Reflections: Wisdom and Service

"One who has merely heard of fire has ajnana (ignorance). One who has seen fire has jnana (wisdom). But one who has actually built a fire and cooked on it has vijnana (practical spiritual insight)."

~ Ramakrishna

I've always felt pretty comfortable in academic settings. Schools and universities are places where ideas get discussed, deconstructed, and hopefully rebuilt. But the phrase "ivory tower" is used for a reason. There is a divide between theory and practice that most schools have trouble crossing. No wonder many students emerge with their diploma into the "real world" with little preparation, dumped unceremoniously out of the glittering tower into the muddy streets below.

Those who are able to survive the dethroning, who can dust themselves off like Adam and Eve and walk bravely into a world of fragility and confusion, these students will be initiated into a new and more powerful magic: the combined power of independent thought and creative action.

Building and then crossing the bridge between thought and action is a theme tackled in Hermann Hesse's book The Glass Bead Game. His words hammer home the realness of the world, as well as the need for thinking people to be a part of - not apart from - it. After all, "abstractions are fine, but I think people also have to breathe air and eat bread." At the same time, learning (wisdom) imbues action with meaning and spirit, so life becomes more than mere survival. It becomes service.

There is a saying that the longest journey is from head to heart, but I think a parallel journey leads from idea to actuality. The mind is a place of ideas and ideals. Yet both can become idols if they are not broken on the sharp edge of the heart. Because the heart of man is not a smooth, untroubled paradise. It is a jagged wilderness that is the only door to the "real world" we can ever know. For it is not the brain or the senses that grasps reality. It is the heart.

Once a person becomes aware of this interior doorway and takes the trouble to pry it open even a crack, it does not matter whether they remain perched in their ivory tower, or trawl the back-alleys of slums. Because Life will find them. And once Life enters through the heart's rusty door, a bridge appears. It may take a lifetime to cross it, but the wilderness will no longer be completely pathless.

You will find that all the thought and work and theory crafted in school will have formed a very narrow, very treacherous bit of trampled ground. It's not much, I know. Believe me, I've stared at my own meagre beginnings of a path and wondered if all the years of learning and thinking was worth it. Not to mention spending! Over $100,000 and all I get is a few muddy footprints in the forest?

But the farther I've gone, past my first wobbly steps into a terrain where the only guideposts are Trust and Faith and a bit of Chutzpah, I've found a strange truth. It takes years of education to beat down a few feet of bracken, but Life has a wonderful way of clearing whole empires for us - IF we only learn to read the signs we've secretly been scratching to ourselves during all those years of study.

Because no one - no teacher, mentor, parent, or friend - can give you a better start than the one you've given yourself, despite (and because of) any failures, mistakes, or misdirections. This is the only difference between people who've heard of fire, people who've seen it, and people who've learned to make it for themselves. The latter are those who see in their own beginnings the bridge between thought and action. They have broken themselves on the raw edges of their heart, and found that these ruins are really runes - an ancient language of wisdom and service that the world is waiting to hear.

"Empowerment" Decoded and Other Doublespeak

Having worked in various NGOs, I am quite familiar with the argot of empowerment. It's one of those words that is both catchy and vague, making it the perfect addition to grant proposals, websites, and mission statements. And yet, language conceals as much as it reveals. And NGOese is a misleading and often deceptive dialect. Below, I have created a short and very incomplete list (in no particularly order) of some popular words, their common usage - and their hidden meanings...

1. Empowerment (v): to give power or authority to; to give ability to

Usage: Empowerment is the golden child of NGO-speak. It is used especially for educational projects aimed at vulnerable or marginalized groups (women, youth, minorities, etc). These projects claim to give power back to individuals by giving them the skills and knowledge to take charge of their destinies, and contribute to positive change in their communities.

Decoded: Empowerment is a gatekeeper word. By this I mean that the NGOs who use it act as gatekeepers on the type, extent, and accessibility of the "power" they are giving back to "the people." Empowerment projects are almost by definition asymmetrical. They start from the assumption that the recipient individuals are in some way lacking in the tools to succeed in 21st century society. Even if this is true, there is often little honest dialogue with the aid recipients themselves. Moreover, NGOs who preach empowerment very often are the worst offenders when it comes to empowering their own staff and contributors.

2. Capacity-Building: (v) developing the abilities of people, organizations, and institutions to overcome obstacles to their own growth and self-realization

Usage: Related to empowerment, but with a slightly more technical note, capacity-building is used to describe projects that "teach a man to fish." In other words, these projects serve the goals of empowerment, i.e. giving people the knowledge and tools to be critical thinkers and doers.

Decoded: Like all NGOese, this phrase could be applied to almost anything and have some relevance. This makes it highly suspect because it is so hard to pin down. Giving a girl a camera and telling her to take photos of her life? Capacity-building. Providing micro-loans to poor women to open their own stores? Capacity-building. Creating a network of organizations that fight hate crimes? Capacity-building. What is rarely discussed - or in many cases shoddily executed - is the level of training, knowledge, and guidance this "capacity-building" entails. And what about follow-up? Will the girl with the camera be given new batteries when the old ones die? Will the woman with the micro-loan be schooled in the complexities of loan repayment? Will the NGO network be anything more than just a list on a website?

3. Inclusion: (n) the act of including; being enclosed

Usage: The process of inclusion is always aimed at the marginalized - people in some way on the outside of so-called mainstream society. In policy circles, inclusion is meant as an antidote to both assimilation on the one hand, and exclusion on the other.

Decoded: First it was "assimilation," then it was "integration." Now the new buzz word for cultural melding is "inclusion."  It is a friendly word, but one that can, again, be applied to a huge swath of policies and projects. And it is hard to figure out if inclusion really differs from integration in any measurable way. I think policymakers would like us to believe that inclusion promotes cultural heritage, diversity, etc. while at the same time ensuring the equality and recognition of all citizens. That would be wonderful - if inclusion policies worked. But do they? More importantly, do inclusion policies actually take into account the real-life experiences, perspectives, and arguments of the "marginalized"? How many decision-makers actually know or have spoken with the people they are writing policies for? Until this happens, I remain sceptical that any kind of meaningful inclusion can take place.

4. Sustainability: (n) the ability to be supported, upheld or confirmed; the quality of not being harmful to the environment

Usage: Originally a term used in the environmental movement, now "sustainability" is de rigour in almost all socially-conscious NGOs. It is used to describe the self-perpetuating life cycle of a project or organization. A project is sustainable if it can replicate itself into the future despite limited resources. In the best case scenario, sustainable projects contain the mechanism for their own funding and growth.

Decoded: If you write the word "sustainable" on a grant application, basically you are promising the funder that its money will not be wasted. Until, that is, you actually get your hands on the money, in which case, all bets are off. I hate to be so cynical about this, but honestly, how many projects really make good on the promise of continued existence and expansion? And the charity/aid model only makes things worse. How can small NGOs claim to be sustainable when they rely on the personal whims and economic imperatives of individuals, foundations, and governments? Even in the best funding scenario, too many organizations are dependent on a strong leader who often does not share expertise, contacts, or responsibilities freely. This means that even if perpetual funds are secured, institutional knowledge is not passed on. And in my book, no mentorship = no sustainability.

There are many other words to be wary of:

Collaboration
Partnerships
Innovation
Cross-sectoral
Cultural
Measurable Impact
Etc.

All these words are reaching for ideals - which is good. Language and the world it describes should have a dimension of idealism, otherwise what are we striving for? At the same time, I am concerned that words like these are easily applied to "others", and very rarely to ourselves. While I am growing skillful at crafting language that fits the mold that grant-makers and donors require, I feel that a new paradigm of honesty and self-reflection is called for.

Do we really know what it takes to include even a single person in an existing structure, for example including a new employee in a team, or a new student in a school? Do we really want to change the nature of aid from dependency to sustainability - or is dependency secretly accepted, making it so much harder to root out? Are we strong enough and confident enough to empower the people who surround us every day, which would mean sharing and compromising more, and discovering what unique capacities they want to develop?

People often preach what they are most in need of themselves. In the case of empowerment, capacity-building, inclusion, and sustainability, I would say to NGOs: Doctor, heal thyself.