I am helping to design an interesting gathering in June of next year that will be part of a bigger initiative to shift the values conversation around sustainability. It’s interesting for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is the conscious invitation of indigenous peoples, social entreprenuers and leaders who are firmly connected to the biggest and most influential systems in our world. We’re seeing what we can do together.
The initiative is called Beyond Sustainability: Cultivating a community of leadership from a platform of reverence. After an intense and creative weekend of designing, here are some of the propositions that we cracked, and some of the architecture needed for shifting values. These propositions are offered as principles for this community od leaders. They are in development, and this is version 1.0. Please let me know what you think:
7 basic propositions for shifting values
The architecture of reverence
Reverence – a profound awe and respect – is the word we are using for the fundamental set of values that we embody. The platform of reverence is based on three fields: reverence for the earth, reverence for the other and reverence for oneself. Cultivating this reverence is the key to growing a set of values based on deep belonging, deep listening and deep presencing. It is a set of values that connects us fundamentally to the source of life and community that lies trampled by humankind’s unrestrained race to modernity. It is a set of values that is generative and is our biggest asset in helping to create and nurture the systems that will restore balance to human life on earth.
The Beyond Sustainability initiative is an invitation to explore and practice together in this cultivation of reverence, noticing what is born in doing so, and devoting ourselves to helping new ideas grow in fertile and creative ways.
Reverence for the earth – cultivating deep belonging
Human beings are prone to forgetting that we are of the earth, children of the universe, embodied and born out of the mingling of material and spirit, containers for the conscious work of the cosmos. When we forget what we know in our deepest indigenous selves, we grow too big. We engage in the suicidal pursuit of domination and exploitation of the land, air and sea, and we become inhumane in our treatment of others, creating and tolerating unimaginable suffering among all living things. This is no mere appeal to sentimental and romantic back-to-the-earth mindset. We are now acutely aware that the brutal dismemberment of human beings from the natural world has made possible our own destruction and the destruction of many other species.
Deep belonging is captured in the Ojibway word dineamaganik, “I belong to everything” or “All my relations.” It is reinforced in the Hawaiian story of the Kumulipo, in which the very pattern of the universe is imparted to the sources of the material world and the increasingly sacred story that western science tells of evolution and the interconnectedness of all things.
Our first practice therefore, is the cultivation of deep belonging, an intuitive and unshakable understanding of where we come from and who we really are, of how the land and the natural world holds us, and of the patterns of nature that flow within us when we open to them. From that place comes the source of new values and new practices.
Reverence for each other – cultivating deep listening
We rush to judgement, take things at their surface value, outsource meaning making to experts and rely on rumour and innuendo to form our opinions of one another. Human beings have a remarkable ability to refuse to see what is right before us, to hear deeply what is being deeply said, to hold each other in the highest respect and compassion. When we cut ourselves off and stuff our ears full of rationalizations, we become inoculated to the pleas of others to be heard and seen as human beings.
Deep listening makes possible aloha, the Hawaiian art of sharing breath, hishook ish tsawaak, the Nuu-Chah-Nulth awareness of interdependence, and k’e, the Navajo concept of being tied together in a weaving of relations.
Deep listening means being with others in a way that allows us to see ourselves in the other, that invites us to open to the wisdom that is held in the centre of every person, that contributes to an emergent experience of community. Traditional communities cultivate this deep listening through ceremony that makes the communities most precious wisdom available to all. We are prepared to listen in that way.
Reverence for oneself – cultivating deep presence
We cannot come to the work as spectators, bystanders or skeptical cynics. Cultivating the shift in values that we seek is work done by people who show up fully, authentically and devoted to the service of life. It is only out of deep presence that we can become teachers of one another or that we ask the questions and seek the help that we need to move our work forward in the world. Reverence for ourselves and for our preciousness is critical for being fearless and helpful in whatever way we can.
A commitment to the practice of presence means that we invite collaboration in this work from a place of deep intent, offering what we can, and asking for what we need, and not holding ourselves back out of fear or arrogance. We are a community of fully present learners AND leaders, comfortable with not knowing the way forward, but confident in our own abilities to discern and act powerfully from a place of deep and interconnected reverence.
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Go raibh mile maith agat! Chris thanks for sharing this, it is a post in which to frequently return. Moving from a place of reverence for the earth, others, and oneself must be a solid foundation for wise and compassionate action in the world.
All the best to you and the others engaged in this innovative, important work.
Oh, and it also reminded me of two different quotes, the first on belonging to the earth:
I am of the ocean, the earth, the rocks, the trees, the wind and the stars.
I am a unique expression of this common experience.
I am energy.
and the second:
Suspension
We hold the good earth in the hallows of our hands
Or maybe it holds us.
Or maybe they are clasped together,
like a line of kindergartners waiting to cross the street
In love, in safety, in care and concern for one another, in friendship, in joint adventure.
Comment by Christie — April 13, 2009 #
Much gratitude for sharing this forward, Chris.
A few summers ago I read this sweetly potent little book, Reverence, by Paul Woodruff. He comes draws from more “Western traditions,” though the intent and spirit is rooted in precisely what this community has named here.
This is a bolstering space for me to visit today. And needed.
Speaks to the core of what doesn’t ring clear in so many of the conversations I am in lately about “excellence.” Reverence is the practice, the being in and doing of, so much richer than a criteria….
Comment by Holly Masturzo — April 14, 2009 #
Yes! That puts the finger on it nicely…reverence is beyond excellence. A whole paradigm beyond.
And Christie…thanks for the quotes.
Comment by Chris Corrigan — April 14, 2009 #
Thank you for sharing this. It deeply resonates in my spirit. You have articulated so well what has been running through my spirit for the past few years.
I want to claim that it has already happened – that there has been a dramatic shift in the world – and what you have shared is how we must move in this new world.
Those of us who have eyes to see this need to help make it visible to our friends who can not yet see it.
Obama’s election was a “product” of this shift – not the cause of the shift. I know that I must do my part to keep this new world thinking alive and growing.
thank you.
Comment by Elaine — April 14, 2009 #
Thank you for sharing this Chris. The concept of reverence is indeed powerful. Reverence for the earth, others and self – what a much more meaningful approach to the triple bottom line!
I am very attracted to setting principles for our work too. I really like the positive statements of principles 4-7. I personally would like to remove the “need to” and “must” from 1-3 and see them stated in the affirmative and present tense – as if they were already true.
Comment by Stephen Duns — April 15, 2009 #
Hi Chris,
I echo Stephen’s comments both about the power of reverence and the beauty of these principles.
I also have a few suggestions to consider…
* I also feel that the first statements would resonate more with me if they were positive affirmations of what we already are and what we want to create in the world.
* It seems appropriate given your core message to use language that embodies living systems rather than words like operate which seem to represent the old mechanistic world order we are moving away from.
*For 3, i would add that the answers lie “within”and outside ourselves, that the complexity that we are facing can only be understand by our collective intelligence which includes each one of us.
* I feel that we need to transcend boundaries rather than just cross them. As you wrote, they are false constructs that we created. Crossing them still means to me that they are intact.
* Overall, i would put more energy and focus on what we want to create and bring forward in the world and less about the old ways we are trying to overcome.
In abundance,
Heather
PS. It would be great to meet some time Chris. I am living back in Vancouver now after being over in Israel. I was doing some AOH hosting over in the West Bank with Toke, Maria, Sarah, Tova, Danny, etc. We almost met one summer when Danny and i were in town visiting. (hktworosz@yahoo.com)
Comment by Heather — April 15, 2009 #
Chris
This is very interesting and not like anything else I have seen on the subject. I quite like the framing and I am encouraged by the kind of energy that seems to exist around this initiative.
As a planner by training, I had to think long and hard about the fourth item: We have time only to act and learn. On the one hand I get very excited about the suggestion that we should stop our attempt at long-term planning and should just get on with a myriad of actions, some of which will likely be brilliant, other ones that we will probably drop. It’s very grassroots, and like most grassroots initiatives also hints at a distrust for planning (usually a government function) – which I also understand and appreciate. On another hand, I sort of wonder about what this up-swell of action will look like in the absence of a ‘plan’ of some sort, particularly when it comes time to scale-up from the grassroots to societal actions. The minute we need to allocate societal resources (like, tax dollars for example) it seems irresponsible to do it haphazardly, without a sense of where we’re going and what is needed to get us there.
So… that one is very thought provoking. Maybe in the course of this initiative the group will come up with another way of seeing the task of planning. Maybe there will be multiple little plans, or plans that can be created in a day on the spot and changed in a day on the spot (as opposed to the current planning processes that usually take years.) I feel like this will be very important for my outlook on life and for my work. If there is anyway to be of assistance please let me know.
And GOOD LUCK with it!
Cheers
Aftab
Comment by Aftab Erfan — April 21, 2009 #
Aftab…you make a great point, and as usual I find myself gettin pulled from an either/or into a both/and. I do think that that is a step on the way to a new way of acting and stewarding resources…wonder what that will be.
Comment by Chris Corrigan — April 22, 2009 #
Chris,
I am in… this is so beautiful!
i wanted to share something i wrote 7 years ago it seems generative…
“How many more reports do we need to read of true human potential being realized only through a deeper knowing of spirit on a personal level? The human condition is one of mediocrity, over consumption, deep sadness and disconnection; disconnection from self and others. The resurrection of a community of deep relationship in the workplace and in relationship to the ecosystem and external community is pivotal in these times. The greatest risk management strategy at this time is to begin the deep and rich investment into personal spiritual connection and the building of community.
This is where one begins to unleash innovation, inspiration, heart and a culture whose socioeconomic strata are woven with the soul of it all. How you multiply this feeling within your inner self, your relationships, your organization and business is the lever for community values to emerge in the strengthening and energizing of the human potential. It is not our minds that are aching…. it is the soul of the person, the humanity of work. Without this imbedded like the piercing paucity of particles of golden awareness throughout everything said and done – I fear we will only be replicating not innovating. Teach me first to be my brother’s keeper and open my heart. For then, no matter what you guide me to I will only see with the eyes of my brothers hungry soul staring from within me, belly distended, the spark of hope lying in my arms too weak to open his eyes…. I birthed this soul now I cradle him into death – because I know not how to feed him”
Please, let me know how i might be of service and help!
with much love
Anita
Comment by Anita M Burke — May 5, 2009 #
Perfectly expressed…
Comment by Solar Publishing — May 5, 2009 #