Awakening to
Heart and Soul and gaining Wisdom
Sustaining
Hope in the Transition to a world of limited resources
* Post Petroleum Stress Disorder * Despair to Empowerment*
* Global Citizenship * Apocalyptic Vision *
Many are aware of deep spiritual dimensions to the current
planetary challenge. Yet the challenge affects different people
very differently, and only some want to know about the deep
spiritual dimensions. These pages are for such people. Others
may even think that spiritual dimensions are nonsense. However,
we regard that as bad science in the true meaning
of science as rigorous, impartial openness to evidence, not
driven by prejudicial emotions either for or against. There
is plenty of scientifically valid evidence for miracles. And
every near-death-experience is a testimony to realities beyond
the physical world. Some people don't want to look, CSICOP
being leaders in wilful blindness...
but it is essential in the present crisis that we can collaborate,
all who have goodwill and care about humankind and the precious
earth on which we live.
From the Sixties on, many saw writing on the wall. Overpopulation,
exhaustion of resources, pollution, nuclear issues, social
issues... But in the Seventies, the small resources of the
environmentalists were heavily opposed by oil-funded "Global
Spin". And very few wanted to think about population.
Now Climate Change and Peak Oil are pressing on us so hard
that anyone who looks knows we must act fast and deeply change
our habits, expectations and lifestyles, if we are not to
endanger life on Earth altogether. A sense of urgency is growing,
to educate governments and ordinary people to see the profound
crisis we face, and to use our imagination to plan a wholesome,
realistic change, build resilience, re-localize, and help
each other. We cannot live in hope unless we pay attention
to all levels of Reality, even if the inner realities seem
hard, elusive, full of fear... But the magical/spiritual/
intuitive connectedness, that was known at the great awakening
in the Sixties, and often comes at moments of crisis, has
another chance now. Dumbledore's Army. Spiritual warfare.
The Second Coming. Apocalypse. Much in permaculture, psychology,
UFO awareness, has been developing quietly in response to
apocalyptic awareness. Lucy Skywalker wrote Apocalyptic
Vision in 1981 and it is still a good overview. Transition
Towns may seem to be an eleventh-hour response, but perhaps
it's only possible to build community resilience and solidarity
now that the writing is so clearly on the wall. Perhaps, as
with Moses' forty years in the wilderness, the waiting period
was necessary training for the "forty years in the wilderness"
that lies ahead. Joanna Macy sums up
what we are facing today. Here she calls it "The Great
Turning" but she has also used the titles "Despair
and Empowerment" and "The Work that Reconnects",
to describe her work.
Lucy Skywalker has also done research on the "Great
Change of Ages", the "Great Transition". She
believes her research is both unique and important. She can
talk about it to interested groups.
SHORT
INTERNET VIDEOS |
|
- KEY INTRODUCTIONS TO TRANSITION
- AND WHY - AND COPING |
Joanna Macy |
|
The
Great Turning set in historical context - very concise |
Richard Heinberg |
|
Peak Oil and the coming crunch - Part
1 and Part
2 |
Rob Hopkins |
|
Transition Towns - the positive response to Peak Oil
and Climate Change - building resilience and re-localizing
- Part
1 - Part
2 - Part
3 |
Chris Johnstone |
|
Interview,
explaining his work with Joanna Macy |
 |
Joanna
Macy - Introducing 'The Great Turning' |
|
"I consider it an enormous privilege to be alive now,
in this Turning, when all the wisdom and courage we ever harvested
can be put to use, and matters supremely. It is the epochal
shift from an industrial growth society, dependent on accelerating
consumption of resources, to a sustainable or life-sustaining
society. There is no guarantee that we will make it in time
for civilization, or even complex life forms, to survive;
but it is clear that there's no alternative, because now we
are, in systems terms, "on runway", consuming our
own life support system.
"Lester Brown of the World Watch Institute says that,
while the agricultural revolution took centuries and the industrial
revolution took decades, the ecological revolution must happen
within a few years. At the same time, it will be, of necessity,
more thorough-going - involving not only our political economy,
but the attitudes and habits that sustain it.
"Scientists - at least those who are not in the pay
of the corporations - see more quickly than the politicians
that there is no technological fix. No magic bullet, not even
the internet, can save us from population explosion, deforestation,
climate disruption,poison by pollution, and wholesale extinctions
of plants and animal species. We are going to have to want
different things, seek different pleasures, pursue different
goals, than those that have been driving us and our global
economy.
"...The Great Turning is occurring on three
simultaneous levels...Recognise how they are gaining
momentum in your own life. On the most visible level
are holding actions in defense of Earth, including all the
political, legislative and legal work to slow down the destruction
as well as direct action - blockades, boycotts, civil disobedience
and other forms of refusal. Work of this kind buys time...
"The second level of the Great Turning
addresses structural causes of the global crisis and creates
sustainable alternatives..new social and economic arrangements
are mushrooming from local currencies to local marketing and
consumer cooperatives, from eco-villages to renewable, off
the grid energy generation. They may look fringe but they
hold the seeds of the future.
"These nascent institutions cannot take root and survive,
however without values to sustain them. They must mirror what
we want, and think we are. The paradigmatic shift
- at the third, most basic level of the Great Turning
- is happening all around us. Some choose to see it as an
influx of spirit from above, others as "hitting bottom"
in our doomed and addictive society. Either way we are opening
our senses to the web of relationships, the deep ecology,
in which we have our being. Like our primordial ancestors,
we begin again to see the world as our body and (whether we
say the word or not) as sacred....we hardly have words for
the cognitive, spiritual and perceptual revolution that is
occurring now at a stunning rate of speed. ...We can't tell
which will happen first, the final unravelling of life on
Earth, or the moment when the elements of a sustainable world
cohere and catch hold. But even if this Great Turning fails
to carry this planetary experiment onward through linear time,
it is still worth it. It is our homecoming to our true nature"
Watch
Joanna on a very short video putting the Great
Turning in historical context
Hear
Joanna telling us about the prophecy of the Shambhalla
Warriors that she learned from her Buddhist teachers.
Read The
Great Turning as it appeared in Resurgence (very
similar to the above).
 |
Ten
Keys to Planetary Citizenship
(developed by us in Green World Trust) |
|
1.
Be Responsible for Yourself
a) Be truthful and honest with yourself at all times
b) Acknowledge your capacity to be both right and wrong
c) Your presence on Earth is as important as you make
it
2. Commit to Working for the
Highest Good of All Beings
a) Develop holistic, inclusive standards of excellence
b) Be aware of the interconnectedness of all parts of
Life
c) Find positive attitudes especially in the face of
adversity
d) Actively Share your Efforts to the Greater Good
e) Use your assets to serve the good of all
3. Respect all Basic Human Individuality
and Rights
a) Acknowledge the right of all persons to pursue their
own lifestyle without censure or hindrance so long as
it does not cause harm to any other person
b) Confront those who seriously fail to respect such
rights
4. Accept the Lifestyle of Others
a) Be open to the needs of minority groups without being
taken over by them
b) Look for inclusive “win-win” solutions
to divisions and conflicts
c) Practice respect, and draw on expertise, to negotiate
peacefully with others
d) Work Together for the Benefit of All Humankind
5. Give Assistance and Kindness
Wherever Needed
a) But do not impose the beliefs or lifestyles of others
in so doing
b) Raise consciousness and awareness of help available
where possible |
|
6.
Be Willing to Question “Authority”
a) Find out the evidence from all sides
b) Endeavour to discern the real truth and the key issues
c) Be aware of the difference between information and
propaganda
d) Find effective ways to challenge unjust laws and
regulations while accepting those that are unquestionably
for the public good
7. Take Action on Key Issues
and Problems
a) Get together with others to share awareness
b) Develop “Think Global Act Local” projects
and centres
c) Campaign for specific issues eg “Ecological
Taxation”
d) Find ways to undertake lifestyle changes for the
greater good of all
8. Be Aware of Global Issues:
a) Finite and dwindling resources – how we handle
our perceptions
b) Pollution and Waste and upsetting the Ecological
Balance
c) Materialistic attitudes and unnecessary use of energy
and technology
d) Belligerent attitudes and martial / economic solutions
e) Population pressures – widespread hidden effects
f) Unequal distribution of wealth & concentration
of power
9. Work Towards a Sustainable
Future
a) Treat the Earth and Everything That Dwells Thereon
with Respect
b) Work with local Sustainability and Beauty to enhance
the planet
c) Face the real issues and overcome your fear of them
d) Honour the wisdom of the past and the needs of unborn
generations
10. Promote Education and Creativity
a) Uphold the right of all people to receive basic education,
so as to reach their optimum potential
b) Approach serious issues with discernment
c) Generate information that is understandable and accessible
d) Be willing to look, listen, learn, look again, and
shift focus if necessary |
This was fun for us to brainstorm.
Perhaps you can improve it.
key page - last updated 1st
October 2008
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