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PARTICIPANTS, COLLABORATORS AND GUESTS

AND MANY MORE CREATIVE FIGURES, CULTURAL PIONEERS, BUSINESS LEADERS AND VISIONARIES AROUND THE WORLD

MICHAEL DOUGLAS

MICHAEL DOUGLAS

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liberatum

Global Multimedia and Multidisciplinary Cultural Organization Empowering and Inspiring Minds to Promote Social Change and Raise Consciousness
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𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐀 𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋

𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐀 𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄

Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.

The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty. - Jon Krakauer

Photographer 📸 @tosinshotit _ 👦🏾👩🏾 @emmanuel.boatengg @yanjusofine_

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐄

There is no desire that anyone holds for any other reason than that they believe they will feel better in the achievement of it. Whether it is a material object, a physical state of being, a relationship, a condition, or a circumstance - at the heart of every desire is the desire to feel good. And so, the standard of success in life is not the things or the money - the standard of success is absolutely the amount of joy you feel.

Success is about a happy life, and a happy life is just a string of happy moments. But most people do not allow the happy moments because they are so busy trying to get a happy life.

Unwanted Things Cannot Jump into Your Experience Uninvited Freedom from the fear of unwanted experiences will never be achieved by trying to control the behavior or desires of others. Your freedom can only be allowed by adjusting your own vibrational point of attraction. Without a knowledge of the Law of Attraction, and without a conscious awareness of what you are doing with your own vibrational point of attraction, it is understandable why you would attempt to control the circumstances that surround you.

But you cannot control the many circumstances that surround you. However, once you learn about the Law of Attraction, and once you are aware of the way your thoughts feel, you will never again feel fear about unwanted things jumping into your experience. You will understand that nothing can jump into your experience without your invitation.

Since there is no assertion in this attraction-based Universe, if you do not achieve vibrational harmony with it, it cannot come to you; and unless you do achieve vibrational harmony with it, it cannot come to you.
- Esther Hicks

Photographer 📸 @photographerasaf

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐉𝐎𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆

Joy is the reward, really, of seeking to give joy to others. When you show compassion, when you show caring, when you show love to others, do things for others, in a wonderful way you have a deep joy that you can get in no other way. You can’t buy it with money. You can be the richest person on Earth, but if you care only about yourself, I can bet my bottom dollar you will not be happy and joyful. But when you are caring, compassionate, more concerned about the welfare of others than about your own, wonderfully, wonderfully, you suddenly feel a warm glow in your heart, because you have, in fact, wiped the tears from the eyes of another.

I’ve sometimes joked and said God doesn’t know very much math, because when you give to others, it should be that you are subtracting from yourself. But in this incredible kind of way—I’ve certainly found that to be the case so many times—you gave and it then seems like in fact you are making space for more to be given to you.

If you live with fear and consider yourself as something special then automatically, emotionally, you are distanced from others. You then create the basis for feelings of alienation from others and loneliness. So, I never consider, even when giving a talk to a large crowd, that I am something special, I am 'His Holiness the Dalai Lama' . . . I always emphasize that when I meet people, we are all the same human beings. A thousand people -- same human being. Ten thousand or a hundred thousand -- same human being -- mentally, emotionally, and physically. Then, you see, no barrier. Then my mind remains completely calm and relaxed. If too much emphasis on myself, and I start to think I'm something special, then more anxiety, more nervousness.
- Dalai Lama XIV

Photographer 📸 Steve McCurry @stevemccurryofficial

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐓

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐌𝐄𝐓 𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐄 𝐀𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐌

Liberatum founder Pablo Ganguli introduces Pelé to Will Smith. Mr Smith and Pelé both took part at Liberatum curated conversations at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi in October 2018 with Liberatum as the creative partner #Liberatum @hindustantimes

𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑

𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄

Sometimes when I meet old friends, it reminds me how quickly time passes. And it makes me wonder if we've utilized our time properly or not. Proper utilization of time is so important. While we have this body, and especially this amazing human brain, I think every minute is something precious.

Our day-to-day existence is very much alive with hope, although there is no guarantee of our future. There is no guarantee that tomorrow at this time we will be here. But we are working for that purely on the basis of hope. So, we need to make the best use of our time.

I believe that the proper utilization of time is this: if you can, serve other people, other sentient beings. If not, at least refrain from harming them. I think that is the whole basis of my philosophy.

So, let us reflect what is truly of value in life, what gives meaning to our lives, and set our priorities on the basis of that. The purpose of our life needs to be positive. We weren't born with the purpose of causing trouble, harming others. For our life to be of value, I think we must develop basic good human qualities—warmth, kindness, compassion. Then our life becomes meaningful and more peaceful—happier. - Dalai Lama XIV

Photographer 📸 Heji Shin @hejishin

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏

Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth, it is living. A dead thing has a path to it because it is static, but when you see that the truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place, which is in no temple, mosque or church, which no religion, no teacher, no philosopher, nobody can lead you to - then you will also see that this living thing is what you actually are.

In all our relationships each one of us builds an image about the other and these two images have relationship, not the human beings themselves... The actual relationship between two human beings or between many human beings completely ends when there is the formation of images.

In the life, we generally lead there is very little solitude. Even when we are alone our lives are crowded by so many influences, so much knowledge, so many memories of so many experiences, so much anxiety, misery and conflict that our minds become duller and duller, more and more insensitive, functioning in a monotonous routine. Are we ever alone? Or are we carrying with us all the burdens of yesterday?
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Photographer 📸 @jadebeallphotography

𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐇𝐈

𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔

This was the year when I was sexually abused by an Indian man who lived in the same building as me. He had known me since I was 8 or 9. I knew his children and his wife. But I didn’t even realise at the time that it was abuse and completely wrong. He did it repeatedly. I didn’t understand. I think he was over 45. I was under 15. I can’t say that I was hurt or upset but looking back, what he did was horrifying. And criminal. He took advantage of a child. An innocent boy.

This is rife all over the world. Especially in places like India and Brazil where children and adults don’t have any clear boundaries and everybody lives together in very small spaces. Teach your children to always tell you about these incidents before it is too late. He told me he needed my sperm for his wife as he wasn’t able to become a father anymore. What a sick mind. He would come into my house and touch me while my grandmother would cook in the kitchen. Certainly not an uneventful childhood. But he did not break me. Nor did the countless other appalling and violent experiences that I have had since then.

But millions of other children and young people do not experience that same fate, so I created the Liberatum platform to address these crucial issues in the world, highlight extraordinary human beings making a difference every day, and hopefully help change things for the better. - Pablo Ganguli

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐒

Every experience that you have and will have upon the Earth encourages the alignment of your personality with your soul. Every circumstance and situation gives you the opportunity to choose this path, to allow your soul to shine through you, to bring into the physical world through you its unending and unfathomable reverence for and love of Life.

The decisions that you make and the actions that you take upon the Earth are the means by which you evolve. At each moment you choose the intentions that will shape your experiences and those things upon which you will focus your attention. These choices affect your evolutionary process. This is so for each person.

As the anger, or the fear, within a personality builds, the world in which it lives increasingly reflects the anger, or the fear, that it must heal, so that eventually, ultimately, the personality will see that it is creating its own experiences and perceptions, that its righteous anger or justifiable fear originates within itself, and therefore can be replaced by other perceptions and experiences only through the force of its own being.

When perception of the physical world is limited to the five-sensory modality, the basis of life in the physical arena becomes fear. Power to control the environment, and those within the environment appears to be essential.
- Gary Zukav

Photographer 📸 @michellevdijk 👦🏾👩🏻 @kokeadile @yvesmark.chery

𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐒

𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒

Self-realization is the knowing in all parts of body, mind, and soul that you are now in possession of the kingdom of God; that you do not have to pray that it come to you; that God’s omnipresence is your omnipresence; and that all that you need to do is improve your knowing.

The wave is the same as the ocean, though it is not the whole ocean. So each wave of creation is a part of the eternal Ocean of Spirit. The Ocean can exist without the waves, but the waves cannot exist without the Ocean.

Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are mechanical products of the factory of their environment, preoccupied with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, working and sleeping, and going here and there to be entertained. They don’t know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realize complete happiness and lasting satisfaction. By evading self-analysis, people go on being robots, conditioned by their environment. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Photographer 📸 @abreupaulo

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐔𝐒𝐄, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋 𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒𝐍'𝐓 𝐒𝐄𝐄 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄

Love is not a state, a feeling, a disposition, but an exchange, uneven, fraught with history, with ghosts, with longings that are more or less legible to those who try to see one another with their own faulty vision.

What makes for a livable world is no idle question. It is not merely a question for philosophers. It is posed in various idioms all the time by people in various walks of life. If that makes them all philosophers, then that is a conclusion I am happy to embrace. It becomes a question for ethics, I think, not only when we ask the personal question, what makes my own life bearable, but when we ask, from a position of power, and from the point of view of distributive justice, what makes, or ought to make, the lives of others bearable?

Somewhere in the answer we find ourselves not only committed to a certain view of what life is, and what it should be, but also of what constitutes the human, the distinctively human life, and what does not. There is always a risk of anthropocentrism here if one assumes that the distinctively human life is valuable--or most valuable--or is the only way to think the problem of value. But perhaps to counter that tendency it is necessary to ask both the question of life and the question of the human, and not to let them fully collapse into one another.
- Judith Butler

Photographer 📸 Martin Machaj @martinmachaj

𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐒

𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓

If someone is not treating you with love and respect, it is a gift if they walk away from you. If that person doesn't walk away, you will surely endure many years of suffering with him or her. Walking away may hurt for a while, but your heart will eventually heal. Then you can choose what you really want. You will find that you don't need to trust others as much as you need to trust yourself to make the right choices.

If others tell us something we make assumptions, and if they don't tell us something we make assumptions to fulfill our need to know and to replace the need to communicate. Even if we hear something and we don't understand we make assumptions about what it means and then believe the assumptions. We make all sorts of assumptions because we don't have the courage to ask questions.

God is life. God is life in action. The best way to say, "I love you, God," is to live your life doing your best. The best way to say, "Thank you, God," is by letting go of the past and living in the present moment, right here and now. Whatever life takes away from you, let it go. When you surrender and let go of the past, you allow yourself to be fully alive in the moment. Letting go of the past means you can enjoy the dream that is happening right now.

Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art. - Don Miguel Ruiz

Photographer 📸 @pipgraphy

𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐌𝐄

𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍

This photo series was created in collaboration with the Josephat Torner Foundation and ‘Stichting Afrikaanse Albino's’ to raise awareness about the circumstances of people with albinism (PWA) in Tanzania.

In Tanzania, when you have albinism, you are thought to be evil. There even is a price on the head of children with albinism since killing a person with albinism is considered to bring good luck. The fears and superstitions surrounding albinism run very deep in Tanzanian society. So deep that many women who give birth to a child with albinism are told to kill the baby at birth. If she refuses, she and the baby will become outcasts.

Many children with albinism are denied the most fundamental human rights. They are despised and taught that they are evil, that their existence is a curse. They live in constant fear of brutal attacks.

Many of those who have been attacked are young children. In December of 2014, a 4 year-old girl with albinism named Pendo Emmanuelle, was taken from her mother’s arms. Police have yet to find her body. In February 2015, Yohana Bahati, a boy of just 18 months, was taken from his home, his mother’s face slashed with machetes as she tried to protect her son. She narrowly survived. Days later, little Yohana’s body was recovered from a forest, where he was found face down in the mud with his arms and legs hacked off.

Because of killings like this, many children with albinism now live in camps. Rejected by and cut-off from their families, they live separate from society in order to keep them safe. In some of the camps the living circumstances are horrible, with even basic care lacking. And this separation doesn’t solve the problems. It doesn’t help with integration. It doesn’t give them a chance to grow into valued and respected members of society. They are secluded, kept apart, hidden, often mistreated and shamed. That’s why the mission of the Josephat Torner Foundation is social acceptance and inclusion. - @marinkamasseus

Photographer 📸 Marinka Masséus @marinkamasseus

𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐔𝐏 𝐃𝐄𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐈

𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐔𝐏 𝐃𝐄𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅

Give up defining yourself - to yourself or to others. You won't die. You will come to life. And don't be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it's their problem.

Whenever you interact with people, don't be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.

You become most powerful in whatever you do if the action is performed for its own sake rather than as a means to protect, enhance, or conform to your role identity.

Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself. When you look at it or hold it & let it be without imposing a word of mental label on it, a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you. Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you.
- Eckhart Tolle

Photographer 📸 Anastasia Kuba @anastasiakuba

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐈

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐄 𝐔𝐒

We all seem to function in the exact same way: We hurt people, and we are hurt by people. We feel left out, envious, not good enough, sick, and tired. We have unrealized dreams and deep regrets. We are certain that we were meant for more and that we don’t even deserve what we have. We feel ecstatic and then numb. We wish our parents had done better by us. We wish we could do better by our children. We betray and we are betrayed. We lie and we are lied to.

We say good-bye to animals, to places, to people we cannot live without. We are so afraid of dying. Also: of living. We have fallen in love and out of love, and people have fallen in love and out of love with us. We wonder if what happened to us that night will mean we can never be touched again without fear. We live with rage bubbling. We are sweaty, bloated, gassy, oily. We love our children, we long for children, we do not want children. We are at war with our bodies, our minds, our souls. We are at war with one another. We wish we’d said all those things while they were still here.

They’re still here, and we’re still not saying those things. We know we won’t. We don’t understand ourselves. We don’t understand why we hurt those we love. We want to be forgiven. We cannot forgive. We don’t understand God. We believe. We absolutely do not believe. We are lonely. We want to be left alone. We want to belong. We want to be loved. We want to be loved. We want to be loved.
- Glennon Doyle

Photographer 📸 @mersonee

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐎𝐅

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓𝐘𝐋𝐄𝐒

Mwila people are part of the Nyaneka-Khumbi group and live mainly in south-western Angola in the Huila region. They are known for their impressive vikeka necklaces, made of mud and beads.

Girls start wearing the necklaces from the onset of puberty and almost never take them off.

Hairstyles differ widely from group to group and often indicate status and position within the community. The Mwilas shape their hair like a horn with a mixture of oil and clay, decorated with shells and beads.

Wearing an ostrich feather in your hair indicates that you are married. - @jimmy.nelson.official

Photographer 📸 Jimmy Nelson @jimmy.nelson.official

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐆𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐄

If we cannot think beyond how we emotionally feel, then we are living according to what the environment dictates to our body. Rather than truly thinking, innovating, and creating, we merely fire the synaptic memories in other areas of our brain from our genetic or personal past; we instigate the same repetitive chemical reactions that have us living in survival mode.

The future has no feelings because we haven’t yet experienced it. Remember that all our episodic memories are stored ultimately as emotions. The past has that emotional component, but the future does not.

The future has only the sense of adventure we initially started with, but that easily gets lost in the feelings of our body and the memories of the past. The neuro-synaptic self gets homesick, and when this happens, it wants what it can predict and depend on in the next moment. Dreams of a different future usually get smothered by the feelings connected to the feedback loop of the body.

When our identity (which is made of past memories) and the feedback loop of the body reign, we can easily rationalize returning to the familiar. We think that we’re making the right choice because it “feels” like the right choice to make in the moment. This is how we resist change and constantly rechoose the familiar.
- Joe Dispenza

Artist 🎨 @iarakm

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐔𝐋, 𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍

Menstrual blood is the only source of blood that is not traumatically induced. Yet in modern society, this is the most hidden blood, the one so rarely spoken of and almost never seen, except privately by women. - Judy Grahn

Birth is of course violent. Menstruation is violent. Trust me, if men's penises opened up once a month and shot blood, we'd be hearing about the violence of it. - Lidia Yuknavitch 📸 @marianrrea

𝐀 𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐏𝐋

𝐀 𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐏𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃

Don’t set goals for yourself that are too high to reach. Be gentle with yourself. You are trying to follow your own breathing continuously and without a break. That sounds easy enough, so you will have a tendency at the outset to push yourself to be scrupulous and exacting. This is unrealistic. Take time in small units instead.

You can’t ever get everything you want. It is impossible. Luckily, there is another option. You can learn to control your mind, to step outside of the endless cycle of desire and aversion. You can learn not to want what you want, to recognize desires but not be controlled by them.

What you are now is the result of what you were. What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what you are now. The consequences of an evil mind will follow you like the cart follows the ox that pulls it. The consequences of a purified mind will follow you like your own shadow. No one can do more for you than your own purified mind—no parent, no relative, no friend, no one. A well-disciplined mind brings happiness.
- Henepola Gunaratana

Photographer 📸 @edmaximus

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐖𝐄

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐖𝐄 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑

It’s not impermanence per se, or even knowing we’re going to die, that is the cause of our suffering, the Buddha taught. Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation. Our discomfort arises from all of our efforts to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness.

When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment, or awakening to our true nature, to our fundamental goodness. Another word for that is freedom—freedom from struggling against the fundamental ambiguity of being human.

The problem with most people is that they are always trying to give out the bad and take in the good. That has been the problem of society in general and the world altogether. The time has come for us to try the opposite approach: to take in the bad and give out the good. Compassion is not a matter of pity or the strong helping the weak; it’s a relationship between equals, one of mutual support.

Practicing tonglen, we come to realize that other people’s welfare is just as important as our own. In helping them, we help ourselves. In helping ourselves, we help the world.
- Pema Chödrön

📸 A mother entertains her children with makeshift masks made of cabbage as she cooks in Beit Lahia, Gaza. Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐋𝐄

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. When you are born a lotus flower, be a beautiful lotus flower, don't try to be a magnolia flower. If you crave acceptance and recognition and try to change yourself to fit what other people want you to be, you will suffer all your life. True happiness and true power lie in understanding yourself, accepting yourself, having confidence in yourself.

In modern society most of us don't want to be in touch with ourselves; we want to be in touch with other things like religion, sports, politics, a book - we want to forget ourselves. Anytime we have leisure, we want to invite something else to enter us, opening ourselves to the television and telling the television to come and colonize us.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Photographer 📸 Mark Edwards

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