A prisoner says about yoga, "it's ironic that I found what I was looking for in San Quentin." James Fox, founder and director of Prison Yoga Project, tells the story of Prison Yoga Project. How he started teaching at San Quentin, the scope of the problem, the struggles all prisoners have with violence and addiction. The transformative value of yoga and mindfulness for prisoners and the public. … [click on title to read and view more]
Odd but wonderful concoction: blended sweet potato, apple, chia seeds and LOTS of garlic...baked the "batter" in cast iron pan till crispy. It turned out tasting vaguely of baked or fried grits or polenta, both foods I miss but can no longer eat. This was a delightful surprise as I made it up totally on the fly with no real sense of what the final product would be like. You know what they say about the mother of invention. I need variation and diversity in my diet and so I am forever playing with new ingredients. My diet may be restricted in certain regards, but I make it a habit to add new foods I've never tried before as well as new combos all the time. This means I don't generally feel deprived as I'm always eating new and delicious foods. … [click on title to read and view more]
Millions of us in our modern world suffer because we are constantly pushed and hurried. Rushing causes tension and stress. We are over-exposed over-saturated with incoming information 24/7. Any information that comes to you causes your sympathetic nervous system (the fight, flight or freeze) to act or react. When you are exposed to stressors it is up to your parasympathetic nervous system to bring you back down. … [click on title to read and view more]
When he is born, a baby's head is filled with the knowledge of space. The circumference of his skull is as infinite as the twirlings of the universe. His eyes look out with the blur of eyes which see for all species. He has remembered his own nature from past patterns. Now his heart beats through rock, sky, oceans. He feels the silence and the sound all around the world beneath his skin. We all hold somewhere deep within us the truth we accepted in innocence. The seas, the forests, the soil, the atmosphere, are all vital parts of an ongoing system. By harming any part of it we must ultimately harm ourselves. It is that simple. … [click on title to read and view more]
What if there is something fundamental about empathy such that when we cannot act on it, we lose part of ourselves, perhaps even our humanity? What if we have unwittingly created a world in which we chip away at our capacity for empathy, and with it, one of the unique traits of humankind: the ability to love beyond kinship and species boundaries? Can we continually be exposed to violence and degradation, particularly through the media, and maintain empathy towards the suffering of others, or must we begin to shut down, feeling a little less compassion in exchange for a sense of safety, if not hope? … [click on title to read and view more]
Sometimes people feel that recognizing the truth of suffering conditions a pessimistic outlook on life, that somehow it is life-denying. Actually, it is quite the reverse. By denying what is true, for example, the truth of impermanence, we live in a world of illusion and enchantment. … [click on title to read and view more]
Last week Matt Samet posted about a setback he's recently had. The withdrawal ugliness which had largely abated came crashing back after several years of wellness. I made some comments about that in a post that linked to his. What I didn't say is that I've had my own setback recently too. Setbacks for me remain routine and normal...they are part of the excruciatingly non-linear process of recovery. I've not yet experienced anything resembling full functionality, but I do have periods of time where I start to imagine what that might be like again as I'm able to do a bit more than usual. So, these setbacks, while becoming less intense in many ways are always hugely discouraging still. … [click on title to read and view more]
So simple!! Treating people will love and care will always be the right thing to do. It's unfortunate that capitalism and our entire society doesn't generally appreciate this truth. … [click on title to read and view more]
Transform despair ~~ To reframe what we've generally been told about mental anguish and suffering by the mental illness system is a very important part of healing. Psychiatry makes out that the individual is sick. A much more honest as well as empowering way to view much mental anguish is to see ourselves as part of the web of life. Our despair is telling us something very real and valid.
Non-violence has been preached over and over again, politically, religiously, by various leaders that you have had. Non-violence is not a fact; it is just an idea, a theory, a set of words; the actual fact is that you are violent. That is the fact. That is “what is”. But we are not capable of understanding “what is”, and that is why we create this nonsense called non-violence. And that gives rise to the conflict between “what is” and “what should be”. All the while you are pursuing non-violence you are sowing the seeds of violence. This is so obvious. So, can we together look at “what is” without any escape, without any ideals, without suppressing or escaping from “what is”? … [click on title to read and view more]
By Will Hall
The extraordinary hope we invest in idealistic projects can even sometimes make things worse: the more we believe our group is the answer to a world gone wrong, the more our world does go wrong when the group unravels. As we feel circled by enemies and victimized by mistreatment, we spawn a terrible shame: the feeling that there must be something basically at fault with us and even our movement. Our core values are shaken, and we risk giving up our aspirations for change. We can burn out, turning our backs activist organizing entirely. … [click on title to read and view more]
