Awakin Readings

Remembering the Sacred

Every week, we post a short reading from various wisdom traditions that points to the sacred. Each excerpt is also accompanied by an audio recording, an illustration and translations. Subscribe Here.

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Effort Does Not Change The Person

Anthony De Mello

Effort may change the behavior but it does not change the person. Just think what kind of a mentality it betrays when you ask, 'What must I do to get holiness?' Isn't it like asking, How m...

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18K reads, 20 comments

Organizing With Love

adrienne maree brown

My favorite life forms right now are dandelions and mushrooms—the resilience in these structures, which we think of as weeds and fungi, the incomprehensible scale, the clarity of identity, excit...

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16K reads, 12 comments

As Way Opens

Carrie Newcomer

Lately I’ve been thinking about the traditional Quaker phrase, “Proceed as way opens.” Proceed as way opens or As way opens, is an encouragement to live with a kind of i...

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15K reads, 18 comments

An Awe Walk

Dacher Keltner

What gives you a sense of awe? That word, awe—the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world—is often associated with the ...

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14K reads, 16 comments

Conscious Complaining

Karla McLaren

Not to start on a down note, but repressing your emotions can destabilize your psyche and do a number on your overall health. When emotions fester and stagnate, your body reacts to that lack of flow w...

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11K reads, 16 comments

Starlings In Winter

Mary Oliver

Chunky and noisy, but with stars in their black feathers, they spring from the telephone wire and instantly they are acrobats in the freezing wind. And now, in the theater of air, they swing ...

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11K reads, 15 comments

Grace In The Classroom

Francis Su

I want to demonstrate to my students that their worthiness does NOT depend on the grades they earn in my class.  Of course, I want to give my C students the same attention that my A students get....

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11K reads, 10 comments

The Difference Between Knowledge And Understanding

Aldous Huxley

Knowledge is acquired when we succeed in fitting a new experience into the system of concepts based upon our old experiences. Understanding comes when we liberate ourselves from the old and so make po...

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10K reads, 8 comments

The Inward Sea

Howard Thurman

There is in every person an inward sea And in that sea, there is an island And on that island is an altar And standing guard before that altar is the angel with the flaming sword. Nothi...

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9K reads, 14 comments

The Dilemma That Faces Us All

Kent Nerburn

This is the dilemma that faces us all when we decide to walk the difficult path of forgiveness. Are we complicit in wrongdoing if we do not challenge those who wrong us? Or are we contributing to the ...

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9K reads, 9 comments

Three Supports For Turning Towards Mystery

Martin Aylward

There are three primary supports for nonconceptual awareness. These three supports are obvious in many ways, and yet, their simplicity belies their extraordinary depth. Over the last thirty years of m...

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9K reads, 10 comments

Without Ourselves

Afton Wilder

A clear glass orb floats above the cliff just off the edge representing our conscience, souls, and selves what if it shatters? becoming a puzzle of icy glass and then nothing at all? what i...

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9K reads, 20 comments

Equanimity Of Doctor, Hunter, Warrior

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

There are three types of equanimity. First is the equanimity that realizes how even though you may have goodwill for all beings and compassion and empathetic joy, it’s not the case that every...

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8K reads, 10 comments

ABOUT AWAKIN READINGS

Awakin Readings started in 1996 as a way to remind ourselves of universal truths. Soon after, it began to be utilized as a discussion topic in weekly Awakin Circles in living rooms around the globe. Different artists and photographers offer a unique image for every reading; an audio recording is offered each week; and many volunteers collaborate to translate it into various languages. Our repository has over a thousand readings.

What is perhaps noteworthy about this effort is that it is entirely volunteer-run, and non-commercial, and has stayed that way for the last 25 years. For the many dozens of volunteer who contribute every week, this website is a labor of love.

We are grateful to Somik Raha, Liz Helgesen, and Rupali Bhuva for their consistent service for more than a decade. This website wouldn't be possible without the pioneering example Dinesh and Harshida Mehta's Awakin Circle of 25 years, and the larger field of ServiceSpace. Thank you.

To get engaged, join our newsletter or join the ServiceSpace community to explore volunteering.

"Compassion is a spontaneous movement of wholeness. It is not a studied decision to help the poor, to be kind to the unfortunate. Compassion has a tremendous momentum that naturally, choicelessly moves us to worthy action. It has the force of intelligence, creativity, and the strength of love. This vast intelligence that orders the cosmos is available to all. The beauty of life, the wonder of living, is that we share creativity, intelligence, and unlimited potential with the rest of the cosmos. To realize that we are not simply physical beings on a material planet, but that we are whole beings, each a miniature cosmos, each related to all of life in intimate, profound ways, should radically transform how we perceive ourselves, our environments, our social problems. Nothing can ever be isolated from wholeness." --Vimala Thakar