Language of Compassion

Twelve Theses for a Non-violent Culture

1.         Home for the Children. In a non-violent world children grow up in confidence and trust. The future of humanity depends on the fate of its children. A childhood marked by distrust and violence will not produce humane beings. Provide a home to children where they can again trust their parents.

2.         Love and Trust. Love is the source of humane thinking and non-violent action. Love comes from trust and trust comes from truth. Create living environments where human beings have no reason for lies and fear. Create the social and ecological conditions for love. Confidence and love are the most fundamental powers in all of creation.

3.         Sexuality. Sexuality is an elementary force of life and of the joy of existence. Sexuality is autonomous. It can neither be controlled by patriarchal marriage pledges demanding obedience, nor by tight external moral constrictions; instead it needs truth and trust. Create the moral and social conditions for healthy sexuality.

4.         Partnership. Partnership is the highest form of relationship. It has its roots in a common way of thinking. In no way is partnership in opposition to a consensus-based sexual morality, because it is itself free of jealousy. True partnership is the most radical model for a relationship between human beings that is free of violence and fear. Create the mental basis for a partnership free of jealousy.

5.         Community. The organic environment for human beings is the community. Natural values like truth, trust, solidarity and responsible participation without philosophical nit-picking can only be realized within communities that have developed organically. The non-violent society of human beings is a network of communities who value consensus and a common unity, and whose ultimate goal is a world where everyone’s needs are met nonviolently. Only in this way can the original concept of socialism be brought to reality in a humane way. Create functioning communities.

6.         Freedom and Autonomy of the Individual. A free world comprises individuals who say what they think and share what touches them. They are not subordinate to anything but their own knowledge and consciousness. The mature community is a grassroots democracy of free individuals. It is a human collective that is not collectively led in the name of a leader or an ideology. The individual and the community are equal and complementary forces in a non-violent world.

7.         Thinking. The reflecting intellect is a young and powerful fruit on the tree of evolution. Free and creative thinking dissolves all rigid ideologies. The secrets of existence are beyond all scientific or religious terminology. Individual autonomy is a direct result of a thinking that is free of fear. Overcome all creeds and dogmas of scientific and political systems. Create universities for the powers of growth inherent in free thinking.

8.         Religion. Just like Eros and the intellect, spirituality is one of the elemental powers of human existence. We live in an endless radiant universe. Everything we are and everything surrounding us has roots in the universe. Spiritual love is the connectedness with the whole. Therefore we do not need a religious confession nor predetermined answers. The answer will come through the spiritual opening of the mind. Create a free religious spirit without laws and without dogmas.

9.         Nature. Nature is our link with creation. We are its offspring, like a child that is born from its mother’s womb. The secret of human existence is part of the secret of nature. Whatever we do to nature we do to ourselves. The outer and inner environment are two aspects of the same world. Let us take care of Mother Nature and become aware of the processes of growth and their rhythms and interrelatedness. Cooperation with all vital energies and respect for life are the prerequisites for a non-violent and humane civilization.

10.       Animals. Stop all cruelty toward animals. Like us they are part of the living organism of the biosphere. Like us they are beings with souls, just at a different level of evolution. In a non-violent culture, whales are not killed, animals are not kept for slaughter, and fur farming does not exist. Create spaces for a coexistence of human beings and animals that is free of fear. Animals do not exist for us to slaughter but to help us to learn to see.

11.       Biotopes for Healing. All of the thoughts above join together to form a new biotope for healing. Such a biotope contains the informational totality for a non-violent existence on planet Earth. Create pilot models for this informational totality. Create international centers where the social, technical, ecological and spiritual structures are such that the healing powers of lifeÑtrust, Eros, Logos and symbiosisÑare promoted in the best possible way.

12.       Networks of Human Beings. Today, within all countries and cultures on earth, there are people who have irrevocably understood the necessity of a positive inner and outer revolution. They all contribute certain thoughts, certain convictions, and certain aspects to the overall view of the tasks at hand. It is not machines but people who decide if a future worth living is possible. In that spirit we want to invite you to join the network for a non-violent earth.

A Utopian Reality

I have heard of courageous people who risk their lives on Greenpeace boats, placing themselves between whalers’ harpoons, and the whales they would protect. Some of them hate the whalers, in an unconscious attempt to work out their authority issues with these projections of their own patriarchal fathers and culture. Others, in the same boat, may have done more of their inner work. They are now answering the call of a real authority, one that compels them to protect and love the whales. I would ask us all to ask ourselves this question: Are we hating the whalers or loving the whales? If we are hating the whalers, we will become like whalers, contributing to the consciousness that allows humankind’s domination of the earth and seas. If we do our inner healing work, then we can stay focused in our love for the whales, ourselves and Mother Earth. From this energy we can truly start creating conscious nonviolent partnership communities and relationships. Then we will not be afraid to realize our potential for power, for our souls will finally and truly trust our benevolent intentions.

Some people are tired of all the work involved in trying to save fundamentalists from their oppression of women, children and sexuality, as well as shape up the schools, convert corporate culture, and topple autocratic governments all before breakfast. Lately I too have had much more passion for creating a new partnership culture and community for myself, my family and my close friends, rather than trying to change the old culture. I think there is a line in the Bible that says, “Don’t put new wine into old wineskins.”

I also believe that as people sense the clarity, warmth and respect being expressed through the members of these new partnership communities, those living in Dominator organizational systems will want to join. Maybe we don’t have to tear down Dominator organizational systems. Maybe they will wither away from lack of interest.

If we create community systems that better meet peoples’ needs for respect, acceptance, sexuality, closeness, giving, gender equality, emotional safety, empathy, celebration, warmth, and support, perhaps people will simply quit participating in Dominator organizations. Perhaps they will quit putting time and money into their Dominator churches and clubs, their dysfunctional school systems and governments controlled by old boy networks. The Nobel Prize winner and discoverer of the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk, wrote in his book Anatomy of Reality that a new culture will evolve through a new science of empathy based on both reason and intuition “to bring about a change in the collective mind that will constructively influence the course of the human future.” I believe many people are itching to involve themselves in viable alternative partnership communities. Peoples’ souls are longing for a place to contribute their gifts, to play with others who are really fun, to create schools with people who share more humane values and, live with those who are more alive.

Directions to Shangri La From Hwy 17 17 into Santa Cruz Take 1 south (toward Watsonville) Go about 5 exits Pass Bay Porter Get off on Park Ave. At bottom of ramp go left. Thru to second stop light at Soquel Dr. Go Right on Soquel about 3 blocks and on the left you will see Temple Beth El (and Cabrillo College just ahead) get into the left lane and turn left on Porter Gulch Rd. Go exactly .5 miles (30 yards past green street sign that says Hudson St.) and see mailbox with red cat on it and the number is 3614 Porter Gulch and turn right over the Bamboo Bridge into Shangri La. Car Pool if possible. Park and follow lites to workshop space or go to log cabin to find kelly. From the South Take Hwy 1 North Drive to Aptos Pass State Park Ave Get off at Park Ave. At bottom of ramp turn right Go few minutes until reach Soquel Dr. Go Right on Soquel about 3 blocks and on the left you will see Temple Beth El (and Cabrillo College just ahead) get into the left lane and turn left on Porter Gulch Rd. Go exactly .5 miles (30 yards past green street sign that says Hudson St.) and see mailbox with red cat on it and the number is 3614 Porter Gulch and turn right over the Bamboo Bridge into Shangri La. Park and follow lites to workshop space or go to log cabin to find kelly.