Human Darkness and Battling Against It
When we are willing to look at our own shadow, our own human darkness, we develop a capacity for internal inquiry that enables us to meet and even develop a dialogue with our inner critic, the nagging voice that wants to criticize us most of the time. You can learn to do this through the Inner Critic exercise in my book Business Plan for Peace.
Taking a Stand Against Human Darkness
Waking up means being willing to take a stand on issues that matter to you and learning to stand your ground when people attack you, without escalating the conflict. If you are part of the system or ‘establishment’—or if you are not and would like them to take your views on board—then it can be hard to tell the
unpalatable truth. If you do, it is often perceived as trouble-making, which means you become marked out as ‘not one of us,’ which means you don’t get invited to in-crowd events, which means that no one even hears what you have to say.
But if you don’t tell the truth, you betray yourself and possibly the future of your company or organization, or your family for that matter. Quite a trap for all concerned—a trap for you because you are faced with choices, and a trap for the establishment because if the truth is never told, decisions progressively deteriorate, and the emperor ends up going around without his clothes.
Therefore, it is worth preparing yourself well for this work, so that in mind, body, and spirit you are well able to be fully present whenever the moment demands. In your mind you need to be very clear about what you think, the points you want to make, and the tone you will take. Any aggression must be replaced by your integrity because integrity has palpable energy that is more powerful than aggression.
When I was helping establish The Elders—a group of experienced international statesmen and women devoted to enabling world leaders to make wiser decisions—I had a visceral lesson in integrity from Nelson Mandela. Aged 89, he came into a room full of people and started to speak. He had a raspy voice and did not do oratorical flourishes, but I immediately got goosebumps. When he stopped speaking 35 minutes later, I still had goosebumps. I asked myself what this was and concluded that I was feeling the energy of his integrity. Here was a man you could not cajole, bribe, or deter from his path. This tangible effect of his presence was what prevented a civil war in South Africa.
Your Body and Its Language
You will want to take care of how your body helps you present yourself. Instead of crossed legs or arms, take a sturdy stance with your feet feeling the ground or, if you are sitting, sit as if on a throne. Take some moments beforehand to exercise your voice with deep clear tones, and above all, breathe very deeply and consciously throughout. The reason for this is that oxygen will then get to your brain and that will help your points to flow smoothly.
Your spirit will be the key to your effectiveness and will need just as much exercise and nourishment as your mind and body. Make sure you spend time regularly in self-reflection. In my experience, for my clarity, it’s essential to have a daily practice of quiet contemplation. It can be meditation, walking in nature, chanting, whatever you choose, but make sure it’s regular. Why? Because quietness is when good ideas can drop sweetly into your consciousness. Quietness is when you learn things about yourself and others that you didn’t know. Quietness gives you grounding and grace.
The Time is Now to Fight Our Human Darkness
We’re at a time in history when we have to up our game. Such major forces are being unleashed that they require of us not just a shift in human consciousness but a leap. If we can pull it off, this will amount to the evolution of humanity’s capacity to face its darkness, and in so doing, access its greatest capacity for light.
On a broader scale, humanity has built up looming threats to our security that weaponry cannot even begin to deal with. Thus, it is time to take a hard look at both the military-industrial complex that drives war and others for whom war means wealth. It is time to divert their skills and our skills to making what humanity now needs, to access a better kind of intelligence, to demonstrate how conflicts can be prevented and resolved without armed violence, and to make peace profitable. This is my passion and why I have researched and written the first ever fully costed Business Plan for Peace.
You who are reading this may already have, and can certainly acquire, the skills to prevent and resolve the internal and external conflicts that can drain so much energy in your workplace, your community, or your family. You can see to it that people around you learn those skills and build a culture of non-violence in your schools, your profession, and even in your country.
I am hopeful that readers of this article can once again show themselves to be ahead of the game, to be masterminds in perceiving what the future demands of us.
Just before he died, my mentor, the Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat, said: “The future belongs to those who can see it.”
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About the Article
This article is syndicated from Kosmos the print and online journal for transformational thinking, policy, and aesthetic beauty and collective wisdom., syndicated from kosmosjournal.org and published in the Spring | Summer 2017 edition http://kosmosjournal.org
