CharityFocus.org: Incubator of Compassionate Action

Seven Core Values

Tapan Parikh — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

In hashing out a project idea with ServiceSpace, we identified these seven core values ...

Abundance: Creating a fair, free and equitable society requires empathy - care and love for our fellow human beings. We must have a mindset of abundance about the world and its resources to foster a true collaboration of equals across society.
Experience: Empathy is fostered not by statistics or quotations; but by shared experience. Our goal is to not only facilitate greater knowledge and improved access to information, but also to incubate a collective will, through offline group meetings, and online rich media interfaces, that together create deep and personally meaningful experiences.
Trust: Trust is the fuel that drives shared experience, and vice versa. Trust is especially important when considering, as one must, the shared risk that comes from challenging established powers and vested interests. Trust can be shared across and between networks through the ability to accumulate and exchange social capital.
Transparency: Mutual trust leads to the desire for increased transparency. United by a common desire for individual and social progress, we have nothing left to hide. Even failures are to be shared - not to be punished, but to be learned from.
Freedom: True freedom means voluntary participation. One core design principle is opt-in, allowing individuals and organizations to participate driven by their beliefs and values.
Equality: Social movements have often been defined (and limited) by their leaders, who commonly come from the social and political elite. This means that they have a single point of failure and exploitation. We seek to empower a true people’s movement, reaching every segment of society, including and especially the poor, agrarian and indigenous communities, and women, who often have unique perspectives and power to share.
Service: Technology is only a tool, and as such is only effective when used by people and groups with the right intent and dedication to action. Our goal is to amplify the efforts and reinforce the positive social efforts of individuals and groups across India around the world - large and small. In this way, we are performing meta-service; by serving the servers, our main achievement is to magnify their impact.

Lots to reflect on! Perhaps there are others to add as well but this seems to encapsulate the essence.
...

The Indomitable Healing Spirit of James O'dea

Bela Shah — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

“Service is not a form of moral obligation. It’s more about feeling the potential of the universe, the latent energy within the universe that is waiting to be released and expressed through you and your own unique qualities. There is no single paradigm of service. How do we truly release ourselves into the field of action?”

With that introduction, James O’dea, formerly Director of Amnesty International’s Washington, DC office, Executive Director of the Seva Foundation and President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, opened up a whole new universe for the weekly forest call audience. For the past two years, James has found himself synthesizing his remarkable life experience into what he calls “social healing”. What does it take for an individual, community and a nation to heal itself? Our enriching conversation with James explored the roots of this tangled question, and unearthed deeply held truths that were enlightening for each of us in different ways. By the end of the call, I felt as if a guardian of light had just taken a two hour break in his day in order to gently guide us through an inner journey of peace and reconciliation with our own beings. The queue for questions was lit up and although there wasn’t enough time to get to everyone, the recap below captures much to ponder over (and hopefully practice =)
In the Midst of Rubble and Despair: Experiencing an Awakening
James is quite the force to be reckoned with =). So it’s not hard to believe that he began fighting against injustice when he was just a teenager in England. Feeling deeply oppressed by some of the poverty and social problems that he witnessed in southeast London, he decided to organize people in order to conduct a survey of the treatment of senior citizens and followed up with a public report. This not only resulted in an award for “Teenager of the Year” but also an invitation from the UK government’s Welfare Authority to engage in a conversation about solutions. In retrospect, James is shocked by the arrogance of his response. He wrote back to say, “You know what you have to do and when you do it we can meet.” (!)

The arrogance that James believed he demonstrated in his teens met the challenge of its life when he moved to Turkey, and later Lebanon. In Turkey, while serving as the Vice President of a school during the civil conflict, James’ home had been machine gunned and he had been knifed several times. People were dying all around him. It was the first time in his life where he could have had a legitimate reason to not continue in this line of work.

“The first birth of real commitment came to me. We get tested along the path and we are asked, are you in this for the ride or are you in this to go as deeply as you can into the path of service and into the expression of who you could be?”

After the 1982 war in Beirut, and the subsequent massacres and communal fighting, James felt like he had hit the lowest point in his own path of service. He experienced conflicting and negative thoughts about humanity and wondered how it could be so sick and depraved. The problems are too great and how could there be so much violence? And in the midst of this turmoil, something magical happened.

“A Palestinian man served me coffee in the midst of the rubble of disease and death and wounding. And I had an epiphany; the spiritual dimension of the human came through to me and I became deeply aware of the indomitable spirit of the human being. Our spirit cannot be mutilated away or bombed away. It stands there to remind us that we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

These profound realizations are what led James to continue working for human rights with Amnesty International and later, in the field of international development as the Executive Director of the Seva Foundation. After Seva, he plunged one step deeper into the spiritual realm by leading the Institute of Noetic Sciences. There, James applied science to spiritual truths, and this is where he started to explore the realm of social healing.

He began to ask himself, “What is the root cause of these violations?” Instead of addressing deeply rooted problems through protests and prosecutions, James took the scenario of right and wrong and turned it inside out. Where does the wound begin and how can we create systems and approaches that are healing not only of individuals but of societies?

Suffering as a Form of Grace: Moving Out of the Wound
In a recent Tweet about a Ram Dass article, James described suffering as grace. While this is a beautiful way to interpret suffering in one’s life, Nipun wondered if this was also an intellectual response. What about those that are suffering from dire poverty, abuse, or war? James, who has seen incredible first hand atrocities all over the world, seemed most qualified to answer this question and he explained that there are two dimensions to suffering. When viewing it through the external lens, we have a profound responsibility to change horrific practices like torture. But when we try to interpret suffering through an internal lens, we are able to see that we can move out of and through our wounds. And by moving out of our own wounds, we will be able to begin the collective healing process. James has seen this even in cases of the most massive levels of wounding that a human can experience, where their children have been tortured and murdered.

“I see the heart like a phoenix and out of the ashes of terrible suffering something can arise and it is there that the most luminous force on the planet exists for me.”

When James met an Israeli family whose daughter was blown up, they told him that they later read in her diary that she dreamed of peace with the Palestinians. Realizing their daughter’s deepest wish inspired them to dedicate their lives to reaching out to Palestinians. Similar atrocities were suffered all over the world, in Rwanda and in Northern Ireland, but it’s when you look for that healing and ask for it from people that the so called average person can transcend the wound.

“One of the most viscous elements in the story is when we get attached to our wound. When we define ourselves by the wound, we stop serving, we stop moving with the deepest intention of the planet, which is to show us that we can transcend any of these deep wounds.”

Everywhere is the Face of Your Teacher: Link between Individual and Collective Healing
In his book, Creative Stress, James described stress as “being wounded” and as an opportunity for an evolutionary leap to take place. In the book, we learn through science that our body has an alert system for truth, but we sometimes bury it. We try to numb it down or even push it back in other peoples’ faces. We do anything but face the truth. When we do this, we start a circuitry of energy and activity because the body is being listened to; the body is an antenna of universal consciousness.

“It’s not trivial thing when we tap into our own truth and stand in it. So in relationship to the individual, I say that the obstacle becomes your teacher. That which obstructs you, if you look at your relationship to it truthfully, it’s going to be your teacher. Everywhere you turn is the face of your teacher.”

In the field of social healing, we must look at problems through both the individual and collective lens and this is possible by changing our relationship to truth. Different truths can exist simultaneously, and this is what allows for both individual and collective healing. Even if you had really different experiences, if you tune in with honor and respect and deep and compassionate listening to the truth of the others experiences, the circuitry of the two (not the circuitry of the one) is ignited, the relational field is ignited.

“We have a primal need to be heard and listened to and when we are, something opens up within us, that emphatic field of connectivity. Social healing is so much about bearing witness to the others experience and allowing that to be true. You don’t have to agree or disagree, but it’s bearing witness to the core, to the essence, to the truth of that person’s experience. When you’re in that relational field, the opening begins, the possibility for reconciliation begins, the possibility for movement beyond our fixed beliefs occurs.”

On the forest call, Nidika, who is a social worker, asked James to explain more about our attachment to the wounds. She has seen that within herself and also in the community work that she does, that our attachment to the wound is the largest stumbling block. How do we create that safe space where we are able to free ourselves of this attachment?

It’s amazing to understand how science has a real answer to this complex question. In James' recently completed book, “Cultivating Peace”, there is a whole section on communication and listening.

“We know now from science that if I am not listening to you, but instead I am listening to my judgments of you, we will create a different electromagnetic field and a different biochemistry in our blood, which directly impacts our communication with the other person.”

If we switch into our hearts and say, “However different I think you may be, I’m really going to stay committed to listening deeply to your experience,” the biochemistry in our blood will alter. This shift from judgmental listening to compassionate listening is directly linked with the lessening of cortisol and adrenaline in our brains and the increasing of neuro-peptide happy hormones, which affect the alarm system and alter the biochemistry in the other person’s brain. There has been research on this. So you achieve this by deep, conscious, non-judgmental, compassionate listening. When the other person’s amygdala is less aroused, they feel safe to tell their story to you to you.

James wants to dedicate his life to the authentic refinement process of his own self, to polishing the mirrors of his heart. He asks himself, “Where do I get wounded and get attached to my wounds? Where do my judgments get very subtle? Where am I making subtle judgments about others and making distinctions and preferences about others? He elaborated that if everywhere we turn, we see the face of our teacher, we experience the power of a different “we”; not the collapsed identity of the “we” or the reductionist exclusivist identity of the “we”. This is how we’re going to evolve, and the old leadership and hierarchical models have nothing to do with this emergent “we”.

“The Sufis say that we have to keep polishing that mirror when we see those resentments growing and superior attitude growing. Polish them away and release them.”

Michelle, in Santa Fe, is currently engaging in a project where she is collecting individual insights on the question, “What do you think is the most important thing that human beings need to learn to be responsible global citizens. And what do we need to learn as society to be able to support responsible global citizenship?” James’ responded that we first have to recognize that there is no lesser being on the face of the earth, there is nothing lesser in the entire field of creation including you. This means that you are called into being yourself.

“Yes there are forces that have knocked you about and that have repressed you, but the core message and invitation is a responsibility to face that knowledge that you are not lesser in any form and than any other being. In fact, it’s like an evolutionary puzzle. It’s you’re qualities that are essential for peace, it’s the expression of your unique qualities that are essential to this evolutionary process.”

And in the immersioned “we” that I spoke of earlier, we recognize that there is no inferior being, no lesser being. We recognize that “everywhere I turn is the face of my teacher”. How do we practice that in the social body? Once we eliminate the first, “I am not inadequate in any way, I am not lesser”, and recognize that “my qualities are called into being by the universe itself”, then we recognize that in ourselves and also in others. Then we have a new game plan for humanity. It becomes a new evolutionary story.

Taking a Quantum Leap into Spiritual Maturity
Mo wondered if the time today is ripe for the world to take a quantum leap in spiritual maturity. Our world history is stained with the blood of deep suffering for many thousands of years. Is there any indication that there is something different today that didn’t exist before that can help us to achieve that spiritual maturity? Is this the time for a quantum leap to take place?

Subjectively, James believes that the ocean of consciousness is rising and the so called average person is growing and deepening in consciousness. That’s why we are seeing these tidal movements of democracy around the planet and the effect is that the whole ocean of consciousness is lifted. What do we mean by “ocean of consciousness”?

“There is a Sufi expression that says, “Your heart must face its test. Until some sweet turned bitter in the end, your heart will not answer yes.”

In the journey of the individual in consciousness, there must be a testing of the heart where we move away from the aversion to the bitter and attraction to the sweet, and we move towards the non-dual state, where the bitter and sweet become one, where we’re not choosing and separating and we’re not guided by those kinds of locked in preferences. When this happens, there is a movement in consciousness. This is our collective destiny and we’re shifting towards that. Maybe for some this is slow and painful but inevitably, humanity is evolving into a deeper consciousness that will ultimately take us all through an authentic process into that non-dual awareness.

While James has been influenced by Sufi teachers, underneath that there is always the teacher of essence. Sufism is referred to as the science of essence, dissolving the “I” into the essence. Hindu and Christian teachers that he has met that were in that place of the essence have also been his teachers.

“It’s a path that has been around the knowing of the heart as fully fledged intelligent and the surrender to the higher will. But surrender is not just letting anything happen. That would be anarchic. It is surrender to the dharmic will to create the highest good possible in any moment.”

When he was recently asked to write a book about how he prays, James shared a poignant story. He prays by sitting in a circle with people from around the world that have been tortured and that have experienced extreme human rights abuses. A Rwandan woman was so overwhelmed while trying to tell her story that she started gasping, then she moved to her knees, and then she lay down on the floor. Another person was so moved that she lay down beside her, and then a third woman. James explained that this is really how he prays, to be totally present for someone in the expression of their suffering and to wait. Once you’ve been in that presence and you wait, then the fall, the flow, the healing begins.

Training Peace Ambassadors Around the World
Currently James is trying to build peacemakers across the world and he is leading a program called “Heal and Lead” in Ireland. As Nipun described, James is planting a lot of seeds and creating love warriors all over the world. He has trained 400 peacemakers and he is looking to start the Peace Ambassadors’ third training in March to train another 200 peacemakers.

“My image of peace these days is that we’re no longer shouting at the gates and raising our protest placards and opposing something. We’ve scaled the walls and we’re inside the educational system and inside movements like yours that are so much about peace making and the image that comes is building a culture of peace.”

In reference to the question on global responsibility that was asked earlier, there is a beautifully expressed Earth Charter PDF on James’ website, which talks about universal responsibility. We have claimed universal rights and they’re sometimes violated but we also must acknowledge that each one of us has responsibility for the whole...what a shift this is! That is the nature of the work at the moment, building arteries of peace and connecting many elements. In the Peace Ambassador Training, there are five pillars.

The first is inner peace and doing work around meditation to cultivate this inner peace.
The second pillar is moving out of the ideology of right and wrong and into wounding and healing.
The third is to look at nonviolent communication and dialogic strategies for peacebuilding.
The fourth pillar is the systems approach; there is a connection between inner and outer ecology and we’re beginning to see how systems are interdependent and interrelated.
The fifth pillar is to take it into the world and organize for peace work.

For this last pillar, we bring together individuals like Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi, and Louis Diamond to help bring their expertise to this 16 week training. It’s a global classroom and in each of the courses there are 20 to 24 nations represented. In this upcoming course, we have 2 people from Qatar, people from Pakistan, Nepal, and Nigeria and everyone is Skyping in from all of these countries in order to participate in a global classroom about peacemaking! “In great contrast to many current leaders in public office that are emotionally immature and over critical and judgmental, I truly believe that if we could have a generation of leaders who have been deeply healed and immerse themselves in societal healing, they are the ones to lead us.”

Change Begins with Changing Yourself
Nipun recalled a Wednesday meditation guest speaker from St. Quentin, one of the toughest prisons. With him was Rusty, who had spent 30 years there for committing a murder. Rusty opened his talked with, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all the hurt and anger and negativity that I rippled out into the world through my actions of ignorance.” Nipun felt that it was one of the most heartfelt talks that you could have heard and he thought it was so easy to forgive someone like him, assuming everybody would be in the same boat. So what was surprising was when people came up afterward and said that they weren’t able to forgive him. One or two people told him he didn’t belong in that space. Why is forgiveness so hard? How can we create a culture of greater forgiveness because that would really help us?

James acknowledged that we all want to change the world in some way but the problem is that we think we can accomplish this by changing others. But there is now a chemical teaching that says if you want to change anything, you have to change yourself. These are very precise instructions for activism. This is what is so radically significant about forgiveness work. We must change and when we do, the whole thing changes in relationship to us….we are naturally able to forgive others by connecting with their essence, at a level that delves beyond superficial truths.

In the opening quote of this recap, James spoke of a need to release the latent energy of the universe. What freezes that energy?

“Unforgiveness freezes up this vital energy and the universe wants it to be liberated. It wants to restore love and harmony and connectivity. What is ironic is that people that have been victimized become the victim of being held in that energy instead of releasing it. Even to those they have been injured, the universe is saying that now you can open the story and release others as well as yourself. The root of that issue is that forgiveness is the opener.”

What forgiveness does is that it takes something that is frozen in the universe and ecstatically releases it, allowing you to be you and offer your connection to others. I was asked by a woman whose uncle was a Catholic priest and violently murdered when she was a child. Now, years later, she wanted to know how to approach this man who had murdered her uncle. I said to her, “Make it real. Don’t make forgiveness this obligation business. Write to him and ask, “How does he feel? What does he feel at this point? Does he know how much you suffered? Open up the possibility for the real movement of energy to occur.” There isn’t a formula for this. If it’s to be real, you have to go into it with all your clear emotions and with the desire to open and to heal.

While conducting a social healing workshop in London, in an area that is quite divided, during a break James asked a woman from Northern Ireland why she seemed so clear on this theme of social healing. She explained how she had been shot and taken to the hospital and when she came to consciousness, the doctors told her that a bullet was lodged next to her aorta and that they couldn’t remove it. They made her comfortable to die. But she didn’t die. Something triggered very profoundly in her psyche. The universe said, “It may look that you are destined to die but you are not going to die.” Six weeks later the doctors said to her that she was going to have live with the bullet literally lodged near her heart and that she was just going to have to get on with her life. At first, she wondered what she would do with her life but now she is a healer, a reconciler. She literally has a bullet and yet she does peace work!

“I feel the reality of the bullet in the heart of planet Earth. It’s an extraordinarily painful moment for planet Earth. The bullet is in but that is not the end of the story because we have the will to create something that is so much greater. Even when the bullet is in, this is not the end of the story.”

James’ life experiences serve as a beautiful example of the power of forgiveness and healing. Nipun revealed how James changed his own outcome and relationship with the world by the remarkable way that he framed terrible events in his own life. When he was teaching in Turkey and knifed several times, he was left lying on the streets and had lost a lot of blood. He was severely wounded but the way he remembers the story is that someone came and put him in a car and took him to the hospital and saved his life and he will never know who this person was. Nipun expressed, “It’s amazing to look at this injury that these five kids inflicted on you and hold it with this remarkable anonymous act of kindness and you tried to pay it forward your whole life. I just want to acknowledge that and thank you.”

To learn more about James and his work, visit his web site. ...

Encouraging Wisdom of Farmers: Neil Patel

Audrey Lin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Last Saturday, we had the honor of hearing from our own Dr. Neil Patel, as he shared some colorful insights from his service journey! Kicking off with a "love letter" from his early twenties, Rahul moderated in a way that teased out the blend of innovation and soul behind the life he leads. Throughout the call, you get the sense that Neil's a guy who can really do anything. From leveraging technology among rural farmers to volunteering his time creating websites of goodness, the guy is a man of action. And with Computer Science degrees from UC Berkeley and Stanford, a nominee of the Tech Museum Award, and Founder of Awaaz De, he sure doesn't waste any time! But through it all, he keeps a steady eye on the greater picture and rhythms of life. And it's this down-to-earth sense of priorities that brings him to share meals with strangers and write reflections on stillness.

He reminded us, "Along with doing work and working hard, you need to take time out and reflect and introspect. And hold a space of silence for yourself. So you can let that work absorb. You can feel what that means to you and what directions you want to take it in next." Dropping insights like these throughout the call, it became pretty clear that Neil is one humble force of nature! :) Amidst the tides of doing and being, he lit our respective Saturday mornings, afternoons, and evenings with compassion lessons from his mom, thoughts on why selfless service inspires him, and how "real wisdom is in all people."

Rahul: You've had this strong influence of generosity and kindness and service since your childhood. Can you tell us a little more and who some of those early influencers were?

Neil: For me, definitely, my journey in service started young because I was around people who imbibed values of generosity, compassion, and kindness. So I saw that growing up. Two people in particular are family members. So the first person, who really was my first teacher in generosity is my mom. I still think my mom is probably the most generous person I know. She's incredibly giving. Anybody in my family would tell you the same thing. She's the member of our family that's really the glue. She keeps everybody together. She's the one who calls everybody regularly and checks up on people, and just goes the extra mile for people. For me and my brother, it was a huge privilege to be around somebody like that. She really set an example for the depths you can go and the lengths you can go for your family. That certainly made a big impression on me.

And the second person who really influenced me--and he probably wouldn't even know it--was my cousin, Ashish. Ashish was four years older than me. He was really my idol. Everything he did I would try to mimic. He was a normal kid, but he's a very, very big hearted person himself. Very generous. And when you're a kid, it's rare to see generosity being practiced, but Ashish was definitely someone who would always make sure all the other kids got to eat, got whatever they needed, before himself.

Rahul: You started volunteering with Service Space as a teenager. How did those experiences with your mom and your cousin lead you to connect with service space?

Neil: I first got inspired after reading the SF Weekly article that Nipun was featured in. I wrote this really long email telling him that I really wanted to join the Tigers Team. I was just super pumped up and went to the meetings even as a teenager. One of the things I really remembered is this concept of "selfless service". There is a real distinction between service for selfish purposes and selfless purposes. It struck me that this group of people was really committed to selfless service, which struck me as more pure. That was something I really resonated with.

Rahul: How do you define that distinction between selfish service and selfless service?

Neil: I wouldn't define it so much. I've had experiences of both. The most vivid was in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit. I got really inspired and felt really moved that I wanted to serve in some way. So I volunteered with the Red Cross and got stationed in Mississippi. Everyone was there to serve, but it was almost like they were on a service vacation. They were there to serve, but then they also wanted to make sure they got the best sandwich; some would grab three sandwiches, or complain and this and that ... I almost felt that people were there to put a badge on their sleeve. A lot of people hopping from disaster to disaster, talking about how they had this experience or that experience. And it just struck me as losing the spirit of why they were there. That trip, and interacting with different volunteers who had come to serve in this capacity but from different agendas and different backgrounds, to me, was a real eye opener of what it really means to serve in a selfless way. So from that experience I was really committed to exploring service in the most selfless way possible. You talk about humility-- and that's, to me, one of the most important aspects of service. And serving humbly, serving in a way that dissolves the ego, I think to me, is a better way to grow through service.

Rahul: Along with service, it seems like technology has played a long-standing role in your life. Can you tell us a little more about why you chose to go into computer science and then grad school? And what has all of that taught you about your purpose?

Neil: Technology and computers, I backed into it. I didn't really have an inclination when I was growing up. I wasn't indoors a lot when I was growing up-- I was playing sports and outside a lot. And then when I went to college, I thought I was going to study economics because my cousin Ashish was studying economics. But then I took the very first introduction class to computer science in college, and I just fell in love. I knew this was what I wanted to do. I really got excited about writing computer programs. While I didn't have any experience with computers before college -- I didn't even have my own email address -- I really felt attracted to computer science. That passion was always there and continued to grow in college. After college, I wanted to continue to stay in technology and I wanted work in software. So I got a job in Silicon Valley writing code and so it began.

Around the same time, I was reading philosophy, and getting into spirituality, and really hard questions of myself. Mostly around what my life path was, where I was going, why I was here and what I should be doing. I started experimenting with service in various ways, like serving at Katrina and all of that. I realized that, on the path where I was at, I was going to be able to do work I liked, but it ultimately wasn't going to completely fulfill me. I was still lacking that aspect of service through technology, or through whatever career path I was having. I wanted to not just be about enriching myself and the small society slice of the world around me, but try to make it a more inclusive kind of work. And try to reach the un-reached. And not contribute to a kind of "digital divide" that I was kind of witness to. So I wanted to do something more. And around the same time a bunch of researchers in academia were exploring this area of communication and development. So applying IT for development problems. And among them was a young researcher named Tapan Parikh, and I really got inspired by his work. I really wanted to do what he was doing. So i decided to go to grad school and pursue this research.

Rahul: Can you tell us a little more about Awaaz De, and what the journey has been to come to that?

Neil: When I got to grad school, I knew I wanted to do something with using technology in development. And I really didn't know what technology and in what development. So the first thing I did was I went to India. I just hung out, and kind of just observed. And in that process, I came into contact with a bunch of organizations, and also local people. I spent some time living in villages and understanding people's problems. I just tried to observe and learn as much as I could. And through that, I got into touch with a lot of farmers and agricultural communities. And I tried to really get to know farmers and what their challenges were, particularly from an information access lens. In that process, a couple insights came out.

One was that there was a gap in terms of access to locally relevant information in local languages. People didn't have access to the internet and even if they did, they didn't speak English. Some may not be comfortable using computers; some may not be able to afford computers. Or maybe they're illiterate. So there's an access gap. That was one insight. The other insight is there's a lot of latent expertise in the communities themselves. In meeting hundreds of farmers, I came to find out that these are really accomplished, experienced, savvy, innovated, and creative people. They just didn't have a way to share what they knew with each other. It was all kind of informal or ad hoc.

So what if they had something like the internet, where they could share information in an efficient way, and learn from each other? In that way, it's very practical and relevant because what if there's somebody who shares your problems may have an insight that you don't? That's really beneficial as opposed to some kind of imported information. So with those insights, we came up with a simple idea: to leverage the mobile phone, which was already in most people's hands, as a device for people to be able to access and share information. And we used voice as the medium. To be able to overcome some of those constraints I mentioned (literacy, language, etc). So, basically, we set up a service for farmers to be able to access what was basically a voice message board. So we have a phone number, and people recorded a question in their own language into the system. Other people could browse it and potentially even respond. So in that way farmers were able to exchange information with each other. It's kind of like a public voice message board. So we deployed that with a local organization in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, and it quickly took off and was quite popular. That was our first system.

This system--the design and use of it--was the focus of my thesis. And as we were doing this, other organizations in India took notice. They said, "Hey, this is actually cool technology that we could also use for our own purposes. Can we use it?" And, by the way, these were not just agricultural organizations. These were organizations that worked in public health, human rights, labor, education, you name it. Basically they just needed a way to reach disconnected people, and this is what we were doing. So this enabled us to start this company, Awaaz De, which basically provides this technology as a hosted solution, so that any organization in India can take advantage of these tools for their own purposes.

Rahul: You are quite drawn to farming and agriculture. Why is that?

Neil: I think there's something very special about farming. If I compare a farmer to me. For me, it's very indirect, how I eat. I type, using my fingers, I type keys on a keyboard. And they show up on a computer screen. Something happens where I get money for doing that. And then I can use money and buy it at a grocery store and then eat it. So it's very weird. There's a long chain that involves me typing keys so I can feed myself. It just seems very inelegant.

Whereas a farmer goes out into the field everyday and is literally feeding himself with his own hands. He's working the fields, working the soil. He's harvesting crops. And that whole chain--that connection of work to feeding his belly--it's a very short chain. I found something very elegant about that. There's something to that. So that's what originally drew me in.

And then, also, just speaking and getting to know farmers--in India in particular, but also in the US. It's a very hard life. it's a very difficult thing. It's sometimes, nowadays, kind of glamorized. It's very hard work. But I think there's something ultimately satisfying when you can do physically taxing work, but there's also a creative and intellectually challenging component to it. And it's a green job, and it feeds yourself with good, clean, healthy food. It's really got it all.

Rahul: You're one of these guys who "add value" in so many dimensions. Anyone who reads your blog can tell that you've got your thumb in so many fantastic "service pies". How do you integrate work with relaxation?

Neil: I think I remember a Gandhi quote, where someone asked him: "You work 16 hours a day, 18 hours a day. It's during the independence movement. All these things are happening. You're running this entire movement for an entire country! There's all these people, and you're always constantly busy. Don't you ever take a vacation?" Someone asked this to Gandhi. And Gandhi said, "Actually, I'm always on vacation. This is my vacation." He answered to that effect, meaning he didn't look at it as work. He was totally aligned with it, so it was natural for him to put that amount of time and effort and concentration into it. I feel like I've been blessed to align myself to the same kind of work. I do work that I am legitimately passionate about. Everything that I do on a daily basis--all of those things are things I love. I really derive a lot joy and satisfaction out of those things. I just feel like I've been able to maneuver myself to be in a situation where I can work 18 hours a day, or whatever it is, but spend those 18 hours doing whatever I feel is worthwhile. So it doesn't end up seeming like so much work.

Rahul: A lot of people don't seem to feel like they're blessed with having that alignment with themselves and their work. What would you say to them? What's your process for getting closer to that level of alignment?

Neil: There's no shortcut to that. My experience has been that the way you get to that point is you work really, really hard. And you keep working until you find out what those things are that really make you come alive. And that means trying a lot of things, and really taking risks, and putting yourself out there and being honest with yourself. And questioning yourself. For me, I'm not the smartest person. I definitely don't have a lot of god-given talents or skills in many things. But I do know that one thing that I have is a really strong work ethic. I feel like I can outwork anybody. I feel like that's my biggest strength. And that's allowed me to try to push the envelope towards work that is meaningful.

The other thing I would say, along with doing work and working hard, you need to take time out and reflect and introspect. And hold a space of silence for yourself. So you can let that work absorb. You can feel what that means to you and what directions you want to take it in next. Also, I just feel like complementing intensive work with taking time to calm yourself and be in stillness-- that itself is also hard work, and ends up feeding into your active work, and makes it more worthwhile. ...It's an iterative process. I remember Birju and I were talking some time ago. And he said something interesting about how he was thinking about aligning his life more towards gift economy. And he said that the way you do it is in small steps. So, you can't just all of a sudden decide that you're going to live in a gift economy way. You have to start eliminating particular requirements and needs, so that you can live with less. If you start living with less, then you need less, so it's more feasible for you to live on others' kindness. I don't know if I would live on gift economy tomorrow, but I could, you know, do without my gym membership tomorrow. Maybe that's one less thing.

Q&A from Around the World

Urmila (Mom): I'm very proud of my son. He's a very dedicated, loving, caring human being. Thank you.

Ram: My work is in sustainability and one of the things that comes up repeatedly is technology vs. cultural values, in terms of changing behavior. So where do you see values and culture fitting in with technology, in terms of relative importance?

Tapan: I think technology is a conduit for the transmission of values and culture. It's not a perfect conduit--you know, nothing's a perfect conduit--but it's one conduit. So the kind of work that Neil and I have been doing (and mostly Neil) with Awaaz De is an opportunity to bridge different cultures. The culture of farmers to the culture of this call to the culture of the diaspora to the culture of organizations serving farmers. So, as a conduit of values and culture, I think the kinds of technologies that we want to bring will help different groups understand each other better. And hopefully allow people to work together better.

I think the second part of the question is, obviously when we design technology and we design services and organizations to support that technology, we bring our own values to that process. So, in the work we've been doing with Awaaz De and a lot of our other projects, there's a lot of our own values that we bring to that work. And people like Somik have helped us externalize and understand that value system. And hopefully we represent it in Awaaz De, in the organization and technologies that we build.

Neil: In my experience, every person literally has a different context from which they're approaching technology. We've been working with rural communities in India. So you have to totally rethink how technology works and how people approach it. There's intimidation, there's lack of experience. And you have to really throw out the door, in some ways, your assumptions about how people approach technology and start from the needs-up.

Prakash: The other day I had a conversation with one of our farmers. He said that he did not want his children to follow him. He wants one son to be a computer science person. Another one to be an economics person. And another one to be doctor. And his reason wasn't just the hard [physical] work. But the influence he sees in his life, with the future being really bleak...with the influence of chemicals and so on. So I wanted to hear what you had to say about that.

Neil: That's actually the case here in India as well. The next generation is trying to get jobs in the cities. And you can't really tell them "No, you can't do this." They're going to make the decisions that's best for themselves. What I've seen is that it's a trajectory. In the US, we're starting to realize the downsides to consumerism. Well, people in India are just starting that journey. they're just starting to experience consumerism. It's not something I can tell them, they'll have to experience it themselves.

Lavanya: I'm in the research field, so I keep trying to have a balance between research as well as doing something that's relevant, while doing something that's useful and practical in the field. Plus, something that's cutting edge and trying to develop technology. I guess both are required. Do you have any comments on that?

Neil: Yeah, that's a really good question for anyone who's doing research. I struggled with this my entire career as a PhD student. Which was basically, "How do I balance doing something which is practical and relevant on the ground, while graduating (which required me to extract general knowledge from the work)? For me, there were a couple parts of the equation that helped. One was that I had supportive advisors: Tapan Parikh (at UC Berkeley) and Scott Klemmer (at Stanford). They were both supportive of me doing something that was relevant, that people were using. And then, using that as a backdrop to start asking research questions. So we were able to take what we were doing and ask really deep and important questions around the provision of technology in under-served areas. And we were able to answer those questions. So that way worked for me, but that's not necessarily the only way. I don't think there's only one way.

But certainly the model in this whole game is Louis Pasteur. Louis Pasteur invented pasteurization. At the time it was invented, it was something that saved millions of people's lives. At the same time, pasteurization was the end result of a long body of research that he endeavored into, and was fundamental to the field of microbiology. So he did something that was of practical relevance, but of deep theoretical value as well. That's what we've tried to strive towards.

Nipun: What have you learned about the wisdom of the farmers?

Neil: What I've learned is that everybody has wisdom. Everybody has something to share. That's been the key motivation for the work that I've been trying to do: to amplify people's voices. Each and every farmer has a seed of wisdom that they can share. In my experience, I've come across farmers who are really, really remarkable. In a different context, they would be very famous inventors, scientists, or just creative people. But they've been put in a different situation. It's really important to give these people a voice and have them participate. To really call this technology a "Global Village"--to call the internet a "Global Village", it really requires us being inclusive of everybody. What I find is that you often learn a lot of lessons for yourself from these people. People who live very simply. With frugality. Trying to make the most of the resources they have within nature. All these things with environmentalism and trying to conserve. You go to a village and you'll see how conservation really works. And these people have real inventiveness, real creative ways of expressing themselves. So I would just say that real wisdom is in all people. And it's our responsibility to listen to that.

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A Letter From My Early Twenties

Neil Patel — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

[A letter that was shared on the Forest Call today. --Neil]

When I was a young kid, I had dreams of making it rich. I thought having a big, luxurious house and a fancy car were what made a successful life. Since then, I have realized a few things. First, that one’s career is just a single aspect of one’s life, so achieving financial success is not the same as overall success. In fact, many rich people suffer from the known “mo’ money mo’ problems” phenomenon, where wealth has become a burden in other spheres of their lives. Second, I realized that a big house and a big car are not sustainable, i.e. the world couldn’t accommodate everyone having these things. But most importantly, I realized that if I had these things, I would be a very elite minority in the world to have this privilege, at the very tip of a broad pyramid.

The last point has in one shape or another stuck in my mind for much of my adult years. As I’ve gotten less ignorant, I’ve come to question whether this is an ideal existence. Sure, I am rich and comfortable, but what about the other half of the world who survives on less than $2 a day? More generally, I was concerned that I would be working for my own comforts and leaving behind multitudes. What’s the good of that? Early on in my life I came to realize that if something makes me happy but those around me are not, then I’m not as happy.

Everyone should be entitled to happiness, the same happiness that I’ve enjoyed in my life. To me, this is the essential motivation for social work. I want to come up, but I don’t want to come up alone, and certainly not at the expense of pushing down others. I want my success to be tied to the common man, even the poor man. If I am to live in a big house, so be it; but if I have that level of wealth, I damn well better have lifted up hundreds or even thousands of others in the process commensurately. I think this is similar to the idea of CEO’s tying their raise/bonus to the pay increase given to the company’s average worker. I like that idea.

But there’s something more. To me, it’s not sufficient to lift up just anyone. I commend entrepreneurs who generate economy, generate livelihoods through their ingenuity and foresight and creativity. I aspire to be such a person. But my ‘workforce’ has to be the poorest, or as close to the poorest as possible. I will strive to work for the poorest man until I finally reach out to him. I suspect that this will keep me occupied enough to never actually achieve the big house dream; If I’ve reached it, I’ll know I probably haven’t reached down deep enough.

I feel that this is a life worth living, and though it’s scary, I have very little doubt that the alternative, i.e. turn my back and work for my own big house and fancy car, will never suffice. I will not judge others on this choice, because I understand that decision since it was what I had in mind for most of my life. But I am resolved to not resort to it, and pray to God that I have strength to carry beyond.

"Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, try the following experiment: Recall the face of the poorest and most helpless person you have ever seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be for any use to him or to her . . . Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away.” --Gandhi

...

Inner Journey: Neil & Dillan's Excellent Adventure

Amit Dungarani — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Do you remember when you were 14 years old and how you spent your summer vacation? Were you sleeping-in? Playing sports? Hanging with Friends? Going to the mall or to the movies? Getting into trouble? I certainly did all of the above. Would any of you ever list "spreading kindness" or "attempting to gain a deeper knowledge of generosity" on that list? Last Saturday, we had the privilege of interviewing two very special teenagers who did spend their summer spreading kindness and on a generosity knowledge quest. Here are excerpts from that truly enlightening conversation. The phrase “suspension of disbelief” comes to mind when you listen to these two individuals – Neil Thekkdi and Dillan Patel – and learn they are just a couple of teens!

Introductions and a Key Experience from their Formative Years:

Neil: “My name is Neil Thekkdi, I’m (now) 15 years old, I love making films, spreading kindness, working with ServiceSpace, going to School, you know…all the things that a kid would do…I feel like from a young age I’ve had a lot of exposure that most kids have lacked with kindness and generosity and all of these ideas. And I think that this has really made me who I really am today. It has changed how I see so many things…because of all this work with ServiceSpace, I have been able to look at people for who they are rather than what they look like or how they talk, and I think that has been a great growing moment for me.

One key experience I had when I was young was for my 10^th birthday. I originally wanted to have a water fight themed birthday party but after talking to Nipunbhai, we decided to have a Kindness Car Wash thing – so basically we’d bring in cars and we’d wash them for free… it was such a great experience, I had a great time, the whole thing was wet and wild, and it was really a growing experience for me. I feel like I met so many new people that day; I got to learn more about how to make people feel better, and it was a great experience.”

Dillan: “My name is Dillan Patel, I am also 15, and I am the other intern. My passion in this world is definitely simple things like photography, sharing my opinions about any little thing in life, having fun, talking to people and definitely spreading kindness.

I have been good family friends with Neil since childhood. A local place where we would hang out when we were younger was the Hindu temple. This one Sunday there was a guest speaker and it was Nipunbhai – he gave a talk about his walking pilgrimage in India and all he does with what was formerly CharityFocus and is now ServiceSpace. That truly inspired Neil and me. We thought to ourselves that: 'when we were old enough, how would we help the community?' Growing up, we did volunteer some of our time to various organizations and when we turned 14, we asked Nipun if we could intern with ServiceSpace for the summer. It was truly eye opening for Neil and me. With this internship, we transitioned from a state of where we would do community service because it was mandatory (for school), to a place where we would do it not because it was mandatory but because we wanted to and where we can feel all the greatness from spreading kindness.”

The ServiceSpace Summer Internship:

Amit: Neil and Dillan were asked to set goals for their internship and were given various tasks during their time with us this past summer. Some of these tasks included weekly assignments where they had to do “step-it-up” acts of kindness, reflect, in writing, on a particular reading, and support multiple projects – some involved working with Karma Kitchen or HelpOthers or leveraging their skills like photography (Dillan) or filmmaking (Neil) to aid others in the ServiceSpace ecosystem. When they were asked to do “Step-it-Up” acts of kindness, naturally there must have been fear or hesitation at first but then over time your thoughts and ideas (as well as fears) must have shifted. Please tell us about those experiences.

Neil: When we first started the internship we were both a little bit nervous about what we were going to do and we weren’t sure how things were going to run. One of the first things that Nipunbhai, Kanchan and Amitbhai said was that we need write down our goals/objectives for the internship. My goals were:

1.       Help people/ share a smile
2.       Get a deeper knowledge of Generosity
3.       Work on my film making skills
4.       Make some inspirational documentaries

I think the first goal of helping people was definitely one I excelled in – it felt like that summer was just about kindness…small acts of kindness. It was really great because I felt like I was always surrounded by people who were always smiling and was rarely around people that were unhappy. I felt like I got a deeper knowledge of generosity but I feel like I have much more to learn and I hope to master it one day. I also made some video blogs which helped me learn about camera angles and editing. Though I didn’t make documentaries, I did make a series of smaller videos and video blogs (vlogs) that incorporated kindness and film-making. I felt like I accomplished all the goals I wanted to.

Dillan: In the beginning of the summer, when we started we were definitely a bit nervous, but the guidance given to us by Amitbhai, Kanchan and Nipunbhai was definitely helpful and the homework we were given such as writing a reaction to the article of the week or the stories or ideas that we read about on HelpOthers all had a positive effect on us, it set us into the right place, and its like the seeds of a plant, its how our foundation was based and slowly the roots spread and we grew our stem and the leaves spread. What also helped us “spread” were our internship goals. Mine included:

1.       Use what I do best to help others – often when Neil and I would have conversations with other people and we would tag them with an act of kindness, show them photos we have taken, include kindness in that conversation and exchange ideas about the importance and greatness of kindness. It was definitely an exchange of knowledge.

2.       Doing random acts of kindness on a more daily basis – so this summer Neil and I were definitely at each other’s house as much as we could be. We would keep smile cards on us (and our business cards and camera but the smile cards where very important). Even the simple act of reading the word “SMILE” on the card which was in the back pocket of our pants or thinking about generosity and what we were doing was really helping us promote the random acts of kindness we did which led to our idea of the trackable Smile cards.

3.       Share the smiles I have with everyone – smiling is a great way to communicate in my opinion, sometimes you don’t want to talk but smiling goes a long way and was a big part of my summer.

4.       Spread kindness in the world – we’d get inspiration from ServiceSpace or our weekly internship assignments and we would blog about our ideas and thoughts on our website and allow people to comment or email us or talk to us and this was great way to spread kindness.

5.       Share my actions with others on a blog – “writing definitely helped us, it allowed us to take a stand or have an opinion” – it allowed us to think about how we could promote kindness with kids.

Amit: What would be very nice is to hear some of the assignments you received or some of the acts of kindness you engaged in during your summer internship – perhaps some of the hesitation you felt inside and how you overcame it.

Neil: One of the kindness acts that happened to me was totally unplanned, I was at a camp, and there was one kid and he had a disability where he wasn’t able to speak properly. A lot of the other kids were making fun of him or wouldn’t talk to him. I kept wondering why you would do that – what’s the point. And so I went up and talked to him, I would normally be one who would just sit on the sidelines and not do anything in this type of situation but instead I decided to go up and talk to him. He turned out to be one of the coolest guys ever, he had the best dance moves, he was rapping, he’s on my Facebook, and he was just a great guy. It was one of the things that really brought a smile to my face last summer. I definitely would not have been able to do it if I hadn’t done the ServiceSpace internship and hadn’t been thinking about this.

Amit: When these kids were bullying the kid and you made the radical move to just talk to him, how did the other kids react?

Neil: It confused the other kids. They were like what is this guy (Neil) doing. I sort of explained to them that it wasn’t right to treat him differently because of the way he was not talking or not talk properly and they just got it and by the end of the film camp we all ended up working together sharing our skills on the film and by the end we all became friends. This kid really helped out with the choreography because he was a great dancer.

Dillan: So I definitely have a few stories to share. I have a big passion for triathlons and road cycling races, and so I have my weekly Saturday morning ride from my house to Stanford up to skyline blvd its about a 60 mile bike ride. I usually carry on me my diabetic medical supplies, juice and emergency money for lunch or anything that comes up. As I was going through Stanford, there is this road called skyline blvd, I’ve had many experiences where I get flat tires. And I saw this old guy and he seemed like a great man but stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire (on his bike) – he had a grin on his face like he could solve the problem but was still trying to figure out how. I usually don’t stop because I don’t like to interrupt my pace and don’t like to be disturbed. But with being so involved over the summer with acts of kindness I couldn’t help but think about helping. I immediately thought why don’t I stop, use my lunch money and ride down to a shop to get him a tire tube and we can get it fixed and maybe we can ride together. So I stopped and he asked if I had an extra tube (which I didn’t) but when I offered to ride to a store to get him one he was blown away that someone was willing and was amazed how no one had done something so little but so generous and how big an impact it had on him. We talked about our internship and ServiceSpace – I even gave him a smile card.

I still email him from time to time and we even ride together occasionally and just catch and we exchange kindness stories. One of the stories he later exchanged with me after we became friends was how he was in a bike race and saw someone get side swiped by a car and there was an accident and rather than continue on the race or worry about his time, he thought here’s my chance to help and pay it forward. He later shared how good it felt and he wanted to incorporate kindness into his life even more like Dillan and Neil have.

Dillan also shared a story about Neil and his experience with Wednesday Meditations.

Dillan: “Neil and I did a few Wednesday Meditations. They were definitely a lot harder than we thought they would be. When we walked into the room and we could feel all the quiet and all the calm and the peace. Neil and I would often sit next to each other and be the 14 year olds that we were and laugh and text each other and make each other laugh but as time passed, we understood that it was time to grow up and how meditation actually helps. And so we made sure not to have our phones out and turned them off and have no technology. That was really hard because we all rely on technology so much and putting it away for 2-3 hours is definitely very hard. That was one of the challenges we had over the summer. But by the end of the summer Neil and I were able sit, not for a full hour but for a long time with our eyes closed and we sat peacefully without disrupting others and not messing with our phones. We enjoyed the circles of sharing was also a favorite so we could reflect on the article of the week and it helped us understand the when being kind you must be very peaceful and calm and let things fall into place.”

Amit: Why do you think meditation is helpful to spread kindness?:

Dillan: If you think about it, when you are doing good, you want to have a good attitude toward it, You can't be mean and do good – its like an oxymoron, its not real or true. And developing a sense of calm and peace when you are talking is totally inspiring. Sometimes when my mom yells at me ('go do your homework Dillan!) I noticed the impact of being calm or taking a break or getting something to eat rather than reacting with a not so great attitude.

[I couldn’t help but agree and relate, especially being yelled at by my Mom when growing up.]

Amit: Kindness is not something you can just do as a project, it’s a way of life. How has kindness or the experiences of the summer impacted you now that the internship is over?

Dillan: Kindness is definitely a way of life for us now. Even though I am back in school, I find myself being calm with my friends or teachers. We ended up creating a “Gift Studio” that Neil and I set up. We take photos for others and videos for others. My school came to know about Neil and me, our internship, and ServiceSpace and how I am on the teen “Team Type-I” Ride for the Cure (Diabetes) and our fundraising money for the race. And I was asked to present our experiences and shared the Be Selfish, Be Generous video to the school which everyone talked about after. This past December, the school awarded me with an award called “Mr. Gratitude” – they donated $1000 to a charity of Neil and my choosing, some bike gear and photography gear.

One of my goals throughout this whole thing was to inspire kindness in teenagers. That is one of the most difficult things to do. Teenagers have a very extrinsic motivation for things rather than an intrinsic one. I even found this difficult for myself. But as you continue to do these (kindness) things, you don’t question it and it just begans to naturally flow and it gets greater and greater where it becomes second hand and don’t have to think about it. I have tried to promote it with our group but it is hard and Dillan and I keep trying to learn better ways.

Nipun asked Neil’s mom, who was on the phone with us, what was the summer like from the parents perspective and what was the transformation they saw pre-summer, during the summer and post-summer

Neil’s mom Sonar (aka Pinky aka Mom): I was reflecting back to the time to when I was expecting Neil and then to when Neil was five. We went to an event for the homeless in San Francisco where we had made sandwiches and passed them out to the homeless. Innocent Neil at one point said he was hungry and asked me if he could have a sandwich and so I said of course and decided to sit and enjoy a sandwich with one of the homeless men – at the time I wasn’t clear about what the impact would be but looking back it was one of many events over time that have led to creating such a consciousness in the kids.

At the beginning of the internship, everything was all about how “I can make better films” or how “I can be a better photographer” but then when they started having their weekly calls with the mentors and listening into how wonderful they were I started noticing changes. Seeing how they interacted with their siblings – treating their younger sisters better, helping more and so many other things. One time I picked them up from a Wednesday meditation and they wanted to get some dessert. I decided to ask them a question as to how the two of them were such good friends since they are two very different individuals. Neil said that together they were like soup – Neil was the vegetables and Dillan was the water, you can’t have soup without either and so hearing that type of insight was a key sign of transformation occurring. The exposure and inner transformation was incredible – seeing the two of them sign up for ways to help others and not necessarily be in the limelight, which is a difficult trait to give up at their age and is very intrinsic to our society, and so it was a huge benefit from their internship.

Q&A with the Crowd:

Audrey: What was one of the greatest challenges during the internship and how did you overcome it?

Neil: One of the challenges I feel was doing all the work – I am just saying this honestly. You would think it would be a simple thing to spread kindness and do the internship but I am telling you honestly that is a lot of work (you can hear Nipun, Neil and me laugh as he says this). But it was definitely fun. I want to major in film. I definitely think it is going to be fun but it will make me want to do more work. The internship was definitely very fun but a lot of work. [you have to love the sheer honesty of this answer]

Anne: When I think of my own children and the challenges they have in their life and how to inspire change in their life and you have given me so many ideas but as a teenager having to step-up and to create a connection is very vulnerable and difficult to step-into. AS parents we need to model that behavior and how to be in that vulnerable situation …how to create that environment.

Neil: Kindness is very hard to do... Kindness should come naturally. One way that they can do that is to just be surrounded by it during their whole time at home. If you surround them with kindness and generosity and create that connection (which I am sure you do naturally as a mother) – they will get those values.

Dillan: with advancing technology, there are so many videos and articles out there to read and watch how others are being kind and how great it is and how it can change their life.

Nipun: A reflective question, how has your relationship to your parents (and siblings) changed, if at all. We have connected to both of your parents and at different points they have been in tears (of joy).

Dillan: at first they were wondering who this “new guy” was not understanding who this new person is doing all this kindness. But then my dad and I started doing kindness together. And when I would
get mad, they’d remind me to be kind and the situation would calm. They were supportive and sincere I became closer to them and Neil’s parents.

Neil: when I first started out, my parents and I would get into much more arguments thinking I knew what I was doing but through the internship I learned tactics on how to talk to people in a nicer tone and coming from a space of kindness. I have definitely toned down. I have become more of a “civilized” person than before. My relationship with sister has gotten a lot better and I feel it is my duty as the older brother to be a role model and teach her about kindness. Even with my grandma, I have started to hang out with her and inquire about her more and serve her rather than just simple acknowledgments. Dillan’s parents have also become my parents as well and so now I have this huge extended family as well.

Pavi: Really beautiful to hear the sharing…what a powerful thing it is to reflect on what if all 15 year-olds had this type of experience and how this world would be such a different place. And to think 15 years from now Neil and Dillan will be holding a similar space for others. What do they appreciate the most about each other and how each of you have helped the other grow?

Neil: Dillan has a hard working spirit. I still have no idea how Dillan has time to keep his grades up, do SAT prep, to do the internship, and get everything done and on top of that he has a social life! I have really seen him grow throughout the internship – changing from “dissing people at the temple" to "serving older people water.” He has become one of my best friends and I love him.

Dillan: So Neil and I have become like brothers, we’re really close and we talk about every little thing. What I appreciate about him is that he is very sincere. Other people seem to just try and impress but Neil is very laid back and enjoy his life and takes it slowly and thinks about what he does and move at his own pace rather than the pace of others and is just so sincere and understanding. I also love his cinematography skills and amazing ideas and all the time and effort that goes into his videos. He is also very hard working in a different way but just such a great guy.

These kindness kings decided to end the call with an “act of kindness” by surprising one of the callers with a chorus of happy birthday as she decided to spend her birthday listening to this 1.5 hour call on a Saturday! They gave a heartfelt thanks to their mentors and asked if they could be interns again next summer!

The irony of their gratitude was that as mentors, Nipun, Kanchan and I kept thinking throughout the summer about how lucky we felt to be around these two rock stars and how we too were interns at times throughout the summer learning so much from this experience. These two are such an incredible inspiration. Thank you Neil and Dillan for inspiring us and so many others. Here is some more from them :):

Two videos that Neil & Dillan created:

Kindness, A Way of Living video! It got a record number of views (for them :)) with 700+ views and got posted on HelpOthers too, where one comment even suggested that they run for President. :)

All It Takes is Chalk! Its a beautiful and artful video that introduces trackable Smile Cards, but the most impressive part about it was that it was all volunteer-run, with a team of 9 volunteers!

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Physics of the Hug

Bill Miller — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Do you ever wonder how the tradition of hugging to express affection got started? Are the positive feelings associated with a hug to some degree a learned, enculturated response, or are they purely natural?

As it turns out, there is some science behind this! In addition to chemical and hormonal processes, most organs of the body emanate electromagnetic (and perhaps subtle) fields that can extend beyond the organ, and sometimes beyond the physical body itself (that's how EEG and ECG monitors function). The Institute of Heartmath in Boulder Creek, California in particular has done a lot of research on heart-related physiology and its effects. They've found that the heart muscle emanates the strongest EM field of any bodily organ, being actually detectable several meters from the body.

One property of fields is that their strength varies exponentially as the distance changes geometrically. The "inverse square law" means that if you move twice as far from the source of a field, it's strength will only be one-fourth the previous value. And of course it works the other way - as you get closer, the field strength increases exponentially.

In addition to the above, the heart is also an oscillator (anything that regularly cycles between two or more states - like the pendulum on a clock). There is a phenomenon with some oscillators known as "entrainment" whereby when they are placed in close proximity, their cycles tend to synchronize.

What does all of this have to do with hugging? In the social realm, we often speak of people being in harmony, in synch, "on the same wavelength". Emotionally, we often seek "coherence", "resonance", and "coupling" with others (all wave physics terms). In view of the above, our heart fields are always intermingling with those of the people around us. If we wish to increase the chances of coming into "alignment" with another, to experience harmony and resonance with them, an effective way is to get physically close as possible. Since we sense that the heart-area is a primary locus of emotional experience, it makes sense to get two hearts as physically close as possible. Moreover, in view of the above-mentioned Inverse Square Law, the few extra millimeters of closeness provided by a hug make an exponential difference.

So, bottom line, if you want the world to be a more harmonious place, find someone you're fond of, and who's fond of you (otherwise another principle comes into play: "destructive interference" - but let's not go there). Then put sternum to sternum and squeeze. You'll brighten the world, and this is one supply of renewable energy that only increases with use!
...

Giving For a Living

Daniel Burgess — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

We commonly define life success through our capacity to access goods and services. Money provides a unified system of access to goods and services and hence has become the most important of all commodities. Thus, the abundance of money in a person or group’s pocket has come to be equated to life success. A lack of money is then equated to being unsuccessful and can lead to a devaluation of human life.

Besides human devaluation, there is another major problem with defining success through money. Money, like all material resources, is finite; there is only so much to go around. In order for one person to get money, he or she must take it from another; in so doing, robbing that person of their ability to access goods and services. We spend most of our waking lives in an effort to take money from a person or group while thinking of more and more clever ways to do so. We define ourselves as individuals by the means through which we take money from others, i.e. one’s job. Consequently, equating money with success creates a competitive reality which divides humans from each other and forces them to compete for access to the worlds goods and services. This atmosphere of competition breeds distrust, fear, hate, greed and loneliness as humans are constantly struggling against one another to be successful and survive. When we come to the understanding that equating money with success ultimately divides humans against one another and creates a devaluing of human life, it becomes clear that as a society we need to redefine what it means to be a successful human being.

How can we redefine what it means to be successful to allow full access to goods and services for all humans while maintaining, and even encouraging, trust and love between people? If we define success in terms of how much of a finite material good an individual or group has, this will divide us against one another as there is only X amount of any material commodity to go around. What would happen then if we defined success according to something that was infinite as opposed to finite?

A human’s capacity to give is infinite. Giving is not restricted to any material good or service. The act of giving has a value which is not proportional to the thing which is given. There is value in the act of giving itself, and our capacity to give is limitless. What then would the world be like if success is defined by our acts of giving as individuals and as groups? What if the act of giving became the new currency? If acts of giving defined life success, then the greatest gift a person could give another would be to increase that person’s ability to give. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) would become GDG (Gross Domestic Giving) as we shift towards measuring how many acts of giving we are producing as opposed to how much product we are moving. Commodities would continue to exchange hands; goods and services would be abundantly accessible for all; a new incentive for the creation, advancement, and implementation of technology would arise. To define human success through acts of giving would create an atmosphere of trust instead of distrust, love and compassion instead of fear and hate, generosity instead of greed, and community instead of loneliness.

Imagine a world where we collectively derive meaning and purpose in life from our limitless acts giving.

Giving for a Living.

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Radical Love and Holy Play: Forest Call with Rev. Chaz

Audrey Lin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

When he speaks, you can sense a depth of earnest care in his voice. When you hear his stories, you know you’re in the presence of a sacred soul. And it sort of sneaks up on you that he’s served in hospices and with the homeless, that he spends his days mentoring college students as UPenn's University Chaplain. From gentle stories about his daughters to lessons from his “knucklehead punk” youth days, and revolutionary New Year's resolutions, Rev. Charles Howard—or Chaz, as he is lovingly known—shared insights along the valleys and peaks of his service journey, and the inter-connections that stand woven underneath it all.

The vibe was extra close during this week's Forest Call, with Chris—an old student of Chaz’s—moderating in a mentee-mentor way, a rich opening circle around the theme of resolutions, and even a special birthday song to top it all off! By the end, at least a couple of us were moved to tears. Below are just a few pieces of the many gems that flowed across the airwaves.

Chris: What inspired your service journey? As you say, you’re called to serve the poor. What called you to a life of being such a presence activist? You are a force of love wherever you go. What inspired your journey in that way?

Chaz: I was raised in Baltimore, Maryland… My mom died when I was eleven, right in my arms, which left a pretty strong impression on me. She was a wonderful, wonderful woman who—while working pretty hard in her law practice—was deeply loving, and gentle, and gracious. Just an amazing saint of a woman. And she passed when I was eleven. And then my father passed a few years later when I was a teenager. I was a punk orphan in Baltimore, getting caught up in the wrong thing; insecure, not sure where life was going to take me. And then my sister Amy adopted me. She was 22, taking in a 12 or 13 year old. And I’m eternally grateful to her for that. She was young, single, and just starting to be a teacher. She taught special education in Baltimore, and I was a lot for her. So it was between her, some cousins, aunts and uncles, and some coaches… And they all just loved me. They didn’t have to love me, but they loved me. So to me, my first inspiration in my life were these people who went above and beyond and offered a love that wasn’t required of them. And to me, this whole notion of service and generosity, and kindness—it starts there. It’s so easy to love people who are nice to you, and who are beautiful and kind and awesome. And it’s even easy to love those who you kind of have to love—your family members, your children, your partner, siblings... But the next level, is a challenge to kind of a “radical love”: a love for those who are undesirable. For those who are “dirty”, who have nothing to offer you. Even a love of those who are mean to you. Sort of this notion of loving one’s enemies. This was my inspiration. People loved me when I was just a knucklehead punk in Baltimore. And they still love me as a knucklehead, older guy in Philly. But to me, the challenge is to love in that way.

Amit: As a minister and student of divinity, you have undoubtedly come across the term, concept, the problem of evil. If God is good, omnipresent, and all knowing, then how can evil exist? I'm sure many have asked you the same as they dig into their own faith. As a "soldier of service" on the front lines fighting for the underserved, the inequities of life become clearer. So how do you address this so-called problem of why evil exists?

Chaz: I'm embarrassed I'm giggling at the question in that it is such a whopper of a question! In Jewish tradition, in several traditions actually, the Book of Job tells a story of a man who's on top of the world. Suddenly, a number of horrible things just befall him. He loses his children. He loses his work, his house. Everything sort of just crumbles very quickly. He sits with his friends, and his friends are trying to figure out why all this bad is happening to him. "Surely it's because you did something in your personal life," "You didn't worship properly," or so forth. "Just take your own life, Job. Curse God and die. Everything's bad. this is horrible. Why did this happen?" They're trying to make sense of it. And then Job begins to try to process it. And he, at last, asks the Divine, "Why would this happen? Why would you take my children from me? Why would you let such evil to happen around me? Then, God (or the Universe), responds. He speaks to this one human being and says, "Who is this that darkens my counsel? With words without knowledge?"

And to me--those humbling lines there, to little humans like us--to me, there is a point of understanding that we can grasp. And certainly a point of understanding that we should seek. I think that's one of the ways that we, in my tradition, worship. Is by seeking to cultivate our minds, and seeking to sort of gain knowledge. I think that one of the great privileges of being human is learning. But there is a certain point that we don't need to know all the answers. And that is a horrible response to my own kids, of "Why not, Daddy?" "Well, I'll tell you when you're older." That's like the worst answer. They hate that. I didn't like it when I was a kid. I know they don't like it. But there are just some things that are just too big for them to understand. And I feel the same way around certain things. Why--particularly in monotheistic traditions--why would a god (or, in other traditions, the gods) allow that to happen to Japan? Or Haiti? Or New Orleans? Or that wonderful little girl who was killed the other day? Or that great family who are such outstanding citizens? And I think it's dangerous for the clergy person to attempt to answer that. I think it's presumptive. I think it's arrogant. I think it's speaking with words without knowledge. To try to describe why they are.

The little answer that I could try to give is that it presents an opportunity to love. The evil in the world, I don't think is there to be fought against. Or necessarily to be destroyed and chased out of the world. I think it presents an opportunity to love. And that's a gift. And it's a scary gift. But it's a chance for us all. Is that why evil is in the world? I don't know. I really don't know. I pray someday, on the other side, maybe we will know. And there are a lot of books written that maybe explain why there is evil in the world. Is it because we've been given free will, and the ability to choose? And some of us choose good and some of us choose evil? Maybe. But I sort of see evil, and I see suffering, and sadness and grief, as an opportunity to bring light into the world. To Love.

Kanchan: I noticed that you’ve done a lot of work with homeless people. I live in Berkeley and I do see homeless people around me. I once went up and spoke to someone and we had a 30-minute conversation. He had a Ph.D. and seemed to be a pretty intelligent person, so I have this question: From your work, what are the main causes of people being homeless? And what can we do?

Chaz: I love what you did. Having the courage to go up and speak to someone. We talk about homelessness in our country, in the world. It’s a talking point. It’s a number. A percentage. But you humanized this person. …What you did is beautiful, and so rich, and so much the answer. Did that get them off the street? Not necessarily. But it gave them life...

One of the things I’ve seen over the years is that all fruit comes from a certain tree. People are on the street for a reason. There’s some sort of deep-rooted thing in their lives that got them there. It’s usually a combination of steps that lead to really dire situations that lead to not having anywhere to live. There’s a guy who has been living on and off the streets in West Philly named Chris. I’ve known him since I was eighteen years old. When I first I saw him panhandling in a scene that made me cry, literally. He was asking for money, and a group of guys said they’d give him money if he sang and danced for him. And he did. …I was so hurt by the way they treated him like a toy, like it was a joke. That Chris became the first homeless person that I ever talked to. And over the years, it was revealed that Chris has a drinking problem… he’s had other substances that he’s abused over the years. Right now, he is HIV positive, which is a major challenge in his life, obviously. And it all started because his mother died sometime during his early twenties. Before he was on the streets, Chris was a cook. Successful. Married with children. And then his mom died, and his life spiraled out of control. He was depressed, lost his job, broken marriage, began to drink. Everything in his life fell apart.

How in the world can I vilify him? And blame him? And demand that he just get off his butt and get a job? When that so easily could be me, too. When I’ve felt that grief—that paralyzing hurt. That loss. That need for some type of company that’s only relieved by drinking. When my own sister’s an alcoholic? How in the world could I not love him? Or at least look at him, and at least share in my own resources there. So what should we do? I think the first thing we can do is not be afraid to look at people on the streets. And if we can learn someone’s name, all the better. And if we can go beyond that and try to change someone’s life, oh my gosh. It’s possible. I think there are concrete things, too. There are outreach teams in every city. …But the little thing that we can do is just engage. Be wise, be safe about it. But if someone’s out in front of the 7-11 or a convenience store asking for change, don’t just throw a nickel in there: “What is your name?” It’s so nice to be called by your name.

Prakash: If you would like to add one value to your life, what would that be?

Chaz: Wow. Beautiful question. Thank you. What am I learning now? What am I hoping to add? You know, I have young children. And I feel like I’m learning a lot from them. Which is a surprise for me. I didn’t expect them to be so much my teachers, as they are. And I’m learning this notion of radical grace… The grace that I see in them is such a teacher to me. That, no matter what, they always welcome me home. Whether I’m in stinky mood, or if I’ve gone too late on campus. No matter what, they always welcome me home. With big hugs, and big kisses, and long stories about their days at school. And I wish I had that type of grace in my life. That type of quick forgiveness, and just amazing love. And also just that notion of play… One of my teachers by the name of Kirk Byron Jones wrote a book called Holy Play, which is such a clever title. And I see my little buddies, my little girls… everywhere, in the backseat of the car, they’re playing. If they look at a playground, they’re playing. In the middle of school, with their friends, they’re playing. They wake up, and the first thing they do is pull their little dolls together and start writing a play. Literally, a play. …And they get their jobs done—they do their homework and their little jobs around the house. But they play. And I wish more “bigger people” played more. I think that’s another thing I’m trying to integrate into my life—this notion of play.

There’s a lot of work to be done. There’s a lot to be taken seriously in the world. Poverty and homelessness, here and abroad. Suffering, and sexism and racism. Violence. There’s so much to be taken seriously, that needs work. But from Kirk and my kids, it’s really clear that the play that we do and the joy in our lives make our work so much richer and life that much better. And one can bring about change, and turn hearts, and change cultures through their play. I think that’s something I’m trying to think about this year, bringing radical grace in my life, and bringing in joyous holy play in whatever form that may be.

For more about Chaz, check out his articles, TedTalk, and Resolution 12, a campaign to encourage New Year's resolutions based on outward acts of service.

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Conversation with Jayesh Patel on Christmas Eve

Bela Shah — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Each of us is illuminated by a shining light deep within. At times when we can't see our own light, a community of noble friends can serve as mirrors, reflecting the brightness within us. This past Christmas Eve, about a hundred friends from around the world and from all walks of life served as mirrors for each other as we shared and reflected with Jayeshbhai. He effortlessly made each of us feel like we were enveloped in an invisible hug of love that stretched from one end of the globe to the other. "I love you all. I want to hug you from my heart. My dear brothers and sisters I love you a lot," he sincerely expressed.

For all of us, the way in which he has devoted his life to service is tremendously inspiring and empowering. By operating with a steady purity of heart and spontaneous compassion, Pavi expressed how Jayeshbhai elevates everything in his orbit and when around him, there is no question of being a bystander. He literally sucks you into a beautiful flow of service and allows awareness to blossom within you. But according to Jayeshbhai, his life of service is defined by small and humble acts of kindness, what he beautifully portrays as tear drops of compassion in the ocean. For him, the true journey has always been the inner journey. "Everyone here made me seem so big, they made my "I" feel big. But I want to close this "I" in order to really open my eyes."

Along with Virenbhai and Anarbhen, Jayeshbhai is one of the co-founders of Manav Sadhna at the Gandhi Ashram. To understand the ethos of Manav Sadhna, I almost feel like you have to experience it yourself. The organization is an incubator of love where volunteers from around the world are inspired to create hundreds of projects that serve our interconnected community. In the twenty years since it was founded, Manav Sadhna has touched the lives of thousands through education, health, and women's empowerment programs among so many others.

The Legacy of Ishwar Patel

Before Manav Sadhna was founded, Jayeshbhai began his inner journey by working side by side with his father, Ishwar Patel. As a volunteer for Gandhiji's constructive movement, Ishwar Kaka was deeply impacted by the discrimination that scavengers experienced as they gathered human waste and he consciously dedicated his life to the promotion of sanitation. Becoming known as "Mr. Toilet" through the construction of more than 200,000 toilets, Ishwar Kaka's work was guided by the cosmic integrity by which he lived his life. He loved the work of sanitation and so the actions in his life were guided by his heart. While growing up, the subject of toilets and sanitation were common dinner table conversation for Jayeshbhai and the kids teased him by calling him "baby toilet" at school. It wasn't until later in life when he began to clean public toilets himself that Jayeshbhai came to understand the deeper impact of his father's work.

During a brief stint in London, Jayeshbhai wrote a letter to his father. At the time, although he was living a comfortable life with his wife, he knew that something deeper was missing and Ishwar kaka provided life changing advice. Applying the analogy of a brand new Mercedes, he explained that even this type of luxury is no good if an essential piece is missing. That essential part is the heart. "Find something small that you love and let that guide you. I get satisfaction from sanitation and toilets. You have to find a similar satisfaction," he advised. When Jayeshbhai responded that he wanted to come back to India to work with him, his father warned that service was not easy, it required patience and love. But Jayeshbhai was certain in his decision and he returned to India with Anarbhen. The first assignment he was given was to clean 125 public toilets.

Cleaning Public Toilets: Compassion in Action

It is said that public toilets are like hell on Earth. Upon returning from London, Jayeshbhai started out in the mornings with his father in his brand name clothes and Nike shoes and began the dirty work side by side. Bit by bit, he began understanding that the work his father was doing wasn't just about toilets. As he started to interact with the community and with the women, and reflect every evening with his father, Jayeshbahi learned how the work of sanitation was connected with everything else; it integrated health and hygiene, education, women's empowerment, and untouchability. Ishwar Kaka was not trying to solve all of these problems but he was connecting with the seed that would naturally blossom into solutions, the seed of compassion.

"Every time we love, we receive. Love is my spiritual practice. If you love all, you can effortlessly serve all. I try to practice love in every moment. I try to love myself first and then I try to love everyone I meet. I believe small is beautiful. As Mother Theresa said, "we can do no great thing but small things with great love." So if love is in the center, everything will naturally come together.

Live without Fear and Focus on Actions, not Activities

Many of us can become frustrated or disillusioned even when we have the best of intentions. But Jayeshbhai once told Pavi that he had never in his entire life seen his father frustrated, depressed, or angry. Ishwar Kaka was always smiling and always cheerful. This was amazing considering he was taking on one of the biggest challenges in the country, yet he was so rooted in equanimity and joy. How did he do that, Pavi wondered?

He did it through his actions and he lived without fear. Jayeshbhai explained that Ishwar kaka was joined with action, not activities, each and every day. Activities are mission oriented and burdened with targets and achievements. But actions are spontaneous, arising from compassion and that compassion connects hearts to hearts. My father would always say to me, "Put your hand on your heart and ask if you can feel the love in the work that you're doing. If you don't feel the love, then you're not going to feel joy in your life. So be connected to the heart centeredness of your work."

This past December 26 marked the one year anniversary of Ishwar Kaka's passing. Jayeshbhai described that even in his father's last few days, Ishwar Kaka emanated equanimity and compassion. At one point, there were at least 12 punctures and incisions all over his body. Tears brimmed in Jayeshbhai's eyes to see his father in so much pain. Ishwar Kaka asked his son, "Can you take my pain away? You can't. This is not the time for you to cry...this is the time for you to pray for others and to continue doing small acts of kindness for others. When I was a child, I was like an unripe coconut, my shell and my inside were all intertwined and inseparable. But now I'm a ripe coconut, able to separate my mind from my body. So you don't have to worry about me."

In fact, Ishwar Kaka was not under anesthesia during one of his operations but he didn't blink an eye. He truly lived without fear and said, "If death is to come tomorrow, let it come today. What is there to be afraid of? I am an instrument of all this work I had to do and now my time is up and I've done what I could." To the last moment, he lived his life through his heart, always thinking of others, separating himself from the tremendous amount of physical pain he was in. He even continued to brainstorm new toilet designs. And when the doctors declared him clinically dead, even after his heart had stopped beating, he opened his eyes one last time and said to his wife, "Jai Jala Ram," something they had always said to each other before parting ways.

"Don't live in fear. If you are walking down a dark path guided by the light of a torch, you will not be able to see the end of the path. But if you just take the next step and let the light of your torch guide you in this way, the path will illuminate itself. In order for clarity to naturally arise, you have to take that small step. So don't live in fear. Have noble thoughts. Continue serving other people through small acts of kindness. One teardrop of compassion, one heartfelt intention to be of service can go so far."

Occupy Love: Advice for the 100%

Pancho, an incredible individual who has been integral to bringing peace and nonviolence to the Occupy Movement, explained that there is also untouchability in this movement, untouchability of the 1 percent. He expressed that we need to embrace them and work together and asked Jayeshbhai how to create hygiene of the mind. "What would you tell the 99 percent to keep their hearts pure and clean so that action blossoms from our souls?"

Jayeshbhai shared a story about a Harvard business professor that had come to India to examine Gandhiji's gram swaraj (creating self-reliant villages at the grassroots level) program. During a meeting with a well known economist, the professor saw a picture of Gandhi hanging on his office wall and he asked the economist if he was a fan of Gandhi. The answered "Yes, he is my master." The professor also noticed pictures of other unknown people on the wall and asked who they were. These pictures were of friends and family. The economist answered, "They are my master's master." So, as Jayeshbhai explained, we can have role models that inspire us but the people we serve have to be our community. If we are guided by shruthi, we can naturally serve our community from our hearts. In Sanskrit, sidthi is achievement and shruthi is purity; if we are guided by sidthi, we become ambitious and centralized, our "I" becomes big. But if we our guided by shruthi, we naturally become decentralized and we move away from the ego to the "we"; we come together. When we unite with nature and with people, we become centralized and pure. With purity, clarity follows naturally.

Moving from Broadcasting to "Deep Casting"

The next generation will be more inner-connected than ever before to their global community. But what kinds of connections will these be? When Bhoutik asked Jayeshbhai what his advice was for this next generation, he said that there is a great need for deep casting, going deeper within ourselves and with other people in order to build authentic relationships.

"The whole world is our family. We can't be everywhere and we can't solve all the problems but if we're connected deeply to ourselves than we are interconnected with everyone else and this will lead to relationship based work instead of results based work. Results based work comes with weight, with worry. If we do work with worry, than it's not effortless or with love and we become exhausted. In relationship based work, "I" becomes small and "we" becomes large. We have to move from broadcasting to deep casting."

Jayeshbhai really spoke from his heart on this call. He explained that what he had to share wasn't right or wrong, it was just his pure love. Indeed, each of us on the call felt the power of his love. Day to day, we all have our doubts and fears and wonder if what we are doing is right. But at least for those few hours, Jayeshbhai's presence confirmed that inexplicable glow that we all feel when we serve with love. In those few hours, uncertainty disintegrated and melted into an invisible hug of love that we shared with each other from one end of the globe to the other.

Jayeshbhai used to always say, "Love all, serve all." But most recently, he's adapted that. "I've noticed that ego starts to creep in, even in service. So now I say 'Love All, Share All'." Love all. Share all.

To listen to the incredibly inspiring audio clips from the actual call click here. ...

Nipun shares ...

Nipun Mehta — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:14:09 -0800

Nipun shares ... Random tidbits ... In case you thought that CF was West-Coast centered, :) take a look at this amazing Google Map chart of the last 25 thousand CF volunteers who signed up with a US zipcode. On Monday, five leaders from the CF posse rolled out to a gathering of 20 folks -- that's not good math, but in CF, we roll that way to hook someone up. And folks kept asking: "Do you guys always have this much fun?" :) HelpOthers.org recently got a random email: "Can I help you guys in printing and shipping cards to entire India? I am really looking forward to be a part of this revolution." ...

How I Use Smile Cards

Mark Jacobs — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Folks often use Smile Cards to drop gifts stealthily and anonymously on friends, or on strangers as surprising, random-feeling acts of generosity. We like to refer to these gifts as "tagging" someone. To be honest, while these lovely shenanigans are great fun, they are not my favorite aspect of Experiments in Anonymous Kindness.

I give-out Smile Cards all the time, but never to anyone I know and almost never in the nature of surprising the person behind me by paying for their toll, coffee, etc. Those are perfectly okay ways to use the cards; but I don't believe they represent the highest form of the art.

The ultimate value of a Smile Card in the pocket is, to my mind, as a tool of awareness. When we are looking to give away a smile card -- not as a "secret Santa" (to use a seasonal reference), but as a way of addressing the real needs of real people whose paths cross ours each day -- we cannot help but become re-sensitized to the mundane. Our antennae go up a little higher; and we suddenly see how much need there is -- how many opportunities there are to serve. The needs don't have to be profound and the service does not have to be earthshaking. Sometimes a person just needs help hoisting a heavy box; or a jump-start for a dead battery; or a small joke to improve a slow afternoon. Small is good. If we are doing "small", it means we are cultivating an awareness of the needs of others to a pretty subtle level; and that we are processing our interconnectedness with the lives around us in a responsive, interactive way. It is the complete opposite to walking through the same-old-streets in the same-old-way, inured to the commonplace. It's about making the commonplace the place where magic can happen.

One of the fun things about Smile Cards is that they are a little stunning, a bit transgressive, and unusually happy-making to receive. This is because they are not only tools of awareness for the giver, but they also cause the recipient to fully appreciate the expression of kindness they've serendipitously been thrown. It is a chance to pause and reflect on what it means for one person to do something generous for another: how much pleasure can be generated by such little effort when thoughtfulness is applied to the situations of daily life. I think these moments of epiphany are significant and transformative. They are what make kind acts not one-offs, but vectors of beneficence in a never-ending wave of kindness paid-forward.

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The Story Behind 52 Smile Cards, Told Through a Vlog

Trishna Shah — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Last week, HelpOthers received a very interesting request for 52 Smile Cards. Whenever we receive such requests, they usually accompany an even more interesting story waiting to be heard. And what a sweet story I found when I opened Beth's email...

"My friend Jazzi died a few months ago and I just found her Vlog. She was doing the Smile Cards and Vlogging about it. Just hearing her voice again made me smile so much, I want to do a card a week (I am a student so I do not have time to do a card a day) and Vlog about it just like her because in her short life she made so many people smile. Thank you for your consideration."

Spreading some smiles to honour a friend's life is such a beautiful tribute! Our Smile Squad was really inspired by Jazzi's story and her friend Beth's tribute, so we decided to investigate further to see if we could locate Jazzie's vlog. And thanks to Bhoutik, we managed to track it down...

Pavi's reaction to Jazzi's vlog about Smile Cards, sums it all up perfectly :)

"Just watched the video and it moved me unexpectedly. She's so full of sparkle -- her braces and breezy confidence in front of the video camera brought to mind our own summer interns. Bless you Jazzi for understanding in your time here that it's never too soon to practice kindness. And bless you Help Others team for touching so many countless lives in beautiful ways that you will never fully know."

Thank you to the entire HelpOthers volunteer team including shippers, editors, community weavers, and all the undercover members of the Smile Squad for all that you do to inspire these kinds of ripples of kindness around the world! We don't always see the impact of our intentions and actions, but stories like Jazzi's and Beth's are beautiful reminders of the spirit of HelpOthers and all that is possible because of you. Thank you :)

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Audio Clips From Call with Jayesh Patel

Bela Shah — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

What a privilege to be on the Forest call today, with Jayesh Patel! Born at the Gandhi Ashram, Jayesh-bhai has done very large scale development work in the world but his philosophy of "Living Service" has made him a hero around the globe. On this call, he spoke about the lessons he learned from his remarkable father Ishwar Patel, who passed away last December.

While we're working on a write-up from the call, we thought we'd leak the audio clips for you to enjoy and share with friends.

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Beatboxing to the Spirit of ServiceSpace

Pancho Ramos Stierle — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Sister Shakti and I met on Wednesdays at the Kindness Temple in Santa Clara. After Nipun's article was featured in the DailyGood, sister Kelly --a friend of sister Shakti and a music teacher in an elementary school in Oakland-- contacted me "to have a dialogue with her students (32 ten year olds!) about nonviolence, Occupy Oakland and what kindness in the world looks like" as part of the week-CARE (Campaign for Acceptance, Respect and Empathy). Almost in parallel, brother Aaron came to Wednesdays on Fridays. We previously met in Karma Kitchen. His Pacha's Pajamas is a powerful Great Turning story of a ten year old and he is an incredible talented musician. Was a no brainer.

Brother Aaron and I went to the school together. We --the 32 kids and a few adults!--started with a few minutes in receptive silence followed by the KarmaTube of the Milky Way. Brother Aaron played the flute and when the kids thought that was another traditional calm song, he started beatboxing, then rapping and at the end we simulated a rainforest! We all loved it :-)

Then we had some Q & A. The kids couldn't understand why the police arrested a bunch of peaceful meditators. I told them "one of the beautiful things about meditation is that everyone can meditate; even in the most dehumanizing environments one can meditate and that's a power no one can take away from you."

At the end, sister Kelly --whose husband was deported two years ago and who has performed with Nelson Mandela-- asked the students to form groups of four to answer the question: "If you had super powers, all the resources in the World and the influence, what would be one problem you would get rid off from the Earth?" They had to act it in silence and the audience had to guess it. From eradication of hunger, to clothes and housing for everyone, to no more war, to a chicken feather spreading kindness, I was wondering how can we keep this children wisdom alive as we "grow up". One group was considering: "We have powers from a friendly alien who is capable to invisibly fly and speak to the minds and hearts of the police in Oakland to tell them to stop arresting peaceful people." :-) Sister Kelly cooked a delicious vegan soup for Shakti and I. And when I thought I was nourished and satisfied, Kelly's next class was arriving with an impromptu gift: 10 cute five year olds who dedicated a peace song to me in the middle of the aisle. Priceless. :-) Now, some people in the school want us to present them the concept of Karma Kitchen.

Service Space, mission accomplished... the ripples continue! ;-)

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Hacking the Heart and the Us%

Pancho Ramos Stierle — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:57:55 -0800

Pancho shares ... We are all in this together. We are the Us%. Joanna Macy's gmail account was hacked a few days ago, as the hacker sent out spam from her assistant (Annie) requesting money from her 3,500 contacts! Google was very slow to respond but when learned of the BAAMplex! Service Space hacker story last year, Annie decided to approach the hacker directly. Fueled by inspiration and moved by love, Annie wrote a moving note and, lo a behold, the person behind the action responded and ultimately returned access to Annie! Here are some excerpts from Annie's note: "Dear Brother or Sister Hacker, ... I can tell you now that she [Joanna] is 82 years old, a teacher, author and person who has touched the lives of thousands and thousands of people. Have you had a chance to look at her website? [...] I want you to know I am not upset with you for what you have done and from my end I don't even need to pursue anything. I believe in restoration, not retribution. I want you to have the experience of restoring what has been broken, and not punished for what you have done. I understand why you did what you did." Sister Annie hacked into this brother's heart. "The heart that breaks open can contain the entire universe." Indeed! The SS posse paying-forward the kindness (R)evolution. ;-) ...

Tradition of Community

Mark Jacobs — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Late last night, I was writing introductory copy for a soon-to-be-posted KarmaTube video which offers a contemporary remix of the baker's speech at the conclusion of Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. In addition to providing a brief summary, we offer three action item suggestions related to the video content, to help the viewer "be the change". One of my recommendations was: "Listen to other great political speeches from decades-gone-by and reflect on the ways that the problems persist, the ideals remain unfulfilled, and the messages remain relevant."

Taking my own advice, I looked-up the keynote address of one of my childhood heroes, the brilliant Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, delivered at the 1976 Democratic National Convention in New York City.

This was the speech in which she suggested that her presence on the podium "is one additional bit of evidence that the American Dream need not forever be deferred." And yet, she pointed to America's failure to honor its tradition of communitarianism as the troubling evidence to the contrary.

I was thrilled to re-encounter this speech, not because it was her best (it was not; that honor probably goes to her passionately scholarly address when voting articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon in 1974) but because it was easily recognizable as an important influence in the development of my own ideas about just social organization. Whether-or-not I knew it at the time of writing, my own short essay on the diminution of the American Dream was nothing more than a meager echo of Congresswoman Jordan's foresight and enduring resonance. Here is an excerpt of her remarks:

This is the question which must be answered in 1976: Are we to be one people bound together by common spirit, sharing in a common endeavor; or will we become a divided nation? For all of its uncertainty, we cannot flee the future. We must not become the "New Puritans" and reject our society. We must address and master the future together. It can be done if we restore the belief that we share a sense of national community, that we share a common national endeavor. It can be done.

There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals, and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.

As a first step, we must restore our belief in ourselves. We are a generous people, so why can't we be generous with each other? We need to take to heart the words spoken by Thomas Jefferson: "Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and that affection without which liberty and even life are but dreary things."

A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good. A government is invigorated when each one of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation. In this election year, we must define the "common good" and begin again to shape a common future. Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American ideal, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.

The full text of her speech and a video excerpt can be found here.

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Science of Compassion and Altruism: Talks @ Facebook

Bill Miller — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Last week, Facebook invited national experts to its Palo Alto campus to share the science behind compassion and altruism. In the audience, myself and other engineers listened intently to ideas about humanizing interactions. Below are all the videos of the day.

8:45am - Introduction by Arturo Bejar, Facebook

9:00am - Dacher Keltner, Berkeley's Center for Greater Good
Evolution has built into our nervous system and means of social communication principles of viral compassion and the tools of social change.

10:00am - Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Stanford's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education
Breaking down the components of compassion to build the case that being compassionate is good for you.

11:00am - Kathryn Lee and Mark Basnage, Prospect Sierra School
Insight from the Field: Working with Students and Teachers to Create Compassionate Communities
Panelists: Alison Park, Britt Anderson, Dan Clurman Rush Sabiston

1:00 - Marc Brackett, Yale's Health, Emotion, & Behavior Laboratory
How five key emotion skills can create a more compassionate and caring world.

2:00pm - Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, Berkeley's Relationship and Social Cognition Lab Understanding the mechanisms of social interaction and friendship across racial and other group boundaries.

3:00pm - Jeffrey Szilagyi and Dave Talamo, The Stepping Stones Project
Coming of Age with Authenticity & Empathy- The Remaking of Village

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Aparna shares ...

Aparna Kothary — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:46:03 -0800

Aparna shares ... I came across this amazing site today and it reminded me of Daily Good - http://www.magicalmoment.net/ There are some beautiful stories on here that just made me reflect on the many "magical moments" we have in our lives....

ServiceSpace Feed and DailyGood on Google Currents

Trishna Shah — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:36:57 -0800

Trishna shares ... A few weeks ago, we received an email from someone at Google inviting us to be part of a beta group for a new service they were launching shortly and a few weeks later here we are! Earlier this week, Google just launched Currents, and the ServiceSpace Team Blog and DailyGood are part of our first edition :) Check it out on your mobile devices and/or tablets and let us know what you think -- if you have any suggestions or feedback, please send it my way!...

"Fills Me with Such Hope"

Manisha Pahwa — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:38:30 -0800

Manisha shares ... A lovely comment in response to the DailyGood piece on Pancho: "I would never hear about these small yet powerful, positive interactions except by reading Daily Good. It fills me with such hope to learn what loving, caring, creative people are doing outside the political and economic environment. It's exciting." Incidentally, that piece has been climbing past all the 100+ other in-house pieces done on DG, in terms of number of times read. Currently number 2 and closing in on number 1, with a bunch of other touching comments :) If you Want to Be a Rebel, Be Kind...