Peacebuildings Circus Yurt | Peacebuildings |Graham Brown

The Peacebuildings Circus

a project for young people

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The Peacebuildings Circus

is a traveling epicenter of awakening and empowerment.

An invitation for young people to take their seat in a changing world.

No problem can be solved by the same level of consciousness

that created it - Albert Einstein

If Herr Einstein is correct,

to solve the multiplicity of problems,

we humans have created over millennia on this earth,

it is we humans who have to change.

For such change to be possible we must firstly accept that...

We are the problem,

and we are the solution.

We humans have avoided this obvious reality for a very long time.

Our earth is asking us to wake up.

How do we approach such a paradigm shift?

How do help our young people to shoulder this responsibility

When most adults have avoid it so completely?

The Peacebuildings Circus is an epicenter of that change.

We are in the business of planting seeds of change...

Everything below is written for adult consumption.

Everything we do in Circus is structured for our young participants.

We find ways to introduce the elements described below in a one or two day workshop that are appropriate to the age, ability and interest of the group in liaison and co-operation with the parents, group leader or teacher.

Each workshop may therefore be gathered around very different topics as we find ways to touch and introduce the fundamental themes below.

This program is an introduction to the work of Peacebuildings and may be followed by an extended program if that is required.

The Themes of the Circus

We firstly explore the way the world is....

and the way we are, with all our separations....

The way our senses give us that feeling of separateness and how we build an identity out of that feeling in what we can call the process of EGO.

We then look at how for millennia, actions sprung from that separated sense of self, disconnected from the timeless intelligence of our natural world, has inevitably brought us to the crisis we have on our earth today

In that we establish the simple but profound notion

that we humans are the problem and therefore we are the solution.

We then begin to explore what is the nature of change that is before us and how we begin to approach it.

What is it that we can do today in our lives that contributes to that global emergence of the Butterfly

We are all cells in the body of global consciousness

When the impulses for peace and sustainability arise in us,

our world will be peaceful and sustainable.

How do we approach that?

Shaking the tree

We may use the medium of puppetry to look a different characters and ask how they might have become who they seem to be.

This is one way we create a foundation upon which to invite some self inquiry, initially explored in art and private journal work and then progressively opened into group discussion.

Two Stuctures - Hierarchy and the Reciprocal Frame

The Peacebuildings project arose from the way the Reciprocal Frame connects with people young and old in a very deep way and we use that to full advantage in the Circus.

Age, ability, interest , and time determine how far we can go with this theme.

At its depth the little guy offers an understanding of the nature of our current subject object consciousness and the hierarchy and separation it naturally engenders.

The Reciprocal Frame a vision of an interconnected interdependent community of consciousness gathered around pure empty awareness.

This is deep and not easy for the mind but we are often amazed at the wisdom that emerges from young people when they see the Reciprocal Frame model. It is as though a connection beyond the mind is forged which sparks another realm of knowing.

It is essential to listen deeply to the energy of the group to find the best way with this theme.

The Reciprocal Frame

The Little Guy

The light, the projector and the film

We further explore the notion that all experience is content and that there is something that is aware of that content.

We can be happy, sad, angry, disappointed, fearful, in love but in all these states we are aware.

That awareness never changes even though the content of our experience constantly does.

We relate that awareness to the light, the mind is the projector, the film the EGO which colours experience.

Being in the body

Awakening to a peaceful confidence in the body is not always an easy path.

We use play, group challenges, animal movement, dance and role play, as well as work activities as the physical medium alongside an exploration of what in the mind builds strength and resilience, and what weakens us. All this to help young people make their own connection to their own body and well being

The Way of Council

To take this further we introduce the Way of Council. This is an ancient modality of governance where every individual has the right an opportunity to speak and be heard. It is where we speak truth, we speak from the heart, we speak spontaneously and we speak briefly. This is where we practice listening and deep communication. Council offers a way of establishing truthful communication and awakening and empowering the individual in the group

Personal Empowerment

Throughout the program and in the supporting class and group work we use and offer the mediums of painting, storytelling, puppetry, role play, simple meditation and the Way of Council as ways to explore our current world and the way we play within it. We begin to uncover the beliefs that limit us, and the gifts, skills and beauty we possess.

We ignite the recognition that we are the ones who can, and must do what generations before have not. That it is our courage, our determination, our skill, and our awareness that will unearth the nature and substance of the changes necessary for a world of peace and sustainability for all.

Support for teachers and youth leaders

When working with parents, schools and youth groups it is vital that parents, teachers and youth leaders establish their own understanding of, and relationship to, the depth of the project to become an integral part of the project.

To facilitate this we invite and require all parents, teachers and youth leaders to participate in a 2 day workshop to absorb, challenge and contribute to the essence of the program so that it can be interpreted appropriately to each situation.

Participants on the Pathfinders Workshop become a working group who can share their experiences with each other and the Circus team in Zoom sessions during the project.