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Dear Readers of Kosmos,

We apologize if you have received this message twice. A number of readers reported formatting errors in our last email.

We are sending all our subscribers an invitation to submit a short article of no more than 450 words for possible publication. We will select four articles to be published in the Fall issue of Kosmos Journal.

The topic we have selected is: WORLD WISDOM IN ACTION

Please send all submissions by e-mail no later than September 1, 2007.

As always we look forward to hearing about your thoughts and projects in creating the new world civilization and planetary community.

Warm regards,

Nancy Roof

President, Kosmos Associates, Inc.

Editor, Kosmos Journal

nancy@kosmosjournal.org

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World Wisdom of Harmony: Peaceful Reunification of China and Taiwan through traditional culture of harmony

by Leo Semashko

For Kosmos Journal

 

Chinese NGO The World Peace & Development Association have held "The First Cross-Strait High-Level Forum o­n Chinese Traditional Culture" July 5-9 2007 in Beijing. It has opened in the Great Hall of the People. The Forum coordinators were 13 organizations from China, Taiwan, USA, Japan and England.

 

I was invited to this Forum in the International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP-USA) delegation. The Forum has collected about 1000 known peacemakers, artists, scientist and businessmen of about 40 countries and also the retired generals from China and Taiwan.

 

This Forum was devoted to "peaceful reunification of China" with Taiwan, Hong Kong and Макао through Chinese traditional culture of harmony, which beginning has put Confucius 2500 back. Forum slogan was: "One Family across the Strait, to Construct a Harmonious China". The Forum participants have got acquainted with three ancient Chinese temples of harmony in the Chinese emperors city: Supreme Harmony, Perfect Harmony and Preservation Harmony and also with the unique collection of 56 Bells of harmony and many others cultural embodiments of harmony.

 

Many participants spoke about harmony. So for example, Confucius Institute Director Mr. Li Qimao spoke, that Confucius has formulated the Golden Rule of harmony: "that do not wish to self that do not make also for another". Confucianism harmony idea has received development and religious consecration in Chinese Buddhism. Lama Gangchen counted the main rule of harmony the ability to transform negative in positive. President of Tao University, Professor Yang Ju-chou has opened Laotze’s philosophy, the second o­n a scale of influence Chinese philosopher after Confucius, as the doctrine “of spontaneous harmony, humility and peace”.

 

The theme of harmony developed in the western participant’s speeches: Lana Yang (USA), David Williams (UK), Jean Faullimmel (France) and others. My speech was devoted to Chinese culture of harmony in global context creating the new world civilization and planetary community, which is opened in the Magna Carta of Harmony by 43 authors from 16 countries (http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=3).

 

In the Forum Program is spoken, that "Purposes of organizing the Forum are to make contributions for building a harmonized common world when constructing a harmonized national unity internally". Forum has recognized, that peace reunification of China is possible o­nly through general for all Chinese people culture of harmony. Peace from harmony is the highest wisdom of China, which has found a bright display in political aspiration to peace reunification. This culture has allowed the Communist Party of China in October 2006 to refuse from keeping dictatorship of the proletariat and to replace it by "building a society of social harmony". China has given the wise example for all world as a culture of harmony can play the priority political role in peacebuilding.

 

Dr Leo Semashko,

Peace from Harmony Site (www.peacefromharmony.org) Founder and President

The Board member of four International Organizations: IFLAC, IAEWP, WPDA and HumanDHS

Address: 7/4-42 Ho-Shi-Min Street, St. Petersburg 194356, Russia

Email: leo44442006@yandex.ru

Tel. 7 (812) 513-3863

 

August 26, 2007

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Nancy Roof

To: Leo Semashko

RE: Towards Global Civilization and World Community

We would like to invite you learn about a rapidly growing evolutionary movement for change.

As a person who understands the critical transitional times in which we live and who wishes to be part of the solution, we would like to introduce you to Kosmos: An Integral Approach to Global Awakening. This unique Journal is supported by cutting edge integral thinkers such as Ken Wilber, Jean Houston, Hazel Henderson, Ervin Laszlo and more. Together we are creating the foundation for a new world civilization for the common good. At the heart of this historical call to reflection and action is a reverence for all peoples and for all life.

Our partners in this endeavor are:

The Gorbachev Foundation

The Goi Peace Foundation

The Club of Budapest

The World Wisdom Council

World Wisdom Alliance

The Club of Rome and more…

We are affiliated with the Integral Institute, Center for Human Emergence, the United Nations, Great Transitions Initiative, Ethical Markets, leading Universities, Global Education Associates, Many o­ne Foundation and more…

We want to know about you and how we might work together for common cause in this great historical opportunity.

Nothing short of a comprehensive integral approach will usher in the new civilization - body, mind and spirit in self, culture, systems and nature in the context of an evolving universe.

Nominated for its excellence by the Utne Independent Press and designated as the first Media Ambassador to the World Wisdom Council we take our responsibilities very seriously. We are dedicated to helping this vital world movement grow through people like you.

Won't you join us in this effort? You can learn more at http://www.kosmosjournal.org and through our e-mail list at:

http://www.kosmosjournal.org/kjo/contact/emailsubscribe.shtml

My best wishes,

Nancy Roof,
Ph.D.

Founder, Kosmos Journal

PS. Please add us to your address book to avoid Spam filters.Thank you.

Copyright 2006 Kosmos Associates Inc.

14/09/06

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Dear Dr Nancy Roof,

I am happy to receive your delightful invitation to cooperation and to join your great efforts for the sake of common good. I looked your wonderful site and I share your mission. For me will be a honor cooperate with you. I consider you create a new global worldview of harmonious and peaceful character, aspiration to which I completely support. Therefore my cooperation with you will be natural and desired. For the beginning of our cooperation I publish your remarkable invitation o­n our International Website "A New Culture of Peace from Social Harmony and Children’s Priority" (www.peacefromharmony.org ) o­n created for you content page "1-6-4. Nancy Roof’s Kosmos: Towards Global Civilization and World Community of Harmonious Peace" in two languages: English and Russian. Please look this page. I very much would like to receive your opinion o­n its and also your more concrete offers o­n cooperation. With my works, and also with the projects of our site, first of all with "Harmonious Era Calendar" you could get acquainted o­n our site. I, as well as you, try to develop (since 1975) a new comprehensive integral approach aimed at movement toward a new global civilization of social harmony, harmonious (eternal) peace and harmonious world order. This approach I name "Tetrasociology" or "Tetrasociological" or "Sphere" approach. I hope, we shall be tolerant and we shall find the ways of mutual useful cooperation for the sake of our general purposes of common good and harmonious peace. Please, excuse for my English.

Best harmony wishes for your and children,

Ph.D. Leo Semashko:

Universal Peace Ambassador;

State Councillor of St. Petersburg,

Director: Tetrasociological Institute and IFLAC Russia;

Founder and President, International Website "A New Culture of Peace from Social Harmony and Children’s Priority" www.peacefromharmony.org , uniting more than 150 co-authors from 28 countries of the world and published o­n 12 languages;

Initiator and Manager, Harmonious Era Calendar Project: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=131 .

Address: 7/4-42 Ho-Shi-Min Street, St. Petersburg 194356, Russia.

Tel7 (812) 513-3863

15/09/06

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www.kosmosjournal.org

Dear Friends,

The  section of Kosmos written by our readers has become o­ne of our most popular
features.  Twice  a  year  we  invite you to submit articles of 425 words o­n the
theme of the current issue of Kosmos. We then choose 4 to publish.

The  theme of our next issue is Global Leadership. Rather than articles we would
like  you  to  send us stories about outstanding leadership for the common good.
For  example  you  could  write a story about something that you have personally
experienced  or  a  person  that  you  know  or  know  about  that has exhibited
outstanding  global  leadership qualities. Use your imagination and think deeply
about  what  authentic leadership is in world community and who is expressing it
today.

Length:  425 words.

Due Date:  March 1

You may include your organizational affiliation and e-mail address.

May the New Year bring you courage, love and understanding,

Nancy Roof
Editor
Kosmos Journal

http://www.kosmosjournal.org/kjo/emails/email2007jan17.html

Nancy Roof User <nancy@kosmosjournal.org>

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Editorial - Fall, 2006

by Nancy Roof

Dear Kosmos Reader,

The new global era that is emerging offers exciting promise that some of the regrettable legacies of the dying Industrial Age will be overcome by the powers and possibilities of the vibrant new Information Age, the Age of Networking. Already the effects of worldwide networks are radically changing our personal and collective lives in every dimension: political, economic, cultural, and social.

To begin to look at some of the current and probable future consequences of the Information Age, Kosmos asked the contributors to this issue to ponder, “How do we know what we know?” From a cultural perspective we decided that education and media were the major institutions that informed us, while networks distributed what we knew and connected us to others. (There are 1.5 million networks in the US alone, and 50,000 are added each year.)

With our increased global connectivity comes a new environment charged with the tension of radical change. Scarcity and abundance, separative fears and connecting love, competitive alliances and cooperative partnerships are examples of forces traditionally in antagonism with each other that are now opening to new alignments that are mutually accommodating and respectful.

Democratic access to information is key to the continuation and development of these world-changing shifts, and the Internet that made it all possible offers ever-expanding additional possibilities. Yet already the Internet’s potential to serve is at risk from self-interested power bases. o­nly public engagement can safeguard the opportunities it offers.

Is access to information a human right? We are told that we have o­nly begun to see the potential for manipulating information and distorting truth through abuses of media and education. Already we are being challenged to remain discerning as the power of moving images to sway us is felt in films and video productions that are based o­n history but present the makers’ version of the truth. The media we trusted to be watchdogs of business and government are now often partners in disinformation.

Some time ago Mikhail Gorbachev realized the magnitude of the problem of protecting truth from distortion. He called together experienced international journalists to dialogue about the state of the media today. This meeting exposed the worldwide penetration and subversion of the media by the power of business and governments whose self-interest obscures their moral compass. Kosmos reports o­n these discussions in its opening article.

Inundated as we already are by waves of corporate advertising via the Internet, its limitless expansion promises more flooding of data. Wikipedia and Google are examples of access to information whose quantities are too large to handle and whose quality is too difficult to ascertain. Joe Firmage offers a confident vision of the possible transformation of the World Wide Web from poverty to richness. Don't miss the Digital Universe he has created. It is called the PBS of the Internet. Meanwhile, as Vicente Garcia-Delgado warns us, we must remain aware that the Digital Universe has as much power to separate as to join together—and that those left behind in the Digital Divide are uniquely disadvantaged in today’s world, with no place in tomorrow’s.

Exploring issues of quality and values provokes thoughts about the higher self in Rolland Smith’s musings about the potential of the media to elevate itself. In so doing, it can lift us with it to the best we are capable of. Education, too, must join the media in reaching for high purpose and service in the global era. Are our children being educated to meet the challenges of the 21st century—provided, that is, that they are not among the 43 million children beset by war and poverty who have no educational opportunity at all; or who are indoctrinated into fundamentalist religious programs; or who are trained with outdated material suitable for nationalism rather than global engagement? Will they be fortunate enough to be among the children taught at Saybrook Institute, for example, or at the Integral Institute—or through a program such as that advocated by Arthur Zajonc: o­ne that honors the development of wisdom and the interior life so that children will develop into valuable contributors to a whole new society?

Who will be the educated elite and who will be left out? In an era when no o­ne can know everything, networks are key to the new civilization. They are proliferating in government, economics, the social order—and as they do, they are empowering unprecedented thrusts for decentralization of power.

As we discover and participate in developing new ways of finding truth, connecting with each other, and sharing information, we are making history by building world community and a new global civilization. Walking with beauty…elevating perspectives…touching the human heart…engaging with wisdom…. This is what will define the new era. Quality replaces quantity as the measure of the times.

Kosmos honors the visionary artists and thinkers and doers in this issue who offer you the best they have. Their dedication gives us the courage to Be in the world and to stand for and create a new world of hope.

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Nancy B. Roof, Chairman

Nancy B. Roof, PhD is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the integral global journal Kosmos, nominated for its excellence and spiritual coverage by the prestigious Utne Independent Press Awards. Kosmos brings leading edge ideas to United Nations Ambassadors, the UN Secretariat, NGOs and the international community of global citizens. Its unique mission is to create a sustainable, compassionate and emerging global civilization through individual, cultural, and systems transformation at all levels of body, mind, and spirit. Dr. Roof is Founding President of Kosmos Associates Inc. She has been in consultative status with ECOSOC at the United Nations since 1988 where she has lobbied for global values, lifelong learning and spirituality in major United Nations Conferences that set global standards. She co-founded the Values Caucus at the United Nations in 1994 with the help of Ambassador Somavia of Chile (now Secretary General of ILO) and co-founded the Spiritual Caucus at the UN in 2000 for the purpose of bringing contemplation into UN deliberations. She was a key speaker addressing 184 governments at the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen o­n the importance of values in global policy. She co-designed and was a speaker at the first Ethics Conference at the United Nations with 27 countries as patrons. She is a contributor to Visions for a New Civilization: Spiritual and Ethical Values for the New Millennium with her United Nations and UNESCO Colleagues. She was a key speaker with International Governmental Ministers of Culture at the United Nations World Culture Open Forum o­n the theme of an integral approach to global affairs and the role of culture in peace.

Kosmos is a founding partner of the worldwide initiative, Creating the New Civilization, launched by the Goi Peace Foundation in Tokyo, November 2005 with the Gorbachev Foundation, Club of Budapest, Club of Rome, Commission o­n Global Spirituality and Consciousness and World Wisdom Council. She is the first Media Ambassador invited to participate in the World Wisdom Council.

Her testimony to the U.S. Commission o­n Improving the Effectiveness of the UN was included in the final report sent to the President and Congress. Her testimony emphasized the need for including the human dimension in global policy.

Dr. Roof designed, implemented, and pioneered the first training programs in the former Yugoslavia o­n secondary traumatic stress in war zones. The program trained trainers of 78 organizations, including the United Nations, Red Cross, Governments, Doctors Without Borders, and local groups in three different locations. The program is now being used as a model in other War Zones. She published a widely distributed workbook for further self-training entitled The Impact of War o­n Humanitarian Service Providers.

In the early 1970s she co-founded The Mountain School, to teach meditation and interior spiritual practices from a variety of religious traditions. She co-founded an alternative medicine practice where she worked with medical doctors o­n the mind/body relationship. Dr. Roof founded and developed the first Transpersonal Psychology training programs o­n the East Coast at Beacon College MA program in 1980. She had a flourishing private practice in individual in-depth psychology based o­n the psychology she developed combining Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices.

She has designed numerous workshops and been a key speaker at the UN and at many professional international conferences. She is now initiating salons and conversation groups around the themes of Kosmos Journal. She is a member of the President’s Club of the Integral Institute (Ken Wilber), a founding member of Integral Sustainability at the Integral Institute, a founding partner of the global initiative o­n Creating a New Civilization, Vice-President of Lifebridge Foundation, Advisory Board of Ethical Markets (Hazel Henderson), Co-Founder of both the Values Caucus (1994) and the Spiritual Caucus (2000) at the United Nations, author of numerous published articles o­n spirituality and global affairs and the first Media Ambassador to the World Wisdom Council of the Club of Budapest, Advisory Board of Integral Review, a member of the Wisdom Council of Integrative Spirituality, and a participant in Mikhail Gorbachev's World Political Forum o­n Building the New Political Architecture.

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