Special Section: PEACE
It's Still an Option
A U.S. Department of Peace. In Our Time? Maybe.
by Sam Slovick
Spiritual Activism
by Julie Deife
Human Peace Machine Takes Off
Engaged Buddhism Offers a Path
by Steven Vincent
Spiritual Activism
It’s not what you know, it’s what you do.
Our 80 year old neighbor, Bill, is deeply committed to caring for all animals. He especially loves birds and spends time each day feeding them. He says that he would stop eating meat if he had to kill the animals himself.
Even though research has repeatedly demonstrated that one can enjoy better health if our animal friends were exempt from our diets, most Americans, like Bill, are animal-loving meat-eaters. The unfortunate fact is most of us are truly disconnected, not only from the source of our dinner, but from the web of life itself.
The belief that healing is a mind-body-spirit endeavor is held by millions of Americans and we have enthusiastically embraced mind-body-spirit practices, such as yoga, that exemplify this triad for health and wellness. On a personal level we can make it work: we have an unprecedented number of yoga classes and meditation groups to join, and the results make our lives seem more unified. Put another way, we are ‘actively’ participating in the spiritual process of self re-unification.
And that might be where the spiritual path for many of us breaks down, in that gap between self – and everything else. We are happy to make claims at having a spiritual practice that’s made a difference in our own lives, but the interconnection, the web of life often remains conveniently forgotten.
Perhaps we have come to distrust our ability to affect change ‘outside’ ourselves. Most of us feel helpless to do much of anything about the wars and senseless killing raging out of control, the spread of the AIDS virus in Africa or Asia, the destruction of old growth forests, vanishing Bald Eagles and mile high mounds of trash (conveniently dumped somewhere out of sight). But actually we can change all of this plus bring peace to the planet. First we need to harness the forces of activism and spirit to do so. And more and more of us are doing this.
Maybe just in the nick of time, a movement called Spiritual Activism is birthing. Through this a growing number of those inclined toward social activism are spiritualizing their transformational process. While an old concept, Spiritual Activism is a new term which describes individuals who are spiritually based and who consciously decide to take action in the world to create positive change. It is possible, as author Michael Nagler surmises, that this is just the frame that has been missing “with which to embrace all these [social activist] projects and give them meaning and coherence.”
Mohandas K. Gandhi at the beginning of his political-spiritual career in 1894 wrote in his journal that “The question of internal improvement was also taken up.” Gandhi’s 30-year movement, beginning with satyagraha (deliberate obstructive peaceful action) in South Africa ended up freeing India from the rule of the British through nonviolence, self-improvement, attention to spiritual practice and intention in action. Gandhi was a spiritual activist.
Gandhi is even bigger than life today among those who understand, either through yoga or other spiritual practices, that peace is more than a pen stroke on a cease-fire agreement.
Spiritual activism, as exemplified by Gandhi, is action with prerequisites. And those prerequisites are love, compassion, non-attachment and recognition that we are all spiritual beings – even “the enemy” is a spiritual being. As spiritual beings, we understand that we are part of a collective universal consciousness and that our positive thoughts and intentions can have a beneficial impact on all life forms.
As awareness of the invisible boundary between our inner self and self as all beings is realized, the separation between inner and outer merge and unity of body, mind and soul disappear. We no longer get in the way of ‘ourselves’ because ‘self’ is not different from the world. Getting past this sticking point of separation is one of the most difficult transitions of all in spiritual activism however, because our past habits, limited thinking, unresolved feelings and regrets impede our progress.
“Separatism lies deeply within most of us, and part of us may connect with war on some level,” says Deepak Chopra in Peace is the Way. On the level of the mundane I must first address ‘how can I, based on my spiritual beliefs, take positive action in the world to create positive change if this morning I have argued with my daughter or husband or father and caused suffering?’ Unless I shift my perception in all of my relationships from one of anger to love, of fear to compassion, of me to us I abide in divisiveness, not unity.
Spiritual activism demands that we are fueled not by memory or stories of past inequities to ourselves or others. It means loving our enemies if we are to honestly aspire to peace in the world.
Jesus Christ said “love your enemies.” But how are we to do this?
Many of us are stirred up right now like we never have been before. We’ve become impatient and are tired of wanting the world to be different – peaceful – and just wish things would change. We stop watching the news because it depresses us. Increasingly people are saying things like ‘there have always been wars,’ or ‘we will never see change in our lifetime.’ This is denial that the roots of our problems reside yet in our own hearts and consciousness.
Recently I have been trying an experiment by closely following reports of the Mid-East wars on the internet, the television and in print. It is painful. On Day 21 of ‘Crisis in the Middle East,’ 400 Lebanese civilians, 35 Hezbollah fighters, 20 Israel fighters and 3 Israeli civilians had their souls violently released from their bodies. Insulating myself from the pain of the world will not facilitate the breakdown of separatism of self, so I watch.
During the Vietnam War my grandmother, who rarely traveled outside our little town of Odessa, Washington, but who had a grandson serving in Vietnam and had sent a son to battle in World War II, took to eating only one bowl of rice each day until my aunts and uncles found out and put a halt to it. I would often spend the night with her and maybe I’m the one who spilled the beans, but I was curious as to why she ate only one bowl of rice and I selfishly wanted to enjoy the full range of her excellent cooking. “I read that in Vietnam, during this war, many people have no more than one bowl of rice available to them each day,” she told me.
The Ladies Aid Society at our church was persuaded by her to sew lap quilts for veterans returning home from Vietnam, confined to wheel chairs for the rest of their lives. She contributed in whatever ways she could. At the time I considered her a very religious person; today I understand that she was a spiritual activist.
She prayed for guidance and it preceded all of her actions. Leaders of all countries were in her prayers, adversaries included. How do I know? It seemed an imposition then, but we were asked to pray along with her when at her house. She asked that her negative thoughts be released, and I could never imagine that she really held any negative thoughts, but I guess she must have.
Spiritual activism says that we need love, and forgiveness and acceptance of ourselves before we can extend that to our enemies. Spiritual activism embraces prayer, mindfulness and creativity rallied into action.
The future is always the next shape that consciousness takes. And often that future meets with resistance. Sharon Gannon and David Life, founders of Jivamukti Yoga, New York City, are known for animal rights activism and support of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). They have been silenced for this at yoga conferences where students have walked out of their popular yoga classes when the pair discusses taking next steps: bringing the spiritual qualities of a yoga practice into action. Says Gannon, “we’ve been told many times that people will stop coming to our studio too, if we are so outspoken – but it hasn’t happened yet.” Gannon and Life recently celebrated the opening of a ‘green’ Jivamukti studio at Union Square in NYC.
We have to start somewhere in making choices. What choices will we individuals make to help shape the future of peace? Consider the millions of barrels of oil per year required in the U.S. alone, just to run agricultural equipment that will grow crops for the sole purpose of feeding cattle and chickens destined for slaughter. Much of the violence in the Middle East whether we acknowledge it or not, is being fought over this oil. The insatiable need for oil is bullets in the guns of war. This very same oil is the bullet that kills the animal for human consumption or is the fuel for our SUVs. Switching either to a low impact diet or low mileage vehicle would be spirit in action.
So the Jivamukti pair teach the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali in which respect for all life is an inherent aspect, as well as lots of asana (postures) where they believe a group of people practicing together magnify a unified field of consciousness where intention for spiritual activism can manifest, be it animal rights, environmental causes, human rights or peace promotion. The yoga class is not an end in itself, rather a means to a goal. These people are spiritual activists.
Some of us may not be around to participate in a 30-year movement like Gandhi’s, plus that kind of a time-frame for activism is daunting to fast-paced, fix - it - now Americans. And the truth is, our culture is geared toward war, not peace, and cultural changes happen over decades and often centuries, not months. But like it or not, we are all caught in the web of life, interconnected beings playing our roles with every passing moment.
Feeding birds and then purchasing them for food does not denounce my friend Bill’s spirituality. But it does suggest a disconnection between the inner and outer realms of life. Extended, inertia for love and peace is stifled, cut off at the hairline boundary around a tiny sphere of a self-absorbed existence. Talking about peace is one thing. Walking the talk is a whole different game.
For those who want to take their spiritual beliefs to a place of action, there are heroes and models and there is support. As we start re-connecting our spiritualism outside ourselves, our inner strength and power to take action for peace is inevitable.
Websites for further exploration of Spiritual Activism:
www.tikkun.org
www.satyana.org.principles.html
www.stonecircles.org
www.jivamuktiyoga.com
www.peta.org
www.viva.org.uk/guides/feedtheworld.htm
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LA Yoga Ayurveda & Health Magazine
