How to achieve a balance between wanting to live in a peaceful world and the messages of evil that are constantly bombarding you.
“Listening to evil people is the beginning of an evil deed.” – CONFUCIUS
Every day we hear from all sides that the world has turned upside down, that evil is everywhere… The news on radio, television and the Internet bombard us with endless cascades of messages about the merciless treatment of man to man, of deranged family members, of teenagers , committing mass murders in schools, and for mind-numbing acts of terrorism everywhere from railway stations to temples… We seem to live in a completely unbalanced world where our desire for peace is threatened by countless restless energies spread like news. But we have a choice – we can choose to stay in energy harmony with our desire to live in this world peacefully, regardless of everything around and despite the disturbing energies directed at us. We can begin by deciding to maintain our inner peace even when others speak of the fear, anger, and hatred of our cruel planet. After all, throughout human history, the collective effort of those in power has taught individuals whom to fear and—worse—whom to hate.
The breaths of hate go on and on! The faces change, but the message remains: they tell us who to hate, without realizing for a moment that the enemy we are supposed to hate has no nationality – the enemy is hate itself!
In “Healing from War”, Arthur Eggendorf offers the following advice that is relevant to our efforts to restore balance in our lives and live in peace:
“Only together will we create a culture that will replace the fight/withdrawal cycle – not through the fear of war, but through the mastery of a higher way of life.”
The seed of this culture is the inner determination of individuals, and then of small groups and communities, to devote our lives to the greatest idea of all time: not to wait for a savior to come and save us; not to wait for the government to pass truly fair laws; not to wait for a revolution to correct the injustices of a cruel world; and not to set out on a march to overcome some distant source of evil outside ourselves. Each of us individually and together with everyone else has the responsibility to create joy through the way we live here and now. And once that goal becomes paramount, we can get down to the never-ending work of providing for the well-being of others, giving justice and integrity to government, and creating constructive programs for change. When we are inspired in this way, there is no need to wait for the final result to experience satisfaction. There is no more perfect way to live and die.
I think the most important thing you can do individually to create joy is to get hate out of your mind. Even if this surprises you, please accept it. Those who hate war are as much responsible for its existence as those who hate their imposed enemies and fight to kill them. Crime haters are part of the crime problem. Cancer haters turn it into an enemy and become part of the cancer problem.
As with everything else in this book, to restore balance in your life, you need not so much to change your behavior as to change yourself and create a culture that replaces the fight/withdrawal cycle. Whenever we use force to resolve disputes, we instantly create a backlash. This is largely responsible for the endless cycles of war that have characterized human history. Force, counter, more force and the battles go on and on generation after generation. The same is true of your inner reality: a thought of hate begets a thought of revenge, and then more hate in return. And the real problem is that thoughts of hatred and revenge begin to characterize our existence. They become a point of attraction. Your desire to live peacefully in a world that the media says has gone mad is a spiritually balanced desire. To realize it, you must create thoughts in accordance with the energy of this desire. Hateful thoughts will not produce the peace you desire, and the reason for this has been emphasized many times in what has been said so far: you attract more and more of what you want to expel.
You can distance yourself from hateful thoughts despite media news motivated by a profit mentality. The more you give in to hate, the more the message sellers benefit. But you can choose to be an instrument of joy. How does the cannon of joy react to the cacophony of loud, disturbing news? If you are in balance, you are most likely accessing the place of love and peace that you are. You remember your mission and desire balance and peace, stating that while millions of others choose hatred, it is simply not your calling.
Let me tell you how I choose to respond to the bombardment of conflict-focused messages in the world. First, I remind myself that for every crime there are millions of acts of kindness. I choose to believe that people are essentially good, and that through my belief in this I contribute to the spread of this type of consciousness. When enough people believe in the holy idea that everything good in us is from God, we will learn to live collectively in this peaceful awareness.
Second, I know for sure that the hatred in my heart will never bring me peace. It will only intensify the presence of man-made destructive energies. So I choose to focus on what I support and feel good or feel God. I support peace, not war. As Albert Einstein noted, “I am not just a pacifist, but an active pacifist…” In The Long Road to Freedom, Nelson Mandela wrote: “To make peace with the enemy, you must work with the enemy and make that enemy your partner “. I know that as God’s children we are all partners. This is my mindset and when I see the mess in the world because many have forgotten that we are partners, I still choose to feel God’s presence within me and know that eventually we will learn to live this way collectively. But to begin with, each of us must refuse to be an instrument of unrest in our thoughts, and consequently in all our actions.
The Nuremberg Diary quotes Hermann Goering, designated as Adolf Hitler’s successor, as saying: “Of course, the people do not want war… But in the end the leaders of the state determine the policy, and it is always quite easy to drag the people down, always whether they live under a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliamentary government or a communist dictatorship…whether they have or do not have the right to vote, people can always be forced to respond to the call of the leaders. This is easy. You just have to tell them they are under attack and rebuke the pacifists for their lack of patriotism and for putting the country in danger. It works the same in every country.”
I choose not to be one of the dragged people. I refuse to be forced to respond to the call of leaders who try to convince me that my belief in peace is unpatriotic. When a Pentagon official was asked why the US military was censoring footage of the Gulf War, he replied: “If we let people see this, there will never be another war.”
Well, that’s my goal…to live in a world where militant thoughts are impossible because we direct our thought energy toward what we support, not what we hate. Former president and commander of the Allied forces in World War II Dwight Eisenhower observed: “Every bullet manufactured, every warship launched, every missile fired represents – in the end – a theft from those who starve and have no food, from those who are cold and have no clothes. The arming world is not just spending money. It wastes the sweat of workers, the genius of scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life in the true sense.” These words are a call to balance ourselves and our world. Peace needs heroic thinking and purity of consciousness. When I remember it, I stay true to my personal desire that my life be filled with Divine energy.
Third, when I see and hear about atrocities, I remind myself, “I did not come into this world to be a part of hatred. While others obviously don’t think so, I will remind myself to maintain my inner sense of peace that calls to me, and I will surround the evil-doers with the same light energy. “I just refuse to go to war in my mind. I choose to be a ray of light for the places that are plunged in darkness and devoid of illuminating energy.”
Finally, as I continue to hear news of violence, I remind myself again and again that we have a choice in how we respond to it all. I know that by feeling hate in response to hate, I am only contributing to the presence of hate in the world and moving away from God. As an ancient Chinese proverb says: “If you decide to seek revenge, you’d better dig two graves.”
I know we have a choice to put our energy into showing our love for God by loving one another. I also know that I have the choice to see the good in the world, not the bad. When I am exposed to news of violence and hatred, I turn off the sound or even the TV and remember the words of Dalai Lama: “Compassion or love are not mere luxuries. As the source of inner and outer peace, they are fundamental to the survival of our species.” These are extremely valuable words and describe the need to be in balance. I keep my balance about being in a peaceful world by repeating them to myself over and over. I now know for sure that I have a duty to maintain a consciousness of compassion and love not only to maintain my own balance, but also to help the survival of our species. There can hardly be a higher calling.
