The Challenge

[Catriana Mulholland]

"The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life's challenges when they come...You can use a challenge to awaken you...Or you can allow it to pull you into even deeper sleep..." [Eckhart Tolle]; photo Catriana Mulholland, Barcelona 2004

[Thomas Samuel]

We have to face challenges in this world on a daily basis. Our personalities as defined by the demands of worldly survival needs often conflict with the throbs of our hearts. If we are able to remain as a witness to this dynamics taking place in our minds, intellect and the heart and save our pure self from getting carried away by the demands of worldly survival needs, I think we are on the right path to meeting these challenges and coming clean out of them. By degrees, our consciousness shines more and more brightly. And then even our personalities start aligning with the throbs of our heart effortlessly. Like the birds making a formation in the sky and flowing effortlessly changing directions...
These challenges can no more drain our energy.. All we need to practice is the art of aligning our heart , mind and intellect on the same axis. If they spin , they spin together about the same axis...

Hallelujah!!

[Keelan Naidoo]

great stuff

[Catherine Waid]

This sounds like something my comfortable middle class friends and I can sit with a bottle of wine and talk about........but what about the mother in Gaza who is having to bury her child who was killed by a bomb for NOTHING? Or the twelve year old African child who has just been raped trying to gather wood to cook dinner with? Or the billions of others whose lives are so full of suffering because of western greed? Do I look at them and tell them to.........What? WHAT do I tell them? That "I am aligning my heart and they have to be patient"? Well my heart feels their pain too much. There is a place for feel good stuff but where's the action? Our planet is dying and I am not sure positive thinking without action can save it. So much of this is just a way for rich, protected folks not to feel guilty. Not good enough.

[Catriana Mulholland]

Hey thanks Anna :) Like your comment. Must catch up x

[Catriana Mulholland]

Hi Catherine W :) Sorry I've been so busy I've not been on this site for a while. Your comments are valued.

The truth is I have done a lot of the 'hands on stuff' all around the world...in some of the poorest parts of New York, London... and I will continue to do so. I have also worked more than most in areas of war and conflict, doing all I could to make a difference in the middle of chaos.

Unfortunately, until you've really worked in those kind of zones, you'll never really get an understanding of the 'burn out' factor involved. Of course there is need for urgent action yes. But action without dialogue also inevitably becomes chaos. And too often well intentioned people go into these situations with an ego-centric band aid mentality (not referring to the Group there; lol but to the 'sticking plaster' ). And the underlying issues of e.g poverty, violence etc... are never addressed on a deeper level to create initiatives for long term and lasting change to occur.

The fact remains I can't expect any great lasting change in the world unless I look to fundamental changes in my own self. 'Be the change you want to see'. I don't think anyone is choosing dialogue over action :) But dialogue is instead a fundamental part of the framework or we might as well be building all our actions like houses on sand. And that is exactly what this site is trying to encourage: a networking dialogue for each action/reflection process to begin.

In also having been out there among some of the worst of it...I've also seen that Action without dialogue inevitably doing a whole lot more harm than good...with all sorts of ego-driven initiatives not only falling back in the face of ground-level workers, but also creating conflict and division among the very peoples they authentically intended to help. .

Dialogue plus Action = Conscientisation. (Friere). That's a deliberate choice to be involved in making a physcial difference. But with less of the kind of difference that is too often directed by our own codependent egos.

'Be the change you want to see' has a very active verb 'Be' implying direct action... It suggests actively choosing to be part of an action-reflection process which will bring about long-term change...where the cultures themselves inevitably take the direction of their own self determination. It's an exciting journey...Thanks for yout input.It's wonderful to have you a part of it x

[Kavita Byrd]

It is so clear that reflection and action have to go together, that the deepening inner spiritual realization of interconnection and Oneness has to be expressed in conscious social action. The two are totally complementary, inner and outer, individual and collective, and neither can be truly transformative without the other. I have been looking for a community or living centre (as distinct from virtual) where people are living and working together on exactly this. Does anyone know of one, in NZ, Australia or anywhere else? I also have a proposal to create one and would be happy to share it with anyone who is interested. For me, this also involves the revaluing of the feminine values of cooperation, interconnection, integration and integrity, and bringing in more women's leadership, spiritual and social, to rebalance the collective consciousness in vision as well as action. Would love to hear from others who know of or are interested in creating such a community... Thanks, Catriana, for keeping this wonderful discussion going... Kavita