Spiritual Activism

Principles of Spiritual Activism

The following principles emerged from several years' work with social change leaders in Satyana's Leading with Spirit program. We offer these not as definitive truths, but rather as key learnings and guidelines that, taken together, comprise a useful framework for "spiritual activism."

1. Transformation of motivation from anger/fear/despair to compassion/love/purpose. This is a vital challenge for today's social change movement. This is not to deny the noble emotion of appropriate anger or outrage in the face of social injustice. Rather, this entails a crucial shift from fighting against evil to working for love, and the long-term results are very different, even if the outer activities appear virtually identical. Action follows Being, as the Sufi saying goes. Thus "a positive future cannot emerge from the mind of anger and despair" (Dalai Lama).

2.Non-attachment to outcome. This is difficult to put into practice, yet to the extent that we are attached to the results of our work, we rise and fall with our successes and failures—a sure path to burnout. Hold a clear intention, and let go of the outcome—recognizing that a larger wisdom is always operating. As Gandhi said, "the victory is in the doing," not the results. Also, remain flexible in the face of changing circumstances: "Planning is invaluable, but plans are useless."(Churchill)

3.Integrity is your protection. If your work has integrity, this will tend to protect you from negative energy and circumstances. You can often sidestep negative energy from others by becoming "transparent" to it, allowing it to pass through you with no adverse effect upon you. This is a consciousness practice that might be called "psychic aikido."

4. Integrity in means and ends. Integrity in means cultivates integrity in the fruit of one's work. A noble goal cannot be achieved utilizing ignoble means.

5.Don't demonize your adversaries. It makes them more defensive and less receptive to your views. People respond to arrogance with their own arrogance, creating rigid polarization. Be a perpetual learner, and constantly challenge your own views.

6. You are unique. Find and fulfill your true calling. "It is better to tread your own path, however humbly, than that of another, however successfully." (Bhagavad Gita)

7. Love thy enemy. Or at least, have compassion for them. This is a vital challenge for our times. This does not mean indulging falsehood or corruption. It means moving from "us/them" thinking to "we" consciousness, from separation to cooperation, recognizing that we human beings are ultimately far more alike than we are different. This is challenging in situations with people whose views are radically opposed to yours. Be hard on the issues, soft on the people.

8. Your work is for the world, not for you. In doing service work, you are working for others. The full harvest of your work may not take place in your lifetime, yet your efforts now are making possible a better life for future generations. Let your fulfillment come in gratitude for being called to do this work, and from doing it with as much compassion, authenticity, fortitude, and forgiveness as you can muster.

9. Selfless service is a myth. In serving others, we serve our true selves. "It is in giving that we receive." We are sustained by those we serve, just as we are blessed when we forgive others. As Gandhi says, the practice of satyagraha ("clinging to truth") confers a "matchless and universal power" upon those who practice it. Service work is enlightened self-interest, because it cultivates an expanded sense of self that includes all others.

10. Do not insulate yourself from the pain of the world. Shielding yourself from heartbreak prevents transformation. Let your heart break open, and learn to move in the world with a broken heart. As Gibran says, "Your pain is the medicine by which the physician within heals thyself." When we open ourselves to the pain of the world, we become the medicine that heals the world. This is what Gandhi understood so deeply in his principles of ahimsa and satyagraha. A broken heart becomes an open heart, and genuine transformation begins.

11. What you attend to, you become. Your essence is pliable, and ultimately you become that which you most deeply focus your attention upon. You reap what you sow, so choose your actions carefully. If you constantly engage in battles, you become embattled yourself. If you constantly give love, you become love itself.

12. Rely on faith, and let go of having to figure it all out. There are larger 'divine' forces at work that we can trust completely without knowing their precise workings or agendas. Faith means trusting the unknown, and offering yourself as a vehicle for the intrinsic benevolence of the cosmos. "The first step to wisdom is silence. The second is listening." If you genuinely ask inwardly and listen for guidance, and then follow it carefully—you are working in accord with these larger forces, and you become the instrument for their music.

13. Love creates the form. Not the other way around. The heart crosses the abyss that the mind creates, and operates at depths unknown to the mind. Don't get trapped by "pessimism concerning human nature that is not balanced by an optimism concerning divine nature, or you will overlook the cure of grace." (Martin Luther King) Let your heart's love infuse your work and you cannot fail, though your dreams may manifest in ways different from what you imagine.

A Sex Talk With My Gramma

Back in her village in Chaozhou, China, they didn’t talk about sex, but here in America, it surrounds us. One day, my grandmother, glossy-eyed, curly haired, and curious, asks me to sit with her at the kitchen table. She whispers about my gay best friend, “How do they lay together? Do they have both parts?” In literal translations, I say “They do it in the butt, one part in the place we all have.” With laughter, we both find clarity in the things we do not know about each other.

joining the army

note to self: http://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_channon_0200.htm

Good to see my folks

we were in my 2001 white corolla LE with grey seats on a grey cement driveway on a gloomy day. My mother was sitting next to me in the passenger seat. Chris was in a black SUV to my right, sitting in the passenger seat, talking to me through the window. His hair was cut short, domesticated. My father brought food to my mom, a bowl of white rice noodles with sesame seed sauce, a taiwanese dish. She offered it to me and I offered it to Chris. He shook his head no and put his head back down on the side panel door the way a sad dog does when he is waiting for something to come along. My dad came again and gave my mom another bowl of noodles. I was eating the first one up and stopped to offer Chris another bowl. Again, no. It was time to leave and it started to pour. We were going to drive to Irvine. My mother and Chris got out of the car first. Both Leos, initiators. However I got out of the car too assuming my dad would drive and my mom would sit next to my dad and my mom got into the back seat assuming Chris would take her place. My dad already knew where to go.

The End

My Name

"She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry beacause she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be. [De]. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window." The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Are You Experience?

not many times am i called out on my shit. in fact, i truly appreciate people who do call me out because i can feel the dirt against my cheek, bloodied, scraped, raw.

no one gets more raw than my little sister. why? because she can see right through the facade of academic achievements covering up the shit i do on the sidelines. i smile and i am happy but i cannot see myself as objectively the way she does. i am the guru that laid the groundwork for manipulating traditional parents into believing that their daughter is dutiful, which is why she is pro at manipulation. But I am flawed because I am a living hypocrite.

so at school, i have many roles. i am a spop coord, a reach coord, an intern, a B average student, a bridge, a product of programs for underrepresented minorities, smiling socializing bumble bee of sorts, who really seems like she's got everything under control. it's like looking at the ocean from atop a cliff, everything looks serene on the surface yet the closer you get you can see the waves, the scoops, the imperfections, the depth, the dark shadows, and you can feel the cold. i am human.

under close magnification, i am not a leader. in fact, the things i do are probably "bad" examples because i am drawing you to the water and drowning you because you aren't ready to swim. Let me explain further.

my values are different from the norm. in fact, i am re-educating myself because i rejected what was imposed onto me, rejected what my family wanted of me, and here i stand, tabula rasa. i think it is very important for me to have done all the things i have done so i can develop my values. i am constantly questioning my purpose, my self, and so stuck in my own mind that i can't see how i am affecting others. this is me: naturally introspective.

there are people who watch me, read me, and do things that are harmful to themselves only because i am doing it. for example: x. as much as i have felt a part of the ecstasy culture and learned what it means to feel a part of something larger, greater, beautiful--such as my last experience at Together As One 2010--this is my goodbye.

Why? I have been learning a lot this year and my eyes have been opening to how these chemicals we put into our bodies really do affect us biologically. Traumas that happened to us in the past affect us biologically too, and unbalancing the unbalanced is dangerous. This isn't to say I regret doing what I did. I don't discourage experience. All I ask is being critical of our selves, ask yourself why are you doing this? For me, TAO was escaping from the reality--fee increases, fear of graduation, painful familial memories, heartbreaks, fear, pain, fear, pain. After mastering the art of running away, I think 2009 "enough is enough" theme comes into play. I have had enough of being afraid of myself. Time to bungee jump into the rabbit hole....

The power of thousands of people coming together in a space, connected (probably because of a substance), and feeling like this is the way life should always be was an illusion. It's buying into a fantasy, collectively agreeing that this fantasy world is real. Another example is Disneyland. Don't get me wrong, the shared experience is powerful, but I hope to build even stronger relationships than getting to see you annually at a rave. I don't want to pretend any more with substances and big, bright lights. My friend reminded me that there were water bottles all over the floor who would be picked up by whom? And we were all sucked into these bright screens like TV and movies, not thinking just moths flapping around a light bulb. It has also become corporate. "When a group or a phenomena starts getting defined, we all realize that once again, we're only human beings, warts and all.. this is the time to move on, and to create another scene where there are no words to pursue and define the alien within us." - @Om* Fuck the hype! It ain't gonna define me!

And maybe it is up to me to really go above and beyond to reach out to the new friends I have met to go deeper into who you are rather than what you do. Instead of escaping into this world, why not direct the power of thousands of voices and love toward REAL world things? Can you imagine people being friendly to each other every day? Even to strangers, giving money, bracelets, food, or hugs? Can you imagine directing 50,000 voices toward Sacramento, our meat industries, or our educational system? It literally blows my mind how selfless we could all be and how that energy would shift the poles before 2012.

All in all, I want to be naturally high the way a child is, closer to light, the sun, the OG source within and around us. Especially working with Ava, who is only one and half and entering new states of self-awareness, there is purity below knee-level.

as a leader, i feel it is important to be there for the minority voice. In spop that may be the straightedge, and if that is the case, then I will say that I am here for you, to stand by you, fully engaged in the struggle.

again, i am not perfect in actions but i am naked for you all to see that without the clothes, without skin, without blood, and without skeletal frame, i am pure, pure light.

to my little sister and family: i am sorry for not being the best, but i hope you become better. thank you. i love you.

my values thus far:
love for all
the universe
self-respect and integrity
advocate for the unheard/unspoken voice
community and personal development
critical and collective consciousness