Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail
There is an irrefutable link between the present world crisis and the daily choices we make. Global issues are now the politics of place. Technology provides instant access to information and it is impossible to plead ignorance regarding the fate of our brothers and sisters in other cultures. The planet has suddenly become much smaller and very personal.
If we truly desire a more peaceful world then what we espouse needs to be congruent with how we act. Is it sufficient to join a protest march voicing horror at oppression in a particular country and then stop by the supermarket to purchase our favorite brand of coffee that just happens to be supplied by the state-run industry exploiting the very people for whom we have just pledged our support?
So what does it mean to be a ‘peaceful warrior’ and practice Right Human Relations? The question is where do we draw the line in our personal response to these larger issues. For instance, can we sit back and demand a nation disarm and rid itself of all weapons of mass destruction without a corresponding action on our part that addresses the personal roots of aggression? Can we in all good conscience insist on nuclear disarmament without first being willing to dismantle our own entrenched psychological patterns of aggression and defense?
Fear, ignorance and separation are the real enemies and as long as there are aspects of the psyche cowering in fear and needing to be defended, they are actively subscribing to and investing in the maintenance of the larger defense systems. Terrorism and aggression wear many guises.
How much energy do you and I expend each day maintaining our personal defenses and fueling our petty acts of aggression against others? The cost must truly be staggering. Traditionally an arsenal of weapons is defined in terms of guns and missiles. However, on a psychological level, the cutting remarks and negative thoughts we hurl at each other are equally destructive weapons that wound and cause enormous harm. Relationships are destroyed and trust among us severely damaged by the launching of these psychic missiles. Like rogue nations, we too are armed and dangerous whenever we lash out instead of acting from a place of harmlessness and Goodwill.
True disarmament begins with a personal peace process in which you and I promise to lay down our psychological weapons and agree to live in harmony. This first step to global peace does not require a unanimous vote in the United Nations Security Council: all it asks is a deep personal commitment.
This Law of Right Human Relations extends beyond the limits of inter-human cooperation to include our relationship with the rocks, plants, animals, birds as well as with the Essential Self. It embraces the refined realms of Angels and the subtle sphere of embodied wisdom called the Fifth Kingdom in Nature – the Abode of the Soul. Inside the spectrum of this sacred eco-system, “we live and move and have our being.”
Sadly, a war is being waged on the environment by the forces of greed and exploitation and the effects of this prolonged assault are all too plain to see. As with inter-personal conflict, the war on Mother Nature has its personal and collective dimension.
If we are called to act as ‘green peace makers’, then it behooves us to examine our personal conduct and locate the real roots of pollution. There are, of course, obvious culprits who shamelessly exploit the common wealth and their names are all too frequently blazoned across the pages and screens of the world’s media. However, blame for eroding the delicate ecological balance of the planet cannot be placed solely upon the shoulders of the petrochemical industries and other toxic waste-producing enterprises. There is a subtle source of pollution and ecological damage that is much closer to home.
We abhor the noxious waste that poisons our atmosphere, oceans and land but we seldom stop to think of the individual acts of pollution that take place daily. Each derogatory thought and negative emotion emitted is a poisonous release into the ethers that has a dilatory and destructive effect as harmful as any chemical deposited in the physical landscape.
Whenever our hearts and minds are filled with hate we spew out harmful particulates. The psychological climate of our planet is adversely affected by these emissions. If we could scan the mental horizons of the collective consciousness, we would perceive the many dark thought-forms and emotionally-charged particles clouding the inner skies.
This acid rain-cloud of the human psyche is a powerful corrosive force eating away at the social and moral fabric of our world. We quite rightly demand limits to emissions from automobiles and factories and yet fail to understand that the factory of the human mind is churning out pollutants into the atmosphere each time we think in separatist and prejudicial ways about each other.
Plato, Pythagoras and other great luminaries have offered for our consideration, the axiom that, “Energy follows thought”. The implication being that we create inclement weather within the psychic atmosphere of society by comporting ourselves negatively. What many religions and schools of philosophy throughout the ages have also taught is that, “We reap what we sow”. The process of creating peace in the world is thus inexorably linked to the choices each of us makes moment to moment.
The height of futility and self-delusion is to believe that a different and better crop can be harvested if we continue to sow the same seed-thoughts of negativity in the fertile ethers of the human psyche season after season. Mahatma Gandhi astutely observed:
Your Beliefs become your Thoughts Your Thoughts become your Words Your Words become your Actions Your Actions become your Habits Your Habits become your Values Your Values become your Destiny
We are in dire need of a viable ecology of peace – a way of living together that is inspirational, practical and results in Earth becoming a garden of plenty for all in which the full flowering of the human spirit is possible. Investing in ‘peaceful action’ is a priceless gift to coming generations, while its absence is a costly oversight that bankrupts the future.
There is so much goodness in our souls that has never had a chance to grow because of the present inhospitable climate. We have a real opportunity here and now to create those right conditions. Instead of feeling helpless and despondent in the face of the failing forms of society, we can focus and channel our passion and creative energy in building a peaceful and brighter future that is more in resonance with the qualities and values of the Soul. The choice is to go in peace or go in pieces.
Meditation Mount is dedicated to equipping people with the tools and spiritual wherewithal for building this preferred future. Creative Meditation is a toolbox of techniques and practices that supports the subtle work of shaping our dreams and aspirations and bringing them into manifestation as a positive response to the present world crisis. Creative Meditation augments each chosen path of positive improvement in service of the Common Good and aids in the construction and precipitation of those new and hope-filled thought-forms that are the seed-ideas and promise of something finer waiting to be revealed.
The outward work can never be small if the inward one is great, and the outward work can never be great if the inward is small. – Meister Eckhart