Taking the cue from ‘Occupy Wall Street’, HENRYK SKOLIMOWSKI suggests we begin an ‘Occupy Yourself’ movement.
Human ingenuity is endless. Especially when we get stuck and we feel that existing circumstances imprison and incapacitate us. As a result of the recent impasse of the American socio-political system, people invented the idea: Occupy Wall Street. This was not only a verbal but also a spiritual protest to challenge the oppressors who, in a sly manner, have manipulated and impoverished millions.
The movement Occupy Wall Street spread like a bushfire throughout the world, as millions of people not only sympathised with those who were shortchanged in America, but felt they, too, were victims of injustices and inequities.
Renewal And Re-seeding
The movement went beyond the political protests against the abuses of Wall Street. It acquired positive dimensions. It has become a movement of renewal, of re-seeding yourself.
Jackie Fortino of Michigan has proposed the theme: Occupy Yourself, meaning your personal life, to make it vibrant and vital every day. In the process, the old meaning of the term occupy — to take over forcibly in order to exploit — acquired new meanings: standing up for what is truthful and meaningful, planting new sprouts over the dilapidated structures, changing what is required to move forward; not occupying another, but occupying with and for each other.
For Common Benefit
Michael Meade, mythologist and storyteller, went a step further and proposed: Occupy Your Soul. This must be seen in a larger context — of a culture which has been broken and damaged and emptied by the forces of nihilism of the status quo. So the movement — Occupy Your Soul signifies to secretly re-inhabit the empty and broken culture through the grass root movement, to move on and to hold and re-inhabit what has been lost. The emptying of our culture is a sure sign of the loss of our soul. Soul work means working together for common benefit.
My own contribution to the “Occupy” movement is somehow different. It is encapsulated in the words: Occupy your mind.
Creative And Resilient
Occupy your mind means first of all not to allow it to be an empty coconut; then not to allow it to be a garbage disposal unit for the inferior ideas of others. The right mind must be able to see through and not allow itself to be manipulated by the orgy of advertising and clever pseudo experts. But above all, the right mind must be creative and resilient as a coordinator of all other ‘Occupy’ sub-movements.
Thus, the roles of mind and of soul are stupendous in coordinating the grass root movement of ‘Occupy’. The lucid mind can surely help all other branches of the Occupy Movement. We need a guide and a compass, which would help us to arrive at the land of justice, compassion and harmony among people. The lucid mind could be this guide.
When I speak about the spiritual aspects of the ‘Occupy’ movement, people occasionally get uneasy, as if saying: but we are about the economy, about our jobs and life. Yes, these are important. But equally important are your dignity, the meaning of your life and the inner core of you, which is called the soul. It is all connected. And unless our minds and souls are straightened, we shall not regain our jobs and life.
It is amazing and significant how this whole movement has developed. Out of the belly of the beast, a spiritual spiral is emerging. Talk about the unpredictability of history. This is it. Who would have thought that out of the scores of maltreated people so much strength, hope and vision could have been generated. And this hope, strength and vision are not economic commodities but spiritual qualities. Never underestimate your inner strength because it is the source of your capacities and your
Human ingenuity is endless. Especially when we get stuck and we feel that existing circumstances imprison and incapacitate us. As a result of the recent impasse of the American socio-political system, people invented the idea: Occupy Wall Street. This was not only a verbal but also a spiritual protest to challenge the oppressors who, in a sly manner, have manipulated and impoverished millions.
The movement Occupy Wall Street spread like a bushfire throughout the world, as millions of people not only sympathised with those who were shortchanged in America, but felt they, too, were victims of injustices and inequities.
Renewal And Re-seeding
The movement went beyond the political protests against the abuses of Wall Street. It acquired positive dimensions. It has become a movement of renewal, of re-seeding yourself.
Jackie Fortino of Michigan has proposed the theme: Occupy Yourself, meaning your personal life, to make it vibrant and vital every day. In the process, the old meaning of the term occupy — to take over forcibly in order to exploit — acquired new meanings: standing up for what is truthful and meaningful, planting new sprouts over the dilapidated structures, changing what is required to move forward; not occupying another, but occupying with and for each other.
For Common Benefit
Michael Meade, mythologist and storyteller, went a step further and proposed: Occupy Your Soul. This must be seen in a larger context — of a culture which has been broken and damaged and emptied by the forces of nihilism of the status quo. So the movement — Occupy Your Soul signifies to secretly re-inhabit the empty and broken culture through the grass root movement, to move on and to hold and re-inhabit what has been lost. The emptying of our culture is a sure sign of the loss of our soul. Soul work means working together for common benefit.
My own contribution to the “Occupy” movement is somehow different. It is encapsulated in the words: Occupy your mind.
Creative And Resilient
Occupy your mind means first of all not to allow it to be an empty coconut; then not to allow it to be a garbage disposal unit for the inferior ideas of others. The right mind must be able to see through and not allow itself to be manipulated by the orgy of advertising and clever pseudo experts. But above all, the right mind must be creative and resilient as a coordinator of all other ‘Occupy’ sub-movements.
Thus, the roles of mind and of soul are stupendous in coordinating the grass root movement of ‘Occupy’. The lucid mind can surely help all other branches of the Occupy Movement. We need a guide and a compass, which would help us to arrive at the land of justice, compassion and harmony among people. The lucid mind could be this guide.
When I speak about the spiritual aspects of the ‘Occupy’ movement, people occasionally get uneasy, as if saying: but we are about the economy, about our jobs and life. Yes, these are important. But equally important are your dignity, the meaning of your life and the inner core of you, which is called the soul. It is all connected. And unless our minds and souls are straightened, we shall not regain our jobs and life.
It is amazing and significant how this whole movement has developed. Out of the belly of the beast, a spiritual spiral is emerging. Talk about the unpredictability of history. This is it. Who would have thought that out of the scores of maltreated people so much strength, hope and vision could have been generated. And this hope, strength and vision are not economic commodities but spiritual qualities. Never underestimate your inner strength because it is the source of your capacities and your
superb work...thumbs up
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