Friday

Announcing the Shambhala Societal Mirror

We are delighted to announce the public launch of the Shambhala Societal Mirror, an initiative that was sponsored by the Shambhala Board in collaboration with the Shambhala Process Team.

The Societal Mirror

The Societal Mirror project consists of a series of annual surveys that will be sent to individual members, leaders, and Shambhala Global Services staff. The survey questions have been developed with the aim of gathering useful information about how we are doing as a community and organization, our general state of health and well-being, what we are doing well, and where we need to improve. To understand and reflect on this information, the survey data is analyzed with other existing data, the results shared publicly, and community-wide conversations are held about the findings. We expect to repeat this process every year to help in developing our community’s collective understanding of our wellbeing as a society.

This project could be compared to Bhutan’s Gross Domestic Happiness initiative – albeit on a much smaller scale. In the same way the government of Bhutan seeks to understand the health of its society and citizens, we are seeking to understand, “What is Shambhala’s ‘Societal Well-Being Index’ and how might we measure it?” As we come out of the recent crisis in Shambhala, it is important to reflect on how to develop as a Shambhala society and use our current situation as a baseline for where we go next.

Please click here to review the Societal Mirror survey results and findings.

You can translate the Societal Mirror web pages by using the translate feature in the browser you are using.

We are interested in your insights and comments on the data. Please email us at [email protected]. Or better yet, join us here for ongoing discussions on the Shambhala Network: https://shambhalanetwork.org/groups/societal-mirror/forum/  We’d love to be in conversation with you!

Societal Mirror Shambhala Sunday Gathering

We also want to invite you to a Shambhala Sunday Gathering where we will present on the Societal Mirror, what we have discovered, and how it has already been used as a powerful tool for strategic planning for the Shambhala organization.

Simultaneous interpretations will be offered.

Sunday, September 4th
3:00 p.m. Eastern
Click here to use a time zone converter

REGISTER HERE

Guidelines For Local Conversations

In closing, we would like to encourage local Centres and Groups to have conversations about the Societal Mirror, as it is through looking at ourselves with clarity and honesty that we can begin to understand ourselves more deeply. This is a powerful tool that can help us with this type of understanding in a societal context.

For a set of guidelines for hosting a Societal Mirror conversation at your local Centre or Group, visit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VhwKlIJXhS_jHAFz4EvsJPPbokQYIcJkjkG8MdT5D54/edit. 

Thank You!

Our sincere thanks to the 1753 people who answered the first set of surveys that were sent in January 2022 and have helped our Shambhala society understand itself better! We want to encourage everyone to fill out the next survey that will be going out in January 2023, so that our shared Societal Mirror can reflect back a picture to us all that is true and comprehensive.

If you have additional questions about the Societal Mirror Initiative, please click here.