Aggregation, Organization, and Solidarity

Natasha Adams and Laurence Cox – hosted by Guhyapati

Sunday 20th September 2026

16:30 – 18:30 CEST | 10.30 – 12.30 EDT

Here we return to the question of collective power. Many movements today lean toward individual or small-group forms, shaped both by a thoughtful critique of rigid, hierarchical organizations and by an aspiration toward horizontal, prefigurative ways of being together.
These impulses carry real insight. At the same time, in the face of rising authoritarianism, oligarchic power, and climate crisis, there is a growing recognition that dispersed efforts alone are not enough. The question becomes how to gather, how to build durable solidarity, how to organize at scale—without reproducing the failures of centralized control.

We are searching for forms that move beyond the familiar polarity of vertical and horizontal, toward new configurations of collective intelligence and coordinated power. How can Buddhist views of self, agency and community support these efforts? Taken together, these four views form a kind of mandala: subjectivity, vision, ontology, and collective organization, each shaping and informing the others. We can hold them in dynamic relation—so that the depth of inner work, the clarity of vision, the openness to reality, and the strength of collective action can begin to reinforce one another.