transform-201009 by Transformative Change

reflection, balance, and action. | sept/oct 2010

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Read this version online: http://transformativechange.org/transform/journal/201009.html Download printable PDF version: http://transformativechange.org/transform/print/201009.pdf This month's transform.: http://transformativechange.org/transform/?announce-transformonline/

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Autumn's shiny imprint leaves splashes of vibrancy all over urban streets filled with rhythm and smoke from Labor Day barbecues, dance parties, jack-o-lanterns, and school children. This is a time to make room for transition, as to honor the fall equinox. For many, September and October is an important time of reflection and action. In September, there is the celebration of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah in preparation for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The final days of Ramadan came to a close at the beginning of the month. And the International Day of Peace was celebrated on the twenty-first, as we move towards a more sustainable and harmonious planet. In October, we observe Indigenous People's Day, All Hallow's Eve and, in the higher latitudes, we set our clocks back one hour to mark Daylight Savings Time. Each year, the sun crosses the plane of the equator away from the northern hemisphere, making day and night of equal length. We'd like to invite you to focus on Balance and what that concept means to you. Utilize the symbolic energies of the equinox to aid you along your personal journey. Allow it to inspire the motivation you need to manifest a sustainable, just and loving world.

Web of Change connects the foremost thinkers and do-ers in social media, technology, and social change. Together this is a growing community of leaders working for transformation of our organizations and our world. Web of Change has become the leading convener of North America's social change and technology community. We are pleased to bring you some leading truly inspiring messages from this exciting event where the frontline meets the online. Read more... "Our Web of Change: An amazing week..." "Questions from Web of Change"

in SIGHT Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari on Being Muslim Having Unique Challenges in the West

Enjoy this special September/October issue of transform., as CXC ushers in new partnerships, honors old ones, and continues to pave the way for vision & practice for transformative social change. "Allah, the personal name of God." Inscribed in Islamic calligraphy on one of eight medallions. Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey. image: angel Kyodo williams

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reflection, balance, and action. | sept/oct 2010

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No video? Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch ? v=7Y5E5qM9dLY

Sheikh Abdel Aziz Bukhari worked his entire life, and his family has worked for hundreds of years, for peace in Palestine-Israel. He left the Earth this past summer. Though often he spoke to a Muslim student audience, here he speaks with Eliyahu McClean as part of the "Unusual Pairs" dialogue.

living on the right:

Jerusalem Peacemakers

bearing witness to the bend towards justice

In 2002 the General Assembly officially declared

INcite with angel Kyodo williams

International Day of Peace: "Peace Day should be

September 21 as the permanent date for the devoted to commemorating and strengthening the

Istanbul, Turkey.

ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples..." The Global Ceasefire may be just a small

Five times per day, throughout this enigmatic city, the calls to prayer, or Ezan, ring out, initiating an exodus from homes, offices and even busy tourists shops and restaurants.

start, yet let one day become 2, two become 4, and so forth as we transform, and the conditions of peace become manifest. International Day of Peace and Global Ceasefire Subscribe to CXC on YouTube

"Allahu Akbar" - God is most great. It is Ramadan, the month of fasting and the mood alternates between the quiet introspection compelled by taking neither food nor water from sun-up to sun-down during some of the longest days of the year, and the burst of celebration (and relief) of the breaking bread for iftar, the breaking of the fast. When the muezzin calls, Istanbullus answer by making their way to any one of nearly 3000 active mosques. Even with its secular government, established in 1923 by the real Young Turks, the Republic of Turkey boasts a 98% muslim population and more mosques per capita than anyplace in the world: 85,000 or 1 for every 350 citizens.

in TIME CXC: The Only Full Range of Practices Designed for Social Change Agents Owing to the exciting and new strategic alliance with YES!, CXC's practice schedule will be modified for the month of October to allow for the transition to happen in a good way. Read More

"Ash-hadu an la ilaha illa llah" - I bear witness that there is but one God. "Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah" - I bear witness Mohammed is a messenger of God. "Hayya 'ala-salat" - Make haste towards prayer.

in the CENTER 27 Days of Change | Fall 2010 Practice Period Twenty people from around the

From this vantage point, it is hard to comprehend the furor generated around the placement of just one mosque, that of the proposed Cordoba Mosque and Community Center in New York City's lower Manhattan.

country and participating in the Fall 27 Days of Change | Practice Period. During the 27 Days, formal participants commit to intensifying reflective and contemplative practice on three levels

For the record, it is not on the World Trade Center site, it is near. Two http://transformativechange.org/transform/journal/201009.html

(inner, interpersonal, and global/social), which when Page 2 of 7

reflection, balance, and action. | sept/oct 2010

blocks away. And for those of us that didn't know, the fact of longstanding mosques, 4 and 12 blocks away, was illumined by the New York Times. Each stood peacefully in the shadow of the Twin Towers for decades. Both mosques overflow with ever-increasing numbers of believers during this holiest of months. One is conservative by Islamic standards, maintaining separate prayers spaces for men and women, the other, considered to be the most progressive in the nation, is led by a woman. It is the prayer leader of the latter, most progressive of mosques that was inspired to build the community center as a symbolic bridge of healing through mutual exchange. A better candidate couldn't be found even abiding by our quasi-racist criteria.

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brought together, form a holistic relationship to one's life and creates the conditions for transformation. Read more...

A Nation SAT for Change At this moment, just after the 3rd Annual SIT for Change, it is a time to reflect on what was accomplished by 2010 SIT for Change, and what remains to be accomplished. Read more...

Notwithstanding its overwhelming predominance of Muslims, Turkey lays claim to a history of religious tolerance that cannot be ignored. In 1492 as Columbus delivered claim over native lands to Spain, 200,000 Sephardic Jews were delivered into freedom from the Inquisition by Ottoman's Sultan. Some 15,000 French Jews were saved during the Holocaust. As home to the prophetic purveyor of peace and love, Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Turkey still seats the Christian Orthodox Patriarch and on September 12, a referendum for a new constitution seeks to extend human rights and religious freedom while limiting the historically long arm of law in exchange for greater democracy, transparency and balance.

from the FIELD Doing Good Work The Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC) is a nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of collaboration within the social sector to create a just and sustainable world. Read more...

As the capital of empires for 800 years, Istanbul has much to teach the economic capital of America's Empire. The main point being this: all empires fall. In their wake, what they leave behind is a legacy. It can be a legacy that glorifies the past to be regaled in rubble and ruins, or it can be a legacy that sets the course for the future. An admirable post-empiric future is one that learns from the mistakes of arrogance past and matures into a principled elder state exhibiting universally moral characters of tolerance, compassasion, restraint, temperance and seeking to become unequivocally just.

inner PRACTICE

"Hayya 'alal-Falah - Make haste towards success.

Fitness blog on finding balance in your life.

Critics argue that the name Cordoba represents the triumph of Islam over Christianity as that of the grand mosque of the same name built in Spain on the site of a former Christian Church. What they fail to mention is the church site was purchased, not seized, and that it was Christians who turned the 500-year old mosque into a cathedral. It is more likely the beauty the "defied any description" that inspired the name. Perhaps they should have chosen a different name. Perhaps they should have chosen a different location. Perhaps they should have cowered into a corner waiting for elections and the ensuing political strawgrabbing to pass. Maybe then they could have quietly found themselves a place in the pitiful America expounded by the Tea Party. Or perhaps they should just join Barack Obama in that small corner of Islamophobia that has been paintedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which he ran full speed intoâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and retract the

http://transformativechange.org/transform/journal/201009.html

Finding Balance in Life "Many of us try to juggle things and endlessly search for some kind of balance in life. The question we should ask is whether we need balance or just to be able to stand on solid ground?" Enjoy this reprint from the Zen to Read more... Zen of Fitness Blog

outer ACTION ACRJ | Forward Stance in Action Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice (ACRJ) promotes and protects reproductive justice through organizing, building leadership capacity, developing alliances and education to achieve community and systemic change. Read how they incorporate Forward Stance in how they operate their organization and how it is infused in all of the work they do in the world. Read more... Page 3 of 7

reflection, balance, and action. | sept/oct 2010

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mosque altogether.

wellness & being well

—yours in truth, aKw

Grounding | Coming Down to

with gratitude to Ibrahim and Istanbul's Rumist CafÃ© for their generosity in sharing iftar. dedicated to the lives of Americans,

Rise Up

Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Afghanis, Iraqis, believers and non-believers alike who lost their lives on September 11 and the

body? Smell it in earthly aromas?

enusing aftermath of nine years of unjust war. Curious? Listen to the full Ezan audio here

Grounding--do we feel it in our See a light coming up from the ground into the root of our body? Is it in a way we think practical thoughts and don't drift off? Use words with actual distinct meanings?

angel Kyodo williams, is founder of urbanPEACE and it's Center for Transformative Change. Happily, she is no longer its director, but the official Intellectual Guru Emeritus. A social visionary and leading voice for transformative social change, she is the author of Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness and Grace.

Does ground lie in feeling connected with the elements, an electron transfer between our skin and minerals? Read more...

september wallpaper

Blog: new Dharma: live, love & lead from the heart Facebook: Like angel here Twitter: Follow angel for tweets of wisdom on Change Web: http://angelkyodowilliams.com angel Kyodo williams' next public talk: ?

newDharma Talk

master dome

NewDharma Talk | Be Deeply Yourself in the World To find who we really are, to be balanced, we already know we have to start with Practice. But most of us believe that all of that practice is on the cushion. Well, to GET balanced, we have to BE balanced even-â€”especially in Practice. Check out this dharma talk that shows the value of an ancient teaching about practice on and off the cushion

An amalgamated wonder of Byzantine architecture, Orthodox Christian celebration and Islamic grace, the Hagia Sophia remains one of the great religious sites of Istanbul…and the world. For nearly 1000 years, it existed as the world's largest cathedral, built and preserved with the mathematical genius of architecture, protected by the vision and humility inspired by spirit and the love of God. Just shy of 102 feet in diameter, it is the great dome of

Listen to Be Deeply Yourself In the World Download text of Be Deeply Yourself In the World

the Hagia Sophia that commands the most attention and marvel. Controversy continues over whether the stunning Islamic calligraphy should be removed to reveal the mosiac assumed to be underneath: that of Christ as Master of the World. What shows instead is the Qu'ranic Verse of Light (24:35) that begins: "Allah is

activists, allies & agents of change

the Light of the heavens and the earth." Architecturally,

Norma Wong | Stance, Energy, Awareness, and Rhythm

continues to inspire.

Ryuko (Norma) Wong Roshi is an instructor at Institute of Zen Studies. She teaches the Applied Zen program, which offers workshops and training in the application of Zen principles and spiritual training in work and life. She is also a private consultant specializing in strategic http://transformativechange.org/transform/journal/201009.html

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reflection, balance, and action. | sept/oct 2010

private consultant specializing in strategic planning and organizational capacity. Her career has spanned service as a Hawaii state legislator where she worked with public policy, planning, strategy, and native Hawaiian issues. CXC: What is Forward Stance, concretely and at its essence? NW: Forward Stance is a mind-body approach to movement building. A mind-body approach utilizes the physical experience to develop, explore, and demonstrate human actions.

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Forward Stance emphasizes proactive, strategic action that draws from sustainable energy in a constantly changing environment.

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resources for transformative change… Learn more about MLK than mass media will ever reveal. After more than a decade of serious contemplation, King unwaveringly concluded that no war is worth sacrificing children to. He said, "More and more I have come to the conclusion that the potential destructiveness of modern weapons of war totally rules out the possibilities of war ever serving again as a negative good." To read more follow the link below. Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, the Revolutionary

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By developing a physical and conceptual understanding of basic Forward Stanceprinciples, organizations and allies can literally shift the way in which we move in the world. The basics include characteristic principles of stance, energy, awareness, and rhythm.