So, what do we do?

Thanks, everyone, for the comments on "Yesterday". They give me much to think about. In fact, many of them are going to be the launching pad for posts this week. You all make such goodpoints and I have to think about them. Thanks for that. It keeps me from falling into an unconscious and incomplete way of viewing things.

I'll start with this one from Jen:

"and seriously, I know what you mean..for me, the apathy has become toxic...i wonder how much influence the regular person has when it comes to the war and other politics...but i have to believe it still matters, the peace i want to generate.

Maybe it's not a question of "generating" but one of "being".

I gave some thought to this last night, of how the current approach is adversarial. The language that surrounds the topic is aggressive. We fight. We call them on their stuff. We force them to look at it differently. Offense/Defense. Dialectics. The implication behind the aggressive words is that "they" are our enemies. It's also worthwhile to note that people who are attracted to that way of thinking and that use of power will be the only ones who will voluntarily participate in the process.

In many respects, that is how the US got into the predicament it's in now. It has truly manifested what is at the core of its being. There are many uses for power and the governmental process has become the most destructive and divisive. (I'd recommend the book The Pathology of Power by Norman Cousins for more on this topic.)

There's a difference between apathy and acceptance. The old serenity prayer comes to mind. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."

While some might consider me to be apathetic, and it might indeed appear that way on the surface, it is actually an acceptance of the things I can change and the things I can not. As for wisdom, the jury's still out. That's very different from the "I don't give a damn" apathy that is also present in many places.

I can and must change myself. I can and must try to influence my direct environment. By being what I want to project into the world, others are influenced in a non-aggressive way. Lead by example instead of coercion.

All of this to say simply, as Ghandi did, "Be the peace you want to see in the world".

Peace,


~Chani

Transformation....

"These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. ... Great necessities call out great virtues." Abigail Adams

I decided to go a bit further with this based on some of the comments I received. (Thank you for those :) Some very interesting questions were asked and I'm going to respond in no particular order, just addressing what I see as the core issues.

Greed, power-over, competition, selfishness, criminality and materialism all come from fear.

Compassion, benevolence, charity, justice, mindfulness, service and spirituality come from love.

There are probably many more qualities that could be included but those are the ones that come off the top of my head. (If there are important ones I missed, please leave them in a comment and I will edit the post to include them.)

The most important question is "how do we become transformed"?

In the simplest presentation, it would be "we choose it".

The more accurate answer is far more complex.

I believe it will be different for every person, but the linchpin is in how we define ourselves. We are not material beings. We are spiritual beings. I'm not talking about religion. I am talking about spirit. Religion works for many people and it is important to feed the soul but I'm not saying any one spiritual system is better than another. There are many paths to the same destination.

The first step, though, I believe is to identify our role models. For some, it might be Martin Luther King, Gandhi or Buddha. For others, it might be Carl Sagan. And yet others will find meaning in the words of Mohammed, the great rabbis or Jesus Christ. It all depends on what resonates most with any given individual. Most spiritual disciplines adhere to the same basic moral principles. Study these people or belief systems. What did they say? How does it manifest its basic tenets? How did they deal with ethical dilemmas? If a belief system offers absolutes, run like hell.

My spiritual path works for me because it doesn't require me to accept anything on faith alone. In fact, it doesn't even address the existence of a deity. I took a test in college that was supposed to identify one's way of thinking. I scored equally in the areas of science and religion. I'm a "solid intel" kind of gal. Don't give me a bunch of unproveable data and tell me to believe it because you want me to believe it. Don't crap on a biscuit and tell me its a muffin. I respect the scientific process too much. For that reason, I found something that leaves it up to me personally and my conscience to determine matters of faith while providing me with a solid ethical system. I am a person of faith on certain things. I accept on faith that we live multiple lifetimes because it meshes with my understanding of natural law. Everything in nature recycles. I accept on faith that there is something bigger than all of us in the universe. I believe it is natural law. Sometimes for convenience, I call it "God".

Still, ultimately, we are responsible for the choices we make and the ethical/moral decisions we make and how we live. We are co-creators with God, which leads us to the second step.

The second step, and perhaps most important, is to change our lives. It is a matter of identifying faulty thinking and correcting it. Not all of us are capable of that kind of introspection (well, at least I'm not) which is why we need mentors. In my opinion, mentors help give us a foundation that allows the introspection to evolve into something more than navel-gazing. Most of us, left to our own devices, would be like the proverbial dog chasing his tail.

Mindfulness is a full-time job. Respecting others, respecting community, respecting the earth, respecting animals, respecting the food we eat, respecting the water we drink, respecting resources, respecting the energy we put out into the universe is all a part of remaining mindful and making decisions that benefit all, not just individuals.

It can be done in chunks. Like Mehmet Oz says in his new diet book, "Just eliminate 100 calories a day". Choose to be mindful about one thing at a time. Don't try to change everything at once. Like a good diet, take it in rational and liveable steps.

If we all choose to do this, I believe we can change the world. It won't happen overnight or next weekend, but it will happen. As Gil Scott-Heron wrote so many years ago, "the revolution will not be televised." It will come from re-thinking and making different choices in how we live. It will come from recommitting to essential truths. It will happen because of a massive turnaround in the way we view, and live, our lives.

Peace,


~Chani