Commitment #3: Practices for Engaged Collective Social Action
Each Beloved Community Circle engages in mindful action of its own choosing somewhere on the continuum of racial and environmental healing and justice. The “action” practice has several interrelated components.
Collective ongoing studying, visioning, and skill-building
Study, research, and learning. Mindful action needs to be based in clear seeing. The meditation practices mentioned earlier can help bring clarity. In addition, we need to continue to educate ourselves on the issues of the day and connect the dots so we increasingly see how issues like racism, white supremacy, patriarchy, militarism, capitalism, climate change, environmental destruction, generational poverty, the threats to democracy, and unhealed childhood trauma intersect. In addition to this general background, members of a Circle will want to be informed about the specifics of the issues it has decided to focus on, whether it is direct civil disobedience to stop a fracked gas pipeline, or advocacy for a carbon tax at the state house, or support for human immigration reform, or restoration of a wetlands, or support groups for trauma healing and resiliency, and so on.
Visioning. As the saying goes, “without a vision, the people perish.” We do not want to be only protesting, or only expressing grievances about injustice, as necessary as these are at times. We want to be working towards, to use social thinker Charles Eisenstein’s phrase, “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.” Circle members are encouraged to have visioning sessions from time to time to become ever clearer about the kind of policies, practices, institutions, cultural norms, economics, and social arrangements we want to see. One of the tactics in any long range social justice campaign is articulating and inspiring people about the benefits of a changed situation, for example, of a world without racism, or an environment powered by clean energy, or a city where no one has to be homeless, or folks do not have to worry about health care. (See “Envisioning the Beloved Community” in the Resources section below for an example of a visioning exercise.)
Growing our skills. Ongoing training in new skills will help Circle members become ever more effective in their engaged action. As mentioned earlier in this handbook, there is a required basic “onboarding” training for all Circle members. In addition, the Circle Onboarding and Training Council is also developing a menu of workshops and retreats aimed at enhancing our skill levels. Circle members with expertise are also encouraged to develop and offer trainings in conjunction with that Council. Enhancement trainings might include: mindful advocacy, community resiliency, nonviolent communication, restorative justice practices, nonviolent civil disobedience training, deep peer listening and co-counseling, good group process, effective use of media, electoral politics organizing, etc.
Commitment to collective action
Engaging in mindful action is a key purpose of a Circle. The first task is to discern the arenas or issues for action. As we stated earlier, a Circle can either be organized from the beginning around a specific issue that members are drawn to. Or, a Circle can form and then decide collectively where they wish to focus their action. A Circle decides its focus on its own, as long as the focus is located somewhere in the nexus of racial and environmental healing.
Since a Circle is self-organized and autonomous, there is no central authority tracking or judging a Circle’s actions. We are assuming that Circle team members are committed to action on behalf of life that is grounded in mindfulness practice and nonviolence.
Circles asks its local members to agree to engage in a specific number of days of collective mindful action over the course of a year. A suggested range is 12-20 days, but we are aware that each Circle’s context is different and will need to determine what is feasible and workable. Parents of young children, for example, or folks with chronic health conditions, might not be able to participate in 20 days a year, but could do 12 or 15. A local Circle will need to discern what is realistic for its members.
Probably most of us reading this ask ourselves repeatedly what more we can do to help make things better. What are we to do in the face of near certain kinds of collapse? In our opinion, we need transformation at the base. Tinkering at the edges will not transform our collective suffering. Refusing to look directly at the seriousness of our situation gives us false hope that somehow we can avert the worst, and thereby keeps us numb enough to go along with accepting things pretty much as they are, or just advocating for mild, piecemeal reforms, thereby sealing our fate.
We are drawn to the three “Bs” formulation of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship: “Block, Build, Be.” Block harmful actions and policies. Build positive structures and culture up inside the decaying old system. Be true, be home, be free where you are, deepen consciousness, promote stillness. Each of these is necessary at different times. Sometimes we are called to say “Stop!” to put an end to an ongoing harm, to protest a wrong, or to risk arrest in civil disobedience. People’s immediate well-being is threatened and we use our bodies and other power to avert or reverse the harm. Sometimes our energies go into building new organizations or ways of being as alternatives to unworkable and unjust systems. And sometimes, we need to be still, to renew, to touch the ultimate dimension, to remember we are water, not just a wave. Mindful action in practice
“We are the pivotal generation.” - The Dalai Lama
Regarding action, there is a huge menu of things we can do. Here are a few elements. This graphic depicts one way to define "actions"
And here are a few elements to highlight.
Cultivate an empowering story about the racial and environmental crises. For example, “What if total climate catastrophe is not inevitable? What if racism can be eliminated? What if we are big enough to tackle this? What if this is just the right level of challenge to slingshot us through to the next level of collective consciousness?” “What if climate change is a door to collective awakening?” “What if we can find joy in climate justice work?” What would we do differently if we adopted these kinds of views?Start where we are. We can see clearly how climate change highlights the interconnection among issues that were previously viewed as fairly separate. Climate change is a racial justice issue. Climate change is a food security issue, a national security issue, an economic justice issue, a public health issue, a population issue, a democracy issue, an immigrant issue, a technology issue; a patriarchy issue, a species loss issue, a rights of Nature issue, and so on. Anything we care about is somehow related to climate change and environmental degradation.Do what we love. Since interbeing is a reality not just a notion, we can know that everything is interconnected. If you pull on one thread of a piece of fabric, and keep pulling, eventually the whole fabric becomes unraveled. Similarly, if you pull on any one social issue, and keep pulling, you’ll find it’s related to everything else. There are debates about what actions are the most important or most relevant or would have the biggest impact and so on. However, a good rule of thumb is “Do what you love.” Because then, our motivation is intrinsic, our activity is more sustainable because it’s coming from love rather than duty or “shoulds.” This interconnection also means that we can start anywhere, like planting a garden, caring for our children, nurturing our church community, standing for racial justice, protesting the pipelines, working for just immigration reform, contributing funds to climate justice organizations, supporting a carbon tax at the statehouse, joining a mass civil disobedience action, working for climate friendly political candidates, advocating for a Green New Deal.How might we add a climate lens to whatever we are doing already? Each of us has family, a network of friends and acquaintances, or maybe a work setting, social media community, and so on. We probably have more influence than we know. Maybe you could arrange a think and listen session with a friend about how you might add a climate justice lens to whatever you are currently involved with.A sample action menu. Consider how you might work on one or more of these buckets of climate justice related work (suggestive only):Climate education and awareness (study; offer a citizen’s course on climate change, on links among racial, social, ecological crises; research best summaries of science and/or solutions, etc.)Environmental racism (support retirement of coal fired power plants; toxic cleanups; oppose location of these near BIPOC communities or land; stop pipelines through Indigenous lands and waterways, etc.)Healing (offer climate grief circles, or listening groups for racial healing or eco-anxiety, create ceremonies and rituals for feeling and healing, for visioning and empowering, etc.)Mitigation (clean energy, eco-agriculture, green building, carbon capture, plant-based diet, Project Drawdown, etc.)Adaptation (flood control, firefighting, rescue missions, relocation, etc.)Resilience (migration assistance, poverty alleviation, family planning, food security, girls’ education in global South, etc.)Electoral politics (running for office, supporting climate friendly candidates, promoting ballot initiatives that highlight a racial or climate justice issue, ranked choice, campaign finance reform, voting rights, etc.)Fundamental systems change (ending fossil fuels, shifting to an equitable steady-state economy; protecting voting rights; reviving democracy with Citizens Assemblies & local engagement, dismantling racism, patriarchy, and class oppression, etc.)Project Drawdown offers a huge menu of areas to focus on. Your choice!
Commitment to nonviolence in body, speech, and mind
“Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love. This is the eternal law.”
- The Buddha The first of the Five Mindfulness Trainings, or ethical precepts, is “Reverence for Life.” All of life, every human, animal, plant, and mineral. No exceptions. Therefore nonviolence is required in thought, word, and deed. Nonviolence is not just the absence of violence, but the active practice of peace. As Thich Nhat Hanh (borrowing from peace activist A.J. Muste) says, “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” Nonviolence is a way of living. It is at the core of Buddhist practice, and it is at the core of Circle’s practice. We also are in harmony with tenets of nonviolence articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The following comes from the King Center.========================================================
Dr. King’s Fundamental Philosophy Of NonviolencePRINCIPLE ONE: Nonviolence Is a Way of Life for Courageous People.It is not a method for cowards; it does resist.It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.It is aggressive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
PRINCIPLE TWO: Nonviolence Seeks to Win Friendship and Understanding.The outcome of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community.The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation
PRINCIPLE THREE: Nonviolence Seeks to Defeat Injustice, or Evil, Not People.Nonviolence recognizes that evildoers are also victims and are not evil people.The nonviolent resister seeks to defeat evil not persons victimized by evil.
PRINCIPLE FOUR: Nonviolence Holds That Unearned, Voluntary Suffering for a Just Cause Can Educate and Transform People and Societies.Nonviolence is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation; to accept blows without striking.Nonviolence is a willingness to accept violence if necessary but never inflict it.Nonviolence holds that unearned suffering for a cause is redemptive and has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities.
PRINCIPLE FIVE: Nonviolence Chooses Love Instead of Hate.Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as the body.Nonviolent love is spontaneous, unselfish, and creative.
PRINCIPLE SIX: Nonviolence Believes That the Universe Is on the Side of Justice.The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.Nonviolence believes that God is a God of justice.
========================================================
Development of an Intersectional Analysis
Circles utilizes an intersectional framework. Below is the description of this from our sibling network, The Fierce Vulnerability Network. It is beautifully articulated and we do not see how to improve upon it, so we have included it verbatim, with permission. ~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Climate chaos and extractive industries arise from the same domination system that wreaks violence on the marginalized frontline communities that experience that system’s impacts first and worst. These communities are also holders of solutions and possibilities for a world rooted in justice and love. This truth intimately ties our most strategic climate crisis responses to other movements for justice.
We often focus our intervention on the fossil fuel economy, by which we mean not only the toxic energy industry that threatens the possibility of sustained life for more and more of Earth’s species, but also its various tentacles throughout society. This might mean intervening to disrupt a great variety of harms, such as construction of oil pipelines or new prison facilities, deportation, factory farming, low income housing demolition, militarization of police or unfettered deforestation. The systems of domination that spin out of these harms reinforce one another, and we seek to transform these systems in ways that knit together our communities, our concerns, our hopes for the future, and our power to spark and carry through transformation.
When we show up to take action as a network, we work to bring forward the inseparability of climate and racial justice. We bring racial justice into climate spaces. We bring climate into racial justice spaces. This often means making visible the thing that is less “obvious” – race or Indigenous sovereignty at a pipeline blockade, or climate at a deportation blockade.
We acknowledge that bringing an intersectional analysis into a space can only be done when trust, and communication with other groups are robust. These commitments aren’t new, and as we live into them, network members are invited to embody both curiosity and humility.
Some key considerations related to our showing up with an intersectional analysis and awareness:
When we are organizing: choosing points of intervention that embody a powerful intersection, and which thoughtfully reinforce that intersection with one or more of the following: our petitions, spokespeople, stories, media messaging, art, songs, conversations, what we wear. For example: When joining a campaign against an oil pipeline that goes through a disproportionate number of Indigenous and Black communities, the messaging can highlight this injustice as being inseparable from climate impacts. This is a mindful action scenario where our network practices of land acknowledgement and external reparations can also come into play in a public way, if deemed appropriate by local leadership.When we are showing up for efforts organized by others: in the ways we prepare our hearts and minds, in our conversations, potentially in our art/songs/clothing, and in anything we are specifically invited to do. What we discern we should do and how we should do it should be based on trust and relationship with those who have invited us. For example: When members of a network team participate in an action focused on immigrant detention, that team can offer their vocational callings of song, and if the offering is received as useful, the team can check in with leaders concerning which songs and language(s) are appropriate. A team can also show up silently in any action roles, with a willingness to be put to work.When we’re in an action space: Remaining mindful of our own patterns of complicity and evaluating the ways that we are fueling or supporting the things that we are struggling against.In all settings, take care to avoid preachiness of any kind, but especially climate preachiness in spaces more squarely focused on racial justice. We endeavor to embody our intersectional analysis by showing up and being who we are as a network. At the end of the day how we show up and the strength of our practices will be the message we most powerfully convey.We believe that frontline and impacted communities are powerful and are where the most trustworthy solutions come from. Frontline community members are not victims.Teams not rooted in frontline communities orient themselves to show up in solidarity and receive leadership and direction from these communities, to support their ongoing work and campaigns.We know that some impacted and frontline communities have been so burned by outsiders that the presence of a team from the outside can never be received as a contribution (especially in the case of predominantly white teams).
As teams, our commitment to act in defense of life-- slowing down species extinction, protecting the water, air, and soil, challenging police brutality, mass incarceration and mass deportation -- is at the center of our shared efforts. When we show up to organize or to participate in an action, campaign, or other kind of event, we strive to build upon the foundation of this core commitment."
Individual & collective assessment & plans regarding “equity” practice & resource shifts
The legacy of white supremacy has shaped huge and immoral gaps between BIPOC people and White people on average. Gaps in income, wealth, home ownership, health outcomes, student debt, incarceration rates, and more. While these historical and generational gaps can never be fully righted or compensated for, the Beloved Community Circles are committed to make efforts in this direction, as part of our mutual liberation efforts.
Individual assessment and commitment. Therefore, each member of a BCC, sometime in the first six months of their Circle involvement, is asked to do a self-audit (sample audit form available in the Resource section below) to assess their income, wealth, and material well-being status, where it comes from, how it is used or shared, and for those with financial or other surplus, consideration of shifting even more toward those in marginalized communities or BIPOC-led social justice organizations. An individual’s commitment might come in different forms including financial donations; offering time, materials, or skills to marginalized individuals or groups; serving at BIPOC events doing errands, airport pickups, food prep, childcare, etc. that frees up the time of BIPOC facilitators or participants; giving land back to Indigenous people; and so on.
A Circle process. Each BCC member does their own audit and then the Circle gathers to hear from each person and their commitments. This is done with care, respect, deep listening, and no judgment. Many of us have been deeply conditioned to keep our money matters private. So no matter what our income or wealthy status is, sharing publicly can be embarrassing or intimidating or guilt-ridden or scary. In some way it is a radical act against our classist training. It takes courage. Thus, holding each other with compassion can help make this exploration a liberatory experience.
A whole Circle commitment. After each person has shared their current status, personal history, and future commitments, the members can also determine if they want to make a collective reparations-type commitment. For example, the Plum Village Earth Holder Community Care Taking Council has a practice of donating a certain fixed percentage of the end of year EHC bank balance to a BIPOC-led climate justice organization. Since the EHC does not have much of a surplus budget, this donation is not a lot of money, but it has been about $1000, which helps a bit.
Public plan. To make it real, the BCC is asked to make a specific plan to detail and document the who, what, when of the commitments. Each Circle is asked to submit this plan and report each year to the BCC CTC [or some other designated council] of the individual commitments (without individual names) and any local Circle commitment. The CTC will summarize these reports and share with the whole network for transparency, learning, and inspiration.
Again, acknowledging the insufficiency of such efforts, we trust that this process will be of moral or material benefit to each member, each Circle, and to recipients.
Quarterly self-assessment of a Circle’s process, relationships, culture, functioning, impact
Any ongoing community needs ways to attend to its functioning, celebrate its people, resolve inevitable tensions, and support individual growth. There are two different kinds of assessments that a Circle is asked to do—one focusing on each Circle member’s functioning and contributions, and one focusing on the collective functioning.
Quarterly Individual assessment. In the Plum Village tradition, we have the “Beginning Anew” process. In a Circle, we recommend using a version which goes something like the following, adapted from the handbook of our sibling network, the Fierce Vulnerability Network.Self-reflection. One different Circle member each quarter shares with their Circle members: a) what they appreciate about the ways they have shown up and contributed to the Circle work in the recent period; b) what regrets they might have about their functioning and how they would like to improve going forward, and c) what support they think would be helpful from fellow Circle members to help them improve.Circle reflection. Then, following a few minutes of sitting quietly, the other Circle members offer that person their reflections on the same: appreciations for the ways they have shown up and contributed; suggestions for improvement, and offers of support. This is intended to be a heartfelt process that both celebrates the person and offers suggestions for growth. Care, thoughtfulness, and kindness are key elements, along with truthfulness aimed at growth.Action Plan. Together, the group agrees on an action plan for the person for implementing the feedback, including a rough timeframe for reviewing changes agreed to.
This process is repeated for one different Circle member each quarter, which means it could take several years to complete the process, say for 8 people. Obviously, as relational issues arise, it is wise to use Beginning Anew to resolve the situation in a timely way.
Annual Collective Team Assessment. At least once a year, or more frequently as needed, the Circle team assesses its functioning and impact as a team. Here are some suggested reflection questions: These first four are adapted from a chart developed by Prosocial:What matters most to us about our Circle? What’s our shared purpose? What am I appreciating about our Circle?What shows up inside us that might get in the way of moving toward our shared goals?What can we be seen doing to avoid or control those difficulties?What can we be seen doing to move toward our shared goals?
Other possible questions:What have we done well in the recent period?What am I concerned about? Are there tensions that need naming and resolving?How do I think we could improve in our relationships or our functioning?
Notes should be taken and a plan made to address any outstanding issues.
