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CLEAR MINDS. OPEN HEARTS. EMPOWERED WILLS.

Clear minds. Open hearts. Empowered Wills


We are at our best when our minds are clear, our hearts open and we have full agency over our will.

Largely rooted in adversarialism, competition and combat, our various social, economic and political systems and, certainly our legal system have us living and operating with less coherence than we should, with fearful hearts and therefore inflamed nervous systems and generally with very low agency. So we go about our lives with medicine being done to us or for us rather than with us. Justice is done to us or for us rather than with us. And we could say the same to varying degrees for the way we parent, our economic structures and of, course the way we do politics.


We are surrounded by high-combat, low agency systems that do not foster clear mindedness, open heartedness and empowered wills.


Using alternative dispute resolution systems, we could promote discursive processes (like mediation) in all our systems. This is how we help to push power back to the people-this is how we empower individuals so that we work towards justice co-created, health and well-being co-created, politics co-created and so on. We reduce fear, we increase co-herence and we re-learn how to use our free will in the service of humanity.

 Clear minds. Open hearts. Empowered Wills


In peace,

Sheena Jonker

[i] With thanks and apologies to Charles Dickens

[ii] For previous blogs: ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN THE TIME OF COVID 19 | ADR Network SA (adr-networksa.co.za) and ADR, HUMAN RIGHTS AND COVID-19 | ADR Network SA (adr-networksa.co.za) and LOCKDOWN-RELATED DISPUTES AND THE ROLE OF ADR | ADR Network SA (adr-networksa.co.za)

[iii] Kenneth Cloke, ‘Politics, Dialogue and the Evolution of Democracy’

[iv] War and Peace


(An extract from ‘Be Peace’, Sheena St Clair Jonker)

‘If you are lucky in this life,

A window will appear between two armies on a battlefield.

Instead of seeing their enemies in the window, the soldiers

See themselves as children. They stop fight-

Ing and go home

And sleep. When they wake up, the land is

Well again.’[i]

As I write this, we are around seven days into Israel having declared war on Hammas. This follows an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. The context is a long and complex conflict that arose between Israel and Palestine following the establishment of the State of Israel.

The energetics for war in this world are extremely high right now. So, I believe, is the potential for peace.

In the wisdom tradition, each person would understand their own power and agency and would exercise circumspection and reverence in their own thoughts, words and deeds. This would be the product of increasing self-awareness and an expanded consciousness. On this basis, any work done to become more aware and conscious beings in this world is a contribution to this world and, in particular a contribution to the increase of peace on earth.

In the wisdom tradition, it was thought that if we were at war with one person in our lives, then we were contributing the kind of energy that was required to start, run and sustain war in this world.

The corollary would be that if we were making peace in one relationship, in the world around us, we were contributing to the increase of peace on earth.

It is on this basis that we are able to understand clearly that each of us can and does contribute to war in this world and, moreover, that each of us can and does contribute to the establishment of peace on earth.

As we become more aware, either through intentional conscious work, or through an encounter with great love (generally a liminal experience) or great suffering, we start to choose consciously which we want to contribute to: war or peace.

It is thought that Christ was a product of the wisdom tradition. It is no wonder then that more than two thousand years ago he was teaching about the significant impact our thoughts and intentions may have. ‘You’ve heard it taught that you should not murder’, he might have said, ‘but I tell you that if you hate your brother or sister in your heart, you are already guilty of murder.’

Might this have been because he knew the power of the individual’s thoughts and intentions and that they affect the whole thing.

Alan Watts said something to the effect of

‘You are part of what the entire universe is doing in the same way that a wave is part of what the entire ocean is doing.’

Our awareness of how powerful we are could change everything.

Our thoughts, words and deeds can contribute to war in this world or help to establish peace on earth.

We get to choose:

War or Peace

(For speaker engagements, to train with us or to retain the services of a mediator) and

War and Peace


(An extract from ‘Be Peace’, Sheena St Clair Jonker)

‘If you are lucky in this life,

A window will appear between two armies on a battlefield.

Instead of seeing their enemies in the window, the soldiers

See themselves as children. They stop fight-

Ing and go home

And sleep. When they wake up, the land is

Well again.’[i]

As I write this, we are around seven days into Israel having declared war on Hammas. This follows an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. The context is a long and complex conflict that arose between Israel and Palestine following the establishment of the State of Israel.

The energetics for war in this world are extremely high right now. So, I believe, is the potential for peace.

In the wisdom tradition, each person would understand their own power and agency and would exercise circumspection and reverence in their own thoughts, words and deeds. This would be the product of increasing self-awareness and an expanded consciousness. On this basis, any work done to become more aware and conscious beings in this world is a contribution to this world and, in particular a contribution to the increase of peace on earth.

In the wisdom tradition, it was thought that if we were at war with one person in our lives, then we were contributing the kind of energy that was required to start, run and sustain war in this world.

The corollary would be that if we were making peace in one relationship, in the world around us, we were contributing to the increase of peace on earth.

It is on this basis that we are able to understand clearly that each of us can and does contribute to war in this world and, moreover, that each of us can and does contribute to the establishment of peace on earth.

As we become more aware, either through intentional conscious work, or through an encounter with great love (generally a liminal experience) or great suffering, we start to choose consciously which we want to contribute to: war or peace.

It is thought that Christ was a product of the wisdom tradition. It is no wonder then that more than two thousand years ago he was teaching about the significant impact our thoughts and intentions may have. ‘You’ve heard it taught that you should not murder’, he might have said, ‘but I tell you that if you hate your brother or sister in your heart, you are already guilty of murder.’

Might this have been because he knew the power of the individual’s thoughts and intentions and that they affect the whole thing.

Alan Watts said something to the effect of

‘You are part of what the entire universe is doing in the same way that a wave is part of what the entire ocean is doing.’

Our awareness of how powerful we are could change everything.

Our thoughts, words and deeds can contribute to war in this world or help to establish peace on earth.

We get to choose:

War or Peace

(For speaker engagements, to train with us or to retain the services of a mediator)

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