This is an approach to healing and liberation that sees the individual, interpersonal, and institutional work that is required for real, transformative change as, in fact, a deep spiritual practice.
Can we allow a new human being to be born out of us? Can we contribute that quality of total revolution of the psyche of humanity as the gift of our life? If religion is not an inner revolution which changes the whole way of living, what is the value of religion to humanity?
—Vimala Thakar
We believe that lifelong un/learning that is rooted in narrative and reflective practice and that holds care, collaboration, and relationship at its center has the power to cultivate meaningful connection that can heal deep wounds in our collective psyche.
Centering relationship means being curious, asking open-ended questions, and listening deeply. When we center relationship, we engage others humbly, to truly understand, to see and hear each other as whole human beings. We build relational trust and vulnerability and because of this foundation, we do not need to shy away from difficult conversations or conflict. To do this with a commitment to equity, justice, inclusion, and belonging also means that we are critical and understand power dynamics, so that we can decenter dominant narratives, ideologies, and paradigms and celebrate and uplift those that have been historically marginalized.
If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. If you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.
—Aboriginal activists group Queensland, 1970
We need each other in this thing called life. We grow and flourish when we have intergenerational, interreligious, interracial/intercultural partnerships, when our connections are many and diverse, when our perspectives are enlarged by one another’s life experience. To reclaim collaborative and compassionate ways of organizing society, we need solidarity, we need to center relationship, and we need to build cultures of care and belonging.