Small Hall of Study and Reflection - Hong Kong

Newsletter of Universal Humanism Hong Kong, China Number 36 - January, 2012

2012-01-28T19:31:00.000-09:00

Newsletter of Universal Humanism
Hong Kong, China
Number 36 - January, 2012
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Page 1 - EDITORIAL
Page 2 - The Occupy Movement
Page 4 - How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’
Page 6 - Links to recent Asia and Iran articles on Pressenza
Page 7 - Parks of Study and Reflection
Page 7 - Contact information

Editorial,
The most exciting happenings nowadays are those activities related to the Occupy movement. The mainstream media still does not get it, nor the general population, but the latter is understandably at a loss simply because of its own ‘as usual’ inertia, plus the unmitigated flood of data (which does not reach the standard of organisation to be classed as information) that implodes upon them (us) from all sides - radio, TV, newspapers, mobile devices of every kind. See the first writing below for a scant overview of Occupy.
    How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’ is a writing by George Lakey which is directly relevant to the Occupy movement in showing what can be done and how it was done in the isolation of those earlier days...
    The scariest possibility on the near horizon is the West threats to Iran. This issue is subject of another article, see below on the Pressenza links - money is seen to be at the root of all (modern) evil - in this case the US$.
Peace, Force and Joy - on All Humans Day - 29 January, 2012
Tony

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World without Wars and Violence (WwW)

http://www.worldwithoutwars.org/

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The Occupy Movement
    It’s not just camping out under the HSBC building in Central Hong Kong, though that is a great manifestation and reference, declaring that indeed Hong Kong is an international city, as is London and New York, to mention two capitals with active occupancy.
    We don’t have the mass participation here in Hong Kong because the situation is not dire, indeed, brinking mainland China, Hong Kong is in good nick and nothing like the economically perilous state of the USA or the economic mess of the Eurozone. There are few obvious reasons for the people, even for the youth, to be on the streets. But there are reasons!
    The pillars of the present corporate-led Capitalist-Materialistic system are those keeping the whole thing going, those dependant upon its continuation and success. The fully employed, the ‘owners’ of all those subsidiary firms under the Big 50 (or so) major firms which control everything and those firms largely from the USA, with a major exception of Barclays Bank, UK.
    Of course it’s the disenfranchised, the marginalised, that are the dissidents of that system because they are the casualties. The young people who are camped out are from the student body and are in touch with the international Occupy movement, not just over the Internet, but by way of having that like ‘disposition of the times’. Similar to starlings in migration where all move as one as if some higher connection was linking their flight.
    This is why the more obvious manifestations are in the street arts and music because as a more intuitive function of mind, those human features are ‘in the van’, heralding and foretelling events, as is indie-cinema, documentaries of all kinds and live interviews with ‘oddballs’.
    The employed are all feeling the pain in their situations of overwork. Yes they get the money but see how much they have to spend to maintain that style and why not throw it away on silly things when there is no ‘time’ - a relative term - to spend intelligently, wisely. Like money, life’s just a throwaway thing,
    People sacrifice themselves to the System, that’s why ‘we’ give it a capital s - it’s not just a system, a useful organisation or network, no, it’s The System. The end and the means. Being part of the System generates an internal fear because, from the inside there is nothing else, it’s a curtailed view, it’s a hypnosis, it’s a crystalisation of the mind, you get stuck there and there is no possibility of any thought of freedom - in a life without the System. Freedom seems something like swimming in an ocean with miles of deep blue sea underneath one’s paltry body that floats above those immense depths... where giant fish lurk!
    Even the few in the System that do useful work, as in the sciences, find their research used in ways not considered at the outset of the task. Even Mr Einstein could not stop his work on nuclear physics being incorporated into the atomic bomb, much to his disheartenment.
    It’s not that the Occupy movement expects masses of people to down tools and pens and come acamping, rather what is sought is that more and more people start to rethink everything, start to question behaviours in their particular situations, arm themselves with knowledge, with more reasonable expectations, thereby demanding that themselves and their peers be treated with some respect.
    When old Joe or young rebellious Joe gets the boot, owing to the competitive nature of the office or shop floor, there is little sympathy because everyone is hanging onto their place, what with the mortgage, the negative credit, the kids education, the insurance policies that have to be paid for.... all those things, all that are falsely (and automatically) imposed by the System.
    It’s the System and its anti-values that has poisened the term Socialism - let’s not look at the red herring of failed Communism - besides the anti-socialist antics of the psuedo-socialists, the left-wing that could see no other way than via totalitarianism and violence... Communism has never been properly done! To late now.
    Social welfare itself has become a no-no as people abuse that possibility but they do that because they were and are victims of the System which depends on ‘those that rise into it’s ranks and that hold all others in jeopardy as an example of where you could be if you do not toe the line’.
    What the Occupiers are saying is, there is another way of organising how our lives are managed by our governments, one where privatisation is minimal because, although it is well proved that privately owned firms are better at what they are doing than government run departments, fact is, they have taken over our lives and now we are not seen a human beings with human needs and expectations - we are human resources and a market place.
    In a human system there will be limits on the working hours needed to bring an economy into the home; there will be time to be with whomever one chooses to be with among family and friends or even read a book; there will be health care without worry over payments because the business side of medicine will be removed; likewise with schooling right up to higher education; there will be regular payments for the elderly and the disabled so no need to beg, take demeaning jobs or sleep in cages; speculation will be taken out of the property market and definitely out of the commodities and stocks and shares market impacting food prices.
    Shareholders will no longer be allowed to extract excessive profits from firms, rather those profits will go back into the firm as investment into conditions and machinery to enhance the productive means and products.
    This is the revolution proposed and the way is by non-violence. When the indigenous president of Bolivia came into power, as different from the European stock estate owners of before, these are the kind of measures that were implemented and it took time despite that Evo Morales tried to hurry things up. It was quite different from the mess of the Russian revolution of 1917 with its violence and class vengeance, and that of China from the time when Mao took over, though it is said that in the first days there was a warm disposition displayed by Mao’s soldiers.
    While mainstream worldwide politics continue in the old mould with the violent agendas of one group facing off against all comers, on the other side of the fence, we are asking for such as wage differentials to be massively re-aligned - why should a boss get 400 times the salary of an ordinary worker? Also, with us the terms human rights, participation, co-operatives, reciprocity, and active non-violence are coming into play.
    Despite huge and organised opposition by the power holders of today, the Occupiers are making progress though it is an underground process, not underground by intention but because the activities are forced underground as the standard channels are closed off; an alternative media is one result
    The straight media, controlled completely by vested interests, plays down or ignores and anyway is not interested in what the Occupy movement intends. The politicians joke about the activists, even the so-called democrats. The business people stop and shout “get a job’ to the HSBC campers - completely unaware of what the Occupy movement is trying to tell them - like the USA, they too are on a slippery slope!
    But it’s OK. There are worthwhile repercussions off-site and the all-important dialog is being initiated and continued and new links established which are providing that vital solidarity among the people directly involved in the Occupy movement and the ever increasing circle of friends that acts as a buffer against the heavy arm of the System.
    The Occupy message is penetrating and the media will not remain immune.

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From: Waging Nonviolence
How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’
by George Lakey
    While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different. [A march in Ådalen, Sweden, in 1931.] A march in Ådalen, Sweden, in 1931.
    Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t find oil, but that didn’t stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls “an enviable standard of living.”
    Neither country is a utopia, as readers of the crime novels by Stieg Larsson, Kurt Wallender and Jo Nesbro will know. Critical left-wing authors such as these try to push Sweden and Norway to continue on the path toward more fully just societies. However, as an American activist who first encountered Norway as a student in 1959 and learned some of its language and culture, the achievements I found amazed me. I remember, for example, bicycling for hours through a small industrial city, looking in vain for substandard housing. Sometimes resisting the evidence of my eyes, I made up stories that “accounted for” the differences I saw: “small country,” “homogeneous,” “a value consensus.” I finally gave up imposing my frameworks on these countries and learned the real reason: their own histories.
    Then I began to learn that the Swedes and Norwegians paid a price for their standards of living through nonviolent struggle. There was a time when Scandinavian workers didn’t expect that the electoral arena could deliver the change they believed in. They realized that, with the 1 percent in charge, electoral “democracy” was stacked against them, so nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change.
    In both countries, the troops were called out to defend the 1 percent; people died. Award-winning Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg told the Swedish story vividly in Ådalen 31, which depicts the strikers killed in 1931 and the sparking of a nationwide general strike. (You can read more about this case in an entry by Max Rennebohm in the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)
    The Norwegians had a harder time organizing a cohesive people’s movement because Norway’s small population—about three million—was spread out over a territory the size of Britain. People were divided by mountains and fjords, and they spoke regional dialects in isolated valleys. In the nineteenth century, Norway was ruled by Denmark and then by Sweden; in the context of Europe Norwegians were the “country rubes,” of little consequence. Not until 1905 did Norway finally become independent.
    When workers formed unions in the early 1900s, they generally turned to Marxism, organizing for revolution as well as immediate gains. They were overjoyed by the overthrow of the czar in Russia, and the Norwegian Labor Party joined the Communist International organized by Lenin. Labor didn’t stay long, however. One way in which most Norwegians parted ways with Leninist strategy was on the role of violence: Norwegians wanted to win their revolution through collective nonviolent struggle, along with establishing co-ops and using the electoral arena.
    In the 1920s strikes increased in intensity. The town of Hammerfest formed a commune in 1921, led by workers councils; the army intervened to crush it. The workers’ response verged toward a national general strike. The employers, backed by the state, beat back that strike, but workers erupted again in the ironworkers’ strike of 1923–24.
    The Norwegian 1 percent decided not to rely simply on the army; in 1926 they formed a social movement called the Patriotic League, recruiting mainly from the middle class. By the 1930s, the League included as many as 100,000 people for armed protection of strike breakers—this in a country of only 3 million!
    The Labor Party, in the meantime, opened its membership to anyone, whether or not in a unionized workplace. Middle-class Marxists and some reformers joined the party. Many rural farm workers joined the Labor Party, as well as some small landholders. Labor leadership understood that in a protracted struggle, constant outreach and organizing was needed to a nonviolent campaign. In the midst of the growing polarization, Norway’s workers launched another wave of strikes and boycotts in 1928.
    The Depression hit bottom in 1931. More people were jobless there than in any other Nordic country. Unlike in the U.S., the Norwegian union movement kept the people thrown out of work as members, even though they couldn’t pay dues. This decision paid off in mass mobilizations. When the employers’ federation locked employees out of the factories to try to force a reduction of wages, the workers fought back with massive demonstrations.
    Many people then found that their mortgages were in jeopardy. (Sound familiar?) The Depression continued, and farmers were unable to keep up payment on their debts. As turbulence hit the rural sector, crowds gathered nonviolently to prevent the eviction of families from their farms. The Agrarian Party, which included larger farmers and had previously been allied with the Conservative Party, began to distance itself from the 1 percent; some could see that the ability of the few to rule the many was in doubt.
    By 1935, Norway was on the brink. The Conservative-led government was losing legitimacy daily; the 1 percent became increasingly desperate as militancy grew among workers and farmers. A complete overthrow might be just a couple years away, radical workers thought. However, the misery of the poor became more urgent daily, and the Labor Party felt increasing pressure from its members to alleviate their suffering, which it could do only if it took charge of the government in a compromise agreement with the other side.
    This it did. In a compromise that allowed owners to retain the right to own and manage their firms, Labor in 1935 took the reins of government in coalition with the Agrarian Party. They expanded the economy and started public works projects to head toward a policy of full employment that became the keystone of Norwegian economic policy. Labor’s success and the continued militancy of workers enabled steady inroads against the privileges of the 1 percent, to the point that majority ownership of all large firms was taken by the public interest. (There is an entry on this case as well at the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)
    The 1 percent thereby lost its historic power to dominate the economy and society. Not until three decades later could the Conservatives return to a governing coalition, having by then accepted the new rules of the game, including a high degree of public ownership of the means of production, extremely progressive taxation, strong business regulation for the public good and the virtual abolition of poverty. When Conservatives eventually tried a fling with neoliberal policies, the economy generated a bubble and headed for disaster. (Sound familiar?)
    Labor stepped in, seized the three largest banks, fired the top management, left the stockholders without a dime and refused to bail out any of the smaller banks. The well-purged Norwegian financial sector was not one of those countries that lurched into crisis in 2008; carefully regulated and much of it publicly owned, the sector was solid.
    Although Norwegians may not tell you about this the first time you meet them, the fact remains that their society’s high level of freedom and broadly-shared prosperity began when workers and farmers, along with middle class allies, waged a nonviolent struggle that empowered the people to govern for the common good.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

George Lakey is Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College and a Quaker. He has led 1,500 workshops on five continents and led activist projects on local, national, and international levels. Among many other books and articles, he is author of “Strategizing for a Living Revolution” in David Solnit’s book Globalize Liberation (City Lights, 2004). His first arrest was for a civil rights sit-in and most recent was with Earth Quaker Action Team while protesting mountain top removal coal mining.

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new - 2012
Hong Kong Gardening - Naturally
By Tony Henderson
eBook on CD - HK$50 or US$6

http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen/hkgarden.htm

Pressenza International Press Agency
http://world.pressenza.org

The myth of 'isolated' Iran
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/the-myth-of-xisolatedx-iran

Nepal - World unity for peace march
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/nepal-world-unity-for-peace-march - Nepal, peace march.

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Banahaw Park
...of Study and Reflection

Parks of Study and Reflection are places:
- of self-transformation
- of inspiration
- of connecting with others
- of connecting with the Profound.

They are an expression of the new spirit awakening in the hearts of people who search to go beyond religious, cultural and ethnic differences to the profound meaning of our common humanity. They are spaces dedicated to study and self-knowledge, to nonviolence as a way of action, and to reflection on life's fundamental questions.
Interested? Local group ‘still’ in formation, get in touch with the Hong Kong contact: Tony - tonyhen1 @ gmail.com

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

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Contact:
Material from this newsletter may be freely reprinted with this attribution: Source: The Humanist Newsletter - Asia-Pacific - or the bylined writer.
TONY HENDERSON E-mail: tonyhen1 @ gmail.com
    Web: http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen/

Notes from a Talk by Silo in Corfu Oct. 31, 1975

2011-12-25T11:12:00.000-09:00

Friends,
These notes are not a direct translation of Silo's talk. Rather they are an attempt to present a synthesis of this talk that I did for myself. I am sharing it at the request of my friends, so this is in no way an official document. It is more like a story of what was said in Corfu.
Kayse, USA

Notes from a Talk by Silo in Corfu Oct. 31, 1975

on Descriptive Psychology and the Pure Form

Time and information are the same for us. When things are entertaining, time seems short, its very relative to the information that the consciousness is working with, more data, more time, less data, like deep sleep, and time disappears.

The organization of time is very important for the consciousness. Our concept of time configures our ideology, like theories of reincarnation, or theories of time as nonexistent. Like St. Augustine, we distinguish between the experience of time and the thinking of time. Like Plato and his shadows, we have a sensation of time passing.

When we detain experience to think about and examine it, we are outside time. Here is the idea of abstracting experience in order to get to what is essential within it. The allegorical, the associative corresponds more to the experience of time passing. It’s the difference between symbolic and allegorical experience. The concept of time is not time, so we see how these two forms are almost diametrically opposed to one another.

The mind wants to preserve itself. The mind encounters time elapsing, it encounters things changing, itself changing, and it tries to maintain itself, to maintain the future. It is not interested in disintegration, to be lost or to disappear or to die, so the mind is very interested in the elapsing of time.

It is easy to see that the problem of religion is connected to our finiteness. It pertains to humans and goes up from there, since animals, plants, and stones are not as concerned with their loss of the future, and the problem of their disintegration. Primitive religions didn't deal as much with the structure of time as the fact that this machine was going to stop working, break down, and fall apart.

It is not so strange to discover in the different theories of the future, the idea of remembrance, of re encountering the past. The idea that the spirit, the mind, the soul, begins in one moment, grows, completes a process and returns to that same point. The eternal return. So we see in myths this eternal return, this circular process of return, circular time.

There is this guy who says that everything is transitory and evolving, while he also says that its all circular and it returns to where it began, and then the mind explodes. Time as progression as opposed to time returning over itself has created this dialectic which, at times, has entered the profane world. Well, the consciousness is always worried about these things, especially if someone in the family dies.

With the abstract via we see the ability to think without images, without representations. This may be more difficult for some people, but this form of thinking without objects leads to the possible non representable forms which the consciousness searches for to totally complete itself. It is here where we find the basis for those great religious movements throughout history. We find the root of religious thought here in the problems of our finiteness, of dissolution and disappearance, and our search for an object that totally completes the consciousness and stops the passage of time with this completion.

We don't find this totalizing object, but we do find the tension of the search in the consciousness. Like Buddha saw, the problem of faith was not in the effort of the consciousness to complete itself in God, but rather the problem was precisely in the search of the consciousness, the act launched toward an object that completes it.

We see how the mind goes towards objects in the world and at times it is provisionally completed, but ultimately frustrated because the object wears out and the consciousness is no longer satisfied. The consciousness searches for pleasure, but it can not detain itself in it, and is therefore enchained to the cycle of pleasure and pain. Then Buddha said, “What can we do about this wheel of suffering?” He said we must eliminate pleasure.

What's it like for the mind to not search for pleasure? It's a problem.

Well he proposed the technique of dis attachment, and in this proposal we find many occult groups, and religions masking this same technique in different ways. We can see that what Buddha proposed is basically a psychology, not a religion. This unsticking of the consciousness from the object, using the abstractive via to surpass those mechanisms, transcending the mechanisms in order for the consciousness to liberate itself. The mind unsticks itself from itself, achieving another level of being.

Buddha was not only proposing the liberation from the senses, but also from the memories of one's life. Not only the objects that are in front of my eyes and senses, but of everything ever remembered. Those images that appear when I try to quiet my senses, because they also maintain the wheel of pleasure and pain.

Look how interesting it is, when people imagine eternity, they do it by projecting their profane consciousness, this same flat consciousness for all eternity!

We are talking about descriptive psychology. Let's go to where we see some solutions. I am attached to images so I get rid of them. I am attached to the pleasure of my memories so I get rid of my memory. We are talking about the whole structure of the consciousness and how it searches for a totalizing object of response, for God, in order to achieve happiness. The consciousness needs to get past the provisory objects of its search to arrive at total completion, where its transpiring ends, and it completes itself.

Buddha proposed that this could be accomplished by eliminating everything, by discarding the senses and the memory. So we have these guys imitating vegetables, sitting for hours, days, in complete silent meditation in order to eliminate all information from arriving to their consciousness. By doing this they believe they have eliminated time, since we know that time and information are the same, they think time no longer exists.

We have to go through all of descriptive psychology to get past the provisory objects of desire that are inside the wheel of pleasure and pain, to see how the consciousness is driven by a tendency towards finding an object that totally completes its search. This is not just a fugue from reality. The search for a divinity, for heaven, this mystical search, or search for transcendence is a radical necessity of the whole structure of the consciousness to be complete within itself.

We should not be so infantile as to think we have to solve this problem, like the paradox of the card that says on one side,” The statement on the other side of this card is false.”, while on the other side it says,” This statement is true.” Like this card, things are not resolved at this same level of language.

This is the last point, the tendency of the psychic apparatus towards integration of an object that detains it and allows it to conserve its structure eternally.

small gathering of friends of Mui Wo Community of the Message 22 December, 2011

2011-12-16T20:04:00.004-09:00

small gathering of friends of the Mui Wo Community of the Message 22 December, 2011

There is to be an evening gathering of the Mui Wo Community of the Message, 22 December, 2011. Anyone interested phone Tony on 90487639 or email tonyhen1@gmail.com

PFJ

Tony

Parks of Study and Reflection - Banahaw (Philippines) - newsletter number six, September, 2011

2011-10-15T21:48:00.000-08:00

Parks of Study and Reflection
- Banahaw (Philippines)
- newsletter number six, September, 2011
Mabuhay everyone,
    Welcome to our sixth newsletter for friends of, Parks of Study and Reflection - Banahaw.
    We recently held our School of Silo formal meeting, 24 and 25 September. The huge storm that swamped lower Manila had us cautioned into not using the Park on this instance. Other venues were quickly sorted out.
    The general programme is presented below for other’s information but of course it’s the content and camaraderie that counts and that cannot be reproduced here.
    Main aims at the moment are to continue fixing what needs fixing at the Park and to continue to install the ‘elements’ - the items that go to make a classic Park as originally devised with a Fountain next on the list. The list includes Centre of Studies building and Meditation Hall, as the major installations, but a workshop space is also planned for such as the Fire Craft practices.
    In answer to a friend’s repeated queries on what the Parks are about I am reminded of something that was said of the Movement itself from ages ago and that is - unless you are part of the Movement you will never understand it... Despite that, we present here comments exchanged between friends overseas on their experiences with the Parks so those friends in a looser connection will have to just do their best.
Your editor for today
Tony
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Hi Everyone
I came across a very nice long interview of Silo in La Reja that has English sub-titles as well as other languages. If you read Spanish, you might want to see the sub-titles in Spanish if you can't understand the words so clearly. Silo speaks about many different things such as personal change, violence, the Humanist Party, The Message, transcendence, how he would define himself, etc.
It was done by an Argentine TV station in 2006 and the reporter is very amiable with him. I highly recommend it and I think it also might be good for newer people to see him in such a relaxed environment of the Park, etc.
I had never seen this interview, nor have I heard of it so I am glad I happened to come across this jewel.
hugs
Nicole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HdZusxlG5w&feature=colike

September 24 & 25, 2011: Meeting of School Masters of Parke Banahaw
    Day One Saturday: SLV Barangay
12:45 pm Arrival
1:00   Service
1:20 Reading of two day agenda
1:30 - 2:30 Individual Reflection
2:30 - 3:45 Group Interchange regarding one's personal situation in relation with the Works and School (queries or points where sharing experiences is needed).    We can talk about our activities that relate and of our personal disposition, resistances, tendencies and /or discoveries.
3:45 - coffee break/snacks
4:00 - 5:00 Ceremony of Well Being and discuss about Style of Life, significant registers in the Discipline, configuration for Ascesis, works of Ascesis and its relation to daily life and our activities, interchange points of view.
5:00 - 6:00 What's happening in other Parks, we can share what we know. We share our aspirations for Parke Banahaw, how things are at present, how we see it and would like it to be.
Closing with an Asking
Camaraderie: dinner in a restaurant keeping in theme by chatting about the School, Parks, etc.

Day Two Sunday: Alabang Hills

8:45 am Arrival
9:00 Service
9:30 Individual Reflection, note making etc.
10:00 Interchange on yesterday's information/experiences with evaluation
11:00 Making of plans for future as individuals regarding Works, Activities and the School.
11.30 - 12:30 Making of plans by the whole for Parke Banahaw from the point of view of irradiation (The Message, Fire Craft and/or Organisms, etc.)
12:30 Lunch
1.30 Resume interchange about what each one needs to do.
2:30 Park Commission meeting.
5:00 Closing Ceremony with an Asking
6:00 /ends...

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     Some interesting points that I reflected on from an earlier meeting:
     " One starts to see other people from profundity....listen to other people in their profundity, for this we have to be connected with our interiority. If I connect with this experience, problems are seen in a different way"
     "Parity, diversity and affection. Affection as central in making harmony ...the register of Affection as what allows one to enter in the best of oneself in the moment of relating to each other...
Karina
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Hi Karina,
The way I look at it, that's the Ascesis - letting go of everything from before and launching oneself onto the platform of life - no more studies necessarily... (well, you know what I mean...) The intuition as imperative... Doing things...
Hug
Tony

Hi all,
Maybe we can have a personal "situationer" or "current placement" as an introduction (or a prelude) to any formal discussions on what we need to do over the next 6 months after September, 2011.
Warm hugs to all!
Osbi
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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SCHOOL MEETING
Among Members of the School of Parke Banahaw
Date: September 22-23, 2011
Present: Tony Henderson, Gemma Suzara, Boldy Tapales, Karina Santillan, Osbi Santillan, Boy Guttierrez.
    The second formal meeting of the School was held in Makati and Alabang respectively, instead of in the Park due to an impending storm. Highlights of the meeting as follows.

Day One Saturday: SLV Barangay
Service
    The School Meeting opened with a Service to set a good tone for the whole group. As part of the Service Ceremony was a short reflection from the Book, The Message of Silo Chapter x, Evidence of the Meaning, which reads:
    " The real importance of an awakened life became evident to me.
    The real importance of eliminating internal contradictions convinced me.
    The real importance of mastering the Force in order to achieve unity and continuity filled me with joyful meaning."
    The experience helped each one to get into a mental ambit for the meeting.
Reading of two day agenda:
Group Interchange regarding one's personal situation in relation with the Works and School (queries or points where sharing experiences is needed).    Talk about our activities that relate and of our personal disposition, resistances, tendencies and /or discoveries.
A freewheeling discussion with everyone sharing their personal situations, starting off with a discussion on Pain, since a number of Members were experiencing physical pain. Notably, a comment on how we could incorporate even a situation of pain in our personal works. (i.e. Karina, since she is experiencing back pain, is using it to pay more attention to her posture, Osbi to his breathing due to his asthma and respiratory problems).
Osbi noted that in his case, he observed a strong emotional reaction to situations (not intellectual) which was related to his ego or I.
Gemma shared that she wants to put strong intentionality on surpassing her limits instead of a tendency to escape from them.
The question of: Do I really want to evolve? Not just as an intellectual thing but as a strong desire and with fitting was raised.
Boldy mentioned the importance of trying to be kind and compassionate in daily life, paying attention to the simple things.
With a clear purpose, there would be more focus and would help in maintaining the work. (Many noticed that being able to maintain activities and work was one of things observed in our history in the Philippines. We start out very enthusiastic, do big projects but afterward lay low
Tony shared that he would like to have a group like this but how to do this is his question. What form of meditation would it be, since there is already a Buddhist environment in Hong Kong? He has made contacts but so far nothing solid.

Discussion about Style of Life, significant registers in the Discipline, configuration for Ascesis, works of Ascesis and its relation to daily life and our activities, interchange points of view.
There was a discussion on how the Ascesis was understood and being practiced. For Tony, he saw it as something integral in every day life, using action in the environment as the means. Gemma shared that for her, it was a short practice integrating the most significant "registers" from her work with the Discipline as a means to make contact with the Profound. Others were more focused on configuring a "style of life", trying to decipher the Purpose and trying to put it as a focal point for their lives.

What's happening in other Parks, we can share what we know. We share our aspirations for Parke Banahaw, how things are at present, how we see it and would like it to be.
    A short discussion on the condition of Parke Banahaw since no one has been able to visit the Park lately. The roof in the Center of Studies is badly leaking and needs to be fixed. The group noted though that our Park is in good condition compared to some other Parks that have been in place longer, like the Red Bluff Park which needed to rent tents whenever there is an activity [update - they now have a fixed accommodation unit, a container - and lacking in some basic necessities like water.
The whole group agreed that there was a strong need to bring the Park alive with more people over and above the current group
Camaraderie: dinner in a restaurant keeping in theme by chatting about the School, Parks, etc. ended the first day.

Day Two Sunday: Alabang Hills

Service and Well Being
    The second day started with a service and a well being ceremony. The theme/passage selected by the officiant was:
    " Remember what I have said, and learn to discover the truth behind the allegories, which on occasion lead the mind astray, but at other times translate realities that would be impossible to grasp without such representation."
Individual Reflection, note making etc./ Making of plans for future as individuals regarding Works, Activities and the School.
Each Member took time out for individual reflection.

Making of plans by the whole for Parke Banahaw from the point of view of irradiation (The Message, Fire Craft and/or Organisms, etc.)
The need to clarify our vision for the Park. Consensus on the need to invite more people to our activities in the Park. Gemma and Boldy felt that opening a Salita for the Message was a real need and that it might be easier to invite the people contacted to our Retreats in the Park. They had found a possible place in Bangkal Makati. Ways to support the place financially could be by asking friends to make pledges and donations.
The need to really define oneself and to act on one's definition. For Gemma, Boldy, Karina and Boy, clearly they want to focus on The Message. Osbi is active in the World Without Wars Organism.
Clarification on whether other people could use the Park for conducting other workshops and seminars that they are personally developing. The guideline was reiterated that the Park was for the use of the School, The message and the organisms, for our things and themes and even if a School Member was working on themes on a personal level doesn't mean that he/she could use the Park as a venue.

Lunch

Park Commission meeting: Agenda to be made on Sunday
1)    Finances. Gemma sent out the summary of expenses to everyone. Was agreed that the monthly contributions of Members would be first used for the monthly needs, i.e. paying of the rent, wi fi etc., before using the funds for repair and construction.

2)    Repair of the Roof. P20,000 was raised from Gemma and Boldy to put a metal roof. The thatch roofing material there could be used to reinforce the roof at the Multi-purpose Hall. Osbi and Boldy to schedule a visit to the Park to get the repairs going. Tentative Date for start of construction October 17.

3)    Setting up our Symbols. Boy to look into how to put up the fountain, inexpensively, i.e. making use of an existing "kawa". Initially to go to the Park to mark out the space, and to see the size of Fountain that we could use. Tony to send him the information about how to get the water flowing based on aquaponics that his friend has built in Hong Kong.

4)    "Widening the Circle" One idea was to have an email barrage to friends to invite them to the Saturday Message Meeting.

5)    Monthly Day at the Park. To set a schedule of Monthly Retreats so we can invite people/friends via Facebook, email etcetera. More or less, every third Saturday of the Month was designated as a monthly rhythm.

Oct 23: Retreat on Valid Action
Nov 19: Human Spirit
Dec 10: Workshop on The Force.

Another idea was to do Workshops of Non violence for the local people in Dolores as a means to get in touch with them.

6)    Gemma interested in continuing The Craft of Fire.

7)    Printing of The Book. Shelved for now as priority is in opening a Salita in order to get in touch with more people. In the meantime, just to photocopy when needed.

8)    The Message in Tagalog. Draft translation to be circulated so that the text could be "finalized and photocopies could be made (care of Boy)

Closing Ceremony with an Asking
    The meeting ended with everyone doing an Asking for what each one truly needed.
    “Go back to our daily life environment with our forehead and hands luminous!”

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Friend Hugo Novotny says - in reference to Silo’s speech:
His final words rang out audacious and prophetic in that moment:
    “We will see no full dialogue on the fundamental questions of today’s civilization until we, as a society, begin to lose our belief in the innumerable illusions fed by the enticements of the current system. In the meantime, the dialogue will continue to be insubstantial and without any connection to the profound motivations of society.
    “When the Academy notified me of the distinction it had conferred on me, I realized that in some latitudes of the world something new has begun to move, something that, beginning in a dialogue of specialists, will slowly begin to move into the public square.”

Eighteen years after that day, the non-violent revolutions undertaken by the youth of the Arab world, the radical denunciation of the neoliberal system by the indignant people of Spain and Israel, the courageous confrontation by students in Chile of whole society, demanding a fundamental change in education, today are making an inspiring reality of this prophesy.
    The winds of the new times, which Silo foretold in Russia in 1993, have begun to sweep the world, transforming everything in their path.
Hugo Novotny, 2011

from Trudi - N. America:
August 5, 2011.
Hi everyone - just ruminating about the past week, and wanted to share this little experience about the importance of helping each other, from the Fire Workshop:
    “I had been working away alone for an interminable length of time, when Mary came over to help me, and everything changed. Suddenly I was no longer mechanically whacking away with my stones, thinking I was doing everything "right," watching with disheartenment as my chunk of pyrite crumbled and the random sparks flew and vanished, never once landing in the tinder.
    With Mary’s presence, her suggestions and instructions, I began to pay attention in a new way, and I realized that my attention before had been aloof and dry - lacking emotional charge. Now I felt an infusion of something new, a new life, a new encouragement (cour - from L. cor, "heart") - and my attention became careful and confident, curious, engaged...
    And with that inner change of attention, things began to happen in the external world. A spark drifted down into the tinder - there, it’s landed, said Mary, don’t blow!! just let it be – and we watched, holding our breaths, while the spark kindled the tiny cells of the fungus one by one, til there was a miniscule bright orange jewel glowing with life, a little column of smoke rising from it. With utmost care, I gently fanned the tiny coal, and carried my precious plate fire to the fire pit, where I added bits and pieces of fluff and straw… until at last the flame leapt up!”
    It was a humbling experience. How much we need each other. How the “I” can do absolutely nothing on its own. How something infinitely greater is at work here, and within it, we little people can relax and open up… And when we are open, the Spirit can come in, and then we can do what we want to do, and become who we want to be.
big hug.
Trudi

It really was a wonderful register, I strongly felt the help of Kate previously and wanted to share that sentiment with Trudi. It was a great experience of solidarity, friendship, caring, giving and opening up to another....   Very nice,
Hugs, Mary

From Danny:
In a recent interchange with my friend Fulvio in Italy we were discussing our intuitions of what the Parks might become in the next years. I found his brief comments very interesting and inspiring. With his permission I'm sharing them with you.
My rough translation is included.
warmest greetings,
Danny

From: Fulvio De Vita
Date: August 3, 2011
To: Daniel Zuckerbrot
The images I have are at times a little wacky but they guide me in my actions. I imagine that since we began with the Ascesis this year the Spirit has been slowly growing in the Parks. This mental ambit, based in extraordinary experiences, has begun to irradiate into the world. I believe that the Spirit of the Parks is the School, a mental ambit.

In the measure that everything grows and the irradiation toward the world (by means of the organisms, Message, monographs and all the things that inspire us) the Parks grow as references in many aspects: spiritual, in terms of knowledge, profound experience, etc. They are like atomic piles from where irradiates a new civilization, totally different from the previous one, and as there are many Masters and an interesting number of autonomous and decentralized Parks, the forms in which everything irradiates is very diverse, related to many different themes, and with very different characteristics. From my perspective it is the only way to guarantee that the advance of the Spirit in the world is far reaching - much farther than we can imagine.

This, very synthetically is what I imagine. But, it is my translation and so I take great pleasure in interchanging with others who like these themes. In that way we can compensate the errors in the translation and strengthen the image.
Un muy fuerte abrazo
Fulvio

marc.grambert@gmail.com
Hi Danny,
Thanks for sharing Danny. Inspiring as you say. As far as irradiation of the Park, I am not sure if it is relevant but new people have expressed recently with the Message reunions a growing sense of feeling part of a "community", of "having more comprehensions" thru I guess developing shared "felt" experiences mostly through the ceremonies and less with the Book so far or it seems. Something that took a few months to develop.
    Several have mentioned what attract them to the group was something that is not shared by other groups: a perceived sense within the group of a "community" something that was mentioned in Red Bluff already , and also "that people in the core group - maybe 6-7 people now and growing - really put "their heart" into it; also the way people "treat each other" with the emphasis being in the group instead of individuals Of course the level of the ceremonies and the interchange in the meeting kept getting better and better, which may have helped and/or reflect the comfort and liking people felt within the group. Not sure what really comes first... Seems not to be what we think.
    In these times it has been very interesting to see how the Park and the Message influence others in a very positive direction (this is why I wanted to share what new people noticed the most). A direction people are already looking for, as they mentioned. But that is so difficult to find "outside" at this level, to say the least.... The visit to the Park was a strong reference for people too and from that visit, 4 came to the weekly meeting. They all felt the Park helped them to get out of their habitual references and help to relax, reflect and be inspired.
At the same time all this seems still a bit fragile but more "anchored" than ever before in peoples minds and especially in their heart.
Hope this can useful, as I am trying myself to make the most sense of it...
Hugs,
Jean-Marc

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Silo’s Spiritual Dimension
by Pedro Raúl Noro
Silo’s spiritual dimension is inexhaustible, and his death in Mendoza one year ago leaves Argentines and all who knew him a teaching whose horizons, unpredictable and vast, are difficult to measure. This statement, made in these postmodern times that are so intricate and banal, sounds like the opinion of someone who gives his opinion about anyone and everyone. But this man, Silo, had nothing to do with the media, nor was he a person well known in the realms of politics, economy, literature, or show business.
    In reality, he was a thinker, original and unusual, who dove into the abysses of heart and mind, configuring a work whose exact dimensions have not yet been well understood. Author of dozens of books, he was also a creator, in the sense that his ideas were presented to be configured by different study groups – true existential laboratories – where many of the young and not-so-young in different regions and cultures experimented and experiment with enthusiasm and wonderment.
    He studied Ortega y Gasset, Edmund Husserl, Nietzsche, Sartre and Hegel. Of course, among many others he knew very well Marx, Darwin, C.G. Jung, Freud – whose notion of the subconscious he disputed, Wolfgang Köhler, Heidegger, Heisenberg, Kandinsky. Tireless, he also investigated the spiritual proposals of authors such as Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti , Mircea Eliade, and masters of Zen Buddhism. All of this fertilized the ground for the construction of a major work, which sought to become a kind of luminous guide to the inner roads.
    Consciousness, for Silo, was an open phenomenon, a structure of perception, memory, and transformation of stimuli, whose twisting pathways, including those that were the most intimate, repressed or distanced from the rational world, could be revealed to anyone who knew how to find, with patience, the key to de-coding their manifestations. The mind he presented as a kind of greater realm: the infinite and inspiring ocean within which the consciousness and the world developed their daily and transcendental action. From this perspective, his original and liberating teaching has points of contact with Buddhism, although he does not disdain contributions from the Sufis, the Pythagoreans, the Alexandrian and neo-Alexandrian alchemists, or the Philocalia of the monks of Mount Athos.
    Energetic investigator of the spirituality of Pre-Colombian cultures, he more than once made reference to the Mesoamerican myth of Qutzalcoatl, the man-serpent who became a god, as well as to the great Pachakuti, who gave new energy to the Incan state and humanized the social collective of that empire, as the Russian intellectual Semenov explains in his writing, “Humanism in Different Cultures.” On the other hand, Mount Aconcagua, the “roof of the west” in the locality of Punta de Vacas, where Silo began his mission, was a constant point of reference in his work as the majestic and symbolic protector of the Andes, and of Mother Nature.
    Heir to Gandhi and Martin Luther King, he was the creator, successively, of the Humanist Movement and of organisms such as the Humanist Party, the Community for Human Development, the Convergence of Cultures and other associations. Silo’s Message is the synthesis of his doctrine, directed toward one end: to humanize the Earth, that is, to discover the meaning of human existence in the world.
    A profound optimist with a remarkable curiosity, in his later years he put into practice, like a true Prometheus, what he called “fire workshops.” Interested in studying the leap of consciousness that illuminated the hominids and converted them into homo sapiens, he conceived different experiments to produce and control fire beginning in primitive environments, with elemental conditions of origin. In this way he wanted to observe and understand the effort and functioning of the human psyche that went into this task 50-60,000 years ago.
    Shortly before Silo’s physical death, my daughter Maria Guillermina, a sensitive and receptive person, told me, very moved, that she had had a remarkable intuition. She dreamed that Silo, already thin, weak and haggard, was in a meeting with friends, when he fell to the floor. Everyone ran to help him, but Silo made a gesture to stop them, saying, “No, not me, take care of the work, take care of the work!” An extraordinary premonition that reminded me of the last part of Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, when, sitting on a rock, uneasy and meditative, he asked himself: “What is the Superior man’s greatest sin?” Then suddenly, says the poem, his face lit up and he said to himself: “Self-pity is my sin. Do I aspire to the lament of my self-pity? No,” he responded firmly. “I aspire to my Work.”
    In all cultures special beings have appeared who knew how to go deep, to understand the problems of humanity’s darkest times, and to clearly propose the path toward an open and luminous future. Silo was one of them. He began advocating for peace when he was 30 years old, on May 4, 1969, at Punta de Vacas, at the foot of the Aconcagua, with a speech known as “The Healing of Suffering.” That was the beginning of the wonderful decade of the 70s, with the generational renewal, the May protests in Paris, and the collective yearning to transform the world. Silo was in Jujuy several times; he wanted to give a talk in Yala, on July 20, 1969, but was stopped by the military government of that time.
    The development of Silo’s ideas – combated by military regimes from Ongania to the Argentine military process of 1976 – spread to all the continents. In 1993 he received a doctorate Honoris Causa from the Russian Academy of Sciences; not long before that he had been designated “Master” by the Buddhist Shanga of Sri Lanka, to the south of India.
    His last public appearance was on November 11, 2009, in Germany, where he spoke before the Nobel Peace Prize Summit. The World March for Peace and Non-violence – carried out by the association “World Without Wars” (born from his inspiration) – had just arrived in Berlin after visiting different continents. This epic march began in New Zealand, covered five continents, and culminated at Punta de Vacas, where Silo, shortly before his death, received them with open arms in Punta de Vacas Park, one of the many Parks of Study and Reflection that have been built and are multiplying around the world.

Raul Noro is a journalist in Jujuy, Argentina, where this article was written.
Draft translation by Trudi Richards

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Godi Gutierrez quotes a previous moment:
"We need leaders, faces, the moment requires it. We need reference figures. But this leadership must come from below; it must be the expression of the Movement and go from below upwards, in a participative way. Our leaders, our public figures, the spokespeople, receive the leadership from below, from the Movement and represent it. To put Silo as our leader would imply a leadership that, on the contrary, descends from above downwards and this doesn’t help us. Besides, this would be interpreted incorrectly, as if Silo were orientating the Movement and it’s not like that, not at all. He is dedicated to the Message; he has left the Movement and in no way orientates it. On the other hand, if he were the leader of the Movement, what would happen in the moment that he “leaves”?
    We mustn’t highlight the figure of Silo in any way, we mustn’t mention him in our things (speeches, public acts), neither quote him as a spiritual guide nor as the inspiration of the Movement, of Humanism or the organisms; neither as the founder of the Movement. The context within which he appears is the Message or as the author of his books.
    We don’t have to worry about “placing” Silo on the television: on TV we have to place Humanism (and for this there are the faces, the spokespeople chosen by the Movements, the different leaders that may start to emerge from the actions that we implement). Neither is it interesting to link the websites of the Movement and the organisms with those of Silo and the Message. We are not saying that we have to “hide” things, just that there is no need to publicise Silo or relate him with the activities of the Movement.
    We don’t have to put him as the leader of anything. He isn’t even a leader of nonviolence; he is not someone who is guiding a nonviolent social action. Better to avoid the images that relate him with Gandhi and Martin Luther King." - Silo, Grotte, Italy, 2008

*************
Interchange on meetings of experience under the weekly Message events.
    ‘I had the first meeting of my new Message group. I had been planning it for sometime and had been looking for a neutral ambit that people would feel comfortable with. Finally a friend who had never shown any interest in our things offered me some space in a adequate place just to be helpful.
    When the time came none of the people I expected showed up for our meditation meeting. Three of us ended up in the meeting: My daughter Rachel - who's never been to a meeting before and the woman who had given me the meeting place. We chatted for a while and did the meeting. After that no one was very communicative and I found it difficult to get any feedback or any sense of how they felt about the meeting.
    It was odd and a little uncomfortable. Then they both started talking about who they were going to invite to the next meeting. I'm still a bit befuddled by their responses. I guess you never know...
warmest greetings.
Danny

“We have a similar experience with our monthly Well-Being Ceremony in a local park, where the people who come are very regular in attending and clearly like it and have had significant experiences with the Asking, but say little of their experience...”
hugs,
-Paul

Yes you never know Danny,
Reminds me of a comment from Silo that Isaias told me about, which seemed to me to be a testimonial in faith of the process of people. It went something like Silo saying "you never know when people are going to wake up and realize what they are here for". It is something lately that I have been thinking about each day when I wake up. Am I going to endure the reality that I find myself in or am I going to create a reality that has some direction towards the future and beyond death.
Well at least it is something that I am finally asking myself for when I wake up :)
Thanks for sharing this and a big hug,
Ken
******************

International push to construct Himalayan Park
A humanist work camp is scheduled to start October 10, 2011, organised in Panauti, Nepal, as the initial efforts to establish Nepal’s Park of Study & Reflection. This is a small town 32km south east of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. Panauti is renowned for its rich history, cultural activities, artistic buildings and year-round festivals.
http://pressenza.com/npermalink/international-push-to-construct-himalayan-park

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Mongolia
Dear friend,
The project team will expand with teachers of different Parks. In recent weeks had came Gemma S. of Banahaw, Monica F. and Harald Schlamau, Rita I. and Anita of Mikebuda, also and Henry Z, all with travel plans this year 2011 to Ulan-Bator.
    The intention that unites us and drives us is to promote the spreading of the Message and Work of Silo in this geographical area: Russia - Outer Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, in principle. The image mobilizing for this year is the opening of Salita Message as interim milestone towards the creation of a new park in central Asia.
    In Ulan Bator promote contacts and activities planned for three months, from early June to mid September, in which we go alternately, if possible by two "missions."
    Moreover, the extent of the possibilities, we would make a first visit to Inner Mongolia and Beijing to see the place, culture and future prospects.
    A big hug and good wishes,
    Hugo - Mongolia by the team.
    hugonov@gmail.com

written September 1, 2011
Dear friends,
    Here is some news of the first 5 days of our stay in Mongolia:
    Besides the fact that we feel very well and happy to be here, we are advancing well. We talked with quite a lot of people from the list (maybe those whom we cannot reach are still out of town because of summer vacations) and they are all supposed to come to the book presentation this Friday and invite friends…
    We personally met with Baynaa the taxi driver, with Uurtsaich (Monica’s street contact), Tseba, Teegi and Yanindulam (Message community) and tomorrow we meet Nasa (old contact).
    We know that our friends did a “first” message meeting (they were 5), but then they decided to make a break in August and start again in September because of the summer holidays and travels…
    Of course, we also have some new contacts, because during our “daily life” we meet people who are interested in our themes.
    But now come the most relevant experiences we had until now :
    1/ Ceremony in the center of the city :
    Meeting with Yanindulam, she told us that her brother + family had a car accident and were all in the hospital, so we proposed to her to do a Well Being Ceremony. We went to a public garden, and there Yanindulam had to find another Mongolian to be her “assistant”! 3 young girls joined our ceremony (knowing about the urgent necessity) and one of them did the ceremony with Yanindulam. At the end, Yanindulam was very touched, especially because it was the girls who thanked her…(certainly for having the opportunity to make a valid action). We were also very touched to hear the two young Mongolian girls doing the ceremony with such power in the centre of many people looking and listening…
2/ Rooted community in-formation :
    We had the image to do something with our neighbours, so we invited some people we met in the “children’s playground” with a leaflet and a common ceremony between neighbours. We did the Asking first and then the Well Being with 8 neighbours and Yanindulam who came with her sister that lives in the countryside. The ceremony was very strong for everyone, there were a lot of “thanks”, and spontaneous testimonies, everybody wanted to have the Book and to meet again…
3/ Project of a new community in the countryside :
    We had a very profound conversation with Yanindulam and Pogoo, her sister (a teacher), and in this talk they suddenly understood something important : “we have to respect ourselves because god is inside us! In religion people look for a god outside, in objects, in images, whereas we look for a god in ourselves…” Isn’t this nice? They both have the intention to diffuse the Message in the countryside (the Steppe) and form a community there…
    Concerning the Friday’s book presentation: please do some Askings because we still don’t have a sure translator yet. We are waiting for the confirmation of Ulambayar (from English to Mongolian) and a confirmation of a new contact made today (employee in the university, working in the Spanish department and speaks very good Spanish because she spent some time in Mexico, Peru and Bolivia).
    We have been leafleting and putting up posters yesterday and more today around the universities, coffee shops, small establishments and bus stops in the vicinity of Internom, the bookstore venue of the presentation…in addition 2 events have been placed - one on Facebook and the other one in a local website frequented by young people.
    Big hug from Gemma, Benjamin, Ariane

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Bitipara Park Bangladesh - digging out the foundations work started.

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Contact Us
This newsletter is sent out in a general way to inform people about our Park and other Park’s and what’s being done.

Details of Other Parks and more on our website.
http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/other-parks/
Email of this Park: parkebanahaw@gmail.com
Email: newsletter editor, Tony - tonyhen1@gmail.com

First anniversary of the passing on of Silo

2011-09-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

It is a year now that Silo left us in his physical body, bequeathing us and everyone a valuable message of the way of active non-violence to take mankind into a benign and adventurous yet non-harming future.

We give thanks to Silo this day and carry on the good work and watch as the protagonists of an open future take to the streets in the Arab world, and in Europe, and in Asia, non-violently dismantling the System.

Silo commented that general fragmentation of all of the world's societies was very likely immanent and a negative anarchy would result from the reactions of the disenfranchised. We see this taking place.

Among all that mess and real suffering we also see the Jasmine Revolution, the Arab Spring, the Madrid Take-The-Square manifestations.that are surfacing across Europe and in Iceland, and beginning to echo in the USA.

Our role or intention in all this remains the same as ever, as always, to guide that problematic urge that is taking us all over the edge into a safe and evolutionary direction. We do this, as usual in little things, local things. We do what we can and leave what we can't, without remorse.

Wishing us all Peace, Force and Joy

Tony

The Humanist newsletter - Hong Kong - among friends of Silo’s Message of Universal Humanism, Number 33 - September 2011

2011-09-03T20:33:00.002-08:00

The Humanist newsletter - Hong Kong
- among friends of Silo’s Message of Universal Humanism,
Number 33 - September 2011
**********************************************************

Page 1 - EDITORIAL - Engage the Space
Page 2 - Non-violent campaign against corruption in India, headed by Anna Hazare
Page 3 - Regarding the situation in Libya
Page 5 - To read Asia-related submissions from our team to Pressenza
Page 5 - Contact information

Editorial,

Engage the Space: Today we celebrate in the neighbourhood of Mui Wo Kau Tsuen the blessed end of the Islamic Ramadan, mostly among Indonesian friends. Last week we updated the activities of the Hong Kong chapter of the India Against Corruption campaign on our international press agency website, Pressenza. Last week too word came from our Silo School member Gemma, who resides in the Philippines but is visiting Ulan Bator, about the latest endeavours of our friends in Mongolia as they establish our Message there - of non-violence and non-discrimination. New additions to our Parks of Study and Reflection continue to take place, the latest in South America at this juncture *. Today, as I write, there is a Dogs Walk for Peace initiative taking place in Tiendesitas, Pasig City, Manila. Last weekend there was a local book launch at our affiliated-friend’s Fieldwork Centre in Mui Wo with great conviviality. Last Tuesday we - in this case meaning me (as part of the we) - added our input to the Green Party Hong Kong executive planning meeting in Lai Chi Kok, on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. A report came to us from humanist friends in Iceland titled: the Pots and Pans Revolution and it´s Aftermath in Iceland, giving their point of view (see below for link **). Our stand on Libya was declared, in concordance with World without Wars and Violence (WwW)***, and relayed to pals on Humanize Asia and the local Lantau Forum email lists of Humanist-related news. In India, Humanist Movement national spokesmen Parimal Merchant inaugurated a fast that will continue till the end of Anna Hazare's agitation, in co-operation with a plethora of other organisations and fronts taking part in a relay agitation - the fasts are conducted in support of Anna Hazare's actions in Delhi Jandar Mandir. Returning locally, our Garden-to-Kitchen website was also updated - and there’s an open day planned for October 16. Thus the ramifications of all our works continue to enliven the planet - and this was just last week!

Peace, Force and Joy
Tony

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New Park of Study & Reflection
* Saul and I would like to ask you for help on behalf of a group of masters, humanists and messengers in the south of Chile. They are accepting donations until 8/30/11 from Chile and elsewhere to buy a 1.5 hectare of land for a park of study and reflection 17 kilometers from Valdivia, about 10 - 12 hours south from Santiago. This is a beautiful place and much needed in the long, long country that is Chile.
newyorkparispincoya@gmail.com

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Tao Yuan
** From Garden to Kitchens, from ingredients to creativity, from cookery to sharing, from thanksgiving to friendship, from fast to slow... follow the natural flow, to taste in real.

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/neighbourlygardencookery

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Letter: To Consulate General Hong Kong
August 21, 2011

NON-VIOLENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST CORRUPTION IN INDIA, HEADED BY ANNA HAZARE

Dear Sirs,
We understand from our humanist volunteers across India and the mass-media that a Campaign Against Corruption is being carried out by hundreds of thousands of people and that the campaign has spread across 5,000 locations in India so far.

India has been at the forefront of Cultural and Social change for centuries, showing new direction to the world at different and often crucial times, and we feel this movement against corruption, that is fast becoming a people's non-violent movement, will soon demonstrate a new direction to the world for that real change the world needs urgently, to steer us towards a new human-being centred world of non-violence - thus ending all kinds of violence and discrimination that we now see among and against major sections of people and society.

We are pained to note that the current government of India, that has the Congress Party leading it, is failing to read the pulse of the people who want the Jan Lok Pal Bill (People's Ombudsman Law) to achieve accountability in governance. It pains us, specially because it is the same political party that was at the centre of India's Freedom struggle. This demonstrates the deterioration of values in the Congress Party. This is similar to what is happening across the world, where different governments comprising political parties of varying ideologies, have been looting the wealth of people in more or less the same way. It appears that mis-appropriating people's wealth by the few, led by the banks, has been successfully globalized under the control of what has every appearance of a Mafia (that includes the Banks, Multi-National Corporations, Crime Syndicates and the weak and selfishly co-operating Politicians) operating across the world.

The protests of people that started as a wave from Tunisia and spread over to the whole of Middle-East into North Africa, Europe, the USA (Wisconsin), and recently the UK and elsewhere, is now showing its strong manifestation in India. Indian campaigners are demonstrating once again, in the most commendable and respectable way, the only useful power rests in non-violence and not in force-of-arms. This will go into the future as a strong reference to guide the common people across the world on how to conduct oneself to bring permanent change into the compromised system - from violence to non-violence, from discrimination to true equality, from mis-appropriation to true co-operativism, thus building a new world that would be rightly called a "UNIVERSAL HUMAN NATION".

Through this humble submission of ours, we would like to inform your government, the Government of India, headed currently by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, that the whole world of Humanists, and the world of selfless-responsible people, the world of common people that counts at 80% of the population of planet Earth, is strongly supporting the Campaign Against Corruption led so well by Anna Hazare and his team. Granting that the Government of India's claim to be an honest Government, we request the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take a stand at the level of the highest reference as exampled by Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and so many other great-souls of India - and leave behind the negativity and egoism, to humbly discuss the best methods of implementing a strong Jan Lok Pal Bill (People's Ombudsman Law) without even a day's delay and to demonstrate that the current Congress Party remains at heart living proof of those principals that are a worldwide new and developing reference today. Also, to show that Mahatma Gandhi's demand to disband Congress in 1947 was not the right advice.

It is important for the government of India and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to realize now that the mood of the people in India is changing very fast, as human consciousness is growing beyond its previous limits as a part of a ramped up human evolution owing to education and communication factors taking hold. The only approach these days is to flow in line with this expansion in human consciousness and not to go against it.

We look forward to positive and visible actions from the government of India and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This would show a bright direction for the whole world to follow and demonstrate that changes can happen and in a peaceful manner.

Meanwhile, please note that all peace-loving non-violent and non-discriminatory humanists and other like-minded people and organizations across the planet Earth, are coming together to steer the world towards the formation of a "UNIVERSAL HUMAN NATION".

#####

World without Wars and Violence (WwW)
http://www.worldwithoutwars.org/

Regarding the situation in Libya
31 Aug 2011

The Arab Spring continues to spread throughout the Arab world. Another dictator has gone and Libya, which has been ruled by one of the longest-lasting and most bloodthirsty dictators, is turning the page on an era characterised by the reign of one individual and one family without any respect for democracy and even basic standards of human rights.

Nevertheless, we would not be coherent with our deepest convictions in the strength of nonviolence if we were not to denounce the use of violence by opposition and NATO forces to achieve this revolution and not least because NATO has expressed nothing but indifference and deafness in the case of the people of Yemen and Bahrain—too close to Saudi Arabia and too dangerous to upset—whereas in oil-rich Libya they have intervened with full force!

Libya has been left on the edge of a precipice of revenge and more revenge, in a cycle of violence that will be very hard to stop. Entrenched positions on both sides of the armed conflict will not cease to seek revenge for past violence, thereby ensuring that revenge will also stain the future.

Today those in control of Libya stand at a crossroads: they can choose the path of doing what’s best for the Libyan people or they can choose the path of doing what’s best for the rotten and immoral economic system which is waiting with drooling lips to feed on Libya’s resources and her people. To choose the latter will be disastrous for the long-suffering Libyan people.
We in World without Wars express:

- Our anguish at having watched the violence and horror unfold across Libya as violent factions on both sides sought to murder each other.
- Our sympathy and condolences to all those who have lost loved ones or who have been injured in conflict
- Our condemnation of the NATO hypocrisy
- Our hope that from the ashes of this disaster will emerge a democratic, reconciled and prosperous country which can be a beacon of everything good about North Africa and her people.
We declare:

- Our support for the Libyan people in their efforts to rebuild Libya on the basis of real democracy, the rejection of war as a means to solve disputes, the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary and the values of human rights.
- Our total disagreement with any moves by NATO to deploy troops on Libyan soil under any pretext.
- Our total rejection of any moves to make the people of Libya pay for the war which has been unleashed upon them by forcing Libya to give away oil concessions.
We call for:

- all conflict in the country to cease immediately and for all weapons now widely distributed in the hands of citizens to be handed in for destruction under the supervision of specially appointed UN peace keeping forces.
- the creation of a democratically elected Constituent Assembly to gather the requirements of all sectors of Libyan society so that this may guide the writing of a new constitution which will lead to elections in which all Libyans may peacefully and freely express their political choices.
- the creation of a commission of national reconciliation so that disputes and grievances may be heard and justice can be seen to be done, so that Libyans can get on with their lives in peace and nonviolence.

#####

To read Asia-related submissions from our team to Pressenza International Press Agency
http://world.pressenza.org/?region_id=2

We recommend:

Pakistan - where lie your dormant Hazares?
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/pakistan-where-lie-your-dormant-hazaresx

Unwanted Missiles for a Korean Island
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/unwanted-missiles-for-a-korean-island

India - action front to get decent roads
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/india-action-front-to-get-decent-roads

Hong Kong Indians in support action for Anna Hazare and Jan Lokpal
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/hong-kong-indians-in-support-action-for-anna-hazare-and-jan-lokpal

Hong Kong’s domestic helpers fighting for right of abode
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/hong-kongxs-domestic-helpers-fighting-for-right-of-abode

Peace March from Gujranwala to Lahore in Pakistan
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/peace-march-from-gujranwala-to-lahore-in-pakistan

Human rights activist “Pepe” Manegdeg’s widow continues appeal
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/human-rights-activist-xpepex-manegdegxs-widow-continues-appeal

Ray of hope in Nepal’s peace process
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/ray-of-hope-in-nepalxs-peace-process

** The “Pots and Pans revolution” in Iceland and its aftermath
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/the-xpots-and-pans-revolutionx-in-iceland-and-its-aftermath

#####

Banahaw Park
...of Study and Reflection
http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

#####

Contact:
Material from this newsletter may be freely reprinted with this attribution: Source: The Humanist Newsletter - Asia-Pacific - or the bylined writer.

TONY HENDERSON E-mail: tonyhen1 @ gmail.com/
Blog1-personal interest: http://hall-inner-light-china.blogspot.com/
Blog2-GreenHumanist: http://tonyhen-humanisthongkong.blogspot.com/
Web: http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen/

We Are Anonymous - Join Us

2011-07-20T16:32:00.000-08:00

The Green Spirituality of universal humanism

2011-07-15T19:54:00.002-08:00

Date: 16 July 2011
The Green Spirituality of universal humanism
For us Green signifies Life. It is the colour of the Life Force. It is the mid-range colour in our spectrum, with red at the lower end and blue at the higher end. Red is the physical-sexual and blue is the contemplative-intuitive. There’s Green, right in the middle, central to both ends and that is the position of Man, the place of Man emboldened with the vitality of the Life Force.

To enhance or deepen or heighten that Green Force of Life it is proposed by the universal humanists that we get our ordinary life sorted out. We have to achieve a personal and ‘internal’ coherence where what we are is a function of our harmonised thoughts, feelings and actions. Meaning, practically, that we are doing what we deeply want to be doing and we feel very good about that and a sense of meaningfulness permeates our life.

Immediately there is a caution - the systems and societies we are living under are not intended to allow us to be thus free. Because that is precisely what meaningfulness feels like, a sense of freedom. Free of fears of future, free of any dark echo from the past, free of any blocks in the present - of course we all have the common problems - we could always do with an extra few dollars, but these don’t stop us!

Today’s systems are born of an industrial age and just when humanity was emerging from the European Dark Ages, and just as the European Renaissance was laying its searching fingers upon those early societies, a flip occurred as the sciences of astrology took the course of leading into astronomy, and alchemy went into metallurgy and chemistry, numerology became mathematics, and all that can be seen as good - and indeed it is good - however, important issues were cast aside and materialism came to the fore. The innate spirituality of Man was neglected and indeed abandoned. Materialistic and competitive societies were the result. Mechanical Man replaced ‘natural’ Man.

All that which was allied to the best features in Man, that which makes the human being, a sense of place within a beautiful living world of fellow creatures, an innate sense of a being without limit - not even limited by a supposed personal death - the possibility of achieving love, on the level of this life with a couple and on the cosmic-universal level with what’s variably termed the Mother, the Creator, the Great Tao, The Unborn...

It is therefore worthwhile to regain what was taken away by others, one’s spirituality. To wake up from the illusion imposed by a consumer oriented society’s collective consciousness and see the real behind the slight, the facade.

This happened to Buddha when he came to realisation. That was a transforming experience as was the gradual dawning of Jesus as he took up ‘his Father’s work’. This was so with all the saints and holy men only that their seeing was through the looking glass of their particular culture and interpreted by us under terms likely foreign to their terms and are thus so fraught with error.

This is why we have to see the real for ourselves. We have to clarify the senses, the emotions, the thinking process, by looking at the personal history, the present situation, and thereby open up the future. This is the Second Coming. This is being reborn.

Tony Henderson email: tonyhen@humanist.org.hk Phone: 29840094

see our Philippine's Park Banahaw newsletters - number five the latest

2011-06-28T21:43:00.000-08:00

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/category/newsletters/

participate in a Sunday get-together to celebrate the Forty-Second year of the expression of Silo's Message

2011-05-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

Open Invitation

To participate in a Sunday get-together to celebrate the Forty-Second year of the expression of Silo's Message following his 1969 Mount Aconcagua harangue, The Healing of Suffering, and the birth of Universalist Humanism.

We will have a reading of that harangue... and an interchange on its meaning

Lunch - bring your own; hot water and tea on tap.

Short Talk
On the Cultivation of an Attitude of Nonviolence
By Tony Henderson

Tea break

Possible Internet link-up with the Philippines Park Banahaw.

An introduction to the worldwide Parks of Study and Reflection

There will be in meditative interlude of simple silence
Followed by a brief chat on our Humanist form of meditation and what it entails.

Ends

Sunday, May 8, 2011
11am to 4pm
Fieldwork Centre
Mui Wo

Mobile contact number: Tony: 90487639

Silo's harangue in 1969, May 4, in the Andes Mountains

2011-05-03T18:43:00.001-08:00

The Healing of Suffering - May 4th 1969

Healing of Suffering in pdf

Punta de Vacas, Mendoza, Argentina, May 4, 1969
Notes:
At the time Silo gave this speech in 1969, the military dictatorship then in power in Argentina had banned all public gatherings in urban areas. Consequently, a bleak spot known as Punta de Vacas, high in the Andes on the border between Argentina and Chile, was chosen as the location for the speech. Early in the morning of May 4, the authorities placed roadblocks on all roads leading to the site. Machine-gun posts, military vehicles, and armed soldiers were stationed along the roads, and everyone was required to show identification papers to pass through the checkpoints, which led to disputes with some members of the international press. Against the magnificent backdrop of the snow-capped Andes, Silo began to speak to an audience of some two hundred people. The day was cold and bright, and by noon the event was over.
This is Silo’s first public expression of his ideas. In poetic language, he explains that the most important knowledge for living (“true wisdom”) is not the same as the knowledge found in books—knowledge of universal laws or things of that nature—but is a question of inner experience. The most important knowledge for living is related to comprehending suffering and how to surpass it.
In this speech, Silo presents a very simple thesis, which is divided into several parts:

It begins by distinguishing between physical pain and its derivations, on the one hand, maintaining that they can be made to recede through progress in science and justice, and mental suffering, on the other, which cannot be eliminated by such means.
Suffering comes through three pathways: the pathway of perception, the pathway of memory, and the pathway of imagination.
Suffering reveals a state of violence.
Violence is rooted in desire.
There are various degrees and forms of desire.

By attending to these factors (“through inner meditation”), one may advance. Thus:

Desire gives rise to violence (“the more gross the desires”), which does not remain inside people but spreads to others, contaminating the space of relationships.
Violence can be seen in various forms besides its primary form of physical violence.
We need simple forms of conduct by which to orient our lives (“keep simple commandments”): Learn to be a bearer of peace, joy, and, above all, hope.

Conclusion: To conquer physical pain, science and justice are necessary; to conquer mental suffering, it is indispensable to surpass primitive desires.

"If you have come to listen to a man who it is thought transmits wisdom, you have mistaken your way, for true wisdom is not communicated through books or speeches—true wisdom is found in the depths of your consciousness, just as true love is found in the depths of your heart. If you have come at the urging of slanderers and hypocrites to listen to this man so that what you hear today may later be used against him, you have mistaken your way, because this man has not come here to ask anything of you or to use you, because he does not need you.
You are listening to a man who does not know the laws that rule the Universe, who is not privy to the laws of History, who is ignorant of the relationships that govern the peoples of the world. High in these mountains, far from the cities and their sick ambitions, this man addresses himself to your conscience. Over the cities, where each day is a struggle, a hope cut short by death, where love is followed by hate, where forgiveness is followed by revenge; over the cities of the people rich and poor; over the immense fields of humanity, a mantle of suffering and sorrow has fallen. You suffer when pain bites your body. You suffer when hunger seizes your body. But you suffer not only from your body’s immediate pain and hunger—you also suffer from the consequences of the diseases that afflict it.
We must distinguish between two types of suffering. There is the suffering that occurs during illness and that recedes with the advance of science, just as hunger can recede if the empire of justice advances. There is also the suffering that does not depend on the sickness of your body but yet derives from that sickness: If you are disabled, if you cannot see, if you cannot hear, you suffer. But though such suffering derives from your body, or from the diseases of your body, that suffering is of your mind.
There is yet another kind of suffering that does not recede even with the advance of science or with the advance of justice. This type of suffering, which belongs strictly to your mind, retreats before faith, before joy in life, before love. You must understand that this suffering is always rooted in the violence that exists in your own consciousness. You suffer because you fear losing what you have, or because of what you have already lost, or because of what you desperately long to reach. You suffer because of what you lack, or because you fear in general.
These, then, are the great enemies of humanity: fear of sickness, fear of poverty, fear of death, fear of loneliness. All these forms of suffering pertain to your mind, and all of them reveal your inner violence, the violence that is in your mind. Notice how that violence always stems from desire. The more violent a person is, the more gross that person’s desires.
I would like to tell you a story that took place long ago.
There was once a traveler who had to undertake a long journey. He yoked his animal to a cart and began the journey to his faraway destination, a journey he had to complete within a certain length of time. He called the animal Necessity and the cart Desire; one wheel of the cart he called Pleasure, and the other he called Pain. Our traveler turned his cart sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, yet he never ceased moving toward his destiny. The faster the cart traveled, the faster turned the wheels of Pleasure and Pain, carrying as they did the cart of Desire and connected as they were by the same axle. But the journey was very long, and after a time our traveler grew bored. So he decided to decorate his cart, and he began to adorn it with all manner of beautiful things. But the more he embellished the cart of Desire with these ornaments, the heavier became the load for Necessity to pull. On the curves and steep hills of the road, the poor animal grew too exhausted to pull the cart of Desire. And where the road was soft, the wheels of Pleasure and Suffering became mired in the earth.
One day, because the road was long and he was still very far from his destination, our traveler grew desperate. That night he decided to meditate on the problem, and in the midst of his meditation he heard the neighing of his old friend, Necessity. Comprehending the message, he arose very early the next morning and began to lighten the cart of its burden, stripping it of all its fine adornments. Then he set off once more toward his destination, with the animal Necessity pulling the cart at a brisk trot. Still, our traveler had already lost much time—time that was now irrecoverable. The next night he sat down again to meditate, and he realized, thanks to another message from his old friend, that now he had to undertake a task that was doubly difficult because it involved his letting go. At daybreak he sacrificed the cart of Desire. It is true that when he did so he lost the wheel of Pleasure, but then he also lost the wheel of Suffering. And so, abandoning the cart of Desire, he mounted the animal called Necessity and galloped on its back across the green fields until he reached his destiny.
See how desire can trap you. But notice that there are desires of different qualities. There are cruder desires, and there are more elevated desires. Elevate desire, purify desire, surpass desire! In doing so, surely you will have to sacrifice the wheel of Pleasure—but you will also become free of the wheel of Suffering.
Spurred by desire, the violence in a person does not simply remain like a sickness in the consciousness of that person—it acts in the world of other people and is exercised upon them. And do not think that when I talk of violence I am speaking only about the armed act of war, where some men destroy others. That is only one form of physical violence.
There is also economic violence. Economic violence is the violence through which you exploit other people; economic violence occurs when you steal from another, when you are no longer a brother or sister to others but a bird of prey feeding upon them.
There is also racial violence. Or do you think that you are not being violent when you persecute someone because that person is not of your own race? Do you think that you are not engaging in violence when you malign that person for being of a race different from your own?
And there is religious violence: Do you think that you are not engaging in violence when you refuse work to, close your doors to, or dismiss a person, because that person does not share your religious beliefs? Do you believe that it is not violence when you use words of hate to build walls around other people, excluding them from your society, because they do not share your religious beliefs—isolating them within their families, segregating them and their loved ones, because they do not share your religion?
There are other forms of violence that are imposed by the Philistine morality. You wish to impose your way of life upon another; you wish to impose your vocation upon another. But who has told you that you are an example that must be followed? Who has told you that you can impose a way of life because it pleases you? What makes your way of life a model, a pattern that you have the right to impose on others? This is another form of violence.
Only inner faith and inner meditation can end the violence in you, in others, and in the world around you. All the other doors are false and do not lead away from this violence. This world is on the verge of exploding with no way to end the violence! Do not choose false doors. There are no politics that can solve this mad urge for violence. There is no political party or movement on the planet that can end the violence. Do not choose false doors that promise to lead away from the violence in the world . . . I have heard that all over the world young people are turning to false doors to try to escape the violence and inner suffering. They turn to drugs as a solution. Do not choose false doors to try to end the violence.
My brother, my sister—keep these simple commandments, as simple as these rocks, this snow, and this sun that bless us. Carry peace within you, and carry it to others. My brother, my sister—if you look back in history, you will see the human being bearing the face of suffering. Remember, even as you gaze at that suffering face, that it is necessary to move forward, and it is necessary to learn to laugh, and it is necessary to learn to love.
To you, my brother and sister, I cast this hope—this hope of joy, this hope of love—so that you elevate your heart and elevate your spirit, and so that you do not forget to elevate your body."

Parks of Study and Reflection - Banahaw (Philippines) - newsletter number four, April, 2011

2011-04-30T20:09:00.000-08:00

Mabuhay Everyone,
Welcome to our fourth newsletter for friends of, Parks of Study and Reflection - Banahaw.
Our website has been streamlined so do dig around it and send suggestions about how it needs to be further developed or refined.
We have a plan and the School is the Centre of gravity of the process. We are not drifting or lost, the Parks are the visibly location of the process, the Venue.
Silo warned us all of dark clouds on the horizon What we are doing is related to this.
There is an urgency. The consciousness of the human being is under threat.
What we want to do will not be coming from the ego, that old "I". We are seeking to translate the signals that arrive by contact with the profound. In times of crisis, this contact with those special spaces irrupts. Usually, these signals are ignored, unread.
The Disciplines are the instruments of contact.
However, not to impose on others - that's pre-historic.
Now we are one, very diverse, converging in one common objective.
Your editor for today
Tony
****************************************

The Park as Venue of School!
To assist in understanding what’s entailed in the Parks of Study and Reflection, wherever they may be placed, here are some notes extracted from a meeting held at friend Railesh's home, Mumbai, a year ago.

Our friend Fernando, from Argentina, was speaking:
We are not to run away from the world; we are in favour of life, in favour of human being.
School works are related to the deepening of consciousness, and, in other ways, in other cultures, of how to get there.
School is different in its procedures from Humanist Movement and Message of Silo.
Geographic proximity decides allied Parks - [for us it’s Asia, also, considering the Pacific Rim, the California Coast, Ed.].
There is only one School, with joint interests and priorities.
We need to fully equip the Parks and deepen the work of the Disciplines. Also the Crafts, which are related to attitude, or disposition.
Anyone can get together and form a Park, they organise themselves freely under a non-profit or trust charter. Not holding life appointments on committees; set up with funds from many people and not lump sums nor corporations; rather, individuals coming together.
The paranormal belongs to lower forms of consciousness.
Master, means I know my subject and I can teach my subject.
Any master is welcome in any Park
Seniority is not of importance; experience is...
Fernando

*******************************************

Hong Kong meeting

April 21, Yuen Yuen Institute - Tsuen Wan. Hong Kong.

Boldy and Tony met to discuss matters of School and of course, the Park - an idea to have a dynamic front page was mooted and you will, we trust, see this in the next month or so.

Latest media appearance in Hong Kong was a Letter to the Editor, of the South China Morning Post. See Pressenza for it’s content... actually edited down by the newspaper but the main points were there:
Opinion - The clear and present dangers of depending on nuclear power
http://pressenza.com/
*****************************
returning to local news:

MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS
During April Osbi and Boldy went to the Park to start work on repairing the existing facilities. Gemma also went but mainly to see about the Monolith. The storeroom beside the toilets will be reinforced so that it will be more secure and all our supplies will be placed there for safekeeping, instead of the Center of Work. The roof and the ceiling will also be repaired so that it won't leak and all the doorknobs will also be replaced. They plan to have everything in order before the May 7 Celebration of Silo's first Public Talk held in Punta de Vacas, May 4, 1969 when he gave the talk The Healing of Suffering. Boldy and Osbi are in charge of repairs and monetary donations will be coming from Boldy and Karina for urgent repairs.
List...
1) Replace completely the Center of Work Extension Roof - replace existing thatched roof with a corrugated GI sheet and a "sawali" insulation;
2) Extend walls of storage rooms (bodegas; adjacent to the exterior CR/Bathrooms) to the roof, to be covered with a plywood ceiling (if necessary) as well as reinforce/rebuild storage room doors as well as secure with Deadbolt locks, not just a regular padlock. The current doors are mere frames with 1/4" plywood covers, making it very easy to break. Also, we found out that the padlocks were wrongly placed, i.e. the hinge screws which are supposed to be hidden were actually exposed such that anyone with a Philips screwdriver has access to the fastening screws.
Estimates of these repairs are, in total, around Php 14,630.
These repairs are going to be done April 26-28, 2011. Boldy and Osbi will be staying in the Park April 26-27, overnight. As Gemma and Pablo will be doing the Monolith beginning the 27th, they may oversee and check on the completion of the work.
If it can be squeezed in, we hope to be able to cover the MH roof with some tarpaulin, maybe, as a stop-gap measure as estimates for replacing the roof, similar to the CW extension roof total around P33,300 (this doesn't even replace existing posts and wooden trusses!) which we don't have. Also, the main roof of the CW has to be repaired/replaced but for the meantime a simple cover (liso) will be used.
Other necessary repairs: Center of Work Main Roof:
Other Repairs/Construction Projects being considered:
a) Monolith.
b) Repair of gate/entrance to the Park - bamboo used for this is of low quality and is beginning to decay; also, its existing width does not allow large vehicles entrance
c) Construction of the Center of Study - another matter altogether.
d) Construction of the Hall - ditto.
e) Front fence, etc.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE MONOLITH
Plans to erect the Monolith in time for an inauguration during the May 7 celebrations are underway. Gemma is the chief proponent of this project (so for more details, get them from Gemma)

WORKSHOP OF FIRE
April 17, 2011. Three participants started the Work on the Craft of Fire. (Details from Gemma.)

FILM SHOWING OF THE DOCUMENTARY 'SAGE OF THE ANDES'
APRIL 16, 2011, several members of School organized a film showing of the documentary on Silo: Sage of the Andes, to whom friends and relatives were invited. Invitations were posted on Facebook and emailed to friends. The Film Showing is part of a project to share the Message of Silo to whomever may be interested. Plans are being made to host more film showings in the near future with an image of forming groups with people who may be interested in the Message of Silo.
Note: The Healing of Suffering is on our website:
http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/materials/

WE WILL NEED TO RAISE FUNDS!
The funds we have on hand are not all free to spend as we have a budget of almost P4,000 in the fixed monthly expenses. The cash on hand will be used for repairs and maintenance of the Park as well as the fixed monthly expenses (rental, Internet, grass cutting, electricity, a minimum amount for water) as was agreed upon.
There is a need to meet and discuss among us the Park's security (as some of you know, the Center of Work was broken into and the refrigerator was stolen).
Gemma says she has decided to take on the Monolith project: purchase of the wooden post (there is a suitable post lying nearby which can be purchased), filling damaged parts, painting (any preferences for the colour?), and installation. Any one interested to help out is most welcome.
Target date: Celebration on May 7th, 42nd anniversary of the "Healing of Suffering" harangue and the proposal is that we inaugurate the Monolith and the entire Park as well - inviting many people to join us on that special day.

*****************************
Luigi (France) to Sudhir (India) - Sudhir had proposed to: Lets do an Egypt in India.

“I tell you here what I think about the recent events...

1. There is something sure, the world is changing and human being has moved clearly forward using non-violence methodology. Example of Egypt and Tunisia are in this sense demonstrative effects. The ones we were waiting for for so many years. Something that can be done in a place and reproduced in a different place just by emulation, that happened from Tunisa to Egypt, Lybia, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen.

2. What we have to really point out is that mobilization where the fruit of a big "necessity", a big fed up, the word used in arabic was "anger", a huge desire for change and liberation (Tahrir) the symbol of Tahrir Square is huge, it is not freedom... it is liberation. Plus there was a great faith in the action, that mobilizes the best spiritual forces of human beings not afraid to die and to confront violent policemen, camels, military or bandits.

3. All this has not been planned or organized! Some very little groups joined together in plazas but the spark came from the Internet, from blogs (sometime active for years), from Facebook, etc. The first date for mobilization appeared only one month before on the Internet.

4. Evidently, the good behavior and new interesting attitude of the army as discussed a while ago in Silo’s, Letters to my Friends can be focused and valued. This is new and shows that an army can play a role against dictatorships by being really human and recognising it has as its first mission to protect the nation and the people of the nation, not the interests of a family, a power or industrial interests.

5. Differently from the other political trends and parties we [as the Humanist Party] do not need to bring back these "revolutions". Of course we feel happy and solidarity with these struggles even if sometimes the non-violent mobilization lasts only a little time because of the strong violent repression and fear of the regime as shown in Libya. But we don't call on foreigners to attack, to defend the rebellion - a rebellion can fail, but the faith of the people can last long and come out again in a new moment. We have no interest copying these revolutions because these are our own revolutions. Today, we are not running after the new historical-human process, because we are the ones that imagined it, produced it, intentionalised it, wished it profoundly as one of our deepest aspirations... We have been waiting for all this all our life and all our years of activism. Non-violent revolutions are possible... How can we pretend to copy something we have produced? No one is more happy about all this than us!

6. The most interesting thing for me is the area where all this happened. Completely disconnected from the areas of the humanist structure and for years a big difficulty for humanists to connect with Arab-Muslim countries (except Algeria and Morocco) mostly because of strong prejudices. This shows me clearly that our intentions and aspiration transcends concretely spaces and there is nothing surprising that what we aspire to can be met with in all human beings across the globe, our aspiration can be the aspiration of humanity, only the necessity and the euphorea of a demonstrative effect can help that aspiration to blossom anywhere.

Now the time has come, the time of our aspirations, the time of change for human beings and Humanity. We can continue to work with force and happiness and wish that necessity will blossom all over the world.

For all this I suggest you to forget the word "platform" as that is, for me, too materialistic. We are the sensibility, they are our sensibility, that is why I can see myself with us, and us with me. It's not like the people have to join the group or take a card of adherent. We are organized, yes sure , but our aspirations transcend our organization. Other parties are thinking they have to go there and act as ideologists to further the revolution and explain to them how to continue... this can't be our way, because in a sense they have applied empirically what we thought... It is an education, a new formation landscape for the generations to come. We have to explain it from our point of view, with respect to other’s points of view.

Huge Force and inspiration in your comments to the media and your actions
Luigi
*********************************
Introducing: Convergence of Cultures

http://www.convergenceofcultures.org/index.php?option=com_acymailing&ctrl=archive&listid=31-ingles&Itemid=231〈=en

************
Contact Us
This newsletter is sent out in a general way to inform people about our Park and what’s being done.

Details of Other Parks and more on our website.
http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/other-parks/

Email of this Park: parkebanahaw@gmail.com
Email: Tony - tonyhen1@gmail.com

Nuclear Power - why "NO"

2011-04-12T17:27:00.001-08:00

Vera Fan’s letter, “Stick with nuclear power” (SCMP 11 April) appears reasonable and has a good point but about power stations being built in the wrong places. Whether they are safe or not though, that’s another question, and it’s not the only question.

It is true that using nuclear power to generate electricity does not create greenhouse gases but those stated problems of inherent danger and disposing of the radioactive waste, are not minor, if fact they are huge problems.

First point is that only by generating energy by means of nuclear power is it possible to have the explosive materials for nuclear weapons making - no nuclear power stations, no nuclear bombs.

That to our Association is enough to insist closing down all nuclear power generation stations and turn to other means.

Also, nuclear power stations are soft targets for terrorists.

A nuclear explosion contaminates the entire planet earth, poisoning everything: the air, the sea the land. There is no escape, for us humans or for all creatures alive today. There is a danger of gradual ineradicable build-up.

As radioactivity around us increases, so does negative mutations and cancers. It’s our children and coming generations that we are protecting by leaving the short sighted path of dependence on nuclear power.

Also, technology today has no solution in sight to safely process nuclear waste into environmentally non-hurtful materials and it has to be restated that the natural detox takes tens of decades and more.

We have to see and dig out the facts of the huge investments in the nuclear industry, in each country, which is why the pro lobby is so strong. Just watch the case in Japan!

The five largest shareholders in TEPCO, owners of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, are: Japan Trustee Services Bank, Ltd; The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited; The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Ltd; Nippon Life Insurance Company; and Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

This is why the citizen’s of Japan did not read in the local press that 15,000 people were, had, demonstrated at one of the largest anti-nuclear demonstrations ever seen in Japan! Because Big Business and Government own the media and big government and business are heavily invested in nuclear power.

Thus the calls for transparency in regard to the Daya Bay plant on our doorstep and gradual substitution of nuclear power by renewable energies and other power sources leading to shutdowns of all nuclear power plants, everywhere in the world.

2011-04-09T17:18:00.000-08:00

to reach that childlike state (again) isn't this why we did the works of Self Liberation, just to get rid of or at least get a handle on all the rubbish we collected over the interim, between then and now!

Isn't this the 'clear mind', the 'pure heart'?

It just leaves us free to be, to act spontaneously under the spur of the moment, doing what needs doing. It's nothing more than that. All else depends on our intentions.

Seeing the world in all its glory is simply clear seeing.

yes?

Christchurch New Zealand Paws Appeal

2011-04-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Mui Wo Kau Tsuen neighbour Vonnie got herself into gear with this campaign, and a lot of others too:

http://christchurchearthquakepawsappeal.yolasite.com/

The good is not only in that this does help others, but that it also helps oneself. It makes you feel good, because you are good!

That's good.

Cheers

Tony

2011-01-07T19:08:00.000-09:00

Out of the Ashes Rose Human Beings
Tony Henderson

Pinagpalang Kamay Association or PKAI is an NGO formed by Ms. Mina Tecson to aid two communities in need, one a poverty-stricken community in Payatas on the outskirts of Quezon City, and the other a home for abandoned physically and mentally ill children residing at Cottolengo Filipino, Montalban Rizal, quite nearby. I toured both in December 2010.

Image by: Mina Tecson
Anthony dela Cerna, “Yoyo”.
Human Rights
Out of the Ashes Rose Human Beings
1/7/11

Pressenza
Pressenza International Press Agency
Manila,
1/7/11

There were four of us including driver Mario, the two sisters Willa Tucson eldest and Mina Tucson, the younger one, and together we were to visit Mina’s personal projects, which lie outside her daily work duties. As we drove we chatted and I learned about the activities.

Mina Tecson established Pinagpalang Kamay Association Inc (PKAI), or Blessed Hand, after meeting missionaries working in the area. There was a finance problem. Though there was a basic set-up and people to assist, the situation was dire and the operation was at the brink of closing down. The problem lay in getting regular funds. One-off fund gathering could be done effectively but there were daily recurring demands for food, services and facilities maintenance.

On her own admission Mina said she’s quite a capable businesswoman but that didn’t bring her any deep satisfaction and she warmed to the idea of helping out with raising those necessary finances. Her own children, five in all, had pretty much grown up with the youngest into final studies, preceding college life, so she went for it.

An hour or so outside downtown Manila, into Quezon City and we passed through the district of Payatas, the place of the food for young children programme, but journeyed on to visit the special needs children first. For me it was a shocker to see a mountain of city rubbish so high as to be almost unbelievable.

Cottolengo Filipino - for abandoned, physically and mentally impaired children is at Montalban and is run by the Sons of Divine Providence. The place lies on the last stretch of road leading to the Sierra Madre range of mountains that reach from northern Cagayan into southern Quezon Province. It’s at Rodriguez, formerly known as Montalban, Rizal Province.

On arrival one of the children, a teenager with a dauntingly broad toothy smile greeted us. He was introduced as the ‘security guard’ and he enjoyed the joke immensely - was it a joke, he led us everywhere? This was Yoyo, who was allowed to go with us wherever we went in the tour.

Also Fr. Julio Cuesta Ortega, director of Cottolengo Filipino, a member of the brotherhood of the line of charity workers inspired by Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo (Italian, 1786 – 1842) who founded the Little House of Divine Providence so long ago and who is now seen as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

Thus, even before entering the old style entranceway, thanks to an energetic Yoyo, we were plunged into the twilight world of these children who were abandoned at various stages of life, mostly very young indeed, by a parent (parents are a luxury) who just could not manage.

Consider, the biological parents were clamped down by poverty, likely blighted by addiction. How could they care for a child with multiple defects that science has labeled in terms of, for example Angelo de la Cruz, who died only recently at age eight: abandoned at birth, disabled by cerebral palsy, speech impairment, spastic quadriplegia to paraplegia? How?

Also Kenneth Plaza who was found in front of Plaza Independencia, Cebu City. No one in the area knew the family of the child. He was referred to Cottelengo Filipino and admission was facilitated in March 2001. Now fourteen years old he has cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia.

All the young ones there have these histories of abandonment and severe handicap.

The very first room, shiny clean, housed a series of beds whereon lay in various contortions the afflicted children. The magic was, that with just a caress but more usually a poke here and a tug there, each one of those so-handicapped children were provoked into smiling. Not one remained inert. Each responded to contact, to some little affection, a held hand, ruffled hair, a pinched cheek.

That poor body, those poor bodies, clearly withheld a humanness that only needed proximate other-human attention for it to fire into life, to excite limb movements, curlings of the arms, twists of the legs, rolling of the eyes, hardly a sound though as most could not utter sounds and many could not hear.

Along the corridors and about the compound young ones with a variety of odd repeating postures and stances walked, waited, played or petitioned and each in turn registered some personal inward joy on receiving some loving attention, however slight. Some would not let go of Brother Julio.

Volunteer mothers cuddled impossibly prone life forms, distorted little bodies that could hardly grow yet there they were clinging to life and would do as long as their spirit allowed. But there are deaths, one the previous week, a child whose memory lives on in the community’s helpers and in the leaflet where his tiny frame forms part of a tragic yet rescued montage that combines both inhuman neglect and misfortune with human love and rescue.

Others live on for years and years and have this small cup of happiness to fill their otherwise desolate days. The question raises itself. What is the point. Is it worthwhile to nurture a human life under the conditions of disfigured illness. The answer was plain to see, yes, given there are people who are willing to love those little souls and give what they at rock bottom really need, attention, love, daily practical physical love.

There was a veritable gang of ‘hyper-actives’, highly mobile, and as a little joke Fr. Julio opened the door of their room, there were beds but where were the children? We laughed. We found them gathered about like any group of pals, all on one bed, devouring a television show.

After a while we bade our leave and thus we left those children and teenagers who can offer the medical world a cornucopia of afflictions, usually one-stamped-over-another in the same child: blind, mute, cerebral palsied, autistic, with Down Syndrom, and much more technically specific afflictions.

Yet, there they are, on our Earth, together with us; it’s just that they are sort of ‘over there’. Day-by-day the programme of help goes on, the volunteer mothers playing their part, the patient staff playing their’s. Mina hustling her neighbours for sustaining materials and cash. The devoted ones all combined in this extraordinary effort at providing a home for children who were cast aside, just like the rubbish that built the local Smokey Mountain.

Until our own human panacea arrives, when we treat others as we would like to be treated, and until those conditions arise to nurture our future children, we have to thank ‘god’ for what is happening in places like Cottolengo. Which raises the thought: where is god as some of us might like to ask? The answer is plain to see, the human beings working for others like this, that’s god. It’s easy to love that god as then, god really is love!

Then we went to visit the Lourdes Feeding Program which PKAI supports plus the livelihood encouragement and assistance activities that supplement the food for wanting children scheme!

Seasonal greetings

2010-12-22T20:18:00.002-09:00

Dear family,

When I walked sleepily into our garden this morning, having woken late, there was my little buddha perched on his driftwood platform, peering down onto the rocky scene below, just as if he were high in the Himalaya, or nearer, up on Ngong Ping overlooking Bo Lin Monastery on this island of Lantau.

His immovability struck me, it (he) had sat all night, all yesterday, all week, all these years, for how many years and it struck me also that that was the Vajra symbol, the Diamond Teaching. The Absolute Truth is that unwaveringness that cannot be quite pinned down in words but yes, that flash, the lightening strike of realisation which leaves an illuminated mental space.

There is value in the little chap, just as a Jesus figure can perpetually remind the Christian of Christ's compassion which is also never wavering.

There is no harm in it; there is that good factor.

Om Mani Padme Hum - The Jewel within the Lotus.

Cheers for a merry season of fun and joy as our world rolls into itself and we ride on the crest of suffering...

Park of Study & Reflection in Bihar

2010-12-17T17:20:00.000-09:00

Congratulation to all our valient friends in Bihar for your construction that truly reflects your environment and displays a worthy simplicity and economy, something that can be sustained into the future. Wonderful

Nuclear option not acceptable

2010-11-07T17:18:00.000-09:00

Nuclear option not acceptable
South China Morning Post, Monday November 8, 2010
I agree with Gloria Chang, of Greenpeace ("Increasing reliance on nuclear energy is not the answer for HK", November 4) and want to add another reason for not using nuclear energy - its link with nuclear weapons.

We should say no to nuclear power stations and material like plutonium, which is used through special reprocessing as fuel to make terrible bombs.

This, of course, applies to all the nuclear weapons nations, in the first place the United States, but including China.

They are all now upping their nuclear power supply capacities and are therefore all overproducing the very material that goes to make weapons.

The nuclear rationale that because they have them, we also need them, is very dated. It harks back to prehistoric man and clubs. We have to move on and aim to go green and clean.

We must get rid of nuclear weapons and the military sales mentality that sees acceptable profits from equipment and machines that kill and that make money.

Tony Henderson, chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong

contact

2010-10-21T05:14:00.000-08:00

Tony Henderson - G/F, 49 Kau Tsuen,Mui Wo, Lantau, Hong Kong
Tel: 29840094
email: tonyhen1@gmail.com

2010-10-20T19:10:00.002-08:00

Notice One

Latest newsletter of the Universal Humanist August 2010

Notice Two

The main thrust of our effort in the Humanize the Earth project is the building of a local Hall of Profound Experience for Hong Kong and as a precurser, the establishment of a group of people united in that aim.

Anyone interested in taking part or exchanging views on this possibility can join us for dim sum or just yam cha at the Silver Restaurant, by the River Silver, just up from the post office in Mui Wo. Each Sunday from 10am on...

*****

Notice Three

To engage in the Works of Levelling that underpin the Disciplines get in touch with Tony Henderson as the nearest contact in Hong Kong, China, otherwise get in touch with the Philippines:

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

or

India

http://www.asianashram.in/

Please understand that there is no opening for further works leading to the Disciplines at this time nor can any assurance be given that such will be possible in the near future. The Levelling works though are valuable in their own right to bring about equilibrium and development leading to truly human being.

_____________________________

Since that August newsletter was published the School works have continued and will be closing in January 2011

--------------------

Postulants to Disciplines final entry date - August 14

2010-08-03T19:36:00.004-08:00

Yes, 14 August, 2010, is the last day anyone will be able to register for this series of works which will entail the Postulant to travel to the Philippines for a series of one day retreats, about one each month, for the remainder of this year. Own expense, though the retreats are only nominally charged.

Details at:

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

Welcome

Tony

You need to contact the person below - unless you know of some other person connected to this work -

tonyhen@humanist.org.hk

**********************************************************************

The Humanist - Hong Kong
- among friends of universal humanism,
Number 31 - August 2010
**********************************************************

Page 1 - EDITORIAL
Page 2 - REGISTRATION
Page 2 - THE PARKS
Page 4 - contact information

Editorial,
Let me begin with a newsy quote from Silo.net: "…The theme is when to start the leveling for the fourth group. We will begin it next 14th of August (remember today is the 1st of August). Those who attend will follow in the tracks of the fourth group. The leveling could be shorter; two months. Each disciplinary step is worked for one week. The first quatern is given at the first meeting of the disciplinary process. Once again, we recommend doing these works at the Parks. By mid January 2011 we will have everything assembled. Masters with the works done and elected. Masters are Masters, whether they come from the first, second, or fourth group. And we can do the Final Examination and give the Ascesis with all of them, simultaneously. There we close that entire stage.…"

I like that word ‘recommend’ and it could be that the Levelling works can be given locally, in Hong Kong for instance. In that case expect to hear from me again very soon as the sessions of retreats would than take place in our neighbourhood instead of those interested having to fly off overseas - to nearby Philippines or India closest.

However, it is likely that the work in the Disciplines would entail travel to one our Parks.

In that quote the latter part deals with Masters passing into School, in mid-January, and that means everyone taking the works and accepted are invited, no matter when they completed the Disciplines, last year, before that, or December 2010.

It would be great to get Chinese entering this process and it’s an anomaly that while India is producing healthy numbers of Postulants and Disciples, China has zero to date! How to click with that Chinese mind and that Chinese culture, because, the Buddhist Way is valued, and the Taoist Way, also the Folk Way which is the preponderance of spirituality among the Chinese.

It may simply be a lack of penetration of this message and possibility of doing what the Buddha did, for example. Maybe the parallel is not seen. Maybe enlightenment is placed on that High Shelf, out of reach, as if meant for some Higher Being, some specially endowed personality.

There will not be any political solution to today’s problems unless the person’s wielding political authority are acting out of the best interests of all, the same in economics, the same in all affairs - so what needs attending to primarily? That very person, or, in my case - me.

How apt this study, this Path. To establish oneself concretely in one’s own life and live according to one’s own dictates, with past transgressions reconciled and with an open future - that’s what’s going to resolve things. With that centre of gravity and a humanly sensitized look the others in our lives are treated as we would like to be treated and all’s well!

That’s where we are going on this spiritual path treaded by some very wonderful personalities who have always beckoned to us to forge our own destinies and play a part in the inherited scheme of things, changing what we will.
Peace, Force and Joy
Tony

#####

Registration now taking place until August 14, 2010.
Personally
Just get in touch

#####

The Parks

1 Red Bluff USA San Francisco www.redbluffpark.org info@redbluffpark.org
2 Hudson Valley USA New York
3 La Unión Colombia Bogota,Choachi www.parquelaunion.org parquelaunion@gmail.com
4 Montecillo Bolivia Cochabamba www.parquemontecillo.org parquemontecillo@gmail.com
5 Caucaia Brasil Sao Paulo www.parquecaucaia.org contato@parquecaucaia.org
6 Piribebuy Paraguay
7 Manantiales Chile Santiago www.parquemanantiales.org contacto@parquemanantiales.org
8 Punta de Vacas Argentina Punta de Vacas www.parquepuntadevacas.org parque.pdv@gmail.com
9 La Reja Argentina Buenos Aires www.parquelareja.org info@parquelareja.org
10 Carcaraña Argentina Rosario www.parquecarcarana.org contacto@parquecarcarana.org
11 Chaco Argentina Resistencia www.parquechaco.org parquechaco@gmail.com
12 Patagonia Norte Argentina Neuquen,Centenario www.patagonianorte.org parquedeestudiopatagonianorte@gmail.com
13 Toledo España Madrid www.parquetoledo.org parquesdeestudioyreflexiontoledo@parquetoledo.org
14 Attigliano Italia Attigliano www.parcoattigliano.eu center@parcoattigliano.eu
15 Casa Giorgi Italia Milan www.parchicasagiorgi.org parchicasagiorgi@gmail.com
16 la Belle Idee Francia Paris www.parclabelleidee.fr info@parclabelleidee.fr
17 Mikebuda Hungria Budapest www.mikebudapark.org commission@mikebudapark.org
18 Berlin Germany
19 Kandharoli Ashram India Mumbai www.asianashram.net nowsonali@gmail.com
20 Banahaw Filipinas Dolores, Quezon parkebanahawphilippines.org parkebanahaw@gmail.com

August 2010
The Parks

The Parks of Study and Reflection are spaces dedicated to the study and reflection about the Human Being and evolutionary possibilities toward a nonviolent world without discrimination of any kind. Here a new sensitivity and the best in ourselves can be expressed.

Centre of Work
...as a place for retreats and personal works

Centre of Study
as a place in which the Works of the School are developed, here the Masters and Disciples do their practices and studies.

#####

Philippines

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

India

http://www.asianashram.in/index.htm

for materials and information

http://www.silo.net/

In Hong Kong
We continue to seek a place to use as a Small Hall, in time leading to the establishment of a Centre of Work, a place of some seclusion and quiet, and a place to bring together people interested in a deeper self-study. Some disused annex of a monastery is ideal and this will help to keep spiritual retreats available for so-inclined people instead of commercial firms buying up those places for use selling urn space at exorbitant prices. Any introductions welcome.
In the quest for the eventual setting up of a Park of Study and Reflection (Hong Kong) the forming of an interest group is now underway.

Contact:
Material from this newsletter may be freely reprinted with this attribution: Source: The Humanist Newsletter - Asia-Pacific - or the bylined writer.

TONY HENDERSON,
My phone (852) 29840094
G/F, 49 Kau Tsuen, Mui Wo, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
E-mail: tonyhen @ gmail.com/
Web-blog: http://hall-inner-light-china.blogspot.com/

The Humanist - Hong Kong - June 2010

2010-06-16T21:36:00.001-08:00

The Humanist - Hong Kong
- among friends of universal humanism Vol II, Number 30 - June 2010
**********************************************************
Page 1 - EDITORIAL
Page 2 - "In the Parks of Study and Reflection many issues are being worked on." Interview.
Page 5 - contact information

Editorial,

In the effort to establish a Parks of Study and Reflection (Hong Kong) I am inviting my family and friends to take some active part and here send this circular with the intention of informing one and all of the details.
This ‘Park' intends to be a place of meeting, discussion and involvement of ordinary people who are disenchanted with the usual offerings of this mechanical-materialistic society that is out of control on every front.
This means, what began as a fairly understandable request to ‘Keep off the grass' in some moment and some places, by government, has become authoritarian and anti-people (though posing as precautionary-protective).
There is today no escape from the influences of the insanity that we see in wars, threats by Big Powers, extremism, terrorism, land and border conflicts, occupations by foreign troops, down-trodden ethnic groups, marginalised minorities, ecological disasters owing to industrial abuse, increasing mental illness because of poverty and in-human urbanised living , centralised governance that always misses the point, child medications (oh, he's over-active!) and so on.
Locally, while the government does run an excellent health service, education for non-Chinese is unaffordable for many, the twits in Legco are always quarreling, local councillors need more executive powers over real affairs, transport costs have to be brought down, low-carbon infrastructures are needed, etc
The answer to all this mess can only be gradually applied so will take time but the question is, how to remain safe and sane and with a feeling of, "well at least I am trying to do something about it and I am not alone”?
The activities associated with the Parks (an ‘s’ because there are thirty Parks extant today across the planet) strike at the root of all of such issues.
In the first place because the guided studies allow each one of us to understand our self and situation better and to begin rectifying the personal afflictions, while strengthening all that is good.
In the second place - but actually on par with the first - messages and actions of active non-violence are initiated by the people of the Park in order to address the injustices, in our immediate environment of family and friends, and to wider society according to our interest, ingenuity and influence.
However, I am not saying we need to be political. The parks are not political, nor commercial, nor a religion of any sort. But if a member wants to develop or engage in a political activity, or belong to a religion, why not as it is a personal choice, and that sector can benefit from the member’s balancing input to that sector.
The thrust of the endeavour in the Parks is personal enlightenment quite in the sense achieved by such as the Buddha, though without the trappings of Buddhism or other religious orthodoxy. The aim is to reach that deep understanding that appears following contact with what we can call the Profound which spontaneously erupts with a letting go of the dross.
The dross I speak of arrives to us because like it or not, we are all caught up in the hypnotic systematization of an imposed way of life that accords with where we were born and the demands of an industrial society where the bottom line is money-personal power.
To break free, we have to reconcile with the past, solidify what’s good in the present and open up the future. That's the aim of the initial ‘levelling’ works and studies for anyone wanting to engage in the running of the Parks; affiliates can simply join in the activities as they wish.
Peace, Force and Joy
Tony
#####

First Meeting Sunday June 20, 2010
2pm to 3pm
Fieldwork Centre
Mui Wo
Tea and chat till 3.30 or 4pm

#####

Interview with Hugo Novotny (resident at the Punta de Vacas Park):
"In the Parks of Study and Reflection many issues are being worked on."
By Marta Icarte - for Pressenza International press Agency:
Punta de Vacas, 2010-04-15
We have been talking to Hugo Novotny about the Parks of Study and Reflection and what is being lived in them by those who do the work of levelling, as well as those who develop a process in one of the four disciplines: the material discipline, the energetic discipline, the mental discipline and morphological discipline.
Why is it called a Park of Study and Reflection? What is being studied and reflected upon? What do you do there and why have you built Punta de Vacas Park in the middle of the mountains?
Punta de Vacas Park of Study and Reflection, is one of many similar parks that are already in use in different countries and continents. There the works of the Communities of Silo's Message and those of members of the Humanist Movement are developed, works that are related to the coherent development of the human being as well as works that allow the achievement of states of profound inspiration, states that allow us to gradually create the best conditions for the emergence of a new, truly human and non-violent civilization.
All this is being developed through meetings, seminars, retreats, and gatherings, which take place in the Centre of Work located next to the portal which marks the entrance to the Park. This Centre of Work is also where the activities of the various organisms of the Humanist Movement and the Communities of Silo's Message in relation to the personal development of their members take place, as well as activities of levelling open to all persons interested in postulating for the Works of School.
The works of school, directly linked to achieving states of profound inspiration, are developed in the Centre of Studies which is located behind the Sacred Mount and facing the source of the Mendoza river.
This Park of Study and Reflection has a very special relationship with the landscape that frames it. The fact of being located at the intersection of three great mountain ranges and near the source of a river, are things that, as many know, make it a highly inspiring place with a special energy.
Each person, once they have completed the levelling work, can choose the discipline that most resonates with their inner world. The energetic, mental, morphological or material disciplines are all ways to access those profound inner spaces where we encounter the Unnameable and all existence becomes Meaningful.
Precise and comprehensive information about the four disciplines can be found at the website www.silo.net, as well as information on the previous work of levelling, registration for which is open until late December, 2010. The only requirement for participation is to be 18 years of age at the time of registration.
How does one register? Simply send an email to the following address: NivelacionParquePuntadeVacas@gmail.com You will receive a return mail containing a link where you can enter your personal data to complete the registration process.
Inscriptions can also be made on the websites of the various parks of Study and Reflection, which as we have already said are presently located in different countries.

For more information write to parque.pdv@gmail.com

Additional note on the Parks

Banawa Park (Philippines): levelingparkebanahaw@gmail.com

Khandaroli Park (India):
http://www.asianashram.in/index.htm (use general email address NivelacionParquePuntadeVacas@gmail.com for the moment, or parque.pdv@gmail.com

Montecillo Park (Cochabamba, Bolivia): nivelacionparquemontecillo @
gmail

Carcarañá Park (Rosario, Argentina): nivelacionparquecarcarana@gmail.com

Parque Punta de Vacas (Mendoza, Argentina):
nivelacionparquepuntadevacas@gmail.com

Park Chaco (Chaco, Argentina): nivelacionparquechaco@gmail.com

Parque La Reja (Buenos Aires, Argentina):
nivelacionparquelareja@gmail.com

Park North Patagonia (Neuquén, Argentina):
nivelacionparquepnorte@gmail.com

Manantiales Park (Chile), through the website: www.parquemanantiales.org

Piribebuy Park (Paraguay): parqueparaguay@gmail.com

Caucaia Park (Brazil): nivelacaoparquecaucaia@gmail.com

La Union Park (Colombia): nivelacionpostulantes2010@gmail.com

Red Bluff Park (United States) through the website: www.redbluffpark.org

Park Toledo (Spain): nivelacionparquetoledo@gmail.com

Aloasí Park (Ecuador), through the website: www.parquealoasi.org

Attigliano Park (Italy): nivelacionparqueattigliano@gmail.com

Holit Park (Israel) through the website: www.holitpark.org

Marracuene Park (Mozambique), through the website:
www.parquemarracuene.org

La Belle Idee Parc (France): miseaniveauparclabelleidee@gmail.com

Casa Giorgi Park (Italy): livellamentoparcocasagiorgi@gmail.com

Mikebuda Park (Hungary): leveling2010_may@mikebudapark.org

The Parks

The Parks of Study and Reflection are spaces dedicated to the study and reflection about the Human Being and evolutionary possibilities toward a nonviolent world without discrimination of any kind. Here a new sensitivity and the best in ourselves can be expressed.

Centre of Work
...as a place for retreats and personal works

Centre of Study
as a place in which the Works of the School are developed, here the Masters and Disciples do their practices and studies.

#####

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

&

http://www.asianashram.in/index.htm

#####

http://www.silo.net/

In Hong Kong
We continue to seek a place to use as a Small Hall, in time leading to the establishment of a Centre of Work, a place of some seclusion and quiet, and a place to bring together people interested in a deeper self-study. Some disused annex of a monastery is ideal and this will help to keep spiritual retreats available for so-inclined people instead of commercial firms buying up those places for use selling urn space at exorbitant prices. Any introductions welcome.
In the quest for the eventual setting up of a Park of Study and Reflection (Hong Kong) the forming of an interest group is now mooted.

Contact us:
Material from this newsletter may be freely reprinted with this attribution: Source: The Humanist Newsletter - Asia-Pacific - or the bylined writer.

FEEDBACK
TONY HENDERSON, editor/correspondent
My phone (852) 29840094
G/F, 49 Kau Tsuen, Mui Wo, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
E-mail: tonyhen @ gmail.com/
http://tonyhen-humanisthongkong.blogspot.com/
My personal Web page: http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen/

#####

BOOK

Walking Hong Kong to the Water
by
Tony Henderson
a Hong Kong humanist’s story
penultimate update to March 2010
download in PDF format from:
http://home.pacific.net/~tonyhen/

"In the Parks of Study and Reflection many issues are being worked on."

2010-04-20T17:18:00.000-08:00

Interview with Hugo Novotny: "In the Parks of Study and Reflection many issues are being worked on."

Marta Icarte

We have been talking to Hugo Novotny about the Parks of Study and Reflection and what is being lived in them by those who do the work of levelling, as well as those who develop a process in one of the four disciplines: the material discipline, the energetic discipline, the mental discipline and morphological discipline.

Pressenza
Punta de Vacas, 2010-04-15

Why is it called a Park of Study and Reflection? What is being studied and reflected upon? What do you do there and why have you built Punta de Vacas Park in the middle of the mountains?

Punta de Vacas Park of Study and Reflection, is one of many - presently 21 - similar parks that are already in use in different countries and continents. There the works of the Communities of Silo's Message and of members of the Humanist Movement are developed, works that are related to the coherent development of the human being as well as works that allow the achievement of states of profound inspiration, states that allow us to gradually create the best conditions for the emergence of a new, truly human and non-violent civilization.

All this is being developed through meetings, seminars, retreats, and gatherings, which take place in the Centre of Work located next to the portal which marks the entrance to the park. This Centre of Work is also where the activities of the various organisms of the Humanist Movement and the Communities of Silo's Message in relation to the personal development of their members take place, as well as activities of levelling open to all persons interested in postulating for the works of school.

The works of school, directly linked to achieving states of profound inspiration, are developed in the Centre of Studies which is located behind the Sacred Mount and facing the source of the Mendoza river.

This Park of Study and Reflection has a very special relationship with the landscape that frames it. The fact of being located at the intersection of three great mountain ranges and near to the source of a river, are things that, as many know, make it a highly inspiring place with a special energy.

Each person, once they have completed the levelling work, can choose the discipline that most resonates with their inner world. The energetic, mental, morphological or material disciplines are all ways to access those profound inner spaces where we encounter the Unnameable and all existence becomes Meaningful.

Precise and comprehensive information about the four disciplines can be found at the website www.silo.net, as well as information on the previous work of levelling, registration for which is open until late December, 2010. The only requirement for participation is to be 18 years of age at the time of registration.

How does one register? Simply send an email to the following address: NivelacionParquePuntadeVacas@gmail.com You will receive a return mail containing a link where you can enter your personal data to complete the registration process.

Inscriptions can also be made on the websites of the various parks of Study and Reflection, which as we have already said are presently located in 21 different countries.

For more information write to parque.pdv@gmail.com

[additional note on the Parks:]

Banawa Park (Philippines): levelingparkebanahaw@gmail.com

Khandaroli Park (India):
http://www.asianashram.in/index.htm (use general email address NivelacionParquePuntadeVacas@gmail.com for the moment, or parque.pdv@gmail.com

Montecillo Park (Cochabamba, Bolivia): nivelacionparquemontecillo @
gmail

Carcarañá Park (Rosario, Argentina): nivelacionparquecarcarana@gmail.com

Parque Punta de Vacas (Mendoza, Argentina):
nivelacionparquepuntadevacas@gmail.com

Park Chaco (Chaco, Argentina): nivelacionparquechaco@gmail.com

Parque La Reja (Buenos Aires, Argentina):
nivelacionparquelareja@gmail.com

Park North Patagonia (Neuquén, Argentina):
nivelacionparquepnorte@gmail.com

Manantiales Park (Chile), through the website: www.parquemanantiales.org

Piribebuy Park (Paraguay): parqueparaguay@gmail.com

Caucaia Park (Brazil): nivelacaoparquecaucaia@gmail.com

La Union Park (Colombia): nivelacionpostulantes2010@gmail.com

Red Bluff Park (United States) through the website: www.redbluffpark.org

Park Toledo (Spain): nivelacionparquetoledo@gmail.com

Aloasí Park (Ecuador), through the website: www.parquealoasi.org

Attigliano Park (Italy): nivelacionparqueattigliano@gmail.com

Holit Park (Israel) through the website: www.holitpark.org

Marracuene Park (Mozambique), through the website:
www.parquemarracuene.org

La Belle Idee Parc (France): miseaniveauparclabelleidee@gmail.com

Casa Giorgi Park (Italy): livellamentoparcocasagiorgi@gmail.com

Mikebuda Park (Hungary): leveling2010_may@mikebudapark.org

Pressenza, an international news agency dedicated to news about peace and nonviolence with offices in Milan, Rome, London, Paris, New York, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Santiago and Hong Kong. Find out who we are and get in touch with us.

Hall of Inner Light - China

2009-07-02T19:20:00.006-08:00

Small Hall - under development as a preliminary step toward establishing a "Parks of Study and Reflection (Hong Kong) - first we will start an interest group:

for: our ordinary and extra-ordinary friends who want to study the more profound aspects of our Universal Humanism, especially the Not Not-Buddhists.

Aiming to open up our human future and guide our immediate society toward a way of life overcoming the injustices, to form a truly universal human nation - inspiring the infinite possibilities of the human being.

"When you treat others as you want to be treated, you liberate yourself"

To further the Message of Universal Humanism as primary, necessarily clarifying it, deepening our understanding of its import and on its personal and universal application.

To reach out beyond the hypnotism of mundane life with its restrictive conditioning and to free ourselves of the distortions of an almost thrown together personality. To create a centre of gravity, or conscience, a Self.

To do this while building a meaningful personal life with fellows, accepting that only by directing actions toward liberating others does meaning consolidate.To work together on this.

To facilitate good communications between us to generate coherence.

To help place the message of Peace and Non-Violence into society as the basis on which lasting results can be achieved that are beneficial to all.

To accept other's faiths and non-faiths in a spirit of cultural diversity - a practical non-discrimination.

To seek for and give the best of ourselves - thereby revealing the sacred in us. In this sense delving into the mystery - which is an activity - when the human consciousness is fixed with truth, and in that revelation finding personal unity with the Infinite.

The form

Those interested get together every week for about an hour. In this weekly meeting we study:

Relaxation
Psycho-physics
Self-Knowledge
Guided Experiences
Study of Psychology Notes I and II - writings pertaining to the personal works of Universal Humanism

Further:
We can study "the Point of View"

The following works are also studied:

Self-Liberation
Psychology I and II
Guided Experiences book
Conference “Guided Experiences”
Collected Works 1.

Those who wish may use these studies to go further and participate in the advanced works by postulating for one of the four Disciplines. However, this option is only open until 29th May 2010.

This way of contact with our deeper self acts to draw out and settle the Force - which can be viewed as causing an acceleration and increase in the natural psycho-physical energy, our vital life current. This effects behaviour in daily life positively - we come alive! The perspective opens up. This in turn grants more coherence in daily actions. A process of personal spiritual development is started, and registered, and thus the spiritual growth of the entire group - it is deemed essential to work in a group. That process is maintained in its direction by the cycle of regular gatherings.

The Message is that of Universal Humanism as proposed through the Humanist Movement in its completeness. Also, as synthesised in July 2002 where this particular rendition of a form outside the Humanist Movement was given. This comprised of three parts: the Book, the Experience, and the Path. The book referred to is Silo's early writing The Inner Look - openly interpreted.

Annual calendar of special days

Spring (rebirth) and autumn (passing) equinoxes, midsummer day (maximum yang), winter solstice (maximum yin), May 4th Foundation Day - as fixed days of gatherings for social encounters, also as open days. Further days added as agreed.

Joining

Anyone can become part of the community. You leave by simply leaving...

Study meeting

Complementary materials such as Silo Speaks may be used to understand the antecedents of the Message while the Guided Experiences may also be used for practices of reconciliation, integration, and the process of liberation. Silo's Complete Works, contained in two volumes is similarly available. Activities of social solidarity can also be organized.

Further notes:

The Message is not an action front or organism of the Humanist Movement. What is brought forward in this work is the spirit, values and ideas expressed through universalist humanism, integral to that Movement. The point of contact between the two avenues of activity is the School.

Appreciation

It is appropriate at this time, therefore, to give appreciation to the various expressions of our affiliated organisms by citing its ideals and fundamental proposals, formalised in the following five points:

First, Universal Humanism advocates placing the human being as the central value and concern, in such a way that nothing is above the human being and no human being is above another.

Second, it affirms the equality of all people, and works so that the simple formality of 'equal rights before the law' gives way to a world of equal opportunities for all.

Third, it recognises personal and cultural diversity, affirming the characteristics proper to each human group and condemning negative discrimination, whether motivated by economic, racial, ethnic, or cultural differences.

Fourth, it encourages every tendency to develop knowledge beyond the limitations imposed by prejudices accepted as absolute and immutable truths.

Fifth, it repudiates the violence rooted in daily life in all regions of the world, not only the various forms of physical violence but all other forms of violence: economic, racial, sexual, religious, moral, and psychological.

These five points of Universalist Humanism constitute the basis of our social doctrine and our commitment to action in the world.

Immortality and the Sacred

All human beings have full rights to believe or not to believe in immortality and the sacred. We give the utmost importance to the themes of immortality and the sacred because, depending on how a person places himself or herself with respect to these themes, so will be his or her orientation in life. As a group we take on the challenge of openly examining fundamental beliefs, handling the clash of censorship and self-censorship that inhibits freedom of thought and the formation of a clear conscience.

Within the context of freedom of interpretation, immortality for some refers to the actions performed in life continuing in the world despite physical death. For others, the memory that continues in loved ones, or even in societies, guarantees persistence after physical death. For still others, immortality is accepted as personal persistence in another level of existence.

Continuing with freedom of interpretation, some feel the sacred as one's deepest affections. For them, their children or other loved ones represent the sacred and possess an utmost value that should not be defiled for any reason. There are others who consider the human being and universal rights as sacred. Still others experience the divinity as the essence of the sacred.

The different positions taken with respect to the themes of immortality and the sacred should not be simply 'tolerated,' but rather genuinely respected.

Curiosity

We do not need to explain ourselves to others and have no interest in media exposure. We can either speak or not speak (to others) but no one can demand explanations. A reporter can come to a meeting but only as an individual, from a personal interest standpoint.

Age of participation

No age limit to participation, given that a person has reached the age of reason and can make a choice.

Other groups

Any group of people that share our ideas, sentiments and procedures can be considered to be a fellow Community and enjoy our two pillars: freedom of interpretation of the Message and freedom of association around the Message.

Interpretations

From the free interpretation of the Message, different and sometimes even opposing positions will arise. These should be fully recognized with complete freedom of thought. This obviously excludes any particular position or interpretation being considered as the only correct one.

Likewise, the freedom of association around the Message gives rise to different forms of organization that enable the experiences and studies proposed in the Book, the Experience and the Path to be developed. Whatever the form of organization a Community adopts, decisions affecting the whole should be made by consensus or by direct vote, if consensus is not possible.

Further note: Silo is the pen name of Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos. He was born in 1938 near the mountain town of Mendoza, located between Argentina and Chile. His writings have been translated into numerous languages.

Friends of the Community are those in affiliation who wish to join in the activities but have not joined the Community. They may come and go as they will.

Note: We are using the term conscience as a here-and-now phenomenon - while some may call this soul, or the energetic 'double' that is said to act around the vital centres of human beings. That 'double' was anciently called spirit and on becoming aware of itself could form a 'centre' of new energy - the conscience.

"To be reborn, overcomes the non-meaning"

and,

"Do not do to others what you would not wish them to do to you"

email: tonyhen1 @ gmail.com

See also:

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

http://www.asianashram.net/