Where Do You Stand?

Recall the words of President Teddy Roosevelt at the beginning of this book: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” If we sign on as Warriors for the Human Spirit, we don’t have to go looking for opportunities to defend and protect people. Opportunities are everywhere, created by decisions and policies that blithely ignore people and their concerns or want them out of the picture. People have disappeared from the decision-making equation—it’s as if there are robots doing the work.

And now, more companies envision just such a blissful future of robots and artificial intelligence that eliminates people completely. The global company Uber, which began as a human-centered company offering income opportunities to people as taxi drivers, is converting to electric cars. Their dream is to take over urban transport with driverless vehicles. “Uber’s cars . . . will actively be competing with and making irrelevant the moms and students and two-job-hustlers Uber has long held up as the human capital that make its platform so compelling.”⁵

Beyond the dreams of automating humans away, there are still the work environments in both the Global South and North that make their profits on degrading people to the level of machines: endlessly repetitive rote labor in terrible conditions for inhumane lengths of time. Even where people earn good wages, such as tech startups, the demands on people and their treatment is a shocking indication that bright young entrepreneurs view people as an inconvenient necessity, at least for now.⁶

Wherever you’re working is where you take a stand. You don’t have to go looking for new places, other issues, compelling causes. If you’re in a school, a financial firm, the UN, a refugee camp, a small nonprofit, a church, a hospital—wherever you are, stay there and notice the abundance of warrior opportunities. It may well be that you’re already operating in this way—speaking up against unjust actions, influencing policies to address root causes, reminding decision makers what statistics mean in terms of human costs, going to bat for a colleague who’s been wrongfully harmed by administrative action, calling attention to new populations that need services, bearing witness to those whose suffering cannot be solved, comforting a sorrowful person or child.

What’s common in all these actions is that human beings are at the center. By our actions, we call attention to people and their suffering. And we act where we can to support and console those near us.

Although you’ve been doing these things, what’s different is the role we have chosen for ourselves. Instead of being a team player or a person who may quietly, casually raise these issues, we make these actions primary. If we don’t speak up, who will? Where are the others who are championing the human spirit?

But we must choose our actions wisely.

The two skills of the warrior are compassion and insight. Compassion is easy—it arises spontaneously from an open heart. Insight or discernment requires more skill. We have to choose our battles. Or wording that in less aggressive terms, we have to discern where we can be most effective. Good thinking is required. Understanding the opposition is required. Finding one’s allies is essential. Right timing is everything.

We’re not sitting on a high horse in full armor ready to charge. We’re trying to be the presence of sanity. And for this, we need to develop new skills.

To be present for others, or for a situation, we have to clear our perceptual filters. We have to discern as clearly as possible what is going on. Today, we are fortunate to have many means to develop more direct perception, free of me. This is not some new technology. It’s found in the richness of offerings under the category of mindfulness practices. These practices teach us to watch our minds, notice what triggers us, and learn how to create a space before reacting. In addition to mindfulness practices, there are more specific practices for dealing with difficult emotions and personal triggers. So much is out there—the only challenge is for you to find one or more that you can work with and create a disciplined practice.

These are the practices that give us the ability to stay present, even when challenged by other people’s aggression and fear. These abilities require disciplined training. You can’t just will yourself to be present—you need to know yourself well enough to notice you’ve just been triggered.

As you become familiar with your habitual patterns of behavior and what triggers you, it becomes possible to shift from reaction to response.

You will still be triggered, but you learn to know these as warning signs to yourself. It’s time to sit back (mentally or physically) and let your mind move past this moment of high emotion. If you pause, your mind slows down and becomes more spacious. Within that space you can find responses that create possibility rather than aggression.

The intent of any mindfulness practice is to learn to know yourself, not to become peaceful. Knowing how your own mind works makes it possible to stay present and engaged in hypercharged situations without losing your cool.

Over time, as we get to know our minds well, we learn to trust ourselves. We know our usual reactions and have brought them under control. I’ve found that I can now go willingly into situations that, in the past, were guaranteed to trigger a flood of difficult emotions: anger, grief, rage, despair. I had a great desire to be in those places, but until I trained my mind, I couldn’t trust myself. Angered at an injustice, I would aggressively launch a counterattack. Yet I had pledged not to add any more aggression to the world. Encountering a scene of great suffering, I would be overcome by fear and despair. Yet I had vowed not to add to the fear in the world or to let it disable me.

Developing a stable mind is the core work of training oneself to be a warrior.

There is no other way to prepare oneself for the difficulties, tragedies, and insanity that will continue to escalate. We can’t change this world, but we can change ourselves so that we can be of service to this world.

You have to take a stand, and stand there.

Daniel Ellsberg, activist priest

The Faith and Confidence of Warriors

  We have unshakable confidence that people can be kinder, gentler, and wiser than our current society tells us we are. We rely on human goodness and offer this faith as a gift to others.

  We offer ourselves not as activists to change the world, but as compassionate presences and trustworthy companions to those suffering in this world. We embody compassion without ambition.

  Our confidence, dignity, and wakefulness radiate out to others as a beacon of who we humans are.

  Our confidence is not conditioned by success or failure, by praise or blame. It arises naturally as we see clearly into the nature of things.

  We create an atmosphere of compassion, confidence, and upliftedness with our very presence.

  We create a good human society wherever we are, whenever we can, with the people and resources that are available to us now.

  We rely on joy arising, knowing it is never dependent on external circumstances but comes from working together as good human beings.

  We encounter life’s challenges with a sense of humor, knowing that lightness and play increase our capacity to deal with suffering.