On Mindfulness

Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.
New York Times

I am becoming more aware of the disconnection between what I know and how I behave.

Returning home after a blissful weekend of yoga and dance at Harbin Hot Springs with Bella, I rushed to my computer to answer the hundred plus emails that had piled up over the weekend. Yes, I confess, I am one of those email addicts that is constantly checking to see who loves me, who hates me, and who needs me in this surreal world of cyberspace... The bells go off and I’m like Pavlov’s dog running to the computer or phone. I went to bed with a cyber headache.

The next morning the headlines of the Sac Bee and NY Times ran an article that addressed our technological addictions. It reports that our growing skill at multi-tasking has led to “trouble focusing and shutting out useless information…” It seems multi-taking stimulates excitement – “and gives us a dopamine squirt” – that researchers say can be addictive. This addiction leads to increased stress, diminished ability to concentrate on what’s important, and fragmented thinking.

We’ve developed an amazing capability to connect and share information through computers, but we seem to often use that ability for mindless consumption and exploitation rather than useful learning, spiritual inspiration, the enhancement of human culture or the protection of our natural world. Our disconnection from the earth has never been greater, nor has the need to listen to her voice. How can we return to a more balanced, connected and peaceful life in harmony with our planet when we are being bombarded by waves of useless information?

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind
on things we desire not things we fear.
Brian Tracy

Read the entire letter from Michael here.

Upcoming Events

June 21st has been declared World Peace and Prayer Day by Arvol Looking Horse. The Summer Solstice is said to be a powerful time to pray for peace and harmony among all Living Beings. Grandmother Earth's gifts, the air, water plant, animal and rock nations must be allowed to heal if we are to live in harmony with Her. Please join us for a day of prayer and fasting for peace, wisdom, and compassion towards all life.

September 18th: Save this for a weekend of dance, camping and fun in Nevada County. More to follow...

Moving Meditation News

Thank you all for your support in making the Friday class a huge success. I was actually surprised at the full house turnouts and support for the Friday practice. We will continue our series this Friday exploring the Rhythm of Chaos and the power of surrender. Next month we will be working with the shadow of the rhythms. Your continuing feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Sunday Summer Solstice Dance

June 20th we will be having a special Solstice Celebration in preparation for the day of prayer and fasting. Please bring something for the alter that represents your relation to the natural world and mother earth.

New Podcasts

Click here to view the Podcasts page, and to listen to the following podcasts:

Thomas Greco: The End of Money & the Future of Civilization
Thomas H. Greco, Jr. is a community and monetary economist, educator, writer, and consultant. He is a former tenured college teacher who has spent more than 30 years studying and writing about ways to achieve greater harmony, equity, and sustainability through business and economics. His special expertise in monetary and financial structures has led to innovative designs for private community currencies and payment systems. His latest book is The End of Money and the Future of Civilization. reinventingmoney.com

Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D: Earth Dance
Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D-- internationally known as a dynamic speaker and media personality-- is an evolution biologist, futurist, author and consultant on Living Systems Design. Dr. Sahtouris shows the relevance of biological systems to organizational design in businesses, government and global trade. Her books include A Walk Through Time: from Stardust to Us, Biology Revisioned, co-authored with Willis Harman, and EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution. www.sahtouris.com

Bolivia Special
A special overview of Michael Stone's travels to Bolivia for the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. Featuring interviews with: María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Mari Mcgil & Cormac Cullinan, and Nnimmo Bassey.

Paul Blank, MD: How Everyday Products Make People Sick
Paul D. Blanc, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine and holds the Endowed Chair in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In his recent book he reveals the hidden health dangers in many of the seemingly innocent products we encounter every day-a tube of glue in a kitchen drawer, a bottle of bleach in the laundry room, a rayon scarf on a closet shelf, a brass knob on the front door, a wood plank on an outdoor deck. To visit Paul Blank, MD's web site, click here.

Rupert Sheldrake: Morphic Resonance
Rupert Sheldrake, one of the world’s most innovative biologists and writers is best known for his theory of morphic fields and morphic resonance, which leads to a vision of a living, developing universe with its own inherent memory. He is the author of numerous books including A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation which has just been updated and renamed Morphic Resonance. www.sheldrake.org

Will Steger: empowering climate change solutions
Will Steger has been an eyewitness to the ongoing catastrophic consequences of global warming. A formidable voice calling for understanding and the preservation of the Arctic and the Earth, Will Steger is best known for his legendary polar explorations. He has traveled tens of thousands of miles by kayak and dog-sled over 45 years. Thus the Will Steger Foundation is educating, inspiring and empowering the public in a campaign to solve global warming. Steger is the author of four books. www.willstegerfoundation.org and www.willsteger.com

Sandra Ingerman: Medicine for the Earth
Sandra Ingerman teaches workshops internationally on shamanic journeying, healing, and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. She has trained and founded an international alliance of Medicine for the Earth Teachers and shamanic teachers. Sandra is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture addressing the needs of our times. She is the author of numerous books on Shamanism. www.sandraingerman.com

Book of the Month

A Burning Desire: Dharma God & The Path of Recovery, by Kevin Griffin

A Burning Desire is a gift for anyone on the path of mindfulness and spiritual awareness. While Kevin Griffin focuses on resolving the seeming separation of the 12-step program’s need to surrender to a Higher Power with traditional Buddhist practices, this book goes way beyond traditional ideas of healing addiction. He takes a radical departure from traditional views of God, Western or Eastern, neither accepting Christian beliefs in a Supreme Being or Buddhist non-theism, but rather forges a refreshing, sensible, and accessible Middle Way. Griffin shows how the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, can be understood as a Higher Power. This book is for anyone who is ready to face their own habitual and addictive behavior and use it to bring peace into their lives and the world.

Articles

'Greed culture' killing planet

The average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, fuelling a global culture of excess that is emerging as the biggest threat to the planet, according to a new report.

In its annual report, Worldwatch Institute says the cult of consumption and greed could wipe out any gains from government action on climate change or a shift to a clean energy economy.

''Until we recognise that our environmental problems, from climate change to deforestation to species loss, are driven by unsustainable habits, we will not be able to solve the ecological crises that threaten to wash over civilisation,'' Worldwatch project director Erik Assadourian said.

To read the full article, click here.

Book Bytes: Cars and People Compete for Grain

At a time when excessive pressures on the earth’s land and water resources are of growing concern, there is a massive new demand emerging for cropland to produce fuel for cars—one that threatens world food security. Although this situation had been developing for a few decades, it was not until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when oil prices jumped above $60 a barrel and U.S. gasoline prices climbed to $3 a gallon, that the situation came into focus. Suddenly investments in U.S. corn-based ethanol distilleries became hugely profitable, unleashing an investment frenzy that will convert one fourth of the 2009 U.S. grain harvest into fuel for cars.

To read the full article, click here.

Shannon Hayes Rethinks the Meaning of Work

Growing renewed relationships with our food, homes, and communities requires hard work. It’s time we embrace dirty hands.

May hits us like an ice water dousing on a drowsy morning. It is simultaneously shocking and deeply refreshing. Winter’s leisurely breakfasts are suddenly a thing of the past: Bob and I scarcely have time to join each other for a cup of coffee before we find ourselves on our hands and knees weeding asparagus, donning nets to check on the beehives, pounding posts to trellis new grape vines, digging holes for new fruit trees, or heading down to the farm to make sausage before the farmer's market starts. I help my dad vaccinate the sheep and bag fleeces for the mill; he examines the flock for parasites, moves the broilers out to pasture, checks the fences, hauls hay bales to the cattle to tide them over until the pastures are amply lush, and monitors the grasses and our very pregnant ewes. My mom faces an endless barrage of dishes to wash following our luncheon feasts (made larger to accommodate our springtime appetites), handles the incoming meat orders, and helps us care for the girls. But despite all our activity, we still feel as though we are in the calm before the storm that will hit when lambing season officially begins. All other away-from-home plans are subject to the whims of nature as our family readies to welcome the spring crop of newborns.

To read the full article, click here.

Water: Will There Be Enough?

For at least three decades, Americans have had some inkling that we face an uncertain energy future, but we’ve ignored a much more worrisome crisis—water. Cheap and seemingly abundant, water is so common that it’s hard to believe we could ever run out. Ever since the Apollo astronauts photographed Earth from space, we’ve had the image of our home as a strikingly blue planet, a place of great water wealth. But of all the water on Earth, only about 2.5 percent is freshwater—and two-thirds of that is locked up in glaciers and ice caps. Less than one hundredth of one percent of Earth’s water is fresh and renewed each year by the solar-powered hydrologic cycle.

To read the full article, click here.

Parking Lots to Parks: Designing Livable Cities

Lester R. Brown
Earth Policy Institute

As I was being driven through Tel Aviv from my hotel to a conference center in 1998, I could not help but note the overwhelming presence of cars and parking lots. It was obvious that Tel Aviv, expanding from a small settlement a half-century ago to a city of some 3 million today, had evolved during the automobile era. It occurred to me that the ratio of parks to parking lots may be the best indicator of the livability of a city—an indication of whether the city is designed for people or for cars.

To read the full letter, click here.

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Dear Friends,
For the past four years I have been funding Conversations, The Well of Light and other associated projects out of my own pocket and fund raising events. In order to keep this newsletter coming and keep moving towards syndicating Conversations we need your help. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution if you enjoy receiving our monthly newsletter or listening to Conversations.

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michael

Upcoming Shows on Conversations

June 15th
Melanie Lenart, Ph.D: Life in the Hothouse: How a Living Planet Survives Climate Change
An award-winning journalist, Melanie Lenart, Ph.D., is an environmental scientist and writer specializing in climate change and forests. As a scientist, she studied forest dynamics in China, Colorado, and Puerto Rico, where she lived during two major hurricanes. She was involved in an Arizona agricultural experiment testing how plants responded to elevated levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas responsible for the ongoing warming of the planet. www.u.arizona.edu/~mlenart/index.php

June 22nd
Kevin Griffin: One Breath at a Time
Kevin Griffin is an author, teacher and lecturer based in the SF Bay area. He teachers “Dharma and Recovery” at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and is the co-founder of the Buddhist Recovery Network, an international organization that serves people in the recovery community through training, treatment and research. www.kevingriffin.net

June 29th
William Powers: Living a meaningful life
William Powers has worked for over a decade in development aid and conservation in Latin America, Africa, Washington, D.C., and Native North America. His essays and commentaries on global issues have appeared in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, and on National Public Radio. He is the author of numerous books including the soon to be released, 12x12 about living off the grid and simplifying life. www.williampowersbooks.com

July 6th
Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D
Ecologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized authority on the environment links to cancer and human health. Steingraber’s highly acclaimed book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment presents cancer as a human rights issue. She is also the author of Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, explores the intimate ecology of motherhood and was the central figure in the movie Living Downstream. steingraber.com

July 13th
Jeremy Rifkin: The Empathic Civilization
Jeremy Rifkin is the founder and president of the Foundation On Economic Trends and creator of the Third Industrial Revolution. He is an American economist, writer, public speaker and activist who seeks to shape public policy in the United States, the European Union, and around the world. He is the bestselling author of 16 books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. His latest book is The Empathic Civilization: Rethinking human Nature in the Biosphere Era. www.foet.org

July 20th
James William Gibson: Re-enchanted World: A New Kinship With Nature
James William Gibson is the author of Warrior Dreams: Paramilitary Culture in Post-Vietnam America and The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam. A frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times and winner of multiple grants and fellowships, including a Guggenheim, Gibson is a professor of sociology at California State University, Long Beach. www.jameswilliamgibson.com

July 27th
Riane Eisler: Caring Economics
Riane Eisler is internationally known for The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics (2007) — hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking and by Gloria Steinem as revolutionary. Her earlier bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future (1987) is in 23 foreign editions. www.partnershipway.org

Conversations airs every Tuesday at 1pm PST on KVMR.
For current shows or more information go to www.AreWeListening.net

Videos

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Well of Light Seva Team

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
— Mohandas K. Gandhi

Seva is selfless service to a cause you believe will benefit others. It is the willingness to perform any task for a greater cause without prospect of recognition or reward.

Well of Light has many opportunities to serve our community. If you would like to participate on the Well of Light Seva Team please call Michael Stone @ 530.477.7757 or email michael@welloflight.com

"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
- Albert Schweitzer

Poetry Corner

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

— Mary Oliver from New and Selected Poems, 1992 Beacon Press

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

– Rumi, Translation by Coleman Barks