201108

apes will rise | transform. | august 2011

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Read this version online: http://transformativechange.org/transform/journal/201108.html Download printable PDF version: http://transformativechange.org/transform/print/201108.pdf This month's transform.: http://transformativechange.org/transform/2011/08/

welcome A month with no national holidays, August is often considered one of the hottest months of the year. The heat rises as the sun blocks our view of the dog star, Sirius, giving August its own personal phrase, "the dog days of August." It is the same month that Dutch sailors brought Africans to Jamestown in 1619. Twenty human beings that they traded for food and supplies, and the long road through history for those people and their descendants was never the same.

For so many oppressed people of all kinds, of a multitude of ethnicities, races, and orientations, the word freedom has had endless connotations about not just physical freedom, but as Bob Marley might say, freedom from "mental slavery" as well. Inspired

by Michelle Alexander's book The New Jim Crow, this month we explore internal and external freedom through the view of those who've been incarcerated and seek freedom from the slavery of their own hearts and minds as well as freedom from a system that unjustly imprisons many.

what's new Lineage Training The Lineage Project, an organization out of NYC that works with incarcerated youth using yoga, meditation, and other awareness practices, now offers [image: Lineage

its training to the public. The

Project Logo]

Lineage Project helps...

Read more...

More About the Lineage Project

in SIGHT Dhamma Brothers

Lest we forget, this month Ramadan begins, a month of purification and fasting for Muslims worldwide.

"Apes Will Rise" Rise of the Planet of the Apes promo poster.

No video? Click: http://www.youtube.com/embed/zA8XFEyeMi8

Since the film Doing Time, Doing Vipassana, which tells about the emotional turnover prisoners and guards went through in an Indian prison, there have been plenty of meditation programs in the US for prisoners.

Read more...

apes will rise:

Learn More About the Dhamma Brothers Subscribe to CXC on YouTube

rebellion for the heart INcite with angel Kyodo williams

in TIME WEST COAST fearlessMeditation I | Practice

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apes will rise | transform. | august 2011

Just as London was beginning to be set ablaze by Blackberries, I was bracing myself for the current Hollywood reboot of Planet of the Apes. The 2001 remake starring Mark Wahlberg left me mortally wounded, having claimed itself a "revisioning" of the original story and movie, it managed to not only leave every racist/colorist myth in place, it was elevated it to a spiritual plane by being robed in psuedo-Himalayan garb so that the apes were a cabal of ill-compassionate, slave-owning monks and priests. It was one of only two movies I've ever walked out on with my only regret being that, at the time, I still harbored some naive hope that it would play out differently than it appeared, such that I suffered through it for far too long. Hence my as-yet-unhealed scar to this day.

In my defense, my wariness was not solely the product of ancient wounding. The earliest trailers for the movie depicted the apes in a decidedly more ominous tone. They were clearly no different than the "copycat criminal element" that has rained mayhem down upon London. My mind conjures up images of Dean Winters, who personifies Mayhem in the ticklish Allstate commercials. Rather than one intrusive black-faced raccoon inhabiting the roof, there are thousands of carbon copy black Dean Winters with hoodies and cellphones coming out in droves to inhabit every imagined safe corner of the UK's big cities.

It was all well and good when it was just the downtrodden Tottenham, home to a similar outbreak in 1985. Police and politicos swore it was isolated to the disenfranchised few using the death of Mark Duggan as an excuse to spruce up their wardrobes.

It wasn't conceivable that it was a spark in the tinderbox of social unrest that lines the overcoat of the world.

There's been much commentary about how caught off guard the UK prime minister David Cameron was by the unrest. What this conveys to me is that he is sleeping through a revolution. The world as we know it is in revolution. Literally a wave of discontent is encircling the globe country by country, region by region, both dismantling and reorganizing lines of class, culture and caste.

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fearlessMeditation I | Practice of the Body EAST COAST The Art of Leadership MLK Memorial March and Rally SOUTHWEST Peacecraft Volunteer Orientation MIDWEST Book Packing for Prisoners SOUTHEAST Mysterious Rabbit Puppet Army | What Are Prisons For? Never Again! A Call for Nuclear Abolition

INside A Child Lost is a Victim Gained

Contributed by Troy "Kogen" Williams A practitioner and long-time meditator, Troy "Kogen" Williams, lives inside the walls of San Quentin prison. His connection with one of our community members allows us to post this new column and read the first of many of his stories, thoughts, and insights--as well as those of his fellow inmates and practitioners--in relationship to the dharma.

A lone unarmed security guard stood inside the lobby of a computer parts company. It was the end of a long work day, and he waited to provide security escorts to departing employees headed for their cars...

Read more...

Who "the People" are changes at every turn—indeed, in the movie, they aren't even people, but they are the People—the People are the shape-shifting stewards of our humanity who rise up cyclically to counter the forces that would have us tread backwards in our evolution by vying to protect the status quo. They are slaves, farmers, migrants, workers the world over that see the abundance of earth's resources hoarded by privilege so rewrite the lines of distribution to carry us one step closer to achieving humanity. It is invariably a painful process as it meets with resistance borne of fear. But it is inevitable. We are a forward propelled species.

Stagnation is death.

in the MONEY

Oscar Grant, Khaled Said, Mark Duggan:

in the CENTER

Unjustifiable deaths are the symbolic awakenings of consciousness.

The cathartic cognitive break brought on by the disruption of meaning-making. We can no longer make meaning out of the conditions we find ourselves in.

Funding Peaceful Justice With a focus on marginalized communities, the Fund for Nonviolence's programs support social justice that moves people toward compassion.

Read more...

More About Fund for Nonviolence

IJI | not your ordinary retreat Every year, CXC (Center for Transformative Change) sets aside 7 days for the annual IJI

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apes will rise | transform. | august 2011

We're prone to miss this moment as revolution because its form is markedly different than what we typically look for. There are no leaders, no central figures. And with humbling executions of grace, there is comparatively little violence. Even from Mayhem, the gangs, guerillas and gorillas.

And still...this revolution beckons and calls for our evolution. It is:

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aside 7 days for the annual IJI (Inner Justice Intensive). Based [image: angel Kyodo williams]

ordinary retreat.

Read more...

from the FIELD

begging for equality pining for justice yearning to be returned home to the human heart

Fleet Maull | Prison Dharma Fleet Maull began the Prison Dharma Network while he was serving a 30-year sentence for

and we will not rest until we get there.

Our consumer-driven culture has wrenched the vitality out of life so that it no longer matters that—as the prescient King noted—I may not get there with you. I'm willing to take the blow and the fall if it means you'll get there. And like Caesar, I'll exercise compassion for the unwilling participants of a system in which the only true enemy is oppression. But someone has to get there.

So apes will rise, and we will fight our way across bridges and through blockades to return to the place where our eyes can survey the land in safety. Where our minds can rest easy and our breath can rise and fall in freedom. The place where no one has to come to save us from being lost amongst our own kind.

on the 7-day sesshin format

out of the Zen Buddhism tradition, the intensive is no

drug trafficking. These days it's "an international...network for [image: Rick van Helden]

prisoners, prison volunteers, and

corrections professionals" and he's a major prison activist...

Read more...

Watch the Video More on Fleet Maull Prison Dharma Network Web site Dharma in Hell: The Prison Writings of Fleet Maull

inner PRACTICE Our Egos: Comfortable Prisons The secret to getting free is getting out of our own way. When

—yours in truth, aKw

we finally take a look at our obstacles (habits, ego, relationships with ourselves, with [image: Asif Akbar]

dedicated to all the People that strive on behalf of our humanity.

others, etc.), we don't want to let

them go. They are so us.

Read more...

angel Kyodo williams, the "change angel," is Founder Emeritus of Center for Transformative Change. She now serves as a Senior Fellow and Director of Vision. A social visionary and leading voice for transformative social change, she is the author of the critically-acclaimedBeing Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness and Grace .

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: fearlessYOGA West Coast Tour: August 11 @ CXC fearlessYOGA East Coast Tour: August 12-20 Thursday, September 15th @ CXC

Freedom Beyond Hope & Fear

outer ACTION IPP | Breaking the Cycle The Insight Prison Project (IPP) works with people who are incarcerated in the California penal system with a bead on transforming their lives and [image: Ilker]

through them the lives of people

in their communities--both the community that they are a part of inside the prison and...

Read more...

Read More About IPP Connect with IPP on Facebook Read the Story of an IPP Yoga Instructor

social CHANGE Freedom on the Inside

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Freedom on the Inside

Freedom Beyond Hope & Fear There's a quote by Robert Schuller: "What would

you attempt if you knew you could not fail?"

Here's a similar question: "What would you let go of if you knew you could be free? "We're not talking physical freedom, but freedom from your self, from your mind chatter, self-limitations, bad habits... While there aren't prescriptions given here, there is plenty of real talk about the obstacles that keep us stuck right where we are.

"Folks want freedom; they just don't want to give anything up for it.

We don't want to give up sleep; we don't want to give up lots of food, using lots of resources. We don't want to give up the little bits of attention that we can snatch here and there...And it's the little part of you that needs to hold onto that, to that way other folks see you--the way people think about you--that is keeping

Profiled in newspapers, magazines, and on the news, Mind Body Awareness Project (MBA) helps young people focus on discovering internal freedom through yoga and meditation. Ultimately, their work is about creating a positive future for young people who've begun their lives in a hard place, giving them things they would never have discovered on their own.

Read more...

More about MBA Vinny Ferraro's Story

in the Mind It's Not All About You Because of our high need to be

you anchored, tethered, stuck in some moment other than this one here. So there will be pain, there will be loss, there will certainly

included in groups most of us think folks notice things about

be difficulty and challenges, but there's only one Way. You must see clearly in order to be available to anyone or anything. And you cannot do that when you are mired in your own stuff."

Listen to Freedom Beyond Hope & Fear Download text for Freedom Beyond Hope & Fear

what we do or say...or even wear when most aren't paying attention [image: Steve Goodwin]

at all.

Read more... fearless Meditation is a 3-part signature series that teaches practical meditation within a social justice framework. It's offered for no charge for agents of social change.

activists, allies & agents of change Katchie Ananda | Doing Time, Doing Anusara Yoga

Katchie Ananda is an internationally recognized, certified Anusara yoga teacher whose leadership in yoga and social change prompted Yoga Journal to name her one of five top yoga teachers making change in the world.

She is the co-founder of Yoga Sangha, now Yoga Kula, a studio in San Francisco renowned [image: Carmen Alvarez] for its commitment to "Spiritual Activation," and Anusara yoga. Deeply inspired by her teacher and mentor, Jack Kornfield, Katchie is an avid practitioner of Vipassana Meditation and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, where she is committed to raising awareness about the interconnectedness of life.

"the best workshop i've ever taken. radically changed my work." fearless Meditation I: August 5, 2011 & every 1st Friday | 7pm

in the BODY Twelve Months of Abhaya (fearless) Yoga | Marichyasana III Toxins constantly accumulate in our bodies whether or not we are aware of them. Practicing spinal [image: chandra]

twists such as Marichyasana III,

that massage the organs and squeeze toxins out, is a great way to free ourselves from toxins and the health

San Quentin is where Katchie comes to do the work of bringing heartfelt redemption to those who so many people have forgotten.

She works on helping each of them recall that they matter and can still, from this distant place, influence others--both their loved ones and those with whom they're in community.

Read more...

More About Katchie Ananda More About Yoga Kula

challenges they produce.

Read more...

wellness & being well Tappin' Our Fingers for Freedom Believe it or not, tapping your first two fingers below your nose can

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apes will rise | transform. | august 2011

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two fingers below your nose can make big shifts in your life.

resources for change‌ Read reviews of legal scholar Michelle Alexander's award winning book The New Jim Crow, which explains how the prison system is

A few years ago I learned how to do EFT, also known as

the new Jim Crow. This title won the 2011 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Non-Fiction. Further browsing will

you tapping your first two fingers on points all over

reveal the author's bio, excerpts, and event calender.

Read About the New Jim Crow Watch the Interview with Michelle Alexander Learn more about the film Freedom Riders, a documentary about the group of courageous young Civil Rights activists who called themselves the Freedom Riders. It follows their activities in the

the Emotional Freedom Technique, which basically has your body. It seems like nothing at first...

Read more...

EFT Video on the Technique EFT Techniques

august wallpaper

1960s throughout the Deep South and provides an inside look at the figures on both sides of the issues. A must see for advocates of non-violent social action.

The Freedom Riders Find out more about Prison Dharma Network (PDN), a "nonsectarian, contemplative support organization for prisoners, prison volunteers and correctional professionals." Learn how PDN works to provide effective tools for self-transformation and rehabilitation. Also, be sure to check out their publication section,

sultan's room

Prison Dharma Press Prison Dharma Network

the ceiling of the library built by Mahmud I, Sultan of

the sun setting across the courtyard cast this glow on the Ottoman Empire from 1730-1754. Known as the Hunchback, Mahmud was the nephew of Sultan Ahmet

CNN has joined the fight to end modern day slavery. Among many other stories, read a startling report on how more than 500 people were rescued from slavery in India. Also, look at statistical information about how countries around the world are affected by slavery.

CNN Freedom Project

III. Preferring poetry over governance, he had a library, with floral bronze cast gates, built in the former nave off Haigha Sofia. photo copyright 2010. angel Kyodo williams

Download this image as wallpaper with or without calendar for your desktop.

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quote of the month "Had it not been for slavery, the death penalty would have likely been abolished in America. Slavery became a haven for the death penalty." —Angela Davis, Activist, Educator, Author Learn more...

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apes will rise | transform. | august 2011

We name, frame and advance Transformative Social Change by both developing practices and programs for agents of social change and working in collaboration with leading organizations to help shape this emerging movement. Most importantly, CXC reflects the field and the movement back to itself by publishing the transform. blog and monthly journal, thus strengthening

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