Peace Within Ourselves

Thomas Merton said:

There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence that is activism and overwork....The rush and pressure of modern life are a form of violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.

To quote Buddha:

If your compassion does not include yourself, then it is incomplete.

To have peace in the world seems like such a daunting task. How can we save the world? Can we build new churches? Send out new missionaries? Donate more? Consume less? While I think all of those things have a place, the place most overlooked is our own souls.

The stillness that our souls desire and feed off of, is chased away by our need to be doing something.

Can we bring peace to our households if we can not even play a game with our children without checking the blackberry? How many of us don't have time for silly board games when there are activities every night? If we are running non-stop, then how are we teaching our children to find their center, their stillness?

In our frenzy to lead complete lives, are we remembering the basic tenants of sharing? We can not share something that we do not posses ourselves.

If we are not bringing peace into our households, then is it possible, we are bringing in the type of violence that Merton speaks of?

If we can not find a peace and stillness within ourselves, then how will we teach our children?

If our children are not taught this at home, how will they go into the world and share peace and Light?

If our children are not centered, then how are they teaching others their light from within? They can't. If we are not spreading that peace and light from within, then aren't we doing our Lord a disservice by keeping it in ourselves?

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.” ~ john lenon

Finding Peace in Our Lives.

Last night I read from Being Peace and the following passage jumped out at me:

There is a Zen story about a man who is riding a horse that is galloping very quickly. Another man, standing alongside the road, yells at him, “Where are you going?” And the man on the horse yells back, “I don’t know, ask the horse!” I think that is our situation. We are riding many horses that we cannot control. (Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace, Parallax Press, Berkeley, CA, 1987)

I think sometimes in our lives we allow things to lead us, until we're unable to control the direction life is leading us. I think this story can speak to many on multiple levels.

It would be nice to wake up tomorrow and know where I am leading my horses rather than wondering where my horses will lead me.