How does someone go from a passive spirituality to an active one? That is, how does anyone gain that feeling that something must be done about the way life is, the way we are? It is necessary for people to feel this necessity, this urgency - if one is leading his life as he has been taught, not questioning, not noticing what is going on, he will not be helping. He might not be hurting, but he is not helping.

To make the world better, there must be effort involved. If we just sit around and wait for it, things won't get better. We won't get better. We can either stay as we are, or we can try to become better people - kinder, more peaceful, wiser, more intelligent.

But what about the people who don't see the cost of their passivity? What about those people who feel anger again and again without giving it a thought? The people who don't realize that the word they say affects every person on earth, every being to come? How do people who understand interbeing help others to understand it?

Of course, no one can be taught. Nobody can just be told something and then learn it - people must experience the truth, and gain understanding by their own momentum. One cannot say "When you are rude to someone, it affects them negatively" - a person must learn that lesson on their own. They can, perhaps, be pointed towards it... Maybe they can be given the opportunity to figure it out, but they cannot be taught.

The difficulty is in knowing the best way to provide another with a growth environment. Without wisdom, it is difficult to know when one is being helpful and when one is serving one's own interests. The distinction is unclear - selfish desires blur the boundary between altruistic and self-centered motivations.

Even though it is difficult, it seems unlikely that waiting for wisdom is the only way to help. Maybe a person can more easily see the distinction between selfish and selfless actions when they have more wisdom, but enlightenment does not come quickly, and good can be done beforehand.