'...Right Action is grounded in soul knowledge, not the man-made world's aims or values. Very few have the patience for the 'waiting and becoming' that precedes Right Action...'
Cynthia F. Davidson from Wisdom Wheel Right Action card
Right Action isn't about goading yourself into doing more and more. We are human beings, not human doings, after all. Sometimes no action is the Right Action. Too quick to seek approval, curry favor, or make money, we do things we have not thought all the way through to their final consequences.
In your heart you know what Right Action is, though if you refuse to listen to your heart, that wisdom is harder to access. Right Action is not about self-righteousness, dogma, or following arbitrary rules others made either. It's about your personal code of ethics and whether you use it to guide all your actions.
Love was our last Law, and it's worth remembering that Right Action becomes easier to see when Love directs us. And yes, even moving your money from a big bank into your local community credit union, is an example of Right Action, unless you find big faceless banks easier to Love. Social justice is one area of Right Action that takes others into account as well as ourselves.
For the next ten days, make Right Action your watch word. See what happens when you practice asking yourself before making your decisions, 'Is this the Right Action for me?' Listen for internal and external voices, old tapes, and excuses. Bring up the subject of Right Action every chance you get; with friends, co-workers and family members. See who else has wisdom to share about this Universal Law. Right Action comes from right thoughts, right
feelings, right health and being right with spirit.
Here are some nuggets of wisdom about Right Action from others.
C. S. Lewis
So act
that your principle of action might safely be made law for the whole world.
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
However
a man works to right his world, it will never be righted until he has put
himself right.
James Allen
Imagine
if all the energy that goes into trying to prove the other side wrong were
channeled into actually thinking about what was best for whatever the dispute
is about. Having to be right becomes a barrier to learning and understanding.
It keeps you away from growing, for there is no growth without changing,
correcting, and questioning yourself. … once you experience the power of not
having to be right, you will feel like you are walking across open fields, the
perspective wide and your feet free to take any turn.
John Naisbitt
The line
separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between political
parties either, but right through every human heart.
Alexander
Solzhenitsyn
Sometimes
you can fight evil and beat it, and sometimes you can only keep it in check. I
learned never to feed evil with evil, nor hatred with hatred, nor to fight fear
with fear. I learned to fight with love for even those things that I despised.
Tom Brown, Jr.
It is a
feeling that no matter what the ideas or conduct of others, there is a unique
rightness and beauty to life which can be shared in openness, in wind and
sunlight, with a fellow human being who believes in the same basic principles.
Sylvia Plath
Hate is
an unfaithful weapon. Be neither brave nor afraid, but at peace.
Master Kan
There is
no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential
to keep the question alive. To return the sense of dignity and honor to
manhood, we have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that
is trivial or destructive and still have sense of legitimate self-worth. A
society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually
creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills
our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls.
Sam
Keen
Any economic system that does not benefit the natural communities
on which it is based is unsustainable, immoral and really stupid.
Derrick Jensen
I have
found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by
looking at the men at the top.
Frank
Moore Colby
Like
our indigenous ancestors, we can be willing to engage in the struggle to
liberate our bodies and souls from external and internal colonization and
discover more fully our own deeper story and what it is that we came here to
do.
Carolyn Baker
Don’t ask
what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what
the world needs is people who have come alive.
Howard
Thurman
One of
the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world
is to stand up and show your soul. … It's not the failure that holds us
back but the reluctance to begin over again that causes us to stagnate.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés
For
thirty years I used to say, ‘Do this’ and ‘Give that; but when I reached the
first stage of wisdom, I said, ‘O God, be mine and do whatever You want.’
Abu Yazid
Al Bistami, Muslim mystic
How is
one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one finds darkness not
only in one's culture but within oneself? There are simply no answers to
some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out,
making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
Barry Lopez
There is a crisis
point in activism, and because of the complexities, our efforts may seem to
fail. We need to expect this and be ready to cope with it in a spiritual
context…The solution to our discouragement is to become more communal in
focus…trusting others enough to submit our cause to a larger purpose. We cannot
do it alone, when we are ego-bound, we have the least hope…You are in charge of
your level of openness to the Universe. Take in and transmit only the amount of
energy you are comfortable with and is appropriate to your situation.
Christina Baldwin
There are really
only two things to do:
-Be
still and listen
-Take
spiritually based action.
Everything else is
bogus activity which only gets in the way of our real understanding.
Joy Houghton
In another ten days, we'll take up the Trust Law #10. Stay tuned & experiment with do only what is right.
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