Stephanie Steiner

I’m glad to hear that you all benefited from watching the movie, whether you were watching it again or if it was the first time! Indeed, reading your comments I felt like I was watching it yet again. Jean, you did a great job of summarizing the different instances of constructive programme, obstructive programme and heart unity. It’s interesting to see what you all pulled from the film and took away, and as both John and Jean noted, it’s hard to imagine how difficult it would have been to choose the moments of Gandhi’s life to show!

John, you bring up an interesting point about Tolstoy – thank you for addressing that, and thank you for sharing the letter! I will have to ask Michael about the omission.

Marissa – great list of Gandhi quotes! I find it’s really helpful to be able to quote Gandhi offhand. There’s rarely a moment in life when something he said doesn’t have striking relevance, and a lesson to teach us!

You also mentioned how blessed we are to be able to learn from him – and we will continue to do so, especially in the coming weeks as we explore Gandhi the Man and the podcast series. In fact, in one of the podcasts this upcoming week, Michael talks about how we don’t need “another Gandhi,” because we haven’t fully learned from the first one! 🙂

Thank you all for your sharing! His life really was his message, wasn’t it?
Stephanie

James O’Dea on how Peace Ambassadors should respond to Syria:

http://theshiftnetwork.com/blog/2013-09-06/syria-how-peace-ambassadors-should-respond?inf_contact_key=a9b885cdc6a191c3eeb8498bf2a59823fa9a46fce4312ecf46bc5647fc51fee0

I’d like to note that “put pressure on your government” is at the top of the list. Even though we are all feeling frustrated and powerless, we need to try to use this channel of putting pressure on the government as much as possible. Call your reps, sign petitions, do whatever you can to make your opposition to intervention known. My aunt (who I talked about on the call) said, in regards to the Sunday talk shows, “A Democratic Strategist, whom I respect, states this as a revolutionary moment, seeing this issue as a confrontation between the American people and the rulers in Washington.”

Let’s keep pushing for change in every way that we can 🙂

Wow, wonderful stories everyone! I second what Kelly said – Paul, the story you shared about the soldier and your interaction with him after the film was really powerful. We can all really learn from this story, as it sounds like it all comes back to the way the relationship started – with you trying to empathize with him and learn from him, while maintaining that you had a different worldview; rather than starting out trying to change him, or in a very oppositional/confrontational way. This is such an important point to keep in mind.

Like you, Paul, something that I am working on is to speak up when I disagree. Likewise, I empathize easily, but also may shy away from fully voicing my opinion when dealing with confrontation. It’s an area of growth.

Several of you mentioned the fluency of NVC language to be a challenge, and also having friends/family members ask “are you doing NVC on me again?” I can also relate 🙂 I think with NVC or compassionate communication, or communication from a nonviolence perspective, it is more about the worldview that you are entering the conversation with than the specific process or terminology that you use. I think Marshall Rosenberg even talks about this is his book – that it’s less about the specific steps and more about your consciousness.

From a nonviolence perspective, I think the key is to have the understanding of unity in mind, and the intention that, through the conversation, you can come closer together.

Great ideas and stories – thank you all so much for sharing!
Stephanie

Great insights everyone – thank you so much for sharing! There is so much that we can learn from each other. You all have such a diverse array of strengths – they are worth celebrating! As I read them, I imagine all of these strengths uniting through the roadmap, the various projects that fit under the umbrella of creating a new story, a higher vision of humanity, a peaceful and nonviolent world.

It seemed like taking too much on and, like Kelly said, getting easily bored with projects resonated with many of you. I, too, have a tendency to take on too much, and like John, risk getting burned out. It is a weakness I’m aware of, and yet is a lesson I haven’t fully learned to work with yet. But it’s a refinement process 🙂

Jean, I second Anna’s comment about your articulateness! 🙂

The issue of being able to talk with people about these issues who don’t necessarily agree with us is a very important one – it’s really something all of us need to be able to do. Like Jean, I’m not always confident in my ability to do this, but it’s something we can continuously be working on, and something that I hope this course will help a lot with!

I think reading Search for a Nonviolent Future will help to this end. Also, Metta has a page of commonly posed objections:

http://archives.mettacenter.org/nonviolence/commonly-posed-objections/

Anna and Marissa both mentioned how our emotions can be a challenge. I hope the week 6 material on spiritual practice can help to this effect. I have definitely found in my own practice that meditation has helped me so much in being more aware of my emotions and being able to sit with them and not react. Again, a work in progress – but that’s why they call it practice, not perfect!

Thank you all so much for your valuable contributions!

Stephanie

Wow – again, it is so inspiring to read all your posts! 🙂

It’s interesting to see that so many of you are interested in food issues. I, too, am passionate about the connections between food, peace, and nonviolence, so much so that I have a blog that I co-author with a friend called PeaceMeal: Cultivating Peace Through Food (we’ve both been busy with other things lately, so we haven’t been posting much recently, but even if you read the archives you would get the main idea).

When we study constructive programme in Part 2, we will get more into this, but I wanted to bring it up now since I think it’s relevant. In constructive programme we talk about a stealth issue, which is an issue that will be underestimated by the opposition before it is too late. The salt issue in India would be a good example of this. On a related note, a keystone issue could weaken the whole system if it is successful, as it significantly undermine’s the opposition’s “pillars of support.”

I wonder: could the food movement could be a keystone issue? Does it undermine the war system? At first glance, perhaps no…but I am sure if you look deeply, the same people who profit heavily from the military-industrial complex are also profiting or in close collaboration with those who profit from the industrial agriculture industry. Not to mention, Monsanto itself produced Agent Orange and other products that were directly used in war, in addition to producing so much of the world’s food supply). I imagine that if we look deeply, the food system and military-industrial system are deeply intertwined, so the question is, could a movement towards a new food system that promotes peace, health, wellness, and equality result in larger shifts…

Then we had the recent “March Against Monsanto” protests – did any of you participate in your respective cities? I went to the march in San Diego, and was amazed at the turnout, which was much larger than other peace protests and economic protests that I’ve been to here. I think the food issue, more than other issues, has the potential to unite large numbers of people – food affects everyone! At the same time, I think there is a lot to be done in terms of raising consciousness around the deeper issues – for example, the march was largely inspired by the issue of GMO labeling. Meanwhile, the march went through neighborhoods where there were a lot of homeless individuals, people who do not have the luxury to consider GMO labeling because they are just concerned with getting enough to eat on any given day. This isn’t to say I don’t think GMO labeling is important – but what I am saying is that we need to be marching for (and better yet, creating and constructing!) a world that promotes healthy food for all.

In any case, this is “food for thought”…I’d love to hear what you think in terms of the potential for the food movement to contribute to a nonviolent and peaceful world.

I’m delighted to hear that the roadmap has resonated with many of you and that you are finding your respective places in it – and knowing that we are all working together to create a better world!

Thank you all so much for these immense sharings.

Jean, my heart goes out to you and your family in this difficult time. Indeed, it certainly illustrates our interconnection – our interbeing, as Thich Nhat Hanh would say – when our loved ones are suffering. I love that you were able to do your own “home-work” very literally, by applying the week’s themes to what is going on in your life.

Gandhi’s autobiography, after all, was called My Experiments With Truth, and I definitely encourage each of you to see this course as an opportunity for your own “experiments with truth” (though I can see from your responses that you are all already doing this :). Our lives are really the laboratories for nonviolence. It is important to understand nonviolence at an intellectual level, but it is when we apply it that transformation happens.

All of your answer’s to the question of life’s purpose reminds me of another Gandhi quote, “My life is my message.” Paul, John and Jean, you all wrote very clear answers to the meaning of life (which, though different, are interrelated and all connected to nonviolence). Once we are clear on life’s larger purpose and our own purpose within it, we can keep asking ourselves if our actions and intentions are aligned with this purpose.

I find this can be particularly helpful when taking on new projects or when someone asks us to do something. Checking in to see if a new project or commitment aligns with our purpose helps us to direct our energy in positive and constructive ways.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!

And before I close, it wouldn’t be fair to not share with you my own purpose, which I believe, in short, is to cultivate peace. Here is the daily intention I set, which tries to encapsulate this purpose (nonviolence, of course, being the means, the foundation):

May I cultivate peace, love, joy, and compassion in all aspects of my life.
May my efforts come from love.
May my efforts be of service.
May my efforts be to the benefit of all beings.

With love,
Stephanie

Hi Everyone,

It’s so wonderful to read your introductions! Thank you all so much for sharing.

Warren, thank you for taking the brave and courageous initiative to be the first to speak -your vulnerability, honesty, and openness set the stage for others to share in the same way. Thank you 🙂 I also recently joined a Plum Village sangha and definitely resonate with what you say about Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching being alive for you at the moment. I also really appreciated how you started by asking yourself to describe what you love – I think I will borrow this for future icebreakers/introductions!

John, how interesting it is to hear about your career path and your path to nonviolence. I can only imagine the challenges you must face to apply nonviolence in the Customs and Border Patrol. It makes me think about how we need agents of nonviolence everywhere – we definitely need people like you working in that department! I look forward to hearing more about these intersections throughout the course, and hope that this course leads you to some new strategies for applying nonviolence in your life and work.

Paul, it’s great to hear that we have a participant from the UK! When you described nonviolence as “the means and ends to all these issues,” it certainly resonated with me and what we at the Metta Center are trying to do. We will definitely be exploring this more throughout the course.

It’s also interesting to see the unifying threads of NVC, Quakers, meditation, aikido.

Thank you so much for introducing yourselves!

Stephanie