Circle Feedback

Feedback from Circle Sharing Groups around the world.

July

Belmont, SW France

best we can do is be a living example
be present and listening carefully open-hearted
hold a vision for a better world
letting the new generation know they are holding the reins they are not the victims
let the children know that they are part of the solution
commitment-community-communication
we cannot find solutions with the same conscious level of the problem

Got very positive feedback how important this circle is and how nourishing and valuable for their daily living.

Brooklyn, Motueka, New Zealand

Interconnectedness - the chain of connections - can have a negative impact, but also be positive through thoughts, words and deeds. Small changes can be good steps to take - any little change can be good as the ripple effect can be huge.

Equanimity - equality - importance of the early years and parents / grandparents input into children's lives is vital. There needs to be more societal support for that - fosters an emotional intelligence through connection / connectivity. Systems are needed to be supportive of that at all levels.

My first attempt to engage scratched the surface of my feelings. The second allowed me to go deeper and be more vulnerable. This was possible after we looked more deeply at the process of circle sharing, which occurred because of the smaller group of people here this time!

Corona virus could be seen as our "punishment" for how we've been treating the world. It sucks, but compared to how we have been treating each other and other species, it is small.

Initially I found it hard to engage with the material. A second reading / viewing allowed a wider perspective, and seeing the circle sharing taking place at Oscar's school was great - even though it is a school for privileged families. Reading the article again I was able to connect with the author's bigger message about trying to be with whatever happens in my life with some equanimity and responding in an ethical way.

Half of our group attended this meeting, which gave space for a second and third round of sharing. Initially, after feeling that our container of trust, so important for Sharing Circles, was full of holes, we found a possibility to go deeper the second time around, and a new level of trust was built. The container felt more whole afterwards.

June

Nelson 4, Nelson, New Zealand

I have much appreciation for every member of this group. I’m grateful for the wisdom of all ages.
Cognitive Dissonance is the best exercise for compassion.
Be allowing of all the elations to propel you into action.
Change is inevitable. Embrace it.
I am deeply humbled and in love with all of you in this group. Grateful for the simplicity of being together. Are we exploring an initiation into something greater for humanity and life on Earth? Or the end of us?
Being OK with the not knowing. Learning humility when we can feel our insignificance and the power of nature.
Getting out of our own way and opening to all possibilities and donuts.
Take your friend Suffering out on a shopping spree and exercise the power of your consumer choice.

NBC, Nelson, New Zealand

I enjoyed listening to peoples stories about their childhoods at the last session. It was interesting to hear people reminiscing, viewing their experiences through the lens of the material provided. It was wonderful to be back in a room together, face to face. There is no substitute for meeting in person.

Once again I appreciated the process of the meeting, allowing such uninterrupted exploration of my own and others' thoughts and feelings. The present problems of humanity will be solved only if sufficiently many of us become pure in our motivations, and act out of that state of being for the well-being of all life, seen or unseen. If I hold this in mind, I have hope. Otherwise, my hope falters, as it depends on changing the culture I am immersed in by legislation or other types of “force”. We have many examples of and role models for compassionate action. Small local actions are as important as large ones. There's no need to feel helpless – that's a self-indulgence.

Another really good forum to discover and/or explore my stance on important matters, without feeling judged, rushed or nervous about being corrected. Thank you all for listening, caring and sharing! A beautiful opportunity.

So much media news is negative and blaming, creating drama or depression. I and we need to be very aware of 'social media' in general, it is always seeking to grab attention.

Many wonderful possibilities for the development of economies beneficial for all. Those kinds of revolutionary changes to existing systems need the support of a good proportion of the population globally. I’m not that optimistic! Change has to come from the development of goodness, wisdom and altruism in hearts of each of us though part of that process paradoxically is from efforts made to enact the sort of changes described in the resource materials. How wonderful that such efforts manifest.

Refúgio Paradiso - Botucatu - SP Brazil

Our group diminished by half more or less, but is having warm and intense meetings, full of generous listening. It's been a challenge to translate the amount of material into Portuguese for everyone to understand it, so I am sending the audio of some texts that I translate, or ask them to put it on google translator and hope for the best, when I don't have the time. But some videos are found in Portuguese, which is great.

We are feeling apprehension, and worrying and some anxiety, but a lot of discernment and openness to discuss whatever is coming up, with kindness and honesty. We are present.

Wishing you well and happiness, Madá

Sunshine Coast, BC, Canada

Unlike many of the others, I was happy to see articles addressing economics since, in my opinion, not much can change without a dramatic shift in our economic system.

I was impressed by the theory of the doughnut, and encouraged to hear that these ideas have been reported in mainstream media indicating that they are not floating solely in the minds of theorists, but in reaching the general public may have a chance of being taken seriously. Eisenstein,s writings also resonated.

Although not in our readings, i,ve also been inspired by the massive poor people's, campaign building in the United States. Poverty and racism are moral issues closely tied to economics. The rise of organized grassroots protests around poverty and racism combined with alternate economic proposals by theorists and the pressure cooker effect of the global pandemic gives me hope that some positive change may occur. Certainly, change will occur, and as Joanna Macy said earlier on, uncertainty is important in helping us to change.

I feel hopeful in the wholesome, generous changes I see on the community, town and city levels. Grass root movement. On the corporate and banking levels there will be no change until it collapses.

Hopeful, excited, looking forward to potential change.

Left feeling a faint hope that common sense and decency may yet be able to transform our dysfunctional systems.

Christchurch, New Zealand

Enlightened structures to guide economics, plus change within individuals to address needs/versus wants, develops generosity, increasing feelings of sufficiency based around giving. Will bring some change…

Conscious of being half way through 2020 and looking for a symbol/direction for the next half of the cycle.

So good to be part of an “alive”, curious group, to tease out ideas and add different points of view.

Many changes happening in the world and in NZ right now. Most important to be alert and aware and not be lulled into passivity, fear, avoidance. The Boom or Bust economy doesn’t work. The UN agenda 21 (or 2030) for Global Government and control of economy and resources contains articles that could pose a serious threat to our freedoms. Watch and BE AWARE! Governments, private individuals and the media are still too much concerned with profits and not for humanity (eg installation of 5G towers with no double blind research study). Also worrisome, the talk of mandatory vaccinations for Covid-19 and others. The recent, and present, Black Lives Matter protests show that we, the people, have minds of our own and need to take charge of our lives. Politicians by and large have sold out to big pharma and the corporate elite. This needs to change. Positivity, visualization of the new egalitarian society!!.

If money is our measurement system of wealth, then where the money flows reveals our collective values. How could we change what we value and how would that affect our economic flow? What values are hard to measure with our current wealth measuring system? What would happen if we valued the pursuit of wisdom as a culture?

I was interested in my view of economic equality…of what I would like it to be. Surprised to see a view of the rich having more than others and the most poor having a little less. This isn’t what I would like to be thinking!!! How would that work if everyone had an equal chance? We would have to develop our generosity big time! What do we value? How can we develop a culture of caring for others with no expectation of return (payment)? Also the suffering of always wanting more, no matter the expense (be that financial, social or environmental) arose in this months investigation.

I find everyone has something different to offer and notice the power of this is to inspire and motivate. I can feel despair at forests burning and beings suffering to survive. When we meet my view expands and connects. So, it gives some healing too. Wonderful we are all so different and accept each other and ourselves.

Panjachel, Guatemala

Very interesting videos and texts, ….
Power corrupts, ….
All the poeple need to be heard or they become extreme, ....
Everything is perfect, it’s evolving in it’s own right, ….
Pandemics are here to decimate population, ….
Western cultures put all the efforts on life, …. death is too far away, ….
Life is a school of expanding consciousness and death a break, .…
We are living in the Universe University, .…
There are a lot of options to see things in different perspectives,..
According to Astrology we are forced into a change, .…
People want to keep the status quo,…ego doesn’t want change, .... no out of the box thinking, .… only some people are creative with new ideas, ....
Revolution starts inside,…. and than it influences the outside, .…
We need win- win- win, .…
We need intuitive, inclusive inter-connectedness, ….

Kohatu Streams, Tasman, New Zealand

Belmont, Southwest France

Lots of information, lots of thoughts to digest.
The doughnut economics from Kate Raworth was very mindopening her speech was very impressive and touching.
Inherent sense of justice inside of us.
The global economy is going through an absolute rebirth, reflecting the new consciousness now anchoring in the humanity.
We are more prepared than we thought for this radical change.
On the surface, we are more separate than ever before, but a necessary process for localization.
Really coming back of what is important in life and it is up to us what we want to live.
We do have choice.

Vancouver, BC, Canada

I was excited by the TED talk and really wanted to meet Kate for lunch to talk more about the topic when economics hasn’t been a topic that has excited me through my life to this point.

The disparity of wealthy people to poor was stunning to see on a graph. Is there a link between economics and Covid-19? It is interesting to me that everything comes down to economics. We all need to think more about it and ask questions.

French economist, Thomas Piketty has drawn close attention to income inequalities particularly in America and Europe. Increasing disparities are now obvious with small segments of populations holding larger and larger portions of the wealth of nations. Many start-up companies interested in social innovation in business via a triple bottom line but never get financing other than via the generosity of donors who are happy to help without expectations of a return on investment. Money-making is essential for business survival! I am so angry at Kate Raworth whose concepts are so against the flow of business. Complete change is needed as many are disenfranchised when private schools give access to the best post-secondary education.

I came close to failing Economics 200 – most of it going over my head as pseudoscience. Economics frames society. The question is how we get to where we need to be without chaos because the present system is so deeply embedded. The topics chosen for this month were determined before the current anti-racist protests. There are many threads connecting with the reviewed pieces. How do we patch the system without making it worse?

It’s easy to talk about shifting from the current to a more equitable economic model but less simple to see how that can be done. Eisenstein noted how quickly change has occurred over Covid-19. How come we seem to be able to address a pandemic but not racism, wealth-disparity etc? A culture of control makes it easy to clamp down on a virus but significant social issues are embedded, messy and distressing to address . Gift ecology is a marvel and the relational, participatory economy it offers is much needed. In Dharma, we watch things loosen and shift to be able to see things clearly. Dharma boomed at me through all the positive elements mentioned.

I read the material a week ago but review was necessary because of the volume. Big change has happened over my lifetime with good things opening and possibilities arising. Kids all have a harder time of it. House purchase is impossible for many due to the present state of things. Talk by university people is often difficult to connect with lived experience. Where does wealth come from? I loved the Donut idea and got the meaning! It is heartening that the most people regardless of status, felt that there should be a more even distribution of wealth. Sweden used to be less affluent than Canada but turned things around with social discussion and thinking. There seems to be a corrupt elite in the US when maturity and ethics are needed. I feel that university currently breeds a selfish culture reflected in the rise of “smart guys” in corporations. What can I do? I think that educating myself is activism. I have no energy but cannot ignore the issues. I try to build energy through practice to be able to put it out there and feel generally inspired and hopeful. This is “turn-it-on-its-head” thinking!

I appreciated the simplicity and clarity of the Donut Theory but had difficulty reconciling that with finding ways to actually change the status quo when the present system is long-standing and so well entrenched. The fact that this theory is being introduced into the education of future economists is heartening. I hope this can somehow be translated into practical ways to change things for the better.

In the light of the reference material I found it interesting to think about the IKEA workplace ethic that I have experienced directly. Although there are different pay grades within the company, pay disparity is not as pronounced as with many similar large companies. There is daily connection between CEO and staff who are all encouraged to save and take a direct interest the daily published takings and numbers of customers served. This serves to create a more positive work environment.

We attended the anti-racist protests this week despite fears and potential risks. It was wonderful to attend such a peaceful gathering and was very uplifting. Notable was the inclusion of indigenous, gay and trans-gender people in the event and speech-making.

Boise, Idaho, USA

Feeling of an up-note theme, but some of us wandered off topic to the many riots and protest of police brutality that are currently taking place in the U.S.A.pestilence,
These articles have spurred an interest in the importance of economics where there was none before and also stimulated those who had interest and knowledge of economy.
Economic policies are important and these articles have changed views. Many very appalled, shocked and disturbed at the wage disparities.
Economics disscussions are very important now. It is clear this system is not going to work any longer. We are at a cross roads now with the covid pandemic pointing out social econmomic injustices and bringing them to the fore front.
Will things change? What makes things change? Hope for change! Must think outside of the box! Do more volunteer work. Recognize the power of our actions - time to push forward to a new normal!
More education sharing resources, co-operatives. Basis of economies in making all lives better. Economies must be intertwined with the value and importance of our ecological system! Some corperations do this - purchase their goods and start a wealth tax.
This pandemic has brought together many many peoples who may have never united before....the potential for change is high!

Brooklyn, Motueka, New Zealand

Appreciation for the stimulation brought forward by the material.
Appreciation for the 20/20 team's work.
Occasionally when I read or hear an idea it is more than interesting, it resonates in the heart, it turns something, it's about a deeper connection between an idea and the heart.
Resonating with the material on a deeper level impacts for me on the heart level.
When I'm given another perspective from someone else, I'm aware of a heart response - or not, in which case I often don't finish reading. There is sometimes the appreciation of a certain frequency of vibration, like having more light, vibrating at a higher frequency. I'm resonating with an idea if it lifts me out of the 'usual' and lifts me up and out of that dense place.
No peace without justice - DUH.
Relationships are key. The spaces between, as the exchanges, the connections that need acknowledgement even when I don't understand. Being comfortable with the unknown.
I am grateful for inspiration and new knowledge, which can also trigger me as I realise there is much I don't know. How to deal with that and come back to the simple?
Many traditions are worth hanging on to, but many older things and ideas don't serve us so well any more - paradigms that no longer serve in today's world.
Choices - awareness to choose love over fear, awareness that there is a choice.
Decisions are helped by asking myself if a particular choice will bind me or set me free.

May

Refúgio Paradiso - Botucatu - SP Brazil

Feelings of connection with the earth, sharing about that. Listening and sharing about interconnection, and once again our need to engage responsibly with the planet. Sharing about our natives and their wisdom in Brazil, and how they are in dire straits at the moment. A lot of sharing about our feelings related to the pandemic and our state of isolation. Sharing of our feelings of heartbreak and a renewed wish for connection.

The Orchard group, Herefordshire, UK

It was a beautiful gesture by the Kogi to open to the world, having hidden away to be custodians of an ancient timeless wisdom born of an animist pre intellectual pre observer consciousness. Perhaps there is a golden thread that connects that ancient more direct relationship to the divine and to nature that runs into our present time? The Kogi and Maori and other indigenous peoples are golden threads, indigenous peoples that are truly our "elder brothers", deserving of our deepest respect. So too are the deeper wisdoms that faintly echo even within our own western culture born out relatively recently as it is upon an observer "scientific" objective relationship to the world. The ancient Celtic traditions echo through our society. If we but pause and listen very carefully and attentively. Soo too the very early Christian mystic traditions that ultimately form the basis for the deeply moral resonances that people still feel in their hearts evoked especially at times of crisis: love thy neighbour as thyself; do unto others as to oneself; judge not and be yea not judged. Ours is an unfettered untethered lost "younger brother" society. Detached nomads having gained freedom but at horrendous price. Yet our very laws which are now dry sterile dead and unfeeling are ultimately based upon these ancient golden currents, barely alive now within our own societies. What can we do in response to the call and the warning of the Kogi? We can perhaps create a sacred space for our own reconnection and for those that come after us. We can listen. Imbued with humility we can become more reflective, more receptive, less prone to impulsive opinion or angry fiery responses. The required responses to Climate change and other 21st century challenges are not merely intellectual and technological ones, though important these indeed are. It requires a deepening of ourselves, to find once again those golden threads within our souls, to warm and enliven them once again, to reconnect and resurrect our spiritual capacities, open and alive to the world, seeking to learn and seeking to answer to the calls and cries of anguish and pain with constructive responses, born of thoughtful loving care in our actions. In doing this, how do we help to awaken others? How do we inspire and awaken those who are more deeply enmeshed and wed to the status quo?? This is a fundamental question that we must meditate deeply upon as there are no easy or simple answers. Yet answer this question we must! We must!!!

This time around I found the feedback more interesting than the materials. As I said in our meeting, although the specifics of the individual pieces might not have been familiar, the general thrust of them was, and has been for many long years. And although I acknowledge the relevance and importance of each, what concerns me is the temptation to a kind of fuzzily romantic, back to nature view which, in my view, can obscure or confuse us as we confront the problems of 21st century industrialised societies. And although the examples we were given clearly contain sensible analyses and wise prescriptions, as well as awful warnings, the history of the Maori, for example, has both violent episodes and extinction events of its own which we should remember when contemplating our way forward. The vast scientific advances and huge lifting from immiseration of millions are things for which, in my view, we should be grateful even whilst we rue - and may be ruined by - the consequent environmental destruction. The Kogi know this. We need to heed their warnings, and we need to act. The question as to how we should act remains. Finding one’s own proportion, noting one’s own greed, not making things worse - that’s the least I can do. Alongside listening to you all, it may be all I will do. But it’s not nothing.

I found this material to be both humbling and moving.Recognising that Ancient wisdom whether Kogi, Maori or here Celtic can teach us if we LISTEN and take note of heedings. At the end of the Aluna film, Mama Shibulata gave hope by saying “ don’t abandon your lives, protect rivers, Mother is owner of everything, without women who would guard all this”. In this time of pandemic, women leaders, e.g. Jacinda Arden, Angela Merkle, have shown how to be clear and strong with their message of how to proceed. Let’s hope that out of this Great Pause global wisdom may come forth ,that a golden thread whether tangible or metaphysical can heal and bind humanity together.

We don’t need any new ideas, new knowledge or new technology to heal the world. Everything we need is already available within the deep pool of human experience and culture. Wisdom is expressed through the lens of the culture in which it is embedded, yet wisdom is timeless, it’s value does not depend on context. Carefully translated so that it can be seen through the lens of another culture it is not diminished. However it seems that there exists some interference that is preventing the world’s dominant culture from integrating the wisdom offered by those cultures who have learnt to live in harmony rather than at war with nature.

I am continuing to find the ClearVision2020 material incredibly interesting, useful, challenging, and enlightening. My huge gratitude to the team for enabling us to journey together. Thank you!

My response to the May theme has been principally to marvel at the relationship the Kogi people have with the natural environment - a depth of connection to, and understanding of, the world we are part of, that has strength, certainty and a felt knowledge of systems and the web of life. The films also highlighted for me the power and importance of some form of education and training, of passing on knowledge that is necessary to guide us, and those that come after us, to live with reverence and love for the cosmos we inhabit (even if the methods used by the Kogi would not be acceptable in our social structure today).

Although feeling very moved by the material, I did also feel somewhat re-moved from the depth of connection that was displayed - as if I was engaged in an intellectual exercise and being reminded of how we ‘ought’ to be. Aware of this, I returned to the words of Joy Harjo (For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in its Human Feet) which I had, initially, found myself quite untouched by. This time I understood where the piece was coming from and connected deeply with the sense that I/we are drifting, untethered and wandering (as Joy says) and thus are unable to inhabit our true place in the cosmos. I have, like many, had felt glimpses of this belonging; fleeting moments, that its good to be reminded of, and which stimulate our engagement with the work of re-connecting.

Writing this feedback I am becoming aware of: That I could have given more thoughts to the material before our session in order to give a response better reflecting my deeper connection to the material. That I am gaining a lot from listening to you all. I learned about my own biases, my own “limited” looking.

Deeply listening is as one of the guiding principles in this project. Listening not as in hearing, but allowing it to penetrate, to touch me, feel it and then take it to heart.

The Kogi mamos decided to come back a second time because the “younger brother” did not listen. The mamos listen deeply (in meditation, in silence) for what the Mother/Aluna is teaching them. They take that to heart and act accordingly. They show their wisdom in the way they are.

I was touched by their dignity in the way they were meeting the “younger brother’. The compassion and respect they have for the living world was transmitted in their second quest to make the “younger brother” understand making him see. They came not from a place of aversion but from love and sadness for the pain done to the world. Made so tangible by the way they stood next to that power station and that polluted and dead lagoon.

Over the last couple of months I have looked at and listened to talks given by nuns and monks of Plum Village. It was less by what they said that taught me and more by how they “were”; what they transmitted by their ways of being.

I believe that we can only inspire and awaken others by the way we “are” rather than by what we ‘do”; to act from a place of wisdom, compassion and kindness for all beings.

The golden thread was a beautiful teaching method, metaphor. You could not miss seeing the inter-connectedness of all things; respecting all living (and material) things as they are an indispensable part of the cycle of existence.

This tribe of people who are the guardians of an ancient holistic wisdom has made a deep impression on me. Their spiritual dignity, their simplicity, sense of community and training of the mamos all remind me of the Tibetan culture before the diaspora. The Kogi embody interconnectedness and that’s the power of their message to Younger Brother. They reach the heart because they listen deeply to the Mother, Aluna. But the tragedy is that nothing has changed. Will it even change with the latest message from nature of the corona virus? I would like to believe so but the Kogi have closed the bridge and withdrawn. And I think that means we’re on the path of self destruction. I live in both hope and despair.

We may imagine that we would never go back to living in such a fundamental way as the Kogi but we may have to, may choose to.

I cannot foretell the future, predict how things will be for us but I do feel we are living on a knife edge and that we should not doubt that the earth will seek her revenge for the way we have treated her. In the film, seeing the power-station on the shore , the newly built port and road, the disappearance of the lake, the lagoon, dead, choked by the road , the small pond at the mountain top which is supposed to feed five rivers, I felt the despair of the Kogi at the sight of the broken connections. The connection not only of the water flowing down but also of it flowing back up again, around and around in a continuous cycle.

The poem by Joy Harjo gives me a kind of peace which I enjoy. Don’t look back , don’t look forward , just look at all that is around you, with no regrets, no expectation, walking to feel in contact with this one world.

Seeing the lack of snow on the Columbian mountain just led me to the global reality of climate change which will continue to happen. Faced with this huge change, the only solution for me is to show compassion and kindness to each other.

As I said before, I really struggle with the reality of a dying Alina and the hopelessness I feel that there is so little we can do. I have resorted to tending to my garden, planting trees, medicinal plants, fruit and vegetables for my immediate environment. Watching the Kogi was emotional but also in a way reassuring. Their message has not gotten through. Younger brother hasn't a clue! We cannot fight against it so the best thing to do is withdraw into our mountains. If we all act with respect towards and listen to Gaia and be in the moment always, we help some healing to take place, in a small way. Hopefully this disseminates awareness to those around us.

Direct our loving kindness towards those younger brothers that haven't seen yet...

You wouldn’t start from here. The Kogi show us, little brother, amongst other things, that for all our cleverness we are not wise. We have not understood or respected, that unless we have at the centre of all that we do, a deep understanding of the connectedness of all things, we have understood nothing. Without love, care and respect for the earth from where all life comes and is sustained we will fail.

Building walls and disappearing into silos of specialist expertise, getting carried away with ‘because we can, we should’. Without recognition that we are all part of a system that has at it’s heart the earth, the hub around which all else revolves. The sum is greater than the parts and each part must care for and hold love for the heart of everything. That must guide our actions.

The current Pandemic, Black Lives Matter and Climate Change bring global upheaval and invite systemic change. Can we respond wisely? Communicate, collaborate rather than compete. Can we be wise enough to build in fluidity so that there can be responsiveness to changing needs. After 9/11, any skyscraper built was re-enforced to withstand bomb blast. Demolish that! Now the office blocks are empty, working from home the new norm, facilitated by technology.

We cannot go back, we are where we are. How do we go forward with wisdom? First the great wrongs must be acknowledged. The false gods of endless growth and wealth accumulation must be abandoned. Value systems must be challenged.

It really is that simple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

West Coast Road (between Punakaiki and Charleston) , New Zealand

The Kogi and the Mamos made the deepest impression expressed by participants.
Their rituals, their connections, thoughtfulness and respect.
The Kogi are like an example or an illustration of the potential of humanity as something beautiful (not a killer ).
We "the little brother " are heading towards a dark time and maybe we have to endure this darkness as the heavy hit to wake us up.
The pillaging of their payments by the looters is a metaphor for how humans are trapped in the money system and thereby also pillage the planet.
The Kogi inspired one to reconsider the personal focus and thought about when and how to do even a small action. To be fully present with the action, deep mindfulness.
Their initiation for men seemed a very important process and when compared with our own society, which has no obvious and healthy transition to manhood, we need to ask how do we build in our culture the necessary respect and care for life.
Listening is thinking, is learning and we can act with the right intention and attention each in our own small way but we need new leadership.
The Kogi message is a dire warning.
The level 4 Covid Lockdown showed us how nature will recover when we cease ruining it.
To restore the Mauri for the land is an important message and action. Tiwaiwaka needs to be taught from a very early age for everybody in this country. This is a way through to creating a new story / mythology for our way of life. To build the care and respect we admire in the Kogi. We too can do this.

Auckland, New Zealand

It’s a struggle to be here this time, the experience of the world feels heavy and there is a sense of compassion fatigue. I weathered the Kogi story with helplessness and resignation. How can younger brother be brought to listen? The system is filled with ignorance and greed and I don’t know what to do about that.

I felt excited and uplifted by the material. I have heard the call of older brother and there are more and more people getting that picture. There are people who have lived with indigenous people elsewhere and have brought that awareness back to New Zealand. For example Country Calendar ran an encouraging article about a food forest in Northland. It’s significant that the Kogi want their message sent out now. I feel optimistic that things will change.

The video was a powerful image of the importance of connection and that seems to me to be an important theme to explore right now. Younger brother does not see the connection between the mouth of the river and the source in the mountains. Cut a tree and the oxygen is reduced -we are all affected. What we do here affects there. Everything is to do with connection.

The Tiwaiwaka article was not very coherent however it does seem that actions have been a bit hamfisted on the part of Maori under the Tupuna Maunganu Authority.

The Kogi story was hard to listen to at first but the spirit of those people was actually very uplifting. There are parts of our human planetary community that are dedicated to supporting the health of the planet on behalf of us all. How wonderful!

It’s a great joy to be back together in person. My heart sank at the beginning of the Kogi story but it’s extremely beautiful that they have been able to hold on to their understanding of the environment so well and have such compassion for younger brother, even to the point of travelling to London to bring their message. They are doing what they can and we are doing what we can. Wisdom comes from interchange and asking questions. We have to watch for compassion fatigue and not compare our efforts to those of others. As Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy”.

NBC, Nelson, New Zealand

Really appreciate witnessing the variety and depth of others' responses to the material.

We have seen a glimpse of what our world could be...but our old life is incompatible with that and squeezes out that newness. Change is hard to effect.

Importance of listening to the ideas of all of humanity, not just those in the dominant culture.

Recognising the journey of bringing all the pieces back together to form wholeness... there is wisdom in the dark places.

Being with others with a kind and open heart, developing those qualities within in order to truly create an interconnected world, recognising the importance of this work.

The material is still settling into my consciousness. It will stay with me. It will change me in a way that will raise my awareness in how I inhibit my space in this universe & teach me to further question my occupancy choices. To search deeply and unearth where my thoughts & deeds, i.e. "walk" doesn't match my "talk". I feel Blessed to be a part of this 20/20 group.

Lest we forget as we emerge from ‘Lockdown’ how much the physical world has benefited from profoundly less pollution. Willingness (and right effort) to devote more time and awareness to training our minds towards wholesome living and relating. Continually remind ourselves the interconnectedness of all life and the universe - "relationship is not an option”. Live in a way as to be loving examples like the Dalai Lama and become beacons of kindness. Find our way home to our true nature through love and clear seeing and then help others to find their way through the darkness.

It is so valuable to really hear each one’s response to the month’s ‘homework’ - including hearing my own.

Being in a forum where I feel totally heard and with no pressure to 'hurry up' or have others speaking over (even with their best intentions) is lovely. It doesn't happen in any other place or space like that. For me the greatest realisation last night through others sharing the the Kogi was about the value of darkness. The light has 'gone off' for me in my own darkness and for the first time ever I am feeling optimistic about exploring that part of my wisdom.

Watching the Kogi movies, I felt great sadness seeing how humans are despoiling the planet, sacrificing the complexity and wonder of the natural world for crude megaliths and toys. It seems hard to find a way for the momentum to be stopped short of catastrophe. Can the earth support 7 billion humans? If it is to do so there needs to be a lot less selfishness, ignorance, greed and hatred. This is not news. The preciousness of authentically engaging in the path of dharma, learning to be an embodiment of good qualities is the best activism. Though 7 billion is a problem, it could also be 7 billion working on a solution. Appreciation for the wholesome activity of countless beings.

A common theme from indigenous groups is that they are not heard. They have wisdoms that could benefit all, but the dominant materialist/objectifying culture is deaf to other dimensions of understanding. It’s not that indigenous cultures have all the answers, just that they may have some very helpful things to offer.

Listening to the members of the group, their ideas and insights gave me confidence to extend and explore further.

Admiration for the persistence and patience of the Kogi people, and other indigenous peoples, given the seeming futility of their task. Their wish for the industrial world to cease its damaging practices is excellent, but the latter is so entrenched that the wish will, very sadly, probably not come true. The Kogi's efforts remind me of the vow in Zen, “sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them”. i.e. never give up. It used to seem naïve, but what are the other choices? The symbol of the gold thread that links everything to everything else – so poignant. Similarities to Tibetan culture in their practice of grooming children for spiritual leadership.

Christchurch, New Zealand

Noticing the “Gap” between world view. How can I accept and be open to a different way?

The voice of Papatuanuku/Mother Earth is being heard through the Kogi and indigenous peoples. The consciousness that this matters is the challenge globally and we can begin to work with this locally.

What’s needed is a deep change in our attitude towards the earth. We are not separate. Hurt the earth, we hurt ourselves.

The process, observing my personal responses and bodily responses to those different views. Go with breath, calming. Reduce hyper. Stay close to Papatuanuku in harmony. Intuitive. Bring that to dialogues of different world views. One planet.

Questions around different cultures and narratives and ways of defining “Truth”. What is our role and responsibility to the Earth? What is the narrative that helps make sense of that?

Impressed by …1. how the Kogi adapt to the modern industrialism, and ... 2. Local Maori traditional healing practices.

I enjoyed being part of a gathering- felt accepted and loved. The tribe was centered on and in touch with the earth.

I can only quote Martin Luther King re Healing the Earth…”The greatest triumph of ‘Evil’ is for good people to do nothing” Be aware of the negative influences at present affecting our earth . 5G Technology (non-safe technology) and harmful Big Pharma drugs (especially proposed vaccinations for Corona virus).

Nelson 4, Nelson, New Zealand

Love is power
Enjoy these sweet people
We are Mama's
In darkness you see the light
Wear barefeet
Feel the soil
We are the resistance
Listening is thinking
Golden Thread
The Lotus Flower blooms in Mud
Talking separates me from experience
Unconditional acceptance by tribe
I am 26
Stop corking mama's arse!
Time to synergise ancient wisdom and modern technology
Sit with me in nature.
I am not that.
I am that.

Belmont, Dordogne, France

how to integrate Kogi way of life into our own western way dominated by individualism?
thinking of the generations to come
building freedom based on principles and rules
Kogi show so much human kindness they are living examples
change only can happen when you get out of your comfort zone
balance
reduce consummation, reduce exploitation of natural resources, world wide natural family planning

Roberts Creek, BC, Canada

Amazement and awe at the wisdom and knowledge of people with no contact with other peoples and no written language of the ways of the earth and living things. Earth's systems and rhythms. Awareness and mindfulness. Consciousness of the taxation that human beings place on the earth, thoughtlessly and selfishly. Guilt.

To discover the golden thread within. Imagine it reaching from beginning less time until now. The yearning to awaken. The Dharma. This feels like a test. Direct experience.Fear for the suffering to come and joyous at the bounty of spring on the Coast.

I am left wondering why I am not incapacitated by grief. In my twenties, I spent all of my spare time travelling, paddling and skiing in the outdoors. I was acutely aware of my feelings of ecological grief and colonial guilt. I wrote a great deal about it at that time. It was also at the same time that I connected with the dharma. Fast forward 30 years and nothing has improved externally with respect to the ecological crises, however; my mind-states are definitely different. I can't exactly pin down what that means. Maybe because of the ongoing traumas to the planet and in my personal life, I am simply inured to and have had my fill of grief? Or maybe through this engagement and other wholesome activity, I am able to hold many strands and am working towards meaning and meaningful action. Either way, seeds of karma will ripen and if I keep practicing, I'll be certain to find out!

As for how I was feeling at the end of our time together; even though I trust in both my own personal ‘power’ and our collective powerful potential for good, for the wholesome intention, I felt very unsettled, uncertain of ways to leave the confinement of covid and move forward skillfully and with knowledge. In all of the uncertainty, I realize how strong my faith in the Dharma is.

Very rich and inspiring circle tonight. I left feeling a deep sadness; but also felt supported or even affirmed. We each of us do what we can. With gratitude for the dharma.

The Mamas said "to think is to listen". Their deep thinking/listening inspires me to go inwards to practice deeply and in listening to respond, as they did, with forthright courage, determination and action in the world. To extend my comfort zone, call correct, and reach out to others who may be able to make a difference. To chose to support those who are trying to make a difference. We can not do it alone. All is interconnected.

Our meeting was infused with the current crisis situation in the world today. This brought a visceral experience to the meeting and allowed everyone to access their own personal truths in a way that would not have been possible without the COVID crisis. The fusion of the theme - indigenous knowledge - and the personal truths resulted in movements towards action, a few examples included: empower youth; working in the context of our own immediate environments; and listen to one another more deeply.

I'd like to share something about the films.. I found the way the Mamas were using the thread to heal and reconnect the land very powerful and moving. And has got me thinking about the Earth more like a living body.... also that contemplating extends to my life and body as well. How, and in what ways am I connected or disconnected.

Such powerful sharing. I feel so privileged to be a part of this group endeavor. How important it is to look and listen deeply at this time.

Kohatu Streams, Tasman, New Zealand

Vancouver, BC, Canada

Difficult to follow the Tiwaiwaka message because of the frequent insertion of Maori words. Couldn’t keep track. Couldn’t focus on the article itself.

Felt the Maori article was not inclusive.

Having a Maori dictionary was helpful for clarity. Loved the article.

The need for one language that speaks for all.

The poem didn’t appeal because the genre of poetry doesn’t speak to me.

Loved the poem - the title itself described how to step forward: For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet.

Consensus on the Kogi films: compelling, heart-breaking, beautiful — timely to watch these films now.

All the materials offered were a calling to join together and work to heal the planet. Humans must work to serve the Earth.

This time of lockdown has heightened our awareness of nature. It’s quieter. We can hear birdsong. Despite the social distancing people seem friendlier. We are striving to make everyone safe, not just ourselves. There is a commonality. Can this transpire to include healing the Earth? Will we listen?

Boise, Idaho, USA

A positive response to the subject this month, but annoyances arose with the author's article on Maori healers, bringing a feeling of his arrogance. Not really helpful for what was being expressed!

Interest, fascination and amazement with the Kogi and Maori cultures and ways; so interconnected with Mother earth. Western ignorance so shocking - our big mistake, thinking things should be a certain way - how fleeting and disconnected from nature our culture and society is. We have gone arye!

Sadness and guilt for the disappearing native cultures.

Also noting our own liking and attachment to our modern ways.

Much intrigue for the blending of the spiritual and physical worlds in the Kogi culture.

Valued the practice of a Spiritual leader being the social leader. Admiration for the education of the young men in their right of passage into cultural awareness, brought to the forefront, how lacking our own modern society is in this Spiritual connectedness. It is amazing how this closed loop society came out of seclusion to warn the rest of the world of the trouble we are in!

Will Covid pandemic teach us of our interconnectedness or create more closed loop societies?

Must pay attention to the smallest of actions in how we treat our world...love the simplicity.

Seeing that energy cycles and their completion is so very important for less waste!

Recognizing the power of the group - a call to action for positive optimism!

Brooklyn, Motueka, New Zealand

It was really valuable to be gifted with the indigenous perspective, especially "big brother" which communicated interconnectednessof everything. And from such a place of oneness that it highlighted our disconnection. It evoked a sadness and a deep remembering of how much we belong but haven't got ways of living that are in harmony with that and don't disturb the balance.

Importance of deep listening continues to resonate for me. And the cultural mis-perceptions that occur when we try to communicate and there is a lack of deep listening between different cultures. There is no moving forward without listening deeply to all.

The futility of blame. Also the gold thread was an important metaphor, but the filmmakers seem to have failed the story by losing the importance of that.

Listening. Time to create connection to gain the deeper wisdom. The Mamas took time time to listen to their own thoughts. Wisdom coming from each other - collective wisdom.

Openness to listen. Enjoyed the material.

Reminder that inter-connectednes is always there. The gold thread reminds me of Indra's Net.

Importance of the calmness of the delivery of the message. The Mamas tried one way and then another, but without anger at the lack of comprehension by "little brother".

The mother energy focus at the end of the Aluna film gave a sense of Hope!

Panjachel, Guatemala

The more time the coronavirus impacts us, the more reflections and change will happen, … in all the fields, economics, new innovations, climate change, …

We seem not to be able to appreciate the width and depth of life, ...

Ignorance can only be changed through learning, ...

We stick to what we know, ...

Sustainability: Through control of resources, keeping our planet clean, population reduction, ...

What will turn humans around: if nothing else works anymore, ...

We need patience and hope, ...

We are still kind of in the dark ages, ...

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks

Maori and Kogi’s are empathic with nature, … opening fields of consciousness, ...

Crating think tanks

Plants are sacred, … animals are sacred, ….

London, UK

Thanks for the May materials.
We found it hard to connect to the materials in the present situation.
We found it more nourishing listening to how each other is dealing with the current isolation.
We will continue to look at the 2020 materials but agreed that focusing on our own practice and supporting each other in these difficult times feels like our priority.
We wish you well and look forward to hearing how other groups are dealing with these times.

Nelson Central, Nelson, New Zealand

Unity is a common theme. Environmental destruction mirrors our disconnection from ourselves. Indigenous cultures offer us a way to hear the wisdom of our innate being.

Pa Ropata reminded me of someone who went to the elders in Papua New Guinea, who told them to listen to the birds and the rivers, and you’ll learn everything. Sacred pause has given us the opportunity to hear. We create so much noise it shuts us off from being able to listen.

Being inspired by the depth of our exploration and what it means to be a living being, as part of this world, as an expression of the wholeness of all life.

One has to be receptive to the messages. A certain willingness—“To think is to listen”—still a work in progress.

Listen to the different messages in new ways. Listening to each other and with the earth and all creatures. Learning to see and know in new ways.

April

West Coast Road (between Punakaiki and Charleston) , New Zealand

The Life Boat Ethics brought out some feelings of repulsion, some confusion with an unwillingness to look at the article.
Found the idea too disturbing and did not want to think on it.
Greed hatred and delusion.
Human behavior of seeking territory and dominance which begins from our deep past and earliest beginnings.
Competition is the problem and money is a poison.
What is a fascist and an eco fascist ? The suppression of information is fascist.
We must always work on bringing things back to the self and what one can do in one's own consciousness. Maintain an awareness of how stuff affects you.
"the war is in your own heart".

The Orchard group, Herefordshire, UK

First gratitude for the value and nourishment of the circle..knowledge gained, hearts warmed, food for future thoughts. Firstly I found the material deeply disturbing..words, racism, white supremacy, eco fascism, that are arising in movements globally.
My initial response was to find the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller ‘ First They Came for the Jews’
Then : Hasn't it always been thus with human beings in one form or another?
Then, remembering Ram Dass when he spoke to his Guru about starvation in the world his Guru said “ can’t you see it’s all perfect, love everyone, serve everyone”
And then the first Noble Truth, that there is suffering.,
This, plus the insights from the circle are helping with resilience, flexibility, and openness.
May be we could use a bit more laughter. I’m also here reminded of Bernie Glassman and his red nose amongst darkest places.
The ugly and disturbing views of "eco-fascists" express their fear and suffering. And like a vicious circle such views only instil more anger inner turmoil and unhappiness. We ourselves have ugliness as well as beauty within us. We too are capable of selfishness. Mindful of this we can choose to respond to those who hold such views with love and compassion. The lifeboat analogy is not a true reflection of reality and the concepts of "ecofascists" are not a true reflection of nature. If the earth is a boat then there is no one outside of it. If there were there'd be people floating in outer space. The reality is that everyone, without exception, is already in the boat. We along with the whole of humanity are literally "in the same boat". Nature, in truth, is more cooperative than competitive. And within us there is no inevitability in our selfishness. We can make moral choices. We can find a relationship once again with each other and with the earth. We can find connection once again with the beings of the world, to experience the earth and its' manifold life as ensouled and sentient.

Recognise the sadness in them for they know not what they do.

Although already aware of the term eco-fascism, it was both shocking and sobering to read the articles and to be reminded of the struggle we are engaged in. However, I was truly grateful for the opportunity to look beyond the articles and to explore other commentators response to the phenomenon. Hence I have delved more deeply into ‘the commons’, as a blueprint for systemic change, as well as the issue of global population verses resources. I also see clearly the continuum of thought, feelings and behaviour that exists around climate change, and how the most helpful response is to follow, as the buddha advises, the middle way - or, as I heard it called on a ‘Crazy Town’ podcast - the messy middle. A quote I picked up (from Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute and Resilience.org) says much to me: “Systemic change driven by moral awakening is our only hope”. This of course requires difficult and sometimes uncomfortable engagement with those within and without the environmental movement who we might sometimes strongly disagree with.

ON first reading the material it triggered very strong reactions. I even thought of leaving the group because of the direction I thought it was going in. On second and third readings I just followed the logical sequence of thoughts and realised that one could come to the lifeboat conclusion if we have no moral parameters. Survival automatically kicks in. Then I began to think what I would do, and I could not honestly see myself going overboard (unless we were close enough to shore to swim!) or letting the lifeboat collapse with the extra load. Or cutting off hands (an even more abhorrent image).

Yes it was very provocative and productive and in the end very worthwhile because we had created the right platform to be able to talk freely without judgment.

To be honest I don’t what to think or even how to think about the material, the sharing and the much changed world around me.
I would like to rest in the security that wisdom, compassion, right words and right action would prevail and that all will be saved. However if stop to think how we got to this position, the way forward has no less greed, selfishness, fear, arrogance, supremacist thinking than before.
I could despair in my own lack of conviction that I would do the ‘right thing’.

The current pandemic invites cooperation and collaboration across the world to find a way to save all people and yet in the recent meeting to coordinate a response USA, China and Russia chose not to attend. My hope flickers.

Can groups such as ours with links across the ocean make a difference?

I value my travelling companions, the thought provoking contributions and the care expressed.

There were, not surprisingly, some strong reactions in the group to the April material.
Apart from the lifeboat analogy, the expressed views were not new to me and it is so easy to respond in a habitual way to views you don’t just disagree with but are also quite disturbing.
The meeting gave an opportunity to listen to others’ comments and the different and very thoughtful responses was very supportive and illuminating.

We may not agree with certain views but it is crucial that we can listen and understand with a more compassionate heart where others are coming from, what is behind their views.
Not for nothing means Chenrezig “the all seeing” and Kuan Yin “the all hearing”.

It also helps me to become more aware of my own opinions and their consequences; seeing my own fears and reactivity.

This clear vision project , especially in a time of lockdown, gives us also an important and much appreciated opportunity to come together as a sangha through which we can support each other and share our journey towards greater wisdom, loving-kindness and compassion.

I was not surprised or upset by the reading suggested for the group, but I was buoyed by our exchanges. So thanks for them. Especially for Alex pointing out so succinctly how false the lifeboat analogy/comparison was - we are all in the lifeboat already, and always have been. It’s often been said that those first photos of the earth from the moon were a defining and illuminating moment in our understanding of how precious, and how isolated, we are. We are, indeed, all in it - or maybe on it - together. No place like home. But it’s always useful to hear other points of view….Ad also made a point that resonated with me - how/where, in myself, can I identify the beginnings, the residue or whatever, of those thoughts, attitudes and emotions we were asked to read about? Self-cherishing, fear, hopelessness - the list is long, and I can find them all in myself. Sometimes they get the upper hand. Sometimes they do so without my consciously realisation - or so I like to tell myself. ‘Othering’ too plays a part - not me, not us, etc etc. It’s so important to try to understand the other, however difficult that might be. We are all connected: Buddhist Hindu, Christian, Atheist, Jew…the grasses and the bison, the planets and the stars, the oceans and the sky. No separation.

So - thanks, be well and happy, stay safe. Hope to see you all again sometime soon.

NBC, Nelson, New Zealand

The challenges of both climate change and Covid-19 are similar in that they present an opportunity for societies to create a better, fairer way of being.

What ways are there for us to live meaningfully in this ever changing landscape.

For antidotes to the 'lifeboat' view need a bigger picture. Deepening our appreciation of loving kindness, impermanence, death and karma.

Realisation that we may be OK but it is not so for many others.

A story from the Simpsons where everybody wants to shelter from an asteroid in Ned Flander's bunker. But it is so overcrowded that there is no room for Ned who patiently accepts being outside. This moves everyone to join him. Loving kindness in action.

Parallels between ecofascist heartless views of immigrants/people 'not like us' and the way New Zealand deals with so-called invasive species or pests. Many are happy to exterminate tens of thousands of introduced species in order to preserve a particular view of the natural environment.

Recognising there are many stages of spiritual evolution. We need to learn to meet with all these states with loving kindness - including our own failures. Love can encompass what we don't like.

Gaining confidence in the heart's guidance.

Nelson 4, Nelson, New Zealand

I think there is a human tendency with struggle to go into fear and otherness, and how can we use our struggle to make us more together, not more shattered? I think the core element of that is upholding the innate dignity and preciousness of human life, and when we denigrate others we automatically denigrate ourselves.

I think what was so abhorrent for me about the peak indifference and the white supremacist point of view was that the wish to continue a carbon-based growth economy was more preferable and important to that point of view than the reduction of consumption and the reduction of use of carbon so that there was enough for everybody. That's what was abhorrent. And of course I think about myself in relation to that, I look at myself in relation to that.

For me, it's just keeping in mind that all of life is precious and to be valued. All of it.

I'm going to carry this enquiry, it's often been with me but I want to deepen into it more : I don't know where the line is or should be around how much I should be supporting other people's needs instead of my wants. Am I on the lifeboat already? And in what ways am I already denying people, in less obvious ways than eco-fascists do?

It is good to make the unconscious conscious. And it is good to have my bubble burst. And it feels gritty and good to really wrestle with the question, the vow of offering my life energy for the welfare of all beings, including the eco-fascists, how do I do that? How do I live that question every day?

There's a link between feeling the unity of life, and peacefulness and harmony. I think it's really important to live a life of non-harming.

Mine is short and sweet. What's really alive for me is the Sanskrit word ahimsa, it means compassion and non-violence. That's what I want to say.

I'm feeling in some sort of confusion, not mental confusion but diving into some very deep place of feeling. But what's strongly come to me is how to live in a sacred way of honouring life since the sunrise to the sunset and overnight. Come back to sacred life. Simple and sacred.

Auckland, New Zealand

It’s good to be woken up to these eco-fascist arguments. They are persuasive, Anne Rand-like. We need to be aware of this agenda, it is insidious and obviously operating in some people’s minds and in some parts of the world.

The lifeboat metaphor should be totally rejected -we don’t have to look at it this way. It’s interesting but appalling to read this stuff and quite scary. It’s a twisted philosophy, the politics of difference. Very sobering to know this is operating in the world.

One usefulness of this circle is it takes you to places you wouldn’t usually seek out. I was wondering what the purpose is of focusing on these views and I concluded it was important to be aware that such viewpoints exist. We need to be aware to understand the motivations driving beings. How to meet with the challenge of people with abhorrent views? How not to encourage a binary position -us and them? And regarding emerging from Covid, what to support as the way forward? Whatever approach is chosen, something else loses out and suffering is created.

I was sickened and fearful reading about these people. We are at such a critical point for the planet and this is evil. What can we do? My conclusion is that we need to love. Love trumps evil. Love every being. For the past 20 years we have been acting like we are in a lifeboat. We have to work to keep everyone included.

It was interesting to read these articles. Such views are seductive because they have a kind of logic. They are like the analogy of using a bright torch walking through the forest at night. The light actually hides the forest. These views hide the true nature of interbeing whose complexity could never be described in such simplistic and exclusive views. The truth of this living planet is vast and unknowable and we can only act with as much integrity, awareness and compassion as we can muster in the face of it.

This was a very difficult reading but I pushed my way through. It’s a reminder to guard against righteousness and zealousness about ones own moral code -a lot of these movements are born out of righteousness. We all hope we are on the side of right but we can easily be blinded to the other side of the coin.

Christchurch, New Zealand

My personal response to this material was that it does not reflect the reality that I see. I see left-wing thinking dominating mainstream thought much more than right-wing. I see terms as 'facist' and 'racist' being used as baseless accusations to silence the capacity for dialogue.
It is a healthy reminder that truth does not come from any particular fixed perspective. If we look to the media and other people's opinions for an understanding of reality, we will not find it.
Meditation is a valuable tool for coming into direct experience of reality.
Talking circle methods would be valuable tools if we could have the difficult dialogues around the April theme, “out in the world”.
Once again the listening to others and being open and mindful of the process. Today left me contemplating the complexities of humans, so trying to understand by categorising leads to a lot of assumptions and polarising/divisions.
How will we have peace and kindness if we do that?
Balancing heart/mind Empathy for the disenfranchised.
The April theme created a lot of confusion in me. The logical mind could see the point of view but this clashed with the heart.
Enjoying the community of the group. Great to hear people’s stories.

Belmont, SW France

balance between the rich and the poor needs to be revaluated
the poor need to be involved in the process of decisions
very mind opening subjects
have not been aware
grateful of the process which gets triggerd through this work, gives lots of new perspectives

Online Group: NZ/Tauranga, Brazil/Ilha Grande, NZ/Thames, NZ/Tahunanui, NZ/Motueka Valley, Brasil/Campinas.

My truth is what propels me into the next moment. May there be the courage to hold the truth of suffering and freedom in awareness of love and clear seeing. Each breath, each smile, each contraction from this amazing co-created world.

We have much to explore, inner and outer coming at us at this time. Perhaps more resources and practices that contribute to kindness interest, patience and love in a variety of modalities.

There is fear and sadness. Let's open and love make sure we value life and train ourselves more and more to value all life

Today I felt, during the meeting and now, reflective about the course of life in the world and my role on that... simplicity is very strong as a good and skillful response... I want to explore simple way of living that don't demand to much of life... I want to request from life more and more and listening with life want/can give me or not.

Watching the diversity of creation of life, looking for ways to embrace It all in the wisest and compassionate way I'm capable of, and at the same time inquiring how to contribute with my living to value, honor and give back to life.

Roberts Creek, BC, Canada

Wholeness or fragmentation

Revulsion, confusion, unsettled.

Wise heart skillful action

"At first I felt mad, sad and uncomfortable from the materials. Then once I listened deeply to what the group was saying I felt the entirety of the human experience, which encompassed playfulness, joy and oneness along with those initial thoughts and feelings."

Nourishing and rich sharing from everyone. Ranged from political and ethical responses to gratitude for the dharma and the role of spirituality and engagement.

My immediate feelings as we dissolved our circle was, I felt part of the whole. Thank you all for sharing each of your responses to this most difficult topic.

Horrified by what's happening on a government scale, but heartened by what is happening on the local and community level..

The interesting part to me is what potential may lie in the intersection of where our differences actually overlap and are in common.

All beings want happiness. Perhaps this is the place where the boat can creatively, compassionately and skilfully expand to include and support all of life?

After the meeting I was left with a deep feeling of overwhelm and the next morning I could remember nothing of the sharing circle. My mind had blanked it all out.

Vancouver, BC, Canada

The source material was interesting to read and raised interesting questions. Overpopulation is a difficult concept to address. Is the earth a closed system? The assumptions underlying the concept of “fascism” are, on some level, difficult to pin down.

I had difficulty even approaching the material when fascism was seemingly its focus. I did not feel comfortable at all with the suggestion that the world is unable to support its current population. I have always believed that current resources on the planet could provide more than enough for everyone if they were fairly distributed.

We should look deeper than making simple assumptions about what is going on. Society is deeply skewed. Who is gathering the statistics? We don’t have all the data.

I was scared by the topic coming from a family that went through the war. Parents never talked about it. I am not proud of being part of the white race and what we have done to those who are less well off.

I had had enough by the time I got to the third article! Reading the “Tragedy of the Commons” Harding came across with clearly thought out points. People are now coining phrases from him which often distort the source material. I was upset by the mis-quotes – “cherry picking” from the original text.

Use of the word “fascism” is inappropriate in this context and I felt the “Tragedy of the Commons” was worthwhile. I do not like the use of the term “leftist”. People now have real issues to deal with and big shifts seem likely. Covid-19 has actually allowed us to stop before going over the cliff! At the same time, fossil fuels have in many ways allowed us to feed more people (fertilizers, transportation networks etc.). This has brought about horrific distortion because of unsustainable human development with too many people. “Overshoot” by William Catton talks about the carrying capacity of the organism. The industrial world uses too many resources and the carrying capacity is no longer there. If find the term Eco-fascism is very annoying and diverts attention away from the real problem.

I was distressed by the theme. Ecology and fascism are terms that are thrown around a lot but not fully understood. Meanwhile people are dying in long-term care. One MP today suggested re-opening the economy right away because Covid-19 is “only affecting old people!”

How are we going to be together in future?

There is some gratitude that Covid-19 has provided a brake in the headlong rush to destruction of the planet. It does give people a chance to consider alternative and less harmful courses than the way we were going.

Printing money is being used to deal with the current pandemic but the economy has been broken. I feel there is more to this than Covid-19. No one wants to see old people dying but what about the 30 million people affected by a destroyed economy. Think about the long-term social impacts with people being encouraged to inform on one another where lock-down rules are broken.

Eco-fascism is nihilism. Love and compassion are shared with everyone through the dharma group. Be hopeful!

Why do we have this circle group? – meditation skills can be useful for the benefit of others. Be present with others. It is important to be in a state of loving kindness outside to allow the feeling to spread. The skill-set will be useful after all this is over. Be careful about those who would stir us up with comments and articles.

I experience our current circumstances as positive. This could be a reset where there is a new shift in consciousness. Deer are back in the streets of London and fish reappearing in the canals of Venice! There is a lot of love out there! All bets are off – what’s the dharma if it doesn’t help in these circumstances.

Kohatu Streams, Tasman, New Zealand

Boise, Idaho, USA

• Recognising the oscillation of 2020 themes...an upper then downer, up then down.

• Very painful to hear of these views causing upset and disgust.

• Pissed off that neurotic intellects have such a voice in society, can see this view but it is wrong.

• Disappointment and anger that 2020 has picked this topic - how does this help clear seeing?

• A new experience to hear of these views. Blown away, a lot learned about compassion and believe in people wanting to
      help other people.

• Surprised recognising these views exist, maybe closer than we know. Fear of these views being on a larger scale. Does the
      good outnumber the bad? Focus on the best good. Need for compassionate beings. Seeing how much opinion is run by
      emotion. How does one clearly see all views? Does clear view create compromise? Still confusion and anger.

• Amazed because apparently smart people's views can be so prejudiced. This must be a small minority of people who can
   vocally project their views makes it feel bigger. Holding hope for the resourcefulness of humans to find a way to
   compassionately change for the betterment of all..

Panjachel, Guatemala

• The articles make a lot of sense,…but the picture is not big enough,..

• How to maintain population,…and not to reproduce,…only possible by giving food and condoms,…

     • For solutions we need out of the box thinking,…open and spacious views,…

     • We don’t need nihilism,…people evolve according to their capacities,…

     • Maybe in the last minute change happens,..

     • There are no exact answers,…

     •    These times are a good opportunity: having time to meditate, being in contact with the unified state,..and recognizing our
   fear state,..

• Many countries have guilt feelings about first nations: Canada, USA, NZ, Australia, Spain, Germany how to recognise those
   feelings and reconcile?

     • Are we still racists,…... recognising our racist parts,…

• More communication and positive projects between different races are needed,...

Refúgio Paradiso - Botucatu - SP Brazil

• To perceive in the apparent difficulties the opportunity for making decisions in a fresh way, with wisdom. The creativity
   that is  generated by the purest of conscious states. We are all in this together, there is no separation between us. May all
     beings be healthy and happy and free from fear.

• Now is the ideal moment for us to understand deeply what the opposite of edom fascism is...which is the "ecology of the
     less favored". So that we have a it's time to intensify the necessary changes in the world and in ourselves. To be a
     billionaire is a dysfunction of the capitalist system, and needs to be healed. No fear to fight for those changes. Local
actions are essential.
May life live, meditating if possible..

• Crisis arise so that we have the opportunity to diminish the space that establishes duality. From a cisio to a a unity, the
path to a new consciousness. To fertilize the ground so that nobody has to feel the fear of misery, with culture, love, and
      the planting of native seeds. To give a child a safe and loving space, understanding that the other is in fear, or hungry, or is
   afraid of hunger.

• To realize that the other is myself, that we were children. To know that we need a clear vision on what is preventing the
world to be fair and take a stand. With balance, peace and love, in favor of the ones in more need.

• Crisis is an opportunity(even with all the challenges).we need to keep our ground fertile, both the earth and our hearts.

• To go beyond the bubbles of reality, beyond what is lacking, to see the moment as an opportunity, to find abundance, a
shared aloneness, the keep a fertile ground!

Brooklyn, Motueka, New Zealand

Most of us were able to have a “sharing circle” using Zoom.

Both the material and in my day-to-day situation – my question is “where is the love?” The material is clever, but there is no love. My heart is seeking – where is the love? There is a whole dimension outside of the physical 3D world which is abounding with love.

Gratitude to engage with topics that I wouldn't normally engage with and share with like-minded people. It brings a richness and more truth on my path.

There is a potential for eco-terrorism externally and internally in any of us given certain situations, but with connection, transparency and community the journey can be very different. Clear transparent leadership is showing itself now in this difficult situation.

I feel it is important to strongly reject this kind of thinking, but to embrace those who think this way with love and compassion.

The material has provided a good challenge and I am grateful for being given the opportunity to reflect on this “difficult” material.

I feel gratitude for the material – it has been quite provocative and a bit of a challenge.

The material has brought out the whole continuum of views. Where am I with these viewpoints? I can seeing positivity coming out of what is happening in the world now. There is potential for growth within humanity.

If I can widen my view to be more inclusive then anything is possible, and the bigger my view of the unfolding of consciousness on this planet the more grounded I feel and the more I feel a sense of well being.

march

NBC, Nelson, New Zealand

We in New Zealand are very fortunate in our current situation and are likely to be insulated from a lot of the impacts of the coronavirus for several weeks.

The value of recollecting our childhood memories of being connected with nature and how that experience shaped and supported those of us who experienced that connection. The need to encourage that reconnection for this and coming generations.
Appreciation of how deeply language shapes our way of relating to and interacting with the world we live in.

Enthusiasm for 'ki' and 'kin'.

The contrasting speculations we have between ideas about the dire possibilities that may be ahead of us versus the

great hopes and possibilities on many levels to create a revised, happy and vibrant society. So many ways things can
be made better.

Appreciation of how the natural world, when given some respite from our depredations, responds rapidly and

abundantly. eg clearing skies over Chinese cities.

Recognition that our culture is conditioned to the ideas of colonisation and ownership. How respect for other views and other cultures would open us to alternative and wiser ways of being and relating to each other and our environment in future.
Teach our children we are nature and not something separate. We are the Universe looking at itself - curious and

wanting to be healthy again.

Recognising that many are wanting and waiting for things to return to normal'. They may be disappointed!
Thanks to the 20/20 team for the amazing material they are providing.

West Coast Road (between Punakaiki and Charleston) , New Zealand

Shared was an appreciation for our resources, expressed with gratitude and humility. We have such a beautiful world here and we chose to be here.

The question to ask is " to what is it that we give our attention ?"

As we build intuition and know the deep longing for interconnectedness we need to blend science with nature spirituality.

We want to raise the subtle qualities of the feelings in our sharing between our individual selves and nature., to become more aware of not just what we may receive from nature but also of what we may be giving (while forest bathing ).

Also shared was the sense of possibility; of potential and of the recognition for meaningful action no matter how small.

And again, the awareness of the need to rewrite our story seeing the catalyst for this in our children and grandchildren.

We need a rewilding of the words as we are rewording the wilds.

Auckland, New Zealand

This month’s theme is a call to action - gardening or planting nature trails for example. People disconnected from nature are doing the most hideous things in the world. But we can still be awakened by images of nature without having access to beautiful places - for a child even looking at photos or videos of nature can be exciting.

The word “animacy” is interesting since it has connotations of intimacy. Meditation can bring us closer to the experience of connection with growing things. It’s almost like we need to go into deep consciousness to connect to the animate world.

This has been the most stimulating theme so far. But the COVID crises leads back to the theme of last month’s material - societal collapse. We can’t be divorced from nature and we also can’t know all the variables. For instance COVID-19 has had a huge positive impact on the environment and our understanding of connectivity has matured.

COVID-19 - is the world going to be totally changed by this? Gardening is more and more important - it’s so lovely to harvest to eat. On the other hand, kids are being confined inside away from nature. What effect will this have? Will they be even more divorced from nature than before.

The value of the sharing circle seems to be at least two-fold - firstly to expose us to readings and opinions we don’t seek out normally, and secondly to grow a sense of community by sharing the exploration and our reflections. In terms of nature, we are nature, everything we do and where we come from is nature, even covid-19 is nature. We are already totally connected and immersed in nature, we just need to recognise it.

The circle gives time for me to reconnect with myself, to ask myself what is the most important thing to do at this time. For me the answer is gardening. Themes of gardening have always been important to me. Gardening is a powerful connector and very contemplative. The way we frame our language is important - for example referring to the lockdown as a Rahui denotes honouring and has a prayerful intent.

Kohatu Streams, Tasman, New Zealand

Refúgio Paradiso - Botucatu - SP Brazil

We had a meeting through Zoom.

Covid-19 was present during the meeting, as an obvious, very much alive guest. We shared how each one is coping with the new situation, states of mind, etc. and how isolation changed the way we have meetings for now, among other things.

We talked about the topic addressed on the material read and watched, and how turning live creatures into things by the mere use of language affects how we treat them, science, economy, socially.. in general.

Some of us shared how close to nature we were able to be during childhood and how that affected the way we experienced the world, and how that has changed and is changing in a fast pace.

Nelson 4, Nelson, New Zealand

Image of humanity being within nature, animals and fish and people and trees. Another image is a pyramid with humanity over nature. Ego-Eco. Feeling powerfully my place within the ecosystem rather than over the ecosystem. In a nutshell: eco rather than ego.
Restoration: of ecosystems inner and outer. Feeling the health of ecosystems return and knowing that all seeds will sprout in the right causes and conditions.
I wonder what lies on the other side of the great divide?
Reconnection/new connection
Two really strong contrasting things. One is about flow, restoration, waterways, cleansing. The other one: be careful of what control we give away as individuals. Be careful of big governments in this time.
Compassion for the anxious and afraid. I am prepared to hold, I have whatever it takes.
What is real and what is not. Being alert and observant through our slowing down of what was not just the big picture but also what is happening in households, behind closed doors. What can we do about it? If we can’t connect, maybe find a place where we can hold the very ordinary. Being present with the day to day reality. Trying to find new ways of being where we can’t be.
Hard to find words for what I am feeling and sensing. There is a contrast happening. Instead of rushing around in vehicles and planes, now we have time to sink in and be. Sitting on the ground. Simple.
Family, community, connection and support. Reset.
Hope.
Greatest lost, greatest gain. Opportunity.

The Orchard Group, UK

My feedback about the pieces and the meeting is that the sun still shines, the plants still grow and that the best thing to do is to see how delicate the whole process is, how the many variables have to be in balance for it all to work. We all need to realise and to educate, demonstrate this to young people through our action.

One asks of another '' What are you expecting? '', the other says ''Flowers''. One asks '' How can you expect flowers in this terrible times? '' , the other replies '' Because I am sowing flowers ''.

The material was so much more poignant and positive than the previous one which was about the inevitability of doomsday, that it touched a sense of poignancy, a sense of lost times, lost childhood. Lost but not forgotten. It reawakened memories of my own very natural sense of being at one in nature; and how most children do not have it now. It awakened my appreciation for what we do have. It also brought up the CV pandemic and how it has shut down the world as we know it. Looking through the prism of hope rather than horror, it seems that one bug has got us further than climate change activism, global environmental summits, carbon reduction schemes and all the tree planting we can possibly do. The birds are now audible, the sky is clear and people are not dying from air pollution in Wuhan.

Words and language express our worldview and consciousness that in turn govern our disposition and behaviour toward the other-than-human world. Noun-names objectify "things" so we can exploit. Consciousness evolves in us as individuals and throughout history. Childhood if we can remember it was an intense magical experience of the world as alive and ensouled. Past cultures also experienced the soul of the world. The globalisation now "locked down" is a caricature of a truly global world, where we can imaginatively empathise and connect with all human and other-than-human beings. May corona can bring us this opportunity, but it's up to us. We are on a journey together to rediscover an old language and to create a new one, that expresses joy and love for the living world we are integrally a part.

Much to re-evalute here, especially all beings in the natural world, albeit for many hard to access at this particular time , yet even more urgent for deep connections to be made on many levels.

Words, as "in the beginning was the word” . The references to Ki and Kin and the fuller resonance to ancestors and all beings everywhere .To be aware of the words we use, especially around children who may be very fearful now.

Yes, a passion and belief of creating a better world.

Language shapes and is shaped by, not the world of things in themselves, but by our relationship to those things. The material suggests that children have an innate relationship to the natural world that acknowledges its animacy. It also suggests that a culture in which we spend less and less time in nature and speak a language that describes the natural world as inanimate “its” is leaving us impoverished and the natural world decimated. We can perhaps change this relationship for the better by paying attention to how we frame our situation and our relationship to the natural world when we express ourselves. We can reanimate the natural world in our consciousness and in doing so renew our connectedness and our care for it. We can instill in the younger generation a passion and a belief that they can create a better world rather than a fearful dread of impending doom.

Hope for the earth and our future lies in seeking, nurturing, and practicing the means to connect with, experience deeply, love, and be at one with, all beings. The material highlighted several avenues to enhance this search - for me the most powerful was the lost words and spell songs and the process around their creation. I think we all, throughout our life’s journey, discover what brings us closer to our love and connection to the world around us and what takes us away from this. For me, having the opportunity to share my own journey of discovery and experience is fundamental to grounding it and becoming more able to be ‘out there’ in a positive and constructive way that is both helpful to me and, hopefully, to others.

What struck me about the first piece and the need for children to be connected to nature was, well, of course. But not just children. As a society we are increasingly distant from nature - or think we are. Of course, in reality we are not and never will be. Children who live, as more and more of us do, in urban settings, don’t understand that their food comes from the soil, the animals and the sea, but none of us are encouraged to look too closely at exactly how. They should be, we should be. But, as Wordsworth put it in his Ode, Intimations of Immortality, 'Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close. Upon the growing Boy..’ That sense that we - all of us - progressively lose that innate sense of interconnectedness as we grow older. Without romanticising them, I think children do inhabit a world far more vividly populated by animate beings, that aren’t or don’t have names or ‘adult’ logics. We educate them out of it. So maybe it’s us who should be listening to them a little more carefully..

The second, the pictures, I liked. Which is what you’d expect. I spend a great deal of time looking at, and making, pictures. And, as we all know, every one is worth a thousand words…The ones offered struck me as good of their kind, but I didn’t spend a lot of time examining them. I’m sure I’d have learned a lot more had I done so.

The long piece about language I enjoyed. Again, a subject close to my shape-shifting heart. The ways in which naming can both help and limit interpretation and understanding - especially the idea that we are fixed human beings who cannot also be coyotes, salmon, or eagles - well, anyone who’s done a bit of meditating will know about that. I’m not always me, whoever that is, but I know I will be defined by others, as I will define them, even though they - you - routinely surprise me. The tole of language - especially those for whom English is not your first language - know in your bones how deep and surprising it is. Pictures, of course, don’t suffer from that disadvantage, until we start using language to interpret them.

The Jackie Morris/Robert Macfarlane piece is familiar territory - Jackie’s poem/drawing for Otter has, for e.g., been in the Poetry Bookshop’s window in Hay for quite some time. And I’ve worked with otter with Nick Sales on ‘Rock Songs’, a theatre/film piece that had many reflections on the many variations of names and naming. I love that stuff. More proof, if proof were needed, of the vast diversity and richness of words and naming. And much more yet to come, if Generation Z have their way (they will).

All of this topped off with a lot of coronavirus commentary and reflection. My view? That it’s the price we pay for upsetting the balance of nature - or maybe rather pushing too far into it, exploiting it and coming up against — unleashing something that we had no name for - now we do - but, as yet, no ‘cure’. We will find one, but not before there has been much suffering and death. A reminder that we are not separate from nature, whatever words or concepts we use.

The article on language reminded me of Right Speech in the Eightfold Path. Where are we “coming from” when we speak? What are our intentions/motivations? Are we coming from a place of respect?

All the material for me spoke each in their own way to “how do we relate?” and the importance of connecting. As Wendell Berry once said we will only love what we know.

To the zoom meeting:

Gosh, how heart warming to see/hear you all, that was quite wonderful. Am still feeling the impact of this meeting. Go well and safely. 2nd May same time same place?!
Although I was initially reluctant and sceptical about an on line meeting, I have to say I am really pleased we managed it, regardless of technological issues here and there.
I found the meeting powerful after I could let go of the distraction of my technological muppetry and am hoping we can continue like this for as long as we need to.
I am also thinking this may offer opportunities to connect with other groups around the world and would love to hear world-wide feedback on this.
It was a powerful experience to hear each others’ voices in that way. My listening was much more focused that meeting in the circle.

London, UK

Most of us found the material stimulating and enjoyable.
As a grandparent it affirms the importance of pointing out and affirming nature to my grandchild.
It affirms the importance of our immediate locality and relating it to our Buddhism - and affirming the preciousness of the tiniest of living creatures. Like a wren outside my window - how it could vanish without me realising it - the importance of noticing tiny precious beings against the global climate backdrop and concerns.
It reaffirmed the infinitely precious nature of all aspects of nature - if we can’t name it we don’t always see it
How to find ways of expressing our perceptions and experience in as nuanced a way as possible feels very relevant at the moment when we’re in such unchartered emotional territory and our habitual ways of expressing things may no longer be adequate.

Roberts Creek, BC, Canada

I am encouraged and feel lighter pondering the forward looking notion of "building a new civilization" rather than grappling with apocalyptic doomsday-ism. Just noticing how each of those trajectories effect my body-mind, and, my parenting.

I have always been interested as to how language maps reality, especially from the mouth of colonialism. I am thinking about the new signs here on the coast with indigenous namings. It feels like step in the right direction. SWAHA!

Natures tide is constantly changing with ebbs and flows. I feel like when my heart resonates with the ebbs and flows then there is an opportunity. And through that opportunity I enter the changes knowing, feeling, and trusting that balance will be part of the process.

It has been a long winter, a very disturbing month and a week of full on uncertainty. My response to the last issue of 2020 stimulus was similar to that of Feb. and Jan. Fear, usually my close companion, is most often absent these days. Grief, on the other hand, is never far from my heart. As is my wont I broke the rules, again, being selective about what I chose to view or read or listen to of what was offered. My whole body responded to the short video about the ill effects of indoor classroom learning as opposed to outdoor education. I am both terrified and intrigued by what is happening from the point of view of the effects of global warming to the outbreak of a pandemic. Wonder struck by the stunning photos of our incredible planet, I then scanned through the main web site and came across an interview with Joanna Macy given by Jem Bendell. Since first discovering Jem in Jan. I am now captivated by both he and Joanna’s deep compassion and sensibilities. I am completely drawn in by Joanna’s description of ‘positive disintegration’. I’ve watched this interview 3 times since the beginning of March and here we are now watching this very positive disintegration she speaks of as it unfurls itself across our world. I am amazed by the beauty and balance of Mother Nature. Her impeccable timing. There is no one to blame for this random act of Nature. The only response I seem to have to her unbridled response to the damage we have done to her, the havoc we have wrecked, is awe. I am preparing for the worst. Death crowds in close. And here at the very brink is compassion and infinite opportunity for loving kindness.

I tried to feel words in my body and notice how they feel. Notice what the body does to support the thought manifest as sound and sometimes as action. Easy example. Feel yes and no.

If I had to come up with one word that encapsulates my response it would be blessed silence. Well two words.

I was inspired by Richard Louv's talk. Even though it is 9 years old, what he said still rings true. Nature is transformative. We need to celebrate it, be out in it, take our children out in it so that they know it, are comfortable in it and love it. We need to be careful not to burden children with our own fears around climate change. Nature, while ever changing, is a positive force and young minds must be inspired and allowed to create all kinds of alternative structures and practices that can help us live more sustainably as climate change progresses.

Covid -19 is currently showing us how quickly governments and people can change and adapt. Much more of this kind of action will be needed in the future and it's young people who will be in the forefront. We need to support and encourage them. Nature is such a powerful force if we work and learn from her.

Familiar and friendly stuff.

I am now experiencing some of those children that I had taken out to experience the forest and nature who are now adults with their own children. I find the word nature cold and objectifying somehow.

Interesting article on language, and objectifying things not "human". Humans sometimes do that to themselves, referring to "the foot, the heart" when it should be my foot, my heart. Usually when there is something wrong.

Ask a child if we are animals - you'll get some interesting answers.

As the consequences of our alienation from the natural world become more apparent let us open our hearts to all sentient beings , and , with respectful awareness, ask forgiveness. " I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I love you ".

Christchurch, New Zealand

Energy and exuberance.
Wheel, hubs of light.
Energy and a still centre.
Dissolving edges, shifting the idea of separation.
Awareness and consciousness amidst nature.
A child's perspective of the world.
Tenderness of an open wound- life and energy come from this.
Not separate from nature. Knowing this unity.
Spiraling energy across the sky.

Boise, Idaho, USA

Responses are the opposite of last month, subjects easy to align with, hit home.
Made sense, hope, excitement, inspiration, fun approach to language, recognizing the power of words and the force they have sometimes get out of control, seeing our language supporting our disconnection with the natural environment; sadness and frustration of oneself and others disconnect with our natural mother earth.
Recalling childhood experiences of close connection with nature... as if part of our DNA; but experienceing this fade thru out one's life. So important to feel connected with environment.
Present these subjects as an important part of all school curriculum starting very early.
Renewed opportunity and challenge, to know the truth!
Disappointed in the lack of provocative stimulation by this theme and feeling manipulated by these varied monthly subjects, confused by so many views.
What is the truth? What is good? Is there the silver lining in all conflicts? Needed...more meditation...more retreats...looking for knowing.
Let the Earth be our lover!

Nelson Central, Nelson, New Zealand

Stimulated thought about the way, in New Zealand, we name creatures we consider pests. This gives us the right to act violently against them.
Greater awareness of the growing disconnection between humans and nature, even though we are part of nature. How skillfully to remedy this, especially for young people.
We are nature, and nature is us.
If only we could open our hearts and minds to the richness of indigenous cultures, we could open ourselves to their wisdom. We need to support our young people to connect with nature.
To be present both with listening to the wounding of the earth, which is also the wounding of ourselves, and at the same time holding this earth with love, wonder, and gratitude for all of life. If anything can save us, it is this love.

Vancouver, BC, Canada.

It was good to review the guiding principles for Community Circle Sharing.
So appreciated my father after listening to Richard Louv. Dad brought us out into nature as we were growing up — camping, hiking, fishing. Some of my happiest memories.
As a kid, I was sent out the door after breakfast and wasn’t expected back until dinner. We had so much freedom to explore outdoors, have adventure, to play. Though I don’t have children, it seems that nowadays kids are so confined by rules for safety, and play appears confined, structured. Fear is prevalent. Someone will be injured, beware of strangers...
Kimmerer’s suggestions of using the pronouns ki and kin are thoughtful but unrealistic. What’s so wrong about the pronoun it? When we refer to dogs, we never say it.
The very fact that English is a conglomeration of many ancient languages suggests an interconnectedness with nature. It is not just a language of colonization.
Richard Louv’s articulation that we must make the idea of action toward sustainability and climate change interesting and worthy of challenge for kids is timely. And, not just for kids. Negativity and fear rarely accomplishes anything.
The fact that so many of Kimmerer’s students were amazed by the introduction of ki and kin as they went out into nature was a bit much. Was relieved when there were more levelled responses from a few students. Kimmerer’s intention was good, just not practical.
The Lost Words is a unique book. It was passed around, and another copy was given out to share.
It’s beautiful and amazing to be interconnected with nature whilst one is in retreat at Wangapeka.
Lovingkindness, compassion, resilience, the dharma, prudence, goodwill - these are essential to help rebalance our experience with the world.
Doom and Gloom: Coronavirus. The seriousness of the virus cannot be overstated. People this is serious. Not hopeful it can be contained. We need to pay attention.

Motueka Central, Motueka, New Zealand

Recognition that we are already crafting lives with strong aspirations to live close with nature.
Building connections with nature is already occurring and has often driven choices to live in this region for the benefit of our children.
Eradicate fear of what is coming and trust that what is coming is for a purpose.
A critical mass is needed of people able to turn towards the difficulty and move through it.
The antidote to panic and hysteria is a conscious community, connected to others and feeling supported.

Brooklyn, Motueka, New Zealand

Grateful for the material.
Animacy: awareness of livingness within beings without hierarchy.
Connection with all - interconnectedness.
Life force.
Deepening awareness.
The balm of nature.
Seeing the space between as connection rather than something that separates.
Letting go of black and white.
A feeling of Ki and Kin with everything - related to the idea of animacy.
The world as lover.

February

Nelson 4, Nelson, New Zealand

I keep thinking this too will pass. The wipeouts. You know you're going to be ok!!! Interesting background.
A woman of privilege. It goes through the ages. Over and over again . Don’t let them run amok. I'm fond of the shape of you all.
I have a question. I wonder how the earth would be if instead of us surviving 'Neanderthals' had survived. If it would have been the other way around.
I have no idea how to summarise. I want to draw on some the of fun and spontaneity and community and love and surrendering to the process.

Get back up.
UUUUUhhhhh.
Slow
belly laugh.
Connection.
Whisper.
Community
Equipoise
The heart knows.
Passion
Gratitude

Take refuge in connection with all life.
Vibrancy in the moment.
I really want to be grateful and honour all the first life that made it possible for us to be here. I want to honour our ancestors or lineages . Everything that made it possible for us to be here and connect and share.
For some reason these words keep echoing in my head. "No animals were harmed in the making of this commercial." That would seem to be the biggest lie of all.....Turns out, our tireless obsession with Product has led to the destruction of all forms of life on the planet.
I have an image of this big monolithic building that is made out of concrete and it is falling and it falls into a web that is so, on one level, so precious and could disappear so easily. Fragile and strong and humans are.
And that is the web of contain sound community.
I just went though the washing machine through the wipeout, the grief. It's important to go there. Someone said to breathe out and really give space. Maybe my head has just popped up. There is love here in the space that is left. Taking refuge in what is here, the life that is here.

Nelson 5, Nelson, New Zealand

Our sharing on the themes of Inevitable Societal Collapse, Probable Catastrophe, and Possible Extinction, and its associated theme of Deep Adaptation, was intense and in-depth.
Often during the sharing, expressions related to how far the truth of impending catastrophe had “sunk in” to an appreciation of “the way things are” at this point in history. For the long-term environmental activists amongst us there was deeply felt anguish at the progressive ignoring of scientific data over many years, and seeing the warnings that began nearly half a century ago actually coming to pass.
Apprehending the themes was pushing up, for some of us, incredulity, horror, grief, confusion, numbness, depression, and old psychological issues, on the one hand, alongside a much increased recognition of the very special thing our planet and its biosphere actually is – and the rare and special thing that human existence is. Contemplation of the themes required an anchoring of emotional stability, which for some of us was grounded in the universal “big picture”.
One of our members brought inspiration from Maori culture and perspectives from a recent gathering at the Wangapeka Centre close to Nelson. The gathering had been inspired by Rob McGowan (Pa Ropata), emphasising the importance of Maori and indigenous peoples' perspectives and traditions, and of supporting young people to face the truths of the themes, of caring for the land and the biosphere, of passing the care message on to all, as if it were pollen being blown by the wind through a field of corn (a beautiful image).
Questions about how our Buddhist practice and the Buddhist view inform our response to the themes came up. One of us had recently received one of the warrior empowerments, which she was finding very energising towards positive responses to the climate tragedy. Others were still in the process of reconciling, if possible, the truths of impermanence, suffering, cessation, and path, with the themes – an ongoing task.
Questions relating to our individual decisions were strongly present too. Given that travel technology has enabled the scattering of our families worldwide, and that family bonds are so important, how much flying will I do to maintain them? What will I say to my family? How will I deal with their responses if negative? What about my friends? What does the situation demand that I Relinquish (one of Jem Bendell's Deep Adaptation three Rs). What in my life can I Restore?
It is difficult to encapsulate the entire richness of the sharing we did, and the commonality we expressed, so we'll leave it there for now.

The Orchard Group, UK

Our second meeting was felt as a more integrated experience with a clearer focus compared with the first one.

The February theme had triggered off some strong emotions of grief, sadness and despair.
It was also experienced as a powerful wake-up call: to face up to reality, take it on board and move on from there.
Times of uncertainty also offer the fertile ground for great changes to happen.

Some positive notes:

Meeting as a group (in the context of the Clear Vision Project) is by itself a positive response to the challenges we are facing; we are doing something of value that will have positive ramifications.
Being together and sharing our thoughts and emotions builds resilience and support our individual adaptations.
What we are doing here falls within the context of “deep adaptation” and re-connection with each others.

Despite the seriousness of the theme we found some space for humour.

The following questions came up:

“where are going from here as a group?”
“how (if) do we inter-act with other existing action groups?”

We did not elaborate on them as at this stage we are well aware of the fact that we are engaged in a as yet open-ended process.
Being part of the group though will support each individual in their actions within the framework of other groups. E.g. some of us are members of XR.
We felt the need for a deeper exploration and the understanding of “deep adaptation”.

_ _ _

NB: After the meeting one of our members sent out some further comments to our group on the article of Jem Bendell together with “A response to Jem Bendell” by Jeremy Lent which is available on the website of resilience.org.

I have put this in a separate attachment believing this be an important piece in our discussion to be made available under “resources” of the clear vision website together with a link to the website of resilience.org. Resilience is an organisation that gives support to building community resilience. They also give an on-line course on “thinking resilience”.

Kohatu Streams, Tasman, New Zealand

NBC, Nelson, New Zealand

Difficult but compelling material to contemplate.
Written material difficult for many. The video more approachable
The group meetings are an encouragement for us to explore the subjects more deeply.
Recognition that extinction is already happening.
Though the activity of the group is not to produce any specific results what we hear from each other changes us and may spur some to action in their field of interest.
Being with the unknown.
A revolution in each person’s heart is needed. Each person needs an open hearted approach.
In the face of potential doom, do we deny or explore the truth.
As we face unknown circumstances, we will need kindness guided by wisdom. When or if we should give away our last tin of baked beans.

Refúgio Paradiso - Botucatu - SP Brazil

Nelson Central, Nelson, New Zealand

Mixed feelings: anger, despair, hope.
Anger about how to integrate this information into life.
More questions than answers; more uncertainty than knowing. Sitting with that.
Empathy to compassion.
Important to stay as informed as possible, without losing hope. to hang on to the positive vision, to turn things around. I do believe humans are capable - to look after each other, to look after the planet.
Deep trust that we can hold true to our heart knowledge, and live in it, whatever may happen.

Orinoco, New Zealand

Our second circle sharing commenced with an introductory question concerning refuge.

Many if not all of us find refuge in the earth that we live in whether we recognise it or not. Its’ natural beauty inspires us while its material riches provide for us. We feel its physical connection through its gravitational pull. This can ground us and can give us a deeper sense of connection. Individually, we consciously make this connection to the earth before we start our circle sharing.
What if the Earth as we know it no longer felt like a source of refuge to us - ‘for us human beings’? Where then would we find some other form of refuge?
A geode was placed in the centre of the circle and represented a manifestation of the earths natural beauty. The geode was in two pieces and when opened revealed the hidden crystalline beauty within. This object of beauty, as passed from person to person, was a reminder of what lies inside us if we allow ourselves to reveal what is hidden there.
Many of us found fears coming to the fore when reading the material presented by Jem Bendell and watching the video presentation. He revealed a future (in our lifetime) that was not very welcoming if not bleak ~ a future we did not want to know about. This made us uneasy.
Yet what he expressed felt authentic, truthful and coming from the heart ~ revealing a refreshing leadership which is not common amongst today's leaders whether in the corporate world or political arena. Some of us expressed a wish for more leadership of this sort in today’s world.
All of us recognised that the material presented had had some kind of impact on us and in some cases was still having an affect - a gradual affect as if we were still waking up to what had been revealed. There was something we had been ignoring or even ignorant of.
To some there was the understanding that we human beings as individuals or as a mass are witnessing a colossal change that is beyond our control, our manipulation or ability to change.What do we do with this new awareness? How does this change our view of Life?
Others believed and hoped that humankind would still find the answers to solving the woes of the world.

A number of salient points and valuable questions have emerged from the scientific opinion offered and hypothetical (What If?) presented by Jem Bendell:

To be made aware of the imminent loss of ‘our’ environment, an environment which has been taken as a given up until recently, is now a catalyst for cherishing what truly is important to us – not unlike the experience of a near death. As such, this moment could be seen as one of great opportunity - for a shift of view and a radical change of perspective.
The causes of our current struggle have been made explicitly clear. What makes this particularly poignant is that we are all responsible in some part. There is not one individual we can blame and then feel we’re off the hook and carry on as normal. Instead we are in this together both in terms of cause and effect and result. We humans are interdependently the cause of our current struggles and will interdependently experience the effects of these causes. We will also interdependently experience the result (affect) of these causes and effects. What does this unique set of circumstances evoke in us?
With this new knowing where and what is the source of our Resilience? What is being asked of us to give up – Relinquish? What will we recreate – Restore? How and what is our new vision evolving into, now?
An appreciation for what others had shared/offered - how this had broadened the individual view of things and affirmed the commitment to this process.

A ‘What if’ Poem

What if your attention was a love song?
Your awareness a holy offering.
Indeed, the most holy of all offerings.
What if your attention was the greatest gift you have to give?
Great enough to transform your humble breath
And your simple footfall into a passionate kiss for the wild Earth.
And what if loneliness was just a dream
And lovelessness an illusion?
For what if the sun had forever been loving you
With each moment of light, and the moon,
And even the darkness too.
And the earth,and her million glories had always been holding you
In a seamless embrace.
And what if you loved like that also?
Loved this life so fiercely you saw beauty in the ugliest of places?
And wounds became wonders.
If you loved so much that even pain had purpose.
If even the most terrible of things would find a place to rest
At last In your heart.
What if all this earth really needed was for us to remember?
For us to be here,
Really be here
For our hearts to open like the spiralling arms of a galaxy.
For us to surrender our tight bones into turquoise seas
And to gather together in the high mountain pass
And circle around the fire
And beneath the mandala of the trees.
And for our tears to rain freely on all the seeds patiently waiting.
What if our attention was a love song?
Our awareness a holy offering
And this moment and every moment
A kiss For the passionate Earth.

Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Sense of indignation and powerlessness about the imminent change in Brazilian legislation on the protection of indigenous lands and the possibility of the current government to approve mining and agriculture in protected areas.

Contact with disbelief and disillusion of what can be done individually and collectively.

Despite the sadness caused by the imminent ecological catastrophe, the belief that this new generation emerge with a new mentality and conscience capable of transformation.

The importance and value of being able to exercise, in contact with the group, openness to contact with feelings as diverse as pain, fear, anger, guilt, helplessness, etc. Even though it is still a very diffuse and defended contact.

The inspiring idea of leaving a development perspective to enter a movement of implication;

The 3rd R (restore) gives the impression of also having a do, in addition to a deep and shared feeling.

Evaluation of the comforts that you still don't want to give up (2nd R).

May the Walk is more supportive and less lonely.

London, England

Appreciation of resources.
We found them challenging, questioning, shocking and found value in all three of these.
Tension between isolating/withdrawing responses and sharing/involving responses.
Interested in connections between climate crises, group psychology and political crises.
Not utterly overwhelming sense of despair, but sharing, coming together creatively (including Extinction Rebellion) and non-violently.

West Coast Road (between Punakaiki and Charleston) , New Zealand

Newly Awakened hears the message and struggles to accept but begins to question priorities of the life.
Patience and Tact keeps an open mind and heart with loving understanding and compassionate protectiveness.
The Devotee of Life with undimmed optimism inspires courage to see one's way through.
Confused thinks all is too difficult and considers an inner plea to flee but summons determination to remain and grow.
Harmony and Dissonance rumble with anger and sadness though soothed by existing beauty and knows the mountain whereon form dies.
Equanimity monitors the thoughts moment by moment and keeps the feet on the ground.
Doubt challenges the premise and warns against hidden agendas and fear driven beliefs and suggests more (co2) may be better.
Alternative Science moves on a parallel path guided by whakapapa.

Yet all arrive in unity before the same door declaring that business as usual cannot continue and recognizing the great need for the creation of a new story.

The story to carry all into the journey ahead.
Through the door of transition.

Auckland, New Zealand

The material provided a rich source for people’s reflection.
The interpretation Bendell presents of the data that society will collapse in the near-term surprised everyone in the circle and is definitely disturbing.
Several people commented that it was also galvanising in a helpful way, in the same way as learning that one has cancer can have the effect of waking you up to what matters in life.
But our circle’s resident scientist was at pains to point out to the rest of us laymen that in reality Bendell’s view is only that -another, albeit well informed, interpretation of the available data.
And some of us pondered how we can respond to his view? The view that society will collapse within the decade seems too important to just believe from one person. It needs support from many voices in order to convince.
However we all agreed that the value of what he is presenting is to encourage us to live AS IF society will collapse in the near-term, whether or not it will come to pass. And having that mindset certainly is a game changer.

Roberts Creek, BC, Canada

Unknowable suffering.
Fear leads to despair, despair leads to some kind of positive - wholesome state.
Still finding that line between feeling and dealing.
Its going to be a crazy ride on the helter skelter. Hold on tight to the 3 jewels.
Shattered and disjointed, many emotions bubbling up and bursting. Need to be vocal, speak out.
Wholesome engagement, what is reliable? What is the opportunity? Instill faith everywhere.
Take responsibility for mind states and actions.

Vancouver, BC, Canada

Difficult and distressing to read the first time when the Deep Adaptation Agenda was first published. Just as difficult and distressing to re-read last week. Very academic. Lots of stats. The video made the theme clearer. Repetition good. Where do you stand in the face of social collapse due to climate change? Would you kill someone who broke in to your home to steal your food?
(Video) Liked Jem’s view of the potentiality of the world, the potentiality of humans. Liked the questions. What do we value? What do we stand for? Taking things to the heart.
Just want to live life as well as we can. Feels like we have a head start, though I am more distressed from the reading this week than I was when I first read it last week. Video was easier to contemplate.
None of this is new. For many other peoples and cultures of the world the threat of famine, drought, disease and despair is how people live and have lived for centuries. Western culture is just hitting the bubble now, because it’s affecting the privileged part of the world. We’re just becoming part of the cycle. No big deal. It’s no surprise. We’re all going to die. Humans have always been the problem and never the solution.
Frustrating to read. We know all this. Nothing new. I feel powerless that I can’t do a thing. I stopped recycling recently when I discovered what really happens to all the collected recycling. It’s always a toss between feeling very jaded and wondering if there is anything I can do to help.
We’ve been kept in the dark about this for so long. Remember the 80s? The ozone layer? But the despair will lead to something. We have to advocate with being with it rather than sitting around hoping something will miraculously fix it. Think Flood Culture.
The paper was academic. I’m glad he was speaking to academia, that ivory tower. What if we allowed ourselves to know where we stand? Does this change our response?
I’m worried that panic and a crowd mentality will bring out the zealots. I don’t want to see all that violence. I don’t want to be around for that. I don’t want to drink the Kool-aid.
Ativan is the answer! (Lots of laughter)
What is the quality of consciousness to be carried forward? If we stay focussed not with hope but with mindfulness, compassion and open-heartedness, we carry forward strong, and positive energy.
Only so much one can take when it all seems so bleak. But despair is a transition - there will be something on the other side.
Civilization is like a heat engine. It takes so much to get it started and to keep it going. Future communities will require mindfulness, compassion and open-heartedness to be sustainable.
So appreciative to be part of this circle. Jem Bendell seemed to use more loving words in the video: kind, joyful, curious. Made him warmer. He stressed the importance of a profound and loving connection with nature. It’s all a process and our circle is a part of that process.
Do as the Buddha said: appo Deepo Bhava —“Be a light unto yourself.”

Online Group: NZ/Tauranga, Brasil/Ilha Grande, NZ/Thames, NZ/Tahunanui, NZ/Motueka Valley, Brasil/Campinas.

what can we cultivate and what can I change or learn to react skill fully in difficult times.
we will never know how we will react until the time comes to react.
a certain overpowering feeling that others have control and do things without us knowing.... an example was all the satellites in the night sky.
how people , intelligent people can starting believable discussions and arguments based on fear trying to not having to deal with the situation or trying to deny it.
can we let all the stories into our hearts and can we deal with that... sometimes it's all to much to let it enter our being.
believe of how bad humans are or can be , loosing a bigger picture of love.
acknowledging fear and sadness.

Boise, Idaho, USA

Scientist will solve it...optimistic...is that denial...sadness? We are in a different world. What is important? Deeper reflection and thinking needed.
Appreciated the article but already knew the possible outcome - not sad, must make changes in life style.
Questioning author's data. Not understanding his facts need to do more research - get charged up. It is beyond one individual's influence. But change is needed for future children and vulnerable people. More meditation is needed. Academia is a terrible environment for tearing apart each other, this author is an outlier.
Really really really annoyed by the author's mind manipulation, spin for doom dayer, he is a cult. Where was he coming from? Pissed off, why did 2020 committee choose this guy? People are afraid. Pain has to be bad to initiate change. How will I change?
Shock treatment to deal with catastrophe. There is suffering in clinging to the way things are., Yes we should be affecting positive changes.
Feel depression - hopelessness - doom - have experienced these feelings before about life. All things change.
Trust for the teachers and wise ones. Compassion and joy solves problems. More love.

Belmont, SW France

gratitude to go through catastrophic moments
acceptance of cycles, developments, extinctions
accepting we are not so big and influential as we think we are
there is a bigger picture and we are present to it
balance fear with compassion
acceptance of death
we are connected, so our being does affect humanity on a collective level
positive feeling of challenges and adventures, finding solutions

Christchurch, New Zealand

Important to keep a lightness and sense of humor, but keep the depth….kamate kamate ka ora ka ora.
The power of listening without other comment is such a relief. It gives space. Coming from the heart feels so important.
Take action and don’t be afraid to share the possibilities of what may happen. The process is not exhausting. People are just listening.
The circle holds the space for individuals which is lovely.
The circle helps to practice non-judgement and knee jerk reactions (for and against) to what someone is saying. Brings a sense of community.
Liked the emphasis on the positive of looking deeply and seeing what can we do? If there is very little stay with the present. Negativity can lead to despair.
Being mindful of our actions and the interconnectedness of everything. Being accountable for what we do and how this affects ourselves and others.
Noticed the map of the world on the 2020 site and then the corono virus world map. Thought “what if this circle process is like a good virus, passed from human to human? A positive contamination of the world”!
The circle is an invitation to consider these difficult issues.
There is a reaction to the formality of the circle and the difficult content we are looking at. Feel a need to break out and have fun!
The content this month created a series of feelings…panic, then blame, denial and then action…what can I do?
It is important to question. To have bravery.
Noticed the process of listening and letting the information in. Not necessarily doing anything with it.
The impermanence of all arising, despite opinion.
Grief runs through this work. Accepting the grief, despair and negativity.

Motueka Central, Motueka, New Zealand

Really feeling the despair and grief, coming through it to a lighter place
The potentiality of humans to come together and connect
Essential living instead of peripheral living
Loving, connected living, being alive.
How do we integrate this process of despair and moving through into love and joy before the tragedy?
This love is our human-ness
The need to continue to remove the blinkers

Brooklyn, Motueka, New Zealand

Slowing down "of" ......and entering into the space to hear and feel "us".
Sitting in the one space grounded in the present, neither one side nor the other.
The space had anchored me in the sense of inter-being.
Evolution of consciousness.
An awakening of community.
Sitting and being; taking more time was valuable instead of planning and doing.
An experience of warmth and nourishment.
An experience of vulnerability.
Appreciation to be able to explore post-despair and the growth to come.
A feeling of kindness in the communication interchange, not necessarily in words.

January

Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Appreciation of the proposed practices for opening and closing the meeting.
Relief and joy of having a holding environment where pain, suffering, and helplessness can be validated and shared, as well as sensitivity to environmental, political, economic and humanitarian issues.
Gratification for the possibility of developing listening skills.
The film's echoed question: Where from to get a hope of all this? Mobilizing the recognition of particular forms of action in the world - even if not resolutive.

The Orchard Group, UK

Gratitude was expressed for the material which was appreciated as being of the right amount.
The circle sharing was perceived as a powerful experience and the process itself was seen as part of the change needed.
Small personal actions will not be enough but participating in this project will support a change of consciousness on a larger scale and help to change things.
It may help to reach a tipping point in general awareness as the basis for the change needed.
Be the change you wish to see.
Some of us expressed the wish to have access to the material a bit earlier in order to have more time to digest it. Others preferred to see it just before the date of the meeting.

Nelson 5, Nelson, New Zealand

appreciation for the opportunity of the Circle to share thoughts and feelings.
the empowerment that comes from sharing.
concern for the degradation of the ecosphere (plastic and more).
concern about the crisis for future generations (animals and humans).
how inadequate such a short sharing is for the size of the topics brought up.
the power of being fully present for others.
desire for the joy of working with others.
doubt that people (even friends) will be there when needed.
family bonds and how death affects them.
the discipline of noticing one's own responses without needing to share them.

Nelson Central, Nelson, New Zealand

To listen deeply from our hearts. How are the materials we have studied resonating for us right now? These are some of the themes that emerged in our group.

Our profound love for this earth, and the wonder of interconnected life.
Our anguish and grief at the wounding of Mother Earth and her children.
Looking with compassion at our need to turn away from our grief and helplessness.
Rather, to commit ourselves to see and to feel. This is a conscious act of courage and love. We are willing to bear witness, to raise the question.
The richness of listening in our group, allows love to take us to deeper places of connection, of creative hope, and the transformation of our despair.
Awareness. How we live in the most ordinary seeming details of our lives, even when what we do singly seems unable to make any difference? The plastic in the oceans, which kills the albatross, is us, and is the doing of our human ignorance.
The journey of innocence, of vulnerability, of uncertainty, of not knowing. How can we travel supporting our own and one another's wellness, attending to our internal weather? To travel with open and loving hearts.

"What we most need to do, is to hear within us the sounds of the earth crying." - Thich Nhat Hanh

NBC, Nelson, New Zealand

About half the feedback comments were very positive responses to the circle process. The other half were responses to the ecological crisis and other existential threats life on earth is facing. The group became deeply engaged in the process straight away.

Regarding the circle process, comments like, “a space to be heard”, “an opportunity to express oneself deeply”, “the commonality of views expressed”, how speaking spontaneously rather than planning a comment was exciting and how the process gave rise to less repetition – once something had been heard, it didn’t need repeating, affirming or denying.

Considering the predicaments facing us by climate change and other threats, our lack as a species of recognising our interconnectedness with each other and the environment and our selfishness were raised. What each individual does matters. It’s not just work for leaders and that no one else’s contributions count. We need to be open-hearted, learning how to be active and engaged with difficult issues without causing harm from frustration or other negative emotions.

Our recognition of our wasteful habits has become more vivid - the daily stream of plastic waste. At the same time, there was appreciation of the great beauty that this world displays. Also, the issues have paradoxes. The plastic IV tube in a bird’s stomach that caused its death possibly saved someone else’s life.

Great transformational and interconnected change in society and the world’s economy is required. New Zealand, because of its small size and population is well placed and better placed than many to enact such changes.

Nelson 4, Nelson, New Zealand

Spontaneity, essence
Despair to empowerment
Despair is only one response and there are many more
Be with the beauty
Gratitude for the diversity of expression of truth
Whichever emotional response is felt leads to more energy available
Is some level of numbing, distraction, necessary?
The results of opening are unpredictable
Mother Earth knows best how to tame her unruly children
I am grateful for the medicine of being human
We begin a journey
May our children be empowered without needing to be in despair first
If I put my heart in a fridge and the power was turned off, what would I find if I came back two weeks later? Was it melted? Was it rotten? Or had it flown away?
Sensory overload of information
May aliens be on our side

Auckland, New Zealand

People in the circle clearly shared their own personal response to the material and we all recognised the benefit of hearing people’s different perspectives. What was most interesting was that each person brought forward a different focal point.

Everyone was very impressed by the feeling of presence of Joanna Macy. One person had experimented with the question someone posed in the video to others about the most important crisis in the world today. Someone else commented on the imagery of being the bell in the Rilke poem, others reflected on the ordinary content in the stomachs of the albatrosses. In terms of emotional response, the most reported response was one of being heartened by the good work being done by people in the video.

The circle consensus was that it feels as if the circle itself is in the forming stage and we are all trying to understand how to engage together with the process.

Questions arose as to how to enrich the sharing process. Suggestions were made that participants could keep in mind when reporting considerations such as memories invoked and calls to action experienced as well as emotional response. Some people requested more time for viewing the material prior to the circle to allow more time to reflect and to experience their response within their own life prior to sharing their response in the circle.

Refúgio Paradiso - Botucatu - SP Brazil

Gratefulness for the opportunity of coming together for an activity such as this one, of being able to meet.

Feelings of empathy towards what is happening to other beings on the planet, and how our daily actions impact their welfare.

Gratefulness for getting to know Joanna Macy and the Work That Reconnects.

Expressions of love for the planet.

Vancouver, BC, Canada

Joanna Macy’s video left a strong “dying dream” feeling. However I appreciate her recommendation to acknowledge whatever feelings are arising and that it’s ok to feel that way.

I am struck by my own “ostrich feeling” – a guilty feeling for ignoring what is happening out there. I have stopped reading the papers because the news is so depressing. I draw so much strength from the Dharma group. At the same time, I’m aware of the contradictions in my own behaviours such as using so many oil products when I know it’s not good.

I often think of the Buddha as doctor – humanity is on the operating table and it looks very scary. Thoughts of the end of the world keep arising in the way that many endings of past civilizations have occurred in previous times. Grass roots movements are very important even if it feels like planting a garden by the edge of the ocean and waiting for the next wave.

Growing up in the 50s and 60s things were always meant to get better and result in everyone awakening to a brighter future. That dream feels broken but I don’t want to live in a state of grief even if I sink into it from time to time. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious solution but how can we respond? Choosing who we are is important.

My instinct is to not hurt people’s feelings but I hold extreme anger and frustration at the actions of older people in creating the mess that we are now in. I want to shape a vision of how we can be better by putting this in the form of stories. I want to inject compassion into this work. I have incredible rage about what is happening but know that we are all in this together.

How will we choose to be together when things don’t go well? I believe that people are good even when conditions are bad. Would I share my place, my food with others when things get bad? I hope I can show compassion in difficult circumstances. I see friends stockpiling for themselves but feel I can’t say anything. Sending out compassion to them is really difficult when I’m feeling just the opposite. I’m impressed by people who laugh even during their own suffering.

I want to meet Joanna Macy! She’s calm in a place where the difficulties keep coming. I limit my access to news but I’m still curious about it. Friendships are islands of sanity. I saw a recent video of scientists/vets retrieving eggs from one of two white rhinos left on the planet. I was moved by them all laying their hands on the rhino at the end – a blessing of goodwill. May this work continue with compassion and supreme alertness.

I’ve been noting the different channels of energy in the group and an awareness and appreciation of the differences in everyone. I have found it’s good to check in on relationships with others I come into contact with – physical, emotional and mental states – as a basic way of connecting with one another.

I think it’s really helpful to check out other people’s coping strategies.

In childhood I was made aware of basic facts about the bomb but it felt like it was left there and no positive ways of dealing with it were offered. Similarly, pictures of Auschwitz were around at that time but no one would explain it all to me. It was impossible for me to deal with and the cruelty still feels unrecognized. I think that bombs are not made by people interested in life!

I have gratitude for being in this situation where we can discuss these issues. It’s hard to avoid negativity as it often feels like it’s everywhere. There is also gratitude for connection to Dharma. I can’t imagine being without it to face the issues. Contemplation of the asuba practices as described in the Visuddhimagga is important at this time. Grief seems to be more on the surface now rather than at a deep level. The whole of civilization could end before the end of humanity!

I appreciated the sense of community that emerged in the video pointing to the strengths of coordinated group action to solve problems large and small.

On retreat, we had a microscope set up while we brought back samples of anything we could find outdoors and view it closely. Life exists everywhere on everything! This is the sixth mass extinction that we’re going through! I don’t want us to spread humanity through the galaxy. I believe that creating apocalypse fantasy can bring people together by being able to think through and articulate ways out of seemingly impossible situations.

As a species, I think we’re pretty cool as long as we don’t destroy everything. We need to hang on to positivity as there are so many cool things happening.

We should be looking more closely at time/space, permanence/impermanence, time as commodity (Ken Wilber). Human time is insignificant in the overall scheme of things. Every minute we’re losing 25,000 cells from each of our bodies.

Roberts Creek, BC, Canada

Uncertainty keeps us awake

The power of presence, intention+ grassroots action.
Walking over-view deeptime.
Guilt, shame, hopelessness, but a resolve for change ,and the hope that offers.
Each person in the circle said something that I deeply recognized as a part of myself.
Opportunity.
Discerning awareness and impotent RAGE!
Thinking of this as the blessed Buddha field, we offer it.
So grateful for the heart-felt sharing and wisdom shown.

West Coast Road (between Punakaiki and Charleston) , New Zealand

With our tentative beginnings in this process we all shared a deep gratitude for our immediate West Coast environments. Despite our concerns and fears for the future and the futures for our grandchildren it is important to see the beauty around us, that we have right now and to offer our thanks.

Expressions of deep grief for the damage done and especially for the loss of habitats and creatures from the Australian fires.
An imploring to search for strength and positivity. It is important to remain strong and loving. To continue to love all and our families (even those members of our family who like guns).
Managing our own internal weather to be able to be aware and ready and connected.
Through our uncertainties may we become more courageous and wise.

Gracious gratitude.

Kohatu Streams, Tasman, New Zealand

Boise, Idaho, USA

Seeing renewed fear of total destruction (Trump).
Recognising the egotistical attitude of humans. Is there value in just being witness to decimation? Is this self-inflicted suffering due to clinging to a view of the way it should be?
We need to help animals out of there.
Sadness has been suppressed. Realising sadness is a gift of awareness.
Having developed immunity to despair - creates guilt. Is this good or bad? Absence of hope due to Trump. Frustration with people.
Despair morphing to anger causing confusion. Recognising the toxic nature of holding anger in.
Developing appreciation through the beauty of science and all the possible solutions. We need to extend our view of the possibilities to solve these problems because somewhere in the universe this has already been conceived.
How do we motivate to the next step, is that through this 20/20 Vision or because of Trumps bad actions. Realising the vast interconnectedness fuels the move to action or to letting go.
Remembering the smallest action can make the biggest impact.
Emphasising the need to be in a good state.
Hope!

London, England

Appreciation for the materials and the opportunity to share and talk about them + agreement that, in terms of quantity, the team providing these resources had got it right.
The importance of connectivity and the sharing of key issues in our time between individuals and groups.
A request for more contentious material – expressing different/a range of views
An awareness of the sense of feeling numb/paralysed by guilt or of simply turning away from the magnitude of the climate crisis issue.
A desire to be clearer about what is meant by ‘the work that reconnects’ and of what it is possible for an individual to do in relation to climate crisis.
The importance of speaking more openly about our feelings when there is disagreement or conflict between us

Belmont, SW France

•   Anchored state of gratitude
• Possibility of change
• Already happening the change to positive
• Not too late
• To start with oneself - be the change you want to see
•    Through the circle feeling the connectedness, feeling not alone, a strengthening feeling
•    Importance of unconditional listening
• Feeling (without judgment) is healing

Christchurch, New Zealand

Thankful that the circle group process creates connection and spontaneity
A space of respectfully listening to others, letting the judgment voice drop, not coming up with solutions. Quiet connection.
Feelings of despair. It is beneficial to see how others work with this.
The format is surprising. Things come up that probably wouldn’t in ordinary conversation.
Actively listening requires energy.
The circle creates safety.

Orinoco, New Zealand

Our Circle responded to the material presented this month in a variety of ways. The feelings and emotions expressed were fear, confusion, scepticism, despair, helplessness, grief, agitation, dissonance, guilt, anger, ignorance, resistance and gratitude.

How do we find balance and calm in our individual worlds where we carry on with our day to day life activities, routines and experiences as is ‘normal’, while becoming more aware of the destruction and growing threat to the earths’ natural environment & living organisms along with the part we play in that with our ‘normal’ ways of acting and being in the world? How and what do we do with the dissonance this stirs in us?

Stirrings of both a maternal and paternal nature arose, especially for those who have children and those wanting to or considering having children. With the knowledge of how the natural environment is being threatened by an ever growing human consumption and pollution how will life be for our children and future generations? Should I be considering having children at all?

Individually I feel helpless in dealing with such a pervasive and deeply imbedded and dysfunctional form of relating to the natural world especially when I have bought into it. What can I, one individual, do?

A sense of gratitude emerged from being part of a group of humans who have chosen to connect with others through expressing and sharing in a circle openly and honestly about our inner, individual stirrings and concerns about the precious world we live in.

Online Group: NZ/Tauranga, Brasil/Ilha Grande, NZ/Thames, NZ/Tahunanui, NZ/Motueka Valley, Brasil/Campinas.

Gratefulness and importance for the openness to connect
Confusion and many questions that arise
The numbness we can all experience , how can we try as much to be open to feel
That we are all part of the process of healing the earth
We don't like to be told what to do
Being or training to be robust to have the capacity to deal with all of what is going on and what will happen
Renunciation, what can we do in our lives that can make a change for the healing of the earth, really looking into what we can renounce on a day to day base
The wisdom and wholesomeness of Sangha and connection, deep appreciation for the support and sharing , grounding and strengthening, warming our hearts

Motueka Central, Motueka, New Zealand

Active hope
Widening horizons
Fear connected to the future of our children
Feelings of despair
Longing for calmness
A willingness to change the self centred approaches we have found ourselves in
Starting a dialogue
What else can we imagine our responses to be
Imagining hope.

Brooklyn, Motueka, New Zealand

A strong theme emerged from the group of gratitude, and appreciation to the team for setting up the project. Many people spoke of the opportunity to try something new.
Some spoke of surrender and open-heartedness.
Others mentioned the sensation of time standing still during the circle. Also there was a sense of connectivity, creativity and the possibility of exploring different ways of being.
Most people mentioned being deeply touched and sometimes overwhelmed by the footage of the albatrosses.

Questions raised:

Could the lunar calendar could be used instead of the Gregorian?
Why do we circle clockwise?
Would the group like to explore other orders of speaking in the circle? In response to this, we talked about the value of first using a tried and tested process to establish a container of trust, before trying new ideas.

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