Helpfully, we identified various “tiers” of activism, so that we could already celebrate all we have already been achieving since meeting as a circle. Here are the “tiers":
- Doing actions on our own (as individuals) (often done with another group)
- Sharing and educating each other about our individual actions
- Inviting each other to join our actions (and we do join to some degree)
- Supporting and amplifying the work of other groups we value
- Inventing or working on an own action to be done as a BCC
- Transformative action in an area (or areas) of action on an ongoing basis
- Growing a group of people working on ongoing transformative action
- Drawing more people into the practice of transformative mindfulness/faithfulnessWe also discussed the possibility of exploring the transformative power of practice in our group in overcoming our own individual obstacles. Importantly, we shared with each other some habit energy / patterns we each have with regards to our individual approach to activism and wrote these into a shared doc. We agreed that mutual accountability is one transformative aspect of the circle.
We are also considering how practice might support the group’s holding questions about our internal organizing processes, like group decisions and shaping group actions from the heart, as a part of an open question about determining what effective organizing is.Contacts: Jennifer Karius at jenkarius [at] gmail [dot] com
Dawn Lehman at dllehman [at] yahoo [dot] com
Meet BCC Pittsburgh
We have met as a beloved community circle for 6 months, recently losing one member since moving into our 6-month commitment stage while bringing in a new member. Our convergence came from one person’s reading about the BCC initiative at Blue Cliff. Further our local sangha was encouraged to email to the local Arise email listserve where two of us found each other. We partner in pairs in our local sangha. One of our circle members came from partnering and one came from meeting each other at a day of mindfulness retreat. The circle is based on our mutual interest in the triad of: getting to know each other in a supportive environment, practicing together, and becoming more active. We aim towards simultaneous transformation of our inner and outer worlds.
Through serendipity we recently mutually decided that the coming election was the most important priority for action together. Previously, through a couple discussions we decided to accept the stage we are at as a group and focus on supporting each other personally and in our unique forms of activism. We began a process of listing issue areas dear to us, holding out the possibility of each ranking this compilation.
