“Don’t Read Books!” A 12th-Century Zen Poem by Maria Popova “It’s annoying for others to have to hear you.” We live in a culture that often romanticizes books as the tender and exhilarating love-making to the “orgasm without release” of Alan Watts’s admonition against our media gluttony — an antidote to the frantic multitasking of modern media, refuge from the alleged evils of technology, an invitation for slow, reflective thinking in a fast-paced age obsessed with productivity. Books, Kafka memorably asserted, are “the axe for the frozen sea inside us.” Given I spend the majority of my waking hours reading and writing about books, I have certainly bought into that romantic notion. But everything, it turns out, is a matter of context: Imagine my amusement in chancing upon a poem titled “Don’t Read Books!” Penned by Chinese poet Yang Wanli in the 12th century, the poem, translated by Jonathan Chaves, is a renunciation of books as a distraction from the core Buddhist virtue of mindful presence: Don’t read books! Donating = Loving
Treehouse Hotels Robin’s Nest Our trip to Robin’s Nest Treehouse Hotels in Hesse, Germany was filled with winding roads through small villages and eerie night routes. When we finally arrived on the mountain, where the treehouses are located, it was late at night and the forests were pitch black. We were finding our way to the cabin through the vast darkness, when we found owner Peter Becker sitting at a campfire. The moment we walked into our treehouse, a warm and cozy feeling spread over us thanks to the beautiful wooden interiors and a flickering fireplace. The next morning, we woke up surrounded by nothing but lush greenery, large trees and quietness. Who’s behind ‘Robin’s Nest’ and how long did it take to build the treehouse hotel? Peter Becker: It’s a one-man show. What were you doing before? Peter Becker: I lived in Berlin for about seven years where I had a small bar and gallery on Reichenberger Straße. That's when I rediscovered my connection to nature after all these years in the big city. What’s next?
Susan Cain announces news to make introverts happy Susan Cain spoke about the power of introverts at TED2012. Hear her plans for making the world a little quieter for them, starting with a line of Steelcase office furniture. Photo: James Duncan Davidson Susan Cain is planning a Quiet Revolution. In her classic talk from TED2012, she spoke up for introverts, pointing out the many ways our culture encourages extroversion. In her talk during All-Stars session 5 at TED2014, Cain shared how she plans to empower introverts—for the benefit of us all—by creating quiet places at work, training quiet leaders, and empowering introverts in the classroom. Quiet havens in the workplace Susan Cain has teamed up with Steelcase to create office spaces that foster the needs of introverts. “Open offices are a tremendous problem for introverts and extroverts alike. To address this need, Cain has partnered with office design company Steelcase to create readily available quiet spaces in offices for introverts to find respite. QuietTV Quiet Leadership
Remember us, for… | Tilos Horizon Share this: Like this: Like Loading... Leave a Reply Follow Get every new post delivered to your Inbox. Build a website with WordPress.com %d bloggers like this: 8 tips to make your life more surprising — from a “Surprisologist” A closeup of Tania Luna, with glow stick. Photo: James Duncan Davidson In today’s talk, Tania Luna shares her experience of immigrating to the United States from Ukraine as a little girl. Commit to the mindset and process of surprise. Luna believes we can all be surprisologists. Tania Luna leads a TED audience in a glowstick dance, during a talk given a year prior to the one posted today.
This Music Festival Will Challenge the Two-Party System Claire BernishJuly 21, 2015 (ANTIMEDIA) The second annual United We Stand Festival is slated to take place at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles on September 19 from 5-10 pm PST. This historic event marks the Free and Equal Elections Foundation’s kickoff for a series of open presidential debates for 2016—and will be broadcast worldwide by freeandequal.org. However, the UWSF is much more than just a music festival. As a platform for voices of every race, color, and creed, the 2015 UWSF is an educational event combining activism, information to challenge the two-party political duopoly, practical solutions for both political and non-political issues, and the arts. The UWSF focuses on “bringing positive and conscious artists together with political leaders and thinkers” with hopes of ending the divisiveness and partisan stalemate currently consuming the nation. Tickets for the festival became available online today, but organizers are expecting tickets to the event to sell out quickly.
Sacred Economics | Charles Eisenstein Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme—but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being. This book is about how the money system will have to change—and is already changing—to embody this transition. A broadly integrated synthesis of theory, policy, and practice, Sacred Economics explores avant-garde concepts of the New Economics, including negative-interest currencies, local currencies, resource-based economics, gift economies, and the restoration of the commons. The print version is available on Amazon or from the publisher directly. You can also get the eBook from the publisher here. Order Now Books
Money & Life (2013) Money & Life is a passionate and inspirational essay-style documentary that asks a provocative question: can we see the economic crisis not as a disaster, but as a tremendous opportunity? This cinematic odyssey connects the dots on our current economic pains and offers a new story of money based on an emerging paradigm of planetary well-being that understands all of life as profoundly interconnected. A Note from the Film-makers: We offer Money & Life to the world in spirit of the Gift. With the Creative Commons license we are effectively decriminalizing and inviting sharing of the film. Instead of setting a price and transacting before you’ve seen the film, we are turning the tables and allowing you to experience the film and gift back according to your values, your means, and the quality of how the film may have gifted you. All donations will go towards the recuperation of production costs and also to supporting the film’s continued outreach and distribution. Host A Screening
Sensory Deprivation Chamber: Would You Get Into One? First introduced by Neuro-psychiatrist John C. Lilly in 1954 A Sensory Deprivation Chamber is a light-less, soundproof enclosure, filled with salt water that is kept at skin temperature. In this chamber a person will float weightless on the water with their senses deprived (Hence the name Sensory Deprivation Chamber). They are unable to see or hear anything, all while because of the water being the same heat as your body, subjects have been noted to have said “it all just fades away” and all that’s left is the mind. In this pitch black pod, you float on the surface of a pool of water set at body temperature. It’s first use was in Neuro-physiology, to answer a question as to what keeps the brain going and the origin of its energy sources. From then on it has been used for various treatments such as Stress Therapy, Alternative Medicine, and Meditation. A notable user and advocate for the tanks is the Comedian and X-factor host Joe Rogan Source:
The Dutch "Basic Income" Experiment Is Expanding across Multiple cities By Maria Sanchez Diez / qz.com Free cash is in the works for a growing number of Dutch urbanites. After the city of Utrecht announced that it would give no-strings-attached money to some of its residents, other Dutch cities are getting on board for social experiments with “basic income,” a regular and unconditional stipend to cover living costs. Tilburg, a city of 200,000 habitants close to the border with Belgium, will follow Utrecht’s initiative, and the cities of Groningen, Maastricht, Gouda, Enschede, Nijmegen and Wageningen are also considering it. Supporters of basic income say it is a good mechanism to alleviate poverty and social exclusion. A recent study conducted in 18 European countries concluded that generous welfare benefits make people likely to want to work more, not less. Ralf Embrechts, director of the Social Development Association of Tilburg and one of the promotors of the program, said that’s the theory the program is designed to test.
Psychedelics Don't Harm Mental Health; They Improve It Psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms and LSD not only don't cause mental health problems, they may actually improve mental health, say Norwegian researchers. Those are the findings by neuroscience researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, who reported that LSD, psilocybin and mescaline not only don't cause long-term mental health problems, but that in many cases the use of psychedelics is associated with a lower rate of mental health problems. The study pulled data from the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health, observing 130,152 randomly-selected respondents from the adult population of the US. 13.4% of that group (21,967 individuals) reported lifetime use of psychedelics. Teri S. Krebs and Pål-Ørjan Johansen, the Norwegian researchers, additionally noted that “psychedelic plants have been used for celebratory, religious or healing purposes for thousands of years” and that: Credits: Collective Evolution, Ultra Culture, Altering Perspectives