PAGASA Editorials

Convergence by Panjee Tapales

Sun, 7 Sep 2008 00:00:44 +0800

Now that’s a buzzword that hasn’t stopped buzzing. Many of us who have been working towards change and are focusing on 2010 are grappling with what this means. So many have said “it is time for us to unite and put our differences aside” so that we can all move forward as a people. But what does it really mean to unite? What is a true, authentic and resonant point of unity?

The word “selfless” has come into play as well. For us to be able to reach this space of unity, we must be selfless. But what is the true nature of selflessness? I do not think authentic selflessness means casting out the self at all, or quashing your truest beliefs so that you can be called, well, convergent. To me it is being totally grounded and whole in who you are and everything you believe and taking that into the greater picture of what everybody brings. It is listening fully with your being, not listening out of emptiness. It is listening, fully aware of your prejudices and opinions, but listening openly anyway and finding your place in it. It is entering your universal self and working consciously out of there.

Everyone can feel the impulse of change and convergence in the ether, waiting, waiting for us to come to a place of understanding at last, so we can be their qualified and authentic agents. But already so many feel only failure after coming out of exercises such as visioning or planning, because we feel we didn’t meet. Didn’t we? Or is it just that we didn’t come to a uniform picture of the future? Is coming out with one picture a true expression of unity or is it another in-the-box approach towards something that is bursting at the seams, begging to be freed?

I am beginning to see that in today’s context, convergence happens in the process rather than the outcome. To birth something new, we must be willing to make everything new, including the ways in which we approach our challenges. In the old context, setting goals was a straight way forward. Today it is vital to set goals but also to make sure that your organization and its members remain constantly fluid and agile, able to see not just their goals but everything around it so that they can change if the situation demands it. In the past, the goal was a defined destination. Today, our goals are like lampposts along the path, but we must be able to pick them up and cast them elsewhere should the journey demand a different route. That is how open and dynamic we should aspire to be. We cannot be attached to the past. So, what is the destination? In this context, it is the future waiting to be created. More and more, we are being asked to dialog with the future. It cannot be fixed.

PAGASA, as a movement, will not even endorse a candidate in the next election, because we respect every individual’s ability and right to define for himself which candidate to support, though as individuals, we are all encouraged to move consciously, actively and responsibly towards 2010 however we can. Today.

But we must sit down and do the work of defining and creating a vision of the country we long to see. These are exercises of potent convergence. The path to convergence is on many levels, not all of them material. There is a layer that has to do with creating the vessel, net, energy, wave—whatever you choose to call it—from the spaces inside us that are most invisible but also the most powerful. It is that space where visions are born. There is a reason why successful enterprises are big on creating their vision. Everyone recognizes that seeing and articulating something clearly is the beginning. What is your vision of the Philippines? What is your vision of a good leader? A government? Its citizenry?

There is a “report card” going around that we were fortunate to have used during a recent visioning exercise. The face of the card asks you to write ten qualities you would like to see in a leader. The back asks you which quality listed you think you have. This is done in groups. It is amazing what a simple exercise can reveal. Once you have chosen whatever quality you think you have, your group members will tell you which of those qualities they think you have. It is there you realize that you may think you are one thing, but the rest of the world may perceive something else, so then your task is to go back to your list and make a promise to yourself to work towards exuding that which you thought you were, so that your inner perception of yourself also becomes the outer. That segment is your pledge of action towards being the change. It is a promise to yourself—the most potent kind of promise.

The portion that asks you to list the qualities you would like to see in a leader is pretty powerful as well. Think about that in terms of the upcoming elections. Doesn’t this practice hit so many issues—of the way people vote (purely perception), how you rate your leaders, or even how you think you know what you want in a leader but when asked to articulate it, you have no idea. And then how clear things become when you have and how that changes your course of action immediately. It is a process of becoming conscious of ourselves and others.

This, to me, is but one glimpse of the nature of convergence. We don’t all have to agree on one candidate, but we can all participate in an exercise that makes clear to everyone the qualities we want to see in our future leaders. There is power there, intangible as it may seem. Once you put it on paper, it becomes clear and you will have a working guideline of how and whom to vote for. We are not coming together to give one option, but we are paving the path for something new and authentic to emerge.

There are many initiatives blossoming today and we are wading through the challenge of convergence with many of them and trying to come to a working understanding of what it truly means. There is a strong sense that something must be given up towards convergence, the self and the ego being the first two on the list. But I think it might be deeper than that. On my list, first to let go are old notions of “self”, “ego”, “converge”, “unity”, and other concepts that have been defined for me by old structures. The term “human rights” for me doesn’t really mean “rights of the human being”. Right away I think of Marcos or GMA and all their violations so I cringe every time I hear it. I’ve only become aware of that recently and what a revelation it was. So perhaps a point of convergence, too, is an exchange of old concepts, made fresh out of new perspectives—framed in the future we want rather than the past we can’t seem to get away from.

This is a new road we are traveling on. The path to authentic convergence beckons but we must be prepared to see it with fresh eyes so that we can navigate successfully on it. We need openness and strength, so that we can be fully ourselves as we engage in and with others. We have to stand true and strong in our faith and convictions with total integrity, because being totally grounded in our beliefs is what will guide us towards authentic openness towards others. Most of all we must behave with respect and kindness towards all, despite the difficulties.

Convergence begins with this striving towards the other, not towards conversion, but to see where roads and dreams meet. It is the ability to give space for everyone to live and act with clear heart and mind towards the building of a strong, stable and vibrantly textured path that everyone can walk on at last.

Change by Panjee Tapales

Sat, 6 Sep 2008 00:00:46 +0800

So many of us were touched by the sight of Barack Obama addressing a crowd of 84,000. He was accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency. It was an awesome sight: 84,000 people passionate for CHANGE. Wouldn’t that be something to see here?

For once I was envious of the American people—to have the possibility of a leader who was inspiring them to tears—aaahhhh, I want that so badly I can taste it!! And then, for Obama as a candidate, to have 84,000 people who care enough to show up and listen to him, show their support and desire for true change. That must be something.

It made me green with envy to hear him tackling issues and outlining his solutions and to realize how far behind we are because we’re not even at a point where we can talk about these things. We’re in the space of possibility and clawing our way forward, trying to awaken people still from their cynicism and apathy. In America, people care and they stand up to be heard and they fight for what they think is right.

In our country the terrain is quite different. I still stumble across people who wear their apathy with pride. “I am apathetic,” they announce, as if that were a badge of intellect or breeding, and then in the same breath say that they are Christian. Am I the only one who sees the glaring dissonance in that picture? Christ, himself, cared and brought change. He died for it. It pains me daily to see how people can live so contentedly in that dissonance.

Since I began this journey towards truth and integrity, I have seriously started falling away from friends, not because we’ve fought but perhaps because they feel I am not who I used to be. I can almost feel them flinch when they open their mailboxes and see a message from me, afraid of what I may be asking them to do. And they are right. I care. It is in my blood. And I am doing my best to make a difference. Though I wish we could all take that road together, we haven’t. But I cannot turn back. I cannot put the eye mask on and feign darkness when the light outside is glaringly bright. Once you are awake, you simply cannot go back to sleep and I have had my heart broken thinking that people I know and love will naturally see how important it is for all of us to live the truth—and all that means. Living the truth isn’t just about truth-telling but moving consciously towards oneness with Divine Will in everything we do.

No, it is not an easy path and I don’t claim to be the expert. Like everyone else, I am a student on this path. In my zeal to be the change I want to see in the world, I have risked and lost friendships, because I could not be the same person. But I have come to that point in my biography where I make a stand everyday and so I see these changes as necessary deaths. I can no longer sit and let things be. When I see dissonance and see how it can potentially hurt everyone around it, I speak up. At least I say my piece and then leave people free to act upon it or ignore me. But my days of standing nowhere are over.

During our PAGASA workshops, this sentiment always comes up: “I want to see change in this country, maybe not in my lifetime but….” And I cannot but counter it with my own burning desire to see it in my lifetime. I insist on it. In the course of several exchanges another phrase comes up: “In my own little way….” And it grates. We all need to stand in confidence as human beings that we are made in the image and likeness of God and fly with that. No, this is not Messianic, not if we understand it fully. In our very nature is our capacity to birth great things – things that transform the world. But if we limit ourselves already in our thinking that our ways are little, then that is what they will be. Our thoughts do create our realities. You cannot say you are Christian and then in the same breath make yourself so small and powerless in your own eyes, for I am sure that is not how you were created. That is not in His image or likeness.

CHANGE, the kind the American people are birthing, is in our hands. All we need to do is accept the challenge in full consciousness and commitment, despite the hardship it will bring because change necessitates death—of our old beliefs, friendships, relationships, habits. Only through death can new life enter and that is what our country needs—Filipinos who are willing to die – not physically anymore –but inside them and in the most difficult and hard to reach places, so that new impulses of true change can emerge.

The days of deluding ourselves into believing that there are necessary evils toward the place of ultimate good are long gone. No, you are not doing a good deed if you decide to have a fixer process your papers because you figure she’s probably a mother and could use the money. No, you are not providing livelihood at least, even if you know that your business is illegal or detrimental to the health of humanity and the world. You are not being a paragon of integrity if you know that what you are bringing into society is not good for it! It is time to act on the things you know deep in your very being are true. The beginning of authentic change starts right at the point where you say, “No more excuses” and take the road that has long been waiting for the blessing of your determined footprints. It is not the high road. It is simply the one that will bring you to your highest space—the space you were born to claim. It is time.

Change does not happen automatically. Humanity moves to create it. America is at a turning point in its history—checkered, imperfect, materialistic, dissonant as it is—because its people have an opinion and take a stand despite their differences. They demand things of their leaders. They insist on being heard. They will not be made weak and they refuse to be unheard.

We can get there, too, once we realize that it is in our hands. A person is not more powerful because he has more money or holds office in government. True power lies in an authentic ability to be the change we want to see, no matter our station in life. We hold that change in us, but now we have to buckle down and get to work, clean out the cobwebs of our minds and activate our sleeping limbs towards action. Every act we put out there towards change is vital. No one is little. We will see it in our lifetime if we want to, if we choose to. We can stand before an inspiring leader of moral integrity if we make space in our hearts and in society for one to step up. We can only do that if we become the change. We need to become it and live it, then we can demand it and create a strong support base for effective, moral leaders to take their place at last.

In our lifetime we are constantly and repeatedly called to act on something that we know in our hearts to be vital, not just for us, but towards something greater than us, but we often ignore that call because it means giving up so much and entering a largely unknown terrain. It is terrifying. But not going there time after time also creates a world of darkness and we must realize that each time we ignore that call, we are laying one more dense brick on that muddy structure, thereby allowing more fear and horror to blossom in the world.

Change will come wholesale if individuals stand up and take their rightful place in it. There are workshops about inner change, self-help books galore, therapies, life coaches, all kinds of modalities you can imagine, but none of that will do anything if the individual has not made the stand to take up everything he has learned and move from the realm of ideas to the realm of vision in action. We lament that this or that workshop didn’t work or wasn’t effective enough, but we hardly ask ourselves if we even made an effort to use what we learned in the world and made it our own—something relevant, living, vibrant and transformative. No one can create change for you. Only you can do it. Only you will have the strength to make it work. Only you can wake up from the inner laziness and fear that keeps you from marching forward and claiming the country you want and deserve.

CHANGE is in your hands. Imagine the possibilities. The time for lamenting what could be is gone. The time for living so comfortably in constant defeat is done. Our time is the time of CREATING change. Are we going to rise to that call at last or continue shedding tears at the sight of Obama and the awesome show of commitment to change the American people are showing the world?

The days of wearing your apathy with pride are over. We don’t have to agree on everything and unite on one generic image of nationhood. But we can agree to birth a Philippines of moral integrity and be that very change we will see in our lifetime. If we enliven the power that is already in us and stop saying, “in my own little way” or “probably not in this lifetime”, we can.

Change is ours to create. It is ours.