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The frequency of new articles on this site is not very important. But these are not subject to programmed obsolescence either. Each new subject completes and supports the subjects previously mentioned and represents a new chapter, building up the site which can be conceived almost like a book. There is a mailing list for each language if you want to be informed when a new article has been published.

 

PRESENTATION OF THE SITE

In addition to the home page and the introductions and summaries of articles, the presentation page allows a better understanding of the title of the site and the approach or process that this implies, in parallel to the collective approaches and to other attitudes and reactions to social problems.

 

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THE BOOK

 

« The day PROFIT Culture ceases »

or "How to extinguish our individual match under the cauldron that boils the world"

Starting from the highly data-driven observations in its first part, this book explores a host of societal dysfunctions: direct consequences of our conceptions of money and profit.

The following five parts move, first of all, towards certain ideas for solutions, with a significant focus on universal basic income; but also towards an invitation to self-reflection.

For what we denounce outside ourselves, we continue to accept and even practise in our everyday behaviour and in the psychological mechanisms that underpin it.

And far more often than not, we are complacent, complicit, or even active players in the very things we denounce, without really being conscious of it. We obey implicit cultural and social orders that enjoin us to consume, pollute, waste and, indirectly (not intentionally but very much in concrete terms), harm others through all these behaviours.n And when we seek to move the lines, we too often content ourselves with denouncing problems outside ourselves by pointing the finger at ‘others’; which almost always leaves us powerless, even if we are very active. For despite our intentions, we remain locked into functioning far from the heart and fixated on what we believe to be rational reasoning, persisting in all areas of our lives in operating within power dynamics. By changing the colour of the lens through which we view the world, by looking within ourselves at what stands in the way of change, we empower ourselves, both individually and collectively, to discover solutions to the millions of problems that currently litter the path of humanity and life on Earth.

 

Free digital book available in EPUB and PDF formats, written, translated from French (using Deepl), edited, published and distributed by Claire De Brabander

 

 

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ARTICLES :

RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP

Global/individual scale :

 

• Economy and human dignity (conf Joan Mellé)
  
  Here is the video of a short and exciting lecture to an audience of business managers, given in 2017 by Joan Antoni Melé, in Spanish (English subtitled), in Buenos Aires, about the human dignity that we have lost in the economy and social life and which is leading us to the destruction of the planet. Joan Antoni Melé, who participated in the creation of the Triodos bank in Spain, questions our values, education, art and culture. We have left our axis and lost our human capacities along the way. And it is imperative to move from the diktat of blind profit-seeking and abrupt rationality to coherent and altruistic thinking guided this time and at all costs by the heart.
  
  
• A definition of sustainable degrowth
  
  Degrowth is an economic and ecological concept based on the idea that on a limited planet it is imperative to put limits to our use of resources, which is the antithesis of current economic growth.
  
  
• Ecological footprint
  
  The Ecological Footprint measures the amount of bioproductive land surface needed to produce the goods and services we consume, and absorb the waste we produce. It therefore makes it possible to measure the pressure exerted by humans on nature.
  Tests proposed on the net and relayed in the text, allow us to calculate our own personal ecological footprint, and therefore encourage us to better orient our behaviors in order to reduce this footprint.
  
  
• A plate for our health, the one of the planet and of all its inhabitants
  
  Our plate perfectly reflects the state of the planet. If we look at food on it, its nature (meat, vegetable), its quality (organic, industrial), its origin (local, distant), its mode of production (ethical or not), the journey that it has made to reach us (1 km by bike or 10,000 km by plane), or the changes it has undergone (irradiation, cooking, preservation, packaging, ....);
  we can therefore determine the quality of life of those who produced it, the rate of pollution it has generated, the amount of water and energy it requires to mature, the harm or benefits that it does to our health, the damages it has caused to the environment.
  Most of the food that arrives on the plate of an average Western consumer has contributed significantly to a negative impact in all areas. This is not inevitable. Daniel Cauchy offers several concrete ways to change that.
  
  
• Ecological footprint and passive violence
  
  From the TedX conference of Arun Gandhi, proposed in video, which introduces the notion of passive violence; this article proposes to create links between the realities presented in the news, and our daily actions. Our consumption is not without consequences on what occurs in the world. Through consumption we have learned to practice passive violence. Our culture conditions us to this and encourages us to kindly look away from our responsibilities facing the realities of suffering and destruction that this engenders. Hundreds of millions of people have died of hunger or malnutrition in the world, and even more are living in misery right now while we live as if all this did not exist. As long as we are not able to take off our blinders and face this, making the link with our own everyday behaviors ; hundreds of millions of people will continue to suffer and disappear in almost general indifference.
  Changing our perspective of these facts, and adopting a new attitude awakens our humanity and allows us to change our behaviors by reducing our ecological footprint in a more coherent way. By adopting this more realistic perspective, a whole path then opens up before us to change, on our scale, what can still be changed.

 

Doing our part :

 

• Voluntary simplicity
  
  Voluntary simplicity is a personal choice that consists of orienting our life towards a material, intellectual, psychological and spiritual life, which is closer to our real needs and our real values, for ourselves, for others, and for the planet.
  Everyone who walks in this direction does it in his own way, at his own pace, choosing certain priorities over others, it belongs to him-her. If the choice is personal and the action that results is a priori individual, they stimulate solidarity, exchanges, generosity, friendliness.
  
  
• What if we started de-clut-ter-ing?
  
  Are you one of those who have had enough of consuming, wasting, polluting? Are you one of those who no longer want to waste all their time working to afford such practical objects which will save them time? Are you one of those who dream of more time, more peace, and sharing more moments with their loved ones? Undoubtedly, decluttering is then a subject that concerns you.
  Our purchases lead us to have to earn still more in order to accumulate even more in our homes and we end up suffocating, unaware that we have created this situation ourselves. And if we have created it, then it becomes possible to leave it.
  
  
• Decluttering - 2006 file
  
  We live in a society where we accumulate objects, documents, activities, information, to the point that it ends up hindering our freedom. The decluttering file helps to sort out in order to alleviate the difficulty of getting rid of the useless, the superfluous, the obsolete.
  
  
• 10 tips for starting degrowth
  
  The 10 tips for going into degrowth allow us to broaden the concept of the ecological footprint by proposing to put a brake on, or even to stop, everything that pushes us to : consume/waste/pollute the most, but also to make unbridled use of technologies, to participate actively and complacentlyy in the capitalist economy. Some of the tips also orient us towards a political, psychological and intellectual questioning of our own behaviors.
  
  
• associated tales :
  

  • - The Story of the Hummingbird

    Doing our part means stopping being complacent, and also stopping waiting for others to get involved, and focusing on our own steps, however small they may be.
    We are responsible for what we do, and also for what we omit to do.

    - Stones, pebbles and sand

    Between the unexpected, the overbooked agenda, the time we spend to earn more money to offer us what will save time for us, the multiplication of our leisure activities; we have not necessarily time to stop and reorganize all this, and even less to question ourselves whether all this has meaning.

 

INNER EVOLUTION :

 

Beliefs and external influences :

 

• Our complacency
  
  Our complacency consists in blaming capitalism, the rich, and political and economic leaders as responsible for all the harm of the system, without truly realising not only that our own mentality is working on the same mode of thinking as the one which we are denouncing, but also that we benefit from certain advantages of this system, which enslave us and force us to actively participate in it, casually, without even realising it.
  
  
• From opposition to non-violence
  
  Opposition engenders: opposition, or submission… but only temporarily.
  In fact, it is already at the level of the way of thinking that underlies the attitude of opposition that we miss our goals. For, by opposing, we impede, and sometimes even prevent ourselves from achieving our goals. Our attitude is leading to behaviours that often can not be accepted by the other party. For, opposition is a serious obstacle to dialogue and negotiation. In the worst cases it can cut off communication and give way to strategies of violence.
  Opposition takes place within the register of the balance of power.

  Non-violence in its essence, does not oppose people. It simply does not cooperate with whatever causes the problem.
  The process of non-violence consists in saying, "I do not agree with you, I can therefore not cooperate with your actions, and I will do everything to achieve what I am seeking, but I will never cause you the slightest harm in order to do so: I will do nothing in the kind of contempt, destruction, slander, etc. and I accept all the consequences that you decide to inflict me, including the possibility of achieving nothing, losing my freedom, or even losing my life. I will just maintain my position until we can talk and find a solution that suits both of us. "

  
  
  
• associated tales :
  

  • - Following or not following
    The answers are within us. We get lost looking for them elsewhere.
    - Wisdom of Lao Tzu
    Events do not always give us directly the true color of reality.
    - Mexican and American fishermen
    How to rush in losing our life to earn a living.
    - The boiled frog
    The World is ready to switch into chaos, and we do not realize it, so mesmerized as we are by television, advertising, consumption, gloss and glitter. The awakening could be hard.

   

 

Communication:

 

• Argumentation and power relation
  
  We all have, and in a unique way for everyone, our own perception of the world and of ourselves. In our relationships with our entourage (as individuals, associations or citizens), we will confront our perception with that of our partners. And there are two major trends in how to do it: looking for common ground or to be on the same page, or trying to be right (meaning : trying to prove the other is wrong). This is reflected in our ways of talking, in our arguments, in the negotiations, as well as in our means of action. The chosen attitude will influence our relationships, the people involved, and the choice of solutions during conflicts.
  
  
• Opening up to communication
  
  This article was published in the magazine Agenda+ (in Belgium) and gives a fairly broad overview of the learning process that relational communication makes possible.
  
  
• Give up being nice, be real
  
  This book is a must. It is an excellent introduction to non-violent communication, likely to trigger a real process of change and evolution, in depth, in those who read it, and which everyone should be able to carry out one day. The book is presented via the conference notes of an author who did not identify him-her-self, but whose quality of transcription Thomas d'Ansembourg himself appreciated.
  
  
• associated tale:
  
  
  • - White Birds and Black Birds
    Another illustration of the law of attraction. We always reap what we sow.

Brain - thoughts and emotions :

 

• Managing thoughts - managing emotions
  
  Basically, all our thoughts - regardless their origin - arise automatically, without us having any control over the process. Apart from reasoning, we can learn to direct our thoughts towards certain contents, or sometimes manage to move away from certain contents, but rarely more then that.
  And in a situation of stress, of major concern, and in the presence of some strong emotions, it is almost impossible to have control over the situation.
  Thoughts repeat themselves, jostling each other, leading us into ruminations. They begin to freewheel, spinning, and leading us into mazes from which we have to struggle hardly to escape. They lead us to construct mental scenarios - most often unrealistic - but in which we firmly believe, sometimes to the point where we sometimes feel compelled to verify them, as they influence our emotions and behaviours to such an extent that we act in a way that brings them to fruition. And the more time passes, the more it harms us, and the more these scenarios end up reproducing themselves, and we then have to really fight to keep our heads above water. All of this feeds our negative emotions, even to the point of making them unmanageable. It causes us suffering, pollutes our daily life, reduces our freedom of choice, can push us to acts that we later regret, or it ends up manifesting itself on the body in the form of so-called psychosomatic symptoms.
  
  
• I think therefore 'm not following anymore
  
  Many of us spend our time, buying, eating, working, sleeping, consuming, running between the appointments of our diary.... And we don't have time to breathe, nor time to think, nor time to make choices, nor time to do questionings, nor the time to make realizations and even less time to evolve ..... or to love really, in a different way than through gifts or avoided conflicts.
  The whirlwind of our lives has a numbing effect on us and makes us more malleable to external influences. Less we are able to think for ourselves, the more we will tend to adopt the prevailing ready-to-think, without realizing that the opinions it suggests to us don't correspond in any way to ourselves.
  
  
• Dispenza - You are the placebo
  
  Dr. Joe Dispenza discusses topics such as visualisation, meditation, the law of attraction, applications of quantum physics in personal evolution; and he does so through the lens of neuroscience. He talks about the plasticity of the brain, our ability to create or remove neuronal connections, our ability to activate or deactivate our genes, and the important interaction between our cells, our body and our thoughts and emotions. Most importantly, he discusses the importance of better managing these thoughts and emotions, in order to transform both our mind and our health. His book is full of examples, studies, experiments that illustrate his theories. In this book he puts forward the idea that we can achieve health through our willpower and ability to direct our thoughts and emotions by changing our beliefs, and use that as we use a placebo.
  
  
• Your thinking is not you
  
  Taking a step aside by learning to observe our thoughts without identifying with them enables to create a much greater freedom of thinking, to make room for humility and also for caution about our own opinions, knowledges and beliefs. And this especially enables us to access new dimensions of ourself and to have a very different impact in our lives.
  
  
• Collective intelligence
  
  It is called collective intelligence or collective wisdom. It appears in certain circumstances within groups gathered for a positive, constructive objective, when a certain cohesion is present, and when each person sets aside their personal concerns and interests in order to make themselves available for the collective work.
  Each participant has access to something new that does not correspond to their own potential or that of each of the individuals in the group. It is a kind of knowledge, of a different perspective on what concerns the group.
  A kind of group intuition then develops, a higher level of order appears, and a form of wisdom emerges. The result of the group’s effort far exceeds the sum of what each individual is potentially capable of giving and of what we are used to experiencing.
  
  
• Dementia and youth
  
  This text proposes an approach to dementia through knowledge of ourself and of our thoughts. We are the result of our automatisms. And the more time goes by, the more these will take power in our lives. Better understanding this mechanism of automatization of our mental functioning can help us to learn how to manage our mental differently, in order to avoid that this process overtake us too quickly. It's from the beginning of life that something has to be done.
  And by better understanding these mechanisms we can learn to better understand and interact with older people and people with dementia. These latter, if they have lost their autonomy, their ability to reason and express themselves, have lost none of their knowledge, their personality and their experience. Considering things in this way enables to deal with them in a very different way and to restore respect, contact, trust and the emotional part of the relationship.
  
  
• The boomerang of thoughts
  
  You have probably experienced it: your thoughts attract the realization of their content. This may seem like a superstition, and yet...
  It's not too hard to prove it to ourself, just it needs to be checked out. The way we check it most often - too often - is when the object of fears and anger that we maintain, ends up materializing (illness, losses, debts, conflicts, accidents, ...).
  It is in fact the very content of what we think about, that influences our future reality, whether we verify it or not. Our environment, our surroundings, the events of our present are therefore the consequence of our thoughts of the past.
  
  
• Dispenza Ted conference Video in English - transcription in French
  
  This is a video in English with a French transcription below of Dr. Joe Dispenza's TEDx conference.
  As a complement to the article "Managing Thoughts - Managing Emotions", for those who would prefere a more scientific clarification - here is an approach through neuroscience, via a short masterful lecture by Dr. Joe Dispenza (who participated in the double movie “What the Bleep do we know” and “Down the hole rabbit”).
  His explanations allow a clear understanding of all these phenomena based on the functioning of our neurons in the 3 brains on which each of our mental, emotional and instinctive functioning depend.
  The intention of a desired reality, still virtual, therefore imagined, but which one manages to experience factually at the emotional level, makes possible a remodeling of neural connections.
  And this plasticity allows a change of mental attitude which will lead to a change of behavior and make possible the realization of reality which until then was only potential.
  Because it is the experience in the body, via the emotions really felt, which allows a true understanding and makes possible the concretization in reality of what the mind had desired.
  This video was made during a TEDx conference in Tacoma (in the state of Washington on the West Coast of the United States).
  
  
• Our own violence
  
  Here is the summary of Pema Chödron's Book : "Practicing peace in times of war"
  The idea of the book is that violence around us, is only a reflection of the violence that is in us. If we are able to observe, to manage this violence inside us, when refusing to run at once into escalation, we can manage to reduce our own violence, but also the general violence to a higher degree than that of a Cartesian equation (7 billions minus 1). And the violence that we are talking about is also minimal violence: frustration, tickling, reactions to the small provocations of life. It's even there that everythings starts. This summary is complementing the article "From opposition to non-violence".
  
  
• From fear to peace
  
  The anger underlying violence, regardless of the scale on which it is perpetrated, is generated by the fear one have of the perpetrators of violence. Fear of violence is therefore capable of generating an equally destructive and murderous violence as the one it is trying to fight. It is then much more important to address fears if we want to defuse violence. Both our own fears, even if we didn't put them in action, as those of the persons who have already perpetrated them, in order to stop feeding a perpetual vicious circle, terribly murderous.
  
  
• EFT
  
  (Digest of lecture notes on EFT from the "Pain Relief WorldSummit")
  Any life course, and more particularly any journey of personal evolution, involves difficult times, with pain, emotions, stress, inability to understand. The support and help of the relatives or friends, professionals, remedies or others, are not always present or available, or often also, do not bring the expected or desired effect.
  A technique such as EFT is therefore an extraordinary, multi-faceted skill to accompany oneself on this path, in an autonomous way.
  Apart from some basic knowledge, the technique requires no training, no equipment, no experience, and above all it is free and can be practiced alone and anywhere.
  The document proposed here is not an introduction to the method but rather a complement of information for those who already practice it in order to better master its use and obtain more effects. However, references are present at the beginning of the article to learn the method on the internet.
  
  
• associated tales:
  
  
  • - White Birds and Black Birds
    
    Another illustration of the law of attraction. We always reap what we sow.
    - The wolf you feed
    An illustration of the law of attraction. Our thoughts attract our thoughts, and we can learn to choose the content and direction of our thoughts.

    - Autobiography in 5 Short Chapters

    Guy Corneau puts it in one sentence:
    "Life is perfect, since it always repeat back the same dish until we realize what we are eating."

   

OPENING OF CONSCIOUSNESS :

 

• The qualities of our defects
  
  It is at the heart of our flaws that the most beautiful part of our humanity lies. For, they can be at the source of our finest qualities.
  Rather than fighting or hiding them, knowing and acknowledging them allows us to discover the qualities that lie hidden just behind, and helps us to to grow and find fulfilment.
  The benefit is not so much the discovery of quality as the look on oneself and on others, that changes, allowing to discern in the other, the share of humanity, behind the weaknesses.
  
  
• The rice experiment
  
  You may have heart of it if you are familiar with the concept of "water memory" introduced by Professor Emoto.
  This experiment may lead to see and understand that our thoughts and intentions may have a concrete effect on the good conservation of cooked rice, for weeks or even months. Living this implies not only to believe it, but also to understand the implications that are related to all levels of our lives.
  
  
• The Four Agreements
  
  Our beliefs and conditionings are agreements that have been instilled in us or that we have concluded with ourselves in our childhood or later, through our experiences of suffering and fear. However, they are no longer relevant and prevent us from living happily.
  Don Miguel Ruiz proposes to change these agreements and to adopt the four Toltec Agreements:
  - Be Impeccable With Your Word
  - Don't Take Anything Personally
  - Don't Make Assumptions
  - Always Do Your Best
  It is worth knowing more about the subject to better understand how they work, their interest and the benefits we will have from using them.
  
  
• The fifth Agreement
  
  The continuation of the book on the Four Agreements. This book stimulates towards more interiority. The fifth agreement:
  “Be skeptical, but learn to listen” is an attitude, both turned towards the other, and which helps to clean up all the stories that we tell ourselve and which distort our perception of reality. It is a slow learning process that takes away our suffering and increases our happiness.
  
  
• The heart intelligence
  
  Excerpts from the book "The Intelligence of the Heart - The HeartMath Solution" - by Doc Childre & Howard Martin
  This book offers a particular approach: it makes the link between intuitive intelligence and the biological organ heart, while emphasizing the possibility of highlighting this intelligence compared to rational intelligence, that of the brain, of the mind.
  The idea proposed here is kind of : restoring order, in short: using our brain as a tool in the service of our heart in a certain way.
  In this way, we achieve more serenity, we give more adequate proportions to the problems we encounter, but above all, we find solutions to them, and better solutions, more durable, more satisfying, and in addition, we benefit, in managing stress and emotions, as well as in our overall health.
  In his book “Healing” (in French), David Servan Schreiber, already spoke about learning cardiac coherence. This was created by the authors of the HeartMath solution. It's part of the same concept.
  The book, in addition to a sensible explanation of certain processes, in a medical and psychological register, which can echo our own experiences, truly gives three techniques to use in order to better manage this intuition of the heart, our emotions, our stress, etc.
  The proposed extract frames the method in the more general context of a society in full decline, of a world which must choose between humanizing or disappearing. It concerns us all.
  rem: this extract is written before the attacks of 9/11, before the great tsunami in Asia, before the acknowledgement of the global warming, before the financial crisis, before the Mexican flu and before the Covid pandemy.
  
  
• associated tales :
  • - The Wolf you feed
    An illustration of the law of attraction. Our thoughts attract our thoughts, and we can learn to choose the content and direction of our thoughts.
    
    - Stones, pebbles and sand
    Between the unexpected, the overbooked agenda, the time we spend to earn more money to offer us what will save time for us, the multiplication of our leisure activities; we have not necessarily time to stop and reorganize all this, and even less to question ourselves whether all this has meaning.
    - Wisdom of Lao Tzu
    Events do not always give us directly the true color of reality.
    - Autobiography in 5 chapters
    Guy Corneau puts it in one sentence: "Life is perfect, since it always repeat back the same dish until we realize what we are eating."
    - Rebuilding the world
    A metaphor to illustrate the title of the site

   

WHY CHANGING OURSELF -
OUR INFLUENCE :

 

• Presentation of the site
  
  In addition to the home page and the introductions and summaries of articles, the presentation page allows a better understanding of the title of the site and the approach or process that this implies, in parallel to the collective approaches and to other attitudes and reactions to social problems.
  
  
• The morphogenetic fields
  
  Maybe you already know the 100th monkey phenomenon, this observation by scientists in Asia in the '50s, concerning the transmission of learning from a community of monkeys to other communities without any known means of communication between monkeys involved.
  The theory of biologist Rupert Sheldrake on morphic fields corroborates in part the phenomenon of the hundredth monkey.
  Rupert Sheldrake, has developed a whole theory on morphogenetic fields. His theory is based on the observation in biology that when a community learns a new skill, and once that skill has been mastered by a sufficient number of members of that community, it automatically becomes assimilated by all members of that community, but also by all members of communities of the same species, even in the absence of any material communication between these communities. And this applies equally to human beings.
  While we tend to think that our memory is located in our brain, that our genes are responsible for hereditary traits and that our thoughts are solely the result of chemical and electrical phenomena occurring in the brain, Sheldrake postulates otherwise. The changes we introduce into our lives at an individual level would then have an impact around us even if we don't show or communicate them .
  
• Our influence - The influence we have on others when we undergo profound inner change goes far beyond those around us

  When the awareness about the traps of the society of money, power and profit arises, and when the will to distance oneself from these abuses follows; a fervent desire to lead those around us, and even beyond, down the same path, often becomes the main objective. Many people then discover missionary calling, taking small steps forward and trying to push those around them to take big steps. And this, more often than not, provokes the opposite of the desired effect, namely: resistance.
  But while it is not easy to convince others; we can nevertheless bring about change around us in another way, because a psychological strength, and the radiance or charisma which results from the personal evolution can influence in another way.
  This influence can be considered from different perspectives as detailed in the article :
  Collective intelligence, mirror neurons, epigenetics, the contagion of altruism, morphogenetic fields, self-contagion, the transmission of our thoughts and emotions, and the power of minorities.
  Thus, regardless of the level of consciousness and evolution we are working on: citizen, consumer, communication, relationships, behaviours, thoughts, emotions, spirituality; we influence others in the same direction.

  
  
  
  
• associated tales :

  • - The Story of the Hummingbird
    Doing our part means stopping being complacent, and also stopping waiting for others to get involved, and focusing on our own steps, however small they may be.
    We are responsible for what we do, and also for what we omit to do.
    - Grain of sand
    Our personal power is much greater than we imagine and often we are simply unaware of its existence.
    - Rebuilding the world
    A metaphor to illustrate the title of the site

NON-VIOLENCE AT ALL LEVELS :

 

• Argumentation and power relation
  
  We all have, and in a unique way for everyone, our own perception of the world and of ourselves. In our relationships with our entourage (as individuals, associations or citizens), we will confront our perception with that of our partners. And there are two major trends in how to do it: looking for common ground or to be on the same page, or trying to be right (meaning : trying to prove the other is wrong). This is reflected in our ways of talking, in our arguments, in the negotiations, as well as in our means of action. The chosen attitude will influence our relationships, the people involved, and the choice of solutions during conflicts.
  
  
• From opposition to non-violence
  
  Opposition engenders: opposition, or submission… but only temporarily.
  In fact, it is already at the level of the way of thinking that underlies the attitude of opposition that we miss our goals. For, by opposing, we impede, and sometimes even prevent ourselves from achieving our goals. Our attitude is leading to behaviours that often can not be accepted by the other party. For, opposition is a serious obstacle to dialogue and negotiation. In the worst cases it can cut off communication and give way to strategies of violence.
  Opposition takes place within the register of the balance of power.

  Non-violence in its essence, does not oppose people. It simply does not cooperate with whatever causes the problem.
  The process of non-violence consists in saying, "I do not agree with you, I can therefore not cooperate with your actions, and I will do everything to achieve what I am seeking, but I will never cause you the slightest harm in order to do so: I will do nothing in the kind of contempt, destruction, slander, etc. and I accept all the consequences that you decide to inflict me, including the possibility of achieving nothing, losing my freedom, or even losing my life. I will just maintain my position until we can talk and find a solution that suits both of us. "
  

• Our own violence
  
  Here is the summary of Pema Chödron's Book : "Practicing peace in times of war"
  The idea of the book is that violence around us, is is only a reflection the violence that is in us. If we are able to observe, to manage this violence inside us, when refusing to run at once into escalation, we can manage to reduce our own violence, but also the general violence to a higher degree than that of a Cartesian equation (7 billions minus 1). And the violence that we are talking about is also minimal violence : frustration, tickling, reactions to the small provocations of life. It's even there that everythings starts. This summary is complementing the article "From opposition to non-violence".
  
  
• From fear to peace
  
  The anger underlying violence, regardless of the scale on which it is perpetrated, is generated by the fear one have of the perpetrators of violence. Fear of violence is therefore capable of generating an equally destructive and murderous violence as the one it is trying to fight. It is then much more important to address fears if we want to defuse violence. Both our own fears, even if we didn't put them in action, as those of the persons who have already perpetrated them, in order to stop feeding a perpetual vicious circle, terribly murderous.
  
• Give up being nice, be real
  
  This book is a must. It is an excellent introduction to non-violent communication, likely to trigger a real process of change and evolution, in depth, in those who read it, and which everyone should be able to carry out one day. The book is presented via the conference notes of an author who did not identify him-her-self, but whose quality of transcription Thomas d'Ansembourg himself appreciated.
  
  
• Ecological footprint and passive violence
  
  From the TedX conference of Arun Gandhi, proposed in video, which introduces the notion of passive violence; this article proposes to create links between the realities presented in the news, and our daily actions. Our consumption is not without consequences on what occurs in the world. Through consumption we have learned to practice passive violence. Our culture conditions us to this and encourages us to kindly look away from our responsibilities facing the realities of suffering and destruction that this engenders. Hundreds of millions of people have died of hunger or malnutrition in the world, and even more are living in misery right now while we live as if all this did not exist. As long as we are not able to take off our blinders and face this, making the link with our own everyday behaviors ; hundreds of millions of people will continue to suffer and disappear in almost general indifference.
  Changing our perspective of these facts, and adopting a new attitude awakens our humanity and allows us to change our behaviors by reducing our ecological footprint in a more coherent way. By adopting this more realistic perspective, a whole path then opens up before us to change, on our scale, what can still be changed.

 

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STORIES AND TALES

 

Tales and legends have sometimes, often, more power than rational arguments. They question us, and can accelerate our realizations, bypassing the mind, as they speak to the heart.

Here is a selection of them :

 

- The Story of the Hummingbird

Doing our part means stopping being complacent, and also stopping waiting for others to get involved, and focusing on our own steps, however small they may be.
We are responsible for what we do, and also for what we omit to do.

- The wolf you feed

An illustration of the law of attraction. Our thoughts attract our thoughts, and we can learn to choose the content and direction of our thoughts.

- Following or not following

The answers are within us. We get lost looking for them elsewhere.

- Stones, pebbles and sand

Between the unexpected, the overbooked agenda, the time we spend to earn more money to offer us what will save time for us, the multiplication of our leisure activities; we have not necessarily time to stop and reorganize all this, and even less to question ourselves whether all this has meaning.

- Wisdom of Lao Tzu

Events do not always give us directly the true color of reality.

- Autobiography in 5 Short Chapters

Guy Corneau puts it in one sentence:
"Life is perfect, since it always repeat back the same dish until we realize what we are eating."

- Grain of sand

Our personal power is much greater than we imagine and often we are simply unaware of its existence.

- White Birds and Black Birds

Another illustration of the law of attraction. We always reap what we sow.

- Mexican fisherman, American fisherman

How to rush in losing our life to earn a living.

- Rebuilding the world

A metaphor to illustrate the title of the site

- The boiled frog

The World is ready to switch into chaos, and we do not realize it, so mesmerized as we are by television, advertising, consumption, gloss and glitter. The awakening could be hard.

 

 

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Home

News

Presentation of the site S

 

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BOOK: The day PROFIT culture ceases

 

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ARTICLES :

RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP

Global/individual scale :

• Economy and human dignity (conf Joan Melé) S
• A definition of sustainable degrowth S
• Ecological footprint S
• A plate for our health, the one of the planet and of all its inhabitants S
• Ecological footprint and passive violence S

 

Doing our part :

• Voluntary simplicity S
• What if we started de-clut-ter-ing? S
• Decluttering - 2006 file S
• 10 tips for starting degrowth S
• associated tales :
  • The Story of the Hummingbird
  • Stones, pebbles and sand

INNER EVOLUTION :

 

Beliefs and external influences :

• Our complacency S
• From opposition to non-violence S
• associated tales :
  • Following or not following
  • Wisdom of Lao Tzu
  • Mexican and American fishermen
  • The boiled frog

 

Communication:

• Argumentation and power relation S
• Opening up to communication S
• Stop being nice, be real S
• associated tale:
  • White Birds and Black Birds

Brain - thoughts and emotions :

• Managing thoughts - managing emotions S
• I think therefore 'm not following anymore S
• Dispenza - You are the placebo S
• Your thought is not you S
• Collective intelligence S
• Dementia and youth S
• The boomerang of thoughts S
• Dispenza Ted conference S
  Video in English - transcription in French
• Our own violence S
• From fear to peace S
• EFT S
• associated tales:
  • White Birds and Black Birds
  • The wolf you feed
  • Autobiography in 5 Short Chapters

OPENING OF CONSCIOUSNESS :

 

• The qualities of our defects S
• The rice experiment S
• The Four Agreements S
• The fifth Agreement S
• The heart intelligence S
• associated tales :
  • The Wolf you feed
  • Stones, pebbles and sand
  • Wisdom of Lao Tzu
  • Autobiography in 5 chapters
  • Rebuilding the world

WHY CHANGING OURSELF -
OUR INFLUENCE :

 

• Presentation of the site S
• The morphogenetic fields S
• Our influence S
• associated tale :
  • The Story of the Hummingbird
  • Grain of sand
  • Rebuilding the world

NON-VIOLENCE AT ALL LEVELS :

 

• Argumentation and power relation S
• From opposition to non-violence S
• Our own violence S
• From fear to peace S
• NVC - Stop being nice, be real S
• Ecological footprint and passive violence S

 

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STORIES AND TALES

- The Story of the Hummingbird
- The wolf you feed
- Following or not following
- Stones, pebbles and sand
- Wisdom of Lao Tzu
- Autobiography in 5 Short Chapters
- Grain of sand
- White Birds and Black Birds
- Mexican fisherman, American fisherman
- Rebuilding the world
- The boiled frog

 

 

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