
Any social-change hero succeeds in doing three fundamental things -- raising awareness, creating impact, and transforming the heart.
For awareness, the Internet has been absolutely remarkable. We have trillions of online new friendships; FaceBook releases daily numbers of how people create those friendships across conflicting religions and regions. Today's numbers: India-Pakistan: 199,721, Israel-Palestine: 39,497, Greece-Turkey: 7,988 More than half of the world’s population is now on a social networks, and it's increasing everyday; more iPhones are being produced everyday than the number of people being born. If FaceBook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world. And this whole online world is filled with generative altruism. An hour of video is uploaded every second -- and collectively, we are generating more content in 5 years than we did from the beginning of time to 2003. Over 68 million users share and like content everyday. If Wikipedia were a book, it would be 2.25 million pages long; all for free, with more than 100 million volunteer hours donated on Wikipedia alone. All of this makes for an incredible platform for spreading ideas and content, with very little overhead.

The Internet, then, is great for spreading awareness and it can be quite powerful in terms of its impact as well. Where it lacks, though, is the third element -- transformation.
Online friendships can only go so far. There are 75 million more farmers on Farmville than in the real world. Farmville is not farming, just as online ties aren’t equivalent to “real life” friendships. By itself, online friendships are fairly weak. Back in 2008, a NY Times journalist wrote an article about how amazed he was that he had 700 friends; so he threw a party in the hopes that everyone could get to know each other. One person showed up, and that too, by accident. FaceBook's organizing principle is to retain the online attention of its users and monetize it by displaying ads; this is why they are going to IPO for 75 billion dollars. Clearly, online social networks are providing a valuable utility in our world, but they are also systemically limited. By design, FaceBook would rather have you send an online teddy bear to a friend than to go off their network and give a hug. Nothing against online teddy bears, but it can't replace a hug. :) Science tells us that oxytocin is released in our brains when we interact with others in an altruistic way -- it makes us feel good, improves our health, and increases our sense of well being.
If mirroring such experiences online dilutes the inner transformation, what kind of questions do we need to be asking? What if the optimal solution is a hybrid that couples the Internet’s global connectivity with the oxytocin of a local friendship? Dot-coms won’t be asking that question since they are only incentivized towards online progress; traditional organizations typically aren’t in position to explore that inquiry since they’re not on the cutting edge of technological evolution. Who will ask those questions? We don’t know yet, but we need to be asking them.

Basketball players will often score a basket, get fouled and yell "And one!" if they get a chance to score that third point. This is the third point. Activism -- and one!
If we are to have sustainable revolutions that last for generations, our modern day technologies have to be designed for this element of inner transformation. Each of those legendary service heroes started with changing themselves at the root level, and despite leading vast revolutions, always kept that front and center. Similarly, when we engage at the cusp of our own evolution, we can't help but broaden from self orientation to other orientation. We then serve from a place of abundance, which means we serve with joy and gratitude. We honor our profound interconnection and, as we align with a natural unfolding that is greater than us, we continue to transform ourselves. External change that comes from this kind of positive feedback loop is fundamentally different.
When organized, such inner-transformation driven designs work at the intersection of three big circles: outer change, systemic change and personal change. Activism is often defined at the intersection of outer change and systemic change, but it is incomplete without the element of our own internal transformation. Its such a critical idea, but yet we don't have a word for it. So we made up our own word.

When Gandhi was about 70 years old, he was giving a talk to several thousand people in the small city of Rajkot. In between the talk, a gang of 600 "bandits" disrupted the gathering to wage a violent attack on the listeners. People didn't know what to do. On one hand, they were listening to an apostle of nonviolence and on the other hand there were these bandits who wanted to dominate through violence. Chaos ensued everywhere. People were seriously hurt; ambulance and police sirens were ringing loudly. In the middle of all this, Gandhi was still up on stage; he closed his eyes and started praying and meditating; his face was completely serene but his body was convulsing, potentially from the negativity of the scene. When he opened his eyes, he informed the organizers that he wanted to speak to the leader of the bandits. Confusion arose since many were afraid to expose Gandhi to the violence; but Gandhi not only insisted, but chose to meet with him by himself. The organizers panicked as Gandhi proceeded to meet the gang leader. 26-year-old Bal Kalelkar was witness to this exchange and later wrote: "To everyone's amazement the thugs' violence melted like ice. The leader of the gang stood before Gandhi-ji with folded hands ... That evening he walked all the way home with one hand on the shoulder of the leader of the gang."
That's the power of inner transformation. That's giftvism.
Today, social media and Internet technologies are amazing assets for all of us. Gandhi would certainly have embraced them. But their designs have to be rooted in the place of our greatest leverage -- inner transformation. We have to ensure that all our technologies continue to report to our collective humanity and not the other way around.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
SHARE YOUR REFLECTION
12 PAST RESPONSES
Wonderful article. Inner transformation truly is the secret sauce of sustainability. As a wise man said, "What you achieve inwardly will change your outer reality"
Simply amazing to read this....am in the middle of helping to design a workshop for human rights activists from India and was thinking, "How can I incorporate the perceived fuzzy idea of compassion and love into the heart of the workshop?" I think I will use this piece as a prompt...thank you!
Thanks Nipun. Insightful. "Inner-transformation driven designs work at the intersection of three big circles: outer change, systemic change and personal change. " The religious folks growing up never talk that much about activism, outer change. And the traditional activists rarely talk about inner transformation. That bridge, that commitment to all three circles is a very profound and important message.
Lovely post.
You ask, "Who will ask those questions?" I'm happy to say I've spent the past 3 days (+1 more tomorrow) at the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, where technology and mindfulness leaders have come together to ask exactly those questions. Thupten Jimpa (in conversation with Pierre Omidyar) seemed to sum it up nicely by calling for technology users to exercise mindful self-discipline in their use of the technology, and asking for technology creators to consciously consider social responsibility as they create and distribute their products and services.
once again u hv spoken like a yogi! [which u are ] :) love nd light- Rajima
Thanks Nipun. Insightful. "Inner-transformation driven designs work at the intersection of three big circles: outer change, systemic change and personal change. " The religious folks growing up never talk that much about activism, outer change. And the traditional activists rarely talk about inner transformation. That bridge, that commitment to all three circles is a very profound and important message. --Sriram Shamasunder
I just wonder if Facebook would be willing to provide equal space to charities that offer giving opportunities based on the on line behavior of each client or better yet random charities receive equal footing to paid advertisers. These charities may ask for money and or service. This would mean not maximizing the space with paid advertisements but "social profit" would soar and I promise you inner transformation would be fostered. Paypal has made my giving much easier. Still my inner transformation comes from time on the cushion. Dogen said meditation is enlightenment. I vow to try.
Ah,
Nipun my friend, you are a wise one...The question for many is, "What
is the avenue to inner transformation?" For me, it has been the Center
for Courage and Renewal: www.couragerenewal.org and the teachings of Parker Palmer. I encourage all of my friends to explore this avenue...With Love, Margaret
BAAMplex! :-)
Transforming the heart of the UN, and the entire Earth Community.Another powerful delivery and writeup, based on his own inner transformation and that of the invisible collaborators!
Hands down. Standing ovation. Hearts and spirits up! :-)
Definitively, this is fresh raw fuel to continue the (R)evolution. Thanks for the nourishing food.
Love. You. Hermano. ;-)
Pancho
PS: Going to facilitate a bit further the awareness of this article on the electronland... ;-)
For sure, unconditional giving is the most radical idea and practice that I have ever come across. Thanks to the author for picking that out as the ingredient much needed in all domains that concern us and our planet. It is no doubt the most difficult thing to even have this perspective in a given moment as we are heavily conditioned otherwise. Besides the mental block, it has so many practical difficulties too. So, I think it is important for every person to do their own small acts of giftvism in any context they can and generate an ocean of data of its ripples. Here is a chance for us to indulge in practice and theory side by side without any burden of the past, without divisions, without worries about resource, impact... without any condition, one small act of gifting ourselves in any way we can everyday. Now, where do I send my daily report to humanity? Helpothers.org I suppose :)
Very well written.Social transformation can happen irrespective of Social media.But depending on technology to change is really time consuming.Each one us can change if we are willing to change.
Thank you so much , it is the truth . People will transform only when they see the transformation of the change maker , as they saw in Gandhi , Mother Teresa , Martin Luther King and many others who followed them . They set an example of their own lives for others to follow .