To attempt to change society without considering one's own place in the midst of the changes we are wanting to effect would be an oversight. We, I, am central to any change I might like to make to others; their situation, their attitude to life. When doing a project of the Humanist Movement I try not to get lost in that project.
There are two parts (at least): 1) the project, 2) the dynamics of interaction of whatever-is-oneself and the implicated human environment. We do not want martyrs, we do not want fanatics, we do not want to get into the violence which can happen to ordinarily good people owing to the frustration of trying to do an obvious good, yet always hitting the wall of apathy and lack of concern of others, not to mention opposition, both passive and violent, to the proposal.
To work with others who share our understanding; to see beyond the ‘project' to the same-time-held intention of personal liberation. At times projects fail despite every precaution, every excellence in the planning. There are moments for everything, likely, it was not the moment. All those unaccountable variables. OK, back off, recoup one's energies, relax, take a break. It's a kind of detachment, a dis-identification, particularly in the feelings relating to that project.
If we lose control what can be done? If we are a guide in the action and we lose our head - what of our team members? But above all we have a duty to ourselves. This is where humour comes in. Better go for campaigns that involve a lightheartedness, the funny hats, the colourful excesses of joyousness, rather than the darkness of the anarchist. Non-violence is the supreme protection. Remaining in clear vigil is a minimum, the state of apperception an ideal.
To hold with an intention of achieving internal change that moves our awareness from the narrow to the wide, from the prejudiced to the freely accepting, from the discriminatory to open-mindedness, from exclusive or restricted beliefs to the surety of allowing others freedom of belief and non-harming, from suspicion to trusting, not with naivety but a trust based on a vision of the whole.
To know ourselves in relation to all that is happening in that ambit where we are playing out our lives, our own human social and natural environment with its historical developments. To have this point of view one has to be reconciled with the past, be well placed in the present, and see an open future. The personal work is to gain that ground, the ground of well being, of being.
It is not a perfection, it is an aim to be happy, to live joyously the life of the human being. It is a never ceasing task because the human is never still, always there is change - change as one matures and change because our social and environmental conditions also never cease to change. They may get better or worse and concerning our human conditions, all is a result of what the human did previously. What we do now determines the future of ourselves and our children so let's attend to it - with an attitude that is constructive. Love the reality you build - Silo, from ‘the Inner Look'.