“We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
We are filled with gratitude to be serving the Stillness Speaks community … and deeply appreciate your support through donations and your ongoing engagements with Stillness Speaks content (i.e., following and likes, pluses, comments, re-shares/retweets on social media … plus visits to, and comments on, the website content including all the direct contacts!) … Stillness Speaks is a thriving and growing community because of you !
“Gratitude takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder.” ~ Thomas Merton
It makes our hearts sing to be reflecting on, and writing, this “2016 chapter” of the Stillness Speaks “story” … of our ongoing commitment to serve in a way that helps us all “awaken from our illusion of separateness.”
Before “opening” this “chapter” … a humble reminder that Stillness Speaks is made possible because of your support – so please donate whatever your heart calls you to do during this time of reflection and Holiday cheer.
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ~ unknown
Stillness Speaks is 501(c)3 non profit – all donations are tax deductible.
To find out what we have accomplished with your support and what we intend to do, please continue reading … below our image …
Happy Holidays! … and may the light continue to illuminate your journey.
with deep gratitude,
Chris & Sanjiv & Cherie
This “2016 chapter” is the first “year end report” for the renovated Stillness Speaks – it reviews 2016 with a glimpse into 2017!
In its new form, Stillness Speaks, has successfully evolved, from it’s previous incarnation that was largely focused on advaita (nonduality), to the broader vision of being an aggregator of self realization resources for multiple traditions(spiritual, philosophical, or scientific).
The renovated Stillness Speaks website was launched on June 28th – a 5 month project … with nonduality (advaita), zen & buddhism, eclectic, science & consciousness, art & consciousness, and poetry & consciousness as the starting set of traditions … that were expressed through 200 posts (blog & video), 35 teacher pages, and a library of resources that included 180 {books & DVDs} and 70 downloadable Articles/PDFs … and more!
This published material included both new and migrated (from the old site) content – distributed through weekly emails (for our subscribers) and our social channels (facebook, twitter, google+, instagram).
We also offered 20+ DVD products through our Amazon portal … including a small number of paperback books that were sold out earlier this year.
And, we have welcomed Matt Preiser to the Stillness Speaks team … whose presence and contributions are deeply appreciated.
Of course, we are most grateful to our ongoing team: Canton Becker (our webmaster extraordinaire) and …
… Malcolm Brooker (our motion graphics, logo developer, and video editor).
So, what is our focus for 2017 ? … below are some highlights …
1. Continue regular (weekly) publishing of migrated and new content:
a) We still have to migrate ~ 40 teachers and 700+ posts (500+ blog and almost 200 video) – will curate this down to 40 teachers, 200-250 blog posts, and 100-125 video posts – to be published throughout 2017.
b) We will add new teachers (~ 15-20) beyond the migration set and new traditions (~ 4-5) – with plenty of new posts (blog and video).
2. Add new media offerings produced by Stillness Speaks® (now our registered trademark):
- New original video content (both free & premium) : resume Chris’ conversations with teachers
- A Stillness Speaks audio podcast channel
- Live shows
- Other media offerings to-be-defined during 2017
- A Zen documentary (was originally targeted for 2016)
3. Increased social media engagements and addition of our PINterest channel.
4. Add a richer eCommerce experience with:
- additional products (books, DVDs, and more) related with self realization
- continue offering our DVDs on Amazon
- instant downloadable purchases for new products and all our DVDs
5. Offer a monthly/annual subscriptions based “access portal” to some, or potentially all, of our products.
6. Finish the remaining foundational “technical infrastructure” in early 2017 … and …
7. Create new product offerings as part of the trademark – this is for 2018 onwards but some work will likely be done in 2017.
====>>> All of this will be made possible with your generous support.
Stillness Speaks is 501(c)3 non profit – all donations are tax deductible.
“For it is in giving that we receive.” ~ St. Francis of Assisi
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” ~ William James.
Images (edited with Logo added) : 1) Opening Image At the Water’s Edge by Cyrus Khamak, CC BY 2.0, 2) Candle Image: Candlelight by geralt, CCO Public Domain, 3) Cherie&Sanjiv & Chris image from Stillness Speaks owned image archive, 4) Matt, Canton, and Malcolm images provided by them – respectively – with permission to use, 5) All other images are snapshots from the Stillness Speaks website.
Quotes: Wisdom Commons.
This post is based (with some edits) on our “year end” newsletter of Dec20, 2016.
