Our Interior Condition
April 11, 2014 2 CommentsThe structural vs. transformational debate is alive and well. I’m glad that Curtis and Cynthia have been dipping back into it over the last few weeks. It is good to start at the end: the answer is a both/and, it’s not a good idea to get stuck in binaries.
The print pictured above captures it for me. It is Nelson Mandela’s drawing of the view from his cell at Robben Island, where he was imprisoned for 30 years.
Take that in for a second.
Thirty years in jail for daring to stand up for freedom.
The print’s beauty is undeniable.
How is this perspective possible?
There was something in Mandela’s mind, something in his soul, that could not be subjugated. Oppression doesn’t get more structural than four walls and a padlock. But they could not take away his freedom. This is the freedom that breaks chains. It is the freedom that inspires the world and liberates a whole people.
Nelson Mandela is the icon that destroys the binary. Structural and transformational integrate in his lifetime.
I agree with Curtis and Glanzberg that “The pattern most in need of shifting is not out there in the world, but in our minds.” And I agree with Cynthia that our mind changes when we become aware that others share in our condition and that our condition is the product of a very specific structure.
But there is something else happening here.
We have an interior condition. This interior condition is significantly affected by our thinking, but it is more than our thinking. This interior condition is significantly affected by our objective conditions, but it is more than our objective conditions. This interior condition is profoundly individual, but it is greater than the individual – our interior is “inter-subjective.” We have a collective interior.
Bringing our care and attention to what is inside. Nurturing, cultivating, developing, evolving what is inside. Connecting to one another there. Actively engaging a mutual awakening – that is the key to changing our thinking and to transforming our structures. It is the next step to liberation.
2 Comments
Yes! Sometimes we talk about the interior condition as being about mindset and heartset; thinking and beliefs plus empathy and emotion; and also about awareness of the individual and collective self. In there is the possibility for a freedom that no external power or structure can take away!
Thank you, Gibran. As I read this, the word “inter-being” came to mind, which I have heard was introduced into North American lexicon by Thich Nhat Hanh – http://bodhileaf.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/understanding-interbeing. This is also timely, given another conversation happening through On Being – to quote Parker Palmer – “We pay a terrible price if we value our doing over our being.” http://www.onbeing.org/blog/being-more-than-being-useful/6198.