Present mind, open mind, wild mind: The story of NGP
by Jen Jackson
We, the Next Generation, know that the environment is not a special interest. We know it as a universal imperative, the basis of our very being. It is something for which the collective should collaborate rather than wage selective wars.
However, due to the urgency of environmental issues – and their dwindling resonance among a populace more concerned with immediate economic impacts on life and livelihood – the conservation model has become increasingly antagonistic and polarized: us-versus-them, now-or-never, all-or-nothing. Such is the mentality of war…one we cannot afford to lose.
But what would happen if we didn’t look at conservation as a conflict? What if we approached it as an opportunity – for communication, community, communion? What if we recognized that there are myriad paths to healing the planet, and that understanding the worth of each is crucial?
As Rumi wrote, “There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” Why should we fight over where and how we express this reverence?
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We convened in the spring of 2007 – a dozen of environmentalism’s Next Generation, hand-picked from across the West – to discuss the future of the movement and our role in it. In five intensive workshops over the course of a year, we explored the concepts of present mind, open mind, wild mind, and unlearning blindly habituated mindsets. We engaged in deep listening. We discovered the power of story to provide connection and comfort. We learned humility. And in that humility, we found hope.
We trained ourselves to peel back the veneer of pattern and perception to unearth the core of shared values uniting us – the filaments that connect beyond politics and economics.
As one participant said, “Now I strive to understand before I am understood.”
And we learned new ways to kneel and kiss the ground…with reverence for both the landscape and those inhabiting it.
The Next Generation Project isn’t strictly a tools- and tactics-oriented leadership program. Nor is it simply a spiritual retreat. Its beauty lies in the balance between the two: recognizing the role of interior work in facing the external concerns of our time.
Such a program doesn’t lend itself to description or direct replication. It is an evolving, self-directed process, unique to the individuals involved. But it is a powerful process, one that continues to reverberate through the lives of the pilot project’s participants. Each of us has become a more effective leader in our field of work and a more compassionate community member. Each of us brings the profound lessons of the Next Generation Project to the interactions comprising the substance of our lives.
After experiencing the immense impact of the Next Generation model, we feel it is essential to pay it forward, to utilize the insights we have accrued to help others discover their own. Thus, we are now organizing other Next Generation cohorts regionally, ensuring that the ripple effect of this essential dialog continues.
We are seeking new scribes to author future chapters of the Next Generation’s story.
As one of my Next Generation cohorts wrote, our time together “isn’t about rethinking work, it’s about rethinking me.” That is the radical yet simple essence of the Next Generation Project. We have addressed our own passionate truths and unspeakable
fears. We have walked our interior landscapes. And, as we stand tall in this new way of knowing, an entire movement can’t help but respond in kind.
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