"Let's look at activism in terms of the negative emotions generated -- indignation and rage, but also frustration, sorrow, resignation. These are negative emotions because of the effect they have on us, the people who experience them. Not on the object of our emotions, whether it be the World Trade Organization, Monsanto, or George Bush. Negative emotions are reactive. Their only impact is on us. What difference does it make to Monsanto that you're seething with indignation at something it has done or said? What difference does it make to the Pacific Lumber Company when you come upon a clear-cut old-growth forest in California and feel devastated?

"Staying present with our emotions -- anger, for example-- means remaining aware of what we're experiencing without becoming lost in reactivity. It means liberating the energy generated by anger from the object that calls it forth. In other words, it is a form of meditation. Then, the possibility exists to work with the situation from a place of clarity, rather than to be submerged in reactivity or confusion... Then you realise that you are the source of your emotions -- not Monsanto or McDonald's.

"This does not imply that we shouldn't have emotional responses [to the actions of those corporations]. It's an indication that we have to use the energy of those responses rather than to be used by them...

"By realising that you are the source of whatever is happening, you begin to take conscious control of your life. And you find the right way to handle George Bush --because underneath his greed and arrogance, he's [simply] not conscious. Looking at the depth of his confusion, we see that in addition to fighting battles, our path as activists involves bringing others to awareness.

"Political awareness and the awareness of nature of mind are the same*. Once people become aware of what they're doing, most of them will not continue to destroy local cultures, or disregard the dangers of global warming, or sell monstrous weaponry to each another.

"Activism is as much about rediscovering our sanity and trust -- our sense of belonging -- as it is about righting perceived wrongs. The fact is that if we're looking for goodness or fairness in others, we're looking for what's inside ourselves. We're looking for what we all share. Once we understand that, the larger goal becomes how to wake our brothers and sisters from their self-destructive sleep.

"In fighting for a just and sustainable global culture, we're also uncovering a globalisation of the spirit. That's because everything is connected: my body and your body and Earth's body, my spirit and your spirit and Earth's spirit, my mind and your mind and Earth's mind. And also my body and society's body, my mind and society's mind, my spirit and my culture's spirit.

"It's only from ignorance of interrelatedness that people succumb to selfish behaviour, to cruelty and cynicism. Destroying the Amazon rainforest in order to plant genetically modified soybeans [is an example of] a lack of awareness that one's body and mind are connected to Earth's body and mind.

"[At the same time], we activists must not focus solely on our own physical well-being, going to yoga classes and eating organic food, while other earthly and social bodies continue to suffer. Otherwise, we're living in a cocoon of self-involvement, oblivious to the greater life around us...

"The problem is not only 'out there': it is also 'in here.' It's not only about agribusiness or pharmaceuticals or neoliberalism: it's also about self-awareness. That is, the problem is at once personal and planetary.

"We can't forget that all of us have created this world. We're doing this to ourselves. We're all products of the same claustrophobic mindset. Consensus reality comes from a shared field of perception. To change it, we have to look at our own beliefs and assumptions in addition to looking at the acts of others. If we don't deal with what could be called the spiritual dimension of activism, if we don't examine the role of the ego, we're simply running away from the total reality."


"Activism is a spiritual path" by Michael Brownstein
in Resurgence, No. 225 Jul/Aug 2004
via Magpie

* To paraphrase HST, "Politics is the art of controlling one's mental environment." Or put another way: "He who loses it, loses."