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Today's
Meditation:
I want to see lots of change in the world. I want to
see people get along together better, I want to see more
economic opportunities for people with fewer means, I want
to see less war and more meaningful diplomacy, I want to
see higher levels of education for our young. . . there's
a whole lot of change that I think would be good.
The question that I have to ask myself, though, based on
what Mohandas has said here, is "just how can I be
that change?
I suppose that the first thing I have to do is ask myself
if any of my regular actions run counter to anything that
I really want to see. Do I want to see more
kindness, yet regularly perform unkind deeds, or simply
fail to perform kind ones? Do I want to see more
compassion, yet fail to show compassion when situations
arise that demand it? Do I want to see less violence
and anger on TV, yet then turn around and support the
advertisers that sponsor that violence and anger?
There's a huge difference between wanting something and
taking action to bring about that something. It's
very frustrating at times because I don't often see direct
results of what I do or what I am. I try to teach
students to have stronger self-esteem and to make positive
decisions, but those are lessons that often don't come
into practice until years later. I don't support
advertisers that support negative entertainment, but I'll
literally never know if my small action will have any sort
of effect on the advertiser.
And I think that Gandhi knows this-- and I think that the
important part isn't the effect that my action might have
on others; rather, the most important thing is the effect
that my actions have on me. When I follow my
principles and live my life aligned with those principals,
then I'm doing something positive that can't help but have
a positive effect on my life, my self-image, and the ways
that I affect other people in my life. If I am the
change I want to see, then I can legitimately claim the
need for that change on a grander scale.
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