These days we often hear that if we are to change our world to a loving, just and sustainable one, all we need is to change consciousness. This seems, at first glance, to imply that action is not necessary, or important. But conscious action flows from an inspired consciousness. They are not separate, but actually call forth each other.

As we start to recognize that spirit and matter are one, we also realize that the level of our consciousness is reflected and embodied in our actions, our relationships and the material systems we live by. Presently, we are living in systems and structures that do not represent an enlightened consciousness – in fact, they often represent just the opposite: a consciousness of division, competition, violence and fear. By default, we are forced to comply with them outwardly, even if inwardly they chafe against the yearnings of our soul. As our consciousness evolves, however, it itself compels us to heal these splits, the ways in which our spirit and our material life are incongruent. As we come into the consciousness of the interconnection and unity of all life, we are called into natural action to change the outer structures and systems by which we live.

Years ago, as a student in the seventies, I, like many others of my generation, wanted to change the world. I helped organize anti-war demonstrations, did research on the connection between corporate agribusiness and world hunger, and lived in Africa for a few years, working a rural health project in socialist Tanzania. At a certain point, frustrated with the seemingly intractable obstacles to changing entrenched power structures, I came to the conclusion that nothing would change unless we changed our own consciousness at an inner level. I then embarked on a long journey that took me to India and many years practicing yoga and meditation in spiritual communities. I even became a swami in an ashram myself. 

One day in 2007, still in an ashram in India, I had a “second awakening”, electrifying as the first that had sent me on my spiritual search so many years before. After 25 years “on the cushion”, I suddenly woke up to the reality that not only had all our years of “consciousness transformation” not transformed the planet, but that in fact we were on the verge of potentially cataclysmic climate change, and ecological and economic collapse. I suddenly realized that inner work can’t substitute for outer work, but that the two vitally have to go together. I sought out organizations integrating spirituality and social change – Global Peace Initiative of Women, Agents of Conscious Evolution, the Great Transition Initiative -- and for the last eight years have been working actively with them. And I am not alone in this – there are many such groups and initiatives burgeoning today.

My first awakening was to the truth of interconnection and Oneness; my second to the crucial importance of applying it in the world. The first was a blissful awakening; the second a rude one – but ultimately blissful too, because it embraced reality in its true fullness, which empowers us to transform darkness into light.

Not either/or, but both and more – for as enlightened consciousness and enlightened systems mutually bring forth each other, a new holistic, evolving society emerges, greater than the sum of its parts, and far beyond anything we could have predicted. This means that true inner revolution is inevitably the basis of true outer revolution, and that overcoming the false distinction we make between them is essential to the quantum leap in our evolution needed to heal both ourselves and our planet today.

Beth Green, counselor and teacher, speaks of the importance of “changing ourselves AND our world.” As she cogently puts it “Outer revolution focuses on confronting someone or something outside ourselves. Inner revolution focuses on confronting ourselves, healing ourselves and then helping co-create a world that is more humane, sustainable and mutually supportive. Our world needs nothing less than an inner revolution. We need to question everything: our personal assumptions, social and political institutions, ways of relating to one another and the earth, spiritual beliefs, healing modalities, the way we think and more. And we have to be willing to change it all.” 

“There’s no time for self-doubt and despair.” she urges us. “Let’s support one another to change ourselves, so that, together, we can change our world.” (See www.theinnerrevolution.org)

As part of this conjunction of inner and outer revolution, Beth speaks of the new culture of “mutual support”, which is very different from traditional notions of support. Mutual support is the process of relying upon higher consciousness to guide our actions for the highest good of all, including us. It is the key to our own personal wellbeing, as well as a living experience of Oneness and community.”

“Mutual support is a culture of wholeness, whereby the individual supports the highest good of the whole and the whole supports the highest good of the individual. We acknowledge that through supporting the highest good of all, we create a healthy whole that supports us all. We acknowledge that we are one and cannot be well at one another’s expense. And we also acknowledge that we need not sacrifice, because the good of the whole always includes the good of ourselves.”

Combining inner and outer revolution is the fastest, most powerful way to accelerate both our own transformation and that of our society and our planet. By advancing our evolution both personally and collectively, it advances both exponentially, far more powerfully than if we work at either the inner or outer level alone. 

Andrew Harvey, author of “The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism”, likewise powerfully spells out the need to bring the inner and outer levels of transformation together, super-charging the potential for genuine, deep-rooted change:

“A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history. On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions. When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic and social institutions, a holy force – the power of wisdom and love in action – is born. This force I define as “Sacred Activism”. 

As consciousness evolves, it is natural for it to seek new, systemic outer expressions. Going beyond the “either/or” of consciousness change or outer change, may be itself the revolution of our times!