Brahma Kumaris at United Nations

The second meeting of the coalition was held at the Holy Cross retreat Centre outside of Melbourne, Australia in Templestowe, from December 1 to 3, 2009. The timing and the location of this meeting was planned to be connected to the Parliament of the World’s Religions to be held the following 6 days in Melbourne.The Coalition consists of over 40 NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) of which the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University is one.A progress report was presented by Dr. Gerardo Gonzalez, Executive Secretary. It had been hoped that this was to be a session to see what was to be done after the UN General Assembly approved the decade but as that did not happen in September the meeting was more for how to have the decade approved at the next United Nation General Assembly session.A key part of this meeting was to review how Coalition members could increase the visibility and promote the UN Decade during the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Two presentations were held at the Parliament in afternoon workshops entitled “Feeding a Plan of Action for the UN Decade of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogues, Understanding and Cooperation for Peace. ”

Erik

We woke up on Thursday to a snow covered Copenhagen.  Julia and Pierro set off early – in the hopes of getting into the Bella Center where over 100 Heads of State would be meeting that day.  Battling freezing cold winds we arrived with about 20 others only to find that the numbers of NGOs allowed to enter the Bella center had been reduced from 1,000 to 300 and that if you were not on a special list – now with green access card – you were not going to get in!  We had our registration badges, and our secondary white pass, but now we needed a third green pass!  We were not on the list.  As we left the Bella Center to catch a metro train back to the BK Center, an arriving train packed with other NGOs also hoping to beat the crowds and get in, drew into the station . . . most of them would be disappointed.

We found out that the Peoples Climate Action had arranged an alternative venue for the NGOs to hear what was going on, by video being streamed from the Bella Center.  This happened to be taking place near the BK center and so, those of us now left from our delegation: Pierro, Golo, Julia, Sonja and Valerianne, set off again into the snow, but this time in the light of the day –  so we entertained ourselves with a snowball fight on the way!  On arrival we found ourselves in a large hall with 5,000 chairs and big screens with the Heads of State (literally!) being shown to an almost empty hall.  We were almost the only ones there.  This brought an amazing opportunity because we were consecutively interviewed by the media –  a web media journalist from the UN COP15 blog page “Behind the Scene” and Golo was interviewed by a journalist from a German News Agency.

We lost one more of our delegation at lunch time – Golo left for Germany.  After lunch the remainder of us set off for the KlimaForum for our final event of the conference where Valerianne was to take part in a panel discussion to give a spiritual perspective.

Panel Discussion — Crucial Principles for Radical Change.

The moderator of the panel was a woman, Karen Blincoe, ICIS Founder and Director and former director of the world-renowned Schumacher College in the UK.  She had been arranging the morning meditations at the KlimaForum and had connected to Valerianne during one of the BK led meditation sessions and asked her to be on a panel of speakers she was organizing.

The question posed was: “How must human consciousness and culture evolve in order to meet the overwhelming urgency and complexity of our time?”

The other speakers were from EnlightmentNext.  Who also produce a magazine in the US and are connected to Andrew Cohen who describes himself as being dedicated to igniting a revolution in human consciousness.  They were introducing the subject of BrightGreen.  There were two presenters, one a scientist and accomplished musician, from Denmark, Peter Bastian and the other Ross Robertson from the USA.

Bright Green environmentalism emphasizes innovation and intelligent technologies as the solution to the global climate challenge.  They were basically saying that we need new maps to guide our progress into a brighter, greener, more just and sustainable future and we need new and creative capacities for radical change, and a willingness to let go of obsolete mindsets.  Progress should not be demonized, and we should free ourselves from the values of the past and use our creative power to create the future using technology.

Using a power point presentation, and standing on each side of the stage, they went back and forth with each other.  Then Valerianne took her seat center stage and brought the audience back to focus on themselves.

She started by saying –  The most difficult thing for people to do is change, even in normal circumstances.  Speaking from a spiritual perspective the power we need to change comes from the inside; from the power to think, to feel, to find creative solutions.  We have somehow lost sight of our internal power, and have been looking for solutions and happiness from the outside; in science, and consumption of material goods, increasing our greed as we never seem to experience contentment.

She then took the audience through a meditative exercise too access these qualities.  She asked the audience to remember a moment in their lives when they experienced deep peace, unconditional love, or when they felt totally happy.  These qualities are resources that come from within.

She went on to say that in order to find creative solutions to the big crisis we face today we need to recuperate these inner abilities; powers and capacities, to enable us to discriminate and use our creative power, to think holistically and not in a fragmented way.  Our biggest creative power is our capacity to think – but we have not been using our thoughts properly.  We are wasting them and misusing them, not using them in the best possible way, until gradually we have lost the capacity to think powerfully.

The most beautiful adventure of human life it to find what it is we are looking for – but we look for it in exterior world where we are not likely to find it, and not likely to find solutions if we don’t have the power to face the situations.

The exterior beauty is only a reflection of the inner beauty that is already within.

She explained how matter is only an instrument through which we express ourselves as conscious beings and if we are harmonized within, are non violent, are loving, are peaceful, then we create around us a use of energy which will not damage, will not hurt, and will not create violence.  This is something we can only achieve when we are connected to this inner peace and inner beauty.  Also there is a divine source of beauty, love, and peace which is outside of us, one thought away; only we have forgotten how to access it.  Nature today needs this touch of divinity — the power of God.  This power is accessible if we learn to connect again with our capacity to link to the divine order – to re-order and recreate the balance we have lost. We need to empower people to find solutions for themselves.

Friday 18th   December — The last word.

This is the final Report from the BK COP15 delegation so just want to mention a couple of additional things.

• Today Viggo, one of the BKs from another part of Denmark was on the way to work and was listening to the Radio and heard Sonja’s interview on Radio Denmark.!

• Anna Mogensen from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the center today.  She has a focus on youth and children and wants their voices to be heard.  She was interested in our visions and principles for their future work in Climate Change.  She had seen our stand at the Bella Center, and had collected the material but had never seen anyone – Sonja explained this was because for the last two days we had not been able to get into the Bella center due to the restrictions on the numbers of NGOs allowed in! – so Anna is coming to interview Sonja at the Center on Tuesday.

• Pierro gave a phone interview with Lifegate Radio which broadcasts in Milano and Rome about what a spiritual organization like the Brahma Kumaris have to do with COP15.  It was a chance let people know the importance of a change in consciousness, starting with thought, to bring a change in the environment.

Sister Jayanti departed from Copenhagen after breakfast, and there were many fond farewells – It had been such a special time for all of us spending these 10 days together and everyone was so appreciative of Sister Jayanti’s presence.

COP15 – because of the planned demonstrations to enter the Bella Center by force, our delegation decided not to go the Bella center today, but instead to focus on our events and stand at the Klimaform.

Invitation to speak at the European Environment Agency’s program.
As a follow-up to yesterday’s panel discussion with Sister Jayanti and the KlimaFourm, Golo was invited to give a presentation at the European Environment Agency on Chronicles of Ecotopia – Imagining Sustainable Futures.  He presented the work of the Brahma Kumaris Solar Energy Initiative in India and also the “Village for the Future”, a sustainable settlement with innovative buildings with sustainable farming and lifestyle.

Side Event of the Brahma Kumaris Solar Energy
Golo then cycled to the KlimaForum (in true sustainable style) to give a longer presentation on the Brahma Kumaris Solar Energy Initiative and the Village for the Future, to a full room of NGOs   He again gave a very good presentation, where he also explained the importance of the change in our consciousness and how it effects our actions and helps us to change our habits which have lead to these unsustainable lifestyles.  He interjected a lot of humor and asked how many in the gathering were vegetarians and surprisingly – half of the audience raised their hands.  Perhaps at last vegetarianism may begin to make headway as it is now being shown that by becoming a vegetarian 50% of your personal carbon footprint is reduced!

Interview with young American independent documentary filmmaker
Julia was interviewed by Margaret Thomas, who also did some work The Esalen Institute an alternative educational center/health spar in BigSur, California.  She was interested in our perspective of consciousness making an impact on matter and also of how we work with the UN.

KlimaForum09

Meditation
A group of 35 people gathered from 8 to 9:15 am for a powerful meditation conducted by Sis Jayanti.  First there was a deep 15 minute silence and then she explained about the soul, the Supreme Soul, and the home of souls, each followed by a guided meditation on the same subject.

Side Event - Mind and Matter
Panel and interview

At 10am about 60 people gathered to listen to a panel discussion organized by the Brahma Kumaris.  The room gradually filled to capacity with standing room only.

Sonia asked Sister Jayanti to share her perspective on mind and matter and Sister Jayanti responded by sharing her observations on how positive and negative thoughts and emotions impact the body.

She continued by saying that meditation is a means of looking inside and seeing what is happening and transforming the quality of our thinking so that it becomes elevated. The effect of this should last longer that the 20 or 30 minute of a meditation.  With practice our consciousness will stay elevated throughout the day. This will then impact our energy level and all relationships; not just with ourselves but also with others.  When we connect with the spirit in each other, the beings of light that we are, respectful relationships are developed; with others as well as with matter.

Then Sonia asked Golo to share his experience with solar energy. He explained how 15 years ago as a spiritual person he got very interested in the question of energy. Coming from Germany, power cuts and shortages were not something he was familiar with and so when he travelled to India and experienced these first hand he became interested in providing efficient solutions to the energy problems there.

He shared how he managed to gradually interest the community of yogis in setting up a solar system, until is has now become the largest in India.  He explained that the solutions they had found for India worked very well but that every country, region or even individual, had its own situation and that consulting an expert was important in finding local solutions.

There were many questions from the audience and both Golo and Sister Jayanti responded, sharing that being friendly to the environment meant changes in lifestyle.  Vegetarianism for instance makes a huge difference to your personal carbon footprint and is part of acting responsibly towards matter. Sis Jayanti shared some of the spiritual laws connected to matter; and how if you use thoughts, time, energy, and money in a worthwhile way you will never lack these resources.  She also explained how our vibrations when in connection with the divine can affect the world.  She shared how in the Brahma Kumaris, our elders lead by example; demonstrating in their life the practical result of all these spiritual laws.

Golo also answered many questions on the use of alternative energies, saying how being spiritual does not just mean sitting on a cloud and do nothing but means finding practical adaptation solutions to the situations and problems arising.  In response to a question from a person facing problems in the community, he shared the need to learn to give your ideas as a master and accept the decisions as a child.

Back at the BK Center
After mediation in the evening, while snow swirled outside, we drank hot chocolate and discussed the future of the BK Environment Initiative –  we will keep you posted on developments.  This was our last evening with Sister Jayanti and so we were appreciating the wonderful 10 days we had spent together.

Christiana Climate ‘Bottom’ Meeting – Windows of Hope

This is the meeting that is parallel to the Climate summit, primarily taking place at Christiana
Golo was one of the speakers of a morning programs on Sustainable Energy.  In the introduction to the event it was mentioned that solar, wind, hydro-electrical, geo-thermal and biomass energy together with energy conservation should be a central part of the energies policies of the future.  This is the way to achieve a CO2 neutral society, where growth is measured in “soft’ and immaterial values. It was held in the main tent and was attended by about 60 people.

Golo informed the audience about the latest solar development scheme in India to install 20,000MW until 2020. .  He then gave a power point presentation and spoke of the Brahma Kumaris activities in the field of renewable energies and finished the presentation by saying that lasting change can only be achieved ay a change in consciousness and practicing values.

Climate Change TV arranged and interviews with Sister Jayanti and Sonja at the Brahma Kumaris stand at the Klimafourm, along with a well known Danish musician Peter Bastian and Allan Alfred Hensen from “We Collaborate” – the organization that was facilitating these interviews. The general theme was how to continue after COP15.

Radio France International interviewed Valerianne for both the Spanish and the French speaking channels on the impact of consciousness on climate.

COP 15

In the afternoon Mr. Al Gore was scheduled to speak at a side event called “Melting Snow and Ice:  A Call to Action” which was to be held opposite our stand, and over a period of about half an hour a crowd started to build with many press.  By the time Mr. Gore arrived a few hundred people had collected outside the room unable to enter the already packed hall.  Many milled around waiting for him to come out of the room for a glimpse or photograph, the result was that some wandered to our stand where Julia and Golo had the opportunity to tell them about our perspective.  One such person was a young woman from an organization called “Creative Climate”, who interviewed Golo.  Creative Climate is a diary project that will record how people understand and respond to environmental change over the next decade.  It is a project hosted by the Open University and includes linked broadcasts by the BBC.

On leaving the Bella Center all NGOs were given a piece of paper being given by security reminding us of the further restrictions . . . from Wednesday only 7,000, Thursday 1,000, and Friday 900 NGOs would be admitted due to capacity restrictions!

Evening Program for general Public - Time to Change

On a dark and cold night over 200 people in contact with the local BK centre, gathered in a beautifully decorated hall in the centre of Copenhagen to listen to Sister Jayanti speak on the theme “Time to Change”.

She shared the highlights and impressions she gathered from the different events she participated in during her days in Copenhagen and the Climate Change meetings. She mentioned Mr. Yvo de Boer, Executive s Secretary of the UNFCC has said “This crisis is not a climatic crisis but a moral crisis”. Sister Jayanti continued by explaining how values and morals are part of the inner being and this is what people can change through understanding the self more deeply and through experiencing the very core of their being through meditation.

She also shared how people are now talking about systemic change, or system change however, history shows, change happens, as Margaret Mead a social scientist has said, “Only when a small group of committed individuals make it happen”. Sis Jayanti explained a system cannot transform itself, but a small group of committed people can change a system.  The change has to happen in me – When I change the world changes.  If I am in touch with my inner core I’ll respond peacefully.

Saturday 12th December

Planning meeting for the BK Environment Initiative.
The BK delegation got together after class to discus how we could move forward with the BK Environment Initiative and how we can share this with BKs around the world.  We had a short brainstorming session and will meet again on Tuesday before sister Jayanti leaves and the BK delegates who have left Copenhagen will join us by phone.

COP15 and the Klimaforum
This was a quieter day, at both COP15 and the Klimaforum (NGO meeting), mainly because today was a day of demonstrations.  Our interaction with the public was more of a one on one conversation as people visited both our stands.  Most were from different government delegations, especially some of the African countries which included Senegal, Malawi, and Mali.  During quieter times it was an opportunity for the local green team volunteers to ask spiritual questions to our  BK delegates who were with them on the stands.

Meanwhile out on the street, people gathered in front of the Danish Parliament building to march to the Bella Center (COP15) about four miles away. The crowd of tens of thousands—was incredibly diverse and included: young people from around the world, dressed as penguins and polar bears and dinosaurs, singing, dancing to stay warm against the cold breeze.   The demonstrators marched to press for more decisive action on global warming.  Many chanted and carried banners reading “Demand climate justice”, “The world wants a real deal” and “There is no Planet B”.  Though this was a mainly peaceful demonstration there were some arrests, most have now been released.

Closing Session of the Religious Leaders Meeting.

Sister Jayanti, Sonja and Bro. Romas set off for the closing session of the religious leaders meeting which took place in Duemosegaard, the country manor of Hildur and Ross Jackson, founders of the Gaia Trust and the Global Eco Village Network in Denmark.  This was a beautiful modern farm house, into which the owners had just moved with a vision of having it as an ecological retreat and educational center.  During this closing session each religious leader was asked to share in one word what there experience of this week had been, and many came up with words of oneness or unity.  It had indeed been an unusual week where religious leaders from many different faiths had been able to be unified around this issue.

Finally an intense discussion began on whether anger could be righteous or not.   At this point our delegation had to leave to join our “International Christmas Party” at our local BK center which was enjoyed by the whole delegation together with the local volunteer green team.

Sunday 13th December

Second Wave

A wave of new arrivals and departures have taken place over the weekend in Copenhagen not only from our BK delegation –  the departures of Renaud, Arnold and Dotre who left for France, Holland, and western Denmark respectively and the arrival of Valerianne from Switzerland Lotta from Sweden and Piero from Italy – but there has also been a huge influx of additional NGOs along with more government parties, and government ministers who will be preparing for the arrival of their Heads of State this coming week.  This has caused the organizers of the UN Conference to issue a limited number of secondary passes to the observer delegations (NGOs such as ours) – to limit the amount of people entering the Bella Conference Center at one time.  The capacity of the Bella Center is 15000 and the registered participants is 45,000  So our delegation of 17 has been limited to 7 delegates, which actually doesn’t make a great deal of difference to us as we do not even have that many at the main conference at one time.

COP 15 and NGO Forum

The NGO Fourm has a well attended meditation each morning.  This morning’s session was lead by the Brahma Kumaris.  Valerianne from Switzerland guided the meditation.  After half an hour’s powerful meditation, there was a sharing on empowerment.  At the end one woman asked how activities like mediation would impact the COP15?  This gave the opportunity to speak of mind over matter, and how creating harmonious relationships influences the whole community through a new, more positive, and inclusive attitude.  This different atmosphere supplies a more constructive attitude towards climate change, rather than the outbursts of anger which can be expressed.

Religious Service at the Cathedral in Copenhagen

Sister Jayanti, Sonja, and Winnie attended this beautiful ceremony which was held at the Church of Our Lady, the Copenhagen Lutheran Cathedral.  The ceremony was called the Ecumenical Celebration for Creation.  Sister Jayanti was among a congregation of about 2,000 people.  -Sonja had managed to get a reserved seat in the second row with a clear view of the proceedings.  (Due to her much appreciated help with the Religious Leaders Meeting).  Songs were sung in Zulu by a choir called Church on the Rock Choir from South Africa, in Greenlandic by Aavaat, a Greenlandic choir and in Danish by the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir.  Three symbols of climate change were carried in procession:  Glacier stones from Greenland, dried up maize from Africa, bleached corals from the Pacific Ocean and all the songs and prayers were based on the natural world.  The ceremony was presided over by the Queen of Denmark and among other bishops and church leaders from the 5 continents, Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams spoke an inspiring sermon and Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond TuTu read a Psalm.  Sister Jayanti had the opportunity to meet with both Archbishops.  Dr. Desmond TuTu said he had been following the growth and activities of the BKs over the years.

Conference of Danish Industry – Bright Green.

Mr. Pachuri, Chair of IPCCC and Nobel Laureate spoke of how business cannot function in a society that has failed.  Even if emissions come to 0% today the inertia in the seas (time lag) will make sea levels rise. Thermal expansion of ocean will definitely happen.

• The Global community has to take climate change seriously, including business and industry.  This is the Opportunity to transform and come back close to nature.  Natural energies are going to be the foundation of civilization.

• The Indian government has committed 20,000 megawatts of solar energy in the next 11 years.

• Reduction of Co2 emissions by 2015 must happen.

• Using the technologies on a large scale as in Denmark and Germany, doesn’t reduce growth of industry.

• We can measure and predict the impact of humans on nature, but we cannot predict or measure the impact of the upheavals of nature on nature.

COP15 – Bella Centre

Will there be any Copenhagen Agreement?

Patricia reported that here is basically a two track outcome connected to the Copenhagen Agreement (the result of the Copenhagen summit) each track has its own document.

• One Document – is the 2nd phase of the Kyoto protocol, only for developed countries (not likely to include the US)

• Second Document – is the world agreement that will include commitments from both developed and developing countries.  That will include a shared vision for long term mitigation, adaptation, technology and financial resources.

It is likely that the outcome will be a political agreement rather than a legally binding agreement, with specific numbers related to the levels of mitigation to be achieved by all countries and the amount of finance to be allotted for the sort and medium term.

The political agreement will contain a fixed date in 2010 to adopt the final text for the legally binding agreement.  This means that the most difficult issues of finance and levels of reduction will be sorted out here in Copenhagen at the highest political level.

Meeting with Mr. Yvo de Boer, Executive s Secretary of the UNFCC.
Patricia met with Mr. Yvo de Boer.  He knows Patricia and so was very pleased to see her and when he heard that sister Jayanti could come and offer his some minutes of peace, he was even happier.  He remembered the brief meeting Sister Jayanti, on Thursday and said he would be happy to have his assistant arrange a more formal meeting with Sister Jayanti over the next few days.  On meeting with his assistants they asked if his staff could also meet with Sister Jayanti as they needed some peace too!  You can imagine how busy and frazzled these people must be with the pressure of running this conference.

A Glimpse of the business world - Side Event
There was an interesting side event with top business people where a debate began linked to the fact that clean technologies are more costly at the moment, but when they will be globally used prices will be affordable and cheaper.  One of the speakers Chief Executive officer from ARUP (a large and well known British Architects company) said that governments had failed to communicate to citizens the danger of climate change  Consumers would be prepared to pay more for technologies when they know the danger to their children.  Business needs to pay more attention to communicate with communities about climate change.  He recommended that a way to do this was through culture and art.

NGO Forum. (Klimaforum09)

NGO Declaration – is now Final A People’s Declaration  -  it is essentially the same as draft 3 but now includes a statement saying that we need a stronger and more democratic UN to get the movements of movements going.

Side Event:  Organized by the Global Peace Initiative of Women organizing the Religious Leaders Meetings called “The Inner Dimensions of Change”

Dena Merriam, Founder an Convener, The Global Peace Initiative of Women, opened the proceeding saying that thoughts and feelings come from the inside and get reflected in the outside world, So change needs to start from the inside.  Dena asked Sister Jayanti to start the conversation by speaking about how we have lost connection with our inner dimension and how that connects with the situation we find ourselves in the outside world.

Sister Jayanti, Director, Brahma Kumaris, Europe. If our minds are anxious, this will impact our attitude, our behavior, and our relationships, and we then see how situations unfold in the world . . . we create the outcome of our day and our world from our state of mind.  Because we have forgotten our selves we have lost respect for all forms of life. We think of ourselves as only physical beings, and this is dangerous because, we then identify ourselves as certain colors, genders, nationalities etc. this easily leads to division and conflict.  In loosing touch with our true selves we have identified ourselves with skin – which is only a 16th of an inch thick – thus loosing touch with the being we really are.  We identify with our positions or possessions, and have lost touch with what brings real contentment and happiness.  We then need so much in order to fill the emptiness.  When we begin to respect ourselves and one another as we truly are, inside our skins—spirit – we will learn to respect all forms of life and we won’t need as much as we did before.

Prof. Dr. Phra Dharmakosajarn, Rector, University, Thailand said to his way of thinking climate pollution started from mental pollution.  We consume more and pollute more.  Out of desire for more we create more material things to satisfy that need, and this is our problem.  Because of this pattern of desire we look at nature, not as it really is, but to see what we can get out of it.  We look at a mountain, or a river, to see how much money we can make from it.  Now we have to return to looking at nature in its true form and not as a thing to satisfy our desires.  At the moment we look through a curtain of greed and self interest, our eyes cannot see the relatedness of the natural world, we see things separately.  We have to start to see thing as they truly are and how they are all connected.  Once our minds are purified within, we will have peace of mind and we can live in peace with nature.

Sheikh Saliou Mbacke, Muridiya Sufi order Senegal spoke of how everything happens through Gods will.  There is room for the relationship between what you do and the result will be accordingly.  However, ultimately it is God’s will.  This is the law of Islam.  How do we stand with that . . . in terms of climate change?  God has decided to punish us because we have not looked after the planet.  God has the ultimate word, even we do good.  So I think our role, the inner part we can play, is to serve nature.  Responding to climate change is good, caring for our planet is good, as mandated by God, but we have to recognize our weakness as human beings.  It is God who decides.

Sraddhalu Ranade, Scientist, Educator and Teacher at the Sri Aurobindo Ashramin Pondicherrry, India:  There are 4 levels to our inner and outer worlds according to the ancient Richis of India.

1.  Sense awareness, we call this – Sense mind, which deals with sensations and how we interpret them.  We are colored by our state of sensory mind. (How we look at the glass – whether it is half full or half empty depends on our optimistic or pessimistic state of mind).
2. Creative power reflects our energy force.  For example a teacher may enter a noisy class room and shout – using their energy force to shock the children into silence.  Another teacher may enter the noisy class room, calmly and filled with self assurance – this impacts the class and brings them to silence.
3. Our consciousness – Our beliefs connected to our identity.  Our identity determines our behavior, our capacity to act.  If you believe you can do something you will do it and be successful.  If you think you cannot do something you will fail even if you have been forced to do it.
4. Highest consciousness – essence of being – the self Atman.  This is our essential consciousness where we experience the entire universe – we call this self-realization.  This is the kind of creative power which produced the ‘big bang’.  You don’t have to go outside to do anything it is all done from within.  The entire cosmos is ours within.  Because we have lost connection with this experience we crave this, and out of this lack pores our disconnectedness and discontentment, and the climate change situation is a symptom.

Reverend Richard Cizik and Evangelical Christian from the USA felt that this was a question of God and eternity.  He said he didn’t think we could separate the inner climate from the outer climate. He shared a personal experience of how his inner climate changed his connection to the outer climate. For 25 years he was a top lobbyist in Washington but for all those years he lived in a kind of cocoon, and the environment was completely off my ‘platter’.

Then he was invited to a climate change conference in Oxford by a friend – and he SAW –he looked at the world and wondered how he had not seen – ultimately he was blind to what was happening around him – it felt like a conversion, a change had happened from inside of him.  He realized that he had not understood our basic relationship with matter – that of stewardship.  He realized he had not understood the basic relationship – his relationship with God and the relationship that exists in him with all of the creative order of animals and fauna.  When we understand this relationship our inner and outer thoughts are the same.  When we do this we also have to pay a price if we speak out.  He paid a price.  (He basically lost his position) He had to speak and the result was a huge revolution between the old guard evangelical Christians and the younger generation who understand.

He then spoke to his Muslim and said to answer my brother on the involvement of God in all of this:  I see this as a “God moment” and we have a responsibility to do what we must – protect what God has told us to – this is a mandate and not a request and I honestly believe we have to do this.

Zarko Andricevic, practices Chan meditation and is Founder of the Buddhist Center in Zagreb, Croatia Spoke of how he was not a believer but a practitioner. The problem today is not so much the outer world but ignorance of the inner world.  There is a big myth in the world that we humans are not perfect that we have a need to destroy.  But our true self is perfect and it is in this that the human being is according the face of god, the son of God – “In God’s image” But this is not the face we see in the mirror.  The problems in the world relate to our inner climate, the climate of our relationships.  Many people talk about the inner self and look for it – it is already inside us, inside there is already happiness, in our search we look at it from the aspect of emotions, but we cannot be emotionally happy all the time.  If we use our awareness we would not make mistakes.  Scholars teach about outer things, not inner things.  These inner things should be taught.  He then asked a question to the audience – In this very moment now you can think – who is the one who is listening?

About 300 people attended this event and there were a lot of interesting follow-up questions.

Photographs and Interview

Following the side event Sister Jayanti had her photograph taken, individually, along with other religious leaders by Soren Solkaer Starbird, a well know Danish photographer (also well known in the BK family for his exhibition “Souls”).

Sister Jayanti then had an interview with Your Climate. TV.  Climate TV describes itself as a place for everybody who believes that a collaborative approach is the way to find solutions on the world’s climate problems.  This interview and meditation commentary is already up on the internet www.climate-change.tv/

Meetings with UN Secretariat.

Sister Jayanti and Renaud left early for the Bella Center for a pre-arranged meeting with Preety Bhandari, Financial and Technical Support, Climate Change Secretariat.  The negotiations are basically divided up into five themes and finance is one of them which Preety Bhandari heads up.  This was a very pleasant meeting; she was very open and listened with attention to our spiritual perspective.

On the way to the meeting, which was in high security private offices of the secretariat, they met by chance Mr. Yvo de Boer, Executive s Secretary of the UNFCC.  It was a brief but pleasant meeting; Sister Jayanti gave him our BK Statement and a diary.

A young man, Vipul Bhatti, Editor, of Corporate Social Responsibility at the, “The Optimist” (www.optimistsworld.com) interviewed Sister Jayant.  He was very enthusiastic about his own experience at COP15in Copenhagen and was interested in the BK position on climate change   The article will probably appear sometime next week.

COP15 and the NGO Forum. (Klimaforum09)

The negotiating parties have been working with their own documents and the NGOs have been preparing their own declaration – called the Klimaforum09 Declaration.  The full title is: System Change – not Climate Change.  The People’s Declaration from Klimaforum09.  There have been a few drafts, and many NGOs have been participating in the writing of it by having the text up on a large screen, and going through the paragraphs one by one and people editing text directly from the computer.  At the moment we are on draft 3, the aim is to have a declaration by consensus to submit to COP15.  Interestingly there is a subtitle in the declaration called “Prevailing patterns of thought.”

COP15 has its own daily newspaper called “the COP15 post” and the NGO Forum has it’s own newspaper called “Climate Chronicle: — Critical News and Climate Justice Perspective”

Renaud was interviewed twice by private TV Channels: here is one by -positiveplanet.org asking him about his vision for the planet in 2020  vision for 2020

http://www.planet-positive.org/Vision2020/movies?ajax=movie&id=AQ9TIE25gGI

Global Peace Initiative of Women organizing the Religious Leaders Meetings sponsored a Special Evening Program for invited guests at National Museet – the National Museum of Denmark.  The theme was “Voices of Hope” Responding to the Call of the Earth.”

Dena Merriam, Founder an Convener, The Global Peace Initiative of Women, opened the proceedings, welcomed everyone and then handed the evening over to Sister Jayanti who moderated the program and did a meditation commentary to complete the evening.

Hon. Maurice Strong Leading Environmentalist, Secretary-General, 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Environment, first Executive Director of UNEP and Secretary-General, 1992 Rio Earth Summit:
Climate change is a survival agenda. The main enemy of capitalism is not communism or socialism but greedy capitalists.  Climate change will create conflicts so peace organizations should try to avoid the worst effects of it.  Copenhagen will be a commitment to have a legally binding commitment in as little time as possible.

Prof. Wangari Maathai, Novel Laureate, Founder Greenbelt Movement
The Bible is more related to dominium of nature/environment but Genesis actually encourages us to be custodians of nature and not exploiters.  If other species disappear so will the human species. We need to remember that there are priceless things to protect.  Accountability, transparency, equity, and responsibility are key for the agreement at Copenhagen. We have to have empathy and compassion for the world, especially African countries. Using the voice from the source we spiritual leaders must influence the negotiators.

Prof. Dr. Phra Dharmakosajarn, Rector, University, Thailand
A shared vision is related to collective action. Awareness is not enough for a solution there are 3 approaches: to just live with despair is pessimistic, just hope without awareness is optimistic, but we need to be aware of problems and look for solutions that are realistic.  Darwin said that survival is for the species that adapt to change.  It is our thoughts of greed rooted in our minds that is the problem. Peace is a prerequisite to a solution. Peace in mind, peace with other human beings, and peace of nations.

Swami Veda Bharati, Spiritual Director, The Sadhana Mandir Ashram, India
The voice of spirit is clear; if debates are preceded with silence everything would be different. Everywhere the tradition is to consult philosophers, now seem to have forgotten this. What changes do we need in our life? If, one person is influenced in one thousand and then that one influences one person in one thousand we can impact the world.

 A day coming and going.  The departure of Viggo and the arrival of Dorte (Dorothy) who come from the same BK center in another part of Denmark, Aarhus.  Also the arrival of Golo, our Solar Energy expert from Gyan Sarovar.

A Day of Media interviews!

COP 15 – Bella Center
Sister Jayanti, Sonja, Julia, Patricia, Winnie, and Arnold set off to COP15, the government meeting. This was Sister Jayanti, Sonja and Julia’s first visit to the Bella center as we had been involved with the Religious Leaders meeting up until now.  After registering we familiarized ourselves with the huge conference venue, visited our BK stand, had a meeting was with Climate Change TV person, Anna, who was organizing an interview with us later in the day, and sat in one of the main plenary sessions of the Climate negotiations.  Just as we sat down in the packed conference room (people were overflowing and sitting in the passageways, Mr. Vijai Sharma IAS Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests was about to speak, this was perfect timing as Patricia recognized him as someone she used to work with and so a little while after his intervention she called him out of the conference room to meet with Sister Jayanti.  A very lovely meeting took place where he acknowledged the importance of the presence of organizations and spiritual leaders such as ourselves during these negotiations as we worked at a different and much needed level which would help the negotiators, such as him, do their job and move things forward.

Press Conference at COP15
Organized jointly by The Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change (with whom we are sharing our stand) and 350.org organized (highlighting the benchmark of 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere.  The name of the Press conference was Spirit and Science in Agreement on the Climate Crisis.  It lasted for an hour with 2 panels.  Sister Jayanti spoke on the second panel facilitated by 350.org

First Panel:

Sister Joan Brown, OSF, Franciscans International Delegation
Climate Change of Heart and soul is needed.  Saint Frances would say, follow in the footsteps of Jesus, look after your carbon foot print!  At the end of his life when St. Frances was a bit disheartened about the situation around him he would say “Let us follow Jesus NOW.  We are now saying – Let us begin NOW, ACT NOW.
Imam Abudul Wahid Pedersen, Foreign Relations Manager, Muslim Council of Denmark.  People may say what this has got to do with religion, maybe nothing, but it has got to do with religious people.  Money is running the show, not humans; we have to reclaim our planet from the multi-nationals, into the hands of concerned people, concerned scientists, and concerned religious people.  Our religions teach us this concern and we have to join hands as we are all in the same boat.  We have to raise the awareness of concerned people.
Dr. Stephen Schneider, Stanford University.  Stewardship is the keyword.  He spoke of how he was part of the first conference in Rio, and how Bush (senior’s) advisers had at one point encouraged Bush not to go to Rio, because they did not want to be put in the position of having to sign anything, but ultimately Bush decided to go, along with a little known senator of the time – Al Gore . . . Many years have passed since then.  We are now close to the end and we have to fix it, it cannot be solved by one, it has to be a multilateral agreement.  Moral principles are involved.
Venerable Chang Ji, Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association.  It is when we live by our ethical values that we live more wholesome lives.  When your personal interest is at stake you have to let go of some things for the sake of the public interest.  There is value in looking at the interconnectedness of all.

Second Panel

Sister Jayanti said crisis is not just to do with the climate change crisis it is a crisis in  ethics and values, sometimes we need to “hit a wall” for us to make changes.  that wall is fast heading towards us.  Physical things will happen quickly when there is a change of human hearts and consciousness.  The essential factor of the human being is consciousness, awareness – thought.  There is the whole system of belief, that the quality of our thoughts impacts the world around us and the process of mediation, contemplation and prayer is to connect to the deep peace love and truth within our inner being so that thoughts of this quality can be transmitted into the world but it is also this quality of thought that is translated into action.
Rabbi Bent Lexner, Chief Rabbi of Denmark.  The Bible tells us to guard and keep the earth.  Science is clear, humanity is doing a dangerous experiment, and we must tell our people that we are commanded to guard the earth.
Lakha Lama Rinpoche, Pendeling Centre for Tibetan Buddhism.  What is needed is nonviolence, awareness and respect.  Violence comes from inside pollution which makes us greedy and steal from nature that which is not given – we take it out of the planet and then the waste from that changes into chemicals.  This is a lot of violence to our home.  We need to teach or children non-violence, science and religion need to come together – inner science.  It is the inner science which exists before the outer science.
Tahirih Naylor, representing Bahai International Community’s UN office.  This is not only a crisis but an opportunity to live at the next level of maturing.  We also believe that it is the inner perspective which molds the outer perspective.
Questions were taken from the press. There were interesting Questions from the Press, including a young reporter from World Watch.

Interview with Climate Change TV.
Climate Change TV is the world’s first Internet broadcaster dedicated entirely to climate change issues, featuring exclusive interviews with world leaders, environmental ministers, expert scientists, decision makers, activists and many of the most important and influential figures involved in the international climate change debate.  The BKs were given the opportunity to be interviewed by a journalist there in the middle of the large space at the Bella Centre where an audience gathered to hear the interview.  This was also broadcast all over the Bella center at other times during the day.  The questions asked were”
“Tell us about the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University?”
“What is your purpose of being here?”
“What is the role of mediation in this?”
“What would you say to the leaders of the world gathered here?”

The interview is up on the ClimeteChange TV website:

http://www.climate-change.tv/component/content/article/47-inside-climate-change-solutions-interviews/322-jayanti-kirpalani-december-2009

Interview with Religious Affairs Correspondent, Danish Broadcasting Corporation.
In the afternoon Sister Jayanti was interviewed and joined by Golo and Sonja.  Anders Laugesen, the correspondent came to the Copenhagen BK Center.  He is well traveled and has spent the last 20 years looking at different religions, he had also spent a couple of years in India   He was very interested to know the role of women and the power of the Shakti, in particular the role that goddess Kali, as her appearance seems particularly violent.  Sister Jayanti spoke of their role as representing the power to destroy Raven (personification of devil) and this is why these goddesses appear so fearsome.  They represent the end of evil, and there is no fear of death because there is the knowledge of immortality.

Laugesen then said he sometimes felt that religious people, especially Yogis, were well away from the turmoil of the world and it was easy for them to stay cool and calm while the rest of the world suffered.

Golo intervened here and shared how in fact Yogi’s too had to make effort to stay cool and calm – they as ordinary people, had also come from the confusion of the world and even if yogi’s lives in mountains, such as the Aravalli mountains of Rajasthan where the BKs have their headquarters, there was plenty of activity going on.  For example, he was presently involved into a huge project, dealing with many people, a lot of machinery and technology, and it was because of a lot of intense spiritual effort on his part that he is able to stay cool and calm in these often hectic circumstances.  Sonja also shared how she has to deal with a lot of stress, and stressful people in her work, as a community nurse, and it is her practice of daily mediation that keeps her cool and calm.

Laugesen  stayed for one and a half hours and on departure shared how he could see that even though Sister Jayanti had a lot of gentleness in her demeanor and voice, when he looked in her eyes he could see the power of shankti.  The interview will be broadcast at some point together with Sonja’s meditation commentary in Danish.

Activism at COP15
Bella Conference Center is teaming with people from all over the world, and the plenary rooms are full – ‘Standing room’ or rather ‘Sitting on the floor room only!  Arnold reported that he went into the plenary early to make sure of a seat and heard a lot of noise outside and after sometime went outside and found that the security had moved the slogan chanting activists far from the entrance of the plenary room creating a corridor so that the activist could not disturb the meetings.

Christiania – Windows of Hope
Renaud Russeil, gave a presentation in the afternoon called ‘From fear to non-violence, changing our lifestyle for a sustainable future’  About 50 people attended and some who were interested in having a conversation after the event for about half and hour.

Ray of the Day
You may remember we mentioned in Monday’s BK report that CAN (Climate Action Network – group of 400 NGOs) organize a prize presentation called the “Fossil of the Day” and that we had suggested they also have a prize called ‘Enlightenment of the Day’ and they said that they were thinking of this but were going to call it ‘Ray of the Day’ (a better name)  Today the “Ray” was born – Today, the small country of Tuvalu in the Pacific received the award “The Ray of the Day” for their efforts in climate change negotiations. The country is particularly affected by climate change and has brought the legal aspect of the COP 15 on the pitch.

Day 2 of the Religious Leaders Meeting.

Morning Session:
Presentation by Sr Joan Chittister, Benedictine Num, Renowned Author, and Prominent Voice in Interfaith. She spoke of Judo/Christian religions story of creation.  There are two versions of the creation story, the first has been used to dominate, it is the masculine domination of the scriptures, “Come now gentleman – God creates man in His own Image – be fruitful and multiply, have dominion over every living thing – you can have it all – it is all for you, it is all here to satisfy your needs – everything physical is to serve man alone – humans are beyond nature – those who have the resources dominate, those who do not have the resources, are made the resources.” She then spoke of the second story of creation is The Companion Story – God brings all creatures to be named, to be known, bringing humans into relationship with the rest of creation, this relationship is what makes us like God.  Domination is destructive, being in relationship, makes us care for creation.  We must see it differently, say it differently, we must put the second creation story back and change our story”

Sraddhalu Ranade, Scientist, Educator and Teacher at the Sri Aurobindo Ashramin Pondicherrry India, gave an Eastern perspective – The east has not been deeply enough connected to our own belief or we wouldn’t have been so easily influenced by the Judo/Christian story.  The ancient Vedic Rishie’s experience was of God Consciousness – We are one. One Source, one origin that is present everywhere – we are not separate from the seed.  Each one has there own way of realizing it.  Each recovers and discovers themselves in the three aspects of one – each finds their own way, this is called Dharma.  The divine must be realized here on earth – it is a divinization of life.  Our weakness was that we withdrew from life.  The east specialized in other worldliness and the west specialized in mastery over matter – each must learn from the other.  He then went on to say that each major religion carries the description of its own end times.  Perhaps this end means an end to the formal structure of religion, leaving each person to find their own way to practice.  There are religious and scientific descriptions of ends of cycles from many different disciplines – and he went onto describe some of them including the 2012 scenario of the Mayan Calendar.  He also described how on a personal level, in a cycle of a single year, we make new years resolutions which in its first stage - it is easy for us to commit to our resolutions, then after a while we need self discipline to keep going.  Then we find some structure to keep going, and finally our resolutions breakdown .  Now being at the apparent end of different cycles, he expressed the urgent need for a change in consciousness.

A scientist from the Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy then spoke of urgency of moving away from fossil fuels, which are not natural or unlimited resources (you have to dig them out of the earth at great expense and a lot of waste), to the real natural and unlimited resource of Sun which is available to all, with no waste.  This, once the initial investment is made will provide cheap and decentralize power, in more ways than one.  His organization is committed to the advancement of all forms of renewable energies (all of which originate from the sun).  Sister Jayanti made an intervention explaining that the Brahma Kumaris is the largest single supplier of Solar Energy in India, servicing 1000’s of people, both institutionally and also by supplying solar cookers for individual homes.

Afternoon Sessions
The first session of the afternoon was jointly facilitated by Sister Jayanti and Dr. Tho Ha Vinh, Meditation disciple of the Venerable Tich Nhat Hanh, and Head of Global Training in the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.  The theme was. The Role of Contemplative Practice and Prayer in Addressing Climate Change,
Sister Jayanti set the context by saying, the crisis is not just a Climate Crisis, but it is a crisis of ethics and of values and sometimes it takes for us to “hit a wall” before we do something about it – that wall is fast heading towards us.  Physical things will happen very quickly when there is a change of human hearts and consciousness.  The two living systems of mind and matter can work together in harmony.  She spoke of the law of entropy in all living systems and the need of an injection of power from outside the system, a source of power which is ever constant to bring the change needed to start the new cycle, to bring about the new world we are all desperately seeing the need for.  This is the role of our contemplative and meditative practices — to bring in the new cycle.

A number of interventions were made from the religious leaders during this session one of which was from Reverend Richard Cizik, a prominent  Christian Evangelical lobbyist from Washington, who spoke of an article, in a newspaper, from the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, part of which included the Secretary General saying (to paraphrase) it is not the governments who would know the hearts of the people, but it is the religious and spiritual people; people of faith, who had the length, breadth, and depth of impact on the community.

Sister Jayanti also gave a joint interview with the Christian Evangelical, Reverend Richard Cizik, for a Christian daily newspaper called Krislelig Dagblad.  http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/artikel/349103

This day marked the end of the closed meetings of the religious leaders, from now onwards the leaders would be going out into the public arena to give presentations, speak in dialogues, and generally share with the rest of the Climate Change delegates of the NGO Forum, Christiana, and other public forums around the city of Copenhagen.  Sister Jayanti will be joining them at various times over the next few days.  The meeting was then closed with some prayers, from the different traditions present.

CPO15 and the NGO Forum.

Patricia Iturregui, Renaud Russeil, and Arnold Beekes continued to attend COP15 and the NGO Forum activities.  Patricia met a number of her contacts from the UN secretariat for Climate Change (from her climate negotiating days) and is working on making appointments for Sister Jayanti with the secretariat leadership.  The main message coming out of the NGO Forum is that there is a need for systemic change not climate change, there must be cooperation between systems — everything is connected.  So the slogan has become “Systemic Change Not Climate Change.”