What we want to do and how we are going to do that.
Our intention is to bring about cultural and political transformation and to create a society that embodies our values of wisdom, well-being and awakening. We aim to achieve this by sharing the culture of Life Itself and by bringing a big vision conversation about social transformation into the mainstream.
Within our lifetime and six generations hence, we will develop a federation of resilient, flourishing communities based on a shared culture (views, values and practices including the possibility of transformation, the primacy of (inter)being and getting stuff done). These communities will engage with broader society and ally with like-minded groups to foster a culture of wisdom and awakening 1 that can transform society and will be committed to practical action, including large scale political efforts to address collective challenges.
See the full SCQH for context.
A new way of being (waking up, growing up, cleaning up, showing up) has been sustained materially and psycho-socially over an extended period by a networked community. A community that is acting as:
- A home for transformation for its participants
- A demonstrator to the wider world
- An engine of wider social transformation (see next paragraph)
A new movement dedicated to political and cultural change has emerged based on a worldview aligned with Life Itself's. Policies and platforms have been created and enacted at a local, regional and even national level.
Over the next 5 years we will continue to grow and share our culture and commitment to practical action by creating and expanding co-living hubs, increasing our outreach, generating more money to expand, and improving our branding. We will begin a big vision conversation about societal transformation which enters mainstream discourse.
More detail is in our annual plans below. If you want to know what we've been up to on a monthly basis, check out the updates on our blog.
Our work focuses on two main workstreams or "pillars":
- Pioneering a culture: creating a sustainable network of communities within existing society through hubs and businesses that are pioneering an "awakening" culture -- waking up, cleaning up, growing up (teal) and showing up -- as home, engine and demonstrator
- Transforming the narrative: Catalysing a big vision conversation to transform the dominant narrative (worldview/paradigm) and associated political and cultural advocacy to enact related social and institutional change.
Pioneering a culture is more local and bottom up. Transforming societies is more societal level and focused on the wider narrative and engagement.
graph TD
li[Life itself]
li --> pioneer[Pioneernig a Culture]
li --> bigvision["Transforming the Narrative"]
pioneer --> hubs[Hubs]
pioneer --> tao[Tao]
pioneer --> gatherings[Gatherings]
bigvision --> research[Research]
bigvision --> ca[Contemplative Activism]
bigvision --> policy[Policy]
Another more "concrete" way to break down what we do based on the concrete activities/entities we have in those areas
graph TD
li[Life itself]
li --> hubs[Hubs Network]
li --> institute["Insitute Think-tank<br/>for a wiser world"]
At first glance, it may seem these two activities are unrelated. However, we believe they are mutually reinforcing in key ways:
Vision => Pillars => Programs => Projects
Life Itself will focus on 8 key work streams, with the primary focus in 2020 being the recruitment of value-aligned people (Pioneers, Contributors and Supporters):
- Comms and Branding
- Transforming the Narrative
- Spaces
- Pioneers
- Business / Mutual Project Co
- Education
- Art
- Core
Life Itself Workstreams as of Jan 2020 (source coggle
See our Transforming the Narrative Issue Tree, which details our plans for the workstream. Transforming the Narrative
Footnotes
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Shorthand for "waking up, growing up, cleaning up and showing up". ↩