For Orlando,
For Paris,
For Nice,
For Munich,
And we continue to pray, we continue to change our Facebook profile pictures, we tweet non-stop quotes of love and peace, and so on.
Does it help? I always wonder – whoever wants and loves peace would always be at peace, wouldn’t they? They do not need my expression of solidarity, they know of it already. But the perpetrators of violence – would they see my messages and change?
There – my first mistake is already made with this thought!
I have already created a thought of “they” versus “me.” I have created a separation in humanity. With this thought, I now mean explicitly that “we” are spiritual and “they” are not. I imply that “I” want peace, and “they” do not. This separation could only lead to more doom. I definitely do not justify the atrocities of crime and war, not at all! These issues are so complicated that a simple rational solution or justice cannot be arrived at so easily.
What I mean is, there is a connected-ness in all humanity. There is a single consciousness acting together to help us all grow and evolve together, which bonds us together. As a woman, as a mother, I feel it more deeply, now more than ever. I know my family is connected. When I am tense, or stressed, my son feels uncomfortable too. When my husband returns home after a hectic day in a bad mood, we are all stressed out about it.
All of humanity is connected in a very poignant way, though our consciousness does not realize it immediately. There is no “they” and “us.” There is no “you” and “me.” There is a “we” and that is all of us, in our collective consciousness, like in a family.
Well, amidst all this mumbo-jumbo, I cannot stop a terrorist attack, or can I? Isn’t the case that, all that I can do is to take care of my dirty laundry, grocery shopping, school runs, satisfying relationships, and so on, and continue to execute this mundane everyday life in a peaceful way?
But, there is more to this. I can make a difference in more ways than a dirty laundry basket, I do realize!
When I make efforts to change myself and my immediate surroundings, that action is positive. It continues to expand and touches the boundary up to which my influence extends. And when I touch that radius, it naturally expands. An agent of change is born. Indeed, that is the only way we can bring out Universal Peace, starting from our own individual and collective peace. A peaceful family can help influence other families to become peaceful, thus creating a peaceful society.
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles, and it must be taken one step at a time. — Lyndon B. Johnson
Heartfulness Meditation has helped me a lot in this. It has made me experience “Inner Peace,” and that is something which cannot be explained. It is an experience, rather a feeling. It is a state of peace-consciousness. The experience of peace I felt, deep down in my heart, is a memory I can perhaps talk about, but the experience of it is something for you, as a reader, to feel. And that consciousness, as it expands and connects you and me together in meditation(as I have experienced when meditating together with a trainer), is definitely a big leap in awareness of the Self as a being of peace, as a being of joy, as being of love.
This Inner Peace is not inaction to violence. It is very much an active state of calm, balance, harmony and, most importantly, of being in love with the Self, and with the universe, in unison with all beings residing in it. And in that state, when we are connected, violence vanishes.
As women, understanding this concept is very easy. Achieving peace within a family is a natural aspiration. We can work towards that. And when that is achieved, it is only very natural and simple that it expands into the society and then into the community, furthering this as a nation, and into the world.
It is an avalanche. The tiny pebble is the most important step in this avalanche, and that is “I” meditating to experience my “Inner Peace.”
That Inner Peace is already there. We only need a trigger to discover it. Meditation most definitely is a tool to trigger that Inner Peace.
We don’t realize that somewhere within us all there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace. — Elizabeth Gilbert
If you would like to join Heartfulness Meditation and listen to the webcast of Daaji (Global Guide of Heartfulness) on 21st September, the UN International Day of peace, check out the Live Stream here.
Please write to info@heartfulness.org to get in touch with a Heartfulness Trainer on any day.
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