The Dynamics of Peace
March 24, 2015 Kosmos Community News


KOSMOS NEWS: Seed Grants, Edge Funders, and more

LET’S ELIMINATE NUCLEAR WEAPONS – March 25, 2015 (Full Article Below)
Join Kosmos Project Director Dot Maver, Jonathan Granoff and other nuclear nonproliferation luminaries in a panel Webinar.

KOSMOS 2015 SEED GRANT RECIPIENTS TO BE ANNOUNCED APRIL 7
The Kosmos team has completed its review of more than 1000 grant applications received in response to our 2015 Seed Grants Initiative.

EDGE FUNDERS CONFERENCE – April 8-10, 2015
Kosmos is thrilled to be an invited participant at this year’s EDGE Funders Alliance 2015′ Just Giving’

FUJI DECLARATION LAUNCH IN MAY
Kosmos Co-Founder and Journal Editor, Nancy Roof and Dot Maver, Kosmos Project Director are invited signatories of the Fuji Declaration. They are heading to Kyoto in May to attend a special ceremony and participate in dialogues.

THE ORACLE INSTITUTE – Building the New World Conference – May 28th – May 31st, 2015
Dot Maver, Kosmos Project Director, to speak at peacebuilding conference hosted by Radford University.


Why Now is the Time to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

On Wednesday, March 25, 2015 from 10 – 11 a.m. (PDT), Kosmos Project Director Dot Maver will join Jonathan Granoff and other nuclear nonproliferation luminaries in a panel Webinar.

Why is this discussion imperative now? March 5 was the 45th anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This year is also the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – horrific events seared into our collective conscience and consciousness. The moment is ripe to signal that the era of nuclear weapons is coming to an end and to remove the threat of these weapons forever from the Earth.


Why The Fuji Declaration? What It Means for Our Life and Our Future

By: Ervin Laszlo

Every great spiritual system, every religion, all traditional cultures and sensitive individuals have known that they are fundamentally one with life in the cosmos. Animals and other living beings did not and do not consciously know this oneness, but they act on it: they do not make the fateful mistake of separating their own being from other things and from nature. Only modern-day humans suffer from the illusion that there is no world beyond their senses, no mind beyond their brain, and no life beyond their lifetime. It is time to divest ourselves from this illusion and resume the ascent of the noblest facet of our spirit toward truth, justice, and beauty.


Transformational Education

By Jean Houston
PUBLISHED IN KOSMOS JOURNAL FALL | WINTER 2014

In the course of my work with United Nations agencies and other international programs, I have observed many schools and many styles of learning the world over, and the best of them, the ones to which children run in delight and expectation, are those where learning is creation, performing, thinking across subjects, exploring ideas through images, sounds, songs, dances, and artistic expression. There, children become conscious participants in their own unfolding. Yes, they continue to read, and write, and cipher, but they are also encouraged to imagine, dream, and expand the limits of the possible.


VIDEO Daniel Rechtschaffen: Mindfulness & Education

By Daniel Rechtschaffen (excerpted from the blog of Omega Institute for Holistic Studies)

Students are told to pay attention a thousand times in school, but rarely are they taught how. We tell our kids to be nice to each other again and again, without ever teaching them the incredibly accessible exercises that cultivate empathy and forgiveness. We tell students not to be so reactive and even put them in juvenile detention centers all because they can’t regulate the disturbances within their own bodies. There are methods for teaching impulse control, attention, and empathy, but young people have rarely been taught them. Mindfulness has been effectively training these qualities for millennia, and there is a mounting research base that backs up its immense health benefits.


Reflections on Transformative Education: Toward Peace Learning Systems

By Arthur Romano
PUBLISHED IN KOSMOS JOURNAL FALL | WINTER 2014

In this article, I will highlight the presence of peace learning systems that integrate formal and informal education efforts at the community level. My hope is that this article will spark a conversation about the most effective ways to understand and support the growth of these peace learning systems and trace the linkages between local, regional, and transnational peace education efforts. I believe these peace learning systems are necessary to transform the dynamics of violence and injustice.