the revolution has begun: the shift hits the fan!

8/8/2019 The Revolution Has Begun: The Shift Hits the Fan!

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The Revolution Has Begun -"The Shift Hits the Fan"

Jed Diamond, Ph.D. has been a health-care professional for the last 45 years.He is the author of 9 books, including Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places,
http://www.wiserearth.org/group/newsletter


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Male Menopause, The Irritable Male Syndrome,andMr. Mean: Saving YourRelationship from the Irritable Male Syndrome. He offers counseling to men,women, and couples in his office in California or by phone with people throughoutthe U.S. and around the world. To receive a Free E-book on Mens Health and afree subscription to Jeds e-newsletter go to www.MenAlive.com. If you enjoy my

articles, please subscribe. I write to everyone who joins my Scribd team

Ive known Paul Hawken for many years and was excited when he started the

organization, WiserEarth. I joined and have met some wonderful people from

around the world. Heres a report from Narda Azaria Dalgleish, an activist from

the United Kingdom.

Right on the Pulse of the Shift

Highlights of my visit to WiserEarth and the Bioneers Conference

(Originally written as a short report for the Beshara Meeting)

San Francisco, October 13-24 2010Narda Azaria Dalgleishposted 10 December 2010

"If we raise enough money for you to come to the WiserEarth editors annualmeeting will you come?", my online WiserEarth friend Deborah Phelan asked mea few weeks ago. Then, when I hesitated she bribed: Bioneers Conference! So

just like that, money was pledged within the hour between Deborah and fourmore WiserEarth staff members to bring me over. At the request of WiserEarth

Executive DirectorPeggy Duvette, complimentary passes to the conference werekindly arranged to be left for five of us at the entrance by Bioneers founder,Kenny Ausubel himself.

Exactly two years ago I came across WiserEarth - a social network inspired andfounded by Paul Hawken (watch). I found it through a link on Nick Yiangou'sarticle about the Pachamama Alliance Symposium, posted on the old BesharaWebzine. I joined WiserEarth there and then, initially to create an organizationpage for the Beshara School. Gradually, with the generous tutorials and patienceofBowo, WiserEarth's Online Community Manager, I learned how to use it'sonline technical tools such as tables, colours, alignments and link content in the

many group pages Ive created to highlight visionary themes. I felt like a toddlergiven paints and paper for the first time, utterly amazed how some mornings Iwould get up with an idea and an hour or two later it would be out there, eithercomplete or in process.
http://www.menalive.com/mrmean.htmhttp://www.menalive.com/mrmean.htmhttp://www.menalive.com/mrmean.htmhttp://www.menalive.com/mrmean.htmhttp://www.menalive.com/mrmean.htmhttp://www.menalive.com/mrmean.htmhttp://www.menalive.com/mrmean.htmhttp://www.menalive.com/mrmean.htmhttp://www.menalive.com/http://www.wiserearth.org/user/azariarahamimhttp://www.wiserearth.org/user/azariarahamimhttp://www.wiserearth.org/user/boatsiehttp://www.bioneers.org/conferencehttp://www.wiserearth.org/user/peggyhttp://www.bioneers.org/about/founders/kenny-ausubelhttp://www.wiserearth.org/http://www.paulhawken.com/paulhawken_frameset.htmlhttp://fora.tv/2007/06/08/Paul_Hawken_New_Great_Transformationhttp://www.beshara.org/news/magazine/pachamama.htmlhttp://www.wiserearth.org/user/view/bowohttp://www.menalive.com/mrmean.htmhttp://www.menalive.com/mrmean.htmhttp://www.menalive.com/http://www.wiserearth.org/user/azariarahamimhttp://www.wiserearth.org/user/azariarahamimhttp://www.wiserearth.org/user/boatsiehttp://www.bioneers.org/conferencehttp://www.wiserearth.org/user/peggyhttp://www.bioneers.org/about/founders/kenny-ausubelhttp://www.wiserearth.org/http://www.paulhawken.com/paulhawken_frameset.htmlhttp://fora.tv/2007/06/08/Paul_Hawken_New_Great_Transformationhttp://www.beshara.org/news/magazine/pachamama.htmlhttp://www.wiserearth.org/user/view/bowo


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By the time I joined WiserEarth, Ihad already watched thedocumentary The 11th Houraboutfive times. Unlike any environmentaldocumentary Ive watched before

(or since), this was by far the mostexciting, comprehensive ecoliteracymanual and much more. I was sointrigued that I copied the subtitlesof the whole film and followed upsome of the speakers on YouTube.

It was interesting to notice thatmany of the videos I watched werefrom the Bioneers Conferences.Kenny Ausubel, an award-winning

social entrepreneur, author,journalist and filmmaker, hadlaunched the annual conferencewith his wife in 1990. He was acentral advisor to LeonardoDiCaprios The 11th Hour, its firstfeatured speaker and its presenterat film festivals.

What struck me in the film, perhapseven more than the fresh portrayalof the man made peak everythingcalled the global crisis, was noticingfor the first time the scope andscale of humanity's innovative andcollaborative response - like aninverse mirror image.

Many of the 60 or so expertscientists, designers, architects,environmentalists, politicians,lawyers, industrialists, authors,farmers, peace activists, etc. had

become, by their vision andresponse, a representation and apoint of reference to a systemsparadigm shift.

See below how industrialists RayAnderson and Gary Hirshberg, andenvironmentalist Andy Lipkis are boldexamples of systems paradigm shift,proving green business is restoringnatures ecosystems, is healthier,

sustainable, provides more jobs andis much more profitable all round.

WiserEarth had sprung organicallyfrom Hawkens research (watch)where he observed the biggest, mostdiverse, fastest growing socialmovement the world has ever known.Over 100.000 ORG's and thousands

of groups and individuals onWiserEarth alone, show acommonality of intent, be their focusenvironmental, new consciousness orsocial justice. An unprecedentedconvergence of response - ahumanity set out to transform thecrisis and itself.

Theres a fundamental illusion in the world that somehow people are
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7676460785363705931http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1fiubmOqH4http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7676460785363705931http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1fiubmOqH4


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separated from Nature when the reality is that we are part of Nature - in fact,we ARE Nature.

And thats probably the most fundamental misunderstanding in the worldthats causing all this havoc.

Kenny Ausubel, The 11th Hour

This sudden magnanimous invitation comes despite drastic reduction in myonline voluntary activity over the past few months. I find myself flying to SanFrancisco bewildered, shocked ... nothing is asked of me in return. The thoughts,'Why am I invited, and For what,' persist. "Befriending the Unknown" comes tomind. Three days before I fly, I dream ... can I see this as a 'password' to a newkind of reorientation?...

10 October 2010

she calls me softly in my sleep

she calls me softly

in my mother's tongue

but I am so sure

her calling me is reciting

she is reciting a new poem

reciting softly in my sleep

wording words in my mother's tongue

calling me lest I make her small

,


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in my waking, lest I make her small

and I wake, I wake up startled

she is me, I remember

not a word I remember

she is me, not a dream

,

,

,

The Revolution Has Begun -"The Shift Hits the Fan"

Kenny Ausubel's opening address.

"The revolution has begun. But in fits

and starts. The challenge is it's oneminute to midnight - too late to avoidlarge-scale destruction. We have tofan the shift to ecoliterate societies atsufficient scale and speed to dodgeirretrievable cataclysm.

From breakdown to breakthrough, it'sa revolution from the heart of nature

and the human heart. It leads with abasic shift in our relationship withnature from resource and object tomentor, model and partner. Game-changing breakthroughs in science,technology and design such asbiomimicry are revolutionizing ourvery ways of knowing.Read more...

The Bioneers Conference attractsmore than 3,000 people each yearto the national conference in SanRafael, California, and is beamed bysatellite simulcast to 20 localizedBioneers conferences across theUS and Canada to another 10,000attendees. Link
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kenny-ausubel/the-revolution-has-begun_b_764128.htmlhttp://www.bioneers.org/conference/beaminghttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kenny-ausubel/the-revolution-has-begun_b_764128.htmlhttp://www.bioneers.org/conference/beaminghttp://www.bioneers.org/conference/beaming


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(An extract from Kenny Ausubel's opening

address at the Bioneers Conference, October15th, 2010, San Rafael, California.)

Almost without exception, the speakers at the Bioneers Conferencestarted their talks with reference to their personal story. Some went asfar back as their humble childhood beginnings, leading on to how they

arrived at their vision-experience, through to their present contribution,its measurable effects and their message. I presume this personalizedpresentation is deliberate; its honest, direct and effective withoutdiluting from the subject. It moves people, sparks them into vision, intoblessed unrest, into action. I like it. I like it very much because it bringsyou also to the zone of realistic and pragmatic hope.

I arrived a day and a half before theconference. This is the bestarrangement! Im taking the sofa!Deborah insists as she nobly leads meinto her single bedroom in the ground-floor apartment overlooking the stunningbay below. Deborah is a passionateprogressive, a veteran journalist, editor,teacher, ready-to-be-arrested-activist-everything who has been coveringenvironmental issues, events, and

people for about 30 years. A force to bereckoned with!

One day on our way back home shesays: See this?, pointing at a buildingon my right, This is a school with mostly

She loved the Symposium eventgroup, Can I See Myself and theWorld as One Self? and mentioned itand the Beshara School in an articleshe wrote for the DailyKos titled: "Iwould rather have a heart openedby wonder than one closed bybelief." It was later nominated - outof thousands - best article of the year... Link.

After that we became close friends,working together on big events suchas the Copenhagen COP15,coordinating news from reporters,
http://www.wiserearth.org/group/caniseemyselfandtheworldhttp://www.wiserearth.org/group/caniseemyselfandtheworldhttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/12/799299/-DK-GreenRoots:-I-would-rather-have-a-heart-opened-by-wonder-than-one-closed-by-beliefhttp://www.wiserearth.org/group/caniseemyselfandtheworldhttp://www.wiserearth.org/group/caniseemyselfandtheworldhttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/12/799299/-DK-GreenRoots:-I-would-rather-have-a-heart-opened-by-wonder-than-one-closed-by-belief


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black children. I want to quit my teachingjob and come here to teach ecoliteracyand environmental leadership. Lo andbehold, the next day she spots an ad

and sends a CV with her proposal. Theycall her two days later ...

designing and linking pages, andkeeping up with Deborahs flood ofgeneral incoming news.

Now we're at it again. Deborah hasbeen commissioned by TckTckTck toreport from the 16th Conference ofthe People (COP16) for the UN inCancun Mexico ... and I update theWiserCOP16 group page.
http://live.tcktcktck.org/category/all-posts/http://www.wiserearth.org/group/cop16http://live.tcktcktck.org/category/all-posts/http://www.wiserearth.org/group/cop16


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First thing, we are off to Bolinas,a small town alongside thePacific Ocean. Deborah tells me

about the 1971 oil spill whichdrew a large contingent of SanFrancisco's hippies. Theyvolunteered in the clean up andstayed on to farm the land, fishand open small homebusinesses. One of them, JohnFrancis, known as the PlanetWalkerstands out at theBioneers conference.

His response to the Oil Spill wasradical: He refused to usemotorized vehicles for 22 yearsand kept a vow of silence for 17years during which time heearned his B.A at SouthernOregon State College, an M.Sc.in Environmental Studies at theUniversity of Montana and a

Ph.D. in land resources at theUniversity of Wisconsin.

John has been employed by the
http://www.planetwalker.org/http://www.planetwalker.org/http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.nationalgeographic.com%2Fngs%2Fbrowse%2FproductDetail.jsp%3FproductId%3D6200275%26code%3DMR20362&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNF20UkU1JeUpW03-C6558MSwHj1zghttp://www.planetwalker.org/http://www.planetwalker.org/


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United States Coast Guard towork on legislation relating tomanagement of oil spills. In1991, he was named a United

Nations Environmental ProgramGoodwill Ambassador.

Redefining Environment

John broke his vow of silence on the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, when he felthe had a message. It all came down to his realization that: "People are part ofthe environment, that we are it, we are part of this, and if we are part of theenvironment, then our first opportunity to treat the environment in asustainable way or even to understand what sustainability is, is in how wetreat each other.

And so, environment really has to do with a lot of things. It has to do withhuman rights and civil rights and economic equity and gender equality andeducation equality; all the kinds of ways that we relate to one another.That's our first opportunity to really treat the environment in a sustainableway."

John Francis, Bioneers 15 October 2010 Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlYJQ0psZYAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlYJQ0psZYAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlYJQ0psZYA


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We bumped into John on our way out and after a short conversation he gave ushis card. I told him about the unique Self-Knowledge and Global Responsibility

Symposia. He looked in my eye as I was speaking, nodding his head, lit up ...Over so many years of not speaking, he has learned how to listen to himself andthe world without lying ... Were you to be invited to speak, would you come?With the WiserEarth Press pass dangling on my chest I pushed my luck, Yes.To the Scottish Borders?, Yes. My Press pretension was made redundant inan instant ... Are you very expensive? A short pause ... Hmmm no. We smiled.

From Bolinas to WiserEarths Office. What a warm welcome! I meet forthe first time some of the people I've worked with online for so long. I wasinvited to join the staff for a meal in San Francisco to celebrate thecompletion of their retreat workshop. Before we head off, Peggy takesme to Paul Hawken's office next door. He is now working with his goodfriend Janine Benyus, a Biomimicry Master, on developing and producingnew nature inspired solar panels link. I'm dying to see the factory, alas it'selsewhere. |
http://www.selfknowledgeglobalresponsibility.org/http://www.selfknowledgeglobalresponsibility.org/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_GFq12w5WU&feature=relatedhttp://www.onesuntech.net/home.htmlhttp://www.selfknowledgeglobalresponsibility.org/http://www.selfknowledgeglobalresponsibility.org/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_GFq12w5WU&feature=relatedhttp://www.onesuntech.net/home.html


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Oh, I feel unashamedly like ateenage groupie ... I imaginethe whole of this visit as if I'mabout to enter right inside The

11th Hourvirtual courtyards,about to meet many of theenvironmental giants featuredthere. The term'environmentalist', though, nolonger does them justice ... Iddare say their vision, languageand innovations are facets ofone boundless philanthropy,marrying the scientific, theeconomic, the technological,

the environmental and thespiritual right on the pulse ofthe Shift.

The conference room isbeautiful in its unpretentiousminimal simplicity; a stunningbig table made out of twoheavy, well polished chunks ofsolid wood, still encased in the

natural contours of its bark.

Peggy, sparkling with anunspoiled playful vitality,hands me Paul's book, TheEcology of Commerce, whichintrigued me for quite a whileas an Artwear-designerentrepreneur.

Under the table I notice carpet

As soon as I enter the office Paul Hawken peepsin the window smiling. I walk with my armstretched across the room to shake his hand."Oh, I know you, I know all about you, I'm stillkept informed here, you know ..." Peggy rushesus out for a photo-shoot.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7676460785363705931http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7676460785363705931http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7676460785363705931http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780887307041http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780887307041http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7676460785363705931http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7676460785363705931http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780887307041http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780887307041


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tiles - yes, Peggy confirms,they are from Ray Anderson.Ray, one of the biggest carpetindustrialists, read Pauls book

and it speared his heart withsuch a profound remorse thathe was moved to radicallytransform his plant, aiming forzero carbon emission by 2020.Now he travels extensively totalk of the benefits ofsustainable business.

I thank him for all his signed books BlessedUnrest that Peggy had sent recently to me andto the Beshara School and invite him to comeand speak at one of the next Self-Knowledgeand Global Responsibility Symposiums. Pauldid not say no.

(Click on the book read inside - the introductionis highly recommended.)

Below is a quote in reference to the title -blessed unrest on page 9.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EsyFUKd7SQhttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=S75R90V1IlUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=blessed+unrest&source=bl&ots=csOFKdZ5t7&sig=Ah41ge0Ekm0r0XCP_2ZxpKNSPEU&hl=en&ei=FmnUTMnsIsuTjAfy3v3JCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=S75R90V1IlUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=blessed+unrest&source=bl&ots=csOFKdZ5t7&sig=Ah41ge0Ekm0r0XCP_2ZxpKNSPEU&hl=en&ei=FmnUTMnsIsuTjAfy3v3JCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://www.beshara.org/http://www.selfknowledgeglobalresponsibility.org/http://www.selfknowledgeglobalresponsibility.org/http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=S75R90V1IlUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=blessed+unrest&source=bl&ots=csOFKdZ5t7&sig=Ah41ge0Ekm0r0XCP_2ZxpKNSPEU&hl=en&ei=FmnUTMnsIsuTjAfy3v3JCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EsyFUKd7SQhttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=S75R90V1IlUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=blessed+unrest&source=bl&ots=csOFKdZ5t7&sig=Ah41ge0Ekm0r0XCP_2ZxpKNSPEU&hl=en&ei=FmnUTMnsIsuTjAfy3v3JCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=S75R90V1IlUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=blessed+unrest&source=bl&ots=csOFKdZ5t7&sig=Ah41ge0Ekm0r0XCP_2ZxpKNSPEU&hl=en&ei=FmnUTMnsIsuTjAfy3v3JCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://www.beshara.org/http://www.selfknowledgeglobalresponsibility.org/http://www.selfknowledgeglobalresponsibility.org/


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There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translatedthrough you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time,

this expression is unique ... You have to keep open and aware directly tothe urgesthat motivate you. Keep the channel open ... [There is] no satisfactionwhateverat any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrestthatkeeps us marching and makes us more alive than the other.

Martha Graham to Agnes de Mille, Dance to the PiperFull quote

Andy Lipkis began planting treesto rehabilitate smog and fire-damaged forests when he was 15years old. He founded the nonprofitenvironmental organizationTreePeople and has served as

president since 1973.

TreePeople staff have gone on toplant more than two million trees inthe Los Angeles area and havedeveloped one of the nations

When energy is not used, Lipkis says,it becomes pollution. And when we areill at ease, it is because we are notusing what energizes us: ouradrenaline.

Everybody has a scanner on board andit's the heart. It's asking 'Where can Ihelp?' and it gives us the adrenaline sowhen we see what needs to be done, wecan respond. We are hard wired for this,but we have lost the language for it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Grahamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Graham


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Gary Hirshberg

Win Economics: Restoring Natural Orderas if People and the Planet Really Mattered

Ausubels introduction of Gary who spoke on the first day.

The converging crisis of climate change, water scarcity, energyconsumption and public health, are conspiring to create a full onglobal food crisis. At the same time a food revolution is wellunderway. The challenge is to create a food system that provideshigh quality nutrition while using fewer resources, creating more

jobs and restoring natural capital. Food thats fair and affordable,and a system that can sustain itself with finite resources in a fullworld.

Then, how do we take that to scale for nearly 7 billion mouths tofeed when today, only about 2% of foods systems meet thesecriteria? Greening the foods system is not only a gain changer, it

Read inside the book

This last year we actour one billion poundOrganic Vally. Our mialone this year will su180.000 acres of organWhat that means is juOver 9 million pounds
http://www.amazon.com/Stirring-Up-Make-Money-World/dp/B001PTG4F0/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1#reader_B001PTG4F0http://www.amazon.com/Stirring-Up-Make-Money-World/dp/B001PTG4F0/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1#reader_B001PTG4F0http://www.amazon.com/Stirring-Up-Make-Money-World/dp/B001PTG4F0/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1#reader_B001PTG4F0


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can create millions of new emerald green jobs. So how do we doit? That question has motivated Gary Hirshberg for 30 years tobecome one of the worlds authentically visionary foodentrepreneur.

As CEO of Stonyfield Farm, the worlds largest organic yogurtcompany that he started about 27 years ago, hes used thecompany to transform business and serve as an educational andpolitical megaphone for organics and healthy food and farming.

nitrogen fertilizer will needed. Over 450 milltreatments to animalsto be needed. Well av

12.000 pounds of inseherbicides not needed

Gary Hirshberg, Bionee2010

Watch video

When Gary and his wife Meg started Stonyfield in 1983 in their New Hampshireback yard, it was a seven-cow organic farming school. Today it has $330 million inannual sales. Gary achieved his goal building a model that environmentally andsocially responsible business can also be profitable. And a good example of thattoo, is that Stonyfield buys all of its milk from Organic Vally - which is fantastic!

Garys working at very large scales from inside the food system as ManagingDirector of Stonyfield Europe, which is a joint venture with France group Danone.Gary is working in every strategic space that he can plant himself in. He workswith the White House and Federal Government on policy. He collaborates withgreen insurance companies to prove that a healthy diet and lifestyle cut costs andare good for business. He speaks constantly with a message of hope andpractical change, and he works in his beloved New England on the politics ofclimate change.

As a sustainability activist for over 33 years, Gary formerly served as ExecutiveDirector of the now legendary New Alchemy Institute that helped kick-start theentire organic agriculture, acriculture and renewable energy movements.
http://fora.tv/2008/02/20/How_to_Make_Money_and_Save_the_Worldhttp://fora.tv/2008/02/20/How_to_Make_Money_and_Save_the_World


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Kenny Ausubel Bioneers October 15th 2010

Jane Goodall, PhD,DBE, began her landmarkstudy of chimpanzees inwhat is now Tanzania in1960 under thementorship of famedanthro- pologist andpaleontologist Dr. LouisLeakey. Her work atGombe Stream wouldbecome the foundation offuture primatologicalresearch and redefine therelationship between

humans and animals.

In 1977, Dr. Goodallestablished the JaneGoodall Institute (JGI),which continues theGombe research and is aglobal leader in the effortto protect chimpanzeesand their habitats. Today,

the Institute is widelyrecognized forestablishing innovative,community-centeredconservation anddevelopment programs inAfrica, and JaneGoodall's Roots &

"Every individual counts,

every individual has a role to play,every individual makes a difference."

Dr. Jane Goodall was Bioneers last speaker receiving at the endthe biggest standing ovation. She surprised everyone by startingher talk with a chimpanzee morning greeting screams. She nowtravels 300 days a year and says the benefits of her work faroutweighs her own carbon footprint. She continually urges heraudiences to recognize their personal responsibility and ability toeffect change. She speaks about the threats facing chimpanzees,other environmental crises, and her reasons for hope thathumankind will solve the problems it has imposed on our planet.


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Shoots, JGI's globalenvironmental andhumanitarian youthnetwork, which hasalmost 150,000 members

in 110 countries.

The Brower 2010 Youth Awards

David Brower and the Sierra Club halt the dammingof the Grand Canyon Watch

Monumental - David Brower Fights for Wild America.Watch

2010 Award WinnerFreya Chay. 15.

A day before theWiserEarth Editors

Meeting I join the staff toattend the Brower YouthAwa rds ceremony. I amso taken by the sixyoung winners - by theirconfidence andeloquence on stage infront of a fully packedauditorium, but above allwith their astonishingachievements by any

criteria. Only 15 yearsold, Freya Chay hastaken on the federalgovernment to pass alegislation to amend aSenate Bill. Thanks toher initiative
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yakxw4CxNghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvQZntoOfEUhttp://www.broweryouthawards.org/http://www.broweryouthawards.org/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yakxw4CxNghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvQZntoOfEUhttp://www.broweryouthawards.org/http://www.broweryouthawards.org/http://www.broweryouthawards.org/


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homeowners are giventoday new incentives toinstall clean energysystems.

WiserEarth Editors 2nd Annual MeetingFrom left to right - Bowo, Frank, Deborah, Peggy, Eric, Roseli, Angus, Kerry, Timonie, Michael, Narda, Dou
http://www.wiserearth.org/article/4cdb26596f0f0670045b4e5dfbaea466http://www.wiserearth.org/article/4cdb26596f0f0670045b4e5dfbaea466


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Somewhat surrealto see Deborah and Bowo from WiserEarth at the Yiangous for dinner. Bowo, WiserEarths Online

Community Manager, has been going to the Beshara meetings and study in Jakarta for about ayear now.

Deborah is now friends with the Yiangous - talking about meeting regularly for study. Bowo sendsme some photos - saying: I like this phrase from Wadud: Focus more on what is arising, and howbest to serve it.

I stay with the Yiangous for the last couple of nights of my visit. I met Nick

Yiangou at the Beshara School in Scotland years ago, where we enrolled on thesame course. His gentleness and kindness walk before him ... When Nickmentioned he had designed his house and made much of its furniture, I smiledwith admiration and great surprise. He got his Master's degree in TranspersonalPsychology recently, while still working as a senior Web Manager in Adobe. Hehas served on the board of the U.S. Beshara Foundation for two decades, as wellas (still) serving as president of the the academic nonprofit U.S. branch of theMuhyyiddin Ibn Arabi Society. To cater better for the study groups andconversation meetings hed been holding at home for many years, Nick hasredesigned the self-contained multipurpose guest room on the ground floor of hishouse.

It was quite serendipitous to find that the societys annual Symposium this year,titled Response and Responsibility, not only resonated in theme but alsocoincided with the Bioneers conference. Not expecting this extra bonus, Bowoand I manage to attend Prof. James Morris opening talk and took from it - Yourresponse is that which makes you alive.
http://www.wiserearth.org/user/view/nyiangou?utm_source=referrerNotification&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=WiserEarth&utm_term=Nick+Yiangou+just+joined+your+group,+BESHARA++SCHOOL+WORLDWIDEhttp://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/theology/faculty/jmorris.htmlhttp://www.wiserearth.org/user/view/nyiangou?utm_source=referrerNotification&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=WiserEarth&utm_term=Nick+Yiangou+just+joined+your+group,+BESHARA++SCHOOL+WORLDWIDEhttp://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/theology/faculty/jmorris.html


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Members of the Ibn Arabi Society have been promoting the academic study andtranslations of this prolific C12 spiritual master since 1977, publishing books, a

biannual journal and holding annual symposia. They have also conducted a widescale search to trace and authenticate Ibn Arabi's old manuscripts in libraries inthe Middle East as it became an urgent task to assure their preservation wherepossible, make digital copies and catalog them in their UK Oxford Library.

Esoliteracy - the language of intangible realities and meanings.

The term esoliteracy - from 'esoteric',

meaning hidden or interior - came tomind as I was writing this. It seems, likeecoliteracy, esoliteracy certainly reflectsa parallel emergence of rhetoric - usinguniversal, non dualistic terminology andmethodology to describe the interiorworld of the spirit and the incomparablereality of man.

Though somewhat hesitant, I mentioned

Ibn Arabihere because the importanceand relevance of his metaphysics,especially toour time, is second to none. Ibn 'Arabi(1165 - 1240 AD) has laid down notonly a progressive articulation of aunified reality and spiritual advance, butto our modern world in transition heoffers a radically new understanding oflanguage itself and an insight into itstrue location - the heart.

The term esoliteracy may generallyrefer tothe whole body of metaphysicalliterature orteaching (example) thats beingtranslated,

commentated, published and rendered

into a new comparative language ofoneness, appearing since the 60s - anexample is the work of the widerecumenism pioneer, Dom SylversterHouedard, link. But we shall see.

Yet the esoteric body of knowledge isultimately for an end. As Ibn Arabisays:

You should know that the heart is apolished mirror, that all of it is a faceand that it never rusts because theDivine Presence is continuallymanifesting Itself, and one could notimagine any veil for that Self-manifestation.

To withhold this knowledge, as Peter

Young, Principal of the Beshara Schoolsays, would be as if we withholdfrom an orphan the information ofhis inheritance, with the result thathe believes himself condemned to

poverty and despair.read PeterYoungs talk: An Education for theHeart.
http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/ibnarabi.htmlhttp://www.ibnarabisociety.org/ibnarabi.htmlhttp://www.wiserearth.org/group/BesharaReadinghttp://www.wiserearth.org/article/dd65c4ae12055d1b846d15f95fde7550http://www.wiserearth.org/article/dd65c4ae12055d1b846d15f95fde7550http://www.wiserearth.org/article/6bc06218f3c51aad3a5a94f590d51b1dhttp://www.ibnarabisociety.org/http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/ibnarabi.htmlhttp://www.wiserearth.org/group/BesharaReadinghttp://www.wiserearth.org/article/dd65c4ae12055d1b846d15f95fde7550http://www.wiserearth.org/article/6bc06218f3c51aad3a5a94f590d51b1d


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Some thoughts

What if the world embodied our highest potential? What would it looklike? As the structures of modern society crumble, is it enough to respondwith the same tired solutions? Or are we being called to question a set ofunexamined assumptions that form the very basis of our civilization?

A short documentary by The Global Oneness Project, watch

What if the mother of all unexamined assumptions is that I existautonomously?

During the past two years Ive noticed greater agreement on two essentials: theneedto reexamine fundamental assumptions about ourselves and the world, and the

need fora new mode of knowing our reality (Father Thomas Keating watch), (Peter Youngwatch), the oneness of our humanity and our interdependency with the Earth.
http://www.globalonenessproject.org/videos/whatwoulditlooklikehttp://www.globalonenessproject.org/videos/fatherthomaskeatingcompletehttp://www.youtube.com/user/besharaschool?ytsession=C_tYpVCHunUwug5dVCoGHkFxj1uC8NeC0EeAU9mnKQDJSKYBz9QW4IR0WHAefB4R-WN_ERlRSQSbUNnjjEE1HQ_Rz2d5wreZbxRtqv3eJy7cY76HR3cJfVHt2RX4j0yvwxWjRnygn3QkY5VmORAOsCeR-m4DwJkUFoS5Jk0tNpsw0tbQue-CK7YMn1OJQjzjkuNeph1dTg0Y9bGmzLQkehJA13oHP3UNgO8qdqiQS4klRI6cMvN4Eo5MK8T3IvNZptx14otLw1sJCApa8s_KecXX9tOpVAnZ63gzOvqXffE#p/u/22/HqSKYAc0OaEhttp://www.globalonenessproject.org/videos/whatwoulditlooklikehttp://www.globalonenessproject.org/videos/fatherthomaskeatingcompletehttp://www.youtube.com/user/besharaschool?ytsession=C_tYpVCHunUwug5dVCoGHkFxj1uC8NeC0EeAU9mnKQDJSKYBz9QW4IR0WHAefB4R-WN_ERlRSQSbUNnjjEE1HQ_Rz2d5wreZbxRtqv3eJy7cY76HR3cJfVHt2RX4j0yvwxWjRnygn3QkY5VmORAOsCeR-m4DwJkUFoS5Jk0tNpsw0tbQue-CK7YMn1OJQjzjkuNeph1dTg0Y9bGmzLQkehJA13oHP3UNgO8qdqiQS4klRI6cMvN4Eo5MK8T3IvNZptx14otLw1sJCApa8s_KecXX9tOpVAnZ63gzOvqXffE#p/u/22/HqSKYAc0OaE


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With a shift in consciousness necessarily comes a shift in language - beckoning tobe interacted equally in being, speech and service. Where the heart may get an

instant fleeting sense of it, the mystery of unity will remain paradoxical - at oncechallengingand promising: If there is only one, all-inclusive and indivisible self-cognizantbeing in existence, how could it be known to any one other than itself? Or,because there is noone other than the One Self, everyone can and is in progress towards itsperspective through their being no other.

Indeed in some of the discussions on WiserEarth, I noticed how radically new thenotion

of One Self is, and how bewildering it can be without the rigorous context ofeducation applied in practice and service. I wondered, as I do now, how can I atleast put it thatOne Self is not just an abstract conceptual idea; that it has a reality which lovesto be known individually collectively globally ? While this love-to-be-known is not transcended beyond any of the converging aspects of the globalcrisis, how can I put itthat One Self is not a new social or religious ideology contrived as a solutionamongmany to fix its symptoms or systems?

How can I put it that the OneSelf is the sameas myself and yourself andall-of-the-selves past-present-future? How can Iput it that One Self is not anew paradigm with an -ismrequiring the sacrifice of myunique identity, aptitude,imperfections, aims or free

will? On the contrary - is afinger's perception of itselfthe same as it's perceptionthrough the all-pervadingvision of the hand, seeingitself globally?


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Our future survival on the planet may be, for many, about how well and quickly weadapt and respond to the inevitable (watch Dr. James Hansen) global climatedestabilization

and mass destruction, and there is that. But dare I say that the very purpose ofour futureis for more than our mere survival? Dare I say it is because our ripening into theunified field of consciousness has not yet happened collectively? Dare I say thatthe above mentioned biggest social movement the world has ever seen (watch), isultimately a movement from our next evolutionary phase towards anunprecedented global shift in perspective?

In my hopeful anticipation of a new universal vernacular, dare I mention the heart-melting beauty inherent in the act of stepping-in, to stand naked at the Golden

Isthmus - the paradoxical interface of the known and the unknown - uniting themost extreme of contradictions at the threshold of the coming world?

Photocredits:

San Francisco Golden Gate bridge - by Mumbly JoeKenny Ausubel - by NardaPlanet walker John Francis - picasaweb googleOutside WiserEarth office with Peggy and Paul - by Bowo SulistioAndy Lipkis -Gary Hirshberg - from video by NardaJane Goodall - by Bowo SulistioBrower Awards ceremony - by Bowo SulistioFreya Chay -linkWiserEarth Editors Annual meeting - by Bowo SulistioAt the Yiangous - by NardaLeonardo da Vinci, study of a hand

Bookcovers:

Planetwalker - Nationalgeographic.comBlessed Unrest - google.co.uk/booksStirring it Up - amazon.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65SEgXZvx2Q&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzMPUKAXM7Uhttp://www.broweryouthawards.org/userdata_display.php?modin=50&uid=9554http://www.broweryouthawards.org/userdata_display.php?modin=50&uid=9554http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65SEgXZvx2Q&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzMPUKAXM7Uhttp://www.broweryouthawards.org/userdata_display.php?modin=50&uid=9554

the revolution has begun: the shift hits the fan!

Documents