c-Integral | BLOG

Identity, Power & Integral Change is a one-day workshop in which participants are invited to deepen their understanding of identity, broaden their analysis of power, critically examine values, beliefs and behaviors concerning liberation, and personally engage transformative practices for integral change.

Through this workshop, we will explore these basic aspects of the consciousness-in-action process:

• Integral Well-Being & Development: Personal and Collective Dimensions of Being and Doing
• Forces That Hinder Well-Being & Development: Complexities of Institutional and Internalized Oppression
• Personal & Social Aspects of Identity & Power Within Dominant Culture: Self in Dynamic Relationship to Other(s) as Context for Liberation and Transformation
• Integral Transformative Practices: Tools, Practices and Disciplines to Undermine Reactive Patterns and Nurture Libratory Transformation

This workshop will be useful for helping professionals, social justice and spiritual activists, community organizers and cultural workers, students and educators, and other change agents interested in the connection between personal well-being and development and social justice and transformation.

Facilitated by Raúl Quiñones-Rosado and Rose Sackey-Milligan, this workshop will be offered on Friday, October 22nd in the Boston area and again on Saturday, October 23rd in Northampton, MA.

Sliding Scale Fee: $25 – $75  — (Supported in part by The Seasons Fund for Social Transformation).

To PRE-REGISTER please send an e-mail to: info@c-integral.org

Check out Van Jones keynote address at the recent Netroots Nation annual conference. Van Jones, as you may remember, is the environmental justice organizer who was appointed as Green Jobs “Special Advisor” to President Obama — that is, until Fox News and other oppressive and reactionary forces in the US media smeared his good reputation and successfully pressured the White House to take him down.

As you’ll see and hear in this speach, Van Jones is far from being silenced. Go, Van!

Deep Retreat in the Heart of Awakening: Contemplative Power for Living and Service

On April 24, 2010, Rose Sackey-Milligan, c-Integral’s co-director, and Julie Forsythe of the Foundation for Active Compassion co-taught a daylong retreat for an inter-generational and ethnically mixed group of people in the service and social action sectors in Northampton, MA. It was an intimate group of 15 who deeply considered, through meditative practice and dialogue, what it means to work in the world directed by, to use Buddhist terminology, “the ground of being”.

The group explored the practices of Natural Wisdom and Love adapted from Tibetan Buddhism meditation traditions. The day was spent teaching the practices, conversation, storytelling and direct application of the practices to service. Question and answer periods were integrated throughout.

With consistent application, these practices support the cultivation of one’s ability to acutely sense wholeness, wellbeing and love, which is, essentially, the core of Being. And it is that which embraces us when we face enormous injustice and suffering at the personal, professional and collective levels. Discovering this wellspring of love within, the group was able to sense how this shores up those in service in ways that the limited sense of self cannot.

These practices offer both personal and collective transformation. They soften and open the heart for those paralyzed by their anger and injustice in the world. All of humanity is part of one seamless reality, static perfection, divinely intelligent, and transcendent force. So for folks who experience the limiting impact of systemic and structural forms of oppression as they play out based on race, gender, class, sexuality and ability, awakening to this new understanding is quite liberatory. When both individuals from dominant culture and persons who are subordinated can come together to address these oppressive forms, and be supported by the transformative power of the deepest part of our being in the process, then the potential for enlightened conversations and effective resolution to the historical root cause of social and environmental injustice which continues to stand as a major obstacle to solving the most pressing issues of humanity and our planet today becomes both palpable and possible.

c-Integral and the Foundation for Active Compassion are currently discussing on-going collaborations. For more information on FAC visit www.foundationforactivecompassion.org

A short thought-provoking video I stumbled across…

Are You Ready for the 21st Century ? from Michel Cartier on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago, Rose Sackey-Milligan, c-Integral’s Co-Director, and I held our first Consciousness-in-Action webinar. This presentation was hosted by the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society as part of their series of webinars for the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, teachers, scholars, administrators and students who teach or use contemplative practices in academia.

This presentation provides an overview of consciousness-in-action, c-Integral’s unique approach to personal and social transformation. As such, it serves as a basic introduction to some of the key concepts, principles and applications of this transformative path. In it, we speak to the value of contemplative practice in addressing complex identity and social justice issues for individual and collective liberation from oppression, a necessary stage as we move toward integral well-being and development.

Clearly, this is merely an introduction to the consciousness-in-action approach to integral liberation and transformation. We hope it serves as a teaser to those that may interested in learning more about this transformative practice.

Our thanks go to Beth Wadham, Carrie Bergman and the folks at C-Mind for inviting us to share our work with ACMHE and for making it possible to share it with you all reading this.

Consciousness in Action from Center for Contemplative Mind on Vimeo.