By Nejoud Al-Yagout

Women protests have brought women into the workforce and have put in place laws that protect women from domestic violence. But the mindset remains the same. Women are still fighting for equal pay and are still subject to femicide and honor killings and crimes of passion. Anti-war protests may have encouraged governments to create peacekeeping units and ceasefires. But enemies continue to fight one another, war rages on and people continue to hate each other and fuel new wars.

Protests do not work because they do not change mindsets; they impose change that the false self resists. We do not realize that harmful systems are in place either because we support them or resist them. This is why racism is still widespread, even with all the protests against racism. Protests, paradoxically, perpetuate the very divide that protesters want to dissolve by creating more resistance on the other side and separating the world even further.

Even with all our protests, we are seeing the growth of religious extremism and nationalistic and ethnic pride across the globe. Is there something that we have missed? Even when we protest an ideology, have we cut off the harmful system in place?

It is a relief to know that we are responsible for those very systems we protest. This means that we are aware that systems that exploit others can be dissolved when we reflect on why they exist. If every person in the world were taught this, if self-reflection were just as important as learning the alphabet, we can only imagine how wondrous the world could be for all citizens of this planet. All it takes is reflection. We are invited to ask ourselves difficult questions: Is our hatred for those whom we protest as strong as their hatred for those they oppress? Is hate the solution? Is love not the only way we can dissolve hatred? And why do we insist otherwise?

Impositions may work on the surface but when our minds remain polluted, men will find a way to sustain the patriarchy and governments and businesses will find a way to go to war and sell arms. It is the transformation of hearts that will work, not protests, and this comes from educating ourselves to love the other and reminding ourselves that we are the other.

Schools can incorporate spiritual awakening courses from a young age. We can all enroll in fun-loving courses which remind us to engage with the other. We can learn how to embrace diversity without feeling threatened by oneness. We can address our fears openly and explore our racism and prejudices and question them, all the while transforming ourselves, one by one, and inspiring others without trying to change them...

...We come to the realization that the world is exactly the way it is and focus on our ascension. We can no longer afford to ignore our own darkness either. We become aware of all the distractions in our lives that take us away from self-inquiry and self-awareness. Very few of us have the courage to look at the monsters within ourselves. We would much rather blame the enemy outside, or the enemy on our screens and in the headlines. We do not want to face our own evil because we would rather live under the illusion that we are good, and others are evil...

...Our true nature is inclusive, while the false self is exclusive. Our true nature is peaceful, while the false self is restless. There is a spiritual war going on in our minds. When we accept that both good and evil exist, we can walk toward what is true: Goodness. When we acknowledge that the false self has hijacked our individual and collective reality, we are free. The divine light is never extinguished, no matter how strong the illusion of the false self appears. One by one, we will return to the One. And this dream, or nightmare, will finally become the haven of our collective imagination.

NOTE: This is an excerpt from Nejoud Al-Yagout’s book ‘Earth: A School of Love’. For a free PDF copy of the book, you can contact her at interheartkuwait@gmail