It may be by some odd coincidence that my blog started based on one of the most influential artists of our history, or not. Michael Jackson was one of the few that knew the power someone in the public eye could have on the masses. He was one person, but influenced not only a generation, but the world with his music and humanitarian efforts.
It takes effort on the part of anyone and great pressure to endure the limelight. When it's done right, however, the great ones on the other side know how much can truly be achieved. If we look at the life of Adolph Hitler we will also see the effects of one man, but on a much different scale. Wouldn't it stand to reason then that the path one chooses influences all of those around them? The difference between Adolph Hitler and Michael Jackson is that Michael chose to learn about himself. He took the words of the song Man in the Mirror literally and applied them internally, knowing that our world desperately needed a place to look for healing.
The Man in the Mirror PROJECT's aim is to help do just that. We may not be a Michael Jackson or an Adolph Hitler, but by default, whether on a grand scale or microcosmic scale we do influence those around us. Our children, siblings, friends, co-workers, the list goes on. Our decision with the type of influence we want to have is ours and ours alone. No one makes that choice but us. The question is what are you handing down to your children and what kind of influences are you spreading with the people you touch every day?
I read a story recently that describes how desperately our looking to the self is needed, for what happens on a small level also happens on a large scale and each one of us play a part. The story got me thinking because this week New York City will welcome dignitaries from countries all over the world for the United Nations General Assembly. The dignitaries are made up of people. Those people each have their own patterns and like you and I can influence their countries with those patterns either in a positive manner or a negative manner.
The following story was taken from the book entitled "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". It describes precisely what is going on with each of us individually that we need to work through in order to make effective change and peace on this planet. In the book the author uses the word "scripting" for past patterns in our lives or the new ones. We can follow a script that has been handed to us by our parents, society or our country or we can re-write our life script and choose to lead a different life. By doing such a thing, one leader made great change:
"One of the most inspiring accounts of the rescripting process comes from the autobiography of Anwar Sadat, past president of Egypt. Sadat had been reared, nurtured, and deeply scripted in a hatred for Israel (conditioning). He would make the statement on national television, "I will never shake the hand of an Israeli as long as they occupy one inch of Arab soil. Never, never, never!" And huge crowds all around the country would chant, "Never, never, never!" He marshalled the energy and unified the will of the whole country in that script (pattern).
The script was very independent and nationalistic, and it aroused deep emotions in the people. But it was also very foolish, and Sadat knew it. It ignored the perilous, highly interdependent reality of the situation.
So he rescripted himself. It was a process he had leaned when he was a young man imprisoned in Cell 54, a solitary cell in Cairo Central Prison, as a result of his involvement in a conspiracy plot against King Farouk. He learned to withdraw from his own mind and look at it to see if the scripts were appropriate and wise. He learned how to vacate his own mind and, through a deep personal process of meditation, to work with his own scriptures, his own form of prayer and rescript himself.
He records that he was almost loathe to leave his prison cell because it was there that he realized that real success is success with self. It's not in having things, but in having mastery, having victory over self.
For a period of time during Nasser's administration Sadat was relegated to a position of relative insignificance. Everyone felt that his spirit was broken, but it wasn't. They were projecting their own home movies onto him. They didn't understand him. He was biding his time.
And when that time came, when he became president of Egypt and confronted the political realities, he rescripted himself toward Israel. He visited the Knesset in Jerusalem and opened up one of the most precedent-breaking peace movements in the history of the world, a bold initiative that eventually brought about the Camp David Accord.
Sadat was able to use his self-awareness, his imagination and his conscience to exercise personal leadership, to change an essential paradigm, to change the way he saw the situation. He worked in the center of his Circle of Influence. And from that rescripting, that change in paradigm, flowed changes in behavior and attitude that affected millions of lives in the wider Circle of Concern.
Lets hope our dignitaries meeting in New York this week realize the same highly interdependent reality of our current world situation and may we all realize the need for interdependence on each other and the ability to look within to make change with ourselves so that we too can take part in changing our world.
It takes effort on the part of anyone and great pressure to endure the limelight. When it's done right, however, the great ones on the other side know how much can truly be achieved. If we look at the life of Adolph Hitler we will also see the effects of one man, but on a much different scale. Wouldn't it stand to reason then that the path one chooses influences all of those around them? The difference between Adolph Hitler and Michael Jackson is that Michael chose to learn about himself. He took the words of the song Man in the Mirror literally and applied them internally, knowing that our world desperately needed a place to look for healing.
The Man in the Mirror PROJECT's aim is to help do just that. We may not be a Michael Jackson or an Adolph Hitler, but by default, whether on a grand scale or microcosmic scale we do influence those around us. Our children, siblings, friends, co-workers, the list goes on. Our decision with the type of influence we want to have is ours and ours alone. No one makes that choice but us. The question is what are you handing down to your children and what kind of influences are you spreading with the people you touch every day?
I read a story recently that describes how desperately our looking to the self is needed, for what happens on a small level also happens on a large scale and each one of us play a part. The story got me thinking because this week New York City will welcome dignitaries from countries all over the world for the United Nations General Assembly. The dignitaries are made up of people. Those people each have their own patterns and like you and I can influence their countries with those patterns either in a positive manner or a negative manner.
The following story was taken from the book entitled "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". It describes precisely what is going on with each of us individually that we need to work through in order to make effective change and peace on this planet. In the book the author uses the word "scripting" for past patterns in our lives or the new ones. We can follow a script that has been handed to us by our parents, society or our country or we can re-write our life script and choose to lead a different life. By doing such a thing, one leader made great change:
"One of the most inspiring accounts of the rescripting process comes from the autobiography of Anwar Sadat, past president of Egypt. Sadat had been reared, nurtured, and deeply scripted in a hatred for Israel (conditioning). He would make the statement on national television, "I will never shake the hand of an Israeli as long as they occupy one inch of Arab soil. Never, never, never!" And huge crowds all around the country would chant, "Never, never, never!" He marshalled the energy and unified the will of the whole country in that script (pattern).
The script was very independent and nationalistic, and it aroused deep emotions in the people. But it was also very foolish, and Sadat knew it. It ignored the perilous, highly interdependent reality of the situation.
So he rescripted himself. It was a process he had leaned when he was a young man imprisoned in Cell 54, a solitary cell in Cairo Central Prison, as a result of his involvement in a conspiracy plot against King Farouk. He learned to withdraw from his own mind and look at it to see if the scripts were appropriate and wise. He learned how to vacate his own mind and, through a deep personal process of meditation, to work with his own scriptures, his own form of prayer and rescript himself.
He records that he was almost loathe to leave his prison cell because it was there that he realized that real success is success with self. It's not in having things, but in having mastery, having victory over self.
For a period of time during Nasser's administration Sadat was relegated to a position of relative insignificance. Everyone felt that his spirit was broken, but it wasn't. They were projecting their own home movies onto him. They didn't understand him. He was biding his time.
And when that time came, when he became president of Egypt and confronted the political realities, he rescripted himself toward Israel. He visited the Knesset in Jerusalem and opened up one of the most precedent-breaking peace movements in the history of the world, a bold initiative that eventually brought about the Camp David Accord.
Sadat was able to use his self-awareness, his imagination and his conscience to exercise personal leadership, to change an essential paradigm, to change the way he saw the situation. He worked in the center of his Circle of Influence. And from that rescripting, that change in paradigm, flowed changes in behavior and attitude that affected millions of lives in the wider Circle of Concern.
Lets hope our dignitaries meeting in New York this week realize the same highly interdependent reality of our current world situation and may we all realize the need for interdependence on each other and the ability to look within to make change with ourselves so that we too can take part in changing our world.
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