Spirit Moves, Action Speaks
Gail B. Holland | IONS Noetic Sciences Review | IONS Review #58 |(2 ratings)This summer, an international gathering of young people participated in two weeklong sessions on the two-hundred-acre campus at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. In the serene setting of grasslands and sacred oak glades at IONS, they talked about how to protect the Earth's environment. Their concerns, however, weren't limited to environmental issues. Poverty, racism, gang violence, and many of the other challenges facing humankind in this century were also examined. These young people didn't merely exchange views about the world's problems; they call themselves "activists" because they are willing to take action to find solutions—a multicultural youth movement impelled by one inspirational goal: to create a better world.
The following four individuals play an important role in this movement, and they were also featured speakers at the 2001 IONS international conference "Spirit Rising: Taking the Next Step."
The activism of Aqeela Sherrills was sparked by tragedy. Raised in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California, he lost thirteen friends within one year in bloody gang wars. Through his efforts, a "Peace Treaty" was formed between neighborhood gangs.
Julia Butterfly Hill gained international attention when she lived in an ancient redwood tree for more than two years in order to make the world aware of the plight of ancient forests. She then established the " Circle of Life Foundation" and now spends her time networking with individuals and organizations to create a sustainable future.
Ocean Robbins founded Youth for Environmental Sanity—YES! Since the age of sixteen, Robbins has organized camps for young activists, and inspired the formation of more than four hundred nonprofit organizations working for positive change. His activism was inspired by his father John Robbins (son of the cofounder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream company) who walked away from the chance to run his family's company, and went on to gain fame in his own right with his book Diet for a New America.
Tad Hargrave helped lead the YES! camps, and it was his idea to hold week-long sessions, such as the event at the IONS' campus, to empower youth who are trying to create a more equitable and compassionate world. He calls these events "Youth Jams."
"Jam is not an acronym," explains Hargrave. "We didn't want to call these annual gatherings a conference, because that sounded too dry. Summit sounded way too important. Then I realized what we were looking for is that feeling when musicians get together to 'jam.' There's no expectation that the world's greatest song is going to be written. Yet when we get together and share our music, often the seeds of really great songs are planted."
"If you want to change the action of individuals,
you first have to be able to change their thoughts." —Aqeela Sherrills
About thirty youths, who are in positions of influence and leadership in national and international organizations, attend the Jam sessions. The objective is to network, build a sense of community, and help committed young people do what they are already doing even better.
Because the Jam participants are involved in different efforts, the mutual engagement of the Jam process can be complicated. During the Jam gathering at IONS, Hargrave had several young people try to convince him that their individual "cause" was the most important. "One person told me the crucial cause was global warming because it affected the entire planet, and I thought 'Yes! That's the most important issue for sure.' Then, somebody else said gender issues were the most important because many of our global problems result from a masculine energy trying to dominate everything else. I thought, 'Oh my gosh, if we really brought our gender relationships back into balance on a global scale, we'd solve so many of these problems.' Another person put global economics first, because global economics regards growth as the only thing that matters in the world, even though growth often contributes to pollution. And I thought, 'Yeah!' But then a person spoke up for racial issues. I got really confused. Every time I heard a specific cause, I would agree it was really important."
The separation of these different problems continued to bother Hargrave until one day he thought about how his bike was made, and how all the spokes on each wheel were connected to the center, and how this center was connected to everything else. "I realized then that this idea of ranking issues on a hierarchical level is impossible. They are all important. So now when people ask me, 'Where do I need to be of service? Where is help needed?' I just say 'everywhere.' The real question is: What sets you on fire? What makes you want to holler and do something? What fills you with joy and meaning in your life? If you respond to these questions you'll be much more effective."
Hargrave also believes that most of the world's problems require, above all, a shift in consciousness. "It's the mindset," says Hargrave. "The way we treat each other (regarding racial, gender, homosexual, or religious issues) is often due to societal programming. People are raised in that mindset. Our consciousness gets institutionalized. If we want to change something, our consciousness has to be changed, either at the institutional level or personal level."
Julia Butterfly Hill heartily agrees with this last point. She describes how her own consciousness changed when she decided to protect ancient forests by climbing high into a one thousand-year-old redwood tree called "Luna." At first, she didn't have any preconceived plan; she had no idea she was going to be living in that tree for more than two years. Had she known, she admits: "I would have screamed in terror, and run in the opposite direction."
As the months went by, her actions not only impacted the world around her, but also gave her new insights. "In the beginning I couldn't articulate exactly what I was experiencing. It was an inner consciousness without a knowing of that consciousness. In that tree I was in such a profound place because I was connected to the yin and the yang, the male of the father sky, and the female of mother Earth. I compare trees to the acupuncture of the universe because their branches are these tiny points that connect up into the heavens, and their roots are the tiny points that connect down into the consciousness of the Earth. So I lived for two years where Earth and heaven come together. And it was through that experience I began to see how spirituality must have roots. It must have grounding.
"When I was in that tree," she continues, "I saw how everything is interconnected, and how what we do to the Earth we do to ourselves. From that experience, I realized that if we really want to live our beliefs, if we really want to manifest the consciousness of oneness, then we must take out the word "and" when it's between spirituality and anything else. We must take out the word "and" when we talk about love and anything else. Moreover, when we talk about love or spirit, it must include action. Because love is best when it's love in action. Spirituality is best when it's spirituality in action. It's about waking up and saying, "What am I going to do today to make the world a better place?"
Nevertheless, the gap between thinking about a problem and doing something about a problem often requires, says Hill, a transformative process. "I compare it to the transformation that a butterfly goes through. The first thing that a caterpillar has to do is let go of its attachment to what I call 'comfortability.' The caterpillar has got a pretty groovy life. It just crawls along and munches things, and it's comfortable. Yet it has this innate knowing there's something more. So it creates the cocoon."
Hill then makes her point by turning the conversation to human transformation. "The butterfly goes within the depths of itself, and for a lot of people who are engaged in spirituality, that's where they stop. When humans engage themselves completely with who they are within, they find it's a little dark, it's a little cramped, and at first it's a little scary. It's intense to face the darkness and the demons. But that's the next layer of transformation— going into our depths and facing what comes up, and then growing. On the other hand, even though it's dark, and a little cramped, it's awfully comfortable in there. The outside world seems scary and, again, many people stop there. They remain in this space of inner knowing without recognizing that the inner knowing is part of the greater knowing — that the inner self is part of the greater self.
"But the next stage," she adds, "if the human being is willing to follow the butterfly's transformational process, is to break free, have wings to fly, and take inner knowing into the outer world."
Hill, and the other YES! youth, feel a sense of urgency regarding the need for action to help remedy the problems of this outer world. "I see young people turning to alcohol and drugs, and committing suicide because they have no hope," says Hill. "The problem is we teach young people that life is based on image and money, and everything is disposable. What are we offering them? We're telling them to come into this divine state of consciousness and wisdom but, by the way, I'm going to throw away a tree in this paper cup. I'm going to throw away the ozone and the health of your body in this styrofoam container. We have to create a world where young people don't feel so hopeless that they just blow each other away because they don't know what else to do with their lives. We have to create a world where life is sacred—every aspect of life."
Aqeela Sherrills also knows the despair of his generation. At the IONS conference he explained to the audience that more than 10,000 individuals have been killed in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California during the past twenty years. Most of the perpetrators were between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one.
The area, he said, had become a war zone as gangs from different housing projects and neighborhoods fought one another. Sherrills, who was raised in Watts, was personally affected when, in 1989, thirteen of his good friends were killed. He decided to take action. He, his brother, and some college friends began visiting the different neighborhoods, urging individuals to resolve their conflicts. With the help of former NFL star Jim Brown, they then began to negotiate gang truces. Sherrills and Brown eventually founded " Amer-I-Can," a grassroots effort for implementing community ties.
In 1992, Sherrills and Brown accomplished a "Peace Treaty" in the Watts area. Sherrills was nineteen years old when the process started, twenty-two when the peace treaty occurred, and is now thirty-one years old. In other words, he has had time to see the result of his actions, and readily acknowledges, "To create a peace treaty is one thing. To sustain it over the long haul is the real work."
Although killings still happen, Sherrills notes "As long as those involved in these conflicts keep coming to the table and talking, there's a chance for peace. We see success as a journey, not a destination."
"I think that a true leader, however, is one who guides people to find their own leadership skills." —Ocean Robbins
Sherrills is now the Executive Director of The Community Self Determination Institute (CSDI), which is an outgrowth of Amer-I-Can. Founded by Sherrills and his brother Daude, CSDI focuses on sustaining the peace process through a variety of programs and services. He has learned, he says, that gang violence, drug abuse, and poverty are symptoms of a deeper problem rooted in individual self-esteem. Therefore, they offer a life-skills curriculum to help individuals overcome negative conditioning and gain self-confidence. "We've been conditioned in life to be the way we are by our family, our friends, by the community," believes Sherrills. "If you want to change the action of individuals, you first have to be able to change their thoughts."
In the Jam session at the IONS gathering the recurring question was how to triumph over the negative, disempowering messages delivered by our culture. "This is the most cynical generation in history," says Ocean Robbins. "A lot of young people are so frightened about the future, they've given up hope. But every time they hear of one more thing that isn't right with the world, instead of saying 'Oh, that's another reason why there's no hope,' we want people to say, 'That's another reason why it's important that I'm alive—and can make a difference.'"
Robbins' goal is to personally make a difference through his organization, YES! He hopes to introduce positive patterns in young people's lives that will send out ripples for decades to come. "We want to assist youth so they can shift from feeling like helpless victims to being active participants in the transformation of our world."
When Robbins is asked if he views himself as a leader, he replies, "I don't like the leader-follower mentality. I think that a true leader, however, is one who guides people to find their own leadership skills. We are helping others elicit meaning, purpose, and alignment with their highest life commitment. We are calling that forth in our generation. Everyone carries profound hopes and dreams for the way the world can be. We are just helping people be honest about what they really want in life and in the world, and to see they have a choice about how they make that a reality."
A major step towards this shift in consciousness, says Robbins, is to encourage individuals to perceive themselves as planetary citizens. "It's essential for people to see the connection between themselves and the whole world, and to see the impact of their actions. Everything we do affects the world. That concept is pivotal to our work."
At IONS' "Spirit Rising" conference, Hill offered this inspirational advice, "All of you in this room, every person on the planet, young and old, every moment of every day, have the chance to be the destroyer or the healer. People often come up to me and ask, 'Julia, do you really have hope when you see what's going on?' I stop and think about it, and have to say, 'Well, for me that's not the right question. Because if I say there is hope then that's an excuse for some people not to do anything. And if I answer there is no hope, that's also an excuse for people not to do anything. For me the question is: Do I wake up and say, 'What can I do today to offer my life in loving, joyous service to the planet? How can I live a life—every moment, every breath, of every day—that is an embodiment of what I already know inside?'"
During the closing ceremony of the conference, Tad Hargrave presented the final challenge. "We're at a critical point in history. It's time. It's really time. We're the ones to do it. The world is hurting and it needs us. It's time for us to take our love and put it into action. We're the ones we've been waiting for. It's time to create a world that works for everyone." He paused and then urged, "So let's do it!"
Gail Bernice Holland is an associate editor of IONS Review, and former editor of Connections. She is the author of A Call for Connection: Solutions for Creating a Whole New Culture (New World Library, 1998), and can be reached at gbauthor@noetic.org.
