Collection
Culture
An Extraordinary Life
You would be crazy to busily polish the silverware as your house burned down. Similarly, it is insane to live a normal life in today’s world. Maybe if millions of children were not malnourished, maybe if torture were not commonplace around the globe, maybe if species and entire ecosystems were not dying, maybe if genocide were forever gone, maybe if all the injustices I’ve chronicled in these pages did not exist—maybe then the “normal” life presented us would be sane. Maybe then it would make sense to absorb ourselves in professional sports, soap operas, the stock market, material acquisition, and the lives of celebrities. Given the reality of the world today though, the only life that makes sense to live is an extraordinary life.
— Charles Eisenstein, visionary & philosopher (from the book “Ascent of Humanity“)
Acting like a Thief
There’s nothing real from the start
Every day, morning to night, gathering things
Big and small valuables
Money, name and recognition
Gathering it all up into your lap
Like you’re holding the golden key
Busy your whole life for nothing
Acting like a thief
Why not put all this energy to liberation?
Put this mind to the Path
— From the documentary “Amongst White Clouds“
Busy, Busy, Mine, Mine
Ten thousand things, all in this breath
Why are people in this world so busy?
Just for this one breath
They say “busy, busy, mine, mine…”
Busy a whole lifetime for “Me”
When this breath is cut off
You let go of the whole universe
Why not let go from the start?
— From the documentary “Amongst White Clouds“
Cultural Transformers – Exploring Ways into a Future Worth Living
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus believes that today we have to make movies and tell stories that spark the desire to create a new, more beautiful world. The documentary “Cultural Transformers – Exploring Ways Into a Future Worth Living” portraits inspiring people who actively shape a cultural transformation, characterized by cooperation, humanity and sustainable thinking.
The Nature of Our Impact
The healing of this planet is not a matter of humanity stepping out, creating a separate human realm and leaving nature untouched. It will not come through minimizing our impact. It will come through changing the nature of our impact. It will come through a different kind of participation in nature—one where humanity returns to being an extension of and not and exception to ecology.
— Charles Eisenstein, visionary & philosopher (from the book “Climate: A New Story“)
Inner Growth and Cultural Transformation
In this essential contemplation, we explore the connections between inner growth and a deeply rooted cultural transformation.
Charles Eisenstein
Charles Eisenstein is a visionary, public speaker and the author of several books. His work has been highly influential for us. In a time of social and ecological crisis, what can we as individuals do to make the world a better place? From a variety of angles, he explores humanity’s transition from separation to interbeing.
Inspiring Documentaries for Cultural Transformers
This is our growing collection of inspiring documentaries for cultural transformers.
The Extraordinary Irony
The extraordinary irony is that we have become so obsessed with exploiting and abusing our actual treasure—a flourishing biosphere with healthy forests and topsoil, lakes and oceans full of marine life, an unpolluted atmosphere—in order to maximize something that in itself has no value whatsoever—namely, digital numbers in bank accounts. Because all the world’s economies are wholly owned subsidiaries of the earth’s biosphere, our preoccupation with ever-increasing production and consumption is now disrupting the ecosystems of our planet.
— David Loy, buddhist teacher (from the book “Ecodharma“)
Books About Cultural Transformation
If you want to know more about the kind of cultural transformation we have in mind, here’s a compilation of the most influential literature that shaped our vision and ideas. A good book to start with is “The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible” by Charles Eisenstein.