“There is no
‘way to peace.’ There is only peace
itself.” Gandhi
“You find
peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who
you are at the deepest level.” - Eckhart
Tolle
“If you
cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.” -
Marvin Gaye
Agitators agitate. Sometimes it is because they stand to profit
from the chaos that conflict creates.
Sometimes it is because they stand to profit in the aftermath of the
conflict. And in every case they are
cowards – unwilling or unable to find peace within themselves. One of the easiest ways to avoid facing and
resolving internal conflict is to get engaged in some external chaos – after all,
if others are doing the same thing then “we are not so bad.” And if no conflict is handy, it is easy
enough to find and exaggerate differences between others. After all, the coward’s greatest fear – far beyond
the fear of death – is that they will have to face themselves, and in the
process will find that they are “inadequate” as human beings. This plays itself out at all levels of human
society – from the family unit to international relations.
On the individual level, to the exact
degree we have unresolved fears within us are we vulnerable to the
manipulations of the agitator. Thus, if
we are tired of being manipulated, the solution lies not in changing them but
rather in changing ourselves. If we have
faced and grown beyond the deep underlying fear that we might be inadequate, we
have made great gains toward being impervious to manipulation. If we have done the work to face our fears we
realize that our true self is not other’s opinion of us or what collections of
objects, accolades, achievement or information we have accumulated. If we have done the work of self-examination
we realize we are not even the body we occupy or the thoughts, opinions and
emotions we generate. And if we have
honestly done the work to connect with that spiritual essence that is woven
throughout all, we realize that if we stay connected we will be ok no matter
what. How is another to manipulate us
when realize that we will be ok no matter what – when we no longer fear loss of
material things, we know we are perfectly adequate and even death itself no
longer intimidates us?
From this point of understanding, we see
others as we see ourselves – a whole and complete being who struggles with the
insecurities of the human condition. And
from this position of understanding we cannot help but show empathy and love
because we can then see clearly the deep fears that plague the one who would
agitate. Does this mean that we can “change”
them? Of course not; their path is
theirs to follow. They have to exhaust
every attempt to avoid facing themselves before they will know enough pain to become
teachable anyway. But we can avoid
buying into the drama – we can stick to the high road and avoid the sewers of
self-centeredness. We can avoid being
drawn into the drama and still be understanding. We can serve as an example of peace, and we
can walk away from things when we realize that they are not what we first
thought. But in reality it is rare that
we have to walk away from anything - ignorance cannot stand in the presence of
enlightenment; it create or find some other negativity to prop itself up to
avoid caving in upon itself.
Today, may I
know freedom.
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Happy Monday !!
David
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