(by alan howe)
Today I’m designing the display case for the mountkarma fair trade bracelets! Working straight out of the Alobar1000 hostel here in Kathmandu, Nepal.
“Insight is not a matter of memory, of knowledge and time, which are all thought. Insight is the total absence of the whole movement of thought as time and remembrance. So there is direct perception. It is as though I have been going North for the last ten thousand years, and my brain is accustomed to going North, and somebody comes along and says, that will lead you nowhere, go East. When I turn round and go East the brain cells have changed. Because I have an insight that the North leads nowhere.
I will put it differently. The whole movement of thought, which is limited, is acting throughout the world now. It is the most important action, we are driven by thought. But thought will not solve any of our problems, except the technological ones. If I see that, I have stopped going North. I think that with the ending of a certain direction, the ending of a movement that has been going on for thousands of years, there is at that moment an insight that brings about a change, a mutation, in the brain cell.” —Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986)Sujata Krishna offered this passage from Questioning Krishnamurti after listening to our show with Rex Jung. During the interview, he described how the brain, with training, can actually change shape, beef up like a muscle that’s been trained:
“I think there are some strategies to cultivating creativity. It takes a lot of time to change the structure of your brain and there are several studies out there now. You know, the famous juggling study where they have novices who don’t know how to juggle. They image them, then they juggle for three months, they image them again and they see that literally a portion of their brain, a small chunk, but a portion of their brain is beefed up like a muscle in service of that concerted thing that they’re doing with their brain and that is the thing.
The important thing is they’re doing a very new thing in a concerted way. And their brain says, hey, if we’re going to be doing this thing in the environment over and over and over, I’m going to build tissue to do that so that we can do it easier and more efficiently. So if you’re going to be creative, pick one thing, get a lot of experience in that one thing, and do it over and over and over.”
Think about that. We can actually change the shape of our brains. Time to get to work. Putting that idea to work, methinks this magnified image of stained neurons is a fitting pairing.
Image by Mr. McGill / Flickr
~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Mon Kumari’s daughter playing with a pile of Mountkarma fair trade bracelets her mom made.
Yesterday I was having some tea with my friends from Barcelona here in Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal. We were enjoying crackers and smoking cigarettes on the balcony of one of their apartments. Looking out from there we noticed a group of kids all playing together. They noticed us as well and soon enough we were having flowers and stems being thrown at us from below. This is one of the shots I took.
The public’s trust in “organized religion” is on the decline. While wearying, Martin Marty says that these polls offer insights and lessons on how religious institutions must serve the public better.
Read Professor Marty’s full commentary and offer your thoughts. I’m curious: how you interpret this trend and the larger implications?~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Today was the first official photo shoot for the mountkarma line of bracelets! 3 different locations in kathmandu, nepal. 7 people from 6 different nations across the globe were involved. I want to have a BIG shoutout to everyone involved! I would also like to have a big shout out to the alobar1000 our hostel in nepal. Thank you everyone! the first line of mountkarma products will launch in July! Be on the lookout. We create bracelets, t shirts, and sunglasses.
I met a little homeless boy a few days ago in the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal. Despite his situation which was apparent, his mother only sitting within shouting range, he seemed genuinely happy. I walked past a day later and to my surprise there was a complete 180. He was sick and crying and there wasn’t anything I could do. Seeing the ups and downs of this little boy have really had an effect on me. I hope my photos can accurately portray his situation.
When I’m trying to explain to people what I think is grand and noble about movement, I say that the reason it is our most valuable connector as human beings is because that person onstage, who has a body similar to ours, is using that body in proxy for us. That kind of transference and connection is a very poetic way of saying something that I think the doctor’s given his life to understanding: how an idea about movement can actually be felt. This fact is the way that I’ve been able to deal with issues of identity. And the making of art, the sharing of it, is in some ways — healing sounds way too sentimental — but it bridges the gap between individuals. When I read some of Dr. Sacks’s meditations on how the brain works, in a way he demystifies these things that I have a feeling about. But in another way he encourages me to look with more courage at the physical world.
Identity. Just another one of the paths we can take when we finally orchestrate an interview with the great choreographer for On Being. Oh, and we will do so one day. *smile*
(via trentgilliss)
(via beingblog)
From our senior editor trentgilliss:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.”
~Martin Luther King, Jr.It’s the enterprising, creative minds of this world who provide the most exquisite examples of solidarity when adversity confronts us as a people. I’m loving these illuminated messages of hope projected on the side of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
More are featured on Fast Company’s Co.Exist blog.
Wise words at the alobar1000. My home here in kathmandu, Nepal.
Mountkarma fair trade bracelets coming soon! Every bracelets supports fair trade jobs for women artisans in nepal!
