Vlogspiritualitysocial Videos

Noah Levine is a Buddhist teacher, counselor and author of the book Dharma Punx. Noah healed himself from addiction and substance abuse after being in the prison system, and now he is a counselor and Buddhist teacher. He comes from a punk background and is able to communicate the Buddha s teachings in a way that resonates with a younger demographic. Kent and I attended a day long workshop with Noah Levine at Spirit Rock Meditation Center on April 28th, 2006 where were able to interview him. I got a chance to read Noah s latest book Against the Stream , which summarizes basic Buddhist principles such as the Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths in easily understandable language. I like the way Noah interprets the Buddha s message for contemporary times. By sharing personal experiences, he explains how the path of love is against the stream of habitual patterns of the mind and creates freedom. The book offers meditation exercises that can help us to overcome tendencies of the mind toward greed, hatred and delusion. And through meditation we learn to intentionally cultivate generosity, compassion, and understanding. There is also a documentary about Noah s path through spirituality, punk rock and inner rebellion called Meditate and Destroy that recently premiered in Santa Cruz. Music: The Message 2 (Jazz Mix) by cdk via ccmixter.org Photos: adobemac, ayahyoung, beija-flor, beija-flor, cathycracks, culturesubculture, davebluedevil, digitalgrace, fredarmitage, grantneufeld, introspectrum, jgarber, k9, kikisdad, nolifebeforecoffee, pefectfutures, stuckincustoms, timcummins

View Quicktime version We begin this website in 2005 out of a desire to document and share our exploration of spiritual approaches to social change. We believe that when individuals are given a sense of possibility and a means for communion that we have the capacity to come together and birth imaginative solutions rooted from deep compassion. This vlog explores perspectives on inner peace/outer action from spiritual activists: Jack Kornfield, Noah Levine, Tarra Christoff and Dominic Allamano. Music: Shhhhhh by ASHWAN via ccmixter.org

Play Quicktime | Play Flash Our global society faces the challenge of moving from an industrial-growth society to a life-sustaining society. This shift is often referred to as The Great Turning. We spent some of our New Year s holiday collaborating on this videoblog to create a positive vision for the New Year. We used Creative Commons-licensed material detailed below. Here are some resources that we find useful in describing some optimistic social change approaches for the future: COMMUNICATION Non-Violent Communication is an approach to communicating that focuses on creating deep connection and satisfying relationships based on mutual respect, compassion and cooperation. Kent summarizes a weekend workshop of NVC here. COMMUNITY Joanna Macey wrote the book Coming Back to Life, which teaches community practices for facing despair and how to prevent from going psychically numb in the face of global challenges. Macey says, When we deny or repress pain or treat it a private pathology we miss out. When we acknowledge and willing accepting the pain of larger world we open a path for a sense of interconnectedness. HEALTH The New Medicine website by PBS is an excellent resource for understanding mind-body medicine and finding therapies that treat specific conditions with a integrative approach. CONSCIOUSNESS The Institute of Noetic Science s ShiftInAction.com hosted an Essential Shifts Series consisting of interviews with some of the world s best visionary thinkers talking about the current global situation and what we can do about it. GREEN TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS We bought the book Worldchanging: A User s Guide for the 21st Century, which describes some of the latest and greatest solutions for a bright green future. It is packed with sustainable technologies that provide a lot of hope for what is already possible. VIDEO CREDITS Creative Commons Music: Mind Field by DJBLUE from ccmixter.org Interview Audio: Angeles Arrien from ShiftInAction.com Creative Commons Video Arin Crumley s Humanity Lobotomy freakypups Free Hugs for Phoenix And the following Stock Footage from WGBH Labs Sandbox: Clock, La Plaza Newspaper, New Yorkers 1939, Journey into DNA, This Information, Blood Flow, Splashes of Sparks, Of Human Bondage, Nubian Fisherman on the Nile, Crops in the Mist, Ocean Waves at the Shore, Baby Naming Ceremony, King Montgomery, Waikiki Counterclockwise, Nautilus Animation, Time Lapse Nature, Slow Motion Track Creative Commons Flickr Photos monkeyc, blumsy, neoncoil, kevint, benjamin_ellis, blogumentary, joyrex, ousby, tjt195, hawkey, sigman, hawkey, paulbence, hawkey, vithassan, hawkey, weston, lapidim, scatti_frullati, thomashawk, willpate, hawkey, scatti_frullati, cyberscorpion, scatti_frullati, hawkey, docman, k-girl, willemvelthoven, alfredoneto, hawkey, istanbulmike, sigman, tasteful_tn, jamesxv7 Falstad.com Physics Applets: Ripple Tank (2-D Waves) Applet 2-D Circular Square Well Applet This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License. Want to Share this Video? More information under the share link here.