of Tea Party Rep Joe Walsh saying, "I won't place one more dollar of debt on the backs of my kids" before noting that Walsh owes those kids $117,437 in child support. Banning Walsh from his show, O'Donnell added "He can go tell his lies about his family values and his sense of fiscal responsibility elsewhere."

Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles. Whether we believe in God or karma, ethics is the foundation of every religion. – The Dalai Lama

However, this is actually a wonderful opportunity to take all politicians, as difficult as it may be, into our hearts – yes, our hearts — as it will free us from negativity. When we hate someone it is in ourselves that hate is felt, the other person feels nothing.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. -- Buddha

We need to recognize that such selfish behavior arises from ignorance. If politicians genuinely understood we are all equal here and in it together, they could not behave like this. Therefore, we can have compassion for them. Although challenging, caring unconditionally makes us more decent individuals and allows us to open our hearts even more. It is easy to love someone we care about but can we be at peace with someone who may cause us suffering? This is not easy but it is liberating. Only then can we be free. We don’t have to approve or accept their actions but we can care about the being inside.

Despite being a wondering mendicant living without paying a mortgage, without health care expenses, and without having to have a regular job, the Buddha had remarkable insights into the intricacies of human nature and how best to live a more balanced life.

He extoled his followers to tell the truth, to be honest with both themselves and others: There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting. – Buddha. And: Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. -- Buddha

He expressed the power of words and the importance to use them wisely: Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill. – Buddha. And: Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace. – Buddha. And: Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world. -- Buddha

He also stressed the need for skilful behavior. Unskilful behavior is harmful, hurtful, creates unhealthy circumstances and suffering. Skilful behavior generates positive outcomes, treats others with respect and dignity, and ensures that all the needs of all are met.

In particular, the Buddha emphasized that it is man's own mind that is at the root of our difficulties: All wrongdoing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrongdoing remain? -- Buddha

The Dalai Lama, often considered to be a modern day Buddha, recently retired from the head of the Tibetan government, while remaining their spiritual leader. In a current article in Rolling Stone Magazine he says, "I often tell people that this century should be a century of dialogue. Peace will not come from thought or from Buddha. Peace must be built by humans, through action. So that means, whenever we face a problem – dialogue. For peace we need inner disarmament. … It will not come immediately but we have to make the effort."

If only a few of the people in a position of power were to follow some of this sage advice, perhaps our country and even the world would not be in the state it is in.

What would you like to say to politicians?

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Our 3 meditation CD's: Metta—Loving kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi–Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra–Inner Conscious Relaxation, are available at: www.EdandDebShapiro.com

New Directions: CAM and Employer Sponsored Health Programs

Thursday, July 28, 2011 by E. Feigenbaum, Ph.D.

Traditional health care coverage has been a mainstay of employer-sponsored health benefits for decades, even as costs hit four times the rate of inflation. The surging expenses suggest that the current approach appears less than sustainable. The costs become even more staggering when the human toll of illnesses are also calculated into the equation.

For the majority of insured people, illnesses are diagnosed, codified, and approved for treatment through standard medical interventions and insurance protocols. Since specific illnesses are typically required to qualify most expenses for eligible traditional care benefits, conscious consumers hoping to improve health before illness strikes are often left with few options.

natural options As interest in health living tips employee interest toward complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), the research also suggests that integrative medicine has the potential to improve employee health and meet employee interest.

Currently, integrative medicine is often paid out of pocket, despite consistent increases in interest and available research to support its effectiveness in preventing and managing whole health. Surprisingly, even though smoking habits and obesity are linked to the top chronic ailments in the US, only about 9% of employers offer smoking cessation plans and a meager 6% offer weight loss programs within coverage. To enhance social accountability a trend toward investing in preventive medicine and CAM is predicted, and already more than 37% of hospitals have some CAM therapies available. LOHAS companies, in particular, may start looking for holistic alternatives and seeking socially responsible Investing options that improve employee health and preventive care through CAM benefit programs.
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Do We Really Need A Guru?

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 by EdandDeb Shapiro

Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. You are what observes, not what you observe.

The Buddha

We come from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean and couldn't be more different if we tried. Ed is from an over-crowded apartment in the Bronx who became a NYC dance champion; Deb was at a boarding school in the English countryside and was then an art student in London. Yet we both began the spiritual journey at the same time in the late 1960s. When Ed was in India being initiated as a Swami – a yogic monk -- Deb was becoming a Buddhist. So on our honeymoon it was obvious that we should go to India to meet with our respective gurus.

We have previously written about how we can be addicted to a guru, therapist, healer or movie star and how an ego-driven guru can take advantage of his devotees to boost their power and create a 'gurudom' or kingdom. But that was only one side of the story. To put it into perspective we want to share the beauty of what it means to have a guru, someone whose sole purpose in our life is to show us the confusion within ourselves until we wake up and realize our radiant selves.

Who is and what does a guru mean? Simply, it means a teacher, and nowadays is a term used for multiple reasons. According to Wikipedia it is: 'one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others.' This can be a business leader as much as a schoolteacher, as long as each is an expert in their field and able to impart their understanding. Traditionally in yoga, in the highest sense, the meaning refers to a Satguru, one who is not ego-driven but who removes ignorance and darkness and leads the disciple to self-realization

Due to our chaotic minds it can be difficult to see ourselves clearly -- just as it is difficult to see our own face unless we look in a mirror -- so a genuine guru is a mirror reflecting our inner self. In particular, such a guru can see through our often subtle, mischievous and trickster egos, how we get stuck wading in mentally murky water, caught up in delusions either of grandeur or of insecurity and self-doubt.

The path of personal development never goes in a straight line, there are many detours and it is easy to go astray or even get lost. The deluded ego leads us into believing we are way special and enlightened. The guru has been down this road before us, they've already done the work and got the T shirt and can, therefore, help us to navigate the path more easily.

Spiritual gurus are not all the same – some are like loving mothers or fathers, others are like military captains (we have experienced both) – but each, in their own way, is there to help us open our minds and hearts as they see in us what we cannot see in ourselves, particularly our potential and true nature. The guru reflects a skillful and awakened mind and reveals the same in us. They show us that if one person can do it so can we. As the Dalai Lama said to us when we met with him at his residence, "We are all equal here."

One of India's greatest holy men, Ramana Mahashi, always said that the role of the guru is to push the student from the outside in order to see the guru within – as the true guru is within each and every one of us. However, this does not mean that we must have a guru, particularly as these days they appear to be in relative short supply. The good news is that Ramana was self-realized, without a guru.

Ultimately, as the guru is our true nature and is hidden within each and every one of us, we simply need to deeply trust ourselves. Only from within can we awaken – it is not something someone else can do for us. Through meditation and insight we come to see clearly, beyond a mind that can be as distracted as a monkey bitten by a scorpion, leaping from one thought or drama to the next, to a place of clarity and wisdom. We take responsibility for our actions, recognizing the interdependent and impermanent nature of all things. Life is a precious gift and nothing in this world will make us forever happy, but when we look within we find a radiant reality. The greatest gift is our own wonderful selves.

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Our 3 meditation CD's: Metta—Loving kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi–Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra–Inner Conscious Relaxation, are available at: www.EdandDebShapiro.com

Eight Ways Meditation Can Change Your Life

Sunday, July 3, 2011 by EdandDeb Shapiro

We can't imagine what life would be like without meditation. It has seen us through tough times and many life changes, keeping us sane and grounded and real. Life is challenging enough, we can never know what will arise next and only when our minds are clear and focused can we make the best decisions.

How are you able to deal with the madness and chaos that occurs daily? How do you deal with the challenges of life? Meditation is highly misunderstood and often under-rated yet is perhaps what it takes to be a truly sane person. How does meditation affect us? How does it shift our priorities, enable us to make friends with ourselves, to find answers to our questions?

Here are eight ways meditation can make your life more meaningful and enjoyable!

1. Living With Kindness
No one deserves your kindness and compassion more than yourself. Every time you see or feel suffering, every time you make a mistake or say something stupid and are just about to put yourself down, every time you think of someone you are having a hard time with, every time you encounter the confusion and difficulty of being human, every time you see someone else struggling, upset, or irritated, you can stop and bring loving kindness and compassion. Breathing gently, silently repeat: May I be well, may I be happy, May I be filled with loving kindness.

2. Lightening the Load
In a stressed state, it is easy to lose touch with inner peace, compassion and kindness; in a relaxed state, your mind is clear and you can connect with a deeper sense of purpose and altruism. Meditation and medication are derived from the Latin word medicus, to care or to cure. A time of quiet calmness is, therefore, the most effective remedy for a busy and overworked mind. Anytime you feel stress rising, heart closing, mind going into overwhelm, just bring your focus to your breathing and quietly repeat with each in- and out-breath: Breathing in, I calm the body and mind; breathing out, I smile.

3. Letting Go of Me
Stillness is always there between the thoughts, behind the story, beneath the noise. What keeps us from experiencing our natural state of being is the habitual and ego-dominated monkey mind. Meditation enables us to see clearly, to witness our thoughts and behavior and reduce self-involvement. Without such a practice of self-reflection there is no way of putting a brake on the ego's demands. From being self-centered, we can become other-centered, concerned about the welfare of all.

4. Dissolving Anger and Fear
We do not accept or release our negative feelings so easily, we are more likely to repress or disown them. But when denied they cause shame, depression, anger, and anxiety. Meditation invites you to openly meet these places, and to see how selfishness, aversion and ignorance create endless dramas and fears. Beneath these is a quiet stillness where you can get to know yourself; this is a wondrous and beautiful experience. Whether you practice for just ten minutes a day or longer does not matter. You are releasing your limitations, while opening to self-acceptance and awareness.

5. Awakening Forgiveness
Forgiveness is the greatest gift you can give yourself and others. As you sit in meditation and watch your thoughts and feelings moving through you, so you can observe that who you are now is not who you were just a moment ago, let alone a day, a week, or a month ago. Who you, or someone else, was when pain was caused is not who you are now. When you experience your essential interconnectedness you see how the ignorance of this creates separation and suffering, so that forgiveness for such ignorance arises spontaneously.

6. Generating Harmlessness
Simply through the intent to cause less pain you can bring greater dignity to your world, so that harm is replaced with harmlessness and disrespect with respect. Harm is usually caused unintentionally, whether by ignoring someone’s feelings, putting yourself down, reaffirming your hopelessness, disliking your appearance, or seeing yourself as incompetent or unworthy. How much resentment, guilt, or shame are you holding on to, thus perpetuating harmfulness? Meditation enables you transform this through recognizing your essential goodness and the preciousness of all life.

7. Appreciating Appreciation
Take a moment to appreciate the chair you are sitting on. Consider how the chair was made: the wood, cotton, wool, or other fibers, the trees and plants that were used, the earth that grew the trees, the sun and rain, the animals that maybe gave their lives, the people who prepared the materials, the factory where the chair was made, the designer and carpenter and seamstress, the shop that sold it—all this just so you could be sitting here, now. Then extend that deep appreciation to everything and everyone in your life.

8. Being Aware
Awareness is the key to awakening. Through awareness you can see your monkey mind and all it’s mischief. Almost everything we do is to achieve something: if we do this, then we will get that; if we do that, then this will happen. But in meditation you do it just to do it. There is no ulterior purpose other than to be here, in the present moment, without trying to get anywhere or achieve anything. You are just aware of whatever is happening, whether pleasant or unpleasant. No judgment, no right or wrong. Simply being aware. Enjoy!

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You can find more in our award-winning book: BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You and the World, forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman, with contributors Marianne Williamson, Jane Fonda, Ram Dass, Byron Katie and others.

Our 3 meditation CD's: Metta—Loving kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi–Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra–Inner Conscious Relaxation, are available at: www.EdandDebShapiro.com

May You Live In Interesting Times

Saturday, June 25, 2011 by Pippa Sorley

The below article is brought to you as part of elephant journal’s ongoing coverage of LOHAS Forum. For our complete coverage, be sure to follow elephant on Twitter and Facebook.

Dr. Jean Houston woke me up this morning.

Normally, I don't like to be woken up. In fact, most people in my family stay as far away from me as possible before 10am. But, this was different. This was a powerful awakening...and everyone in the room felt it. Her too-short lecture at the 2011 LOHAS conference was received with hoots and hollers and a standing ovation.

Many of us believe that we are in the middle of a revolution. A revolution of the mind. And folks like Dr. Jean are the messengers. She, like many represent the 'Paul Reveres' of this revolution.

: Bucky Fuller

I had the honor of literally bumping into Dr. Houston shortly after her inspiring speech (I'm not the most graceful of people). Her humility, her openness, her kind eyes, and the beautiful story written in the folds of her face fascinated me. Here's a woman who has spent years studying with the likes of Joseph Campbell, Margaret Mead, and Buckminster Fuller, and right now, here she is, taking the time to "see" me. Taking the time to listen to my rants about the hypocrisy of the Feminist Movement. I left our brief chat wanting for more, which, magically, I will get. I will interview her in more depth in 2 weeks, which I will post here for anyone who might be interested in what the messengers -- and maybe in this case the angels -- of the future have to say. How do we move elegantly and consciously through this current phase of Transition? What challenges do we, as humanity, need to address first? We know we have no road map, so where can we look for directions?

Just a few of the quotes that struck me:

"Do any of you feel as if your life is a micro-laboratory of what's going on in world?"

"We are the 'People of the parentheses' in the history of humanity"

"It's time to leave our life of serial monotony behind; rather, let's take this opportunity to prepare ourselves to become stewards of The Spirit."

"It's time to harvest the human capacity."

How fortunate we are to be living in such times. I have much gratitude to everyone attending this conference. The anticipation of change is palpable. Let's ride the wave. You ready?

** title of this article is taken from an ancient chinese proverb**

Pippa Sorley is co-founder of eConscious Market, one of the Internet’s leading online green retailers. She has 15+ experience working for both nonprofit organizations & corporations within the Natural Products, LOHAS, and Sustainable Business sectors. She lives in the Republic of Boulder, Colorado.

What's New In Sustainable Materials?

Saturday, June 25, 2011 by Bud LOHAS

LOHAS: What’s New in Sustainable Materials?

elephant journal is proud to be the official new media partner with LOHAS Forum Click here for our ongoing LOHAS coverage , and be sure to follow our live coverage on Twitter .

Does it trouble you that styrofoam cups are still being used in the majority of PTA meetings around the country or church group gatherings? How about these insidious cups ubiquitously showing up in the ritual coffee breaks of all the meetings you attend? Think of the thousands of construction site coffee breaks, when the whistle blows. If you discover the only option you have at the office water cooler is a styrofoam cup, maybe you’ll decide to “blow the whistle” and green your company.

Challenge to Change

The stealth poisons lurking in those styrofoam cups cause havoc once inside the body. According to a 1992 U.S.D.H.H.S. study conducted by Jakoby, Claassen, & Sullivan, there is no internal biological mechanisms for metabolizing or eliminating the carcinogenic styrene from the human body.

Steve Davies of Natureworks, a company devoted to bringing a new family of performance “plastics” into the marketplace, gave a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities we have to replace petroleum based packaging. Healthy alternatives to the use of conventional plastic are created from plant sugars, not byproducts from fossil fuels or oil. The value and importance of these new materials is simple to understand, they are compostable and need not end up in landfills where toxins fester for decades.

It’s not easy to transform conventional practices and change our standard way of doing things. If you think it’s easy, try changing your own habits.

Davies, Director of Marketing and Public Affairs for Nature Works LLC walked the audience through the trials and tribulations of Frito Lays efforts to change their packaging. At the launch of Frito Lay’s 100% compostable Sun Chips bag, their initial promotion garnered 115,000,000 million impressions in the main stream media in the first 2 days. That’s practically a Guinness Book of World Records in advertising parlance. The worlds first compostable chip bag was met with tremendous expectations and plenty of media hoopla. Then they came up against a fickle marketplace reaction. Consumers and critics decided the bags were too noisy. Frito Lay had to go through several attempts to “get it right” and deliver an eco friendly bag that consumers would embrace.

Many companies would have given up and been intimidated by so much push back. To Frito Lay’s credit, they persevered and working with Davies’ company they redesigned their bag without compromising it’s eco-friendly qualities. The solution was a sound deadening layer of rubber glue that mitigated the noise factor from 95 decibels to 70. ( I know, some of you want to know about the glue ) I just didn’t have the opportunity to ask that question. My speculation is that it’s not toxic, based upon the rigorous scrutiny this product launch has received.

From Diapers to iTunes cards or high fashion fabrics to dietary supplement bottles, sustainable materials are showing up everywhere. Stoneyfield, Walmart, Target, Coca-Cola, Frito Lay, Electolux and Danone are among several other major brand name companies beginning to use these substitute materials in their packaging . Even credit cards are moving away from conventional plastic. Ingeo (Natureworks’ name for it’s biopolymer – plant based materials) is the substitute of choice. Here’s another example of an environmentally conscious conversion: all REI gift and loyalty cards, previously made with PVC, are now Ingeo based. Compared to PVC, Ingeo manufacturing emits 32 percent less CO2 and consumes 29 percent less energy.

In October of 2010 Stonyfield Farm, the global organic yogurt leader, replaced all of its petroleum-based multipack yogurt cups with plant based Ingeo cups. The new cups are a first in the dairy industry and reduced Stonyfield’s greenhouse gas emissions by 48 percent.

FACTOID: even cold cups made of paper are plastic lined with polyethylene – not something you want to ingest. At the urging of college students and other consumers, who happen to consume a fair amount of Coca Cola, the company is moving to an Ingeo lining as a replacement for all their food service cups supplied to facilities with the capability for composting. The truth is, with enough consumer demand and courageous corporate leadership, we have enormous opportunities to reduce our use of non-renewable resources by using plant based renewable materials.

The proliferation of Paper Cups

In addition to concerns about the trash factor… disposal of conventional plastics… there are growingconcerns about Phthalates leaching into our water, food and ultimately being absorbed by our bodies, disrupting our endocrine system. Phthalates are the chemicals used to make plastic soft and flexible. Here is what the American Chemical Council says about Phthalates on their official web site:

With more than 50 years of research, phthalates are among the most thoroughly studied family of compounds in the world and have been reviewed by multiple regulatory bodies in the United States. The American Chemistry Council is proud that the products of chemistry are among the most thoroughly evaluated and regulated in commerce and continues to support ongoing research into the health and safety of phthalates.

Sherry Rogers, M.D. begs to differ. In her provocative book Detoxify or Die, published in 2002 she states: “Phthalates off gassing from plastic…damage hormone receptors, leading to loss of sex drive and energy. They damage brain chemistry leading to learning disability and hyperactivity, or they accumulate in organs and trigger cancers of the prostate, breast, lung and thyroid.” (page 2). In EPA studies Phthalates have been found in the human body in concentrations 1000 times higher than any other harmful substances including heavy metals and pesticides.

The Chemical Council goes on to say that “Science Protects Our Health”. Does this remind you of the Du Pont ads from a decade ago “Better Living Through Chemistry?”

They go on to say:

“A responsible and rational regulatory framework in government is based on science and evidence, not on public or political opinion.”

Right, do you suppose that is why the European Union banned the use of Phthalates six years ago? Makes one wonder who’s science reveals the truth about toxins in our environment.

At a recent public meeting at the Aspen Institute, Maggie Fox (the wife of Senator Mark Udall and former senior attorney for the Sierra Club) stated that virtually all of the regulatory agencies in the U.S. have been thoroughly manipulated by corporate interests to maximize profits for the past 3 decades at a minimum. She suggested that citizens need to be the watch dogs.

Keep an eye out for this logo and maybe you’ll be able to be a catalyst for change. The next time you encounter plastic products that you’d rather eliminate from our world, be proactive and write a letter or call the culprit company and recommend they convert their use of harmful chemicals. Invite them to join the movement for a healthier world.

The plant based "plastic" alternative to oil

The Ingeo “Plastic Pellets” created by Natureworks LLC are plant based polymers. Without having to go back to school or chemistry class, these long chain molecules all come from plant sugars. They happen to perform like plastic without the negative impact on the environment that petroleum based plastic products embody.

Annually, one Billion lbs. of corn starch is used by the paper industry. By comparison, less than .1% of the entire U.S. industrial corn crop is used by Ingeo to create 140,000 tons, or 300,000,000 lbs., of Ingeo on an annual basis.

So here is a hint, the path to a healthy future in a consumer based economy is this: All products have to work well and carry impeccable environmental credentials. Private corporations are learning to live by public permission. No green washing, no kidding.

Onward with courage

Bud Wilson was a student-athlete-activist during the tumultuous era at Harvard University and emerged with an interdisciplinary degree combining, child development, innovative education and urban social policy. He the Global Director of Bio-Regional Leadership and an awareness instructor and wilderness guide for Sacred Passage and The Way of Nature. Bud has devoted his passion and energy to raising awareness (including his own) and shifting human consciousness to appreciate that we are all living in an interdependent, interconnected world where there is more than enough for all of humanity to live in peace and harmony. A proud dad of 2 wonderful grown children!

Greener Health with Integrative Medicine

Friday, June 24, 2011 by E. Feigenbaum, Ph.D.

Do fish need antidepressants? Well, they are getting them. Through un-metabolized human waste and the disposal of unused medications, numerous pharmaceuticals end up in waterways and soil tests all over the US. Though chemical levels are in trace amounts, few studies have considered the potential harms that can result from long term exposure among humans and other species, or the impact these materials may have on the overall chemical load in the environment. Currently, federal regulations require no testing and have no safety levels set for trace pharmaceuticals.

Since these substances may interact in unpredictable ways with each other or water additives like chlorine, the LOHAS community may have some legitimate concerns about the trends for increased US prescription drug use. This connects personal health choices and commitments to sustainability and environmental health to what happens when a patient enters a doctor’s office, especially among people looking for options to improve health through non-invasive, natural, and lifestyle oriented solutions. Yet for those who inquire about stress management with the majority of conventional doctors, they may be more likely to receive advice about anti-anxiety prescription options than a suggestion about exercise or styles of yoga to try. Though pharmaceuticals play a key role for some conditions, many people would prefer making lifestyle changes to improve their health when possible.

The result of an exclusively traditional benefit plan may leave people opting for a lack of follow-up or no care at all if they prefer holistic alternatives. For LOHAS companies, ideas are brewing over how to connect cost-effective benefit planning to corporate values by offering benefit plans that provide options to include types of care that employees want and need: care that focuses on preventive medicine and whole person health, like holistic or integrative medicine. Investing in integrative medicine has the potential to capture the best of both fiscal and value-driven goals.

Why Ethics is at the Core of Everything in Business and Life.

Friday, June 24, 2011 by Bud LOHAS

The below article is brought to you as part of elephant journal’s ongoing coverage of LOHAS Forum. For our complete coverage, be sure to follow elephant on Twitter and Facebook.

The LOHAS Forum in Boulder is reminding us of what we already know: To live a meaningful life we need a compass that informs our behavior. I listened to the panel discussion on "Incorporating Socially Responsible Ethics in Your Supply Chain." AVEDA, Eileen Fisher and the Endangered Species Chocolate Foundation sent representatives to engage with Forum participants. Scott Leonard the Co-Founder ofIndigenous Designs moderated the panel and set the tone by asking all of us to think about what "Ethics" really means to us.

: Standing as a Green Business Person

What would you do if your title for LIFE was "Vice President, Earth and Community Care." That's quite a responsibility. Can one person in one company truly care for our communities and the Earth? Well, that's Chuck Bennett's position at AVEDA. Ultimately we're being challenged to green our businesses at the same time we green our communities and our planet. The old idea that business is business and somehow separate from life is no longer acceptable to a growing segment of our culture we now call conscious consumers.

That's the point of the whole forum, suggesting that each one of us can step into that job description. After the panel I had a chance to talk with Scott the panel facilitator and we came up with this shared perspective: "As business leaders, we are integrating ethical principles, shifting the status quo economy. We are the care givers co-creating an entirely new ecology of commerce ."

: Green Business Now

Through the course of the conversation, it became evident that the power of our consumer choices will drive companies to raise the bar on supply chain standards of behavior and performance. Ethical businessleaders are onto this trend and doing their best to keep up with the growing awareness that human behavior and "business as usual" is affecting all life on Earth. A favorite phrase is to Vote with your dollars in the marketplace of change! This is the core of ethical behavior, knowing that we impact ecological systems that support a healthy, balanced and harmonious life!

May You Live In Interesting Times.

Thursday, June 23, 2011 by Pippa Sorley

Dr. Jean Houston woke me up this morning.

Normally, I don't like to be woken up. In fact most people in my family stay as far away from me as possible before 10am. But, this was different. This was a powerful awakening...and everyone in the room felt it. Her too-short lecture at the 2011 LOHAS conference was received with hoots and hollers and a standing ovation.

Many of us believe that we are in the middle of a revolution. A revolution of the mind. And folks like Dr. Jean are the messengers. She, like many represent the 'Paul Reveres' of this revolution.

Just a few of the quotes that struck me:

"Do any of you feel as if your life is a micro-laboratory of what's going on in world?"

"We are the 'People of the parentheses' in the history of humanity"

"It's time to leave our life of serial monotony behind; rather, let's take this opportunity to prepare ourselves to become stewards of The Spirit."

"It's time to harvest the human capacity."

How fortunate we are to be living in such times. I have much gratitude to everyone attending this conference. The anticipation of change is palpable. Let's ride the wave. You ready?

Futuretopia. Or, "Come On, Can't Humanity Do a Little Better?"

Thursday, June 23, 2011 by Lopa Brunjes

I used to play Sim City when I was a kid, and I always named my city "Utopia." So a talk entitled "Futuretopia" really got my idealistic jazz on. Man, I was excited. I imagined it painting a vision of the future of a harmonious union of sustainability, sufficiency, spirituality, beauty, and appropriate use of advanced technologies that could inspire humanity to get far beyond the current fu*k-everything-but-me paradigm and into an interconnected matrix of sustainable winning.

And I left feeling like..."Dammit, humans, can't we do a little better?"

I guess what it comes down to is, the talk was a lot more...practical, than I was hoping for. I honestly can't fault it for that. It's not the speaker's fault that I was on my idealistic high horse to start with.

A few highlights:

Blinds that can store solar energy, solar batteries, improved microwaves
Design for disassembly. Why don't we just pull the motherboard out and put a new one in? Why are computers "disposable"?
Design for up-cycling. Design it so that when it's done, it can be used for something else. A cruise ship that becomes a home or hotel built into the side of a hill. (Now, that's a bit more like what I'm talking about.)
Stop rewarding consumption
Mandate strict building codes
Tax energy use on a sliding scale
Are you yawning yet?

I mean, trust me, I'm all for a little (or a lot of!) practicality and on-the-ground green realness (I am the "Where Does the Rubber Meet the Road?" queen to a lot of my friends)...but a talk entitled "Futuretopia" had my inner-idealist all puffed up and entering with expectations of the cuttingest edge of the cutting edge, and man, I expected to be unduly inspired. I wanted to hear about biomimetic business models; green buildings that emulate the strength and flexibility of trees; wave power and seasteading. Instead I'm thinking of feed-in tarrifs, ecological living, and solar batteries.

Yes, essential. Yes, in everyday life I'm all about 'em. And yes...I'mma have another cuppa coffee.

Interview with Marc Barasch: Let's Just Save the World Already, Dammit.

Thursday, June 23, 2011 by Lopa Brunjes

elephant journal is proud to be the official new media partner with LOHAS Forum. Click here for our ongoing LOHAS coverage, and be sure to follow our live coverage on Twitter. [Our editor Waylon Lewis is honored to serve on two panels during this event.]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDkT3fPRn3U[/youtube]

elephant journal: Tell me about your experience with LOHAS.

Marc Barasch: I’ve been around since almost the beginning. New age business had been bifurcated, and suddenly people were beginning to figure out how to put their spiritual ideas into business. It started with good ol’ tofu companies, small granola businesses just beginning to advertise and act like real businesses.

elej: How have you seen it change over the years?

MB: It’s been a mixed blessing. You lose some of the authenticity of the core intent as companies sell to larger conglomerates. It’s wonderful thatit propagates the meme and distributes the products at a scale that a small company never could have done. There are tremendous benefits to that. But from my somewhat outside observation, you also lose some of the integrity. For example, if you look at Ben and Jerry’s, when they were acquired by Unilever, I believe they intended to keep a very progressive business model, including a fixed ratio of how much top executives were paid. However, that model was not kept.

So the LOHAS community needs to ask: how can LOHAS not replicate some of the disparities and discontinuities of the prevailing system that are collectively driving us off a cliff? I think it’s time for companies to not just look at the sustainability and humanity of their organizational development, not just as a CSR add-on or a laudable afterthought, but something that’s included in the raison d’être of the company itself? I think that’s the question that we need to be asking. What does the company do? What is the product? How can we ensure that it’s not increasing consumerism?

How does this push forward a new emergent model, without pushing forward the parameters of a dysfunctional system? How does it value and push forward what needs to be done in the world? And quickly? We need to step out of the matrix and look at this from some zero point and reverse engineer it. What does the world need, and how do these entities—businesses and corporations—directly serve that need?

In an era where money is de-realized into nothing but bits and bites, a fictive system based on number magic, the priests of the numerate have always worked abstract magic on the masses, and become the elite through magical hand gestures—in this case, tapping on keyboards.

I’m very personally interested in complementary currencies. Look at Switzerland, for example. One reason that they’ve been so stable economically is not just because they are neutral, but because they have some very sophisticated complementary currencies to meet social needs, as well.

elej: What do you think we need now?

MB: I think it’s time for radical experimentation, we need hybrid or fusion companies, with nonprofits using the profit system and businesses founded with a social mission first, such as Patagonia.

How do we take on the really large social mission of true transformation, and not just nibble around the edges of real change? I think that’s not just grandiosity. It’s necessity.

How do we model as organizations that meet emergent civilization?

elej: How are you modeling an organization that meets the emergent civilization?

MB: This might sound pretentious, but I really took a cue from something Thomas Keating once said, something to the effect of, “I get up every morning, and I decide what will do the most good. This simplifies things tremendously.”

6 years ago, when Field Notes on the Compassionate Life came out, I thought, “If I’m talking about compassion, I need to enact it.” So I stopped my entire career trajectory from that point forward, and asked how I could do the most good and accept whatever answer I was given. I asked myself, "what does the universe want?" And I’ve followed that question pretty loyally for these last 5 years.

That lead to a lot of coincidences, that eventually led me to planting trees in Ethiopia, to start. I started the Green World Campaign, and watched it grow into a mostly volunteer-driven organization that’s now operating in 5 countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Mexico, Philippines, India). We’ve planted close to 500,000 trees. We’re involved in regenerating communities. We’re restoring the economy and ecology of the world’s poorest places, doing work that serves people and planet. In the model of agroforestry that humans and nature have been co-creating since the beginning.

The idea that our relationship to the natural world is to avoid keeping our own destructive hands off it, is inadequate, completely. We’re supposed to work in an integral way together. Renew communities as we renew the environment.

How do we take the holistic model that we all ascribe to philosophically and apply it in the real world, particularly at the bottom of the pyramid, with the people and places that our collective fate is inextricably entwined? Collective enactment of the global village.

As a critique, we’re very good at created “enlightened, green-gated communities”. But how does this affect the poorest of the poor? Trickle down economics. Everything is connected. Everything should be seen as interactive parts of a whole.

Reforestation is a quantifiable healing strategy. We are using interactive new media and new technologies. It’s part of the DNA of GWC. We have an alliance with Digital Globe, the largest satellite imaging company, to be able to show donors over time degraded areas turning green.

A tree is a deeply embedded meme in the human psyche. We’re a tree-planting species. We always have been.

We’re operating in many domains, whether it’s carbon credits for eco-stoves, creating social enterprises by sourcing commodities like herbs and teas, non-timber forest products, how to partner with indigenous communities in a way that empowers them and also introduces appropriate technology and new agronomic strategies that are harmonious with their traditional agricultural practices.

We are not only providing environmental education, but also working on linking that up with schools in the US, so kids can get a sense of the global village. I’m big on creating positive feedback loops in a way that empowers global citizens. Doing good doesn’t have to be only through large corporations and large environmental groups. How do we self-aggregate and do something that we can see that benefits all of us?

How do we all learn from each other? I’m taking pains to pick and search partners that are mission-aligned and have a real global citizen mindset. Some sort of understanding of the spiritual underpinnings of human existence, if you will. We’re not aiming to be USAID. We want to work with the LOHAS community. We’re propagating ideals in the context of the developing world that are really building global community that includes the poorest of the poor.

Our model is infinitely scalable. With proper funding, we could scale this up almost immediately.

I call this work Green Compassion. And the movie “I Am” also relates to this.

elej: Tell me about I Am.

MB: I got a call from Tom Shadyac, who wanted to make a film about the book. A large part of the film is based on the book. Here’s a guy who had earned about $2.1B dollars gross for the studios thru his Jim Carey and Eddie Murphy movies. As much as possible, I want Green World Campaign to be congruent with the ideals presented in the movie and the book. Everything I do is informed by my own healing work and experience, and my background in Buddhism. It all stems out from that.

Interviewer's note: And that's what it's all about.

: Marc Barasch rockin' a slanted beret FTW.

Jean Houston Tells Us All How to Wake Up!

Thursday, June 23, 2011 by Bud LOHAS

The awesome energy and vision of Jean Houston was evident in her passionate presentation today at the LOHAS conference in Boulder, Colorado. Her capacity to express herself in cosmic metaphors staggers the mind. As Ted Ning, the LOHAS conference director, commented, "listening to Jean is like attempting to take a sip from a fire hose."

Her challenge to all of us is to step into the fullness of our biological and spiritual design as human beings.

"These are mythic times of transformation on Planet Earth and we are the mything (sic) link. It is up to humans to embrace our creative capacity to bring balance and harmony back into our communities and our way of being in the world. Jean Houston has researched creative change makers for decades and found that they all embody the ability to "marinate" in their own imaginations, pondering the possible. She went on to say: "They are excellent spelunkers of their own creativity." Her enthusiasm and passion launches her into many rapid fire quotes, practically jumping across the universe from Goethe to Joseph Campbell.

Of course, she took issue with Joseph Campbell's insistence that there are no Heroine Journeys', only the Heroes Journey, which was very popular with the women in the audience. She went on to share some fascinating research from 107 countries. It is women who are on the forefront of making things work in their communities. In fact, it is a specific subset of women. She called this phenomenon as "Post-Menapausal Zing." These findings are consistent with research from the Micro Finance world, unfortunately for men, they have found that money given to men in the developing world is often squandered on alcohol or consumer goods that have nothing to do with the sustainability of their communities. In Jean's research 70 to 80% of all activity that sustains a community is being done by women. She reassured the men in the audience that the clarity of masculine energy can be engaged to restore the biosphere in partnership with women. She emphasized it is not about the "rise of women," it is about designing a whole new culture of kindness.

www.youtube.com/watch Here Jean Houston speaks briefly about the Possible Human.

She touched a resonant nerve with Marc Barasch, a LOHAS Forum attendee, who launched his own Green World Campaign, based upon his dreams. The Axis Mundi image of the Tree of Life connecting Heaven and Earth awakening a passion for manifesting and bringing forth into the world our most cherished ideals.

Her parting words inspired the audience to a standing ovation when she encouraged everyone to allow our personal liberation to embrace our inventiveness. She believes the Earth is desperately needing the "possible human" to emerge into the "possible society" and create an entirely new civilization. Everyone alive today is born for these times.

Let's step up to the challenge, the Earth is eager for all of us to wake up.

Onward with Courage.