NSP MD Showing of One, The Movie

NSP in Maryland is planning to have 3 showings of One, The Movie the weekend of September 15, 16, and 17.

The film will be shown Friday, September 15 at 7pm and and Sunday, September 17 at 7pm in Columbia Maryland. Reservations are required. To see the flyer (a .pdf file) on how to make reservations, click here.

The film will be shown in at the Sangha in Takoma Park on Saturday, September 16 at 8pm. Again for details see the flyer by clicking here.

Buddhist take on the Network of Spiritual Progressives

Madelyn Blair, wise woman extraordinaire who uses appreciative inquiry, narrative and many other tools with organizations, remembered our conversation about NSP. Shambhala Sun's September issue has an article she told me, is this about your group?

Yes it is! In the September 2006 issue of Shambhala Sun, a magazine on Buddhism Culture Meditation & Life, on page 48 is an article titled "Who Does God Vote For - Seeking an Alternative to the Christian Right" by Barry Boyce. Click here to read a short excerpt.

The online article is just a teaser. In the magazine, the article is about 10 pages, and quotes extensively from NSP conference presentations by Rabbi Lerner, Sister Joan Chittester, Jim Wallis, Rev. Deborah Johnson and others. And ends with this thought: "The calls by these religious leader to look beyond right and left are based in a very sound theology: if godliness is to have any real meaning, it has to be above any version of us versus them.... This, they believe, is what many people in America are looking for: public life based on deep meaning." The author points out that NSP includes Buddhists, Hindus, Sufis and Wiccans, as well as Jews and Christians and folks of no religious persuation. Poignantly, the debate within the progressive religious movement is "a debate all Americans, believers or not, have a stake in...It's a debate about who God really is."

Go to your library or local newstand to find a copy (I found a copy at Borders, on the same section that held Tikkun).

And while you are reading the magazine, look at the article on p.56, "Return to the (Policial) World". "The messy, neurotic, imperfect world of politics, says Zen teacher John Tarrant, is exactly the palce there the bodhisattva way is practiced and our realization is put on the line." Click here to read a brief excerpt.

Are we reaching out to the Buddhists and others around us to invite them into dialogue about progressive religion and values in the public sphere?

Nonviolent Communication and NSP

NSP folks I meet want to learn how affirm their own spiritual values when talking to family/friends/neighbors/politicians who may differ radically in some spiritual and political policy values. At our 2006 Spiritual Activism Conference Inessa Love gave an excellent workshop on Nonviolent Communication (NVC) which began to deal with what to do in a conversation when another in essence labels you a heretic/a person is has wrong ideas. She explored how continue the conversation when labeling occurs.

Another highly esteemed NVC teacher, and perhaps a mentor of Inessa, Miki Kastan from California, is going to be in Silver Spring on September 6, leading a workshop titled "No More Enemies: Radical Compassion for Everyone". The description says: How do we create peace in the world, when we cannot ourselves relate to others in peaceful ways?
In this day-long workshop, we will work to uncover deep-seated beliefs about the world, and transform them into: self-connection with our own needs, mourning of our unmet needs, and connection with the human needs of others which are behind any actions that we do not like. The workshop will include a special focus on empowering ourselves through making effective requests.

Leaders request that those who attend have had six hours of previous NVC instruction
(such as the local August 26 introductory workshop).

If you don't have 6 hours of prior NVC experience, an August 26 workshop will provide it. The theme for that workshop, by local NVC teachers including Inessa, is "Saying What You Want Without Regretting It Later" and it is 10am to 4pm near Dupont circle.

See: www.capitolnvc.org/ for details.

Or down the flyer on all these workshops by clicking here.

NVC is a great tool for NSP, and we are fortunate to have local NVC trainers and skilled national NVC teachers come to this area.