… it's time to head home. We are facing turmoil and division in America, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the civil war. After years of political party warring, we have ended up with a cultural war masquerading as political discourse and sadly the truth was one of the first victims of this unholy war. Not only has our country become divided, red states vs blue but our cities, towns, communities and even families, have been set against one another, leaving little room for peace, love or understanding.
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| Japanese Garden Portland |
When things get so hostile there seems to be no possibility to a return to normal. That is a very good time to press pause on our thoughts and reassess what’s happening. Things can be made better, starting at level one, ourselves. We don’t have to be victims of the current chaos, we can control our own thoughts and understandings. That is because we are the sole curators of our understanding of the world and are responsible for our own conclusions & subsequent actions. Given all that, this moment of nation-wide confusion is one of the best times to reassess our individual understandings and actions to make sure that they still are valid and supporting us well going forward.
We all have some work to do and paradoxically this might be the most appropriate time for us to do some of that internal work. Revisiting our most fundamental beliefs and assumptions, asking ourselves how well these understandings are serving us now. When the world is seemingly full of hateful discourse, it is crying out for peace like a toddler cries out for love. That peace must first be found in ones own heart, because it is only when we are at peace with ourselves, that we can find peace with others. Catholics have a prayer for peace that speaks to this:
Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
The ancient Vedic tradition has a similar prayer:
Hindu Upanishads
Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe.
Peace, peace, peace.
- Adapted from the Hindu Upanishads by Satish Kumar
While writing this I am reminded of a suggestion made by one of my beloved yoga teachers; “A yogi only speaks when 3 conditions are met: that what they have to say is true, non harming and necessary.”
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| Japanese Garden Portland |
I’m going to close my musing with a translation of the Gāyatrī Mantra:
May all beings in the universe be peaceful.
Take us from untruth to truth,
From dullness to light, from death to bliss.
For all beings: peace, perfection, blessings.
That is perfect. This is perfect.
From perfection the perfect thing arises.
Taking the perfect thing, perfection remains.
- From the Rig Veda
