I’ve been working to distill and articulate what I have come to define “Conscious Social Change” and its core principles and supporting practices. In the next five posts, I will describe each of these five principles. But first an overview.
CONSCIOUS SOCIAL CHANGE: A DEFINITION
Conscious Social Change is a process led by responsible and ethical change agents, who engage in their own practice towards deeper self-knowledge and personal transformation, while striving to advance positive change for the common good. When an individual chooses to serve as a change agent, the experience of making a unique contribution to a greater whole can be deeply meaningful and can also accelerate a person’s self-actualization. In turn, when an individual interested in creating social change chooses to deepen their self-awareness, they have a greater likelihood of making mindful and wise decisions, undistorted by personal agenda or abuse of power. These two components of inner and outer transformation are integral and essential for a whole, just and compassionate society.
Who needs to know this?
Activists and people serving the traumatized need to be able to know when there is a need for self-care and to reground self and intentions to protect against burn-out, disillusionment, attachment to agenda, abuse of power, demonizing the enemy and violence.
Women and those working on women’s rights need to be able to allow for deep inquiry around structures that have been established by patriarchy and which have come to legitimize or even tolerate violence against women by exploiting women’s inclination for self-sacrifice on behalf of community and others.
Social innovators have the opportunity to discover radical new innovations and creative possibilities through embracing consciousness and personal transformation principles, because they will be unobstructed by self-limiting paradigms.
Why is it needed? Why does inner change and outer change have to happen at the same time?
Those of us who are called to be change leaders to advance a more just society, also have a responsibility to create that change with the same principles of integrity and justice we hope to see in the world – even with regard to our perceived enemies or opposition. That requires that we work on the unexamined parts of ourselves that cause us to act unconsciously out of anger, impatience, disillusionment, resentment, fear, envy, or a sense of superiority or separation. Through our direct experience cultivating consciousness in ourselves, we develop a deep understanding of the path of conscious change, which we can use to advance social justice more broadly.
The overarching practice of the path of conscious change is being fully present in every moment. There are five steps that change agents can take to cultivate presence, and it begins by practicing self-awareness. The more we look deeply into ourselves and listen to our emotions without reacting, we come to understand with clarity the underlying reasons for our anxiety, pain and fears. As we begin to see the root of suffering and the path of change in ourselves, we can find compassion for the difficulties of suffering and the challenges of change in others. [1]
The second step is to be proactive in addressing our own wounding, fears, limiting beliefs and shadows that can distort our perspective and cause us unconsciously to harm others while protecting ourselves. The unexamined self has been at the root of many activist movements that have turned violent and leadership attained through oppression and prejudice.
The third step is using presence for self-care. By committing to ongoing personal transformation practices, we can more easily attend to our own need for balance so that we avoid burnout, but stay whole, grounded and completely available to do our work in the world.
The fourth step is using presence to stay attuned to the changing needs of those we aim to serve, so we do not stay stuck on our own agenda or abuse our power. This presence also helps us determine the wisest response (which may include no action) in any moment so that we not only avoid harm, but we transform suffering. This transformational paradigm is inner-driven with a focus on serving the highest common good.
Finally, the deeper we listen to our inner wisdom, the more likely we will find our unique purpose, which will guide us in manifesting change towards social justice and a more conscious society.
This overarching process of cultivating presence invites a balance of engagement with the outer world, which is always providing opportunities for learning, and an investment in inner inquiry, which allows us to integrate and utilize each lesson. The journey for consciousness is something that we must do every day of our lives, especially if we aim to advance social change for a more just society.
In my next five posts, I’ll go deeper in exploring the five principles and supporting practices that support consciousness and presence in social change.
[1] Rothberg, Donald.
The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006.
