-- Ghandi |
Changed MindsIntentions create reality.Our intentions as a collective species, however, are not well-focused, if they have any focus at all. Minds with short-term vision and fear-driven motivations create self-perpetuating social and spiritual troubles for themselves. You have to wonder if we are evolved enough to handle what our living is doing to the planet. A few books I happened across this past year helped a lot in conveying the idea that we can grow in mindfulness, and that it's not at all too late to change the world.
Books by Daniel Quinn, Paul Hawken, Eckhart Tolle, Peter Seidel, Thom Hartmann, Bill McKibben and Peter Russell are among those I think of as I write this, but there are so many more. So many I've not even heard of yet. Every day, it seems, I hear of another book, article, web site... It's encouraging to see the growing number of people who are re-thinking their lives in our consumer society. Maybe there are some helpful guides, stories, resources you can share with the rest of us... How have you been inspired to love your life and change your mind in the past few months? Share a piece of it at the ChangedMinds.org site... Learning to live in a mindful way is simple and not simple. Practice is key. Insights and inspiration from others along the way can help a lot, too. The concepts are easy to understand. Hard to implement. Largely because most of us are addicted to all of the elements, items and textures of our culture, from the convenience foods to the car culture and entertainment industries... But we can weaken and end those addictions, however strong or even unconscious. And as each person heals inside, the world is healed. Not only that, but it's also likely to be exponential. Think about it: A little light makes a BIG difference in a dark room. One by one, a few hearts soften and open to real life and as they do, lots of real life leaks (then pours) into the world. Gandhi is proof alone that one person can have an impact on the world. One of his quotes goes something like this: "The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would be sufficient to solve the world's problems." I think it's true. And the question of HOW DO WE CHANGE is perhaps best answered by individuals awakening and sharing the experience with others -- NOT by creating huge, resource consuming, slow-moving ego-embattled organizations to study, govern, guide, enshrine, legislate or "churchify" all efforts. In another piece, I wrote something like: We can awaken, though, and help to wake each other. One by one is how it's done. No TV evangelism, no campaigns, programs or political platforms. Change your mind and change the world. Daniel Quinn says, "If the world is to be saved, it will be by people with changed minds". We can be those people, awakened from the long dream of darkness to the insight that we're made of light. We can rediscover beauty that's been here all along. We can revel in how long a thing can last, reclaim NEW to mean "the old one finally wore out", to paraphrase Thom Hartmann - not "I was depressed and there was a sale, and besides, the old one was out of style so I bought a new one". We can start calling ourselves, our relatives and our neighbors artists, dancers, musicians, painters, actors or writers again without reserving those words for the published, famous, and so-called somebodies. We can slow to the pace that our spirits and bodies can comfortably bear. We can go outside together into a beautiful morning. We can provide each other with all we need. We can love, really love this life. A call to any who are interested It's easy to talk about community, about waking up, about living mindfully... it's very personal, though, and the only change that matters is the one inside each of us. We must, as Gandhi said, be the change we wish to see in the world. So, just as each of us arises from sleep each day and greets life as an individual, we can each arise from the sleep of this current civilization's life and share the waking experience with others. Not preach. Not bitch. Not blame... just a gentle nudge, whisper, smile, kind word offered by any in the process of waking to any who are stirring nearby and could use the encouragement... Visit ChangedMinds.org and share something about your changing mind. It's a small place, but it will grow with the input of other caring people. Grace, RBW |
Copyright 1992 - 2008 by Randy Weeks
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