The Wisdom of Acceptance

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I will meet you there.
– Jalal ad-Din Rumi

Ah, Esalen! For many years now I have had the good fortune to come here to this wondrous retreat center on the Big Sur coast to relax, refresh and deepen my spiritual practice. As I find myself more consumed with the affairs of everyday life, finding a quiet still place close to nature seems ever more important to gain perspective, balance and tap into the inner knowledge that we all carry.

One of the challenges that I have been confronting lately is how, as a climate and social justice researcher, to keep a balanced perspective on the state of the world and my own state of mind. With the plethora of disturbing news coming from all sectors of society, science and the natural world things are not looking too good for future generations, let alone our own very near future. But, my biggest concern is my own growing anger and frustration watching our society continue to focus on things of little or no importance, like Kite Boy and Celebrity Party crashing. I am impatient for the necessary shift in our collective consciousness to the “Great Turning” from a consumer society to an Earth Based Community. I know my anger is counterproductive, but what can I do to transform that anger and become a more active part of this evolutionary transformation that is waiting to emerge in the human family?

The energy of anger can be transformed into the energy of understanding and compassion. We don’t have to throw away anything. We only need to learn how to transform one kind of energy into another.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Read the entire letter from Michael here.

Upcoming Events

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Click here for more information and Auction items.
Early bids are being accepted.

David Whyte, Poet, Author
April 17, 2010, 10 am to 4pm
Presented by The Well of Light
    and Insight Lecture Series

Spend a whole day with David, exploring our personal and profound ability to make ourselves large enough, brave enough and generous enough for the triumphs and difficulties needed to live even the most ordinary human life. David is a captivating best-selling, sought-after speaker who brings a unique contribution to our understanding of the nature of individual change. He is the author of six volumes of poetry and three books of prose. www.davidwhyte.com

RECLAIMING DEMOCRACY
How Communities are Saying “NO” to Corporate Rights and Recognizing the Rights of Nature (and their Rights to Local Self-Government)

DVD Screening and Conversation - Sunday, March 7, 2010 from 12:45pm to 3pm in the UUCM Chapel, 246 S. Church St., GV.
In person: Chad Nicholson.

Sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains Social Action Committee. Requested donation $2 to $5 if you are able.

The DVD features Thomas Linzey (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund) and Shannon Biggs (Global Exchange), and was filmed in Grass Valley in Nov. 2008. Chad Nicholson was Campaign Coordinator for the 2009 Envision Spokane campaign, with Thomas Linzey, in Washington state, www.envisionspokane.org

Moving Meditation News

Through the blessed vehicles of movement, song, poetry, inquiry and silent witnessing; this day will be entirely devoted to learning the knack of transforming the energy held in suffering into life-giving creative energy. William Blake has said "Energy is delight", and it is profoundly true. When the energy of feelings are condemned and sequestered into the unconscious, these energies fester like a wound, deadening us, robbing us of vitality, sensitivity, awareness and joy

The same energy that has been held in suffering can become healing, dynamic aliveness that deepens your life and humanity with compassion, presence, freedom and the capacity to fully embody all that you love.

11:00-6:00 Saturday March, May 22 - $145/125 by April 15th
Registration for this workshop is by application only. To apply call 530.477.7757

New Podcasts

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

Paul Ehrlich: The Dominant Animal
Paul Ehrlich is a biologist, educator and Professor of Population Studies in the department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. He is also the president of Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology. Paul is best known for his warnings about unchecked population growth and limited resources. His latest book is the Dominant Animal. www.dominantanimal.org

David Orr: Down to the Wire
David W. Orr is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education and his recent work in ecological design. He is the author of numerous books and hundreds of articles on ecological and design issues including The Last Refuge: The Corruption of Patriotism in the Age of Terror. Dr. Orr serves on the Boards of the Rocky Mountain Institute (CO), Second Nature (MA), the Center for Ecoliteracy (CA), and the Center for Respect of Life and Environment. www.davidworr.com

Bill Ryerson, Laurie Mazur & David Poindexter: Population

William Ryerson is the founder and president of Population Media center and has a 37-year history of working in the field of reproductive health using behavior change communications in various cultural settings worldwide. He has also been involved in the design of research of numerous projects to measure the effects of such projects.

Laurie Mazur is the editor of A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice & The Environmental Challenge, is the director of the Population Justice Project, and has worked for years as an independent writer and consultant specializing in population, environment, and sexual and reproductive health and rights issues.

David Poindexter is Population Media Center’s Honorary Chair, has 38 years of experience in designing and implementing reproductive health communications programs in developing countries, using the entertainment-education methodology created by Miguel Sabido.

Book of the Month

Mindful Eating, by Dr. Jan Bays

The art of mindfulness can transform our struggles with food—and renew our sense of pleasure, appreciation, and satisfaction with eating. Drawing on recent research and integrating her experiences as a physician and meditation teacher, Dr. Jan Bays offers a wonderfully clear presentation of what mindfulness is and how it can help with food issues.

Mindful eating is an approach that involves bringing one's full attention to the process of eating—to all the tastes, smells, thoughts, and feelings that arise during a meal. Whether you are overweight, suffer from an eating disorder, or just want to get more out of life, this book offers a simple tool that can make a remarkable difference.

Movie of the Month

Scared Sacred: A film by Velcrow Ripper

ScaredSacred deftly weaves together stunning footage with haunting memories, inspirational stories, and an evocative soundscape. An exquisite portrait of a search for meaning in times of turmoil. In a world teetering on the edge of self-destruction, award-winning filmmaker Velcrow Ripper sets out on a unique pilgrimage. Visiting the 'Ground Zeros' of the planet, he asks if it's possible to find hope in the darkest moments of human history.

Articles

Life After Stuff

I’ve spent much of the past two decades visiting factories where our stuff is made and dumps where it is disposed of around the world. After years of seeing firsthand the often hidden environmental, social, and health impacts of all the stuff we consume, I’ve developed a sort of neurosis: When I look at a product—a disposable coffee cup, a cell phone, a piece of clothing—its entire life cycle flashes before my eyes.

Instinctively, some part of my brain runs through images of oil fields in Ogoniland, garment factories in Port-au-Prince, factories in Gujarat, ships crisscrossing the ocean, and dumps here and abroad. It’s a fascinating neurosis to have, but to be honest, it has been lonely sometimes. While many friends and colleagues work on more photogenic issues like rainforest preservation or more visible issues like social inequity, I have often been alone in my fascination with trash. No longer.

To read the full article, click here.

The New Economy Challenge: Implications for Higher Education

A new economy requires a new approach to education. David Korten discusses how we can rethink our goals, reskill ourselves, and teach Spaceship Management 101.

We humans are in the midst of a potentially terminal economic, social, and environmental crisis of our own making. Our economic systems are unstable, extreme inequality is tearing apart the social fabric, and Earth’s critical living systems are collapsing. We have gathered for this conference, not to debate the seriousness of our situation, but rather to explore how our educational institutions can contribute to the solution.

To read the full article, click here.

A Gym Powered by Sweat and Tears

The Green Microgym in Portland, Oregon, aims to be a carbon neutral exercise facility through the use of solar power and human-generated energy from clients as they pedal and run.

"The big challenge has been finding the right equipment and adapting the technology," says Adam Boesel, the gym owner.

The science behind generating electricity from gym equipment is not new. For decades people have been using dynamos on their bikes to power the front and rear lamps. Generating power in a gym setting is based on the same principle.

"If you think about a gym, almost all of the exercise equipment has a spinning wheel, and if you can spin a wheel you can make electricity, just like a windmill makes electricity," explains Mr Boesel.

To read the full article, click here.

How on Earth Can We Feed 8 Billion People?

In April 2005, the World Food Programme and the Chinese government jointly announced that food aid shipments to China would stop at the end of the year. For a country where a generation ago hundreds of millions of people were chronically hungry, this was a landmark achievement. Not only has China ended its dependence on food aid, but almost overnight it has become the world's third largest food aid donor.

The key to China's success was the economic reforms in 1978 that dismantled its system of agricultural collectives, known as production teams, and replaced them with family farms. In each village, the land was allocated among families, giving them long-term leases on their piece of land. The move harnessed the energy and ingenuity of China's rural population, raising the grain harvest by half from 1977 to 1986. With its fast-expanding economy raising incomes, with population growth slowing, and with the grain harvest climbing, China eradicated most of its hunger in less than a decade—in fact, it eradicated more hunger in a shorter period of time than any country in history.

To read the full article, click here.

The Rights of Mother Earth

Leonardo Boff
Other News

There is no political formulation of the interests of humanity or mother earth that protects their nature and cultures. For centuries we have lived under the jurisdiction of nation states and their assorted forms of sovereignty and autonomy. But as all problems become increasingly global, this political model is proving incapable of offering the solutions needed by humanity and the planet as a whole.

The United Nations would be the right organisation to perform this function, but it is completely demoralised and the only part of it with real power is the Security Council, which is controlled by the veto-wielding, five major powers, led by the United States.

To read the full letter, click here.

Food and Population

Farmers are invisible people, and middle-class city dwellers choose to pretend that the long lines of trucks bringing food into the city at dawn every day have nothing to do with the white-collar world. Perhaps it is a mark of the civilized person to believe that the essentials of food, clothing, and shelter have no relevance to daily life. Yet if the farmers stopped sending food into the great vacuum of the metropolis, the great maw of urbanity, the city would soon start to crumble, as Britain discovered in the year 2000. The next question, then, is: Where does all this food come from?

To read the full article, 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

March 9
Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi, MD: Mindful Eating
Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi, MD. has studied and practiced Zen Buddhism since 1973 and received her Priest's Ordination, in 1979 from Taizan Maezumi. Roshi Chozen is also a pediatrician, mother and wife. She is particularly involved in teaching people how to use meditation to work with eating disorders and grief. www.tcme.org

March 12th
SPECIAL EDITION OF CONVERSATIONS with Nina Simons at 12pm: Cultivating Women’s Leadership
Nina Simons is a social entrepreneur, producer and communicator who has applied an innovative approach to developing successful not-for-profit and for-profit ventures over the past twenty years. She is currently co-executive director of Bioneers/ Collective Heritage Institute. www.bioneers.org

March 16th
Andrew Harvey: Sacred Activism
Andrew Harvey is a renowned and distinguished mystical scholar, Rumi translator and explicator, poet, novelist, spiritual teacher and writer, and architect of Sacred Activism. He has taught at Oxford University, Cornell University, Hobart, and William Smith Colleges, The California Institute of Integral Studies, and the University of Creation Spirituality as well as the at various spiritual centers throughout the United States. His latest book is The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism. www.andrewharvey.net

March 23
John Francis, Ph.D: Planet Walk
John Francis, Ph.D. founded Planetwalk in 1982 when he began his walking and sailing pilgrimage around the world. To date, Dr. Francis has walked across the U.S., sailed and walked through the Caribbean, and South America from Venezuela to Argentina and a walk in Cuba. Currently, he is continuing a walk backtracking his first walk from Cape May NJ. to Point Reyes CA. John's stirring memoir, Planetwalker: 22 Years of Walking; 17 Years of Silence was published in 2008 by the National Geographic Society and will be available in paperback in April 2009. www.planetwalker.org

March 30
Drew Dillinger and Danielle Drake-Burnette
Drew Dellinger is a spoken word poet, professor, activist and founder of Poets for Global Justice. He has inspired minds and hearts at hundreds of events in many countries, performing poetry and keynoting on justice, ecology, cosmology, activism and human compassion. Dillinger has studied cosmology and ecological thought with Thomas Berry since 1990 and is finishing his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is currently writing his dissertation on Martin Luther King Jr. and the connections between cosmology, ecology and justice. www.drewdellinger.org
Danielle Drake-Burnette, previously known on stage as SoulsJourney, is a writer and spoken word poet. She was the 2003 Oakland Poetry Slam Champion. Danielle is the founder and Executive Director of Creation Cocoon for Girls, an Oakland, CA community-based organization serving girls 8-18. Creation Cocoon teaches girls’ empowerment and self esteem through the traditional arts. danielledrakeburnette.com

April 6th
Emmett Miller: Healing Our Planet
Dr. Miller is a physician, poet, musician, and master storyteller, whose multicultural heritage has given him a unique social, medical, and spiritual perspective. In his latest book Our Culture on the Couch, Seven Steps to Global Healing, Dr. Miller performs a thorough examination, arriving at accurate diagnoses for the serious ailments that currently threaten our civilization. www.drmiller.com

April 13th
Tim Van Wagner: Living Lands Agrarian Network
A Nevada City native, Tim Van Wagner partnered with Leo Chapman of Bluebird Farm, a local CSA, after completing college. In addition to farming the two created the Living Lands Agrarian Network whose mission is to serve as a network of ecologically minded farmers and community members working to strengthen our community’s ties and connections to the land, support agrarian education and ecological literacy, and carefully steward the land on which we farm and live.

April 20th
James O’Day: Creative Stress
James O'Dea is a Fellow and immediate past president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and a former faculty member of the Omega Institute. He is a former Executive Director of the SEVA Foundation and a former Director of the Washington, DC office of Amnesty International. He is a member of The World Wisdom Council and currently collaborating with the Global Systems Initiatives in Washington DC, and an Evolutionary Leaders group spearheaded by Deepak Chopra. His latest book is Creative Stress: a path for evolving souls living through personal and planetary upheaval. www.jamesodea.com

April 27th
Velcrow Ripper: Fierce Light: Where Spirit meets Action
Acclaimed filmmaker, writer, sound designer, and media activist Velcrow Ripper creates powerful, cinematic documentaries, dramas and non-fiction novels that deal with the central issues of our times. His over 30 films include the multi-award winning feature documentary sensation, ScaredSacred, and FierceLight: When Spirit Meets Action www.velcrowripper.com

May 4th
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

May 11th
Will Steger: empowering climate change solutions
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

May 18th
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

May 25th
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.

Conversations is now broadcast every Tue at 1pm (note new time).
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Ram Dass interviews Thicht Nhat Hanh

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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

To Love

— Rainer Maria Rilke

The Sun Never Says