Is a Politics of Higher Consciousness, Wholeness, and Love Possible? 

At the moment, very few are anticipating the advent of a higher political consciousness. How can they be? The US has just joined Russia, North Korea, and Belarus in refusing to condemn aggression on Ukraine, or even to admit it occurred at all. Many Americans and former allies are increasingly fearful that the United States is itself becoming an authoritarian state, joining a wave of authoritarianism sweeping the globe. Such as fear is compellingly real. At the same time, America’s sacred intent of unity in diversity, originally inspired by Native America and embodied in the motto E Pluribus Unum, is still attainable. Which way will the United States go? Will it completely devolve into a totalitarian regime, putting the entire world at risk, or will it return to its original sacred purpose of inclusivity and wholeness, even love?   

To better understand the future, we must examine our past assumptions. It is these unexamined, tacit assumptions that have created our present day reality, often preventing us from realizing our highest aspirations. In this podcast, we will unearth the limits of the mainstream scientific paradigm that sees humanity as separate from nature, and instead reimagine a world that is interconnected, whole, and complete. Life does not have to be seen as a win/lose competition where only the fittest survive, vying for control of limited resources. There is a better and more accurate way to practice politics: as consciousness, collaboration, unity in diversity, even love. Join us on the next episode of the Circle for Original Thinking podcast.   

Chantal Garneau lives within the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Credit River watershed, in Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada. As a dedicated Municipal Councillor, environmental advocate, and meditation artist, she weaves together community, ecology, and mindfulness. Chantal’s belief in the integrity of complex systems and the power of diversity is the heartbeat of her work. Her mission to restore connections to self, community, and the web of life inspires trust, collaboration, and a shared vision for a world where every relationship is nurtured with care and intention.

Alexander Laszlo resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and works as President of the Board of Directors of the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science, Director of Research at the Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research, and Professor of Human and Organizational Development at Fielding Graduate University. Alexander’s current research interests include the embodied aspects of science and spirituality as a living field of consciousness; empathy-based education; the relationship between sustainability and thrivability; systemic innovation for planetary flourishing; and syntony as an organizing force in societal evolution. Alexander holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Science and Technology Policy and an MA in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a BA in Political Science from Haverford College.  

There are two worldviews of prominence today. The oldest and wisest one our guests call kincentricity, following the late dear ancestor Dennis Martinez, who coined the term. Kincentricity defines our humanity through our inextricable connections with all there is. The second and newest worldview, dominant in the past five or six hundred years, we might call egocentricity, a view that places humanity as separate and transcendent from nature.  In the first view, nature is seen as a place of blessing and wholeness, the world is alive and composed of allies and spiritual energies; in the second, nature has been “itted to death,” reduced to a mass of inert elements that are not accorded sentience in themselves. Certain animals and plants may be begrudgingly considered alive, but of secondary importance; their existence is only important in how they or “it” can be utilized for human consumption.  Forests are reduced to lumber, rivers to hydroelectric power, and so forth. The dominant worldview considers everything on earth to be for the benefit of humankind. But that has not worked out too well, because humans are nature; we are made up of the same elements as everything else. Our guests Wahinkpe Topa or Four Arrows, and Darcia Narvaez, not only recognize this; they  have published a terrific book that brings together important leaders in Indigenous communities, shares their essays, and then engages in a robust dialogue regarding the insights and implications of the ideas. The book is called Restoring the Kinship Worldview, and we are blessed to have the authors – Wahinkkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez - here today to continue the dialogue.  

Four Arrows (also known as Wahinkpe Topa) is author of 24 books, including Restoring the Kinship Worldview, Primal Awareness, Teaching Virtues,  and numerous chapters, articles, peer-reviewed papers, and keynotes. He is also the subject of a book by R.M. Fisher entitled Fearless Engagement of Four Arrows: A True Story of an Indigenous Based Social Transformer. Four Arrows is internationally known for his work in cognitive anthropology ( worldview studies), education, critical theory, and wellness. Former Director of Education at Oglala Lakota College, and has been selected as one of the 35 visionaries in education who tell their stories for the book Turning Points. 

Darcia Narvaez Professor Emerita of psychology at Univ of Notre Dame, Darcia investigates moral development and human flourishing from an interdisciplinary (transdisciplinary) perspective,  integrating anthropology, neuroscience, and clinical, developmental and educational sciences. She is author of more than twenty books, including Restoring the Kinship Worldview, Indigenous Sustainable Wisdom: First Nation Know How for Global Flourishing, and Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom, which won the 2015 William James Award from APA and the Expanded Reason Award.

https://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Kinship-Worldview-Indigenous-Rebalancing/dp/1623176425

Freedom and Equality: What Does it Mean to Be an American?

The United States has long held a curious and ambivalent relationship with freedom. The American founding fathers learned much about freedom and equality from Native Americans, who lived in truly egalitarian societies, but later confined the original Americans to reservations. The founding ideals of the United States – liberty, equality, and natural rights, came largely from Native America. It was Chief Canasatego, the Onondaga chief of the great Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy, who originally gave the colonists the idea to unite, beseeching them to “Be like the Haudenosaunee, to never fall out with one another,” to be stronger together than apart. Our national motto comes from the Latin E Pluribus Unum (“From the many, one”) but we have never fully lived in accord with that slogan. 

The political nation began with a beautiful document, The Declaration of Independence, which declared “All men are created equal,” but the writer of that document, Thomas Jefferson, owned 600 slaves, and by then slavery had already been practiced in the New World for more than 150 years. The young nation had Dutch, English, French, Spanish, German and other influences, and was dependent upon immigration to survive and thrive. Eventually, the whole world started to come to America, including immigrants from Asia, fueled by the West Coast Gold Rush of the mid-19th century. Then, came the backlash from those already here. 

In 1882, President Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act into law, the first of many anti-Asian discrimination bills, followed by the Gentleman’s Agreement of 1908, which limited Japanese immigration to the wives, children, and relatives of residents already living within the United States. It was not until 1952 that Japanese Americans could become US citizens, even as women and Native Americans achieved suffrage in 1920 and 1924, respectively. 

The most egregious action ever taken by the US government against Japanese Americans occurred during WWII.  As many are aware, it was February of 1942 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, followed by subsequent orders that enforced the removal of all Japanese Americans from the West Coast to “relocation camps”.  What is lesser known is that the Department of Justice initiated pickup of 'enemy aliens' of Japanese descent on December 7, 1941, for eventual confinement in 4 government prison sites in New Mexico.

The full consequences and ramifications of this sordid chapter of American history are still not openly discussed in mainstream circles. In New Mexico and elsewhere, our guests today have been educating the general public about what occurred and its relevance to today’s outreach toward liberty and justice for all. We will discuss all this and more, on this edition of Circle for Original Thinking entitled "Freedom and Equality: What Does it Mean to Be an American?"

Nikki Nojima Louis (originally Shirley Sadayo Nojima) is a second-generation (Nisei) Japanese American and childhood survivor of Camp Minidoka, Idaho. Her fourth birthday was on December 7, 1941, the day her father was taken by the FBI in Seattle, Washington, and held in DOJ camps in Lordsburg and Santa Fe from 1942-46. 

Nikki grew up in Chicago, performed as a teenage dancer, was active in multicultural theater in the 1980s and 1990s as a writer, performer, and producer of projects on peace-and-justice and women’s themes. In 1985, she wrote her first oral history play, Breaking

the Silence, to benefit the civil liberties trial of Gordon Hirabayashi. It continues to be performed. As a theatre artist, Nikki has received commissions from many sources, including the Smithsonian Museum, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; NW Asian American Theatre, and Seattle Group Theatre, where she served as education director of its National Multicultural Playwrights Festival. 

In 2002, at age 65, Nikki entered a Ph.D. program at Florida State University. Graduating at age 70, she traveled west for a three-month residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute and a teaching job at the University of New Mexico. Since 2014, Nikki has created living history programs on the Japanese American experience for the New Mexico Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). Her readers theater group, JACL Players, often collaborate with project CLOE (Confinement in the Land of Enchantment), which includes a traveling exhibit and community forums on New Mexico’s WWII Japanese American prison camps. Nikki has co-produced an award-winning documentary, Community in Conflict: The Santa Fe Internment Camp Marker, with Bay Area director Claudia Katayanagi. 

Victor Masaru Yamada is Current Director of Confinement in Land of Enchantment project, about Japanese Americans confined in internment camps in New Mexico during WWII. Became director of the project during Phase III, setting up traveling exhibits promoting awareness of the history. Involved in giving presentations to international, national, state & local organizations. (Phases I / II planning & installation of historic markers, preparation of outreach publication, and development of website).  

His family has 19th century roots in Hiroshima, Japan – His maternal grandparents moved to Seattle area in 1906 and his father moved to Seattle in 1919.  His parents became US citizens in 1954. Before then, his parents and siblings (three brothers and a sister) moved from Washington to eastern Oregon as part of government’s ‘voluntary evacuation’ program March 1942. Later in 1942, several of his family members were moved to the Minidoka Internment Camp. One of my uncles joined Army 442nd Unit and fought in European campaigns.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…"

It is striking how much these immortal words, written by Charles Dickens in the mid-19th century at the height of the Industrial Revolution, still apply today. We live in a similarly paradoxical era, only a more complex one. It was during Dickens’ time that we began down the unstainable path of prioritizing industry over ecological health, mainly because we were captivated by the hope of progress, or resigned to its inevitability. These conditions really haven’t changed. What is different is the accelerated pace of change. Most of the technological comforts we take for granted occurred within the past one hundred years, including electricity, which almost nobody had access to one hundred years ago.

So how do we best live and love in modern times? Perhaps the key is to escape the boundaries of time. Both men on this program have stepped outside the conventions of their day. They have left behind modern technological conveniences and chosen to directly encounter the natural world. Thomas Rain Crowe, following the tracks of Thoreau, retreated to his own cabin in the woods, where he lived without electricity and running water for four years. Marc Thibault has ventured deep into the Amazon rainforest on many occasions. He just came back a couple of days ago.

What have these men learned about life while indigenizing themselves to the land? Can we remember what it is to be fully human and learn to live and love in the broadest possible sense? What do kinship systems of nature teach us about love? Can modern society learn to go beyond insular love between two humans and become one with the Beloved, one with the Great Mystery of life we are all so privileged to experience.

ABOUT OUR GUESTS:
Thomas Rain Crowe is an internationally published author, editor, and translator of more than thirty books, including the multi-award winning memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods (2005). He is also a publisher himself (New Native Press) which publishes works of environmental activism and cultural preservation. He was born and raised in Cullowhee, NC. in the Appalachian mountain region of western North Carolina, and this laid the foundation for his literary endeavors and also shaped his profound connection to his land based cultural heritage. During the 1970s he lived abroad in France and then returned to the US, moving to San Francisco, where he became editor of Beatitude (Be-at-a-tood) magazine and press in San Francisco, which made him one of the “Baby Beat” generation. From 1979-1982, he moved back to the woods of western North Carolina to live in the aforementioned cabin where he composed Zoro’s Field. His literary repertoire includes poetry collections, essays, and books that delve into themes encompassing nature, spirituality, social issues, and the human condition. Beyond his original poetry, Crowe became renowned for his skillful translations of contemporary and historical European, Sufi, and Hindu poets, including his most recent publication, a masterful translation of select Kabir poems entitled Painting from the Palette of Love, which I might add, I just devoured over the last two days. 

For a quarter century Marc Thibault has been involved in the social and environmental impact sphere as an entrepreneur, system thinkers and policy influencer covering a wide span of industries and issues developing novel solutions requiring human-centered design while integrating environmental and social concerns. His spent 10 years pioneering model-driven decision support systems until he had his first life-changing epiphany, when he realized how much modern humans, especially children, were exposed to toxic chemicals. Being a father of two boys, he devoted the next 15 years to solving environmental health issues working across the private, public and non-profit sectors and has also worked with hybrid B corps to provide plant based alternatives to toxic chemicals and better protect our children – And then he had his second life changing experience in 2012 when he visited the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest which led him to starting Nativien (an Indigenous-centered hybrid organization using the universal language of medicinal plants). He is currently active in supporting Indigenous Peoples to create a network of Living Pharmacies throughout the Amazon Rainforest, with three essential goals: 1) bring about a biocultural economy, 2) strengthen Indigenous Traditional Knowledge systems, and 3) change the way moderns relate to the natural world and traditional Indigenous communities.

A community of Earth System scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Centre asked a powerful question: How do we define a safe operating space for humanity with all that is currently known about the Earth’s various systems? They determined that there are there are nine critical thresholds that together define a safe operating space for humanity: biosphere integrity, climate change, land-system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows of nitrogen and phosphorus, ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosol loading, stratospheric ozone depletion, and one other catch-all category for unimagined risks. If we cross any one of these thresholds, it could be Game Over for humanity. And by some estimates, we have already crossed four of them. 

Enter Joe Brewer. He has written a book called The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth that addresses the intentional application of knowledge and tools to create solutions for regenerating living systems, feasible methods for getting all nine boundary dynamics back within acceptable limits. Joe does admit this is a gargantuan task and one that will require working through inner grief and trauma while experiencing the already occurring effects of planetary collapse. 

Enter Bill Pfeiffer (Sky Otter), a dear friend, who as much as anyone I know, is doing something about changing our inner attitude about how to engage with the Earth, to engage with wildness, to live an ecstatic life in harmony and balance with all there is. His method for enacting change has been to design Wild Earth Intensives that bring people into sacred community and provide a microcosm for a future sustainable society. I wanted to bring these two guests together to represent both the outer and inner solutions for the seemingly intractable ecological challenges we now face. Join us as we explore "Restoring Health to Our Planet" on the Circle for Original Thinking podcast.  

In the Northern Hemisphere, today marks the winter solstice designating a point in the year when we are afforded the shortest amount of daylight—of course, if you live in say Australia or Chile, you are experiencing the opposite. It is also around this time of year, that many of our spiritual traditions anticipate the return of light. Today we have reached our darkest moment and it is time for the light to slowly return. It is a time that represents optimism, rebirth, and fellowship. And it is a time that many of us call for “Peace on Earth”. 

Today, on Circle for Original Thinking, our host, Glenn Aparicio Parry will speak to us without guests, reflecting on the state of the world and the deeper meaning behind this time of year. With wars in the Ukraine and Gaza; global warming; political division; and the lingering fallout of the pandemic, this may seem like a bleak moment in history, but we will find reasons to be optimistic for a brighter future out of the darkness. Because, after all, that is what this time of year is all about. 

Whatever holiday you may be celebrating, let us share the message of “Peace on Earth” and “Goodwill to All”. 

Welcome to a special re-broadcast of our conversation with Deb Haaland and Sally Roesch Wagner in honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day 2023

This podcast was originally published on December 8, 2020. Deb Haaland now serves as Secretary of the Interior in the Biden Administration. She is the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet Secretary.  
 
Native Americans not only influenced the founding fathers, they also inspired the ‘founding mothers’: 19th century women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Matilda Gage. These women paid taxes but could not vote, could not run for office, had no right of divorce, and should they separate from their husband, were returned to them by police like runaway slaves. Native women, on the other hand, were fully equal in their society and played an integral role in political affairs and in keeping harmony with nature. Learn the true story from Congresswoman Deb Haaland, one of only two Native American women newly elected to the US Congress, and Sally Roesch Wagner, author of Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists.

_______________________________________________________________

Glenn Aparicio Parry, PhD, of Basque, Aragon Spanish, and Jewish descent, is the author of Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again (SelectBooks, 2020) and the Nautilus award-winning Original Thinking: A Radical Revisioning of Time, Humanity, and Nature (North Atlantic Books, 2015). Parry is an educator, ecopsychologist, and political philosopher whose passion is to reform thinking and society into a coherent, cohesive, whole. The founder and past president of the SEED Institute, Parry is currently the director of a grass-roots think tank, the Circle for Original Thinking and is debuting this podcast series of the same name in conjunction with Ecology Prime. He has lived in northern New Mexico since 1994. www.originalpolitics.us

Congresswoman Deb Haaland serves New Mexico’s First Congressional District and is one of the first Native American women serving in Congress. As a 35thgeneration New Mexican, single-mom, and organizer Haaland knows the struggles of New Mexico families, but she also knows how resilient and strong New Mexico communities are. In Congress she’s a force fighting climate change and for renewable energy jobs as Vice Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, a powerful supporter of military personnel, families, and veterans on the House Armed Services Committee, and continues to advocate for dignity, respect, and equality for all.

Sally Roesch Wagner is a feminist pioneer, speaker, activist, and the author of several books, including Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists, and The Women’s Suffrage Movement. Dr. Wagner was among the first persons ever to receive a PhD for work in Women’s Studies from UC Santa Cruz and was the founder of one of the first college-level women’s studies programs in the country. She is also the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and a faculty member of Syracuse University.  She is a member of the New York State Women’s Suffrage Commission and a former consultant to the National Women’s History Project. Sally appeared in the Ken Burns PBS documentary Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, for which she wrote the accompanying faculty guide for PBS. She was also a historian in the PBS special One Woman, One Vote, and has been interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered and Democracy Now.

_______________________________________________________________

Traditional native flute music by Orlando Secatero from Pathways CD.
Liberty song by Ron Crowder, Jim Casey and Danny Casey

_______________________________

Composite image credits: Chaco Cultural National Historic Park, New Mexico, Chris Huber, USGS, Public Domain; Young Wishham Woman, Edward S. Curtis, 1910, Public Domain.

The post Native American Influence on the Founding Mothers appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

When the Buddha was asked “Are you a reincarnation of God?” he replied “No.” “Are you a wizard then?” was the next query and “No” again he said. “So “What are you?” they asked, intent on knowing. He simply replied, "I am awake.” And true enough, Buddha means “the awakened one.” Buddha’s life work was teaching how to awaken. These days, however, there is a backlash against being woke, as if being awake to what is really happening in our country is a bad thing. Many people want to go back to sleep. Can the nation awaken? Does it want to?  

One of today’s guests, Christopher Naughton, has written a new book on this subject titled: America's Next Great Awakening: What the Convergence of Mysticism, Religion, Atheism & Science Means for the Nation. And You. We are also very pleased to be joined by Reverend Nicole Charles who is the recently installed CEO of Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.). Together we will delve deep into what it means to awaken in these turbulent times.

Today’s program was recorded on the premises of the Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., and we are very grateful for the use of their facilities in the production of this episode. 

ABOUT EDGAR CAYCE'S A.R.E.

Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) has been called the "sleeping prophet," the "father of holistic medicine," and the most documented psychic of the 20th century. For more than 40 years of his adult life, Cayce gave psychic "readings" to thousands of seekers while in an unconscious state, diagnosing illnesses and revealing lives lived in the past and prophecies yet to come. Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) organization was founded by Edgar Cayce in 1931, with the purpose of helping people to transform their lives for the better. The mission of the A.R.E. is to create opportunities for profound personal change in body, mind, and spirit through the wisdom found in Edgar Cayce’s work. 

Rev. Dr. Nicole Charles is CEO of Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment, and an ordained Interfaith Minister. She holds a doctorate in Interfaith Theology specializing in spirituality and health, and a masters in Integrative Health. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses specializing in Community Health, Integrative Nutrition, and Behavioral Health. Her passion is being in service to others so they may be change-agents in their communities.

Rev. Dr. Charles has concentrated her career in non-profit executive management and higher education institutions. She seeks to forge alliances towards community engagement and capacity building that supports multi-generational participation and action.

Christopher Naughton is a former prosecutor, civil litigation attorney, and multiple Emmy award winning host and executive producer of the constitutionally based The American Law Journal. He has hosted New World Radio, addressing comparative belief systems. He writes on the intersection of history, law, and spirituality for Medium and Substack magazines and lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with Valerie, his beloved partner of over twenty years.

https://www.edgarcayce.org/

https://www.americasnextgreatawakening.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Next-Great-Awakening-Convergence/dp/1646638689

In today’s very special podcast we will re-air a discussion that was originally recorded and produced by our good friends at the East-West Psychology Department of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) for their own program, the East-West Psychology Podcast (https://east-westpsychologypodcast.com/). The discussion itself is an introduction to a set of two conferences to be held at the California Institute of Integral Studies in celebration of “150 Years of Sri Aurobindo, the Pioneer of Integral Consciousness.” The conferences will take place over the course of a week, starting on September 23, 2023 and concluding on September 30. This discussion is hosted by the East-West Psychology Podcast producers, Stephen Julich and Jonathan Kay. In this conversation, Circle for Original Thinking host and current Jean Gebser Society president, Glenn Aparicio Parry is a guest, along with Debashish Banerji, Chairman of the East-West Psychology Department. 

We hope this program will provide our listeners with some background on these very important conferences, and the life and work of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) who was the key figure in the development of a form of spiritual practice he called  “integral yoga,” as well as the life and work of the Swiss philosopher and visionary, Jean Gebser, author of the magnum opus, The Everpresent Origin. 

THE CONFERENCES:

• The first conference, “Sustainability and Contemplative Civilization: The Integral Vision of Sri Aurobindo,” organized by the East-West Psychology Department (EWP) and the Asian Contemplative and Transcultural Studies concentration (ACTS), will engage with the possibilities, problems and potential of a sustainable civilization based on a contemplative praxis of deep relationality and extended identity as implicit in the vision and teaching of Sri Aurobindo and as explicit in the experimental community of Auroville.  
• The second conference, “The Emergence of Integral Consciousness: Jean Gebser, Sri Aurobindo, Carl Jung, Teilhard De Chardin,” organized by the Jean Gebser Society, will address the coming integral age as foreseen by Gebser, Aurobindo, Jung, and Teilhard de Chardin. Each of these visionary thinkers in their own way foresaw the emergence of a new structure of consciousness beyond the limits of rational thought.

Debashish Banerji is a Bengali scholar and Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and the Doshi Professor of Asian Art at CIIS. He is also the Program Chair for the East-West Psychology department. Prior to CIIS, he served as Professor of Indian Studies and Dean of Academics at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles, CA.

Stephen Julich is currently core faculty in the East-West Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies where he teaches classes Jungian Depth Psychology and Western Mysticism, Magic and Esotericism.

Jonathan Kay is a transcultural musician, and is currently a PhD student in the department of East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco under the mentorship of Dr. Debashish Banerji.

We wish to again state our very deep gratitude to the people at the East-West Psychology Department and the California Institute of Integral Studies for the critical work that they do every day, and their generosity in sharing the content of this episode with Circle for Original Thinking. 

For more information about the conferences:

https://www.ciis.edu/events/150-years-of-sri-aurobindo-pioneer-of-integral-consciousness

Also please visit:

https://www.ciis.edu/

https://www.ciis.edu/academics/department-east-west-psychology

https://east-westpsychologypodcast.com/

https://gebser.org/

www.jonathankay.ca

The East Indian sage Ramana Maharshi was once asked, “How should we treat others?” He replied, “There are no others.” From the perspective of the sage, the universe is one being. It is for similar reasons that the values of respect, kinship, and love are inseparable in aboriginal culture, as are gratitude, humility, and sacred obligations to original instructions rooted in traditional stories (the Lore). Join us as we share traditional aboriginal stories and wisdom of how to practice respect, kinship, love, and more, from the authors of The Dreaming Path: Indigenous Thinking to Change Your Life.

Uncle Paul Gordon is a Ngemba man from northwestern New South Wales, born of Gurulgilu Country, meaning he belongs to the stones. In his story, stones are born, stones have babies, stones grow, stones have spirit, and stones die, like all things do.  His people are stone people. That is where they come from. Paul has spent his life working with Aboriginal communities creating organizations that can help his people achieve improved well-being. He has traveled Country and met with fellow Old Men and share the old stories so that we can take better care of each other and Mother Earth. Because “If we care of the Mother, she will always give us all that we need.

Dr. Paul Callaghan is an Aboriginal man belonging to the land of Worimi people, located on the coast of New South Wales just north of Newcastle. For many years he has held senior executive positions in Aboriginal an non-Aboriginal related service areas, but eventually his desire to focus on community and individual well-being compelled him to start his own business as a consultant. In addition to his consultancy work, Paul is a motivational speaker, storyteller, dancer, and author. Paul is the author of two non-fiction books Iridescence and The Dreaming Path, and has recently created two fictional novels Coincidence and Consequence as part of his PhD program. Paul’s passions are driven by the belief in the power of story to create a better world.