How to Begin to change the world

Elders Speak

Spiritual Giant’s 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World


Mahatma Gandhi needs no introduction. Everyone knows about the man and his legacy. Here is some advice he gave worth noting:

1. Change yourself
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think, then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change.
2. You are in control
“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions.
3. Forgive and let it go
“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
Fighting evil with evil won’t help anyone. Forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service.
4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere
“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”
Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard. And so you may resort to preaching, or reading and studying endlessly. But you have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.
5. Take care of this moment
“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”
Stay in the present as much as possible, and be accepting. When you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment. And the resistance to action comes from imagining negative future consequences or reflecting on past failures.
6. Everyone is human
“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”
When you start to make myths out of people, you run the risk of becoming disconnected from them. Keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are.
7. Persist
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away.
8. See the good in people and help them
“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”
If you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive.
9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self
“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”
When words and thoughts are aligned then that shows through in your communication. People tend to really listen to what you’re saying. You are communicating without incongruence, mixed messages or phoniness.
10. Continue to grow and evolve
”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”
You can pretty much always improve your skills and habits, or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.