- What if we raised a generation so that they learned to be “conflict literate?”
- What if we students in business, management, law, and even medicine learned how to turn conflict from a liability into an asset?
- What if all of us at diverse faith-based schools taught about other systems of belief?
- What if we created in every community a public space designed for dialogue?
- What if we developed news media that were a laboratory for negotiation and dialogue?
- What if those of us in education learned and applied the tools of the Mediator?
- What if we voters supported political candidates who ran campaigns that strengthened communities rather than dividing them to get the most votes?
- What if we encouraged the U.S. Congress and other national legislatures to have an Office of Facilitation?
transformation
Whatever Transformative Experience , Questions emerge often clamoring for Attention
“We are like a chick, afraid to break through
the ever-so-thin shell of the
already outgrown and painfully confining egg.”
Whatever Transformative Experience , Questions emerge often clamoring for Attention:
Who am I beyond the functions I’ve served?
Where have my past habits of body and mind, enacted throughout the decades of my life, led me in terms of peace and happiness?
Who am I when the habits of a lifetime are stripped away?
Who am I beyond the persona I’ve presented to the world and to myself? Who am I, bare?
What really matters at this point in my life?
Impermanence is life’s only promise to us
My friends, let’s grow up. Let’s stop pretending we don’t know the deal here. Or if we truly haven’t noticed, let’s wake up and notice. Look: Everything that can be lost, will be lost.It’s simple—how could we have missed it for so long? Let’s grieve our losses fully, like ripe human beings, But please, let’s not be so shocked by them.
“IT IS NOT IMPERMANENCE THAT MAKES US SUFFER. WHAT MAKES US SUFFER IS WANTING THINGS TO BE PERMANENT, WHEN THEY ARE NOT.”
Letting Go – Guided Meditation
beginning to see yourself as you are now…
You can’t make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes will flow naturally. You don’t have to force anything, struggle, or obey rules dictated to you by some authority. It is automatic; you just change. But arriving at that initial insight is quite a task. You have to see who you are and how you are without illusion, judgment, or resistance of any kind.
Civilised Society?
a hunter, a European hunter, was lost in a forest in Africa. Suddenly he came upon a few huts. He had never heard that a village existed in that thick forest; it was not on any map. So he approached the chief of the village, and said, ‘It is a pity that you are lost to civilization.’ The chief said, ‘No, it is not a pity. We are always afraid of being discovered – once civilization comes in we are lost.’
– Osho
Fix your mind upon an unselfish goal…….
“I won’t do something” is quite a different feeling than to think that “I’m a victim and I can’t.”
It must be remembered that we are free to acknowledge and surrender our feelings, and we are free not to surrender. As we examine our “I can’ts” and find out that they are really “I won’ts,” it doesn’t mean that we have to let go of the negative feelings that result in the “I won’ts.”
Understanding and tolerance of other cultures is not a weakness, not a sign of inadequate patriotism
Understanding and tolerance of other cultures is not a weakness, not a sign of inadequate patriotism, not an indication that we are rootless “citizens of nowhere.” In reality, it reflects our preparation for the world of tomorrow, where we will become ever more mixed as peoples, even as we study, value, and preserve our collective cultural heritage.
Thought for the week – 9th September 2019
“Leadership is communicating to another person their worth and potential
so clearly
they are inspired to see it in themselves.“
-Stephen Covey
