Circle For Original Thinking Glenn Aparicio Parry

A community of Earth System scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Centre asked a powerful question: How do we define a safe operating space for humanity with all that is currently known about the Earth’s various systems? They determined that there are there are nine critical thresholds that together define a safe operating space for humanity: biosphere integrity, climate change, land-system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows of nitrogen and phosphorus, ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosol loading, stratospheric ozone depletion, and one other catch-all category for unimagined risks. If we cross any one of these thresholds, it could be Game Over for humanity. And by some estimates, we have already crossed four of them. 
 
Enter Joe Brewer. He has written a book called The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth that addresses the intentional application of knowledge and tools to create solutions for regenerating living systems, feasible methods for getting all nine boundary dynamics back within acceptable limits. Joe does admit this is a gargantuan task and one that will require working through inner grief and trauma while experiencing the already occurring effects of planetary collapse. 
 
Enter Bill Pfeiffer (Sky Otter), a dear friend, who as much as anyone I know, is doing something about changing our inner attitude about how to engage with the Earth, to engage with wildness, to live an ecstatic life in harmony and balance with all there is. His method for enacting change has been to design Wild Earth Intensives that bring people into sacred community and provide a microcosm for a future sustainable society. I wanted to bring these two guests together to represent both the outer and inner solutions for the seemingly intractable ecological challenges we now face. Join us as we explore "Restoring Health to Our Planet" on the Circle for Original Thinking podcast.  

In the Northern Hemisphere, today marks the winter solstice designating a point in the year when we are afforded the shortest amount of daylight—of course, if you live in say Australia or Chile, you are experiencing the opposite. It is also around this time of year, that many of our spiritual traditions anticipate the return of light. Today we have reached our darkest moment and it is time for the light to slowly return. It is a time that represents optimism, rebirth, and fellowship. And it is a time that many of us call for “Peace on Earth”. 
Today, on Circle for Original Thinking, our host, Glenn Aparicio Parry will speak to us without guests, reflecting on the state of the world and the deeper meaning behind this time of year. With wars in the Ukraine and Gaza; global warming; political division; and the lingering fallout of the pandemic, this may seem like a bleak moment in history, but we will find reasons to be optimistic for a brighter future out of the darkness. Because, after all, that is what this time of year is all about. 
Whatever holiday you may be celebrating, let us share the message of “Peace on Earth” and “Goodwill to All”. 

Native Americans not only influenced the founding fathers, they also inspired the ‘founding mothers’: 19th century women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Matilda Gage. These women paid taxes but could not vote, could not run for office, had no right of divorce, and should they separate from their husband, were returned to them by police like runaway slaves. Native women, on the other hand, were fully equal in their society and played an integral role in political affairs and in keeping harmony with nature. Learn the true story from Congresswoman Deb Haaland, one of only two Native American women newly elected to the US Congress, and Sally Roesch Wagner, author of Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists.



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Glenn Aparicio Parry, PhD, of Basque, Aragon Spanish, and Jewish descent, is the author of Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again (SelectBooks, 2020) and the Nautilus award-winning Original Thinking: A Radical Revisioning of Time, Humanity, and Nature (North Atlantic Books, 2015). Parry is an educator, ecopsychologist, and political philosopher whose passion is to reform thinking and society into a coherent, cohesive, whole. The founder and past president of the SEED Institute, Parry is currently the director of a grass-roots think tank, the Circle for Original Thinking and is debuting this podcast series of the same name in conjunction with Ecology Prime. He has lived in northern New Mexico since 1994. www.originalpolitics.us







Congresswoman Deb Haaland serves New Mexico’s First Congressional District and is one of the first Native American women serving in Congress. As a 35thgeneration New Mexican, single-mom, and organizer Haaland knows the struggles of New Mexico families, but she also knows how resilient and strong New Mexico communities are. In Congress she’s a force fighting climate change and for renewable energy jobs as Vice Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, a powerful supporter of military personnel, families, and veterans on the House Armed Services Committee, and continues to advocate for dignity, respect, and equality for all. 











Sally Roesch Wagner is a feminist pioneer, speaker, activist, and the author of several books, including Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists, and The Women’s Suffrage Movement. Dr. Wagner was among the first persons ever to receive a PhD for work in Women’s Studies from UC Santa Cruz and was the founder of one of the first college-level women’s studies programs in the country. She is also the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and a faculty member of Syracuse University.  She is a member of the New York State Women’s Suffrage Commission and a former consultant to the National Women’s History Project. Sally appeared in the Ken Burns PBS documentary Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, for which she wrote the accompanying faculty guide for PBS. She was also a historian in the PBS special One Woman, One Vote, and has been interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered and Democracy Now.



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Traditional native flute music by Orlando Secatero from Pathways CD.Liberty song by Ron Crowder, Jim Casey and Danny Casey



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Composite image credits: Chaco Cultural National Historic Park, New Mexico, Chris Huber, USGS, Public Domain; Young Wishham Woman, Edward S. Curtis, 1910, Public Domain.

When the Buddha was asked “Are you a reincarnation of God?” he replied “No.” “Are you a wizard then?” was the next query and “No” again he said. “So “What are you?” they asked, intent on knowing. He simply replied, "I am awake.” And true enough, Buddha means “the awakened one.” Buddha’s life work was teaching how to awaken. These days, however, there is a backlash against being woke, as if being awake to what is really happening in our country is a bad thing. Many people want to go back to sleep. Can the nation awaken? Does it want to?  
One of today’s guests, Christopher Naughton, has written a new book on this subject titled: America's Next Great Awakening: What the Convergence of Mysticism, Religion, Atheism & Science Means for the Nation. And You. We are also very pleased to be joined by Reverend Nicole Charles who is the recently installed CEO of Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.). Together we will delve deep into what it means to awaken in these turbulent times.
Today’s program was recorded on the premises of the Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., and we are very grateful for the use of their facilities in the production of this episode. 
ABOUT EDGAR CAYCE'S A.R.E.
Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) has been called the "sleeping prophet," the "father of holistic medicine," and the most documented psychic of the 20th century. For more than 40 years of his adult life, Cayce gave psychic "readings" to thousands of seekers while in an unconscious state, diagnosing illnesses and revealing lives lived in the past and prophecies yet to come. Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) organization was founded by Edgar Cayce in 1931, with the purpose of helping people to transform their lives for the better. The mission of the A.R.E. is to create opportunities for profound personal change in body, mind, and spirit through the wisdom found in Edgar Cayce’s work. 
Rev. Dr. Nicole Charles is CEO of Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment, and an ordained Interfaith Minister. She holds a doctorate in Interfaith Theology specializing in spirituality and health, and a masters in Integrative Health. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses specializing in Community Health, Integrative Nutrition, and Behavioral Health. Her passion is being in service to others so they may be change-agents in their communities.
Rev. Dr. Charles has concentrated her career in non-profit executive management and higher education institutions. She seeks to forge alliances towards community engagement and capacity building that supports multi-generational participation and action.
Christopher Naughton is a former prosecutor, civil litigation attorney, and multiple Emmy award winning host and executive producer of the constitutionally based The American Law Journal. He has hosted New World Radio, addressing comparative belief systems. He writes on the intersection of history, law, and spirituality for Medium and Substack magazines and lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with Valerie, his beloved partner of over twenty years.
https://www.edgarcayce.org/
https://www.americasnextgreatawakening.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Next-Great-Awakening-Convergence/dp/1646638689

In today’s very special podcast we will re-air a discussion that was originally recorded and produced by our good friends at the East-West Psychology Department of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) for their own program, the East-West Psychology Podcast (https://east-westpsychologypodcast.com/). The discussion itself is an introduction to a set of two conferences to be held at the California Institute of Integral Studies in celebration of “150 Years of Sri Aurobindo, the Pioneer of Integral Consciousness.” The conferences will take place over the course of a week, starting on September 23, 2023 and concluding on September 30. This discussion is hosted by the East-West Psychology Podcast producers, Stephen Julich and Jonathan Kay. In this conversation, Circle for Original Thinking host and current Jean Gebser Society president, Glenn Aparicio Parry is a guest, along with Debashish Banerji, Chairman of the East-West Psychology Department. 
We hope this program will provide our listeners with some background on these very important conferences, and the life and work of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) who was the key figure in the development of a form of spiritual practice he called  “integral yoga,” as well as the life and work of the Swiss philosopher and visionary, Jean Gebser, author of the magnum opus, The Everpresent Origin. 
THE CONFERENCES:
The first conference, “Sustainability and Contemplative Civilization: The Integral Vision of Sri Aurobindo,” organized by the East-West Psychology Department (EWP) and the Asian Contemplative and Transcultural Studies concentration (ACTS), will engage with the possibilities, problems and potential of a sustainable civilization based on a contemplative praxis of deep relationality and extended identity as implicit in the vision and teaching of Sri Aurobindo and as explicit in the experimental community of Auroville.  The second conference, “The Emergence of Integral Consciousness: Jean Gebser, Sri Aurobindo, Carl Jung, Teilhard De Chardin,” organized by the Jean Gebser Society, will address the coming integral age as foreseen by Gebser, Aurobindo, Jung, and Teilhard de Chardin. Each of these visionary thinkers in their own way foresaw the emergence of a new structure of consciousness beyond the limits of rational thought.
Debashish Banerji is a Bengali scholar and Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and the Doshi Professor of Asian Art at CIIS. He is also the Program Chair for the East-West Psychology department. Prior to CIIS, he served as Professor of Indian Studies and Dean of Academics at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles, CA.
Stephen Julich is currently core faculty in the East-West Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies where he teaches classes Jungian Depth Psychology and Western Mysticism, Magic and Esotericism.
Jonathan Kay is a transcultural musician, and is currently a PhD student in the department of East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco under the mentorship of Dr. Debashish Banerji.
We wish to again state our very deep gratitude to the people at the East-West Psychology Department and the California Institute of Integral Studies for the critical work that they do every day, and their generosity in sharing the content of this episode with Circle for Original Thinking. 
For more information about the conferences:
https://www.ciis.edu/events/150-years-of-sri-aurobindo-pioneer-of-integral-consciousness
Also please visit:
https://www.ciis.edu/
https://www.ciis.edu/academics/department-east-west-psychology
https://east-westpsychologypodcast.com/
https://gebser.org/
www.jonathankay.ca

The East Indian sage Ramana Maharshi was once asked, “How should we treat others?” He replied, “There are no others.” From the perspective of the sage, the universe is one being. It is for similar reasons that the values of respect, kinship, and love are inseparable in aboriginal culture, as are gratitude, humility, and sacred obligations to original instructions rooted in traditional stories (the Lore). Join us as we share traditional aboriginal stories and wisdom of how to practice respect, kinship, love, and more, from the authors of The Dreaming Path: Indigenous Thinking to Change Your Life.