Spiritual Strategy for Systems Change - Erin Selover

This podcast is part of a new series called Confronting Complicity in Capitalism. Our second special guest in the series helps us build the spiritual ground for this tricky work of confronting complicity in capitalism. Erin Selover is a ‘spiritual strategist’ who connects decades of Buddhist practice and teaching with nonviolence and collective liberation. She helps me put words to why my time in meditation retreat is not just a nice thing I do to stay sane, but a core practice for slowing down enough to see grasping and suffering, and to tap into our natural possibility for creativity and collaboration.THE IMPACT. Erin Selover:is a Dharma teacher with over 20 years of Buddhist practice and teaching, including at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California works with individuals as a spiritual strategisthas studied and experimented with Miki Kashtan and the Nonviolent Global Liberation communityas a white settler of Irish descent on indigenous lands, is in deep inquiry about the way power and privilege function within modern societies, and the complex history of her Irish ancestorsco-stewards a meditation community integrating the Celtic Wheel of the year and Buddhism within needs-based gift economics and distributive governance systemsis a Licenced Marriage and Family Therapist with training in Somatic Experiencing and Dialectical Behavioral TherapyTHE JOURNEY. In this conversation, we cover:From domination to collaboration. “ I get competitive when my needs aren't met. But when my needs are met, I'm not competitive. When my needs are met, I'm generous, and that's what I see with the thousands of people that I've worked with over the years. When our needs are met, we're generous, we're creative, we're collaborative.”Slow down, wake up.  ”When we slow down, our natural awake heart, unfolds and reveals all these tendencies. It just reveals it to us. We don't have to actually effort. In a way. It's like just slowing down and being in nature and eating food slowly. It shows us, oh, I'm being urgent in this particular way, or I'm actually judging myself so hard, or some of this action is driven by my own unworthiness.”From the individual to the systemic. “What are the systems that we live in that have reinforced this judgment? What are you struggling with that isn't actually personal? But it's collective. What's the context that we live in that in part inform this? And can you direct that energy, that anger that you're feeling at yourself, can you direct that energy at the system?”Gift economics.  ”I live as much in gift as I can. Drawing on a deep trust in life that if I continue to give in this way, I'll be able to bear whatever the consequences are of the choices that I make with dignity, with an open heart, with care, for myself and others.”