Be Peace: A Call to Awareness 8 comments

10 Apr 2008 @ 01:20, by David Bartholomew [excerpted from DoingIt!, May, 2006] We need to be for... more than we are against. May 1st. May Day. Traditionally a day of workers and the downtrodden of many cultures standing in unison against oppression and inequities of all kinds. A good day to be playing with the following concepts. Earth Day. Martin Luther King Day. Bastille Day. Demonstrations, rallies, boycotts. Many days, many festivals, many protests… many occasions for the socially-conscious to show their support of the world and each other… by exposing that which they are against. I have really been looking harder at current practices and ways of being in the world of causes and activism, how their effectiveness in many ways seems to be lagging, and how the well-intended and action-oriented seem to be chasing off a significant number of the like-minded. Of late, I have really felt myself leaving events organized by these well-intentioned ones with much heaviness, and fighting a sense of having less hope than that which I came in with. I support the ends of these, my people, but see that there is a disconnect between these and their means, that needs to be remedied here. In seeking to create our shambhala, our place in the sun, our heaven on Earth, our peace… we need to remember to begin first with finding that peace within ourselves and bring that forward. I put forth that any of our drives toward something, all distill down to a desire to have peace, calmness, ok-ness, worry-free-ness with all that surrounds us. And all of our drives away from certain circumstances are simply ways to run from the not-it, and subsequently just a variation on the theme. And so I speak to the underlying motivation of all “causes” as being for peace. I am speaking here of a peace in opposition to nothing. True peace is not at the end of a continuum, contrasted against war, or a warring against a thing. This everlasting peace is a condition that, once attained, stands transcendent above, and regardless of, all circumstances. Unshakeable. Fluid. Larger than the “real” or imagined “problem”. This is the arena of enlightenment, actualization, wisdom and truth. This is the pond into which we can dip our toes, and work toward immersing our entire selves in completely, as we gain mastery. This is the playground—the more interesting perspective—from which we can reframe our attempts to change our world for the better. Sometimes the best way to change something is… to just accept it. To see the God in it. To address the highest part in it and watch it shift on its own. We have found that our best response to reactivity in the wake of disturbing news or situations… is to first stop—catch the reactivity, note it, name it… then, immediately, go inward, look at what in us still needs to see this lesser condition mirrored back to us from the outside in, and try to first shift it from the inside out. Shift ourselves. Shift the need for it to be. This can be considered about the only response for one working toward reclaiming one’s godliness and ability to co-create one’s world. In this way we are always working toward shifting from the reactive to proactive, and from disease into ease, love and all the higher vibrations… the better of which to use in addressing any correction of the issue that is occupying us, that we still might feel called to. Activism, as all areas in which we place ourselves, requires us to throw out more positive than negative into our world… or we are, in a different way, actually no different than those we are protesting against. If we can’t show others, by our being, that there is a better way… how do we expect them to change? What incentive do they have? What better example might they have to entrain to? Those of us who want peace… need to be peace. We need to emulate the great ones who showed us through history what this can look like. We need to rise to our own level of possibility. We need to allow the space within ourselves for others to change. We must work to eliminate the need for struggle and fighting against from within us. In this way we can transform our protests against… into celebrations for. In this manner we are DoingIt! "What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen." -- Henry David Thoreau "What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality." -- Otto Rank

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