What Transformation Involves

The transformation which most of us seek in the outer world involves a major shift in our attitudes, the way we deal with each other, the way we deal with money, with our environment, and of course our relationships.

There is much that each of us would need to personally let go of, which we would need to change in our individual lives and this is the real problem. Because we have mostly lived in a state of emotional fear and insecurity - regardless of whether we are politicians or social workers - we have developed ways to protect ourselves against getting hurt, and the resulting fortresses we have built around ourselves have effectively isolated us from each other.

Over the centuries this emotional fear and greed has resulted in a world where each individual lives in a closed space and protects his little territory, grabbing whatever is possible without regard to the others or to the environment. Quite simply, those of us who "have", don’t want to share our time, money and energy differently. When we find ourselves in a close relationship, we don’t want to share each other.

The Need for Space

The first step towards collective transformation is to create a space for ourselves, to see the way we really behave with each other, to see the truth of our lives and relationships. It is only by noticing where we have gone astray, that we can begin to find the way back to each other again.

In turn this involves clearing a space in which genuine learning can take place. This learning would among other things involve looking together at the non productive, and destructive attitudes bred in us through our conditioning so as to let go of the past.

To dissolve our conditioning is not an easy task, because all that we have learnt lies so deep in us, it has become so much a part of us, that there are times when it seems impossible to overcome. We would have to look at many aspects of our everyday behaviour, our tendency to escape unpleasant situations, our fear of pain, our need to control others, the lust for power. It would mean examining our relationships with a microscope, dusting all the corners we have left untouched due to apathy or fear.

A Deeper Examination

A deeper examination of our lives, most often throws up a range of powerful feelings like fear, hatred, guilt or shame. We feel helpless when confronted by them. Intense exploration can result in powerful emotions being released and this in turn can lead to pointless and destructive arguments and struggles. Or again, as it often happens, it can lead to an atmosphere of pseudo harmony in which balance is maintained through strict rules of behaviour, and the agreement not to discuss things which are uncomfortable or painful. The danger with this is that the unpleasant feelings we try to avoid are anyway lurking under the surface and this keeps us in a state of constant fear and anxiety.

For this reason, the space in which we want to look at our deeper feelings together, needs to be maintained and protected and this is best done, by individuals who have worked their way through such feelings, or at least managed to do so, to a large extent.