• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

The Kindness Box

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Motivational-Quotes-on-Kindness-Nelson-Mandela-2.jpg


From this website -

36 Inspirational Quotes on the Power of Kindness - Beyond The Shop Door

:)
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Bo Lozoff kindness

Leads to this interview -

Sita Lozoff is the spiritual director of Human Kindness Foundation, whose primary work is the Prison-Ashram Project. The project encourages incarcerated men and women to usetheir time in prison for spiritual growth, as if they were living inan ashram. Sita and her latehusband, Bo, began thePrison-Ashram Project in 1973, as part of spiritual leader RamDass’sHanuman Foundation. In 1987 they founded Human Kindness Foundation to continue the work.

Over the last 40 years, the Human Kindness Foundation has published and distributed spiritual books by Bo Lozoff and others. The books are free for men and women behind bars. Bo’s book, We’re All Doing Time,whichthe Village Voice called oneof the 10 books everyone in the world should read, is in its 21st printing, with half a million copies in print.Other books include Deep and Simple, It’s a Meaningful Life,Just Another Spiritual Book,Lineage & Other Stories,and two children’s books,The Wonderful Life of a Fly Who Couldn’t Fly,andLittle Boy in the Land of Rhyme (all available at www.humankindness.org/shop/).

The staff and volunteers of the Human Kindness Foundationalso respond to the letters they receive from inmates seeking help with the challenges they face walking the spiritual path in a place as unsupportive and frequently hostile as prison. They share some of these letters in a newsletter, A Little Good News,which comes out three times a year,and is sent to prisoners,friends, and supporters. The books and newsletters have also helped many non-incarcerated readers—including this writer—on their spiritual journey.The books are interfaith, advocating no path to God over another, but instead focusing on the often difficult work of taking responsibility for our actions, loving our neighbors, and forgiving those we believe have wronged us.  

Bo was the more visible half of the Lozoff partnership. However, since Bo died in a motorcycle accident in November 2012, the work of the Human Kindness Foundation has carried on. I wanted to speak with its “silent partner,” Sita, on how she came to devote her life to helping those most of society has repudiated. Sita was kind enough to speak with me on three occasions by telephone. – Leslee Goodman

Read much more here -

An Interview with Sita Lozoff

Cheers!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
"Each Kindness"

Each kindness makes the world a little better This unforgettable book is written and illustrated by the award-winning team that created The Other Side and the Caldecott Honor winner Coming On Home Soon. With its powerful anti-bullying message and striking art, it will resonate with readers long after they’ve put it down. Chloe and her friends won’t play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe’s teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she’d shown a little kindness toward Maya.

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

Loads more kindness books reviewed at that site!

:)
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Kindness is the first of the three great treasures advocated by Lao Tzu. The Buddha taught that generosity is a primary quality of an awakened mind. Muhammad regarded kindness as an essential sign of faith. Jewish and Christian ethics are built upon deeds of kindness, as are the daily interactions of people of primal traditions.

The spiritual practice of kindness encompasses a range of small acts and habits that we know as old-fashioned good manners — saying "please" and "thank you," waiting your turn, lending a helping hand, or cheering someone up with a smile. It applies not just to your relationships with other people. Etiquette in the spiritual life extends to things, animals, plants, and the Earth.

This practice also means being generous with your presence, your time, and your money. Give freely without expecting anything in return. Just do it. Kindness is not a quid pro quo endeavor.

Kindness as a Spiritual Practice | Spirituality & Practice

Enjoy!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Remembering what we’re grateful for is key to savoring this festive season. Yet it’s all too easy to lose ourselves in worries about giving, or receiving, the “perfect” gift. When we direct our attention toward the good will, kindness, and generosity in the world, we become infused with a wholehearted sense of gratitude, which we’ll share with those around us in the year to come.

Open Up to Gratitude

:)
 

FineLinen

Well-Known Member
Bethel Park High School head football coach Brian DeLallo wrote: "Due to expected severe weather, Monday’s weightlifting workout has been cancelled. Find an elderly or disabled neighbor and shovel their driveway. Don’t accept any money - that’s our Monday workout."

DeLallo said that having the football team shovel people’s driveways is something that his predecessor, former head coach Jeff Metheny, started the tradition more 20 years ago.

Bethel Park High School football players David Shelpman, 16, and Aidan Campbell, 17, were among about 40 athletes who shoveled snow on Monday, according to DeLallo. Campbell shoveled four driveways with Shelpman, who did another two driveways on his own.

Shelpman shoveled for about seven hours, while Campbell shoveled for about five. Once he was done shoveling driveways, Shelpman said he and his mom volunteered at a spaghetti dinner for homeless veterans.

The football players didn’t just shovel driveways on Monday. They also shoveled more driveways together on Tuesday.
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Spread some kindness.

Small acts of kindness can go a long way in making the world a better place. Think about a time when someone did something unexpected for you that brightened your day. Weren’t you a nicer person for the rest of the day because of that?

I’m willing to bet that anyone who receives an act of kindness passes it on in some way, even if it’s just by being in a better mood, and therefore treating the people around them with more kindness than usual.

Send someone a kind message. Give a small gift. Make something for someone. Tell someone how much they mean to you. There are so many ways to brighten someone’s day.

Comes from this list of how to make the world a better place -

10 Simple Ways to Make the World a Better Place

All the best!
 
Last edited:

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Once upon a time I wanted to change the world.

I was so eager make a difference, to help others, to make people happy, I felt like I just wasn’t doing enough.

Constantly feeling inadequate and comparing myself to all the amazing change makers I was surrounded by (and they were and still are INCREDIBLE), I exhausted myself in comparisons and feelings of inadequacy and FOMO. Truth is I was a huge people pleaser, always putting others before myself and my family. But that’s a story for another day

But truth was until I took care of myself I was no good to anyone. The world even.

Read more of this blog at the address below -

50 Small Ways to Help Make the World a Better Place

Cheers!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Spend money as intelligently as you make it. Too often, we give not to the causes that are most effective, but rather to those that are best at asking for it. So we get a phone call from some random organization we’ve never heard of, and the caller mentions “children with cancer” or “retired firefighters” or something else that sounds noble, and we promise a donation. We would never buy a television from some caller we know nothing about, and we shouldn’t donate to organizations that have great marketing but whose work we know nothing about.

Here are a few great resources to help you pick causes and organizations:
  • Givewell.org is a website started by a group of hedge fund analysts, and it applies the same financial rigor to nonprofits, trying to assess how much good they will do with your money. I like Givewell partly because it recommends many of the same wonkish causes that I do, such as iodizing salt and fighting malaria.
  • The Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania likewise offers recommendations about where donations will have the greatest impact. It examines a variety of important areas such as the empowerment of women and girls, early education and global health.
Charity Navigator offers an encyclopedic listing of organizations, but too many users simply look at the percentage of income spent on administrative expenses.

To read more ideas - click below -

How to Make the World a Better Place

Cheers!
 
Top