Let yourself be the change you want to see in the world

Things are bad right now. Things are really bad.

Hands up who deeply believes the above to be true? I know, if I’m honest with myself, I do.
I read my Facebook news list and it stokes a deep rage. I share the bad news and immediately feel ashamed for contributing to the toxic negativity that is everywhere around us. But I feel helpless to do anything else. In the moment, I want to share my rage.

Here though, is what I’ve come to powerfully understand in the last few days – WE DESPERATELY NEED A NEW NARRATIVE. And more importantly we need a new way of BEING. I believe it to be our most crucial and fundamental challenge. Not the least because we can’t go on like this for the next three years. It will ruin our mental health.

Mostly though because the time has come for us to evolve to a new way of co-creating in our world. We must raise ourselves out of our victim-hood and into an understanding of our infinite potential to create.

I believe we need to release, let go and forgive. I believe we need to shake off the shackles of the old-world. It is crumbling and the time has come for us to wake to the call that this creative destruction is calling us to. The evolution of our capacity to love and abundantly create.
This work is not easy. It will require a challenge to our most deeply held beliefs about the nature of things and how the world works. In contrast, it is far easier to simply continue to believe that we are helpless victims of the world around us. That we can effect little change. That the bad-guys are out there – all powerful and cashed up – and that whatever happens from here on in is their fault.
Even within that mentality, you will find heroes. There are people out there who are even now engaging in crucial direct action – standing up for human rights, for our forests, for our arctic, for our wildlife, for a just and equitable society. And that work must continue.

But to shift from our David and Goliath battle, to a more abundant, healing process of creation will require a transformational evolution of thought. We need to evolve who we are BEING in the world. Not what we are DOING.

We are running around like chooks without heads, putting out fires, spreading ourselves thin and every small win seems to take a monstrous effort. In the process, we are creating a deep divide in our community – where otherwise normal people look monstrous and evil. All injustice starts from this point, and it’s not just the other side engaging in this kind of talk.

We need to stop bashing our heads against the wall, stop the spread of hate for a moment and ask ourselves – how can we shift from this to a more abundant, loving and healing creative process?
I deeply believe that we are being called on to evolve. And we can’t do that while we are trapped in an ‘us-and-them’ mentality, feeding our despair and rage on a steady diet of the latest outrage that the mainstream media feeds us. If you are doing this to yourself, I ask you to stop for a moment. And go into a meditation, and ask yourself – how can I be of most service to the world right now.
When I was in my twenties. I underwent something of a spiritual transformation. I wanted to discover the truth of ‘God’. The Orthodox church no longer spoke to me. I couldn’t believe in the concept of a devil. I fundamentally disagreed with the way the Devil was used to encourage or discourage behaviour. I asked myself – how can we see the face of God, when we’re always turned to the Devil.
I see that as a metaphor for where we are now in our evolution as a society.


We’re trying to create a new world according to more just, compassionate and empathetic principles and yet we are engaging with the world in anger, rage, heartbreak and despair.
To create a compassionate world, we need to BE compassionate. To create equity we need to BE equitable. To create a less judgmental, less greedy and less self-interested world we need to BE less judgmental, less greedy, less self-interested.

And we need to deeply investigate our own blocks at BEING what we claim to want to create. What are the fears that stand in our way, as individuals, to being compassionate, even to those we deeply disagree with or find morally lacking? What are the fears that stand in the way of us, as individuals, being more equitable? What are the fears and habits that stand in the way of us, as individuals, being more environmentally conscious?

So I’m going to suggest a new way of relating to things we don’t like in the world around us.
Where there is hate, spread love. Where there is fear, spread love. Where there is distrust, spread love. Where there is anger, spread love. Where there is unhappiness, spread love.
Do it daily. Make it a practice. Examine your reactions. Does something make you angry? Do something loving. Whatever it is. Be of loving service to the world. Ask yourself, what would love do now?

Angry about the way refugees are treated? Sign that petition, write that letter to the MPs but more importantly go find someone and give them love. Volunteer at a refugee centre, help the people directly around you. I guarantee, there’s someone around you that needs your compassion. Make it a point to be the source of more love in the world than you see hate around you.
Angry about the way animals are treated? Or about the forests? Get involved in direct action. But as importantly, find animals in need of care and care for them. Find forests in need of tending and protection and protect them. Not from a place of anger but a place of love.

We need to do this urgently folks. The future of our planet depends on it. Your future mental health depends on it.

Because let’s face it – today it’s the Abbott Government but tomorrow it will be something else. And unless we fundamentally challenge ourselves to evolve beyond stimulus-response we will always be one step behind. We will always be at a distance from what we want to create.
There is enough anger, battle, aggression and brutality in the world.

BE the one that fills the space with the qualities you want to create in the world. Stop reacting. Start creating. The more hatred and intolerance you find around you, the more love you should spread.
We need a revolution, and the good thing about this is – it starts inside you.

I know what I’m asking may seem incredible to some. I know anger and fury can be comfortable, protective armours with which to engage with things that seem unbelievably frightening. I even know that we’ll try and fail and try again.

But we need to put down that armour. We need to embrace our humanity and vulnerability. That’s how we change the world.

I’m calling you to arms, Shambhala Warriors. Our world is depending on us.