World Vision Dialogue - Building a new collective dream

Ubuntu: A Beautiful Vision for a New WORLD

I continue to be touched by the African concept of ubuntu, pronounced oo-BOON-too.

Ubuntu is a South African ethnic or ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhosa languages. Unbuntu is seen as a traditional African concept. A rough translation in English could be "humanity towards others." Another translation would be: "The belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.[Wikipedia]

The formal attempts to put this concept into words somehow fall short. When you look to those who have stepped inside it, you find the idea of ubuntu comes to life and it makes a beautiful vision for a new more loving world. My two favorite perspective comes from Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

"In my part of the world, we have something called ubuntu. It is the essence of being human. We say a person is a person through other persons. I can’t be human in solation. I need you to be all you can be, so that I can become me and all that I can be. It is not “I think therefore I am.” It says rather: I am human because I belong. I participate. I share.” A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, and does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed or treated as if they were less than who they are." --- Desmond Tutu

Today, I envision a world that reflects ubuntu? Imagine the changes that would take place if each of our personal purpose was changed to be focused on contributing every day to live in oneness with our neighbors ---- to care about one another enough that we all were affirmed in peace. What if ubuntu were our standard for all actions and behaviors.

What changes do you see in a world filled with the beauty of ubuntu?

Be the Change!

Love and gratitude Can Change the World!

Debbe Kennedy

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A VISION: The Flowering Earth

As I have been pondering this new dream for our world, I've been reading book The Direct Path by Andrew Harvey, Coauthor of the bestselling, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. At the end of the book he shares a beautiful vision of a new world. He tells that when he was nearing the end of writing the book, he went on a pilgramage with his mother to the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City. It became a sacred place where a new vision for the world became clear. He writes:

"For a moment, it was as if I were participating in the miracle of four hundred years ago, when the mother told her Indian son to go to the top of the rocky, thistled-infested mountain and pick flowers there in the middle of winter. In my heart echoed words I had always loved from the Aztec text the Nican Mopohua that describe Juan Diego's first reaction to seeing the mountaintop covered with blossom: 'As I arrived at the top of the hill, my eyes became fixed; it was the Flowering Earth.' In Nahuatl, the expression 'theflowering earth' means 'the place where ultimate truth resides.'

In the splendor of that long, divine moment I saw, felt and heard in a way no words can describe the new world that is now possible for the entire human race, the 'flowering' earth that we could, even at this late, dangerous moment, still co-create with the Divine in the world. I realized with a tremendous joy that only our lack of faith, our laziness, and our addiction to the forms and rituals of the past now separate us from extraordinary new powers and possibilities.

...I understand clearly how the human race now has everything it needs, not only to preserve itself and preserve nature but also to enter into a fruitful and creative and unified future. It has the scientific knowledge, the technological skills; and now, in the great worldwide return to mystical awareness and in the restoration to the forefront of human consciousness of the world's wisdom traditions, it also has all the necessary spiritual knowledge at its disposal, all the mystical 'sciences' waiting to be synthesized, lived, and applied. What is possible---and for the first time in human history---is an integration and fusuion of the highest and most practical wisdom of all fields and disciplines to engender a new world and to work consciously and humbly with the Divine to uplift the whole  of humanity and the wohole of nature into harmony, beauty, unity and power."

I would love to live in the "flowering" world with all of YOU!

What possibilities do you see?

Debbe Kennedy             Learn more about Andrew Harvey's book

OTHER PLACES FOR INSPIRATION AND PERSPECTIVES...
World Vision Dialogue - WHAT YOU CAN DO 
Dialogue seeded by Joshua Peace Seeker

Women in the LEAD INSPIRATION BLOG

Global Dialogue Center PERSPECTIVES

Knowledge Gallery

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Still Dreaming

Recently, I bought a wonderful little book copyrighted in 1968, THE TRUMPET OF CONSCIENCE by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a beautiful foreword from Coretta Scott King. The book includes five talks broadcast in November-December 1967 over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as the seventh annual series of lectures named in honor of the late Rt. Hon. Vincent Massey, former Governor General of Canada.

I've been moved by each of his visionary messages, noting how enduring they are for our times as well. As Mrs. King stated, "Martin Luther King, Jr.---black leader----was a man for all people. ...Listen for him in the ever-increasing chorus of committed individuals. Remember him as a man who tried to be "a drum major for justice, a drum major for peace, a drum major for righteousness. Remember him as a man who refused to lose faith in the ultimate redemption of mankind."

One passage describes the vision ---- the beautiful dream in my mind ---- and if you are a person yourself working for peace, I believe, you too will vividly see its picture.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks to the DREAMERS...TO EACH OF US...

"It really boils down to this: that all life is inter-related. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together, because of the inter-related structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can't leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach for the sponge, and that's handed to you by a Pacific Islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that's given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that's poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want ea: that's poured in your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you're desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that's poured into you cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that's give to you at the hand of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half of the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its inter-related quality. We aren't going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the inter-related structure of all reality.

It's one of the strangest things that all the great military geniuses of the world have talked about peace. The conquerors of old who came killing in pursuit of peace, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and Napoleon, were akin in seeking a peaceful world order. If you read Mein Kampf closely enough, you will discover that Hitler contended that everything he did in Germany was for peace. The leaders of the world today talk eloquently about peace---every time we drop our bombs... What is the problem? They are talking about peace as a distant goal, as an end we seek, but one day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at the goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means."

Peace does not have to be a distant goal. Dream about it. Talk about with others every chance you get. Take actions right where you are to promote peace in your span of influence.

We warmly invite you to come down from hovering above this blog. Help us all, but sharing your DREAM., your wisdom, you ideas. Each person thoughts and beliefs have a chance to touch someone else.

You never know that what you say may be just what someone else needs.

With gratitude for our inter-related Oneness...

Debbe Kennedy

Visit the Global Dialogue Center