How can we realize our collective potential for social change? Maybe we need to think about potential not as a latent or unrealized quality or capacity, but as an action and a practice.
Yes, what we do in the moment contributes to the next moment - the potential, becoming. Whether we are observing and listening, or moving beyond that into some other action. Hard to know, what the outcome will be, but we need to realize that what we do matters more than we know! (As your book reminds us in so many ways.)
At this moment, I hope you are safe, knowing you were just recently in Sarasota, not know if you are still there. It is scary, seeing the power that these hurricanes unleash. Made more real in our awareness, at a distance, when we know people in their path. Sending care.
I appreciate how you said…”…the heart of quantum social change…is grounded in a recognition of our intra-connected nature and the power of our entangled, fractal-like agency.” Monica Sharma reminds us that every person has this inner power, and that it goes by many names: full potential, self-awareness, inner capacity, wisdom, and oneness. To me, oneness articulates this space beautifully. Yet Monica is quick to point out that “Essentially, this space is wordless. It is a way of being.”
In my experience these kinds of realizations can be a powerful foundation to shift IN to while we consider the potentiality of a collective of quantum buddhas. Ever since you posed this possibility, i have been contemplating how a collective of buddhas would look sound and BE powerful together if we can do more to treat Mother Earth and her collapsing ecosystems as if they MATTER more than WE have been doing. I also trust what Barbara Esterlin says about how we ALL have agency and can leverage our strengths together to move through any collective despair about our losses - when we remember to be engaged with Self and wisely resource our nervous systems. My most inspirational moments in advocating for the planet is when my tiny little seaside community rallied on behalf of our disappearing green belts watersheds and sacred forest land with local artists so called environmentalists and the humans who love our natural world. I found this not to be a thing we only talked about doing but we made it a practice to engage on a daily basis with the stunning beauty of the earth the ocean the mountains and the sky. How could we not fall in love and do everything we can to protect her from our own most voracious tendencies? I still feel angst over the daily invasion of plastic yet i continue to fuel my self with others who are not over activated crusaders but neighbors, sisters brothers who write letters to the editor make phone calls to the city council members our mayor our senator and our governor stand in protest over exploiters and land grabbers, paint sidewalks and walls with murals and mosaics. Maybe this is the meaning of sanskrit word “bhakti” - a dedicated practice in action within an ever expanding community of quantum buddhas 💕🙂i can say i don’t know for sure but am happy to continue the inquiry to see what evolves. Like you said, karen…”If our way of being is our potential to make a difference in the world, I/we still have to actualize it.” Yes, i do believe This DOES involve transforming systems and cultures across scales, and recognizing when we are doing just that - on a scale that has tremendous potentiality for our Mother Earth to reset or even reverse a downward trajectory. So Lets go quantum you creatives
Karen. I'm finding this one quite provocative, and evocative of some ideas/reflections I worked up about 10 years ago, around 'What's in a Pause?' (see link below). I was interested in the 'transformation potential' - contemplating beyond the realm of causation, into the realm of pausation - and reaching beyond 'cause-effect' into the territory of 'pause-potential'. I'm now thinking that I should revisit this in the context of your quantum social change ideas... curious if you see any intersections (or entanglements?!). Your 'potentialization' is intriguing - especially in the context of agency and (self-)actualization, and becoming... possibility-work par excellence.
Yes, what we do in the moment contributes to the next moment - the potential, becoming. Whether we are observing and listening, or moving beyond that into some other action. Hard to know, what the outcome will be, but we need to realize that what we do matters more than we know! (As your book reminds us in so many ways.)
At this moment, I hope you are safe, knowing you were just recently in Sarasota, not know if you are still there. It is scary, seeing the power that these hurricanes unleash. Made more real in our awareness, at a distance, when we know people in their path. Sending care.
I appreciate how you said…”…the heart of quantum social change…is grounded in a recognition of our intra-connected nature and the power of our entangled, fractal-like agency.” Monica Sharma reminds us that every person has this inner power, and that it goes by many names: full potential, self-awareness, inner capacity, wisdom, and oneness. To me, oneness articulates this space beautifully. Yet Monica is quick to point out that “Essentially, this space is wordless. It is a way of being.”
In my experience these kinds of realizations can be a powerful foundation to shift IN to while we consider the potentiality of a collective of quantum buddhas. Ever since you posed this possibility, i have been contemplating how a collective of buddhas would look sound and BE powerful together if we can do more to treat Mother Earth and her collapsing ecosystems as if they MATTER more than WE have been doing. I also trust what Barbara Esterlin says about how we ALL have agency and can leverage our strengths together to move through any collective despair about our losses - when we remember to be engaged with Self and wisely resource our nervous systems. My most inspirational moments in advocating for the planet is when my tiny little seaside community rallied on behalf of our disappearing green belts watersheds and sacred forest land with local artists so called environmentalists and the humans who love our natural world. I found this not to be a thing we only talked about doing but we made it a practice to engage on a daily basis with the stunning beauty of the earth the ocean the mountains and the sky. How could we not fall in love and do everything we can to protect her from our own most voracious tendencies? I still feel angst over the daily invasion of plastic yet i continue to fuel my self with others who are not over activated crusaders but neighbors, sisters brothers who write letters to the editor make phone calls to the city council members our mayor our senator and our governor stand in protest over exploiters and land grabbers, paint sidewalks and walls with murals and mosaics. Maybe this is the meaning of sanskrit word “bhakti” - a dedicated practice in action within an ever expanding community of quantum buddhas 💕🙂i can say i don’t know for sure but am happy to continue the inquiry to see what evolves. Like you said, karen…”If our way of being is our potential to make a difference in the world, I/we still have to actualize it.” Yes, i do believe This DOES involve transforming systems and cultures across scales, and recognizing when we are doing just that - on a scale that has tremendous potentiality for our Mother Earth to reset or even reverse a downward trajectory. So Lets go quantum you creatives
Karen. I'm finding this one quite provocative, and evocative of some ideas/reflections I worked up about 10 years ago, around 'What's in a Pause?' (see link below). I was interested in the 'transformation potential' - contemplating beyond the realm of causation, into the realm of pausation - and reaching beyond 'cause-effect' into the territory of 'pause-potential'. I'm now thinking that I should revisit this in the context of your quantum social change ideas... curious if you see any intersections (or entanglements?!). Your 'potentialization' is intriguing - especially in the context of agency and (self-)actualization, and becoming... possibility-work par excellence.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380817957_What's_in_a_Pause_Transformation_Potential_Evolving_what_you_profess_-_in_the_moment