Friday

Heartbeat of Basic Goodness

San Francisco, photo by Sarah Lipton

The anticipation is so thick you could slice it with the proverbial knife. I haven’t even seen all the hustle and bustle actually taking place in Richmond, but if the buzz of emails, phone calls, and text messages around here is any indication, then the whole place is pulsating.

The heartbeat of basic goodness doesn’t acknowledge start dates or registration times. Rather it gives life to those things. It’s Friday, and this weekend’s Creating Enlightened Society event is something we’ve all been looking forward to since it was just a murmur of possibility.

An entire weekend devoted to engaging with each other around the ideas of peace, compassion, and dignity is something one can easily get excited about. Amazingly, but not surprisingly, people are already cultivating these attitudes and practices in the context of its preparation.

My inbox has been blowing up with links to ride share lists, housing for out-of-towners, work study opportunities, and people offering time, services, or money to help each other which whatever aspect of the event falls under their guidance. The question underneath all this buzz is simple, “How can I help?”.

This is precisely the question that moves us toward enlightened society. In each moment, and in each task, how can we act and speak from the confidence that we have something to offer? We help one another create the space to cultivate an attitude of helping one another. Dear fellow humans, we are well on our way.

This weekend promises to be full of beauty and inspiration. See you there:
creatingsociety.com

~~
Stay tuned this weekend on the Shambhala Times for live reports about the weekend’s events. Thanks in advance to all of the reporters and photographers who will be on the ground gathering the reports for our readers!

Leslie Gossett is a student of all things human. She lives in Silicon Valley where she works with children, words, mind, and body