1.0
How is enablement to be defined?
Enablement is a three-sided event. The “enabler”; the “enabled”, and the “act of enablement” which is the interaction between enabler and enabled.
Each of these three sides of the same event need to be perceived wholly for the event of enablement to be fully understood.
First, the “enabler”: who is the enabler, what is his or her purpose, and why does he or she choose to enable?
Second, the “enabled”: why does someone need to be enabled? What if that person is not enabled? How does enabling such a person benefit the whole or the multiplicity of stake-holdings in a situation?
Third, the “act of enablement”: why does “enablement as an act” need special understanding? What are the peculiar criteria that distinguish an act of enablement from every other act?
These questions need to be answered meaningfully if enablement is to be understood.
Let us explore these questions a little more carefully.
2.0
First understanding the enabler.
The enabler is one who seeks – not to serve – but to manifest that which is highest in himself or herself, and further, to see a similar manifestation in all around him.
In short, an enabler is one
- who is intrinsically in love with all that is great and excellent in the universe and
- believes that he is, in himself capable of being an embodiment, a manifestation of that excellence, and
- further believes that everyone around him is also capable of manifesting such excellence.
Where did such a “seeking” come from? Why would anyone want to manifest that which is highest and greatest. The answer to that question lies in his/her identity. The enabler “knows” that he or she is himself excellent and knows that every other human being in the universe is also capable of demonstrating such excellence, such strength.
This “knowledge” of infinite excellence and strength is the mark of an inspiring teacher, an inspiring poet, and an inspiring leader.
If there was no such ‘knowledge’ there would be no heroism, no intrinsic power in man to undo that which his own history has made, no power to rebel against that which his own tradition heaps upon him.
This “knowledge” of human’s greatness shorn of all “scaffolding” in the form of culture, society and institutions, is at the heart centre of all enablers and is the cause of all their efforts to manifest that greatness in themselves and in others.
3.0
Let us now look a little more closely at the “enabled”.
Is the enabled person one in need of help? Is the enabled person lacking in any resources?
A business man needs a million dollars to set up a new manufacturing unit. He hopes to produce goods and create revenues that exceed the million dollars and the expenses he incurs in producing those goods. By doing so, he will in course of a few years, earn adequate surpluses to more than pay off the million dollars he took as loan. Not only that, at end of that period he will probably seek more money to create some new business units.
Was the business man “lacking” in something in the first place.
Yes, in relation to his aspiration for expansion. No, if he wanted to remain safe and secure with his existing activities.
Such a person is the quintessence of an “enabled” person – not weak, but strong; not lacking because he does not have, but lacking because he wants to create that much more.
Enablement is directed only to those who are such potential “creators of their destiny”.
4.0
Now let us examine the “act of enablement”.
How is this act different from other forms of resource provision that we know of – providing material resources, providing access to information, providing access to markets and new opportunities, etc.?
The “act of enablement” is the act of invocation of the infinite potential in the person. This act is not about “providing resources” but about “invoking the capacity to use and manage existing resources”. It is not about giving information, but giving the capacity to use information, it is not about giving “training”, but giving the capacity to “learn” better and all the time.
In short, the “act of enablement” is about providing each individual with the optimal conditions through which the person can exploit fully all the resources at his or her command and realize his/her aspirations through those resources.
The power to “utilize”, the power to “digest”, “assimilate”, “internalize use” the resources at our command is distinct from the quantity of those resources.
The “act of enablement” provides people with the power to use their human ingenuity to leverage the resources at their command to meet their aspirations.
5.0
The person to be “enabled” is not some one who is suffering, but someone who aspires for a better life wherever he or she is.
This distinction is at the heart of enablement thinking.
Suffering, as the Buddha said, is endemic of the human condition. We all suffer because we are always “in need” if not materially, then emotionally; if not emotionally then in some other respect.
Enablement cannot “remove” suffering but it can give each human being the personal power and capacity to do something concrete about it.
When these three conditions – enabler, enabled, and enablement come together – enablement is the result.