Tricycle | Awake in the World

Looking forward to beginning the Social Awakening retreat tomorrow. One of the many current ripples, and a strong one at that (many ripples make a wave), of social awakening is the Occupy Movement. For me Occupy is a conversation about goodness. Even the energy of anger that almost always plays a role in protest movements is really, I think, an awakening to and longing for goodness. Although one can't lump Occupy into one voice, a common thread I hear is that we as a society made up of mostly ordinary folks recognize and value goodness and values like caring, compassion, hard work and ethical, mindful and responsible behavior. The vast majority of us get up everyday and do our best to take care of ourselves, each other, our children and families, our communities and the planet. Even those of us who are not manifesting in the most pro-social manner at the moment, or in some moments, are on some level trying to meet universal human needs ... though our strategies may be quite skewed, or extremely skewed, by fear. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said many times, what unifies us all as human beings is our fundamental desire to be happy, to feel safe and secure. The United States like all other societies around the globe functions on good will, caring, cooperation and service.
The prophetic and sometimes angry voice of Occupy is bearing witness to the current hijacking of our political and economic systems by fear-based energies or forces of short-sighted greed and empire building. Occupy is calling on the goodwill and basic decency of the powerful in this country, the corporate leaders, bankers and political leaders, inviting them and all of us to have conversations together about a return to goodness and about ethics and values, about the sustainability of our society and global culture for all of us, all beings and the planet itself. How can we lower the fear quotient and create the trust need to support such conversations? How can we engage our national and global diversity and include all the voices in conversations about remembering who we already are as a society, conversations about win/win, partnering strategies for meeting our individual and collective needs, for fulfilling our individual and collective aspirations, and most importantly conversations about how to steward together this global society and our planetary resources for the benefit of our children and grandchildren and all future generations? I'm looking forward to such conversations and a rich and dialog about social transformation over the next four weeks.