Osmosis of a new consciousness

Various activities during my sabbatical, especially poetry reading sessions within communities, structured dialogues with students and professionals, and above all my recent oral history project “The legacy of India’s imagination” are bringing me clarity about what the world needs today.

In this context I use the word osmosis as indirect conveyance of knowledge across geographically distributed communities. Osmosis can result in emergence of collective wholistic consciousness of the world and our shared purpose in it, without the need for each individual/ community to actually experience or a understand every piece of the whole.

I have met so many insightful individuals during my sabbatical. Despite the fact that for over the past 30 years I have travelled to over 50 countries for studying people, cultures and change, it’s only during the last one year that I am hearing stories that I did not hear when conducting research for clients while seeking answers to their questions.

Elections are won with majority. However to drive real transformation in the society. It takes a small number of purposeful, dedicated and relentless individuals, each working in their own space, for their own cause. They can create osmosis.

I am feeling purposeful in helping create an osmosis of consciousness. My community dialogues and oral history project are bringing me feedback that dialogue in public sphere can nurture mindfulness. I am seeing clear signs that some of the wisdom tied to humanistic values and practices is spreading through our story telling and dialogue sessions with purposeful individuals. The videos I am creating for my oral history project are being shared in social networks. I call what I see ‘a gradually spreading ripple of hope and optimism’. I see an opportunity to harness this energy to co-create a just, kind and caring society that uses Ahimsa (non-violence) as its core guiding force.

Together every participant in my oral history project, including members of the audience who watch and share the YouTube videos, are facilitating formation of a microcosm of an alternative universe that is centered on caring.

I am also in the process of converging two initiatives I started during my sabbatical: dialogues about “Being Human (in the era of AI)” and “Legacy of Imagination” into a new space for affecting social imagination through collaboration and co-creation.

I am looking for new types of engagements. Please reach out to me if my musings resonate with you and if you see an opportunity for collaboration within an institutional space you are associated with. Let us give priority to preserving humanity in us, being mindful in deployment of technologies, nurturing appreciation for ahimsa and cultivating curiosity, compassion and creativity.

Together we can fill the void in the society by creating caring, sharing and co-creating communities. We need to generate a new consciousness that will inspire our energies, imagination and actions. Institutions both private and public need to embrace a new culture of learning.

I invite you to participate in the osmosis of a new consciousness that will lead to mindful transformation of the society.