Cultural transformation with deep love, radical trust, and “servants of emergence.”
This week, more than fifty change-makers from more than a dozen countries are gathering at the Gandhi Ashram in India for the 2025 Gandhi 3.0 retreat. Some of them are prominent leaders whose work has impacted billions, while some are invisible ladders whose "deepcast" efforts are vividly felt by the world.
The central inquiry for Gandhi 3.0 translates roughly to:
"Can we build many-to-many networks that lead with inner transformation? Many-to-many networks are easy to understand. A network of 50 people on Whatsapp is dramatically stronger than a room full of 50 people watching television. But how do we ensure that such communities nurture inner transformation? . . . it is inner transformation within an individual that brings us closer to our true nature of compassion. We have seen ample many-to-many organizations and movements in the direction of profit and protest, but we haven't seen it for compassion. And the reason why that matters is because love is a much stronger bond than anger or greed. This was the very foundation of Gandhi's movement, and his exemplary model of social change.” (Emphasis mine)
This year's Gandhi 3.0 participants include:
the CEO who mainstreamed impact investing;
an elected UK politician visiting his Indian roots after 4 generations;
a farmer who has popularized permaculture in Vietnam;
a Kashmiri educator of orphaned girls who has withstood 19 assassination attempts with 'witnessing' as his only defense;
a teen housecleaner who grew into one of Forbes' 50 Greatest World Leaders;
a goose-bump inducing European singer who left a career with Celine Dion to chant for the world;
an African shaman dispelling gang violence in Los Angeles;
a Japanese entrepreneur running a 100-year-fund but contemplating 10 thousand year ripples;
a visionary leader of Harvard's Osher center for integrative medicine;
philanthropists who have signed Gates's Giving Pledge but are now reflecting on multiple forms of wealth;
a monk from Uganda whose humble mobile tent blossomed into a flourishing school;
multiple bestselling authors, one of whom Oprah frequently credits with changing her life;
cutting-edge researchers exploring the intersection mind, body and brain;
globally renowned spiritual elders;
and many more leaders and ladders from Kenya to Germany to Hong Kong to Italy--more than a dozen countries.
You’re invited to join this year’s gathering virtually on Jan 17th and 18th live from the Gandhi Ashram for two evenings of “Stories of Soul Force”. Register here.
At the 2023 Gandhi 3.0 retreat:
“. . . [we] came together to explore a simple idea – we are not merely what we do but who we become by what we do. Collectively, these leaders directly influence hundreds of millions of people; yet, the invitation was to experiment with emptying. . .
"That perhaps in being less, we can hold more, come together in deeper ways and unlock a collective intelligence that can guide our unique gifts to serve the world. . . .
"What held us together was not the fullness of our knowing, but the emptiness of our not-knowing.
"Everyone understood that the toolkit we’re using to address today’s global suffering doesn’t suffice. . . .
"That we need to embrace Einstein’s challenge: a problem cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created it. We need to evolve, our kinship needs to deepen, and toolkits need to expand.”
The process was balancing the telescopic with the microscopic . . . to offer individual effort for awakening collective emergence.
Gandhi's successor in India, Vinoba Bhave, said decades ago:
"To progress, society doesn't need 'leaders' anymore. This doesn't mean that we won't have great people amidst us. I think great people will come and they will be vital for the progress of humanity, but they will be so great that they will refuse to take up this position of leadership. . . When we . . . all see our role in society as stewards, we will all light up the sky together like countless stars on a dark night. . . [when] the true servants of emergence shine forth . . ." (Emphasis mine)
From my perspective, these Gandhi 3.0 gatherings are critical because we’re in a time of collective cultural initiation. As Charles Eisenstein has said,
"Most people have passed through some kind of initiation in life -- a crisis that defies what you knew and what you were. From the rubble of the ensuing collapse, a new self is born into a new world. Today, our society is passing through an initiation. It is not a mere “problem” that we can solve with the currently dominant worldview and its solution-set, but rather it invites us to inhabit a new story and a new (and ancient) relationship to the rest of life." (Emphasis mine)
What if we accepted the polycrises as a sacred initiation, a sacred opportunity for our inner, as well as our outer, collective cultural transformation?
An email blog “What the California Fires Teach Us About Community & Initiation” (1/10/25) offers a helpful frame:
“Yet in crisis, something ancient awakens: The great remembering.
“When capitalism's spell breaks (when we realize stuff matters less than knowing our neighbor's name), dormant neural pathways come to life: "Oh yes – I'm here to help. That's the point. That's always been the point."
“You hear about pockets of emergent utopia, not in headlines, but in the spaces between, in countless personal stories of collective emergence.”
At this time so many of us are disconnected from Earth and Life Itself that it takes a devastating crises to ignite this ancient communal remembering.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
For the question “what can we do?”, one answer is “whatever serves life's alignment, regeneration, and balance.”
As I see it, this will require more versions of Gandhi 3.0 and other collective inner transformational experiences to develop our vision, willingness, and ability to lead our outer transformation with radical trust, love, and servants of emergence.
This is a paradigm shift. It’s venturing into unknown territory for the dominant culture.
It’s much too important to be left to our usual social, cultural, and official responses.
Time to find and develop new "maps", perspectives, and capabilities to navigate this with!
Are we up for this? Are you?
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this.
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