Post by Stefan Pasti on Jan 2, 2012 20:03:23 GMT -5
Kind Greetings to readers of this message,
I am the founder and outreach coordinator for The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative, and the moderator for this IPCR Discussion Forum.
Here is my contribution to this "Introduction and Welcomes" section of the Forum.
I have been actively involved in peacebuilding and community revitalization work for over 25 years—as a writer (project-related correspondence, short novel, short story); an editor (newsletters, quotation collections); an advocate of ecologically sustainable communities; a practitioner of voluntary simplicity; and, more recently (first IPCR website in 2005), as founder and outreach coordinator for The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative (www.ipcri.net).
The most important influence in my life has been, and continues to be, the teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011). In 1997, I completed a 301 page arrangement of selected quotations from “Sathya Sai Speaks” (Vol. 1-11, first U.S. editions) (discourses by Sri Sathya Sai Baba from the years 1953-1982).
A more detailed autobiographical sketch is accessible at my Collected Writings website (www.writingsofstefanpasti.net ).
Since July, 2011, my focus has been on a long term project “IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012”. The IPCR webpage for this project is www.ipcri.net/Critical-Challenges-Assessment.html . There are ten critical challenges which currently make up the draft “Table of Contents”, which is accessible at the above webpage. Also accessible on that webpage are drafts of sections of the assessment which have gotten far enough along to share. In particular, the “Statistics and Observations” parts for Critical Challenge #3 “The end of the era of ‘cheap energy’ (particularly in reference to peak oil)” and Critical Challenge #7 “A Marginalization of the Treasured Wisdom of Religious, Spiritual, and Moral Traditions” (both containing over 60 pages of excerpts from many related sources) are accessible from that webpage. Other key IPCR documents that are accessible from the IPCR Initiative website homepage include: “Recalibrating Our Moral Compasses” (a lead in to the “Assessment” project); “39 Suggestions for Preliminary Survey Questions (in preparing for Community Visioning Initiatives)”; “A Four Page Summary of The IPCR Initiative”; and “The IPCR Journal/Newsletter (Winter 2010-2011 issue)” (a 58 page collection of articles, excerpts, etc. which provides much support for the IPCR "constellation of initiatives" approach to the challenges ahead. (The IPCR approach: a combination of Community Visioning Initiatives, "Community Teaching and Learning Centers", and "sister community" relationships.)
A most recent IPCR document “A 15 Step Outline for a Community Visioning Initiative” provides the most detail yet (in a shorter format—28 pages), for a process which could maximize citizen participation in solution-oriented activity, and do much to turn polarizing circumstances into collaborative circumstances at the same time.
Another draft document (may be completed by end of January) associated with the “Critical Challenges Assessment” project (mentioned above) is subtitled “A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises” (see Critical Challenge #6). This document may be over 200 pages, and will provide a wide range of references relating to the many-sided nature of the “debt crises”, and a wide range of solution-oriented references which point towards challenge-resolution and steady-state sustainability.
There are “many danger signs flashing now”; but also many pathways which represent solution-oriented activity. People can, one by one, decide to deliberately focus the way they spend their time, energy, and money so that their actions have positive repercussions on many or all of the action plans which emerge from Community Visioning Initiatives. This is the message of the IPCR document “A 15 Step Outline for a Community Visioning Initiative”—and a message that most IPCR documents and resources support, in one way or another.
Additional Note: I have noticed that there are visitors to this IPCR Discussion Forum, but no one is becoming a member, making posts, or commenting on posts. This IPCR Discussion Forum is a way for people to make helpful comments, suggestions, and recommendations—and ask questions—so that the efforts of The IPCR Initiative can be more useful and effective, and so visitors to this Forum can acquire information which is valuable to their efforts. Readers of this message, please consider offering your views in this IPCR Discussion Forum. I affirm that, as moderator, I will be most kind and courteous to those people who are sincerely trying to be constructive, and I will protect the integrity and safety of sincere and constructive people trying to benefit from this Forum by taking prompt and appropriate steps to maintain a courteous and constructive environment. Surely there are many things about this IPCR Discussion Forum which can be improved so that it will be more useful to visitors. Please be kind to this Forum, and offer some suggestions, as a response to this post—or in the “Suggestions” section of the forum.
For a Peaceful and Sustainable Future,
Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator
The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative
I am the founder and outreach coordinator for The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative, and the moderator for this IPCR Discussion Forum.
Here is my contribution to this "Introduction and Welcomes" section of the Forum.
I have been actively involved in peacebuilding and community revitalization work for over 25 years—as a writer (project-related correspondence, short novel, short story); an editor (newsletters, quotation collections); an advocate of ecologically sustainable communities; a practitioner of voluntary simplicity; and, more recently (first IPCR website in 2005), as founder and outreach coordinator for The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative (www.ipcri.net).
The most important influence in my life has been, and continues to be, the teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011). In 1997, I completed a 301 page arrangement of selected quotations from “Sathya Sai Speaks” (Vol. 1-11, first U.S. editions) (discourses by Sri Sathya Sai Baba from the years 1953-1982).
A more detailed autobiographical sketch is accessible at my Collected Writings website (www.writingsofstefanpasti.net ).
Since July, 2011, my focus has been on a long term project “IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012”. The IPCR webpage for this project is www.ipcri.net/Critical-Challenges-Assessment.html . There are ten critical challenges which currently make up the draft “Table of Contents”, which is accessible at the above webpage. Also accessible on that webpage are drafts of sections of the assessment which have gotten far enough along to share. In particular, the “Statistics and Observations” parts for Critical Challenge #3 “The end of the era of ‘cheap energy’ (particularly in reference to peak oil)” and Critical Challenge #7 “A Marginalization of the Treasured Wisdom of Religious, Spiritual, and Moral Traditions” (both containing over 60 pages of excerpts from many related sources) are accessible from that webpage. Other key IPCR documents that are accessible from the IPCR Initiative website homepage include: “Recalibrating Our Moral Compasses” (a lead in to the “Assessment” project); “39 Suggestions for Preliminary Survey Questions (in preparing for Community Visioning Initiatives)”; “A Four Page Summary of The IPCR Initiative”; and “The IPCR Journal/Newsletter (Winter 2010-2011 issue)” (a 58 page collection of articles, excerpts, etc. which provides much support for the IPCR "constellation of initiatives" approach to the challenges ahead. (The IPCR approach: a combination of Community Visioning Initiatives, "Community Teaching and Learning Centers", and "sister community" relationships.)
A most recent IPCR document “A 15 Step Outline for a Community Visioning Initiative” provides the most detail yet (in a shorter format—28 pages), for a process which could maximize citizen participation in solution-oriented activity, and do much to turn polarizing circumstances into collaborative circumstances at the same time.
Another draft document (may be completed by end of January) associated with the “Critical Challenges Assessment” project (mentioned above) is subtitled “A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises” (see Critical Challenge #6). This document may be over 200 pages, and will provide a wide range of references relating to the many-sided nature of the “debt crises”, and a wide range of solution-oriented references which point towards challenge-resolution and steady-state sustainability.
There are “many danger signs flashing now”; but also many pathways which represent solution-oriented activity. People can, one by one, decide to deliberately focus the way they spend their time, energy, and money so that their actions have positive repercussions on many or all of the action plans which emerge from Community Visioning Initiatives. This is the message of the IPCR document “A 15 Step Outline for a Community Visioning Initiative”—and a message that most IPCR documents and resources support, in one way or another.
Additional Note: I have noticed that there are visitors to this IPCR Discussion Forum, but no one is becoming a member, making posts, or commenting on posts. This IPCR Discussion Forum is a way for people to make helpful comments, suggestions, and recommendations—and ask questions—so that the efforts of The IPCR Initiative can be more useful and effective, and so visitors to this Forum can acquire information which is valuable to their efforts. Readers of this message, please consider offering your views in this IPCR Discussion Forum. I affirm that, as moderator, I will be most kind and courteous to those people who are sincerely trying to be constructive, and I will protect the integrity and safety of sincere and constructive people trying to benefit from this Forum by taking prompt and appropriate steps to maintain a courteous and constructive environment. Surely there are many things about this IPCR Discussion Forum which can be improved so that it will be more useful to visitors. Please be kind to this Forum, and offer some suggestions, as a response to this post—or in the “Suggestions” section of the forum.
For a Peaceful and Sustainable Future,
Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator
The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative