Within the framework of the World Humanist Forum 2022, the Intentional Community Abriendo Futuro (Opening the Future) presents and proposes :

THE DEVELOPMENT OF “NONVIOLENT INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES”: The Practice of the Golden Rule for the resolution of conflicts and the convergence of diversities.

And why is this practice so important?

  • To build a nonviolent world, we must first admit that we are violent.
  • Violent when we harm ourselves or allow ourselves to be harmed.
  • When we do not take charge of our emotions and do not work on them.
  • When we allow this self-neglect to harm our loved ones or strangers in an endless chain of suffering.
  • Every day we do violence to ourselves in a thousand and one ways.

And this psychological violence that is within us is one of the many forms of violence that exist, and even if it does not manifest itself or if we believe that it only concerns ourselves (which is impossible), it is, in any case, the source from which all other forms of violence spring.

Violence that we can only overcome if we first learn to overcome our own violence.

There is a practical way of overcoming violence that is not to be found in books or in the wonderful phrases of great philosophers or thinkers. Behind these phrases, there was a work of observation of the world and of your own experience that you will also have to do to internalise and practice all this wisdom.

There are many ways to work for a better world. Here is an exercise, a practice that will be useful in any situation that anguishes, paralyses or demoralises you. An exercise that you can do at any time and that will change your state of mind, orient your actions and your life in a coherent direction.

You will construct your own wise phrases, the aphorisms that will guide your life.

Nonviolence is not resignation, it is not passivity, it is not weakness, on the contrary, it is facing the responsibility of action for change. It is BUILDING a new reality.

Text by Susana Gomez Cacho

Zoom link to participate in the workshop:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88105123539?pwd=eml4cnJOQitrM0o3Unl4Y0wyV1dQQT09
Meeting ID: 881 0512 3539
Access code: RdOSilo
English: 18:30-19:45 India – 13:00-14:15 GMT – 8:00-9:15 USA East

The Golden Rule of Nonviolence: Learning to treat others as we want to be treated

The Golden Rule represents the vision of a new and nonviolent model of human relations, proposing that it is possible to achieve peace, but only “if we carry that peace within ourselves and carry it to others.”

It is from this vision that humanity will grow and evolve, in contradistinction to the model of the violent system in which we grew up, where many believe in the rule that says that in order to end violence it is necessary to respond with equal violence. This negative and mistaken vision leads to perpetual cycles of violence and destruction.

In order to bring peace to the world it is essential to “treat others as we want to be treated”, learning to transcend our personal and social suffering, experiencing that we are part of a meaningful and common process that inspires us towards one goal: humanizing the earth.

This purpose of humanizing the earth means believing in the intentional evolution of humanity, having faith in a non-violent future we construct together. When individuals lose faith in the future, life loses meaning, confusion and fear grows, and leads us to violence and mutual destruction.

We believe that the spiral of violence resulting from negative beliefs, prejudices and mutual destruction, can be overcome and transformed into coherent action and nonviolent behavior, through the personal and social reconciliation produced by the practice of the golden rule.

With the application of this rule in our life, we are able to overcome compulsive behaviour, modify our emotions into a non-violent direction, and choose to treat the other as we wish to be treated, instead of responding to mistreatment in a mechanical and destructive way. This means abandoning violence as a valid response tool. In this way, from coherent and unitive actions, a participatory and decentralised society can be built without coercion, with freedom of ideas and beliefs, valuing diversity and against all forms of discrimination, inequality, and injustice.

This is the principle that orient the creation of our intentional communities based on the golden rule, aiming at the transformation of violent systems and proposing the vision of an universal human nation, that will grow not by indoctrination, but by resonance from a few individuals to all.

The Golden Rule does not impose a behavior but rather proposes an ideal and a model to follow, where at the same time that we advance in the knowledge of our own life, we understand that in each one of us lies the future and destiny of human beings, always unending and eternally growing.