Gandhi was a paragon of virtue, an icon of iconoclasm. He was the type of person who took the world for what it was, took inventory of his own personal power, and then did his absolute best to be the change he wished to see in the world. He was a shining example of living by example, and he was not afraid of challenging the powers-that-be.

In this article we will break down seven juicy nuggets of Gandhian wisdom through a philosophical lens. Maybe by standing on the shoulder of this giant we can see even further than he did. And maybe we too can become the change we wish to see in the world.

1. “Be the change you wish to see in the world”
“The inner world is the world of your requirements and your energies and your structure and your possibilities that meets the outer world...

Government inaction has pushed local children and families to attempt to clean up the oil spill with little more than household items and no protective gear. Photo by: Kallol Mustafa.

Jeremy Hance, Mongabay
Waking Times

Bangladesh struggles to deal with devastating oil spill in world’s largest mangrove forest, home to dolphins and tigers.

On December 9th, a tanker slammed into another vessel along the Shela River in the world’s largest mangrove forest: the Sundarbans in Bangladesh...

Douglas Main, Live Science
Waking Times

Santa and his bag of… magic mushrooms?

The story of Santa and his flying reindeer can be traced to an unlikely source: hallucinogenic or “magic” mushrooms, according to one theory.

“Santa is a modern counterpart of a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to commune with the spirit world,” said John Rush, an anthropologist and instructor at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif.

Here are eight ways that hallucinogenic mushrooms explain the story of Santa and his reindeer.

1. Arctic shamans gave out mushrooms on the winter solstice.

According to the theory, the legend of Santa derives from shamans in the Siberian and Arctic regions who dropped into locals’ teepeelike homes with a bag full of hallucinogenic mushrooms as presents in late December, Rush said.

Rise above the daily inconveniences. Inconveniences are only inconveniences. Annoyances are only annoyances. Frustration is only frustration. Who says that everything has to be smooth for you at every moment? You are not to give a high rating to the little matters that you let become big. Save yourself from daily frustration. Annoyances happen. You are the one who rates them as frustration. You are the one who says how momentous they are.

Most inconveniences will resolve themselves one way or another, or you resolve them. There are remedies. You have an important deadline, and your computer doesn’t cooperate. It is not the end of the world, although it may too often seem like that to you.

Tell Me, dear ones, when your computer connection starts to work just fine again, is your happiness quotient as big as your unhappiness quotient was? Probably not. Your jumping for joy doesn’t begin to jump to the height your frustration did. Is this not so?

Have you convinced yourself that the negative aspects of life are more noteworthy than the positive aspects of life? What would you do that for? It would appear that frustration makes the grade while smooth-running is just so-so and taken for granted. A thorn in your side seems to merit far more attention. It is as if you are under the spell of thorns.

Christina Sarich, Staff Writer
Waking Times

If you are endlessly tired, irritable, have trouble losing weight, or feel depressed, you might be suffering from the environmental onslaught of toxins being poured into our air, water and soil by greedy corporate monopolies. If you aren’t sure whether you are suffering from toxic overload, you can at least be certain you are not immune to the toxic effects of environmental pollution like oil spills, fracking, chemtrails, nuclear energy (think Fukushima), or even the domestic production of war materials. Even every day items like shampoo and rug cleaners also contain thousands of chemicals that are deadly toxic in higher dosages.

Alex Pietrowski, Staff Writer
Waking Times

From the perspective of the world’s most notable mycologist, there is nothing more dangerous to life on earth than deforestation because it is within the old growth forests of the world that ancient mycelial fungal networks live, providing crucial connections amongst nature that human beings still know very little about.

Paul Stamets, fungal researcher and author of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World says our biggest ecological concerns stem from the poor management and outright ignorant destruction of the world’s forests. Because of this, he says, we are entering the 6th extinction event, the first mass-extinction event where both the cause and the victim is the same, human beings.