TRS Foundation

Hope, honesty and integrity are critical qualities as we make our lives, neighborhoods and the global community sustainable in the face of challenges such as climate change, peak oil, pandemic disease, economic downturns, war, natural disasters, etc… our stories need to reflect neither the decadence and degeneracy of nihilism nor the dogma of fundamentalism but the hope and creative energy of activism.

Remaining hopeful, encouraging others and building our capacity to move forward are the critical qualities we can cultivate on an individual and societal level. Taking action can alleviate our feelings of hopelessness, building our capacity to do more and inspire others to do likewise. Taking action with other similarly minded people adds a layer of faith in others also doing the right thing, further building hope.

Honestly assessing your ecological footprint, understanding your need for “stuff” and evaluating your progress will clarify the challenges ahead of you. Creativity is where we spice up and take ownership of our lifestyles and create routines and rituals that are expressions of who we now are.

Compassion can be cultivated by ways of formal meditation, attention and insight.

We need to acknowledge for ourselves our blind and habitual rejection of fear, because it’s fear we’re really afraid of, not the pain of the world. We already know that pain is part of life. What we’re actually afraid of, and what we’re turning away from, is our sense of a lack of capacity to receive it, to bear with pain in a sane way. Pain, JUST IS, and pleasure, JUST IS. not right or wrong. While we don’t usually have a problem with pleasure, except that sometimes we forget ourselves with it, we do have a big problem with pain. It motivates us to do all sorts of things that become additions or other avoidance strategies, which are very wasteful of energy, both inwardly and outwardly.

Compassion can be cultivated. It isn’t helpful to approach compassion or any of these heart matters with the idea of having or not-having it; compassion is a potential in all of us. But it needs to be cultivated. One of the best encouragements for cultivating compassion is to intentionally witness compassionate beings.

Each moment of life is precious. In many given moment, we can allow life to pass us by or we can be mindful of what’s most essential, living with genuine purpose, energy, and joy. Too often we find ourselves hurrying to grab our coffee, commute to work, and get to a meeting, rarely pausing to take a deep breath and seriously consider how we spend the limited number of precious moments that we have. When we are aware and awake in a given moment, we have the capacity to make that moment extraordinary.

I Look at my life and other people’s lives as an anthropologist  might look at the ritual of a tribe in some remote forest, with a mind always open and fresh, wondering what the purpose of these actions might be. Often, I think about what is the purpose of the late night talk shows – making fun of people. We spend too much of our time doing things automatically that is important to access whether our habits bring us real joy. whenever we think that how we spend a given day or even a given hour is unimportant, and whenever we think we need to rush through what we’re doing so later we can get to something more relaxing, meaningful,or important, we are cheating ourselves. In fact, we never know for certain that we’ll be around for the future that we imagine. What is certain is that any of us can pause in this moment to consider what’s most essential and to live this moment in a deliberate, meaningful, purposeful, and beautiful way.

Although each of us has only a limited number of evenings, thoughts, and breaths left in our lives, we rarely take the time to consider how they are spent. Such questions usually come up strongly during adolescence and early adulthood. When we challenge the values of our parents and our society and try to decide what in the world to do with our lives. These issues also may come up when we are faced with significant losses or transitions; a divorce, getting laid off, the death of loved one, or the onset of an illness often cause people to reflect more deeply.

“What is the most essential to live a happy and meaningful life?” is one single most important question in modern society. We become so busy and so engrossed in the small task of our lives that we find it difficult to step back and ask ourselves what matters most. If we haven’t thought much about such issues and don’t have a clear, definitive answer, we probably lack an overall sense of direction in life. It then becomes difficult to tell if we are making progress or going in circles. If we want to have a genuinely happy life, it’s important to contemplate this question of what brings us joy and meaning throughout our lives. The more we consider what is most essential, the better our experience can help us discover deeper answers.