Aotearoa, New Zealand
doorway to conscious evolution - engaging our full potential
A proposal for a national resource for developing and promoting transformational learning and social entrepreneurship
"When faced with a radical crisis, when the old way of being in the world, of interacting with each other and with the realm of nature doesn't work any more, when survival is threatened by seemingly insurmountable problems, an individual human - or a species - will either die or become extinct or rise above the limitations of their condition through an evolutionary leap. This is the state of humanity now, and this is its challenge." Eckhart Tolle
What do you think is happening in the world today?
Do you feel you are living your true potential?
Could there be more for all of us?
"What we must do now is increase the proportion of humans who know that they can cause change. And who, like smart white blood cells coursing through society, will stop with pleasure whenever they see that something is stuck or that an opportunity is ripe to be seized. Multiplying society's capacity to adapt and change intelligently and constructively and building the necessary underlying collaborative architecture, is the world's most critical opportunity now. Pattern-changing social entrepreneurs are the most critical single factor in catalysing and engineering this transformation." Bill Drayton 'Every Citizen is a Change-maker'
We are living through an unprecedented, accelerating and increasingly complex process of global change. This affects every member of society on every level of being. Our psychological health, relationships, families, communities, work practices and businesses, social institutions, communications systems, national economies and the ecology of our physical environment, are all under stress and affected by the radical changes happening all over our Planet.
These changes challenge our values and belief systems and even our perceptions of reality. We may, at different times, perceive this social transformation as breakdown, chaos, crisis or breakthrough. Old forms are dissolving as new ways of seeing and being are birthed.
To become actively and consciously engaged with this process, rather than feeling victimised by it, requires the development of new skills and understandings and the formulation of a new worldview: exercising mental skills that engage the whole brain; sustaining oneself through emotional challenges; enhancing communication skills for more fulfilling relationships; the willingness to make quantum leaps into uncharted territory; re-shaping one's identity as a conscious creator on a daily basis.
Many of the changes required to evolve our selves and our world are quite simple. For example, studies estimate that the average parent spends fewer than eight minutes a day talking with their child. (Mikela Tarlow - Navigating the Future). What difference would it make if we all started being more present in our conversations with friends, family and colleagues?
Transformational Learning is a new multi-disciplinary approach to conscious change-making. Transformational Learning practitioners are educational innovators who bring people together into learning communities around a common interest or passion. For example, a learning community may be a group of people from the helping professions who come together to create a project using all their different skills and expertise and then offer this to their local community.
Such an approach goes beyond the familiar, isolating, competitive paradigm and encourages exchange and co-creation. The end result is bigger and better than anything any one of the individuals could produce and along the way everyone learns new skills, has fun and builds community. A win-win for all.
Transformational learning methods draw on the strengths and experience of all participants, whilst expanding awareness, skills and choices. When learning communities commit to deepening consciousness through inquiry into shared concerns, they can become catalysts for the emergence of new solutions to humanity's problems.
The Transformational Learning Community will be a national resource, operating via: the creation of networks; the gathering, exchange and circulation of resources; the provision of learning opportunities for upgrading skills and evolving consciousness.
Alongside the Trust we envision a thriving community of small businesses combining service to the common good with successful entrepreneurship and thus creating a new model of social entrepreneurship which enables people to make a sufficient livelihood by offering their unique gifts for the good of the whole.
We intend to create two model businesses:
Transformational Learning Catalysts: an innovative learning programme for change agents.
Heart and soul Publications: publishing learning materials through conventional and e-publishing.
The Trust will support the development of businesses such as these and will, in turn, be supported by them, thus creating a symbiotic, self generating re-source.
INTENTIONS OF THE TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
"Conscious evolution sets the stage for the next phase .... wherein we seek our uniqueness not through separation but through deeper participation in the whole" Barbara Marx Hubbard
1. To explore the potential for a new way forward for humanity based on service, compassion, integrity, authenticity, unity and Universal Principles.
2. To be catalysts for healing and the unfolding of the creative process through identifying obstacles to personal, organizational and community development; evolving skills and expanding awareness to clear the tracks as we move forward.
3. To empower people of all ages, races and faiths to create the highest vision of what is possible in their individual lives, families, organizations, communities, and the national and global family.
4. To develop transformational learning methods through collective inquiry and the co-creation of innovative and inspirational educational projects.
5. To develop learning communities to encourage conscious citizenship and transformational leadership in all contexts and at all levels of responsibility.
6. To link practitioners and participants in an evolving local, national and global interconnective network.
7. To carry out action research and consciousness studies with a view to developing a deeper understanding of human evolutionary potential; identifying and creating practical applications.
8. To develop a national resource to serve the promotion of Transformational Learning, incorporating innovative educational philosophy, a growing body of knowledge and leading edge, multidisciplinary practice.
VALUES OF THE TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
"... fragmentation is now very widespread, not only throughout society, but also in each individual; and this is leading to a kind of general confusion of the mind, which creates an endless series of problems and interferes with our clarity of perception so seriously as to prevent us from being able to solve most of them." David Bohm
1. We recognise and embrace the urgency of our present global crisis yet see it as an evolutionary opportunity for re-creating our world out of the universal values of sustainability and respect for all Life; working together toward greater peace, unity and collective understanding which both celebrates and transcends diversity.
2. We understand that humanity is in a state of collective confusion and crisis of values which can only be resolved by raising individual and collective consciousness to a higher level embracing more inclusive values such as service, compassion, integrity, authenticity.
3. We recognise human beings as powerful creators and co-creators with the potential to develop and evolve our world consciously, with each and every individual holding the key to positive transformational change within her/him self.
4. We recognise that true wealth lies in the development of human potential, intelligent long term use of our available resources, and a genuine understanding of our true interdependence.
5. We undertake to promote and evolve an economy of exchange whereby worth is not measured purely in financial terms but in terms of mutually agreed value, satisfying to all stakeholders.
6. We support burgeoning grassroots movements created by those waking up to new perceptions and understandings of the interdependence of all Life and the need for systemic solutions.
7. We encourage and support the transformational power of individual creative efforts and the potential of co-creative synergy to bring about positive local and global change.
