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by Robert Rabbin. We cannot use our spiritual life as a shield from social life and responsibility. We cannot be afraid to put our spiritual hands into the earth of politics. Mahatma Gandhi said, 'I do not believe that the spiritual law works on a field of its own. On the contrary, it expresses itself only through the ordinary activities of life. It thus affects the economic, the social, and the political fields.'
If Not Me, Who?
If Not Now, When?
by Robert Rabbin
This article is based on Robert's opening remarks in a
workshop presented
on January 17, 2004 at the Third International Conference on Enlightenment.
 When
I was 11 years old, I had one of those epiphanies that shape one's life in
unexpected ways. In my case, I developed a restless soul that longed for missing
pieces in the puzzle of living: Who am I? What is my purpose? How shall I
live? A few years later I took to the road on a spiritual quest, traveling
around the world in search of answers to my questions about life and living,
reality and truth, meaning and purpose. I spent the next 25 years immersed in
various non-dual wisdom traditions, including ten years of study with Swami
Muktananda. During the course of those years, I experienced awakenings,
realizations, epiphanies, and transcendent bliss beyond the scope of words. But
there always seemed to be a higher place, a summit yet to climb. One day, I
stood atop a summit from which no other summits could be seen. I had found the
missing pieces of my long-ago longing. My search for existential clarity and
wholeness came to an end standing atop a summit of eternal silence and pure
being. The weight and confusion of "self" had disappeared, like a snowflake
blown from the face of the Earth.
It seemed I had come to a final end, resting in deep peace marbled with
constant inner joy. From time to time, gusts of bliss would swirl through the
emptiness of my being. Whenever questions or troublesome thoughts or feelings
arose within me, they were immediately dissolved in silence and stillness. My
eyes looked through and past everything, locked on eternity. Life came and went
by itself.
And yet in some unknown, unseen, unfelt place, a storm was gathering, which
would force me from this place to a truer place. Though there was no further
summit on the climb to existential clarity and wholeness, there was more
distance to travel -- the distance back down the mountain, to the valley from
where I had come.
In Little Gidding, T. S. Eliot writes, "The end is where we start
from." I came to one end, only to find myself at another, wholly unexpected,
beginning. I was to start over again. Another restless spirit began moving
through me, a new passion: a deep hunger to fully engage the world around me,
the world I had neglected during years of inward-focused meditation. But there
it was, bright as a sun and wilder than an avalanche. The world, which had
become transparent, had become solid again, but not so solid I couldn't see all
the way to its soul. The world, from which I had sought to escape, had become
beautiful, enchanting, and compelling. The world, which had been a prison, had
become an epic adventure of endless freedom. The world, which had stood beneath
the majestic summits of spiritual glory, had become mountains of greater majesty
and glory.
This wondrous world -- full of complexity, chaos, and contradiction -- is all
the proof one needs of transcendent spirit and mystery. Here, amidst the names
and faces of people and things, the light of the creator is most brilliant. I've
discovered this world is my world; I belong to it and it belongs to me. This
world is my body, and my body is this world. I know why Walt Whitman exclaimed,
"I am large. I contain multitudes." He said this because it is true, in the most
physical and pragmatic of terms. There are practical implications to becoming
"one with everything." This is not a salon word-game. It is actual. Existential
clarity and wholeness remained, and remain, untouched, even as I discovered the
distance down is a climb as steep as the distance up.
And so I start again, at this new beginning, in love with this world, which
is as much my body and myself as these arms and legs and heart and mind. The new
beginning is summed up in these words from the Kabbalah: "First we
receive the light, then we impart it. Thus we repair the world." Imparting the
light requires great things of us: authenticity, honesty, courage,
determination, empathy, personal responsibility, commitment to action. Imparting
the light means to heal and make whole not just the existential wound of
separation, but all things broken, all things hurting, all things growing tumors
of fear and pain. And all of this is within my body, within your body, within
the one body we share. Repairing the world means to translate the glory of
transcendent spiritual realization into common language, common currency, and
common decency. Repairing the world requires that we make love an action.
Repairing the world requires we give voice and force to spiritual wisdom, that
we stand for the sanctity of life, that we take on projects of renewal,
transforming old bodies of prejudice and pain, of hate and ignorance, of fear
and suffering into polished new bodies of freedom and joy, of wisdom and
strength.
Many things in our world are bent and breaking, if not already broken, and
these things need repair. Hundreds of millions of people are suffering, hungry,
and hopeless, living in mean and fearful places where people shouldn't live.
Entire continents are threatened by disease and starvation. Militarism is the
most popular religion, while political corruption and corporate greed are
epidemic and threaten the very continuation of human civilization. The Earth
itself is under murderous attack and her animals, plants and trees, her oceans
and rivers and skies are all pleading for relief. In the U. S. alone, 12 million
children live in poverty, 43 million people are without health insurance,
and only one in seven working poor families having access to affordable child
care. Two million people live in prisons and jails. The average CEO makes in one
day what the average worker makes in one year, and 10% of the people own more
than 70% of the wealth. Civil and labor rights are being hunted to extinction.
The Pentagon gobbles up $400 billion a year: 51% of the annual discretionary
budget. I think our world has become koyaanisqatsi, a Hopi word meaning
"crazy life, life out of balance, life in turmoil, life disintegrating; a state
of life that calls for another way of living."
The world has become small -- a lifeboat in which 6 billion people sit,
shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip. When a single person wiggles or moves, the
others feel it. We cannot be victims of people who have no consideration for
others and who threaten our boat's balance with reckless behavior. We have to
get involved, speak up, be counted and heard. We cannot be complacent or
apathetic. We must not be silent about the koyaanisqatsi culture within
our lifeboat. This is the year to bring the beauty of our hearts and souls into
the world in real and telling ways. We cannot hide from this world, nor escape
it, nor transcend it. We must embrace it and love it and beautify it.
The poet Rumi said, "Take on a big project, like Noah." The world is begging
to be healed of violence, brutality, and greed. Let this be our project. The
world is crying to be filled with clarity, stillness, insight, kindness,
tolerance, patience, empathy, authenticity, and courage. Let this be our
project.
We cannot use our spiritual life as a shield from social life and
responsibility. We cannot be afraid to put our spiritual hands into the earth of
politics. Mahatma Gandhi said, "I do not believe that the spiritual law works on
a field of its own. On the contrary, it expresses itself only through the
ordinary activities of life. It thus affects the economic, the social, and the
political fields."
So, let us affirm the qualities and values of this spiritual law, and let us
see how we make them manifest in the economic, social, and political fields.
Today, let us take on the big project of repairing this world in the same way we
once sought to heal and repair and elevate our own lives.
Let us come together as one at this new beginning, and let us work day and
night with our whole being, with all our force and beauty and tenderness, to
repair the world. Let us start now, right now, this very minute.
If not me, who? If not now, when?
 This
article is written by the author of Igniting the Soul at Work: A Mandate for
Mystics, ?2002, by Robert Rabbin.
The business consultant who taught executives, managers, and employees to look
past the drone of daily business life to find their true vision and essence
takes the next step, showing how to utilize that inner vision in the workplace
for the good of individuals, corporations and organizations...
Info/Order this book.
About the Author
Robert
Rabbin is a writer, speaker, and spiritual
activist. He is the author of numerous books and articles, and the creator of
TruthForPresident.org, an online spiritual activism resource. For more
information, please visit
www.truthforpresident.org or
www.robrabbin.com
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