Self-organizing: the co-creative Practice of Peace

anne stadler annestad at comcast.net
Mon Oct 10 09:37:29 PDT 2005


The co-creative Practice of Peace.
 

Sept. 28th, 2005

 

Anne Stadler

annestad at comcast.net

 

November, 2003:  

   Imagine a large windowed room, open to the outdoors, with 150 people
sitting in a circle. They are gathered here to practice peace.  They have
come from as far as Israel, Palestine, India, Haiti, Northern Ireland,
Colombia, Mexico, Denmark, Canada, Bosnia, Nigeria, Burundi, Nepal, Taiwan,
Washington, DC, and many other places in the United States, as well nearby
in the Northwest.  They¹ve come to the Whidbey Institute on Whidbey Island,
Washington, for three days of Self-organized activity: taking responsibility
for their passions in the Practice of Peace.  They are all ages, all skin
colors, from many walks of life.

   They open their daily circle in silence.  The ringing of a clear bell
signals the beginning and end of their entry into silence. They organize
themselves by using the simple tools of paper and felt pens to convene
topics they care about.  A long wall is titled Agenda Wall.  When the
marketplace for the day¹s offerings is opened, people who want to convene
sessions, write the topic and their name on a piece of paper, stand up and
announce what they are offering then tape the offering on that wall:
declaring topic, name, time and place for meeting.

   Many of the invitations are provocative:  ³Healing a Wounded Country²,
³What are you willing to Die for?²  ³Watch a movie about the Wall going up
in Israel and talk about the implications.² ³Compassionate listening to
personal stories of war and violence.²  Others invite people to ³Explore
Playback Theater as a practice of peace², ³Walk in the woods to contemplate
the lessons of nature.² ³The inner practice of peace.²

   By the end of three days, people have engaged deeply with each other,
have listened to the call of spirit, have connected with the natural world.
They have formed new bonds of friendship and collaboration.  They have
planted the seeds of new peacemaking initiatives:  Global Citizens Journey
travels to Nigeria to build a library in a riverine community in the Niger
delta; young people are joining other young people in building homes in
Burundi; opening space in Bogota Colombia with street children; opening
space in Israel for the vision of Jerusalem 2020; a media project to spread
stories of success and peaceful evolutionŠ and more!

   This Practice of Peace was a practical experience of Open Space
Technology married with Spirited Work.  Spirited Work, a learning community
of practice, was host and convenor.  Spirited Workers had been coming
together for six years, exploring on-going open space organization.  For
many, the practice of opening space had become a daily spiritual practice,
as well as a way of conducting co-creative collective life.

 

Open Space Technology:

Life is a self-organizing system.  Open Space Technology is a distillation
of the essential features of human self-organizing.  Using OST, people can
self-organize their activities with ease, emergent leadership and
appropriate form.  The all-knowing, intelligent field (the whole) organizes
itself via the actions of people who are opening space.  This organizing
process happens at a subconscious level for each individual, allowing people
to participant in any way appropriate for them, welcoming all who are
attracted.  

 

The necessary features are these:

     1.   Identify an intention or question for gathering.

2.     Invite all people who have a stake in the situation or question

3.     Seat everyone in a circle (or circles) to communicate that everyone
present is essential to the whole.

4.    Open a marketplace of individual offerings.

5.    Participate according to one law and four principles, releasing the
full potential of the group.

The Law of Two Feet: Take responsibility for your passion. Show up for that.
Let your two feet carry you to wherever you can act on that.

Principles:

(1)   Whoever comes are the right people.

(2)   Whatever happens is the only thing that could¹ve

(3)   Whenever it starts is the right time.

(4)   When it¹s over, it¹s over.

6.  Use simple tools (paper, felt pens, and masking tape) to offer

      conversations or activities that have heart and meaning for the

      invitor.

7.    Establish transparent communications.: Each small group

      appoints a reporter who take notes and enters them into a computer,

      creating a daily log available to everyone, including those

      participating via the Internet.

8.    Share learning and insights: At the end of the day, the whole circle
re-

forms for a Quaker meeting-style exchange or passing the Talking Stick to
reflect on and share learning..

 

These are the essential elements of OST and the fundamentals of human
self-organizing.

 

Self-organizing:

The Whidbey Island Practice of Peace was an exercise in Self-organizing--a
co-creative Practice of Peace.

   A co-creative Practice of Peace is both a spiritual practice of opening
inner space, and also a medium for opening space in groups to listen to
inner guidance, discover and express healthy relationships.

   The use of ³S² (in Self-organizing) signals the deliberate opening of
inner space through silence to allow action to be guided by gnosis (or
³divine essence²). In a group gathering, participants open each circle in
silence, and speak from listening.  The flow of self-organized creation
happens in the context of Self-organized co-creation.

   Consciousness evolves as people are guided to participate in creation of
practical activities and conversations. Through the medium of Open Space
Technology, spirit manifests in practical action.

   The gifts of each person present, as each takes responsibility for what
he/she truly loves, become a gift exchange, creating true community, however
transitory. (The word ³community² is from the Latin: ³cum² meaning ³with² or
³together,² ³munus² meaning ³gift.²).

        As a group process, the spirited Practice of Peace

integrates the evolution of planetary consciousness (Self-organizing) with
the evolution of universal creation (self-organizing)‹giving rise to
practical activities and loving attention supporting the health and well
being of all.   

 

 


*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20051010/e6828d5b/attachment-0015.htm>


More information about the OSList mailing list