2nd Day o Parliament Workshops and All!

The First Picture is the workshop leaders for our morning workshop.mentioned below

The Second Picture is how Bob begins his day with others for walking meditation. This was this morning.


It has been a beautiful day, at 8pm the sun is still shinning.
I want to begin this reflection with the end of my day. I just came from
The wonderful concert of Philip Glass's, Voices for the Didgeridoo, Organ & Narrator.
The sound of the didgeridoo is the raw sounds of the earth and all creatures.

A long walk back to the hotel, the people out for a night on the town, one is aware of the wonder of the universe, the sound of the didgeridoo rings in your ears.

I am sitting here in the lobby of the convention center, across from a man I met in South Africa from Omaha, he is one of the founders of NAIN an interfaith organization for leaders of Interfaith groups. That is one of the gifts of this event, collegiality and friendship across all lines!

We read about violence. We hear about people being violated. We see the images of women and children being hurt and raped. But not so often we sit in a room where many present have had those experiences and more. On the 1st day of workshops I attended one with the theme: Addressing Religious Radicalism in Indonesia; appreciating & Cultivating Bhinneka Tunggal Ika & Pancasia
It was a meaningful and compassionate conversation about how the spirituality of any people come from the earth, the sky, the four winds, the language, and cultural and the very life of the people.
Fighting radical Islam in their communities and nation has now become for them an interfaith struggle not the reforming of one faith or another. An author, Anand Krishna gave a power presentation. I hope to get a copy to share with you all. We received one of his new books, One Earth, One Sky, One Humankind: celebrating Unity in Diversity.

I began my morning with a wonderful walking meditation in the park near our hotel and then off to my first workshop of this Parliament. Professor Aunty Joy Murphy-Wandin gave a powerful witness to the daily life of a native person here in Australia. Reminders of treatment of first peoples in North America and our inability to speak to our oppression of others as a white race. She talked about her broken heart, yet a hope is also there. She also spoke of the deep disappointment she has for the Prime Minister and his inability to lead this nation in complete reconciliation. Hm, I have heard that before somewhere in this world…

Peace and Love from the Parliament ko shin & Karen

More pictures on Flickr and my blog