There is a difference between being a rebel and being undisciplined, even though the two terms are often associated with each other. Certainly if you asked, very few people would say that they want to be conformists and over-structured. On the other hand, who does not want to affirm their position in relation to other people and things?
Being undisciplined means not having discipline. This is obvious, but discipline is not digging in your heels and just saying yes. Discipline is having a method, a personal order to select the stimuli that come to us, and then following up with them.
A rebel is someone who wants to assert an individual measure on things at all costs, after a personal verification. To be a rebel requires great discipline. You cannot be a rebel unless you know how to strongly direct your actions. Jesus Christ, Copernicus and Gandhi are rebels who applied a strong discipline to their rebellion.
Rebellion means not taking things for granted, seeking your own truth, knowing how to accept the truth of others, if it is not an abuse of power.
Damanhur is a school of rebellion because it encourages you to fill your actions with thought and meaning. Nonconformists are not the ones who “do things differently to not be like others.” If you act in this way, you become a backward imitator, you act based on differences and subtraction. True nonconformists, that is, those whom we like, are those who seek personal codes and measurements, those who choose their own ethics and who use them to motivate their actions, thoughts and words, and in doing so, they create something new.
People come to live in Damanhur for an ideal, but “ideal” in Damanhur is not an abstract noun as is taught in grammar lessons. It is a concrete noun, and putting it into practice means it is necessary to become a rebel, working hard and with a method to build a unique and innovative model of life.
You know, true rebels always scare those who are not rebels, but fortunately they have succeeded in making a difference on this planet.
