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Pillar 1 – Mindfulness, Inner Peace and Resilience

Reviewing the course thus far, two weeks have passed. The recordings of these are available through your participant homepage. It is still possible for people to register for the course.

v2-session1Session I: Inner Peace, The Foundation of All Peace

  • Fulfilling our universal desire to live in peace.
  • What would it be like to live a narrative of Peace?
  • Peace as a collective way of living begins by breathing peace through each of us.

Sister Jenna spoke of the Four B’s:

  • Blockages
  • Barriers
  • Burdens
  • Bondages

These are the physical sense of self that does not feel free.
Some insights on how they affect us from being at Peace and hearing as individuals and collectively… and more.

v2-session2Session II: The Science of Mindfulness and Inner Peace

  • Dissolving the sense of ourselves that is conditioned to believe and live within the fundamentals of separation.
  • Acquiring the skills to re-wire the brain… dissolving the boundaries of separation, healing the fragmented parts of self by witnessing our emotions , while connecting with the larger universal energy… our true identity as Essence.

Dr. Richard Miller spoke to you about mindfulness and offered many insights/practices for deeper awareness.


pillar-tallThis Wednesday Deborah Rozman from HeartMath will be speaking on the Intelligence of the Heart. It is the final session for Pillar 1.

Mindfulness, Inner Peace and Resilience

In this session, you will discover how to:

  • v2-session3Increase resilience by improving your ability to “bounce back” and cultivate the powerful inner energy reserve that can make life easier during times of dynamic change.
  • Trust the heart by learning the research revealing your heart’s role in sending and receiving essential information for living a healthy, fulfilling life.
  • Cultivate heart intelligence by enhancing and accessing the powerful intelligence of your heart to rise above problems, even in the midst of chaos and confusion.
  • Engage the global heart by learning about research that suggests we are all connected by and live in the reflected energy of our hearts, with our emotions affecting the earth itself.

Join us tonight!

Peace,
Cass

Great Lakes Bioneers Conference

2015_brochure-350Bioneers (biological pioneers) is an annual conference, a movement and a way of life! National BIONEERS is in its 26th years and Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit (GLBD) in its 11thyear! The conference is taking place at Marygrove College, 8425 West McNichols Rd, Detroit MI 48221. Click here to see the conference program (PDF).

BIONEERS’ tagline, revolution from the heart of Nature, and GLBD’s mission to promote sustainable community that fosters life-giving relationships, nurtures connections, and celebrates solutions for restoring and healing Earth’s communities inspire us to continue to claim that the social justice movement and the environmental movement are ONE MOVEMENT.

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Event Registration

Youth Day – Friday, October 23

From 8:00am to 2:25pm youth grades 7 through 12 have a program as part of the GLBD Conference. Students, chaperones, and teachers please click the Youth Day Registration found below.

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Youth Day Registration

We Are One

The theme for this year’s conference: We are One – Opened to Spirit, Hearts Engaged, Grounded in Earth and Acting for LifeOur intention is to provide a community learning environment that invites:

  • Moving from head to heart, from knowing to feeling, loving and compassion
  • Deepening our interconnectedness with all life
  • Awakening to who we are as humans in this 21st century

As in years past conference participants will have many opportunities:

When people come together as a learning community to discover new sustainable ways of being and when they share transformative ideas for the sake of the Commons everyone benefits. When students and teachers attending the conference bring back what they learned to their schools, education can flourish. When everyone is welcome and affirmed we move toward wholeness.

Cities Of Peace Detroit – Learnshops

Cities of Peace Detroit learnshops at Great Lakes Bioneers Conference 2015
Cities of Peace Detroit learnshops at Great Lakes Bioneers Conference 2015

B.1 Experiencing Group Coherence/Your Role in Building the Beloved Community in Detroit

Saturday from 2:10-3:20

Presenters: Cass Charrette is founder of Cities of Peace Detroit and a minister of the Beloved Community…The Seminary of Spiritual Peacemaking. She sees the Beloved Community in Detroit as a model for building the new culture/new earth in communities around the world. Stephen Boyle is a community activist, photographer, designer, web and social media developer. Additional presenters may be added.

If you have ever asked yourself how you can connect and contribute beyond the conference, this learnshop is for you. It will take a shift from the head to the heart, though, and a deepening experience of group coherence. Through various activities the learnshop will lead you to a deeper consciousness of your passion, purpose and interconnectedness.

C.1 Returning to Sacred Wholeness

Sunday from 10:25-11:35am

Presenters: Cass Charrette is founder of Cities of Peace Detroit and a minister of the Beloved Community…The Seminary of Spiritual Peacemaking. She sees the Beloved Community in Detroit as a model for building the new culture/new earth in communities around the world. Carrie Landrum is a peacebuilder dedicated to growth and transformation. She is a professional facilitator and educator at the University of Michigan. Her dream is to co-create Detroit as a global center of peace and healing.

An essential step for bringing forth a sustainable world is a commitment toward personal and collective healing. Explore the Four Quadrants of Wounding/Healing Mapping: personal, collective cultural, traumatic events, and wounds in the psyche. How will you choose to be an interrupter of these patterns within these four quadrants?

Map: Consciousness Raising Walk opening Sustainability Summit

ConsciousnessRaisingWalk-map_2
Sites and paths for the Conscioussness Raising Walk opening the Sustainability Summit on Thurssday evening, September 10, 2015

The Consciousness Raising Walk will open the Sustainability Summit beginning from six locations close to downtown Detroit.

Our walk together in localized gatherings merging together at Grand Circus Park will be visual and symbolic. Each of our neighborhoods has factors affecting its sustainability, issues of today and the past influence our community greatly. Continue reading Map: Consciousness Raising Walk opening Sustainability Summit

Presentations for Sustainability Summit

Update: Proposals for Presenting are no longer being accepted.

The Planning Council for the Sustainability Summit is seeking Presentation Proposals from the community. There are three groups of presentations being sought fitting the flow of the Summit.

Sustainability Summit Wordle2

Fill out the Presentation Proposal Form to join those interested in presenting.

Vision for Living the Beloved Community

Multi-media presentations: Opening Ceremony ~ depicting current social construct vs living the new earth. Indigenous Universal laws. Universal Declaration of human rights. Morning media presentation integrated with speakers, poets, visual arts ~ Showcasing evolutionary models in Detroit, those who hold visions for models to be implemented and giving voice to models around the world that could be implemented in Detroit.

Bridging the Gap between Current Culture and a New Collaborative Culture

Community Open Forum Dialogue for sharing and writing a document that voices the values and beliefs of the current culture vs. the Beloved Community. Speakers/Poets and community voicing both. Peter Hammer speaking on beliefs and conditioning. The impact beliefs and conditioning have on our lives, our relationships, our systems and how they keep us in a culture of separation. Part One of Public call with Peter Hammer and David Korten for building the new Earth. Continue reading Presentations for Sustainability Summit

Save The Date

SaveTheDate

Community Gathering

Acknowledging Committee & Contributors:
Barbara Beesley, Kim Bergier, Stephen Boyle, Brenda Bryant, Lila Cabbil, Linda Campbell, Paula Cathcart,
Cass Charrette, Will Copeland, Jesse Cox, Susan deCaussin, Margaret Dwyer, Alicia Renee Farris,
Richard Feldman, Peter Hammer, Darryl Eley Jordan, Joe Kochajda, Gloria Lowe, Gloria Rivera, Helen Weber,
Mike Whitty, Gwendolyn Winston, and expanding.
Full list will be posted on website.
http://www.CiiesOfPeaceDetroit.com


The Sustainability Summit is coming up within a month. Join our email news list to keep up to date with upcoming events.

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Evolving “Our Detroit” into the Beloved Community

The conversation around “Two Detroits” and the many dichotomies being lived feeds our perception of difference and divide. Sometimes there are simply omissions and these can lead to misconceptions.

http://twodetroits.tumblr.com/post/109232187238/essentially-we-have-two-detroits-the-new-detroit


The article posted lists 5 ways to bring about an “Our Detroit” from Two Detroits​ as prevailing perception offers. Skillman Foundation CEO Tonya Allen references the work Martin Luther King Jr did with the Beloved Community. We at Cities of Peace Detroit see a requirement for the Beloved Community to be embraced here in Detroit.

Continue reading Evolving “Our Detroit” into the Beloved Community

Imagine Living In Peace

Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

JohnLennon-PeopleForPeaceAnalysis

John Lennon was asking us to imagine a place where things that divide people (religion, possessions, etc) did not exist. He felt that it would be a much better place. This song is a strong political message that is sugarcoated in a beautiful melody. He realized that the softer approach would bring the song to a wider audience, who hopefully would listen to his message. In short, the messages of this song are that we should keep on optimistic to the peace and create the world as a better place to live.

Symbolism

Some words of the “Imagine” have original symbols. What does John actually want to convey to us? The first one is “heaven and hell” symbolize “the hereafter world”. [ref]Imagine there’s no Heaven,
It’s easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky[/ref] When he persuades us, the listeners, to imagine that all the people are only living for today[ref]Imagine all the people,
Living for today[/ref], so that there is no the hereafter world for living. The second one is “country” [ref]Imagine there’s no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for[/ref] symbolizes “a border”. Border lines of countries has limited people to share, help, and get along each other. In some cases, it has also become a reason of a war. “Possessions” [ref]Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger[/ref] which symbolizes ‘wealth’ and ‘religion’ symbolize ‘exclusivism’ are other obstacles that keep the people apart is their inability to keep everyone equal, and with this inability comes a long line of problems between the haves and the have-nots. However, if we are somehow able to cut our possessions and our greed, we could create a universal sense of brotherhood in humankind. With this obstacle out of the way, we are able to share the world as equal.[ref]Imagine all the people,
Sharing all the world[/ref]

Tone

John tries to create a provocative atmosphere to listeners. He invites us to do in his thought provoking song, imagine. From this word, the human imagination can create some of the most horrible atrocities, but it has also conjured up some of the most beautiful hopes and dreams. Lennon asks us to imagine the world as a better place and we can actually make that comes true.

Time and Place Setting

This very meaningful song was brought about during one of the most turbulent times in our history, the Vietnam Conflict (around 1954-1975). The United States was fighting a war that wasn’t its own, and consequently it was leaving hundreds of thousands of dead innocents in its wake. John Lennon wanted very much for peace to be found abroad and also hear at home, so gave us a set of logical steps to fix the world. Each verse of this song is actually one of those logical steps.

Meanings

  1. This song relies some elegant sentences. Each of the three verses begins “Imagine” and answers with empathetic comment. And each verse is more challenging than the one before. So, we have:
    • Imagine there’s no Heaven – It’s easy if you try
    • Imagine there’s no countries- It isn’t hard to do
    • Imagine there’s no possessions – I wonder if you can
  2. Thus, there can be nothing greater than Heaven. But, John saw that it is easy if you try to imagine it away. So, if the countries is much lesser that Heaven, yet much harder to get rid of, though, to an open mind, not so hard to do. Finally, possession – as petty as we can get, but John realized that most of us could not imagine a world with no possessions – I wonder if you can. This shows his excellent writing.
  3. This crescendo of challenges that forms the opening of each verse is answered by a similar set of three imaginings to close each verse. This time we have:
    • Imagine all the people…
      Living for today
      Sharing all the world
      Living life in peace
  4. These are also fascinating:
    • In context, living for today is not an apology for Hedonism. It is not ‘living for the moment’ in a selfish way. It is in fact very much as echo of the Sermon on the Mount.
    • Then, sharing all the world is not about dividing out the spoils. It is simply as opening of borders, a geographical sharing, the consequence of imagining no countries.
    • And in verse 3, living life in peace, at first sight this could read like a mistake. Shouldn’t this have followed the ‘no countries’ opening? But no John realizes that most wars are only ostensibly about religion or territory; they are actually about possessions –gold, oil, money and the likes.

    This song stands up on every level.

  5. Now the chorus – You nay say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one here, merely to acknowledge that the listeners might not yet have considered these things, but others have. I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one –only ‘I hope’, no unrealistic expectation, no instruction.
  6. The chorus is then the most important and powerful part of the song. The chorus is a message to all people who do not think that Lennon’s goals is possible. The most interesting part of this song is that Lennon plainly says that he is not the only person who has taken this message to heart. He is going to just hope that you will come to the message of yourself and make the world a better place. This approach is particularly powerful because it is practicing what the rest of the song preaches: peace and understanding.
  7. This song is, was, and always will be refreshing for at least one reason; its voice of optimism and hope for mankind. The world should be filled with ‘people’, not Blacks, Whites Whites, Russians, Italians, Christians, Jews, not even Moslems or Buddhists; just people. This song is an example of what can be as people, and what can actually accomplish if we try. It seems that this song is close to communism. Lennon said this song is “virtually the Communist manifesto”. That’s usually the last we see of the quote, but Lennon added “even though I am not particularly a communist and I do not belong to any movement”. (www.hubpages.com/hub/the-best-10-protest-songs)

Theme

This song is about a great expectation of someone toward peacefulness in the world. The last stanza of the song develops the theme further;

“I hope someday you’ll join us – And the world will live as one”

Analyzed by M. Samsuli and Mohammad As’ad on SparkleTeaching

Come Join Us

The Peace Ambassador Training course is starting January 14, 2015. Make this day, the day you choose to join, enroll and bring peace home.