NEWS

Pianoscapes Update:
The Dali Lama Peace Summit-
Vancouver BC

 

I think in the past, maybe, different sectors carried on more or less independently. Now today…everything is interdependent, interrelated. That's the reality. Under these circumstances, it falls on us to work together. - His Holiness The Dali Lama

Dear Colleagues

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Connecting for Change 2009 The Dali Lama Peace Summit - Vancouver BC

In this update I spotlight a learning journey that a group of one hundred and twenty of us embarked on in Vancouver at the Peace Summit with His Holiness the Dali Lama a few weeks ago.

As with all journeys of the imagination this one began by sitting together in silence. Then as the music started the sun came out from behind the clouds and light poured through the great stain glass windows of Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Vancouver - and the conversation began.

This was the opening to Connecting for Change 2009 -a core program in the Vancouver BC Dali Lama Center for Peace and Education and an integral part of the Vancouver Dali Lama Peace Summit Nobel Laureates in Dialogue event this past September.

Following the path of the perennial learning journey from the call - through the adventure - to the return - Connecting for Change brought together business, social and philanthropic leaders to share experiences and initiate dialogue in a spirit of compassion, collaboration and innovation.

As the group formed in café conversation tables of four the first afternoon they were invited to reflect - with music to quiet and focus their minds - on the story of an initiative or project that they felt most passionate about - something that was engaging their head, their heart and their hands.

From these stories they explored the gifts and contributions they brought to the gathering that may benefit the group as a whole.

With their passions and gifts posted on hexagons along the walls - they group circulated around the room and came to know one other in a unique and deeply personal way -

As I played I felt a deepening sense of presence in the room as the group absorbed the words beautifully crafted on the hexagons - like evocative drawings on a cave wall - each word was invitation for others to sense the subtle patterns of meaning and connection among the words that connected us all.

The experience of the first afternoon brought to mind the words of German American Philosopher Hannah Arendt who once observed that what accounted for the incredible development of gift and genius in Athens was precisely this kind of process- that from the beginning to the end - the foremost aim was to come to know one another through our gifts and passions so as to make the extraordinary an ordinary occurrence in every day life.

For Arendt the enduring power of this genius came from the polis - what we now know as the public space or commons - and it was the felt life of the commons that was emerging in the formative sharing of gifts that first afternoon.

"It was the function of the commons over the ages to make a home for magnifying the spirit of the other, of letting no deed or word be offered without witness. To act in this way was to ensure that those who participated were subject to everlasting remembrance by those whose lives they had touched."
( Hannah Arendt The Human Condition 1958 p. 197)

And this was the journey we embarked on together through the three days. To come to know one another through our gifts and across our differences, to bring together a group that may not meet in any other way and to fulfill His Holiness the Dali Lama's invitation to us to develop a warm heart, cultivate compassion and work for peace for oneself and others in the world.

The Connecting for Change conversations were convened and hosted by Charles Holmes, Education Director for the Dali Lama Center and guided by a small group of widely recognized authors and change leaders including Peter Block, Juanita Brown, Dawna Markova, Peter Senge and Margaret Wheatley. Other guests for the Peace Summit included Eckart Tolle, the Blue Man Group, Mathieu Ricard, Dr. Mpho Tutu on behalf of her father Bishop Desmond Tutu and many others.

In addition to creating music to set the tone and magic for the journey, I also presented stories and reflections on the relationship between art and leadership and facilitated an interest session on art and social change.

If you would like to learn more about how you may become engaged with Connecting for Change please visit www.connectingforchange.ca

Upcoming Events

November 11 to 14
Prague CZ International Leadership Association
Leadership for Transformation

The Vocation and Artistry of Leadership Through Poetry Metaphor and Story

November 22 to 27
Banff Alberta The Banff Leadership Development
Leading the Innovative Organization

Upcoming Spotlights

- Prague CZ International Leadership Association Conference: Transforming Leadership - November 2009 The Vocation and Artistry of Leadership Through Metaphor, Poetry and Story.

Metaphors, stories and poems offer a unique and necessary window into our own felt life -words form on our tongue and we discover ourselves saying things we did not expect to hear. Through our subjective experience anyone can be that window into the world, speaking from an inner knowing they did not know they knew.

- Keith Jarrett 's new CD paris London Testament - Solo
  Piano and the Art of Improvisation

A renowned improvisational artist reminds us not to let go of the thread and reflects on what it means to learn to create in the moment.

Reflections: Truro Nova Scotia Celebrating Communities - Growing Together Conference, September 2009: A community conversation on Leadership and the Power of Place.

Just as landscape defines character, culture springs from a spirit of place
Wade Davis The Wayfinders House of Anansi 2009

Thank you everyone!

Michael
michael.jones@pianoscapes.com