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Lawrence Comras As we bear witness to the war our country is waging on the environment, not to mention on other peoples and cultures, not to mention on our own civil liberties, it’s easy to get upset, or angry. We may even at times feel hatred toward all the seemingly evil people in big business and government wreaking havoc on our world. Indeed, there is some sort of negative pleasure in just letting ourselves get mad. It is maddening. The situation is now really serious out there in the warring world, and so we actually need to get serious about creating peace. Yes, "they" are really close to destroying it all. But "we" are really close to figuring it all out. It’s going to be a photo finish to salvation. I think we’ll succeed in transcending and rising above ourselves, but it’s also up to us in a very radical way. We need to behave more impeccably when we approach the problem. We can no longer afford to traffic in the methods of the warmongers. If we want to wipe out all the evildoers, what does that make us? Even in our more subtle borrowings of their practices, such as being dominating and confrontational, we’re still feeding the reality that allows them to continue to dominate and confront. The time has come for even things like projection and blaming to go. From here on out, it can only be about us. If we point one finger at them, there are three fingers pointing back at us. If we’re full of vitriol at the spectacle, the spectacle feeds on us. We need to dismantle the notion of fighting for peace. We need to acknowledge that when we experience a lot of hostility in the world, we usually have the same clashes going on inside us. To really create peace abroad, we have to do the hard work of looking within and shifting the focus back to us. We must have the willingness to want peace. Bringing consciousness to places within ourselves where we may not want peace is the first step. Our outer world is a reflection of our inner world, so we need to ask the question: where in ourselves are we at war? Peace will come when we want it so profoundly that we're willing to give up the negative pleasure of engaging in fighting. We need to take responsibility that we create our own reality and act accordingly. Peace begins in our own heart. Only there do we have the power to create peace. When we shift from a place of war to a place of peace within ourselves, it radiates out to shift our environment. When we hold more love, we stretch the container of the world to hold more love. That’s the hard part: We have to be willing to be the peace we want. Then comes the really hard part: It’s more than willingness that’s required. After all, it’s the living of a life that makes a difference. How do we do the everyday American life so that it's consciously, actively, actually, creating peace? What do we actually do? Meditate? We don’t know how to meditate. We’re busy scrambling to survive in a highly competitive Western culture. Most of us don’t have the context for the cultivation of a daily practice. Inner quiet is not in our historical tradition. Our lives are too noisy. Too bad though, because as long as the inner struggle for peace is suppressed, forgotten, mocked or exploited, so is the movement towards peace in the world. And until we become the peace we want to see in the world, the world will be at war. Which is where we’re at at the moment. A world at war. Ourselves at war. Here’s an idea: We, each of us, can create world peace by cleaning our house. The idea behind creating peace starting with our homes may seem radical because no one has been yelling it from blow horns or preaching it from a pulpit. We haven't been taught to believe that it matters. Yes, most people would know the words: one person can make a difference. But who would tell people that the way to make that difference is to sweep, dust, mop and vacuum? We would. Consciously cleaning out the toxins, the poisons, the noise and the clutter in our homes clears space where the life force, the good energy of peace, can flow into our lives. Then we can access it, and then voila! it radiates out.
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“We must have the willingness to want peace. Bringing consciousness to places within ourselves where we may not want peace is the first step. Our outer world is a reflection of our inner world, so we need to ask the question: where in ourselves are we at war?” |
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