Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation (Sacred Activism)

Somehow this book never really connected for me. It is certainly filled with hope and the prospect of beautiful transformation. But it just felt rather distant. OK, I am a Buddhist, and this book comes out of a Christian perspective. Maybe it is not just a matter of labels. Not that I really

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understand Christianity. But anyway there does seem to be a lot of helping those in need, for example. For me Buddhism is a lot more intimate. Sure, a lot of people are going to work, for example, with homeless youth, as Bucko does. But most people spend most of their lives just paying the rent and putting food on the table, maybe doing construction work or driving a truck or cutting hair or whatever. The real way we can change the world is by changing how we live, how we behave, in our ordinary work. Saving the world is not, cannot be, some distinct activity apart from making shoes or whatever regular job.

Then on the other side, this notion of everyone being their own spiritual guide or some such. OK there is some talk about mentors here but a lot of it is about being your own mentor. Sure the whole religious hierarchy thing is prone to every sort of corruption and has actualized that possibility all too thoroughly. But the solution to seeking wisdom through authority is not really to seek wisdom within. The solution is to seek wisdom everywhere, in everyone.

The bright hope presented in this book, ah, through the lens of the present, just looks so sad. What ever happened to the Occupy movement? This whole idea that "We are going to change the world" - it just doesn't work! We are the world! The whole us and them thing, it puts a trap right at the starting point!

Occupy yourself! Look at what a screwball world this is, and realize that all that screwiness is right inside you already, in whatever mix of actuality and potentiality. Look at all the bright beautiful light of spirit that shines within you, and realize that the same bright beautiful light shines within every being! See your own struggle as being essentially the same as everyone else's struggle, be that a homeless person or a violent criminal or a dedicated public servant or a ruthless financier.

The grand transformation of our society of endless catastrophes into one where the light of spirit shines unimpeded... Jesus couldn't make it happen, Buddha couldn't make it happen.... but, on the other hand, each of us is quite capable of making it happen. Just live love, in this very life you live. It's really all you can do, and really all you need do.

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