activism and the middle path

I recently began exploring the path of activism. For me, it came naturally as an expansion of the work I had been doing before. In my life, activism and my spiritual practices are intertwined, interdependent and interconnected. Activism came in my life when I had expanded my heart in a way that I deeply cared about the world around me, not just the communities that I belong to or that I interact with, but extending to communities that before this expansion came were unknown to me. 

What is even more interesting to me, is that I came to participate in spiritual and educational activism as a way to give back, to give appreciation and to try to use in an "illuminated way"(as Paulo Freire would say) all the things I have learned in my life, literally in all areas of my life, to be surprised to see that It would become one of the places where my personal sustainability and spiritual growth would be tested. Activism has been a gift given to me in life to accelerate and assess in a very real way my spirituality and the purity of my heart. It shows me clearly all the things I need to polish in my life and allows me to practice interbeing by changing the focus of my life entirely on myself to a community of people trying to create a better world.

Some of the things that I have found most relevant in my life and that help sustain and nurture my happiness while doing this kind of work are:

-making sure I am learning about issues mindfully and not unconsciously consuming information in a way that it feeds mental formations of anger in my heart and my mind

 -always remembering that all living beings have a buddha nature

-acknowledging times when I need time for myself and restore, as well as maintaining all practices that allow me to keep walking on the middle path

-the middle path is a constant dance, remembering that it changes as I allow others to contribute in my life and my life moves, expands and goes through life and natural cycles.

-basing everything on unconditional love, compassion and kindness

-the process and the results should be the same, if I want to create a peaceful and loving society, the process has to be whatever I want to create 

"and resistance, at root, i think must mean more than resistance against war. It is a resistance against all kinds of things that are like war. Because living in modern society, one feels that he cannot easily retain integrity, wholeness. one is robbed permanently of humanness, the capacity of being oneself... So perhaps, first of all, resistance means opposition to being invaded, occupied, assaulted, and destroyed by the system. The purpose of resistance, here, is to seek the healing of yourself in order to be able to see clearly... Communities of resistance should be places were people can return to themselves more eeasily, where the conditions are such that they can heal themselves and recover wholeness." Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh on transforming anger (as applicable to the activist)