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Practice of Peace

Convenor: Harrison Owen

Participants: Many Notable People

Discussion:

Peace: The dynamic interrelationship of complex elements productive of wholeness, health and harmony

Engine of accomplishment: An ordinary, everyday Complex Adaptive System

Means of address: Open Space—Self organisation intentionally utilised

The Practice of Peace – Open Space whenever, however, and wherever you can. To sustain Peace – Just keep the space Open.

When Peace disappears: Open More Space


Practice of Peace ...second session, see also OpenSpaceLearningProgramsAustraliaNewZealand

Convenor: Harrison Owen

Participants: Many

Discussion: Chaos, confusion and conflict need to be part of peace. Self organizing systems work for peace (wholeness, harmony and health).

We are all self-organizing, we can help people be consciously aware of what they already are—self-organizing.

Three days typically: exploratorium on peacemaking. 45 minutes presentation with talking by HO.

  1. Peacemaking and peacemaking in pieces re: fixing pieces has unintended consequences that then need fixing again.
  2. Muddling thru: been doing that for 14 ½ billion years. Question is how to do the muddling thru consciously.
  3. Strategies for peace. Learnings of OS/the OS mentality (how we live our lives, the Four Principles, One Law) Meeting methodology yields a way of life, consciously and intentionally.

Then do OS for three days. (Controlling will kill it).

Lisa H:

  1. Self, land, orgn, sustaining, actualizing.
  2. Peace in your organization and personal life.
  3. So what? What do you need from us?

Laptops, help, commitment.

Peg H: Expectations in some cultures for lecture, therefore some context is very helpful. Taiwan, Gail W: Storytelling helps to ground the idea that peace is something that happens. Therefore, day One: lecture and some discussion followed by two days of OS.

HO: It’s always a compromise and will always work.

HL: Read about OS in advance and ask to quote something they’d read and use that to get conversation going and leaders pull out more and more as the circle gets interactive.

HO: Sounds like Seattle and Toronto. Read 4 books + 2 optional. Worked OK. Each day, a new OS. 15 minutes to frame the theme, present high chunks of ideas, then coffee. HO becomes participant, someone else opens the space each day, new people get that experience. 2nd day, more depth. LH: An opening and light close every day, then the fuller close at the end. Different theme everyday.

HO: Put the program into the public domain, get it Harrison-free

Larry P: Framing so far- org. transform’n + leadership was theme. They invited people with substantial experience in OS

HO: If you think you can jump in and swim, please come but this is not a training program for OS. Peace doesn’t begin and end at the negotiating table. Should be everywhere, families, organizations, etc.

Advertising/practice of peace, for yourself, your organization and your world. Broken family, dysfunctional business, dysfunctional world.

Two parts: How to do OS; Presuming that’s in place, do OS. Beginners didn’t fit.) Ken Wilbur—4 Quadrants, elegant, complex, deep. “For every outside, there is an inside”, for individuals and groups. HO drew 4 quadrants, left them blank and group in Toronto filled in the spaces. Systems thinking gets stuck with externals.

Word “peace” has taken on many meanings. “Soul pollution” is epidemic---when individuals find the rug is pulled out from under them and their place, personhood and destiny is destroyed, deprived from them. We have the tools and power to achieve what we all need and it’s not complicated or difficult. Involves being aware of how you are and applying simple principles we can all do.

JPE: Ouspensky---Possible Psychological Evolution of Man---postulated three states of being: sleeping sleep; waking sleep; and fully conscious (transformational consciousness). Problem: people live in the second state and therefore won’t actively seek for that which they think they already are, i.e. conscious. What might we do in OS to help people become more conscious?

HO:People come to OS and there’s a distinct change in their level of consciousness, an ‘aha!!’. You couldn’t convince them it would be possible logically. The experience is a wonderful teacher, they may not take it actively further but they also can’t lose the experience. (added by jpe: A mind stretched to a new dimension never returns to its former shape—Thoreau??) But, you need to ANCHOR that experience and take it out to life. Do so at the end by taking a few moments for personal reflection: “What did you notice that was different from the usual meeting?” “How will you sustain this over time, starting with yourself?” e.g.: deep spiritual practice to hold space for deeply alienated people. And, I need to do my own spiritual work, e.g. meditation that makes sense to me, not necessarily you. If not, I’ll be washed away in the first few minutes.

LP: In the weaving of the event, how do we build in maps as well as the experiential. HO provides a frame. How to provide just enough conceptual frame for all?

Lavonne B: It’s like a loom, you need the frame to weave the threads. Doing so without the frame is possible but very difficult.

MW: Do you need people to have an understanding of “Peace”?

HO: What gets opened to people, rather. Gets away without defining the word. (Like HO giving no definition of “spirit” over the years)

Days: what; why—in the world, a bigger picture; how—for individuals as a way of living.

JPE: start with individuals to work collaboratively and start a network and a support group.

HO: Run an OS, topic doesn’t matter, you still get the sense of community, etc. Then participants are encouraged and supported to run. Building a collective consciousness—relationship.

And, you have three days!!! (and it does work like that) People need different things---in a small group it happens simultaneously.