Try changing yourself before changing the world

I often find myself reaching for one of two books. The first is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, which has only grown in popularity in recent years. It’s in the running for the greatest book ever written. Something I’m sure Aurelius would find odd since he never intended for it to be published.

The other book I reach for is Awareness by Anthony DeMello. It isn’t as well known as Meditations, but it has had just as big of an impact on my life.

I’ve been thinking about change. How to change yourself and how to change the world. As if by divine intervention, this morning, I randomly opened Awareness to page 83 and read the following passage.

We always want someone else to change so that we will feel good. But has it ever struck you that even if your wife changes or your husband changes, what does that do to you? You’re just as vulnerable as before; you’re just as idiotic as before; you’re just as asleep as before. You are the one who needs to change, who needs to take medicine. You keep insisting, “I feel good because the world is right.” Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That’s what all the mystics are saying.