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If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies — Author Unknown
The world is going through great change right now and no one knows what will happen next. Change is the nature of reality but we often resist and even fear it. It’s
easy to complain, to moan that things are bad and why doesn’t someone
fix them. And yet we all know we need to “be the change we want to see in the world.” So what stops us from stepping outside the box, from taking fear by the hand so it turns into fearlessness?
Sadly, self-centeredness and selfishness, the hallmarks of the ego,
affect not only our own lives but also the way we behave in the world.
They easily limit our ability to reach out to another in need. We can
see this to the extreme in Libya’s ruler Gaddafi whose ego, after 42 years in power, can’t let go, even at the detriment
of over 1,000 people who have been killed and putting his own life and
family in mortal danger. We also see it in Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin whose desire for power is, as Senator Dick Durbin says: “aiming to destroy a basic American right.”
Meditation is often accused of being self-centered and even selfish, but when we were writing Be The Change we talked with over a hundred meditation practitioners and teachers and
found the exact opposite — that the simple act of being still inspired
numerous acts of service, generosity, kindness and even activism.
It
would appear that silence and contemplation enable us to go from being
self-centered to other-centered, concerned about the welfare of all and
not just ourselves. We become more acutely aware of how we treat each
other and seek to become a positive presence rather than a negative one.
Rather than focusing on the problem, we are inspired to become the
solution.
Although there are many people around the world who are movers and
shakers, we want to bring attention to just a few who have blown us
away. We have chosen three deeply passionately inspired people motivated
by meditation who have stepped out of the box and done great things to
make life better for others. May they also inspire you to become more
than you think you are!
Kindness can transform our world from the inside out and is the most precious gift you can offer to yourself and to others. — Anon
Activist Kiri Westby is a young mother who, from when she was 18 and
saw her first Red Cross camp, knew that the impulse to be of assistance
gave her no choice, she had to help. She spent the next 10 years working
to help women in war zones and in some of the most difficult areas of
the world. In 2004, she was working in the small town of Bunia in the
Northeast of the Congo. This was a UN stronghold but rebel armies were
not far away. As a women’s human rights activist she was there to
witness and provide support
“We spent the day hearing testimony of the grotesque sexual and
physical abuse that many of the survivors in the camp had experienced.
Disfiguring and mutilating women was one of the ways the warring
factions laid claim to their territory. Mary, only 12 years old, had
been badly mutilated, having had both her arms cut off from the elbow
down. She spoke bravely, her testimony heartbreaking. Afterwards she
came up to me and asked shyly, ‘Do you know my friend Angelina? She’s
from America too.’ I had to say I didn’t, wondering if she understood
how big America is. ‘Oh,’ she said dejectedly. ‘I was hoping you could
tell her I said hello and give her this’… and with that she fell into
me, clutching me with her leftover arms. It was the best hug I’d ever
received and I vowed to pass it on. After asking around, I learned that
Angelina Jolie had recently visited with these same girls.”
For author Marc Ian Barasch, great insight came through his own writing. “When I wrote my book, The Compassionate Life, I
never suspected the words I’d put on the page would get so deep under
my skin. But hanging out with the folks who do the heart’s heavy lifting
— homeless shelter workers, kidney donors, people who forgave their
mortal enemies — subtly changed me. I needed to get out from behind my
desk and actually do something for the world. But what?”
A chance meeting with a devoted tree-planter, led Marc to found the Green World Campaign,
a nonprofit whose purpose is to plant trees and, in so doing, to turn
degraded lands green again, raise the living standards of the rural poor
and combat climate change, and that’s just to start with. With his
kitchen table as world headquarters and despite being flat broke and
nearly dying from malaria, Marc persevered. Trees are now being grown in
countries around the world, such as Mexico, India, the Philippines,
Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. Marc’s vision of green compassion is
changing lives. “Compassion is, at bottom, just the ability to see the
connection between everyone and everything, everywhere — and to be
willing to act on it. Each sapling the Green World Campaign plants feels
like a resurrection of hope, an emissary to future generations that
says: we never forgot about you.”
Seane Corn is a
beloved renowned yoga teacher who realized that whether her practice
was fifteen minutes or four hours long was irrelevant because, “It
wasn’t about how yoga can change me, but how I, through this practice,
can begin to change the world.” She went on to work with child
prostitutes in the U.S. and then in some of the most challenging areas
of the world, working for YouthAIDS. At one point she was taken to an
eleven-acre garbage dump in the middle of Panam Pen, Cambodia.
“I’m talking to a group of children and suddenly a young boy grabs
hold of my hand. He looks to be eight or nine, but because of
malnutrition he could have been thirteen. It’s boiling hot, but he’s
covered from head to toe in scarves to keep the flies off his body. What
I could see of his face was matted in dirt. I looked at him, expecting
him to say three words in Cambodian: one for water, the other for food,
the third for the orphanage. But he says nothing. He just looks at me
right in the eye and smiles this little tiny smile. He squeezes my hand,
lets go, and walks away. But he left something in my hand that was
covered in dirt. I flick the dirt away and it was a bright-red
heart-shaped charm, surrounded by silver. It was one of those moments
where I was utterly humbled, because this kid had come to me and
effectively said, ‘Remember, it’s about the love. That’s all that this
is. It’s about the love.’ That heart reminds me every day of what my job
is.”
What can you do to uplift your world? Do comment below.
Related:
10 Reasons to Volunteer Today
Why Random Acts of Kindness Are So Important
7 Ways Meditation Can Save Your Life
