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Evolving consciousness in practice

January 18, 2006 By Practice

Back home now. I’ll blog a little more on my learning from the Evolutionary Salon, especially with respect to the notions of the bodhisangha that was raised.

For now here is a bit from an email sent by a friend who is a medical doctor, and who has been following along with the ideas raised in the Salon:

As far as my comments on the subject of evolution of consciousness goes, I have to admit that my thoughts are not yet formed enough for me to make a coherent statement about them. The whole idea of raising humanity as a whole to a different level of consciousness is fascinating to me. I have been starting to “plant seeds” about it in my daily dealings with patients, albeit in very minor ways. Sometimes the results are quite surprising. It makes me aware of how little our culture supports nurturing of each other, opting either for selfishness or guarded suspicion.

I think that’s very cool. My question to all and especially for my colleagues with whom I have been in dialogue, is how can we support that action in a way that amplifies?

Koha, Mana and the fruits of the Evolutionary Salon

January 17, 2006 By Practice

Some amazing conversations today about how to move forward from this gathering, which is including questions of sustainability of movements like this, in financial ways, energetic ways and in reflective, inquiry and learning ways. I have spent the morning in small groups, informally constituted thinking about how to move a gathering like this into a “bodhisangha” and enlightened community.

One way we are thinking of doing this is harnessing the power of gifts, and today we are playing with three modalities of giving. There is the Buddhist dana, which is the gift given for the gratitude of teachings received. There is the gift that works in gift economies, the act of paying forward. And there is the gifting I saw happen in Maori hui in New Zealand, the giving mode of the koha.

As I understand it, and saw it practiced in New Zealand, koha is a practice that comes from agricultural times. “Ko” means “to plant” and “Ha” means “breath” or energy.” These days, at the end of a hui (or a meeting) the practice is that a koha is given and it often accompanies an intention. We’re playing with that idea today and we’ll see how it shows up in the moving forward of the “bodhisangha” and the other action requiring sustainability coming out of these conversations.

Learning from the land at the Evolutionary Salon

January 16, 2006 By Being, Learning, Practice

Last night in the closing circle, my friend Pauline LeBel offered an observation that so much of our conversation, informed as it is by the great cosmological story, is very human- centric. She asked “What can we learn from the great love affair between the sun and earth?” It is a love affair in which the Sun asks for nothing in return.

A group of us today took a walk on the land as a response to that observation. I posted a session in the Open Space today called “How does a forest change a mind?” We walked into the forest and spent time reflecting on what the forest was doing to have an impact on our minds, spirits and hearts.

As we continue to engage with the story the universe is telling us, my invitation extends to us to take time with other parts of the universe that are not human and inquire into how they teach us and shape us. I suspect that wise action may be embedded the way the universe self-organizes and teaches us about itself.

While we were on the land we had some wonderful conversation and perspectives shared with one another. One which made me smile broadly came from Tesa Sylvestre who noted that for the apparent stillness in the forest, there is a whole lot of growth and activity going on. Kenoli Oleari then asked us to imagine what that would look like if it was all taking place in one tree in front of us, how all the growth happening in the forest in that moment would send a tree rocketing skyward in front of our eyes and the heat and sound would be immense. Someone then noted that this was the energy of the stars, and how true that is.

As the Salon progresses I find myself more and more curious about this relationship between cultivating the growing edge for people and shaping the quality of the moment. In the forest the quality of the moment was markedly different from here in the hall, with the buzz of people and voices all around. The growing edge that appears in both of those environments are very different, but they invite my to find learnings in th emoment that bring my perspective more towards wholeness, in an every evolving journey to see what I know and who I am as whole and part of a bigger whole all at the same time.

Blogging from the Evolutionary Salon

January 14, 2006 By Being, Uncategorized

I’m not a good conference blogger, preferring to show up at conferences and be as present as I can in conversation with the people who are in the room. But in this case I might get some time to use the blog to capture some learnings from the conference ‘m at this week.

I’m on Whidbey Island, near Seattle at the Evolutionary Salon. The theme of our gathering here is “Catalyzing Collective Intelligence and Social Creativity” and the conveners are inviting us to engage in this inquiry:

“How do we understand, interpret, apply, and communicate the evolutionary worldview offered by mainstream and emerging sciences, and harness the collective intelligence and social creativity of our species, to facilitate a positive impact on the evolution of humanity and the natural world?”

We’re just getting started here, and I’m fresh to this gathering with an open mind, living with the possibility that there could be some remarkable connections made here. This evening in conversation with some friends new and old I started thinking about how important it is that collective intelligence and evolution requires both the discernment and cultivation of a personal growing edge, and the collective shaping of a moment that invites that process in others. If we include shaping the moment at our own growing edge, we end up creating an autocatalytic social system that promoted learning, right relationships and wise action.

You can find out a little more about what we’re doing, and check out some of the remarkable participants who are here, at the gathering website.

Facilitators, community building and the long emergency

January 13, 2006 By Facilitation, Organization

A friend sent me a piece called “There has to be a Big Crises” by Michael Kane about what it will take for Americans (and I would say Canadians too) to wake up to Peak Oil. The article paints a disparaging picture about the ability of North American leadership to wake up to the creeping decline – James Kunstler’s “The Long Emergency” – before it’s too late.

Having spent the past two weeks in the States, and the better part of next week there too, I agree that the signs are not good. In Maui the radio is filled with ads for loan companies and car dealerships aiming to finance or sell you the “sharpest looking trucks and SUV’s on this Island.” Even as Americans are dying for hegemony in the Middle East, as the country bankrupts itself for a war to secure oil, conservation seems the last thing on the minds of the mainstream. The American way of life keeps chugging along, hastening the decline rather than seeking to stave it off.

So perhaps it will take a crises to change minds, but if that’s the case, I don’t like America’s chances at the moment. Katrina was a wake up call, if ever there was one, for how America might handle a big crises, and it didn’t fare too well. One of the big things that was missing was an active community sector that was able to take care of itself. The centralization of FEMA, the States and the local government was a bottle neck for action, and eventually the stories of real help and coping came from people that took it into their own hands to steal buses, distribute food care for children and tend to the sick and elderly.

That was in contrast to the way in which parts of Sri Lanka survived the tsunami last year. In two talks (mp3s at audiodharma.org), Joanna Macy told the story of Sarvodaya, a Buddhist organization that cultivates a spiritual practice of giving and community building called Sharmadana. The lessons learned from how Sarvodaya dealt with the tsunami include the fact that biggest way they had prepared was simply but cultivating these practices over years and years of work. When the tsunami struck, they simply went to work as usual, able to cope with the massive demands on organizers because of their training and practice.

I have spoken with David Korten and others about this, and all agree that practice of community is the thing that will mitigate the inevitable emergency. As facilitators this can become our prime responsibility. After Katrina hit, Peggy Holman, Tom Atlee, Mark Jones and I convened a series of conversations with leaders in the dialogue and deliberation community to see what could be done about helping people in the Gulf Coast implement wise action. Since then, a larger group of people have done all kinds of work down there, using conversation cafes, appreciative inquiry and other processes to bring the community into a space where it can participate in rebuilding its own future.

America in particular has a grand tradition of helping in community. Traditionally Americans helped each other out when times were hard, raised barns together, shared food with one another, created great institutions of philanthropy, charity and care. But in the last century these quaint customs were sacrificed as the country became more urbanized and as a result, there is a loss of knowledge about what it’s like to live in community. Suburbs and exurbs and car and consumer culture do not contribute to this community. Mega churches and gated communities are examples of a “turning in” to help, not “turning out” to lend a hand. The fragmented and insular nature of American (and Canadian) urban and suburban life is the Achilles heel of dealing with crises that the leadership says is coming.

So let’s not wish for this crises before its time, and let’s not expect the leadership to be prepared. Anyone who works in community, be they helpers, facilitators, or others has a treasure to offer, and that is to seed and practice the art of community now. Whether you invite people to come together to build something, play music, feed people, improve things or just talk and muse upon things, these practices are the key to communities surviving. Cultivate intimate connections and community locally RIGHT NOW and then let us turn together to face the crises. By then, as the Sarvodaya teachers tell us, we’ll be able to handle it.