2023 Actions & Intentions of the Compassionate Civilization Collaborative (C3)

A Year of Mindfulness, Understanding, and Care

Introduction and overview

C3 is an informal, expanding network of individuals and organizations promoting climate chaos and ecocide mitigation and adaptation, ecological regeneration, socio-economic justice, gender equality, peace and nonviolence, participatory governance, and cultural tolerance and understanding. It was launched in 2017 with the publication of my first book A Compassionate Civilization. 

During the violence, suffering, and confusion of 2023, C3 reached out globally, nationally, and locally with words and deeds of mindfulness, understanding, and care. In 2023, C3 actions involved partners in Nepal, Ukraine, Jordan, Pakistan, India, and Canada, in the US in Oklahoma, Arizona, California, and Georgia, and here in western North Carolina in Asheville, Black Mountain, and Swannanoa.

In previous years, I shared a list of activities on my blogsite. This year on Substack, I am offering more detail, context, and reflection. Please find below underlined links for some of C3 2023 partners, programs, podcasts, videos, books, essays, blogsites, websites, social media pages, memes, and more. I hope that you will enjoy and share the interviews, stories, messages, methods, music, policies, platforms, and poems.

Details of C3 2023 actions and intentions

This year, the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) Nepal held a training workshop on school effectiveness and gave each participant a copy of the Nepali edition of A Compassionate Civilization (ACC) which had been translated and published a few years ago and given to every parliamentarian and provincial chief. ICA Nepal also launched a program to train youth in the sustainable development goals (SDGs) based on the ACC Nepali edition. In addition, this year is the 20th anniversary of promoting Jean Houston’s social artistry (SA) in Nepal, originally launched by Dr. Tatwa Timsina, the founder of ICA Nepal, and my longtime colleague Jan Sanders. Jan and her partner Blase Sands travelled from Canada to Nepal for anniversary activities. My talk on my use and promotion of SA over the past twenty years became part of an anniversary publication. Tatwa is now leading the translation into Nepali of my book of essays Society, Spirit, Self. May the people of Nepal, the birthplace of the Awakened One, be happy and healthy!

The Geopolitical Alliance of Women of Ukraine led by its president Svitlana Salamatova had my book A Compassionate Civilization translated into Ukrainian and will release the Ukrainian edition as an e-book in 2024. This effort has been going on since 2019 but was interrupted by the tragic war. I met Svitlana at an ICA archives meeting in Chicago at the ICA GreenRise Center. Svitlana recently shared that the translator was so moved by the book that she donated her fee to a young man for treatments after he lost an arm and leg in the war. May peace come to Ukraine, the Middle East, and around the world.

In Asheville, NC, USA, I attended a Democratic Party cluster meeting, a meeting of the Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregation in Black Mountain (BMT), NC, the Woodburn Place Home Owners Association annual meeting in Swannanoa, NC, and a BMT Library local authors’ annual event. I will be working hard to get out the vote (GOTV) for Democratic candidates in the critical 2024 national and local elections. A board member of the BMT UU asked if I would speak to their congregation when the pastor is away. In our Woodburn Place neighborhood, I promoted home vegetable gardens, home solar energy, community dialogue events, and aging in place. Bonnie Myotai Treace, my wife and a well known Zen teacher and author, and I, each have our books in the local library, and will have tables in the next author event in 2024.

Catalyst 2030, lifelong, and 50plus Chapter put on their website a video of my recommendation of their initiative of “reinventing retirement to help achieve the SDGs.” In the video, I mention my activities as an author, teacher, consultant, public speaker, and activist during the past seventeen years of retirement. My former UNDP colleague Ricardo Neves from Brazil, now based in Berlin, is leading this global effort. I enjoyed participating in a Zoom meeting of the group with participants from Jordan, Egypt, Nigeria, Germany, USA, India, and Bangladesh. This year the initiative held events in Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and Lisbon, and in 2024 will hold events in other parts of the world including the US.

The Swannanoa Watershed Action Network (SWAN) located near Asheville met weekly in the first four months of the year promoting messages and actions of social justice and ecological regeneration. My story about SWAN was published on the Doughnut Economic Action Lab (DEAL) website and in the Black Mountain News; and I enjoyed participating with our SWAN exhibit at an Earth Day event sponsored by the BMT UU climate change group. Black Mountain town council member Alice Berry met with Courtney Bruch, Diana Schmidt McCall, and me to discuss how Doughnut Economics could help the town. In May, SWAN evolved into a loose network of individuals and organizations demonstrating home permaculture, caring for the river, calling for deep adaptation, providing capital, caring for the homeless and the hungry, and more. (photo above: Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics model)

C3 released on Audible an audiobook of A Compassionate Civilization narrated by radio personality Caeri Bertrand of California in her meaning-filled, nuanced voice. After reading the book, Caeri had written to me with great enthusiasm saying that she wanted to help create the audiobook as a gift. She also created several beautiful memes using quotes from the book and photos she had taken. Caeri’s partner, Marlin Nisson, helped with production of the audiobook. Deep gratitude.

I wrote and published on Substack eleven “Compassionate Conversations” including A Conversation about Compassionate Conversations; In Mindfulness and Gratitude We Gather; Events, Emotions, Stories, Actions; Mystery; What Is Consciousness?; Suffering of Birth, Aging, Sickness, and Death; Practicing Happiness as a Mindful Activist; My Journey with OSU as an Activist and Author; Empathic Earthlings; Called to Care; and now, this 2023 C3 conversation. Thanks for insights and questions related to the essays shared during the year by Loraine Rickard-Martin, Nikhil Chandavarkar, PhD, in Brazil, Paul Grayhurst in Canada, Tina Spencer in Australia, Shabbir Cheema, PhD, in the US, Fayyaz Baqir in Canada, Kerry Christopher Dugan in Thailand, Chic Dambach in the US, David Elliott in Vietnam, and Ken Hamje in Peru. Each recent essay has had 250 - 350 views. I so enjoy writing these in dialogue with you and others and will continue publishing on Substack during 2024.

The Global Compassion Coalition (GCC) created a founding supporter page on their website for my bio, books, and a few of my videos and articles. GCC also recommended my book A Compassionate Civilization on their website. Thanks to GCC president, Rick Hanson, Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, for inviting me to be a founding supporter. Please check out and join GCC.

Global Heart2Heart Radio created 1) podcasts of my reading ten of my poems from my book Earthling Love: Living Poems and 2) a podcast of director Mary Alice Arre interviewing me about A Compassionate Civilization. Interviews on each of the seven chapters of the book are planned for 2024 with a podcast for each. Years ago, we met in Jean Houston’s Social Artistry School; and happily, Mary Alice has recently moved to Asheville, NC, with partner and poet Jasmin Holley arriving soon. Please enjoy GH2H’s Poets’ Corner, 24 hours of inspiring music, and interviews.

The Mindful Marketplace radio show broadcast on BizRadio and created two podcasts of host Joel Skene, who lives in the Asheville area, interviewing me about 1) activism and writing, and 2) Doughnut Economics. I so appreciate Joel’s vision of investing in local people.

Blue Ridge Impact Consulting created a video and podcast of director Ameena Zia, PhD, and me discussing the UN International Day of Tolerance (16 November) and the importance of the words we choose in talking about others. Ameena, a Pakistani American, lives with her lovely family near Asheville. We have recorded other conversations with podcasts including with her students at Virginia Tech.

The Democratic Perspective show, broadcast from Sonoma, Arizona, created a podcast of host Stephen Williamson interviewing me on the current US political climate of fear and anger and how practicing mindfulness can help. Stephen and I have known each other for many years since our participation in Jean Houston’s Mystery School in New York.

The Vishwaneedam Center for Asian Blooming in India hosted a Zoom event of Naresh Singh, PhD, an executive dean at Jindal Global University in India, speaking about applied spirituality and sustainable public policy, which included my and others’ comments and questions. Available for pre-order and released by Emerald Publishing on 14 December, the book Applied Spirituality and Sustainable Development Policy has chapters written by 18 authors and was edited by Naresh, and Divya Bhatnagar, also at Jindal. My chapter on “Compassionate Policies to Relieve Systemic Suffering” concludes the book. Naresh, based in Canada and India, is a colleague from our UNDP days.

The Oklahoma State University (OSU) School of Global Studies (SGS) hosted a Zoom meeting in which Vice Dean Dr. Jami Fullerton, Bailey Brian, and I planned, for students in their interdisciplinary master’s program, a career development workshop to be held on 31 January 2024. My fellow OSU campus activist Chic Dambach, president emeritus of the National Peace Corps Association, and recent inductee into the OSU Hall of Fame, had introduced me to OSU Global. Check out Chic’s inspiring memoir Exhaust the Limits which tells the story of his global journey as a peace activist. Graduating from OSU in 1966, receiving the OSU outstanding alumni award in 2003, and participating in the 50th anniversary of campus activists in 2017, I am donating my time as guest speaker on Zoom for the career workshop. I have posed a few questions to the students, and will share some of my experiences from my work around the world with UNDP, ICA, and NYU Wagner. My books are in the OSU library and student union bookstore.

Congratulations to ICA and social artistry colleague Joy Jinks in Colquitt, Georgia, for publishing Spiritual Not Religious. I am happy that my chapter on my spiritual journey is included along with a chapter by colleague Jan Sanders of her spiritual reflections. I first met Joy when she and her daughter volunteered in an ICA community development project in Woburn Lawn, Jamaica, where I was co-director. In previous years, I enjoyed speaking twice at the Swamp Gravy Social Artistry Conference, which Joy co-founded. Celebrating amazing Joy in her 90th birthday year!

Jawad S. Haddadin of Jordan launched an initiative to create an Arabic language edition of A Compassionate Civilization. Did you know that there are 250 million Arabic speakers around the world?! Proceeds from book sales will go to charitable, nonprofit causes. In his group facilitation practice, Jawad uses ICA’s highly effective methods of ToP – Technology of Participation; and he referenced my book in his master’s thesis. If you want to support Jawad with this project, please leave your contact information in comments.

My former UNDP colleague Fayyaz Baqir based in Canada is working on an SDG online seminar for universities in his home country of Pakistan. Another former UNDP colleague, Dr. Shabbir Cheema, and I have been invited by Fayyaz to speak at the opening of the seminar in 2024. Please enjoy Shabbir’s powerful memoir Journey from Kamalpur telling the story of growing up in a poor Pakistani village to becoming the UN’s global policy leader on democratic governance and urban development.

Recently, I learned from Drs. Larry Ward and Peggy Rowe-Ward that they are moving from Oklahoma to Asheville. They are the founders of The Lotus Institute, teaching in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. I have known Larry for around fifty years, since our ICA days, and am grateful for my dharma name, “Ancient Treasure of the Heart”, given to me by Larry and Peggy, as well as for their inspiring teachings over the years. Check out their powerful books America’s Racial Karma, and Love’s Garden. Finally, just a few months ago, I gave a copy of A Compassionate Civilization to Brother Phap Huu of Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh’s global center in France. (photo above, l-r: me, Peggy, Larry, Bonnie Myotai, in Montreat, NC)

My five books sharing reflections and recommendations of a mindful activist, poems, essays, talks, and life story were available throughout the year at low prices on Amazon, other online sites, and in local bookshops; and free PDFs were given to people on request and placed on the ICA archives website. The blogsite “A Compassionate Civilization” with eleven years of posts, and my website with earlier videos and podcasts, were and are available. On 3 December, there were 1,400 views of my blogsite, a one day record. May these resources serve to inspire and equip. (photo above: high school students in Durant, OK, with my books donated to the school I attended)

Finally, I created a Compassionate Civilization Collaborative (C3) Facebook group page and published frequent posts on LinkedIn and Facebook. My posts were usually about how to be a mindful activist or author promoting social justice and ecological regeneration, and a happy, caring person, family member, friend, and neighbor.

Conclusion

I am filled with gratitude for C3 partners, activities, and outputs, and believe that the words and deeds released in 2023 will join those of thousands of other networks and millions of other people to help catalyze and embody an ecologically regenerative and socially just Earth community. Other groups include the Sunrise movement of youth, 350.org, Third Act of elders, the UN, ACLU, the Doughnut Economics movement, and many more.

In the midst of the enormous challenges and opportunities facing humanity and life on Earth, may 2024 manifest greater happiness, peace, understanding, and compassion for all beings everywhere. May we each take good care of others, ourselves, our societies, and the living Earth.

If you have comments, questions, suggestions, or requests, please share them below. Kindly share in comments any of your own 2023 C3-related activities - past, present, or future, or if you would like to be part of or support C3. Finally, please share this essay with others who are in need of the hope beyond hope.

Happy holidays, and a happy, healthy 2024 to you and yours!