The Charter of Compassion

When Karen Armstrong won the 2008 TED prize to work on a project of her choice, she created a "Charter for Compassion". The Charter was designed to bring together voices from all religions and backgrounds and remind the world that while all faiths are not the same, they all share the core principle of compassion.

In this moving video, Karen and many other friends lay out a beautiful narrative as an invitation into this collective inquiry:

Learn More and Participate: Here

An Open Letter to President Elect Barack Obama

The SDi framework can be a powerful tool for facilitating change. Let us 'hope' that Barak Obama is a man of conviction and vision - enough so to use the best and most insightful approaches available.

An Open Letter on the Middle East to President Elect Barack Obama

From Elza S. Maalouf
Center for Human Emergence-Middle East
25 November 2008

Dear President Elect Obama,

Your election was celebrated by young Arabs all over the Middle East. In Syria they call you "Abu Hussein," an endearing term given to politicians they feel close to. Young people affiliated with our center in Kuwait, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Palestine wished they had the right to vote for you. Lebanese youth proudly wore Obama T-shirts. "Yes we can" quickly became a slogan heard on Arab streets and our young people added "Yes we will." This enthusiasm for an American political figure is unprecedented in the Arab world. For this and for the sake of global well-being we hope that your administration seizes the moment to help facilitate emergence in the Arab world; an emergence that will be lead by young- progressive Arab leaders and supported by a US administration that is ready to pioneer fresh approaches in foreign policy.

It is no secret that the key to restoring our credibility in the Arab world, is by –first and foremost- resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For several years the Center for Human Emergence Middle East (CHE-ME) has dedicated its resources to uncovering the blockages that have prevented sustainable peace from taking root. We believe that in order for any Middle East peace road map to succeed, a Palestinian Systemic Development Map has to be implemented first. Together with our Palestinian partners we have been working on a grass roots movement called "Build Palestine Initiative" in which we identified specific developmental steps that are congruent with the Palestinian value-systems and will be most effective in building capacities in Palestinian society. This movement has gained critical mass among progressive Palestinians who advocate self-reliance and we simply must continue supporting them.

Your choice of Chief of Staff and Secretary of State was met with a lot of apprehension in the Arab media. Polls show that over 60% of Arabs think that both Rahm Emanuel and Senator Clinton will be pro-Israel. The way we see it at the CHE-ME is that under the mandate for change that you are leading, pro-Israel should mean the following:

1. A US administration that's actively participating in creating a peaceful
neighboring Palestinian state.

2. A US administration that supports Israel in becoming a full evelopment partner to the Palestinians in business, education, healthcare and progressive social programs.

3. A US administration that supports the Palestinians in creating a vision of 21st Century Palestine where both states can thrive and let thrive.

The Center for Human Emergence-Middle East will be presenting to your administration a position paper detailing our culturally-fit approach to solving the conflict, the breakthrough results we have achieved so far on a grass roots level, and recommended systemic strategies for ushering in sustainable peace.

Real change in the Middle East and in Palestine must come from new ways of thinking, fresh approaches to understanding cultural dynamics, and innovative ways to actually meet the developmental needs of people. We are certain you recognized many of these principles in your work in community development in south Chicago. Simply "doing more of the same" that has produced this situation, will not bring the outcome we all desire.

As a proud Arab-American I am encouraged to see the most powerful democracy in the world having the potential to become the most conscious democracy under your leadership. My hope is that the enthusiasm you brought to Arab youths is sustained by a bold action-plan that can support transformation and emergence in the Middle East.

Respectfully,
Elza S. Maalouf
Chief Executive Officer
Center for Human Emergence- Middle East

Elza S. Maalouf is the CEO of the Center for Human Emergence-Middle East, a non-profit research and strategic design center that integrates different modes of thought and value-system priorities with geo-economic elements within the Arab world. She is leading innovation within the Islamic Arab world to identify complex thinking that will facilitate the emergence of Arabs into their 21st century Renaissance.

Learn More About the Center for Human Emergence: Here

Chicago's Social Justice Solidarity High School Hits Snags

Chicago's Social Justice Solidarity High School Hits Snags

by Kelly Kilpatrick

The Windy City is in the throes of a firestorm of controversy regarding the proposed opening of the Social Justice Solidarity School (formerly the Social Justice High School, Pride Campus). The school states its charter is a lottery-based admission process and open to any student regardless of race, gender, religion, ability, or sexual orientation. However, given the school's originally proposed name, there's considerable consternation about who will really represent the school's student body.

The school's a good idea in theory. It would ostensibly be a safe haven for students who are being abused in other public schools. Often while teachers and administrators stand by and do nothing to help. In practice, removing students (even voluntarily) from their district schools because their sexual orientation makes life difficult for them is misguided. It further alienates them from their peers, acknowledges a "difference" and seems, at least to some degree, to give the bullies the upper hand.

Isn't a school like this really a band-aid on a much larger problem? Why should students with differing sexual orientations be cast aside from the rest of the students in a given district? Shouldn't the problems these students experience be addressed by Chicago's Board of Education to help ensure a safer, happier experience at every school?

If students are taught compassion and acceptance at an early age and teachers and school administrators recognize LGBT students to be a vulnerable population and DO something when they see bullying in progress, it's going to have a much more profound effect on a much larger scale.

And, there MUST be a district-wide zero tolerance policy for any student, teacher or administrator acting disrespectfully or abusively toward ANY student. Why is there even discussion about this? An LGBT student's differences are no less worthy of respect than one who wears a yarmulke, is confined to a wheelchair or comes from another country. Let's protect ALL classes, not just the ones we find most palatable.

Learn More: Here

* This post was written exclusively for Integral Praxis. Kelly Kilpatrick writes on the subject of a accredited online trade school. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com

Don Beck on Resilience and Emergence

From Sustainable Leadership on BlogTalkRadio:

Beyond Polarization and Blame

Don Edward Beck, Ph.D., has inspired thousands of people toward a new experience of organizational and personal empowerment through Spiral Dynamics, his unique values-based model that charts the evolution and emergence of human nature and society… In this special post-election conversation, we will explore what "sustainable culture" might look like. In particular, we'll be talking about the American political system, and the need to move beyond our current political stereotypes in order to deal with our many environmental and economic problems.”

Listen to the Podcast: Here

[Thanks to William at Integral Options Cafe for bringing this to our attention]

Integral Life Practice Review

U.K bodymind integration trainer Mark Walsh reviews Integral Life Practice:

ILP has four core modules – body, mind, spirit and shadow (subconscious). The strengths of Ken and Co. show up in these with mind and spirit being absolute crackers, and body and shadow slightly less so. Where mind and spirit really shine and body and shadow are merely quite good, is the comprehensiveness of the research that went into them. Reading the bios of the authors it seems clear that they have studied spirituality and theory in depth, but less so embodied practices or therapy – as a bodymind trainer with a background in martial arts, somatics and psychology I’m bound to be a little picky here though :-)

While I love the 3,2,1 Gestalt influenced depth psychology recommended, I wonder if this really came out of a comprehensive review of psychological traditions or whether Gestalt was simply the most available to those working in the human potential movement? Where are Jung’s archetypes for example or the work of the British neo-Freudians?

Read More: Here

Obama Addresses Fight Against Climate Change

Welcome to a new chapter in climate change! On Tuesday, Nov. 18, more than 600 climate change leaders from around the world gathered at the Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles to discuss climate issues and prepare for next month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland.

While President-elect Barack Obama did not attend — “the United States has only one president at a time” — he addressed those in attendance through a short video, still promising to establish a federal cap-and-trade system, reduce emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, and invest $15 billion a year for clean energy.

Of course it won’t be easy, but finally there’s going to be someone at the highest levels of POWER that refuses to ignore climate change: “Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response.” And that’s reassuring enough — for now at least.

Watch Video Here:

Learn more about president-elect Barak Obama’s policy ideas on the environment: Here

Two Peoples, One Family

In September 2005, one hundred and forty people of varying ages came together for three days near Yosemite National Park to participate in an endeavor they called the Palestinian Jewish Family Peacemakers Camp. Attendees hailed from both North America and the Middle East. Their intention? To understand more closely each other's fears, to alleviate their general ignorance about one another, to learn to live together.

Here is a video documenting how the experiment went:

Learn More about the Palestinian Jewish Family Peacemakers Camp: Here

Cultivating Gratefulness

In this short video, Brother David Steindl-Rast talks about the often unbearable greatness of holding forth in witness to the ever-present experience of being alive. The video is full of inspiring and visually rich images set to a delicate and moving instrumental piece of music:

Brother David Steindl-Rast is a Benedictine monk, author and spiritual leader with a message to humanity: that we should live our lives with ongoing awareness of the constant miracle we all live in.

Lest we forget…

Integral Leadership in Action

From EnlightenNext:

Reports from the Integral Leadership Conference

PODCAST: with Jeff Carreira, Elizabeth Debold, Steve McIntosh and Carter Phipps.

Carter Phipps reports on the initial presentations, including the seminar he will be leading with integral philosopher Steve McIntosh discussing the leading edge of integral philosophy. If time and technology permit, Carter may ask several of the integral leaders to speak with us live from the event.

Carter will be asking people at the conference to tell us their thoughts on the question "What is it really going to take for all of us to make the kind of significant impact on the future that we are all working for?"

In addition to the news from the Integral Leadership Conference, we will also share some audio highlights from the AGNT conference that I attended this past weekend.

Download this episode (60 min): Here

The Synergy Between Evolutionary Enlightenment and Integral Leadership

PODCAST: with Jeff Carreira, Elizabeth Debold, and Carter Phipps

This past weekend Elizabeth and I had the opportunity to teach at the Integral Leadership in Action conference in Boulder Colorado. Andrew Cohen and Carter Phipps also presented, making this the first event of its kind, where the leading integral community and the leading Evolutionary Enlightenment community met, worked together, learned from each other, and began to talk about other ways we can collaborate in the very near future to push the edge of philosophical/spiritual culture forward. It was a dynamic time, and there is a lot to discuss and reflect on. This week's call will be devoted to exploring the unique synergy between Evolutionary Enlightenment and integral leadership.

Download this episode (62 min): Here

Human Genetics and Āyurveda Tradition

Human Genetics and Āyurveda Tradition
Karin Preisendanz in Dialogue with Anand Amaladass

Amaladass: Today the discussion on human genetics has taken center stage. On the one hand there is an urge to show human achievement in the scientific field. On the other hand there is a strong reaction against this tendency by those who claim that this amounts to playing the role of God, interfering with the divine plan of creation, and destroying the dignity of human life by reducing it to the level of a robot. In this context, what would be the response to these problems from the point of view of āyurveda tradition in India, since you are involved with the textual study of this tradition?

Preisendanz: First of all, it has to be stressed that the classical āyurveda tradition in India does not refer to a notion of God in its theoretical and practical medical teachings. The Carakasaṃhitā, one of the two fundamental compendia of classical āyurveda and probably the older among the two, contains a wealth of information on the metaphysical, ethical, and soteriological foundations of āyurveda as they were maintained in the first two or three centuries CE. Even though the compendium reflects at least two stages of ideological development within early classical āyurveda, in neither of them can we find the notion of a creator-god who is also responsible for the creation of the human body.

The older ideology can be characterized as a philosophy of nature focusing on ontology: the external and internal world with its multitude of entities and occurrences is analyzed and brought into a categorical framework to explain causal processes, in the widest sense and specifically with regard to the body and its transformations – that is, the initial formation of the body and its changing states of health and sickness. As we can also discern from other sources on early classical philosophy of nature in India, there is no place for God in this pluralistic and 'mechanical' worldview; however, the residue of deeds performed in earlier lives is a crucial factor in the formation of the human body.

The second ideology, which seems to have subsequently affected classical āyurveda, presumes a dualism of mind and matter, with pure consciousness as an unchanging eternal phenomenon on the one hand and matter as the constantly changing world of external and internal – macro- and microcosmic – phenomena and events on the other hand. In this ideology there is equally no scope for the activity of a creator-god because matter – affected by the mere presence of consciousness – acts by itself for the latter's sake; this includes the formation – again in consonance with the effects of previous deeds – and transformations of the human body.

There is, however, mention of a very important divine role in classical āyurveda, namely, in the various accounts of its 'origin' and transmission to human beings which reflect the cultural self-perception of the early classical physicians of India and their attempts to integrate their non-orthodox science into the dominant world view of the first centuries CE. Even though āyurveda (literally 'the knowledge of the [human] life-span/life-force') is eternal according to the Carakasaṃhitā, it was first pronounced by God Brahmā, the creator, to Prajāpati, who is conceived as the creator of rituals and other religious institutions and father of humankind. Prajāpati transmitted this knowledge to the twin-gods called the Aśvins who figure as divine healers in the oldest Indian mythology. From the Aśvins āyurveda passed on to God Indra, the most powerful 'king of the gods' of Vedic and Epic mythology.

Read More: Here

Creationists Declare War Over The Brain

Creationists Declare War Over The Brain

By Amanda Gefter

"YOU cannot overestimate," thundered psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz, "how threatened the scientific establishment is by the fact that it now looks like the materialist paradigm is genuinely breaking down. You're gonna hear a lot in the next calendar year about... how Darwin's explanation of how human intelligence arose is the only scientific way of doing it... I'm asking us as a world community to go out there and tell the scientific establishment, enough is enough! Materialism needs to start fading away and non-materialist causation needs to be understood as part of natural reality."

His enthusiasm was met with much applause from the audience gathered at the UN's east Manhattan conference hall on 11 September for an international symposium called Beyond the Mind-Body Problem: New Paradigms in the Science of Consciousness. Earlier Mario Beauregard, a researcher in neuroscience at the University of Montreal, Canada, and co-author of The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul, told the audience that the "battle" between "maverick" scientists like himself and those who "believe the mind is what the brain does" is a "cultural war".

Schwartz and Beauregard are part of a growing "non-material neuroscience" movement. They are attempting to resurrect Cartesian dualism - the idea that brain and mind are two fundamentally different kinds of things, material and immaterial - in the hope that it will make room in science both for supernatural forces and for a soul. The two have signed the "Scientific dissent from Darwinism" petition, spearheaded by the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, headquarters of the intelligent design movement. ID argues that biological life is too complex to have arisen through evolution.

Read More: Here

Accelerating the Development of Post-Conventional Leaders

Leadership Development: Accelerating the Development of Post-Conventional Leaders

By Marilyn Hamilton, PhD

At the first bi-annual Integral Theory in Action (ITIA) Conference at John F. Kennedy University in August 2008, I had the honour and pleasure of presenting a paper on my 12 years of Learning and Leadership research and a preview poster presentation of my forthcoming book Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive. The paper will be published shortly and the book is imminent as well. In the book, I allocate more than one chapter to explore the importance of leadership to the wellbeing of cities.

In an Integral City, I assume “that effective city leadership requires an understanding of dynamic human development, integrated with healthy workplaces, education and healthcare systems. Effective city leaders are interested and invest in leadership of themselves, other individuals, organizations and communities at the appropriate level of complexity. Effective leaders lead from about a half a level ahead of the current level of development, offering a vision that is a stretch but attainable.”

This article is a report on a key theme of the ITIA Conference. I review five presentations on leadership development research, that confirm many of my propositions about the quality and criteria needed to grow leaders for an Integral City.

Read More: Here

Lest We Forget

The Next American Revolution?

New York Times Op-Ed for November 9, 2008:

The Climate for Change
By Al Gore

The inspiring and transformative choice by the American people to elect Barack Obama as our 44th president lays the foundation for another fateful choice that he — and we — must make this January to begin an emergency rescue of human civilization from the imminent and rapidly growing threat posed by the climate crisis.

The electrifying redemption of America’s revolutionary declaration that all human beings are born equal sets the stage for the renewal of United States leadership in a world that desperately needs to protect its primary endowment: the integrity and livability of the planet.

The world authority on the climate crisis, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, after 20 years of detailed study and four unanimous reports, now says that the evidence is “unequivocal.” To those who are still tempted to dismiss the increasingly urgent alarms from scientists around the world, ignore the melting of the north polar ice cap and all of the other apocalyptic warnings from the planet itself, and who roll their eyes at the very mention of this existential threat to the future of the human species, please wake up. Our children and grandchildren need you to hear and recognize the truth of our situation, before it is too late.

Here is the good news: the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis.

Economists across the spectrum — including Martin Feldstein and Lawrence Summers — agree that large and rapid investments in a jobs-intensive infrastructure initiative is the best way to revive our economy in a quick and sustainable way. Many also agree that our economy will fall behind if we continue spending hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign oil every year. Moreover, national security experts in both parties agree that we face a dangerous strategic vulnerability if the world suddenly loses access to Middle Eastern oil.

Read More: Here

Uniting Eros and Logos

Integral Religion: Uniting Eros and Logos

By Daniel Araya

The purpose of this paper will be to consider the potential realization of an integral religion. As the philosopher Ken Wilber suggests, human evolution is driven by the teleological ascension of Mind or Spirit. In this way, Mind is both transcendent as God and immanent as evolution. Following this understanding our thesis is simply that human evolution is the underlying principle of both Eastern and Western religious traditions.

As this paper will show, Eastern religion demonstrates the spiritual psychology of evolution, while Western religion demonstrates the spiritual sociology of evolution. Eastern religion, following the course of Ascent, seeks to unite humanity's consciousness with God; while Western religion, following the course of Descent, serves God's manifest unfolding.

The profound and engrossing work of Ken Wilber and his interpretation of the Eastern spiritual traditions will be examined here as the basic architecture for a transpersonal understanding of psychological development. In addition, we will attempt to decipher the Western spiritual traditions in terms of the transpersonal advance towards divine civilization. Finally, we will suggest a basic framework for uniting these two paths in one complimentary form, in one integral religion.

Read More: Here

Does God Exist? Shermer and Lennox Debate

Dr. Michael Shermer the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine and a monthly columnist for Scientific American, during his lecture tour of Australia for that country's National Science Week in August, 2008, takes on Dr. John Lennox, who holds three doctorates in the fields of science and mathematics (Ph.D., D.Phil., D.Sc.) and is a Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green College, University of Oxford. His most recent book is God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?

In this debate before a standing room only crowd in Sydney, Lennox and Shermer debated the usual arguments for God’s existence, with Lennox predictably leaning on Christian apologetics arguments and ending with his commitment to Jesus as his savior. Shermer closed with a passionate plea for science as the most transcendent form of knowledge that puts religion in the shade when it comes to revealing the wonders of the creation.

Watch the debate on YouTube:

Part 1

ALSO:

part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6
part 7 part 8 part 9 part 10

The Evolution of Religion in Humans

One Species under God? Sorting through the Pieces of Religion and Cooperation

By Azim F. Shariff

In studying the evolution of religion, one misstep to avoid is treating “religion” as a seamless whole. Religions are complex. More than that, they are complexes, stitched together from many elements that have evolved at different times for different reasons. Some aspects of religion may be, or may have been, individually or culturally adaptive, whereas others may be more analogous to viruses. Asking whether religion, as a whole, is adaptive is a misleading question. For an answer complex enough to do justice to the packages of memes called religions, one needs to look under the hood.

In an attempt at unpacking religion into its composite parts, I will outline three classes of memes which prove useful in understanding the evolution of religion. These are foundation memes, social utility memes and scaffolding memes. Following their brief description, I will use the example of how the fear of supernatural policing agents encourages cooperative behavior to demonstrate how these classes of memes interact and how understanding them can add to discussions in the area.

Foundation memes are aspects of religion that follow directly from the structure of the human mind. Our biologically evolved brains lead us to these inventions, making them exceedingly likely, almost inevitable have called this canalization. Two examples that I explore below are belief in life after death and the tendency to imbue agency to natural phenomena. Though technically cultural ideas, these memes are expected to emerge quite naturally for all people in all cultures. Most importantly, foundation memes provide the canvas material upon which the more elaborate aspects of religion are drawn...

Read More: Here

Voices from the Integral Frontier

From WIE Unbound:

Voices from the Integral Frontier

Thanks to the work of Ken Wilber and others, integral theory has begun to provide hundreds of thousands of people around the world with a new map for understanding the complex dynamics of just about every aspect of human consciousness and culture—from religion and spirituality to science, business, and politics. And the integral movement is growing. From its humble beginnings on the cultural and philosophical fringes, it has exploded in recent years with an international flowering of integral groups, conferences, academic programs, and individual practitioners who are trying to build the foundation for a whole new worldview.

In this series of interviews, EnlightenNext magazine’s Joel Pitney speaks to a philosopher, an entrepreneur, a community organizer, and a CEO about how each of them is applying the integral perspective to their work and what they think it will take to develop integralism into a full-fledged cultural and philosophical movement.

Check it Out: Here