Collective Consciousness Conversation

haps lodge bouwen

2010-08-05T15:32:00.000+02:00

CCC Cardiff...another wave emerging

2010-03-16T01:27:00.002+01:00

Our sharing of our latest conversation as we prepare to host the space for our inquiry in Cardiff...

With love
Joao Pedro, Christine, Anjet, Zachary and Matthieu

Healing

Grounding in stillness the soft air of fire
The hearth where the earth of warmth
Brings quieter passions to heart.

Need to light the incense, where the energy
Draws us where we are not, frightened
Embracing the turbulence of water, air, and fire.

A furnace where there is a burning purity
For the conflicting dates present a field
Seeing, not looking with eyes to what is unseen.

Healing consciousness in the wider sense
Of justice, struck by what is excluded when invited
Making known the circle of disconnection in the emergence.

Feeling the sadness of what age carries and carries away
Clearly calling for tomorrow collectively to be present
To serve a bigger whole, connected once more to fire within.

Hidden, not able to be found while okay with who is there.
Looking again, rowing towards a destined distant shore…
Yes, maybe… not now, later… silence… stuck

Partly making pilgrimage to who will be present and not.
Trying to control the possibilities, explore the meaning
Of what it is believed to be so it can be released to be.

What is being called? What are we serving? What is the question?
The welfare of this planet at this time, noticing what experience
Is embodied existentially, shifting the field with accountable innocence.

Guiding the responsibility of the gentle shoots of active grace
Where the seeds of knowing drive a sensed self in the present moment
Creating the conditions to open an honest approach to what matters.

A sigh, for certain. All breathing, pausing. Critical mass of what could be
Different conversations in community, the intention revealed, short of breath
Enjoying the things to do in this world, energy of being driven and driving.

Understanding we must go through, blowing up an illusion, seriously questioning
Can I make a difference? Maybe differently than the way it was done before.
Greater forces at play. Losing the connection. Who is “I” when I act?

Reshaping at all levels, shifting inside to be with and surrender to the birth
Enabling the ties to untie, flowing underneath, surfacing the play
Moved and touched while fading and feeling, resonating and deepening.
Finding the mind space in the heart for what matters. Beginning a gathering
Of images that inspire and bring meaning with earth mothers and cocoons
That provide a way to find our way to think of what we never thought.

Ways to create space in the physical space that allows a live link to allow
Those who seek to participate in a collage of calling. Finished for now.
Beginning to begin.

CCC Minutes March 15, 2010

CCC Cardiff...our emerging conversation

2010-03-07T17:58:00.003+01:00

This is the essence of our recent discussion meeting as we prepare to host the CCC in Cardiff, let us know how it resonates with you...

Gathering

Still struggling
Though it becomes a known norm
Transitions
Where head and hearts and heels
Feeling ungrounded by storms
Returning home and regressing and advancing
Disorientation, panic, loss of control
In the same time and space
A calm

When is the storm coming again?

Resonance with the turbulent calm
As the middle blocks and shields,
Not connecting upward or downward
Mixed feelings with resignation and contracts
A call for less and a need for more
A cycle of return to the maternal
Wondering what needs to be born.

Drawing the lines between the numbers
Facing north, south, east, and west
With home on the back, like a turtle
Righting itself
With dark and light at the same time

The courage of being five points of star,
Trusting the difficult path to lead
The very act of breathing life
Knowing we will once more
Touch the divine, together

The deep difference between asking the question
On my own, a part from words that hold
A space that yearns for connections
Getting closer to an emerging field

Where the very messages from nature
That seek to speak for nurture
As gentle cries of an infant child
Now and there, where more of what
Is core beckons at that beacon of home
Rooted to earth from the nurturing womb

Natural cycles
Dynamic, softening as it happening
Meaning many things, questioning the questions
Feeling the images
The elements are what is alive.
Pushing us to be a living system.

Minutes of CCC meeting--- 4 March 2010

with love

Matthieu, Anjet, Joao Pedro, Christine and Zachary

The Need for New Leaders

2009-12-22T17:16:00.005+01:00

Reading this latest issue of Resurgence, I felt impulsed to share with you:

'Mary Patterson is the Education for Sustainable Development Co-ordinator at Kingswood school in Bath, UK. She emailed Resurgence to share a poem by Tamsin Ireland, aged 14. Tamsin is an active and influential member of the school's Sustainable Development Committee and her innovative poem shows how important it is to see things from the right perspective. This poem won the 2009 Young People's Climate Change Conference competition.

We have to see things the right way round
There is no hope
It is not true that
It is always possible to get out of bad situations
We must acknowledge that
We have made many mistakes
Although in the past
We knew the consequences
We didn't change then even though
The air grew thicker and
Made the seas rise
Because of our lack of care in 2009 we
Have nothing left
It is wrong to believe that we
Can make a difference as individuals
All around the world people should know that we
Cannot bring back what we had
Even though we
Made an effort
As people together we
Became less and less powerful
The droughts,the hurricanes, the floods
Grew larger and larger
And our will to make things right
Disappeared completely before 2020
Selfish attitudes
Make things difficult for future generations
Some ways we found to create energy did not
Ensure that our children can live as well as we do
We must
Turn Things Around

Confused? Now read the poem from the bottom up again'

Let us take inspiration from Tamsin's work for us as a CCC community for 2010 and the next decade :-)

Paul Hawken

2009-12-01T20:30:00.002+01:00

Dear all,

Paul Hawken delivered this wonderful commencement speech at the University of Portland earlier this year. If you want to be inspired and be reflective for a moment read it by clicking here. Or if you want to know more about Paul Hawken, click here - Paul Hawken - to visit his website.

Enjoy,

René

CCC ...continuing the conversation - NEWS

2009-11-18T03:20:00.002+01:00

Hello dear co-creators:-)

The next CCC is indeed in flow and the dates are now set for 18-21 May 2010 in the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff.

We are currently working on the preparation and themes for our conversation, already we are receiving innovative and exciting seeds and ideas for formation from amongst the collective - thankyou. We anticipate being able to share our invitations early in the New Year.

Meantime, we invite you to continue to be with us as co-creators...here is a poem that I was inspired to write following a shared experience with one from our connective collective, Karen Izod...

A Century of Time

Sitting, sharing, laughing and crying in the sunshine
Listening to the trickling, soothing song of the fountains
Noticing, feeling loved, peaceful, held, heard
Inquiring about the tradition and the trajectory.

Who am I; who are we; why are we
In this particular passage of time…now here?

Amongst the textures of slate, redbrick, stone, copper, glass and steel
Next to the inspirational offerings of the welsh craftsmen and women
Wondering about the century of time that is captured here
And what songs have indeed been sung over the horizons gone…

And in between,
The gleaming, proud tower and beacon of light, flowing with source.
What is this bold reflection mirroring to us now
in this moment of millennium time?

Christine Davies 10th Sept 2009, Cardiff Bay

Continuing the Conversation with Intent

2009-11-04T01:53:00.002+01:00

In each age, men of genius undertake the ascent. From below, the world follows them with their eyes. These men go up the mountain, enter the clouds, disappear, reappear. People watch them, mark them. They walk by the side of precipices. They daringly pursue their road. See them aloft, see them in the distance; they are but black specks. On they go. The road is uneven, its difficulties constant. At each step, a wall, at each step a trap. As they rise the cold increases. They must make their ladder, cut the ice and walk on it, hewing the steps in haste. A storm is raging. Nevertheless they go forward in their madness. The air becomes difficult to breathe. The abyss yawns below them. Some fall. Others stop and retrace their steps; there is a sad weariness. The bold ones continue. They are eyed by the eagles; the lightning plays about them: the hurricane is furious. No matter, they persevere.

Victor Hugo

shout Yes!

2009-10-07T15:12:00.004+02:00

The invitation: It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes."

It doesn't interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Rhythm, Dance and Passion

2009-09-19T00:48:00.002+02:00

Take your passion and make it happen?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El3koivWVkY

Love
Christine
x

2009-09-17T22:04:00.002+02:00

Entrainment and the Rhythm of Life:

"Everything moves in rhythm. Atomic particles, waves of electrons, molecules in wood and rocks, grass and trees, amoebas, mammals and birds, fishes and reptiles, the earth, the moon, the sun and stars...and we ourselves. All are dominated by rhythm.

"In us, as in all animals, the heart is most noticeably rhythm; but the blood pumped by our heart, along with the organs, muscles, and sinews nourished by our blood, also move in rhythm, whether we're conscious of it or not. Our breath, the most obvious manifestation of our inner condition, quickens or slows according to our state of mind or level of physical excitement.

"The world is thus alive with a myriad of rhythms. 'Entrainment' is the process by which these rhythms fall into synchronization with each other.

"Rhythmic entrainment is one of the great organizing principles of the world, as inescapable as gravity. It explains how one rhythm works with another, and how separate entities, from molecules to stars, will fall into rhythm as automatically as a pulse beats or a butterfly flaps its wings.

"If you set two out-of-sync pendulum clocks side by side, by the next day they'll be keeping time together. In fact, it looks as if they want to be locked into sync with each other. When you adjust the knobs on your radio, your adjusting the set's oscillators: when they come reasonably close to matching the frequency of a station's signal, they suddenly lock and pulse together, and your program jumps into focus.

Reflections.....harvesting....

2009-09-16T00:19:00.004+02:00

Dear dancers :-)

Collective Consciousness Conversation

In March 2009, in Leiden in the Netherlands, we participated in an inquiry and learning process - a dance about:

‘What kind of world can we create and what kind of leadership will enable that?’

As hosts, we believed then, and more so now, that A Collective Consciousness Conversation (CCC) is a choice moving us towards love and freedom.

We have been connecting deeply, reflecting and wondering about how our individual and collective experiences have been influencing us to take our own constructive actions in the world. We were each of us able to share tales of our connections with CCC dancers and we are in awe of how all our stories reflect constructive action amongst the collective.

‘I have heard it all my life,
A voice calling a name I recognized as my own...’
The Call by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

We were also wondering about whether there were any questions and /or concerns that you would like us to attend to in our collective role as conveners, hosts and guides post the CCC experience? We welcome your comments.

And so, as we continue to anchor these roles, and with on-going loving intention and attention to co-creation, we are offering a further invitation to deepen the CCC inquiry. We are curious to learn how the CCC has impacted on you. Our extended personal invitation to you is to reflect further on what CCC may have offered to you. Or to use a metaphor, what the CCC may have seeded for you; what may have required pruning and cutting back; what green shoots may be appearing or are there any situations which are already blossoming for you, in your life, in your work and in your praxis?

We invite you to share what feels appropriate for you...we hope that by your sharing we will be able to weave a rich contextual tapestry from which we can all learn as a collective. Your offerings can be incorporated into a collective collage…so feel free to express yourself in whatever way resonates most personally and powerfully for you……

In the first instance, it is our intention to share the learnings with those who were physically present in CCC. We hope to harvest the fruits to inform our next CCC cycle which continues to evolve and respond to the collective consciousness of the now as it emerges anew…..

We were wondering about the process that each group went through as it progressed its work in designing and hosting the co-creation session relating to the inquiry themes of connections; collective consciousness I; collective consciousness II and constructive action. A brief summary of the session format and specific activites that each group led would be very helpful and we invite each group to share with us in this regard if they would so choose.

Overtime, maybe some of the offerings could inform our ongoing theory and praxis development – or could be offered as learnings on the blog and the CCC FaceBook page.

We are aiming to weave some threads together by the end of October so that we can embrace what is emerging for the next phase of our development and our intention to host a further CCC inquiry in Wales in March 2010. So we would be delighted if you could share with us, as appropriate, in the coming weeks.

We look forward to continuing the dance in the space that is emerging between us, known and unknown, being and becoming…and yet…

Love,
Zachary, Anjet, Rene and Christine
x x x x

Exploring Consciousness

2009-08-25T21:10:00.005+02:00

Exploring consciousness is the theme of the latest edition of Resurgence...at the heart of earth, art and spirit.

...E.F. Schumacher once said, 'We are now far too clever to be able to survive without wisdom'. The question is, will humanity take the quantum leap in consciousness needed to create a resilient future? More is explored in the article on Resilience by Peter Russell.

In the article Reality by Thich Nhat Hanh.....'ancient traditions and religions have known intuitively for millenia what quantum physics is now proving: that all things are interconnected and the whole of creation is interdependent...'

Here is the link http://www.resurgence.org/

I wonder what the synchronicities might be for our ongoing Collective Consciousness Conversation and leadership inquiry?

Love
Christine
x

Reflections, Inspirations and Emergence

2009-08-16T20:20:00.005+02:00

As my adventure into learning and exploring social media technology continues, especially my learning on Facebook - I have had some space to take a step back in the last week or so. Been wondering about the themes on the CCC FB page and also the links to the FB Appreciation, Inspiration and Sacred Moments page.

They have both inspired me and I wanted to share with you what has emerged for me...

Love
Christine
x

Awakening to the Embrace

Realising i was awake, grateful…
Horrified, broken open, who, what now?
Really feeling, really listening and hearing, seeing…

Acknowledging the before, the hurts, the wants,
the patterns being repeated…
Letting go, of the known, the usual routes.

Being struck by a sudden moment of tenderness,
Beauty and awe in nature, a colourfully woven web.
A ‘HEY YOU’ – become part of this call.

Sadness, loss, for him, for her, for them our formative souls
Shattered, not perfect, not whole, not saintly
Being here, humanity in creation, presence in essence.

And so, to wallow, to forgive, to learn?
Choices, choices….love? life and living?
Experiencing and embracing the discovery…

A friend, trusting, being, sharing and smiling
Watching children on the beach, dancing in the waves
Listening to the laughter, watching the kites flying.

And what more? Another cycle begins…
a storm gathers, the creative vortex approaches.
Clearance…stillness…peace…realization.

A fresh new day with all of its possibilities
What will I choose now…enough?
Being, loving and embracing the experience…

Christine Davies 15th August 2009

Art and Creativity... weaving threads towards Constructive Action

2009-07-19T15:28:00.004+02:00

Reading and reflecting this morning on The University Addresses - A New Humanism by Daisaku Ikeda - the chapter on Creative Life. . .

'We live in an era of unparalleled difficulty and change. In times like these, people begin to look inward, and that is happening today. Toward the end of his life, haunted by the tramp of army boots over France and the rest of Europe, Valery tried to launch a ''spiritual league'' of people dedicated to higher goals. Andre Malraux, also, was certain he sensed signs of a spiritual revolution that would take place in the coming century. They saw glimmerings of what we have called creative life, that force which will grow and flower into an articulated movement.

Through inner human revolution, it will surge onward, carried by the imperative behind the ''spiritual league'' and the ''spiritual revolution'', the quest for the ultimate reality. I believe that this is the wellspring of energy that activates all of human endeavour, including art. Let me conclude with another of my poems, this one composed in honour of art.

Art,
O eternal light,
imperishable imprint of civilisations!
Hymn to life,
to liberty, to creation , to joy!
Intense prayer,
profound harmony with the fundamental reality!
Forum of friendship,
where millions of beings
join with, greet and smile at each other.
A man of letters declared in the West:
''East is East and West is West,
but when the two giants meet
boundaries and nationalities will disappear.''
At the same time, in the East, a great poet wrote:
''East and West must marry
on the altar of humanity.''
And here is Art,
inviting the soul by reaching her hand out
toward a soothing and serene wood,
toward a garden where imagination blazes across the sky;
inviting it to the noble stage of wisdom
and leading it toward the far-off horizon
of universal civilisation.'

And as I progressed to the more immediate and mundane - sorting and tidying my den! I came across a favourite album from a few years back by Sandi Thom called 'Smile. . it confuses people' - here's a track I like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igbkb92SkkA

I am wondering about how all this may link to the original CCC invitation. . 'We see this event as an opportunity for us to step away from a love that is about consummation and consumption towards another that is about connection and constructive action in the world. . A love where we can enable the light to shine in and through all of us: a 'translucent revolution'. .

Maybe I have been born at the right time after all. . .

Much love and a big smile :-)

Christine

Self, Society and Sustainability

2009-06-05T23:19:00.006+02:00

' World conditions challenge us to look beyond the status quo for responses to the pain of our times. We look to powers within as well as to powers without. A new, spiritually based social activism is beginning to assert itself. It stems not from hating what is wrong and trying to fight it, but from loving what could be and making the commitment to bring it forth'

Marianne Williamson

As I was pondering on this today. .I picked up a book by David Whyte called 'Crossing the Unknown Sea - Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity' and there is a section in there called Shaping the Self. It contains a poem. .

WORKING TOGETHER

We shape ourself
to fit this world

and by the world
are shaped again.

The visible
and the invisible

working together
in common cause

to produce
the miraculous.

I am thinking of the way
the intangible air

passed at speed
round a shaped wing

easily
holds our weight.

So may we, in this life
trust

to those elements
we have yet to see

or imagine
and look for the true

shape of our own self
by forming it well

to the great
intangibles about us.

With much love Christine

Live life . . enjoy this beautiful day

2009-05-25T21:56:00.002+02:00

Hi CCC

Thought that as organic farmers of creative potential. . .you would enjoy this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl3d7spSiSg

Love Christine

Appreciation, Inspiration and Humility

2009-05-22T23:55:00.006+02:00

Thanking you for your humility; grace and trust.

Through your courageous work as co-creator of the CCC experience, the inspiration is flowing for the discerning and defining of the new kind of leadership that we touched, trusted and experienced in transformations as we collectively worked and connected with each other in Leiden.

May we all embrace each other and move forward according to our own individual and shared connected pathways . . .

Much love,
Christine
x

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=84724269005&h=73b77&u=V3FRW

Things I recived after I have been at the Collective Consciousness Conversation

2009-05-21T16:08:00.003+02:00

Horse comes in your life when great changes are coming up. New ways of living, thinking and working. Here you see the love a horse can give If you can connect to his wild spirit.
Aan al mijn verwanten “Mitakuye O Yasin” Peter de Haan

Meer weten lees hier over Horse Spirit en mijn avonturen:

Dance, Love, Sing, Live. . .

2009-05-19T17:38:00.002+02:00

Dance as though no one is watching,
Love like it will never hurt,
Sing as though one is listening,
Live like there's only today.

'To express who you really want to be is one of the most challenging and exhilarating things to do. . it can also inspire others. Nothing leads like example.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDijUWjsG6s

I hope you dance. . . .

Love Christine
:-)xxx

Love and Friendship

2009-05-19T16:32:00.001+02:00

Journeys of Love & Friendship

Source: www.youtube.com

"Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself ." ~Kahlil Gibran~ When we open ourselves to the heart of a friend or lover, we trust that we are cherished, loved unconditionally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQOqK9AcGqU&eurl=

2009-05-18T13:24:00.001+02:00

This needs to make headline news...not some of the other junk that makes the news these days!!!?

It's a tough, but heart-warming story...with a picture of John Gebhardt in Iraq
John Gebhardt's wife, Mindy, said that this little girl's entire family was executed. The insurgents intended to execute the little girl also, and shot her in the head...but they failed to kill her. She was cared for in John's hospital and is healing up, but continues to cry and moan. The nurses said John is the only one who seems to calm her down, so John has spent the last four nights holding her while they both slept in that chair. The girl is coming along with her healing.
This is worth sharing with the WORLD! Go for it!!
You'll never see things like this in the news. Please keep this going. Nothing will happen if you don't, but the public needs to see pictures like this.

Democratic Leadership - the integral intention challenge

2009-05-18T01:01:00.013+02:00

Is the challenge about compliance with the so called rules or maybe moving beyond - entering into a spirit of behaviours which works with the values of truth; honesty; trust and integrity?

These last two weeks have to say the least been interesting in the political life in the UK. Last week saw the 10th anniversary of Wales' devolution and the creation of the National Assembly for Wales - and this week the revelations about UK MP's expenses and the crisis of confidence that is emerging in UK parliament---issues of trust, integrity and truth being at the heart of the matter.

My father, a miner - who crawled on his hands and knees at that time to dig coal to feed his family, ensuring that I was the first in our family to have access to a university education and that others could follow would be turning in his grave now at the integrity and state of political leadership.

Being Welsh, I am passionate about rugby :-) as well as our little nation's potential for its emergence in the world. I wonder what the gifts of poetry, music, artistry and the celtic roots may contribute to us finding an identity in this emerging global village. Also 10 years into devolution - I have been having conversations about the role of leadership in this emergence and exploring the power of imagination in enabling the transformation of this very proud and humble nation. . .perhaps how we might invest and work collectively to support the next generation and address the legacies of poverty and health deprivation left in our valleys by the enactment of the industrial myths.

And then last week - I attended the inaugural Nehru lecture here in Cardiff organised by the Wales India Centre. I learned about and was inspired by the original intentions behind the establishment of the Indian constitution - 60 years old this year. The presentation by Lord Bhikhu Parekh touched on the importance of:

* the universal franchise, the vote becoming available to all at the same time
* embracing plurality and multiculturalism
* holding dissent and difference in perspective
* the importance of giving everyone a hope; a sense of dignity
* bringing the marginalised into mainstream and respecting difference
* working with the challenges of defining an identity and learning to embrace equality

The talk also made me think about scale and size - India employs the equivalent of the population of Wales in its electoral industry process alone!

So am wondering more about size, scale and impact and indeed as per Schumacher's writings 'Small is Beautiful' - whether we might act collectively here to create a sustainable future - especially since this week sees the launch of the 'One Wales - One Planet' strategy at the international book festival at Hay on Wye. Perhaps how we need to ground and act very locally - if we are ever to impact globally. .

My other reflections from the India experience are that democracy is one thing and the outcome is another -- over 600 million people in India live on below 2 dollars a day - so I am wondering about the challenges for a newly created government and its constitutional framework.

Wales - 10 years in - and I am questioning . . .? Perhaps this latest political crisis is indeed an opportunity to seize our day and wake up to the fact that we are co-creators in this society of ours. We are creating or destroying the community and sense of belonging - what are we choosing and therefore enacting? What is our intention? How are we integrating that into how we behave and how we live our lives on a daily basis?

Who is responsible? Stewardship and 'heriting' - mmm?

One of my best memories when I was a liitle girl was of being with my dad in his garden. He grew lots of vegetables to sustain us, but his passion was for his dahlia garden - I remember feeling I am so tiny these flowers are huge - he took much pride in his blooms :-)xxx

And as the world gets smaller through our technological capability - we can reach and touch many more now. I wonder what would happen if we were able to embrace these realities and challenges on our own doorsteps and beyond. Maybe to explore taking up our own personal leadership roles in our families and communities? And if this really is a global village - how might we embrace and learn with our neighbours with a spirit of love and compassion.

What might be our contribution and constructive action? Who are we as citizen leaders of our new world?

Learning as I travel. . with love Christine

2009-05-14T09:15:00.000+02:00

2009-05-06T18:21:00.000+02:00

Power of Imagination; Poetry and Love in Action

2009-05-02T17:00:00.010+02:00

What a wonderful week in my life, more dreams coming true, amazing creations and connections...conscious of a higher power than me at work, learning to be with and embrace it.

The first invitation this week from the man that still is in Australia - David McCallum about the Power of the Imagination in Transformational Leadership

David McCallum SJ is pondering this great article on leadership

Article by Michael Jones, March 2009 Integral Leadership Review
Source: www.integralleadershipreview.com
We are on the threshold of a renaissance in leadership practice—the challenges ahead are not technical but transformational. Letting go of our industrial age myths will require not just intellectual understanding but the full power of the imagination.

This triggered something deeper within me regarding my identity and role as a transformer in Wales and I decided to use it as a catalyst to create new conversations.

It was then followed by Karen Izod's sharing of this news clip regarding the Poet Laureat appointment - more opportunity for women to find courage and opportunities for their voices to be heard. . .

http://www.facebook.com/l/837b5;http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8027767.stm

Kirsty Foster also on that same day shared some of her wonderful creative prose with me and then Anjet then shared this beautiful piece. .

The measure of love
“I have always wanted to know if I was able to love like you do,” said the disciple of a Hindu master.“There is nothing beyond love,” answered the master.
“It’s love that keeps the world going round and the stars hanging in the sky.”
“I know all that. But how can I know if my love is great enough?”
“Try to find out if you abandon yourself to love or if you flee from your emotions. But don’t ask questions like that because love is neither great nor small. You can’t measure a feeling like you measure a road: if you act like that you will see only your reflection, like the moon in a lake, but you won’t be following your path.”

So this has inspired me to share some of mine. .

Question why ‘Love’ causes chaos;
It reveals the truth and releases incredible energy.
Its success depends on how you choose to react.
It works best when you surrender to the flow;
To accept its grace and enjoy the beauty and bounty of life.

And this wisdom from the poet Machado. . .

'Life is a path that you beat while you walk it'

Just spent a wonderful 24hours with a member of our collective co-creator Susan Wilmot Josife who is very focussed on raising human consciousness, we were exploring enabling experiences for young people. We were contemplating the state of the world and were met with a poem in Peter Russell's book - Waking Up in Time

Love - The Gift of Peace

Love is not something you do,
Love is a way of being.
And more than that.
It is simply being.
Being with another person, however they may be.
Holding no judgements, having no agendas,
No desire to control,
No need to prove your love,
No intrusion upon their soul.
Nothing but a total acceptance of their being,
Born of your acceptance of yours.

Peter goes on with the discussion- - - 'Nevertheless, whatever the creature, the essence of consciousness or sentience remains the same: it is the essence of being aware, the light behind all experience. Seeing this, seeing that the consciousness within ourselves is the same consciousness that lies within all sentient beings, is the basis of universal love, a love for all creation.'

Hope to see and hear you on Facebook soon at the CCC page - just register and search for Collective Consciousness Conversation
Love
Christine

2009-04-25T19:40:00.000+02:00

Blessings, Gratitude, Love and the Precious Gift of Life

2009-04-25T17:54:00.013+02:00

This week I have been 'receiving' gifts of appreciation from some people who were in Leiden. I have experienced awe, joy and been moved to tears of pure bliss. Thankyou.

The exchanges too between Sylvana Storey and Matthieu Daum were so powerful in their intensity, intimacy, connection and pure manifestation of the power of love and appreciation as a constructive action. .

Whilst this was happening I met with Kirsty Foster where we were exploring some of her reflections after working with some young men in the making from an all boys school. She was amazed at their capacity to teach each other; to hold and be together full of admiration and support; where there was a recognition that group survival was more important than the survival of the 'ego'. She said. . .

'their ability to embrace each other was awesome. .it was somehow cool to do that in that school. .they understand the magic of it'.

Yesterday, Karen Izod and I connected about doing some work together themed around 'Creativity in Humanity' - initially some gender focussed work. .and her poem that she shared in Leiden held even more resonance...

TUG OF LOVE

With your tug I am
being cast adrift.
I feel the pull
under my feet.
Vapour trails criss and cross
their ways through my consciousness.
Their mists settle upon us.

Yesterday - Zachary came to Wales, I was able to offer a hosting haven and whilst we met Karen sent through this wonderful link - blessings. .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BkT6-CDIjw

And last night there was a three way connection between us and Karen shared another of her wonderful poems. .

ON LONDON'S STREETS

More black boys
More white boys
Lie, dying.
Dead even.

Bayonets through the gut, through the arm
Punctured
Head, for some reason,
over the top of some particular parapet.

Who is this enemy?
Is there some general, back straight
pondering the strategy?

Mothers watch
Fathers; eyes casting for the
Relief on the landscape.

What did we learn before
About sending our young men to their deaths?
Wasn’t it that we had to find a way to talk?

Did I miss something, or
Did we say it wouldn’t happen again?

Copyright Karen Izod 2008

Today. . . I see that the footballer Jermaine Defoe's brother, Jade, a man of colour has been killed. I am reminded of the preciousness of my life and the gifts contained within it. This links so strongly for me with Rene's earlier Facebook invitation this week regarding Appreciation and Inspiration.

I remain even more aware of the need for our collective connective to act constructively in the world. Between us we have a range of shoes, boots and sneakers , we are going to put on our Red Shoes and dance - will you too?

Thankyou for your precious gifts, blessings and much love
Christine
x

Commitment ...

2009-04-22T00:06:00.003+02:00

When talking to Sytske yesterday about some work we will do together this autumn, her eye fell on a quote she was offered by John, and it's a piece of old wisdom by Goethe ...

"Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising to one's favour all manner of unforeseen accidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

It was just what was right to remind us to commit to our intention. And then on the Presencing community website today i noticed a link to a video that reminded me of the importance of a sense of wonder ....

So commitment and wonder - and then we are nearly coming back to old Benedictine values of stabilitas, conversio morum and obedientia ... staying with things and continuously listening out for what needs to be heard.

It's just so scary sometimes to be bold!

Love, Anjet

Constructive Action. .an invitation, a dance, a call. .

2009-04-17T19:59:00.002+02:00

This is a message that I received last week and as a response to what our blog has evoked in others who were not present in Leiden. Allan Munn and Alasdair Munn are a Father and Son combination – having spent many years in Zimbabwe and both sharing a very powerful passion for constructive action on behalf of Africa. It humbled and excited me. .

‘Dear Christine

I was drawn to the blog that you listed for Alasdair, 'experiencing consciousness'.
There are some amazing concepts there and sincere people with valuable skills to communicate them.

This is a communication process very closely aligned to the rural African.
Survival in many rural communities in Africa depends upon collective thought.
Many African religious beliefs are grounded in collective wisdom and experience merged with
oral history, provided spiritually through and from the Ancestors.
They are the ones who already 'dance the dance'.

In African rural culture, the EGO is shunned. They have learned that there is little room for it
in a community that is collectively surviving.

I believe that Western societies are not primarily collective in their survival processes, rather they
tend to be self motivated, self centered and consequentially mainly driven by the EGO.
For me, in a collective society, which I sincerely believe is the only way forward for this planet, the human EGO is the destruction.
I feel very strongly about this and recently wrote this poem about the EGO, which you may like to share with me.

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE?

Love and fear are real
But there is no such thing as hate
Hate is born of fear, hiding in your head,
An ego marriage of the imagination and the mind.

And where do you want to be...
In your soul, in your heart?

Oh yes... but not in your ego head
We shall never connect there.
Remember, there is no hate
And that you are not scared of me,
You are scared of you.

I'm not sure if your fellow bloggers would be interested in this poem, or these thoughts
but if you think that they may be, then please share with them.’

And so I have shared with them. Thankyou Allan for this gift to the Conscious Collective, with which you are now connected. . .
Cariad Christine
x

Let it Be--Let it Flow--Let it Yield

2009-04-17T09:04:00.004+02:00

Dear All:

This is the video of the sunrise ritual. It was offered to ground the CCC, seeding the earth, air, and sea with the spirit of our collective intentions to provide the kind of leadership that will enable the emerging world to be...Now on to the constructive action to make it so...

love,

Zachary

Peace

2009-04-17T00:51:00.004+02:00

Here is another video of our event, providing a different tone and expression than the first. A "final" video that documents the sunrise ritual offered to ground the CCC experience will be posted in the near future...

Peace,

Zachary

2009-04-14T22:25:00.005+02:00

Theory, Praxis and Experiencing

Hello Conscious Collective

From the stream of emails flows that are happening, it is indeed confirming that a collective has been seeded and is continuing in its work and awareness to facilitate a new leadership focusing on constructive action for and within the world.

I have been struck by how the emails from Aliki, Laura and Gouranga that we have received in the space of 24 hours, as we have been manifesting our ritual of intention and constructive action in the world have materialized. With these connections in mind, am drawn to our poem Conscious Collective – first and last lines in particular.

‘Seeing through to the essence that is ever present. . .

. . The encounter seeing beyond’

And so I hear a wonderfully powerful invitation to the ‘joy of being’ from Aliki Nicolaides for us each to dance in our own way, be in our own essence and go with it and prepare to be amazed. .

‘something fresh that brought tears of joy to my eyes - Happy Spring'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq6b9bMBXpg&eurl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww%252Etowleroad%252Ecom%252F2009%252F04%252Fthe%252Dsound%252Dof%252Dspontaneous%252Dmusical%252Dtheatre%252Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

Another connection and movement that I am noticing is from dancing to travelling – linking up with our recent blog post, with the dancing in a train station and also with the emergent strap line relating to flying, ‘fasten your seatbelts’ which has emerged in the same timeframe too – feels like we are all journeying and co-creating as we go somehow?

Am sensing that the music, dance, movement, pure energy and universal love is rippling out now in ways beyond our imaginations. I sense a quickening within me and so within us about what our Connective Collective could enable when the ‘flickering flow' gathers and moves. .

It feels important somehow to recognize how Matthieu Daum has played a catalytic role in our waves of connection – no co-incidence then that his organization is called ‘NEXUS’ – meaning connection – whose purpose is ‘ au croisement des cultures. . .’

Matthieu was also in the Constructive Action group and has voiced and made visible messages from those that could not get through the technology or the systems. .

One of those was Gouranga Chattopadhyay – he has shared with our collective his recent experiences of working with a Shaman friend in Australia where he describes:

‘After that we returned. Any time I want to see my horse friend, he appears inside my forehead where I can clearly see him. Till now I haven't understood the meaning of his quizzical look. But he remains my friend and I feel at peace in his company.

The whole experience was about being at one with all the worlds that the cosmos contains. My name for what I call cosmos is cosmic continuum -no boundary. The invitation is to encounter that at-one state more and more often.

After the workshop I went out to have coffee in a small restaurant on the Great Ocean Road. Soon the Shaman joined me there. She had bought some stuff in a shop that was having a closing down sale a few blocks away. She presented me with two mini wraparounds! One blue and one brown. She did it with such a nice smile that I didn't ask her what I was expected to do with two mini wraparounds! I use those as eiderdowns in my workroom in Kolkata!
Love.
GC

Maybe our universal love and wraparound for each other offers us some insight for reflection and constructive action as we travel. .

And over the Easter weekend – I had some time and space to reflect on what CCC had been about – a dear friend turned up with a book for me that she had just found that morning by Susan Greenwood called ‘The Nature of Magic – an Anthropology of Consciousness’. At once so many of the jigsaw pieces of the diverse theories and practical and lived experiences in Leiden fell into place for me. Susan writes about the concept of ‘magical consciousness’. .it comprises a ‘holistic’ awareness of the spirituality of the everyday, the earth, the body with all its attendant thoughts, feelings and emotions, a sense of the interconnectedness of it all. This is magical consciousness, the conception that has the capability of ‘re-enchanting the world’ for those who experience it.
Cariad
Christine
x

2009-04-08T14:34:00.005+02:00

Dear travellers,

Our invitation to join a co-creative and connective collective offered a beginning, an opportunity for recognising our shared responsibility for how we co-create ourselves, each other and the worlds in which we live. 'In this new space, what if we discovered something beyond - where we can touch, embrace, hold and make meaning of our senses and different forms of knowing. One where we can cradle each other as we grow in our capacity to give and receive? Dare we explore this dimension within ourseves and others?'

And in the space, we danced alone and together and with co-creative loving intention. And since, the dancing and waves of movements, the ebb and flow of life has continued. Our co-created collective is deepening its connection with each wave. As hosts, convenors and guides, we have been profoundly humbled and awed by the sacred gifts that have been offered to the collective, by the courage that has been shown and how the generosity of the human spirit is revealing itself. We have each individually and as a group of four, and no doubt as a whole, been experiencing the challenges of grounding these new energetic waves of 'knowing' and 'being' within ourselves.

Peter invited us to also think about how our intentions, for the world and our collective leadership of it, might be consummated. In order to enable that process to continue, we are offering our intentions (the paper cards) in a small ceremony to the fire and the water on Katwijk beach at 0630 am tomorrow morning. We will know ourselves held by your intentions, as we (Peter, Zachary, Ankie and Anjet on our collective behalf) will also offer something that symbolizes for us what we may need to let go of in order to make space inside ourselves to walk the path that follows … knowing that the path already is, and that we are it and that we also, as a collective and as unique individuals with a purpose shape it while we walk.

Parts of the CCC process included 'stillness' and 'silence' - space for reflection, contemplation and integration. So with this loving intention - we invite you into a space of sanctuary, to 'be' and reflect with us. This is a poem and a construct that has emerged from our reflective dialogues since CCC.

CONSCIOUS COLLECTIVE
Seeing through to the essence that is ever present
To the other end of the spectrum
The dying of ego which will never entirely die
Not entirely disappear---unique spark in deep darkness

Transforming the tradition so that it also
Expresses the emergence

The gems within and around to be polished.

At once is the individual and the collective
Where we are and are not
The nature and beauty of the dance

Where strange paradox is a truth
That in any moment
Changes form and becomes
Another truth…

A flickering flow of woven movements

Let it be
Let it wash
Let it yield

As the flame to the winds
As the waves to the shore
As the wheat to the earth

Recognizing and being recognized
without having seen each other before.
The encounter seeing beyond...

With much love as we continue to be held and nurtured in our connectively woven web.
Zachary, Anjet, Rene and Christine

Silent Reflections

2009-04-03T20:00:00.002+02:00

Most of our posts to date have been from those who were able to attend the Leiden gathering in person. David McCallum has been on a 30-day silent retreat before, during, and since the Conversation. He was first to respond to the invitation and has held the collective in consciousness and prayer from the beginning. He offers a view from silence on how what appears to be death may yield life—and life more abundant..,

Love,

Zachary

-------------------------

The Leiden gathering coincided with the phase of the retreat focused on purification... suffice to say, it was both dark and painful, yet punctuated by moments of insight, liberation, and a deep sense of being loved even as I am a sinner. I think this paradox of being loved even as we are, imperfect and occasionally even working at cross purposes with Life... this sounds a little like the experience several of you have described. So, while we have been engaging the grace and grief of our maturation as a collective of consciousness, these movements of spirit resonate so deeply for me/with you. A line from the New Testament scriptures came to mind just now, "that unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it bears fruit beyond measure." May our love and labor bear fruit and at the same time, may we be free from concern for the outcomes...

Thank you for including me in this experience... it encourages my heart in the silence. And I continue to keep each of you in prayer by name throughout the retreat.

Fondly,
David

Making Meaning of Our Worlds

2009-04-03T19:40:00.002+02:00

Our Constructive Action cohort, this time through John Bazalgette, invites us to make meaning of our experience and begin to document our co-created processes. What follows are an adaptation of his notes from the “Our Worlds” experience. John outlines the steps that we used and offers a first glance hypothesis about what we may have sought to represent. As always, your own comments and reflections are welcomed.

I'm with my notes now. They're not very substantial but form a preliminary sketch of my analytic thinking as I surveyed the different 'worlds' that people created.

For the record the proposal had the following steps:

· Take time to let go as far as you can of all presuppositions, images, memories.

· Go out into the town and be open to receiving the message that the world out there is wan ting to give you

· Return and in self selected groups build a representation of the world that has been communicating with you

· Reflect on what we have created of the message the world has communicated to us.

All this is rough and ready, but I feel there is something that might grow from this small seed.

I asked myself: What is the message that has been collectively received from the world that it has been wanting to give the participants in the conversation? I wondered whether each cluster of participants would unconsciously begin to assemble coherent but differing aspects of our collective sense of what the world of Leiden had said to us. looking at each of them and listening to the conversations that were taking place I tentatively formulated the following hypothesis.

· The Red Group created something the expressed an underlying concern about the world's need for governance and structure

· The Green Group created an expression of the world's need for spirituality

· The Blue Group expressed world's need for a sense of continuity, succession and family

· The Yellow Group expressed the world's need for a sense of health and wellbeing.

I don't want to be held too closely to those categories. However, what I realised was that we had designed the first steps of an exercise which, if given sufficient time (say a day and a half) could provide some stunning disclosures about collective consciousness.

With love,

John

Other Worlds

2009-04-03T19:27:00.003+02:00

Kathleen Pogue White, who recently celebrated a milestone birthday and was not at our gathering, sent out the following video in the flow of our most recent wave of connections. It is like a song we actually played and many of us sung at the gathering. While consistent with the theme of our work, the video also evokes the presence of another world often left unseen. Indeed just on the other side of the glass from us in Leiden were homeless men and women, many from cultures and circumstances different from those assembled to “dance.” As hosts we sought but did not make this level of connection happen. May this offering be a reminder to us of the more, the many, and the forgotten in our midst who are also we. As the song says, we all need someone to stand by me…

Here is the link:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

Collective Consciousness Conversation- A Few Days On...

2009-03-29T21:28:00.006+02:00

One pattern is emerging in the Collective Consciousness Community. When a voice strikes a chord in the heart of the collective, it is met soon after by at least three other voices---usually beginning with one of our fellow travelers who has been with us in spirit--and at least one other that offers a complement or counterpoint to the offering.

Here is the post that began the most recent wave that continues to ripple around the world. It represents a voice from our Constructive Action colleagues by way of Matthieu Daum. It may be inviting us to notice how the brightness of our bliss comes with shadows that paradoxically reveal that which we continue to conceal in ego....What do you think--or as Laura reminds us, What do you feel?

Love, Zachary

-------------------------------------

Hi everyone,

I’ve been reading with attention the post-event messages, the photos, etc… I’ve generally been sensing a positive, energy-filled, mind-blown mood, which is different to my experience during the workshop, leaving it, and going back to Paris.

I want to share with you that it has been quite difficult for me for a few days after the event, and the mood of death that was clearly at the centre of our group’s work (the “constructive actions” group), stayed with me for a few days after. I felt depressed, I felt possessed with feelings I could not shake off, and generally felt like I was struggling against a force even more stubborn than me!!

I felt needy of actions, solutions, and found no answers from my experience in Leiden (that will teach me leaving before the end…). I felt I was shaken, and I felt I couldn’t shake myself back together again…

Last Monday the penny dropped, to use a vivid English expression: going through my mind all the time was the question: what happened in Leiden that I am not wanting to accept? What I am trying so hard to resist? And as I was linking these questions to the theme of death, I had an illumination:

I think that the collective connecting, the collective consciousness, the collective Being that I experienced in Leiden has called me to accept the death of my ego. I realised on Monday that whilst I have been so angry with Descartes’ “I think therefore I am” for many years, I have in that time been fooling myself with an “I act therefore I am”. But I am discovering, with strange awe, that it is much more complex than that.

For a start, perhaps it is not so much “I am”, but “Something, through me, Is”; I am the vessel through which something greater is expressing itself; just as you are, each of you, present in Leiden or not, on this email list or not, a manifestation of something whole, something One, expressing itself through us, interacting with itself through our interactions, creating through our creations…

Perhaps Leiden enabled me to experience Death and Resurrection: because as soon as I accepted, last Monday, to stop fighting and giving in to accepting the death of my ego, I felt filled with a strange and unquestionable energy. Something greater exist, unquestionably, the question that emerges for me is: how do I want to enable it to come forth, to exist in the world? How do I want to shape its presence, its manifestation?

It also appeared clearly to me that our connections, the fact that we are all a manifestation of that Oneness, means that even my worst enemy, even those who are doing what feels to me like awful things in this world, are an expression of the same Being as me, are akin to me…

I trust that if there are anyone around me who can connect to what I am trying to express without thinking that I am a complete lunatic, you are those people, but even though I am not sure that what I am saying makes sense, even for me…

In any case it has propelled me into a really different experience of being, it is quite awesome; mysterious, strange, not really scary but certainly unknown…

Would love to hear more from others,

Lots of love,

Matthieu

Leadership Challenges of Constructive Action

2009-03-29T19:18:00.004+02:00

Hello dancers, fellow co-creators and beacons of hope

Our work is indeed continuing and I am mindful of the phrase that 'the experience is the outcome'

Attached is my reaction about trying to face the leadership challenges of constructive action in the world - just taking my own 'baby steps' - trying to make my own difference. Liefs C:-) xxx

Dear Matthieu, Aliki, John, Karen and Zachary and all who are forming the Connective Collective

Since Friday - your wave of emails have been living with and through me. Thankyou for such sacred sharing and powerful learnings.

Your Constructive Action group challenged us to go out into the world and see how it spoke to us. .this is what I have been living with this week - trying to ground my experience in some sort of reality - yet with a knowing that things are now different and maybe having access to a whole set of languages or frequencies that as yet I don't fully understand.

Being out of Wales is good for me - enabling me to see a from a different perspective and feeling more appreciated and powerful when I return, able to make things happen. I have noticed this week that things are in flow - feels like all my dreams are coming true - especially those relating to realising the potential of young people here. This resonates so much for me with what Aliki said - I am a woman of 43 - no children - and yet I wish to make my mark in the world - what might be 'MY WAY' of doing that - the concept of co-creation and constructive action maybe?

This also has so much association for me to what Karen was alluding to about 'heriting' and I have also noticed that a key theme of my 'success' this week has been about when I have had conversations with people about that which they have to 'let go of' - the death and resurrection - in order to create a space for the creative and new generation to be seeded and shoot out - maybe a space for the new energy to emerge. Maybe I have also been braver, courage and the lion king has featured strongly! So the universe has been signalling. .or maybe it has always been signalling - i am just beginning to listen and learn! DOH!

At the same time - I have felt a deep call from within - trying to understand my own unique story and what it might mean. On Thurs I bought Annie Lennox's new album called Collection. .I felt very sad listening to the song WHY - it has connections to me for a very painful time in my life when I got divorced from the man of my dreams, my heart was broken and all hope lost - and yet with hindsight - it was the best thing ever for me and for him - learning the practice of forgiveness - a new phoenix opportunity? The song links also to my deep experience of sadness and yet amazing spirit and joy in the townships of South Africa - I cry as I write and yet I feel the hope too .this is interwoven intimately with my previous student experiences in life and the awakening of my social conscience.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wkch479CyLU

Zach - we had an intense and intimate exchange on Fri (no change there then!!!!!) - prompted by your sharing of your wonderful video construction - seasons of love - from our collective time together. Watching it filled me with something that I am still working with and don't know what to make of yet - our web and its vibrational energy - lead me to sharing a book by Diana Cooper called 'The Web of Light' - links with Egypt and the Sphinx (Recall what happened on Thur night in Leiden!) Another association then to the concept of a Pyramidal Structure and what opportunities that offers as a creative vortex. .. .

This weekend - more of my own story has been unfolding. .my role within my family - and what my so called 'dis - ability' enables in terms of interconnection - and interdependence. My sister and her husband have been staying with me and we have 'spring cleaned and cleared' my space - and enjoyed each other's company, loved and laughed. It links too for me to something to do with where I am placed in the family and my intergenerational role - the role of 'auntie' being a very precious one. Thankyou.

And so - The Card I pulled from the Crystal pack in Leiden was healing and gratitude. Whilst we were facing west - I prayed for my own healing, for our healing and that of the world. I trust from hearing you that we have begun - a rebirth is indeed on its way - our work as a connective collective is being born and continues. .

As I move into this next week i gift to myself and you all two presents, knowing that we each have all that we need already to do what is required. . .we just need to appreciate and nurture it within ourselves and others. .

Linked directly to John Bazalgette's intervention and a reference to Deepak Chopra:

'You have a talent that is unique in its expression, so unique that there is no one else alive on this planet that has that talent, or that expression of that talent. This means that there's one thing that you can do and one way of doing it, that is better than anyone else on this entire planet'

So go shake that 'booty' of yours!

And the second is about how i intend to experiment with hope and being a potential beacon of light in the world this week

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QDzcaXFt33I

love
Christine Davies

Social Entrepreneur, Organisation Consultant and Coach

'The magic of creativity kicks into play when you begin to take action'

Collective Consciousness Conversation-Seasons of Love

2009-03-26T10:38:00.004+01:00

I did this video to celebrate our event and to mark all of our beginnings in this emerging and ongoing co-creation. I trust it may continue to inspire us to take constructive action through our love for another, our love for our fellow beings, and our love for the planet.

Love,

Zachary

Tolle - A New Earth

2009-03-26T09:27:00.002+01:00

Extract from Eckhart Tolle’s book ‘A New Earth’, pages 126/7

Provided by Nick Doherty

"As a new consciousness emerges, some people will feel called upon to form groups that reflect the enlightened consciousness. These groups will not be collective egos. The individuals who make up these groups will have no need to define their identity through them. They no longer look to any form to define who they are. Even if the members that make up those groups are not totally free of ego yet, there will be enough awareness in them to recognize the ego in themselves or in others as soon as it appears. However, constant alertness is required since the ego will try to take over and reassert itself in any way it can. Dissolving the human ego by bringing it into the light of awareness – this will be one of the main purposes of these groups, whether they be enlightened businesses, charitable organizations, schools, or communities of people living together. Enlightened collectives will fulfil an important function in the arising of the new consciousness. Just as egoic collectives pull you into unconsciousness and suffering, the enlightened collective can be a vortex for consciousness that will accelerate the planetary shift.”

new light and new darkness

2009-03-25T12:04:00.004+01:00

Having been deeply touched by emails and actions from CCC-participants, i have been feeling full and empty at the same time, still and turbulent. Christine mentioned that the new light we are starting to touch may also attract a new darkness. This morning as I sat in the café, I thought:

The new light attracts a new darkness
It invites us to explore new ways of holding that darkness, seeing that darkness
Sourced from the light
It suggests perhaps that our old ways of knowing have not become useless, or toxic poison only
That maybe taken in smaller doses, and in a different way, they can contribute to being with the new light and the new darkness
A little like acupuncture, or homeopathy

Like the unicorn, not born out of fear
Fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary
May guide us in finding ways to bound the toxicity of the new darkness
And see this new dark and light
As ends of one spectrum too

The spiritual traditions of our regions, may have planted in our bones
A capacity to find stillness and vibrations at the same time
Not artificial stillness, or a zen that is only ethereal
But grounded capacity to face new realities inside ourselves
New light and new darkness
And what gets born from the marriage between the two

With love, Anjet

Creation Of Community

2009-03-24T15:33:00.003+01:00

Thankyou for the loving messages and evidences of constructive actions that are beginning to emerge - a gift for our collective connective is offered.

A Community of the Spirit

There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
Of walking in the noisy street,
and being the noise.

Drink all your passion,
And be a disgrace.

Close both eyes
To see with the other eye.

Open your hands,
If you want to be held.

Sit down in this circle.

Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
The shepherd’s love filling you.

At night, your beloved wanders.
Don’t accept consolations.

Close your mouth against food,
Taste the lover’s mouth in yours.

You moan, ‘She left me.’ ‘He left me.’
Twenty more will come.

Be emptying of worrying.
Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay imprison
When the door is so wide open?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.

Flow down and down in always
Widening rings of being.

RUMI

Start of our homework

2009-03-22T08:13:00.003+01:00

Still full of all you people, doing the best thing to do at this moment: working in the garden.
But working with my hands in the ground.. I was thinking we brought the conciseness through the channel in our hearts but there are still things to do to make it a bigger success. First we have to consume it in our belly, than plant it in our sexuality in a way to give it the energy to plant and grow in the world. In all cultures the last part is ritualized because they understood it is the only way to bring things in our reality.. Let me know if you feel the same way. I can think of a ritual you can do at home, and finish this in this way.

Peter de Haan

2009-03-22T02:01:00.002+01:00

A Co-creative and Connective Collective

As the planet warms and financial markets meltdown, as ethnic upheaval intensifies and globalization minimizes the distance between us, and as dire poverty continues in the shadows of burgeoning wealth, we are at a critical moment in history. This global economic crisis may indeed be an opportunity to ‘seize the day’ and offer us a ‘compass’ to determine a new ‘global village’ meaning and enable a way of being to emerge.

What hope do we have for the future of our planet – for our children and the next generations? What is our responsibility for leading in the world that we are creating and how can we sustain it?

Our challenging leadership task is to begin to learn how we can explore as yet perhaps hidden potential and work with that which is already indigenously known so that we can live and work more effectively, collectively and responsibly to find a different way – one that invites us to consider who we may become; what we can contribute and how we can become co-creators of our whole world.

Being part of this co-creative space may mean being a bridge to a tomorrow that is beginning to dawn. Together . . . we can seek and discover how our unique purpose and passion draws us to understand the world anew. We may wonder and pioneer into new territories and potentially determine a collaborative pathway towards a sustainable leadership model which cares about the stewardship of our collective future. The challenges involved maybe of learning to lead and live in a converging world?

A Collective Consciousness Conversation is a choice of love and freedom.

What if there is a critical mass of divergent voices who speak in a similar language about what is emerging? Our aim for a CCC is to provide a space whereby the commonalities may be found and a new language for our collective experience can begin to be discovered.

We offer a beginning for recognising and exploring our shared responsibility for how we co-create ourselves, each other, and the worlds in which we live.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=B0SHh_zF4eo

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DQHVirsLqIE

A Collective Conscious(ness) Conversation is a co-created space designed to give each of us the freedom to share and deepen the loving connection, individually and collectively, needed to access and embrace more fully this opportune moment.

An opportunity for us to take step away from a love that is about consummation and consumption towards another that is about connection and constructive action in the world. . .

A love where we can enable the light to shine in and through all of us: a ‘translucent revolution’ (Cosmos – A co-creators guide to the whole world by Ervin Laszlo and Jude Currivan)

2009-03-22T01:43:00.002+01:00

The Calling to Action

What about this new space?

In this new space, what if we discovered something beyond – where we can touch, embrace, hold and make meaning of our senses and different forms of knowing. One where we can cradle each other as we grow in our capacity to give and receive? Dare we explore this dimension within ourselves and others?

We believe the Ancient Wisdoms are once more becoming accessible. As we grow in consciousness about this presence, our collective responsibility for reflective action is emerging.

The threat of this emergence increases the tensions between fear and love. As this process of movement takes pace, there exists an apparent rapid rise in polarization. We sit in the form of strong currents of resistance and powerful expressions of fundamentalism. We are being called and challenged to act now.

‘God calls on us to be his partners to work for a new kind of society where people count; where people matter more than things, more than possessions; where human life is not just respected but positively revered; where people will be secure and not suffer from the fear of hunger, from ignorance, from disease, where there will be more gentleness, more caring, more sharing, more compassion, more laughter; where there is peace and not war.’
(Archbishop Desmond Tutu – ‘God Has a Dream’)

CCC -The Inquiry Questions

2009-03-22T01:12:00.002+01:00

What world can we create and what kind of leadership will enable that?

. . . we are operating from key questions about:

Do we share a sense that we are in an evolutionary moment that is allowing us access to a different 'frequency' and experience of a different realm of consciousness?
Are we becoming aware of the co-existence of multiple realities yet live with the seeming paradox that there is a coherent expression of the same 'one'?
Do we see our thinking moving from an illusory view of ourselves and the elements of our worlds as fixed objects and more like waves of energy and potential that are in constant interaction?
Are we facing a sense that what we experience in this new light extends beyond our capacity to cope with it and so we need to discover new ways of being with it?

2009-03-21T09:20:00.002+01:00

http://picasaweb.google.nl/CollConsConv/ see the first pictures, upload yours, see e-mail peter or ask for it info@sjamaan.nl

unfolding ...

2009-03-18T17:46:00.003+01:00

how east and south and west and north are present in everything we do

how we are learning a whole new language

how we are witnessing the unfolding of what already is

how joy gives way to sorrow

how connections give way to collective

and that which we would call resistance is its own expression of essence

what is the invitation in the vortex?

Associations in the midst of co-creations

2009-03-18T13:47:00.002+01:00

maybe seeking the purpose is the purpose, not finding it

expressing the boundlessness

the process is the experience

what does it mean to us, if this fails - what if this succeeds - and what if this cannot fail, it is what it needs to be right now

what does it mean to be really truely present to the experience as the outcome, and to allow the outcome to find its own location in time and space

water - crystals - the wisdom of water - power - healing - turbulence

the ego and the ego-less

is fever a sign of something wanting to be extruded, or something that requires attention, a tension

can trees and stones be our companions?

Words of Wisdom from Our Counsel

2009-03-15T20:27:00.004+01:00

We asked Gouranga Chattopadhyay to be our counsel for the Collective Consciousness Conversation. A veteran of decades of experience working with groups and an inveterate yoga practitioner, Gouranga helped us to remember in our preparation that there is much to be said for humility and patience as we approach an opportunity to be in touch with the nature of our collective being... connected as one with a boundless Cosmos.

He offered the following poem for our consideration:

The painfully thin singer, just a cut above a walking skeleton,
Bent forward by the weight of the harmonium slung from the neck
Sang in Santiniketan Express on that August afternoon

He sang in his thin melodious voice,
“Come home. all ye who dwell in foreign lands.”
I was touched to the core as I listened
Wondering where my home really was
And if ever I shall return there
To the welcome song of a stranger
Who was also me in some way.
Dn. Santiniketan Express: August 1, 2000.

Intention and Proximate Preparation

2009-03-15T20:08:00.002+01:00

Dear Friends:

One of our fellow travelers, Terri Monroe wrote a letter to the staff of a conference she directed in January at the University of San Diego, Awakening the Soul: Evoking Collective Wisdom to Energize Groups and Organizations. Terri helps us think about “proximate preparation” for our experience. What follows are excerpts from her offering edited for our Collective Consciousness Conversation and perhaps other contexts where the intentional communal embrace of a different level of knowing is invited.

Peace,

Zachary

We are now only a few days away from the opening our experience. Because of my respect for the power of the forces that seem to be triggered by the groups that come together to do this kind of work, I am writing to invite us to join in entering a more intentional and conscious process of “proximate preparation.”

Increasingly I have come to view these kinds of events in terms of a field of collective consciousness that holds our individual minds in a kind of communal embrace. The idea of an underlying wholeness that connects individual consciousness is its own holding environment and key to open systems theory familiar to many of us.

This brings me to the “hypothesis” that the learning field we co-create begins to form well before the formal opening of our collective experience Again, this is hardly a new “idea” as we often regard events that transpire during the preparation process as important sources of data influencing what is occurring in the here-and-now experience.[1]

A new “hypothesis” that I have been working with lately flows from this thinking. If we assume that such a field does indeed exist, perhaps it is something we can work with directly –not just indirectly as if it were a mere inert byproduct of a series of individual engagements in group setting. If the “field” for this event and others like it is already forming, and we are already working on some level with the assumption that our thinking and behavior is already setting things into motion, and is a critical factor in what unfolds, doesn’t it make sense to be more intentional about the way we might influence it?

If you are in any way familiar with the new ideas about consciousness that are emerging today, or attribute truth to ideas of wholeness, oneness, connectivity, resonance, and emergence, then attempting to engage the field intentionally seems like a natural next step in the quest for a more conscious pedagogy that will help close the gap between what we desire and what we manifest.

Our most important collective responsibility may have to do with clarifying intention and projecting it outwardly as clearly and powerfully as we know how. So long as each of us does not assume that I am doing this by myself, but that we are somehow entering into relationship with existing powers and beings that want this effort to succeed – both spiritual guides and the souls of fellow participants become aligned to strengthen our collective intention.

The experience we are entering is sacred work. At this point, I am pretty clear that the core of my own intention is to create and nourish an environment (energetic field) that fosters the process of cutting through that which keeps us small and separate. In doing so I seek to awaken both in myself and others the Consciousness that encompasses and permeates all existence. It involves a desire to heal (in myself and others) patterns and habits that no longer serve us (in particular I am thinking about obstacles connected with dualistic thinking –them vs. us, right or wrong, black or white) – in order to awaken the Soul.[2] As we project our intentions we may well be guided to choices that serve our collective highest good.

I know that this may sound a bit “out there” to some, but I am not asking you to adopt it as your own. What I am asking us to do is to take some time before we arrive to reconnect with the deeper commitments and ideals that drew us to this kind of experience in the first place, and then to clarify and focus our intention for the days to come.

Second, I am asking us to make a genuine effort to bring our fellow participants to mind and hold them in awareness. Sometimes, I find that just reading the names out loud before such an event begins may help us feel more connected to those with whom we will share this profound experience.

For those of you open to the idea of past lives, it may be helpful to consider the likelihood that we have had dealings with at least some of our fellow participants in previous lifetimes. It is also safe to assume, life being what it is, that some of those encounters went well, while others probably didn’t, so residue left over in the unconscious from previous contact could be activated during our experience – so it might be helpful for each of us to spend some time considering our understanding of what is involved in the process of forgiving and being forgiven. In any event, I each of us may want to experiment with some kind of ritual (e.g. reading the names, lighting a candle –whatever “fits” and feels right) that expresses a commitment to work fully with our fellow participants to the best of our ability.

We may not be accustomed fully to think of consciousness as a “real” or significant force in the world. All I can say at this point is that the longer I do this kind of work that allows me to observe the dance of consciousness that takes place in groups, and the more I explore the depths of my own interior life, the more I am convinced of the potency of consciousness and its influence on all we do and all that happens to us. But, I also respect the fact that each of us has to come to our own conclusions and make choices based on our own best lights at the time, and we will have plenty of time later this week and beyond to continue our conversation and exploration.

Be assured that as we work at ‘holding” each other in mind and consciousness the field holding us strengthens and makes itself known.

Safe travels and blessings.

Terri Monroe

[1] The deeper issue here, I think, has to do with the degree to which we actually believe in some of the things we do and experience in conferences. Do we enjoy “playing” with these notions during conferences, but then “put them on the shelf” until the next conference, because deep down we really don’t trust that they are real?

[2] I am using the word soul here to mean the Real or Authentic Self -- a consciousness that is larger than our egoic selves (or personalities). I realize, however, that you may have different understandings or associations. Initially I was a bit hesitant to use the word soul in the conference title because it now crops up frequently in the leadership literature (e.g. Chappell, The Soul of Business; Bolam & Deal, Leading With Soul), and is used with different meanings. Therefore, it is possible that soul could become a big projection screen, upon which both staff and members may envision many different things. Nonetheless. I do hope that staff members, at least, will refrain from throwing the term around in easy slogan-like ways.

Inspiration for Collective Consciousness Conversation

2009-03-12T17:32:00.002+01:00

As Collective Consciousness often also has a physical manifestation, i have been trying my skills at movie making today - and created a video that, for me, connects to the source of my inspiration for our work together.

And on source, in the newspaper yesterday, i found this poem, by Vimalaji, who passed away yesterday.

'The timelessness of silence,
the egolessness of love and compassion
are the roots of our life.
Living on the mental level,
drifting with the wind,
the breeze, we are uprooted.
But in the magnificent of silence,
in the communion with divinity,
we are back at the roots of life,
at the source of life.
Being at the source of life is being free.'

Love, Anjet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHYjn7_z_Ho

the global field and the leiden neighbours

2009-03-06T18:01:00.000+01:00

Dear dancers, conversationists,

Thank you for making more visible the emergence of the field between us. I felt held by it yesterday as Ankie and I were meeting with our neighbour, the manager of the homeless shelter with who we share our building. It feels like our neighbours have lots to teach us, about not knowing, about being in in between space, about the mystery of choice, about seeking and not finding ... we have started to see how we can connect with these very near neighbours in an act of co-creation during our event while feeling the presence of the global field that has become more visible today.

I am grateful for this emergence as it helps us prepare the physical space of our work in the service of our joint intentions.

Warmly, Anjet

experiencing consciousness

2009-03-06T17:52:00.000+01:00

Here's the two links Joao Pedro posted to us all

It is the living experience of an american researcher concerning her "AVC" (Accident vasculo Cérébrale in french). It shows the experience of connectivness with the all. I related it with the March work in Amsterdam.

Who we are - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C93lRoqWuGg&feature=related
Who we are - Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFNQzmvgdNg&feature=related

invitation to the dance

2009-03-06T17:48:00.000+01:00

Collective Consciousness Conversation

Dancing with a co-creative and connective collective - What world can we create and what kind of leadership will enable that?

We are passionate about what type of leadership we can nurture for the future and we thank you for your enthusiasm, agreement and commitment to join us in co-creating a connective collective. We are delighted to enclose an outline design for our time together as well as some helpful logistical details.

Our challenging leadership task is to begin to learn how we can explore as yet perhaps hidden potential and work with that which is already indigenously known so that we can live and work more effectively, collectively and responsibly to find a different way – one that invites us to consider who we may become; what we can contribute and how we can become co-creators of our whole world.

We see this event as an opportunity for us to take a step away from a love that is about consummation and consumption towards another that is about connection and constructive action in the world.

Our invitation was extended with the belief that there is a critical mass of divergent voices who speak in a similar language about what is emerging. Our aim is to provide space where the commonalities maybe found and a new language for our collective experience can begin to be discovered, a space for collective inquiry into the rhythm of leadership waiting to emerge, a space to dance.

‘Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music’
(Angela Monet page 135, Tuning the Diamonds – Electromagnetism and Spiritual Evolution by Susan Joy Rennison)

Welcome to the dance

Experiencing Consciousness

2009-03-06T14:44:00.000+01:00

Experiencing Consciousness start 18 march 2009