This is my favourite TED talk - and the first of three posted as preparation for the CommonGround Dialogue, part of the Nelson, New Zealand NZARM conference in October 2008. Enjoy!
August 14th, 2008
Benjamin Zander: Classical music with shining eyes
August 13th, 2008
Clay Shirky: Institutions vs. collaboration
Clay Shirky’s talk at Web 2.0 Expo SF 2008 might better reflect his thinking in 2008 after publication of his book “Here comes everybody“, but the TED talk is a good watch. This is the second of three TED talks I’m posting as preparation for the upcoming CommonGround dialogue.
August 13th, 2008
Karen Armstrong: A Charter for Compassion
This is one of three TED talks I’m posting as preparation for the CommonGround Dialogue in October. Karen Armstrong takes us to the common ground of compassion between the three great monotheistic traditions and other deep wisdom traditions.
July 29th, 2008
A vision of active citizenship
This is a vision for us all. What would it take for us to generate a world where young people could grow up with this future?
July 19th, 2008
A Generational Challenge to Repower America - Al Gore
“This is a generational moment. A moment when we decide our own path and our collective fate. I’m asking you - each of you - to join me and build this future. Please join the WE campaign at wecansolveit.org. We need you. And we need you now. We’re committed to changing not just light bulbs, but laws. And laws will only change with leadership.On July 16, 1969, the United States of America was finally ready to meet President Kennedy’s challenge of landing Americans on the moon. I will never forget standing beside my father a few miles from the launch site, waiting for the giant Saturn 5 rocket to lift Apollo 11 into the sky. I was a young man, 21 years old, who had graduated from college a month before and was enlisting in the United States Army three weeks later.I will never forget the inspiration of those minutes. The power and the vibration of the giant rocket’s engines shook my entire body. As I watched the rocket rise, slowly at first and then with great speed, the sound was deafening. We craned our necks to follow its path until we were looking straight up into the air. And then four days later, I watched along with hundreds of millions of others around the world as Neil Armstrong took one small step to the surface of the moon and changed the history of the human race.We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.”
May 10th, 2008
Pangea Day
Pangea Day is a global event bringing the world together through film. Why? In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that – to help people see themselves in others – through the power of film.The Pangea Day EventStarting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.The 24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person’s eyes.The program will also include a number of exceptional speakers and musical performers. Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, musician/activist Bob Geldof, and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova are among those taking part. See related links from Wikipedia, WorldChanging.com, CS Monitor and the New York Times.
April 12th, 2008
Seeking the source of Gandhi’s work
Last evening, 11 April 2008, Philip Glass’ Opera Satyagraha opened at the New York Met. On Sunday evening a public forum at the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine will echo back the collective reflection and inquiry of a group spending the weekend in meditation and dialogue. They seek to uncover the contribution that the lineage of Gandhi, King, and others around the world might make to social movements in this generation and the next; and, what new capacities mindfulness, contemplative and reflective practices can build for a world confronting complex and emergent challenges. This is a journey that begins - but does not complete - this weekend.
April 10th, 2008
“The fierce urgency of the now” - Martin Luther King
” We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to … take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. … Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. …. We cannot walk alone.” The global conditions presented by climate change, mass dislocations and resource wars, arms sales, peak oil, population growth (see The Shift Report, Institute of Noetic Sciences) represent as great a challenge to justice for present and future generations as humanity has ever confronted.This video is the original video of Martin Luther King’s speech - “I have a dream”. The reference to Gandhi’s satyagraha - soul force - rings out.
March 23rd, 2008
Towards a transformational ecology
“Be the change you want to see in the world“. Gandhi This blog is series of reflections - a product of inquiry, research, reflections and conversations over these weeks leading up to Gandhi’s sixtieth, and Martin Luther King’s fortieth year commemorations. The Garrison Institute New York is beginning an initiative on Transformational Ecology, beginning with the Satyagraha Project. The initiative includes a particular focus on the lineage of Gandhi and others who have provided inspirational leadership in times of crisis and profound large-scale change. What are the lessons for us to learn? Do the current times call for a new salt march - a grass roots community based global initiative? What would be the underlying - or the inner - conditions that would need to enable such a global movement for the common good? Gandhi used the term Sarvodaya meaning ‘universal uplift’ or ‘progress of all’. It speaks to a commitment to a world that works for everyone with no-one left out. Without love - without an open heart - nothing makes sense.
March 22nd, 2008
The Satyagraha Project
The project is an exploration of Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of nonviolent struggle, satyagraha or “truth force,” part of lineage of thought which also includes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King, Jr, in a new context - that of climate change and the deep social and environmental changes we must make in our time.Garrison Institute Satyagraha Project events include a retreat and a free, public event April 13 at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City. The Cathedral event features Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhi’s biographer and grandson, performances by Philip Glass, Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, founder of Sri Lanka’s Sarvodaya movement; Sulak Sivaraksa, founder of the Thailand Spirit in Education Movement, and other distinguished participants.
