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Kate Johnson – Buddhist Peace Fellowship – What’s My Role in the Revolution?

Should I run for office? Or meditate in a cave for 12 years? Or start a community farm? Or invest in outer space exploration so we have someplace to live when the planet dies? Should I quit my job and become a civil rights attorney … or a full time activist?

Do any of these thoughts sound familiar? If so, it might be time to revisit your role in the revolution.

A recipe for exploring your right role.

You’ll receive delicious interviews with brilliant organizers and teachers, each with a contemplation or a practice you can savor on your own time. You will get a set of tips to take these materials from the computer to design them into your own schedule for a day of practice and reflection, right in the middle of your busy, messy, beautiful and precious life.

Note: This will not be a day stuck at your computer

Black lesbian feminist writer Audre Lorde famously said:

The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allows us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.

Truth. And, this might leave you wondering, what are the new tools? How can I combine my spiritual life with social justice to develop genuinely liberatory solutions?

At Buddhist Peace Fellowship, we’ve been exploring these questions through BLOCK | BUILD | BE, a framework describing the essential qualities for true social and spiritual transformation.

Block: resisting harm and injustice

Build: cultivating relationships, communities, and new structures

Be: contemplative practices for resilience and liberation

There is no single correct role to play— contrary to the judgmental mindset we’ve inherited from capitalism. It takes many of us— all of us!— in all of our multi-dimensionality, to achieve collective liberation.

Just as ecosystems thrive on diversity of life forms, so do our social movements require multiple roles. What’s your role??

Strengthen Your Practice and Activism

What does it take to enact true transformation of the world around us? We’ll be joined by special guest speakers talking about:

• How to do what you do best, and trusting that other needs will be met.
• Letting go of doing everything, and inviting others to join the collective effort.
• Being less judgemental and more collaborative with those who focus on a different role.
• Interweaving spiritual practice with community building and direct action.
• Examples of how leaders sustain themselves in social and environmental movements.
• How to be more effective AND less burned out by balancing Block, Build, and Be in your life.