A dangerous fundamentalist political leader recently said: “We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom. Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. “ Here he is calling for an alignment of human choice with divine choice. Align your choices with God’s and the inevitable will seem to be chosen, and you along with it. He asks his people to turn over their destiny to God and embrace the notion that perhaps his …
There is a very interesting project underway co-hosted by Interra and Howard Rheingold and a bunch of other people. It’s an online Introduction to Cooperation Studies course. You can join if you like; it’s free. And there’s a group blog for insights, links and other posts. Thanks to Michael Herman at PeaSoup.
Joy Harjo should need no introduction, but if you do need to know more about this amazing award winning Muskogee poet and jazz musician go visit her weblog where today she proclaims that your spirit knows the difference between honesty and lies: Consider these shining words in light of the inauguration speech of the so-called leader of this country: �In Navajo, a warrior is the one who can use words so everyone knows they are part of the same family. In Navajo, a warrior says what is in the people�s hearts. Talks about what the land means to them. Brings …
More on patience and it’s relationship to emergence. Roshi Bernie Glassman is a Zen teacher and an activist. In this interview with Andrew Cohen he describes the relationship between enlightenment and action: “practices for enlightenment,” he says,”have to lead to action in the world.” For Glassman coming out of Zen Buddhist practice, enlightenment comes from reducing your attachments and cultivating sunyata, or emptiness. In a brilliant statement, Glassman connects this emptiness to action that is of the most valuable kind: action directed at an unknown outcome: AC: How can we remain attentive to the severity of the crisis without being …
In Saskatoon, Raymon points to a new online atlas of urban Aboriginal peoples published by the University of Saskatchewan. He follows the link with this little note: . . . high school students constantly involved in the process of identity always refer to the eastside/westside struggle . . . poverty, aboriginal ancestry, housing, municipal planning bias, all contribute to identity . . . I left him a comment saying that the little bit of work I have done with Aboriginal youth in Saskatoon has been remarkable. You have young kids with multiple ancestries – Cree, Metis, Ukranian, Scottish – trying …