The book weaves together scientific research and her own powerful personal experiences as a social activist and humanitarian in prison in New Mexico and high in the Himalayas to show how we can transform our biggest challenges with compassion and wisdom. Halifax’s teachings benefit Google as it takes on big challenges that respect the opportunities before us. Her talk demonstrates how to do this while still maintaining respect for each other through compassion.
ABOUT:
Joan Halifax is an American Zen Buddhist teacher, anthropologist, ecologist, civil rights activist, hospice caregiver, and the author of several books on Buddhism and spirituality. She received her doctoral degree in medical anthropology and received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in visual anthropology, was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University, and was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Library of Congress. She is a thought leader with respect to well-being and compassion. She is a highly sought-after speaker widely known and respected in many communities.
More info: upaya.org.
Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Creativity
Bored and Brilliant (Manoush Zomorodi)
Author and TED Radio Hour Host Manoush Zomorodi has written a few good books. This is her best. It’s time to move “Do nothing” to the top of your to-do list.
In 2015 the creator of public radio station WNYC’s popular podcast and radio show "Note to Self" led tens of thousands of listeners through an experiment to help them unplug from their iPhones and high-tech devices, get bored, jump-start their creativity, and change their lives.
I can't put it down! Social media feeds me poop.
Bored and Brilliant builds on that experiment to show how to rethink our gadget use to live better and smarter in the new digital ecosystem.
Zomorodi explains the connection between boredom and creativity/original thinking, exploring how we can harness boredom’s hidden benefits to become our most productive and creative selves without completely abandoning these addictive, dopamine-producing, self-spying gadgets in the process.
Porno, gaming… I don't have a problem.
Grounding the book in the neuroscience and cognitive psychology of “mind wandering”―what our brains do when we're doing nothing at all―she includes practical steps to take to ease the nonstop busyness and enhance our ability to dream, wonder, and gain clarity in work and life. The outcome is mind-blowing. Unplug and read on.
REVIEWS: "Bored and Brilliant shows the fascinating side of boredom. Manoush Zomorodi investigates cutting-edge research as well as compelling (and often funny) real-life examples to demonstrate that boredom is actually a crucial tool for making our lives happier, more productive, and more creative.
Spiritual phone apps? BuddhaDharma mag
"What’s more, the book is crammed with practical exercises for anyone who wants to reclaim the power of spacing out―deleting the Two Dots app, for instance, or having a photo-free day, or taking a 'fakecation'."
―Gretchen Rubin, author of #1 New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project
"Bored and Brilliant is full of easy steps to make each day more effective and every life more intentional. Manoush’s mix of personal stories, neuroscience, and data will convince you that boredom is actually a gift."
―Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter, Faster, Better
When Google had a simple credo ("Don't be evil") that it kept to, it made a pact to have a diversity of voices. That means inviting speakers who are going to say things you may not want to hear -- like how your company and its products and practices are evil. But that was back in 2011. We won't hold our breath until they invite someone else likely to say things Google Corporation dislikes. Ventura visited Google's Santa Monica office on April 13, 2011 to discuss his bestseller: 63 Documents the Government Doesn't Want You to Read.
Former wrestler turned Minnesota governor and New York Times-bestselling author uncovers truths Uncle Sam is lying about and keeping from us.
The "official" story on many programs is flat-out BS, according to Ventura. In this eye-opening collection of actual government documents, the truth-seeker proves it beyond any doubt.
Ventura and co-author Dick Russell walk readers through 63 of the most incriminating programs to reveal what really happens behind closed government doors. Witness as he breaks open the vault, revealing the truth about:
The CIA’s top-secret program to control our behavior
"Operation Northwoods" — the U.S. military/government plan to hijack U.S. airplanes and blame it on Cuban terrorists as a pretext to attack Cuba (false flag operation)
Deadly health care cover-ups, including a dengue fever outbreak
What the Department of War Defense knows about our food supply — but is keeping quiet
Homeland Security’s “emergency” detention camps for U.S. citizens
Fake "terrorist" attacks planned by the United States to set new laws and control us
Although these documents are now in the public domain, the powers-that-be is trying to keep them under wraps. Ventura’s research and commentary sheds new light on what they’re lying to us about — and why it matters.
Our government lies?
(A. Jones) Say it ain't so, Jesse. While I am pleased that such a person has taken such a strong stance on 9/11, the JFK assassination, and the TSA scandal (among others), I am saddened that [everyone in] the country, including myself, has so far to go to catch up to him.... "In a free country like ours when [telling] the truth equals treason, we're in big trouble" (Ron Paul). Mr. Ventura has solidified his place in history. Speaking the truth...
Dr. Hanscom: "The Perils of Back Surgery: A Spine Surgeon's Roadmap"
Orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. David Hanscom, M.D. visits Google to discuss the harsh realities of the spine surgery business. It makes an obscene amount of profit.
But he offers a groundbreaking new approach to solving chronic back pain without surgery or drugs.
After decades of performing spine surgeries, Dr. Hanscom realized the truth: Surgery is rarely effective for patients with back pain.
This realization – combined with his own battles with chronic pain – sparked Dr. Hanscom to develop a new evidenced-based program for ending chronic pain.
Dr. Hanscom is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon with Swedish Neuroscience Specialists in Seattle, Washington. Find his chronic pain ROADMAP at backincontrol.com.
Some science is forbidden because new discoveries would upset everything we believe.
"Forbidden Archaeology" (Talks at Google)
Michael A. Cremo (mcremo.com) delves into "forbidden" archeology. Over the past two centuries, archeologists have found bones, footprints, and out of place artifacts proving that people like ourselves have existed on earth for hundreds of millions of years. This upsets the cart of the theory of evolution and so is actively suppressed by academics and ignored by everyone else.
Black budget scientists know all about it.
Many scientists have forgotten or actively ignored these remarkable facts -- even when they handled undeniable evidence. Why? It is primarily because some facts contradict the now dominant views and explanations about human origins, evolution, and extreme antiquity.
According to these popular views, humans like ourselves (Homo sapien sapiens, "modern humans") have existed for only about 100,000 or maybe 200,000 years, and before that there were only more primitive human ancestors.
This evolutionary paradigm, held by influential and vested groups of gatekeeper scientists, has acted as a "knowledge filter." This filtering -- conscious or not, intentional or not -- has left us with a radically incomplete set of facts for building our ideas about human origins.
Recovering the complete set of facts takes us on a fascinating expedition, across five continents to various archaeological sites, some long forgotten, some that are the center of ongoing controversy.
On the other hand, the complete set of facts is consistent with the accounts of extreme human antiquity found in the ancient Vedic Puranas and Buddhist texts (like the Buddhist Genesis Sutra) about our devolution, the historical writings of ancient India.
Who is Michael Cremo?
The evidence is there in the layers of earth.
BIO: Michael A. Cremois research associate in history of archeology. He has been a member of the World Archaeological Congress (WAC) since 1993. His WAC3 paper "Puranic Time and the Archaeological Record" was published in the Routledge One World Archaeology series volume Time and Archaeology (1999), edited by Tim Murray. He is also a member of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA). In 2004 Cremo's paper "The Later Discoveries of Boucher de Perthes at Moulin Quignon and Their Impact on the Moulin Quignon Jaw Controversy," presented at the XXth International Congress for History of Science, Liege, Belgium, was published in a conference proceedings volume of this congress, by the scientific publisher Brepols. Cremo is the principal author of the book Forbidden Archeology, a comprehensive historical survey of archaeological anomalies. In a review in British Journal for History of Science, Tim Murray said the book "provides the historian of archaeology with a useful compendium of case studies in the history and sociology of scientific knowledge, which can be used to foster debate within archaeology about how to describe the epistemology of one's discipline." Cremo is particularly interested in examining the history of the archeology from the standpoint of alternative worldviews, particularly worldviews with foundations in ancient Indian thought. He has given invited lectures on his work at the Royal Institution in London, the Anthropology Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the Archeology Department of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and many other scientific institutions. He has also lectured on his work at universities throughout the world.
The "world's happiest man" -- as tested, verified, and labeled by neuroscience -- Tibetan Buddhist monk (lama), vegan, and French philosopher Matthieu Ricard explains how we can train our minds in habits of well-being.
World's Happiest Man?
Ven. Matthieu Ricard
Matthieu Ricard (माथ्यु रिका) is a French Buddhist monk, scientist, writer, photographer, and translator reborn on Feb. 15, 1946, who resides at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal. He grew up among the personalities of French intellectual circles and received his Ph.D. degree in molecular genetics from the Pasteur Institute in 1972. He then decided to forsake his scientific career and instead practice Tibetan Buddhism, while living mainly in the Himalayas. He is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East with Karuna-Shechen,
a non-profit organization he co-founded in 2000 with Rabjam Rinpoche.
Since 1989 he has been the 14th Dalai Lama's French interpreter. More
(The RSA) WHY in the world would anyone want to meditate and HOW?
Raised [and now a recovering Roman] Catholic with Joan of Arc as her heroine, she is one of the people who brought Buddhism to the West from India in the 1970s.
She is called in to work with educators and judges, social activists [all at risk of burn out] as well as soldiers [coping with PTSD].
She helped create the search engine Google Inc’s popular employee program "Search Inside Yourself."
Bush’s life tells a fascinating narrative of our time: the rediscovery of contemplative practices, in many forms and from many traditions, in the secular thick of modern culture. More (LISTEN)
Mirabai Bush
Mirabai Bush (mirabaibush.com/audio) develops programs and practices through the application of contemplative principles and values to organizational life. She works with individuals and organizations for entrepreneurial project management, compassionate staff-board relations, organizational leadership, public relations, communication, networking, and strategic relationship building through the lens of contemplative practice in action.More
(Talks at Google) Meng (Chade-Meng Tan, who is very much neither funny nor clever the harder he tries to be) was one of the earliest engineers at Google Inc; co-founded Talks at Google to bring spiritual teachers in for Google employees; author of Search Inside Yourself.
Let's go to CAMP, calm awareness meditation practice. Tibetan teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche gives a public talk at Lerab Ling in France about how to calm the mind and practice awareness.
This refreshing book -- written with kindness, energy, and wit by a cheerful contemplative -- is a sign that the next generation of Buddhism is creative, cross-cultural, and cross-disciplinary.
Born in 1975 in Nepal, he is among a new generation of Tibetan lamas trained outside Tibet and a gifted meditator.
His brain-activity has been measured during meditation, earning him the enviable title of "happiest man on earth" (just like the Western lama Matthieu Ricard). He venerable fuses scientific and spiritual considerations, explaining meditation as a physical and spiritual process.
What if there were a simple way to heal, to restore the brain? (emost-med.com)
.
Meditation can change the brain, he explains from experience. He had panic attacks as a child which he was able to overcome through intensive practice.
If diligently put into practice, meditation can affect the "neuronal gossip" -- his imaginative term for brain cell communication -- which keeps us stuck in unhappy behaviors.
He offers a wide variety of techniques, counseling ease in practice to avoid boredom and aversion. Less is more: Practice shorter periods more often, he advises. His approach is especially welcome for anyone frustrated by meditation or convinced, "I'm not doing it right."
The Joy of Living is a path of meditation practice that can be followed by anyone, regardless of religious orientation. Meditation enables us to discover a lasting contentment that is not subject to fluctuating conditions. It allows us to nurture the qualities of wisdom and compassion that naturally manifest from awareness.More
Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Robina Courtin (Buddhist nun), Google Tech Talks, October 3, 2008
ABSTRACT: We spend our
lives being seduced by the outside world, believing without question
that happiness and suffering come from "out there." In reality, Buddhist
teachings explain that they come from the way we perceive and interpret
things, not the things themselves.
This deeply held
misconception is at the root of our dissatisfaction, self-doubt, anger,
depression, anxiety, and the rest. But our minds can change. By becoming
deeply familiar with the workings of our own cognitive processes
through introspection and learning to deconstruct them -- truly, by being
our own therapists -- we can loosen the grip of these neuroses and grow
our marvelous potential for contentment, clarity, and courage, which are
at the core of our being.
Venerable Robina Courtin has been a
Tibetan Buddhist nun for 35 years. A beloved teacher and power-house
personality, the venerable nun is Executive Director of Liberation
Prison Project, based in San Francisco (LiberationPrisonProject.org)
A
lifeline for people with nothing and no one since 1996, the Liberation
Prison Project has supported the spiritual practice of over 15,000
prisoners, mainly in the US and Australia. These days, the project
spends $50,000 a month, nearly half of it on salaries and benefits
for a full-time staff of ten (eight in the US and two in Australia,
including three former prisoners), supported by a team of 150+
volunteers worldwide.
Ven. Robina travels the world, teaching and
raising funds, touching countless hearts and minds with her
down-to-earth, no-nonsense packaging of the Buddha's teachings, often
filled with tasty stories from her own real-life struggles, attachments,
and relationships. She is able to put across to her students in and out
of prison that change is possible; everyone can learn to develop qualities to be joyful in the face of difficulties -- even on death row.
"Ven.
Robina has taught me to look at everything that occurs in my life with a
different view," writes one Australian prisoner. "She has given me
dignity, courage, and honor."
Wisdom Quarterly; InsightLA; Terrence McNally (aworldthatjustmightwork.org); Hay House Inspiring and pragmatic, A Mindful Nation shows how the benefits of
mindfulness apply to current American challenges.
Congressman Tim Ryan took a break after an election cycle. He went in search of peace: He signed up for a five-day silent Buddhist mindfulness meditation retreat with Jon Kabat-Zinn.
He found in the profound silence of mindfulness and clear comprehension (sati sampajanna) more peace than he could have imagined, peace akin to the "centering" prayer modality of his youth.
It occurred to him that mindfulness -- with modern scientific studies to back it and an ancient mystical tradition built around it -- could help turn around the entire nation.
A
Mindful Nation paints a picture of emerging solutions that benefit both the reader and American society as a whole, showing us that there is
something we can do right here and right now.
With a hard-nosed
understanding of politics, government budgets, and what it takes to get
something done, Congressman Ryan combines a practical approach with a hopeful vision
for how mindfulness can help reinvigorate the American Dream.
In
A Mindful Nation, Ryan connects the dots between what's
happening in the classrooms, hospitals, boardrooms, research labs, and
military bases across the country. He explores the scientific findings
that support the beneficial effects of mindfulness and shares powerful
stories from the field. He shows how this simple practice is:
helping
schoolchildren improve their ability to learn
veterans heal from
trauma
and CEOs become more effective leaders
Ryan also provides
practical tips for how to incorporate mindfulness into our lives today
and includes instructions from a qualified teacher for simple
mindfulness and kindness practices we can all do.
BIL is an ad-hoc conference for people changing the world in big ways. It's a place for the passionate to come together to energize, brainstorm, and take action. Most have heard of TED or watched the talks online. But does everyone know about BIL, the quirky, populist, unconference taking place nearby? Open to the public and fully participant-powered, BIL features a wild mix of technologists, scientists, artists, hackers, and those with a passion for community awareness (including Jon Wiener from KPFK.org). It takes place March 3-4 on the historic Queen Mary, docked in Long Beach. Info.
GoogleTechTalks — It's awesome that we are all so connected. But the question is, How are we connected? More specifically, How can our time connected via technology enhance our creativity and well-being instead of adding to our frustration and stress? Soren Gordhamer takes a Zen approach to the busy-ness of our modern cell phone consumed lives.
How can we engage creatively with our work such that we are more likely to calmly complete a project in four hours rather than stressing and banging our head to complete it in eight? How can our time connected be more focused and less scattered?
In this talk focused on Stress Relief for the Creative and Constantly Connected, teachings from ancient wisdom traditions like Zen Buddhism are used to address these questions. Using material from his book Wisdom 2.0, the speaker will offer tools for living sanely and effectively in this increasingly connected world.
Soren Gordhamer is an entrepreneur, author, and techie who explores the promises and pitfalls of living networked and connected in the technology age. Author of Wisdom 2.0: Stress Relief for the Creative and Constantly Connected, a book to reduce stress by engaging the creative mind in this technology-rich world of emails, social networks, and cell phones. Past experiences include: Spent one year walking through parts of the US, Asia, and Japan on a global environmental walk. Organized the Healing through Great Difficulty Conference with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He also authored the meditation book, Just Say Om! (Adams Media, 2001). Founder of the Lineage Project in New York City, which offers meditation and yoga-based stress reduction programs for at-risk and incarcerated teens. It won the Mayor's Voluntary Action Award from former New York City mayor, Rudolph Guiliani. Co-founder of Zooelo, which creates embeddable flash tools for uplifting user generated content. Featured in GQ Magazine and Newsweek.com, and mentioned in Esquire, Texas Monthly, and other publications.
(AtGoogleTalks) The book Focused and Fearless speaks to ordinary meditators who wish to attain non-ordinary states with ease. It offers a creative and contemporary slant to Buddhism's ancient path of happiness and wisdom. Blended with contemporary examples, pragmatic exercises, and how-to instructions anyone can try, this book provides a wealth of tools to cultivate non-distracted attention in daily life and retreat.
Author and speaker Shaila Catherine is the founder of Insight Meditation South Bay based in Mountain View, California. She has been practicing meditation since 1980, with seven years of accumulated silent retreat experience. She has been teaching since 1996 in the USA, India, Israel, England, and New Zealand.
Shaila studied at the Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies in England and dedicated six years to studying with masters in India, Nepal, and Thailand. Her current focus is the development of concentration and the deep states of absorption (jhana) with the world's foremost living meditation master, Pa Auk Sayadaw.
(TED.com) Mycologist Paul Stamets, who studies mycelium, lists six ways that this astonishing fungus can help save the world.
A Plant's-eye View What if human consciousness isn't the end-all and be-all? What if we are all just pawns in corn's clever strategy to rule the Earth? Author Michael Pollan asks us to see the world from a plant's-eye view. (His book The Omnivore’s Dilemma explains how our food not only affects our health but has far-reaching political, economic, and environmental…) More>>
(Google Talks) Shaila Catherine, author of Focused and Fearless, speaks to ordinary meditators who wish to attain extraordinary states of meditation with ease. Through her book she offers a creative and contemporary slant on this ancient path of happiness and wisdom.
Blended with contemporary examples, pragmatic exercises, and how-to instructions that anyone can try, this book provides a wealth of tools to cultivate non-distracted attention in daily life and retreat.
Shaila Catherine has been practicing meditation since 1980, with seven years of accumulated silent retreat experience. She has been teaching since 1996 in the USA, India, Israel, England, and New Zealand. She studied at the Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies in England and dedicated six years to studying with masters in India, Nepal, and Thailand. Shaila's current focus is the development of concentration and the deep states of absorption called jhana under the Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw.
She is the founder of Insight Meditation South Bay based in Mountain View, California. This event took place on May 14, 2008, as a part of the Authors@Google series.
Jon Kabat-Zinn describes the revolution in Western medicine. It has occurred over the past 30 years as science integrates mind and body to develop a remarkable range of practices for integration.
This means integrating one's experience, reducing stress, healing the body, more effectively coping with emotions such as anxiety, anger, and depression, and cultivating greater well-being and happiness.
His own work has been instrumental in bringing Buddhist meditative practices -- as he likes to say, "without the Buddhism" -- to full acceptance within mainstream medicine, psychology, and healthcare. He has shown them to be effective for people suffering from a wide range of medical conditions.
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