Who are we in times of Corona?

CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER – THE INTEGRAL AFRICAN DIAOLOGUES

Who are we in times of Corona? Ubuntu and Integral perspectives with Dr. Magadlela Dr. Pampallis

In 2019 The Integral African Conference had the title “Doing Human Better”. I met many marvellous people there and later had chats on video with some of them. (see “The Integral African Dialogues“)Now, spontaneously, I met Dr. Paddy Pampallis and Dr. Dumisani Magadlela to talk about the most important event in the present times: The worldwide spreading of the Corona Virus.

As to March 24th, there are still people ignoring and dismissing the danger and therefore they are unwilling to succumb to the drastic measures of protection. I am wondering for their reasons. Is it their financial interest? Do they fear to lose their earnings – which they probably will – and so they walk the egocentric way? Is it the magical belief that they, themselves, won’t die, this time, or never? Young people might think so, but the older ones who are the high risk group, better pay attention.

Moral questions arise: Is it OK to abandon old people to die? Is it OK to sort out people who get medical treatment and those who don’t and therefore, inevitably, die? Will you step up or not, into your personal responsibility for the wellbeing of yourself and others, will you be cautious and take care?

Isn’t there a way to come together as humanity, despite spacial distancing, and support each other as best as we can? – This is possible thanks to technology, let’s be grateful for that instead of playing the rebel for the wrong cause!

The way we are living in this very moment is similar to war times. Thank God we don’t have to fear bombs while being locked in our houses. Now we have the perfect chance to experience – in a much lighter way – what our parents and grandparents had to go through in the past century. Will we finally acknowledge their courage, their endurance, their survival skills which allowed us to be here today? Will we begin to realise what is really important in life and that we were mostly occupied with trifles in the consumerist societies of the past decades?

These and many other thoughts arose in our conversation. We focused on the gifts and benefits of the Corona Virus Pandemic. On all four quadrants of the Wilberian Map you find important aspects for the understanding of the possibilities, but also of the reasons for such a situation to come about.
We all are asked to grow, as individuals, as collectives, in our understanding of the world, and most important: our institutions and our leadership
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Now the chance arises for true change. Now everybody on the planet is concerned directly, personally, and that seems to be the only effective motor to push us humans out of the comfort zone and into change and development. Let’s hope – and work for – the stepping up of everybody everywhere into the next level of development. Then enough people would enter 2nd tier and with that the critical mass would be reached for the quantum leap of consciousness and enlightened leadership.

Videopost special edition for March/April, 2020

TIME STAMPS : WHAT to find WHERE in the video

0:00 Short Intro Heidi

0:50 Dumi introduces himself: “I am because we are”

2:48 Paddy introduces herself and Ubuntu

4:55 Paddy’s experience in self-isolation.

5:45 Dumi and Paddy in interviews at the Wisdom Factory.

6:10 “Doing human better” – exploring the gifts of the situation

7:15 Do we wake up, grow up, clean up? Open up vs. close up? Polarity wisdom. WHO ARE YOU REALLY? – WHO AM I BECOMING? – WHO DO I SEE IN THE MIRROR?

11:15 Heidi: The virus came about because we didn’t “do human better”

12:40 Linguistic base of being and becoming. How do we frame and name the things. Are we at war with the virus? How are people managing change? Tsunami as an example.

16:30 Wake up humanity! What can we see differently in the situation. Confrontation with our expectations. Will we learn the lesson? Being more mindful and re-valuing the earth and small communities.

19:35 CARE: build the capacity for care. Sort out for meaningful. Include the wisdom of early cultures. How do we enable people to include other lenses in their capacity to see.

22:00 TIme to retreat. Holding capacity. The profane and the sacred. The marketplace is outside of the temple! There you let go and surrender which allows you to think and connect.

24:40 Go to the platforms and teyh people to be more respectful of life. The desired future.

26:15 what is our doable stretch? Are we clear who we are and stretching to what? To become what? In service of what? Irony: isolation and need to connect. What are we doing now, in the we, to build the stretch. NOW in the moment

27:50 The push to further development. The emergence of something new is exciting. The need to face death.

29:40 Marianne Williamson: reach out to at least 3 people who are alone or have other needs for social engagement. Ubuntu is about connecting and engaging. Reaching out is now most important!

32:10 Imagination can reactivate the memory of touch. Maternal preoccupation. Honoring and love in the collective mind, reclaim the memories and re-connect. The maternal gaze needs to be maintained: The greeting: “I SEE YOU”. Sense into each other, access that part of human intelligence. The heart, to the BEING. The inner knowing that we are connected.

What happens to me when I see the pictures?

38:25 How are our leaders handle this? A wake up call. What are the qualities of leaders to emerge? How do we support our leaders to gain clarity and enter into post conventional capacities. The call for a moratorium despite of speeding up in emergency plans. Holding the tension.

42:15 The relationship is the conversation, the conversation is the relationship

44:00 Collective pressure on leaders to change and move up. The call to self-leadership and hold each other to. Account.

46:40 An example

48: the numbers of the Corona virus in the world. A comparison to the Spanish flue. The need of spatial (not social) isolation.

50:20 What are the other “viruses” which will infect the world? Denial of death, moral questions arise. The integral map helps to navigate complexity. The need of not going into the shadow side! Paddy explains. Many maps available. Do reach out for support which is out there!

53:10 Lets see each other as part of the whole. Sao Bona: I see you. Let’s see each other across the continents, across the boundaries.Include and transcend.

54:15 The offer to reach out to us. info@thewisdomfactory.net (Heidi) and info@thecoachingcenter.co.za. Healthy boundaries needed when false borders are breaking down.

About Dr. Paddy Pampillis

Paddy Pampallis is the Founder Director of The Integral Africa Institute and The (Integral Africa) Coaching Centre (TCC) and Ubuntu Coaching Foundation that serves to bring Integral thinking and solutions to individual, organizational and community life. Her mission is to find ways to ‘being fully human’ more skillfully.

From https://integralafricanconference.com/

About Dumisani Magadlela

Dr. Dumi is an Executive Coach, Coach Trainer, Leadership Facilitator and Organisational Development Strategist based in Midrand, South Africa. He uses the Ubuntu philosophy and its approaches in his coaching and leadership development work. He is trained in Gestalt Organizational Systems Development principles and Emotional Intelligence techniques for coaching individuals and for working with teams. He has facilitated numerous sessions on personal excellence with teachers and teams within SA and across the African continent.