Lisa (www.satsangwithlisa.org) and I were talking this morning about how to be an activist in our current situation in the USA. We went all around the mulberry bush until we settled with a few thoughts. One was that if you are true to yourself, if you talk and live your truth, you are an activist.
One of my truths is that I strive to have love and compassion for all sentient beings. It is in this realm in politics that I fail most dramatically. In the moments when my snobbism about the Tea Party followers provokes me to make disparaging remarks and harbor elitist judgements that I move very far away from my core beliefs. Finding our truth is very hard and at the same time, very easy. It is always with us, inside, waiting to be recognized.
Acting from the precious love we have in our hearts is often harder. I know this. I am pretty blunt. I am very impatient. I can stand up for what I believe in. But, when I watch the life of someone like Chelsea Manning unfold, I am awestricken. This woman has walked in her truth regardless of the consequences. The consequences have been killer. Arrest, solitary confinement, long jail term, now being a woman in a men's prison. Already she is larger than life, just as Gandhi and Jesus Christ and MLKing were larger than life.
I watch these saints. I listen to these saints. And I pray for the courage to act my truth regardless of personal consequences. I still have nothing against signing petitions, supporting causes, doing projects and going to marches. These are feel-good activities and are energizing. Nothing is wrong with that. But having compassion and love for my enemies until I have no enemies, only loved ones, is hard inner work. Unless I get a miracle that is, and that is always possible.
I think we are all larger than life and we all can change the world, yes, even those I disagree with, if we could connect and stay connected with our personal truths.
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