On Dr. Martin Luther King’s Jr. Holiday Weekend, Saturday, January 19, the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples and the Occupy Be the Change Caucus will convene a workshop on using the Gandhi-King holistic three-fold path as a means to foster fundamental social transformation.
Opening panelists will include Dr. Dorsey Blake (Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples), Brenda Salgado (Movement Strategy Center), Mary Lim Lampe (Genesis), and Kazu Haga (Positive Peace Warriors Network).
Transforming our global society into a truly compassionate community is an urgent necessity. To be successful, we need to assure that our means are consistent with our ends.
By growing activist, caring communities that integrate the personal, the social, and the civic, as did Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we can foster what Gandhi called “evolutionary revolution.” We can create models of the change we seek and strengthen our efforts to fundamentally, steadily reform our social system.
Dr. King declared, “An edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring.” He also insisted, “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic,” and affirmed, “Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”
Gandhi wrote, “Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our very being.” And he pointed out, “Nonviolence, which is a quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain. It is a plant of slow growth, growing imperceptibly, but surely.”
By engaging in ongoing personal development, we can undo our negative conditioning. We can, for example, become less self-centered, competitive, judgmental, and dominating (or submissive). By becoming better human beings, we better serve others and our environment.
By building alternative communities, institutions, and structures, we can demonstrate creative new possibilities, foster personal development, and grow joyous communities that attract involvement.
By undertaking campaigns to improve public policies that are focused on achievable objectives and rooted in love and the quest for reconciliation, we can build momentum, inspire hope, and improve living conditions.
Efforts in these three areas reinforce one another. The stronger we are as individuals, the more we contribute to our communities and effective civic engagement. Strong communities nurture strong individuals and provide a foundation for effective action. And effective action enhances personal strength and builds social infrastructure. Communities rooted in this Gandhi-King holistic three-fold path hold great potential for contributing to fundamental, lasting social transformation.
The January 19 Social Transformation Using the Three-Fold Path Workshop is for those who are interested in practicing this path, want to do so, or already do. We will share experiences, ask questions, and learn from each other about how we might deepen and improve efforts to grow compassionate communities whose members support one another in their personal development, community service, and civic engagement.
This free workshop will be held 9:30 am – 3:30 pm in San Francisco. To register, visit http://surveymonkey.com/s/ThreeFoldPath
