Mindful Peacebuilding
Mindful Peacebuilding
peace in ourselves - peace in our communities
peace on our planet
peace in ourselves - peace in our communities
peace on our planet
Engaging Societal Challenges
With The Energy of Mindfulness
"To develop the drop of compassion in our heart is the only effective spiritual response to hatred and violence." --Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindful Peacebuilding is a welcoming community open to all who wish to contribute to co-creating true peace on our planet--peace in ourselves, and peace and justice in our communities, institutions, cultures, societies, and countries--by engaging societal challenges in a mindful context.
In our mindfulness-based approach to culture shift, we draw inspiration from the wisdom and compassion teachings and practices of ancestral traditions and contemporary peacemakers such as Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and Joanna Macy, as well as from young people, elders, and nature.
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The collective is made of the individual,
and the individual is made of the collective...
each and every individual has a direct effect
on the collective consciousness...
Inner balance is crucial for peace work...
Engaged peace workers need to be strong,
stable, and genuinely peaceful.
Of course, you do not have to wait
until you achieve perfect peace and harmony
before you engage in social action.
--Thich Nhat Hanh, Creating True Peace, p 56-59
Cultivating Mindful
Institutions: Prisons, Families, Schools, Workplaces, Hospitals
Earth-Holding & Protecting: Addressing Climate Crisis, Food Security, Access to Clean Water, Compassion for Animals and Plants
Touching Our Ancestors and Descendants: Transforming and Healing Historical and Contemporary
Harm
VISION: IMAGINE A PEACEFUL,
JUST, and BEAUTIFUL WORLD - WHERE PEOPLE . . .. . recognize, acknowledge and address power and privilege inequities, both historic and current
. . . honor, value, and celebrate cultural and other diversities, human commonality, and individual uniqueness
. . . resolve to learn and practice ways of addressing conflicts creatively and nonviolently
"Peace Is Every Breath, Peace Is Every Step"
Breathing In, With Awareness Of In-Breath
Breathing Out, With Awareness of Out-Breath
1. Peace In Ourselves, Peace On Our Planet
Cultivate peace in ourselves by including in our daily lives practices for contemplation, centering, gratitude, mindfulness, and physical well-being as well as play, fun, humor, the arts.
Support work for peace in the world by embodying the energy of peace in our everyday thoughts, words, and actions. Generate wholesome qualities such as joy, kindness, mindfulness, generosity, ease, and equanimity.
Embody A.J. Muste's reminder that "there is no way to peace, peace is the way" and Thich Nhat Hanh's reminder that "peace in the world begins with peace in oneself."
2. Interbeing (Interdependence)
See that each of us is deeply interconnected with other humans as well as with animals, plants, minerals and the Earth. Seek ways to protect life in all its diversity.
Attend to the dimension beyond words, beyond our individual saves and individual species.
Recognize that harming so-called others with words or actions is to harm our own being, refrain from "othering" through enemy-making language and images.
3. Inclusiveness
Celebrate the diversity of human cultures, plant and animal life on our planet.
Shift from oppressive and exploitative power relationships to more equitable, inclusive and diverse connections in our individual lives and in our societies.
Practice inclusiveness in growing the Mindful Peacebuilding organization communications, actions, structures and dynamics.
4. Positive Approach, Constructive Program
When organizing or participating in action in the public arena, do so with a positive approach and attitude, speaking constructively and creatively.
Take good care of strong emotions: grief, disappointment, resentment, desire for revenge, fear, hatred, rage, anxiety, despair, anger, terror.
Recognize and acknowledge historical and current harmful action. Resolve to take some positive action with love in the direction of transforming historical and current harm.
CORE BELIEFS
1. There is no separation. At a deep level, each human being "inter-is" with the Earth, animals, plants, and other humans.
2. Peace in the world begins with peace in oneself. . . peace in oneself radiates out contributing to peace in the world.
3. The energy of mindfulness, compassion, joy, and inclusiveness is a powerful, effective ground for sustainable and creative peacebuilding.
4. Three essential elements in true peacebuilding practice are diversity, inclusiveness, and work to transform power-over relationships into power-with relationships at all levels.
Current Programs
SANGHA LISTENING CIRCLES
Zoom: First and Third Saturdays (2pm-4pm PT/5pm-7pmET)...Listening Circle/Mindful Holidays...Request zoom link: mindfulpeacebuilding@gmail.com
Zoom: Second and Fourth Mondays (7pm-8:45pmPT/10pm-11:45pmET) Justice Conversations (Racial Justice, Climate Justice, Election Justice)...Request zoom link: mindfulpeacebuilding@gmail.com
Zoom: Weekly, Tuesdays (7am-9amPT/10am-NoonET). Deep Looking, Deep Listening Circle in relation to Gaza, Israel, West Bank. Request zoom link: mindfulpeacebuilding@gmail.com
Zoom: Weekly, Thursdays (7am-9amPT/10am-NoonET). Honoring Loss, Honoring Grief. Request zoom link: mindfulpeacebuilding@gmail.com
Zoom: Monthly, Third Thursday 5pm-6:30pm Exploring Elderhood
Trauma Informed Mindfulness Practice
Community Resilience Model (CRM)
with EMBRACE SANGHA
Info: Mindful Peacebuilding@gmail.com
Ongoing Programs
Mindful Peacebuilding Through The Arts
Origami and Paintings Made By Men At San Quentin
Origami made by men at San Quentin was shown at the Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco. Beautiful to see! The origami was made in a class supported in part by Mindful Peacebuilding and taught by Mindful Peacebuilding volunteer Jun Hamamoto.
Paintings made by men at San Quentin for the Annual Day of Peace inside San Quentin have been donated to Mindful Peacebuilding. Proceeds from sale of the paintings are donated back to the San Quentin Annual Day of Peace project. Information: mindfulpeacebuilding@gmail.com.
ORIGAMI CLASS AT SAN QUENTIN
PARTICIPANTS SPEAK OUT
"Why I enjoy origami: It aligns my heart and mind with my actions and takes me into another space and time."
"Why Origami: Lets me touch a certain innocence I haven't felt since childhood."
"Origami help me connect with others and my Roots."
"When I fold papers, my mind folds. It creases away the wrinkles of my day."
"I am very honor to be a part of Cherry Blossom Festival. Never in my life I would have thought this could happen. Thank you so much."
ORIGAMI CLASS AT SAN QUENTIN
GROUP PROJECT
"Origami calms me. I'm at peace. I feel good when I complete an object."
"I feel very relaxed and peaceful when I am folding origami."
"I enjoy origami because it puts a smile on faces. I feel at ease and happy when I do origami."
PAINTINGS FROM SAN QUENTIN
ANNUAL DAY OF PEACE
"Restorative Justice is taking the blinders off the Lady of Equality - balancing the scales and bringing healing to offenders and victims." --FT (Restorative Justice)
"I'm thankful for the opportunity to be a part of something like this. In a situation where my ability to be an instrument of peace is limited, I'm grateful for any opportunity like this and I'm always going to make every chance count."--PM
(ROOTS Program--Restoring Our True Selves)
"Light always shines brightest in the darkness. Meditation and Contemplative Prayer are the only things that get me through the week."--PS (Centering Prayer)
SAN QUENTIN DAY OF PEACE
"Peace in prison is a rare thing but peace within oneself is rarer. I am happy I've found mine through programs and art."--TW
Past Roots Retreats
2017, July
Manzanar Internment Camp, CA
2016, May
New Orleans, LA
Whitney Plantation - The Story of Slavery
Roots Retreat, May 8-13, 2016
Six Mindful Peacebuilding friends from the San Francisco Bay Area co-created a pilot Roots Retreat for five days in May, 2016, in New Orleans. Our intention: to honor the ancestors at a site of major historical harm and suffering, and through deep looking and deep listening help to open pathways for individual and collective healing, transformation, and compassionate action. We were of African-American, Caribbean-American, Vietnamese, white European Jewish, and white Northern European ancestry.
As we grounded our practice in sitting and walking meditation, we offered ourselves and our ancestors healing energy at the Whitney Plantation, the first plantation in the United States to focus on the legacy of slavery (www.whitneyplantation.org); at the Tomb of the Unknown Slave at St Augustine's Church; in the Lower Ninth Ward, where houses are still being restored eleven years after Hurricane Katrina (www.lowernine.org); and in Louis Armstrong Park. And we were fortunate to be invited to sit with two meditation groups and to be joined by Delores Watson, a friend who founded the Flowering Lotus Meditation Center in Magnolia, Mississippi. (www.floweringlotusmeditation.org).
Two retreatants shared their intentions for participating in this retreat:
Devin: My purpose feels truly embodied and bigger than me. I'm not sure how to write or articulate it...I have a sense born of deep listening and looking at what my grand-father taught and instilled in us regarding family and storytelling, and also born of dharma practices in relation to my genealogy work. I feel meant to do it, I feel compelled to do it and it feels deeply ancestral.
A.J.: The question that is alive for me is, how do I as a person descended from slave holders take responsibility to make right the wrongs of yesterday and today? How do I heal my ancestors who enslaved others? What have those of us whose ancestors committed atrocities done to ourselves? To our descendants? To all of humanity? What is needed now? How do I move forward? How do I make repairs?
MINDFULNESS-BASED APPROACH TO PEACEBUILDING
Small Groups
Face-to-Face Gatherings
Zoom Gatherings
Listening Circles, Holiday Observances
Public Action, Community Service
Meditation and Study Groups, Retreats
Listening Circles
Listening circles are grounded in awareness of the breath. In a listening circle, participants create with each other a safe emotional space in which they can share perspectives and personal experiences related to peacebuilding challenges that may be confusing, controversial, and deeply felt. Participation in a listening circle helps develop basic skills essential for mindfulness-based peacebuilding: capacity to be present for strong emotion and views different from one's own; capacity to listen to oneself and to share with others in a way that others can hear, capacity to deepen understanding for points of view different from one's own. Participants do their best to listen with an open heart and speak their truth with kindness. Mindfulness-based listening circles nourish understanding, creativity, friendship, imagination, and commitment to action in the context of inclusive and diverse community,
Topics are chosen by participants and have included Multi-Faith Sharing, Middle East Inquiry, Recognizing and Ending Racism, Creative Arts, MindfulPrisonPractice.
Holiday Gatherings
Meditative silence, new and traditional rituals, personal stories of experience with the holiday, stories of collective suffering related to the holiday, eating and singing together: all of these come together to create a joyful and meaningful mindfulness-based holiday gathering in community. Participation in a holiday gathering helps develop basic skills essential for mindfulness-based peacebuilding: capacity to deepen the meaning of a civic or religious holiday, capacity to transform and heal suffering connected with the holiday, capacity to open the heart for deepening understanding, cultivate gratitude and joy, and generate sustainable commitment for engaging in compassionate action to build beloved communities grounded in the values of inclusiveness, diversity, and power-with relationships.
Holidays have included Thanksgiving, Easter/Passover, Labor Day, July Fourth, Martin L King Day as well as monthly gatherings which honor special days of a particular month.
Public Action and Community Service
Offering mindful presence at public demonstrations; organizing and participating in peace walks; planting trees; preparing food at shelters for young adults who are homeless; speaking and writing in public forums are examples of Mindful Peacebuilding's public action and community service.
Participation in mindfulness-based public action and community service helps develop basic skills essential for mindfulness-based peacebuilding: capacity to manifest qualities that support inclusive, diverse, and power-with beloved community; and capacity to refrain from using language and images that belittle, blame, demean, shame, and demonize others as "the enemy."
MINDFULNESS-BASED PEACEBUILDING
GOALS
- Protect The Earth
- Consume Mindfully
- Meet Basic Human Needs
- Communicate Mindfully
- Value Diversity
- Deepen Awareness of Privilege
- Practice Inclusiveness
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
- offer lovingkindness meditation
- listen deeply
- share authentically from the heart
- heal trauma
- build community
- embody compassion
- realize the insight of interbeing
- cultivate skills and capacity for individual and collection action
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Retreats and Classes
Participation in mindfulness-based retreats and classes helps develop basic skills essential for mindfulness-based peacebuilding and building inclusive, diverse communities grounded in power-with relationships. Specific skillbuilding classes may include public speaking and writing, mediation, cross-cultural competency, compassionate and nonviolent communication, creative arts, tai chi, interplay, ikebana (flower-arranging). Participation helps develop the capacity to embody the energy of mindfulness and manifest joy, compassion, kindness, and generosity in everyday life and the capacity for creativity, curiosity, and imagination in the service of collective healing and transformation. Concerns related to climate change, food security, access to clean water, immigration, the school-to-prison pipeline, racial justice and other concerns may be addressed.
Through sharing information, inquiry, personal experiences, and inspiring stories in a mindful context, participants in mindfulness-based retreats and classes deepen their understanding and practice of a mindfulness-based approach to peacebuilding in daily life and public action.
Retreats and Classes
Participation in mindfulness-based retreats and classes helps develop basic skills essential for mindfulness-based peacebuilding and building inclusive, diverse communities grounded in power-with relationships. Specific skillbuilding classes may include public speaking and writing, mediation, cross-cultural competency, compassionate and nonviolent communication, creative arts, tai chi, interplay, ikebana (flower-arranging). Participation helps develop the capacity to embody the energy of mindfulness and manifest joy, compassion, kindness, and generosity in everyday life and the capacity for creativity, curiosity, and imagination in the service of collective healing and transformation. Concerns related to climate change, food security, access to clean water, immigration, the school-to-prison pipeline, racial justice and other concerns may be addressed.
Through sharing information, inquiry, personal experiences, and inspiring stories in a mindful context, participants in mindfulness-based retreats and classes deepen their understanding and practice of a mindfulness-based approach to peacebuilding in daily life and public action.
History
Mindful Peacebuilding, a community of volunteers functioning through gift economics, incorporated in 2011 as a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Inspired by nonviolent movements for social change and by the teachings and practice of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and other peacemakers, a small group of people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds had come together in community in 2003 to engage in study of non-violent communication and monthly peace walks. After some years they decided to form a nonprofit which could water the seeds of a mindfulness-based approach to peacebuilding through participation in listening circles, mindful holiday gatherings, retreats, community service, and public action.
Why the Co-founders Wanted To Engage in Mindfulness-Based Peacebuilding
"What draws me to Mindful Peacebuilding is ...
I want to be a part of co-creating something with a diverse group of people. I've been part of a lot of organizations with a lot of protest and conflict. I want to be part of something that has the intention of practicing mindfully, using a talking piece, listening deeply to each other."--DB
"I was born during war in my country, Vietnam. There was a lot of violence, a lot of conflict. I came to realize that war is a result of two groups of people having strong opinions about something, and they want to kill each other. The purpose of Mindful Peacebuilding for me is to learn how to be present... to learn how to live peacefully myself, and then, how to make that circle wider."--CN
"My roots are white European-American: German, Russian, and Latvian Jewish. In high school, I learned about the Holocaust, and the enslavement of African peoples and the genocide of indigenous peoples. I learned about so many terrible things that human beings do to each other. There is so much suffering. Since then, I've been asking the questions, "How can human beings make each other suffer so much?" "Why do human beings make each other suffer so much?""How can that be stopped, ended?" For me, Mindful Peacebuilding is one response to those questions. What draws me to Mindful Peacebuilding is the possibility of bringing together the energy of mindfulness and the skills of peacebuilding in ways that can be easily repeated anywhere."--LF
Inspiration: Posters and Pictures
PICTURE: Social Clubs Support Social Justice
from South Berkeley Senior Stories. Artist: Clayton Anderson
Mary Trahan Interviewed by Sara Bruckmeier.
Website: http//sbss.bborucki.com
CONTACT
MINDFUL PEACEBUILDING
PO BOX 5612, Elmwood Station
Berkeley, CA 94705
mindfulpeacebuilding@gmail.com
Support Mindful Peacebuilding Everywhere!
Practice The Art of Mindful Living
Embody The Energy Of Peace
Cultivate The Energy Of Mindfulness
Develop Mindfulness-Based Peacebuilding Skills
Engage In Mindfulness-Based Community Service And Public Action
Email us
Facebook
AWARENESS, ACCOUNTABILITY, ACTION
CULTIVATING A MIND OF LOVE
12 ELEMENTS FOR RACIAL HEALING:
INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE
- BELONGING
- CLARITY
- COMMITMENT
- COMMUNITY
- COMPASSION
- CONNECTION
- INCLUSIVITY
- JOY
- KINDNESS
- LISTENING DEEPLY
- RESILIENCE
- SPEAKING FROM THE HEART
Racial Justice: Awareness and Action
from: Placemat from (SURJ)--Showing Up For Racial Justice. www.showingupforracialjustice.org
ACTION: Set a chair and a place setting to honor the 1024 people killed by the police in 2015. About 400 of those killed were Black. Many of them were unarmed.
TIPS FOR TALKING TO FAMILIES
Listen mindfully before formulating a thoughtful response
Breathe
Ask questions when people express strong opinions
Affirm Clarify the difference between the good intentions and the impact
Speak from a place of mutual interest, sharing personal experiences and emotions
ADDRESSING CLIMATE JUSTICE/CLIMATE EMERGENCY
Accountability Partners
Aim: create emotionally safe ongoing space to support each other in a common purpose.
Accountability Partners are two or three people who have a similar passion or focus related to mindful peacebuilding, e.g, racial justice, prison and the criminal justice system, climate change, water concerns, education, eliminating poverty, immigration, compassion for animals. The partners agree to meet regularly by phone or in person, often once a week possibly once a day, or once a month.
Suggested Format (can be adapted)
1. Greetings. Re-state how time available.
2. Continue with any practice to center mind and body in the present moment, e.g., three breaths, sounding a bell
3. Brief Check-In
4. One person speaks
The listener reflects back what has been heard and receives corrections from the speaker
5. The one who was listener speaks and the practice of reflection back is repeated
6. When the agreed upon time is approached, check in to express gratitude, clear anything that needs clearing, and each person's next steps if they wish.
7. Clarify next meeting time.
Deepening Awareness
Building Skills
GOOD READS
Louise Diamond's
The Peace Book, 108 Simple Ways To Create A More Peaceful World. participants share their personal challenges and joys related to peacebuilding, as well as challenges related to current events, inspirational stories and information from the media, and visions/action steps.
The Metta Center for NonViolence--NonViolence Training and Education
--Michael Nagler's new book:
The Third Harmony: NonViolence and the New Story of Human Nature
Prison Dharma Practice
Recommended: Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Deepen individual and collective awareness of causes and conditions that have given rise to our criminal justice system; and commitment to contribute to positive systemic change.
Racial Justice
Awareness & Action Practice
CLASSES
Facilitated by AJ Johnston.
Info: mindfulpeacebuilding@gmail.com
Recommended Texts
1. The Way of Tenderness--Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
2. Mindful of Race--Ruth King
3. Dharma, Color and Culture, ed by Ryomen
4. Radical Dharma--Angel Kyodo Williams
5. My Grandmother's Hands--Resmaa Menakem
Deepening White Awareness
White Fragility by Robin J. DiAngelo
What Does it Mean to be White?: Developing White Racial Literacy
by Robin J. DiAngelo
ROOTS RETREATS
offer an opportunity for participants to
- honor ancestors and descendants
- bear witness to deep historical collective and individual suffering
- heal and transform energy of anxiety, depression, despair, grief, terror, shame, rage, alienation into compassion, courage, commitment, belonging, wisdom
During roots retreats, healing and transformation occur through practice:
- contemplative/meditative silence
- awareness of sensation
- mindfulness-based engaged inquiry and curiosity
- open-hearted listening
- authentic speaking from the heart
- mindful walking in community
- mindful movement, yoga, tai chi
- expressive arts including music, dance, poetry, painting/drawing, collage.
- study of engaged ethical guidelines (5 and 14 precepts)
Retreats are organized for small numbers and locally....
Examples:
Local: San Francisco: Mission Delores; Museum of African Diaspora
Regional: Manzanar Internment Camp, California
(site of Japanese internment during World War II)
National:
New Orleans and the Whitney Plantation. . . a unique practice opportunity for bringing mindfulness practice to looking deeply into the legacy of racism in the USA and the continuing effect of individual and collective trauma.
Jewish Women Listening
Weekly Listening Circle of Jewish Women via Zoom
Info: mindfulpeacebuilding@gmail.com
- deep listening and speaking from the heart
- practice in compassionate communication with people who hold views different from ours
- inquiry into healing and transforming individual and collective traumatic experience, including historical and current antiSemitism
- sharing views related to US policy towards Israel and Palestine
- looking deeply at race privilege and bias, diversity of Jewish experience, different forms of Judaism
Recommended: www.transcendingjewishtrauma.com
Immigration and Detention
Individual and Small Group Action
Small group visits to Detention Courts, San Francisco
Joining Protests at Detention Center, Richmond CA
Voluntary Action with Tias y Abuelas at Texas Border
Songs For Mindful Peacebuilding
We Shall be Known (by MaMuse)
Performed by Thrive East Bay Choir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKhjaN72dRQ#action=share
LYRICS
We shall be known by the company we keep
By the ones who circle round to tend these fires
We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
The seeds of change, alive from deep within the earth
It is time now, it is time now that we thrive
It is time we lead ourselves into the well
It is time now, and what a time to be alive
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in lovePart 1
We shall be known by the company we keep
By the ones who circle round to tend these fires
We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
The seeds of change, alive from deep within the earth
Part 2It is time now, it is time now that we thrive
It is time we lead ourselves into the well
It is time now, and what a time to be alive
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in loveSongs By Betsy Rose
May I Be Happy...
Children in a school in Oakland, CA sing with singer-songwriter Betsy Rose:
"May I Be Happy, May I Be Peaceful, May I Be Filled With Love
May You Be Happy, May You Be Peaceful, May You Be Filled With Love
May We Be Happy, May We Be Peaceful, May We Be Filled With Love"
--VIDEO by David Nelson, David Nelson Productions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU_Vj0kytFo
I Hold My Face In My Two Hands
(Words adapted from poem For Warmth by Thich Nhat Hanh)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfkujnf6JKM
If You’re Happy Take A Breath
(NEW WORDS by Betsy Rose to Children's Song)
If you’re happy and you know it, take a breath.
If you’re happy and you know it take a breath.
If you’re happy and you’re breathing, all your joy will be increasing,
Breathing in and out is sweet, so take a breath!
If you’re angry and you know it take a breath.
If you’re angry and you know it take a breath.
If you’re angry and you know it take a breath before you blow it,
You can choose how you will show it, take a breath!
If you’re scared and you know it take a breath.
If you’re scared and you know it take a breath.
If you’re scared and you’re breathing, all your fears will soon be leaving,
You’ll feel stronger if you stop and take a breath!
If you’re sad and you know it take a breath.
If you’re sad and you know it take a breath.
If you’re sad and you breathe, it will give your heart some ease,
And you’ll know just what you need, so take a breath!
If you don’t know what you’re feeling, take a breath.
If you don’t know what you’re feeling, take a breath.
It’s okay if you don’t know, you can breath and just let go,
You’re alive from head to toe, so take a breath!
RESOURCES: Stories
Story For Our Times
Ancestors:
Great-Grandson Mindfully Hugs Great-Grandmother
STORY OF TWO WOLVES (adapted)
A Native American grandfather and grandmother were talking to their grandchild about feelings. The grandmother and the grandfather said, "It is as if there are two wolves fighting in the heart. One wolf is vengeful and angry and violent. The other wolf is loving, compassionate, kind, and generous." The grandchild asked the grandparents, "Which wolf will win the fight, Grandfather and Grandmother?"Grandmother and Grandfather smiled. Each of them hugged the child, and then the three hugged together. Then Grandmother and Grandfather paused and took a breath. Then Grandmother said, with a gentle voice, "Dear Child, it is the one we feed that will win." And Grandfather said, ever so gently, "Which one shall we feed, my child? How shall we feed it?"
The Joy Of Being Alive on Planet Earth!
--Descendant Eating An Apple
BOOKS BY MPB ASSOCIATES
Inherited Silence: Listening to the Land, Healing the Colonizer Mind
by Louise Dunlap
Unshakeable: Trauma-Informed Mindfulfulness and Collective Awakening
by Jo-ann Rosen
Info: mindfulpeacebuilding@gmail.com
