Ever since Liz (imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com) sent me her two "imagine peace" pins I have been trying to do it. Imagine peace.
First I think of no more war and try to envision what that would be like....everyone lucky enough to have a life like mine, untouched by the devastation and horror of war. Wait a minute. Wasn't that my grade school class crouched under our desks practicing what to do when nuclear fire might rain down upon us? Okay, my life except for that. And what about that Adam Smith quote from his "Theory of Moral Sentiments" my brother included in his history of the local WWI fortresses scattered about our islands, Love and Forts?
"Instruments of war are agreeable, although their immediate effect may seem to be pain and suffering. But then it is the pain and suffering of our enemies, with whom we have no sympathies. With regard to us, they are immediately connected with the agreeable ideas of courage, victory, and honour."
Tim goes on to say:
"Weapons are an unfortunate necessity, and I am spellbound when I consider the terrible nature of war. Yet the male attraction to military arms and honor is a fact of our cultural development, part of our natures, and thus beyond any one national perspective."
So there is a part of us that thrills to a weapon and the danger and mayhem it represents. Courage, strength and valor, those classic male qualities, are most clearly tested in combat. War is also an ultra experience. Veterans of wars have reported never again achieving the same pitch of awareness and the sense of being alive, or the same satisfaction and sense of belonging that fighting with their comrades gave them in spite of the horrors that they also witnessed as soldiers.
Where is the peace in this? Maybe we don't want to be peaceful. Maybe it is too boring. Nothing perks our interest like a little conflict. Yet the news brings us unending photos of dead Syrian children and those who might as well be dead while their grieving families wail. Other pictures of war, like mushroom clouds, settle like a toxic chill around my heart. Our shiny weapons, so evocative of power, can devastate millions of lives in an instant and the planet too. As Adam Smith says: if its our enemies its okay, but I don't think humans can afford their tribal affinities anymore. Its too awful and we are all bound so much more closely than we realized.
What can we do if our urge to war is baked in? Creating as many outlets for the expression of courage, strength and valor as possible is the only thing I can think of. Sports, and maybe reality TV (yeah, ick, but...) Taking up a cause, as long as it isn't white supremacy. Standing up for someone who can't stand up for themselves. Litigation (not recommended). Devising and executing a large project that has meaning for everyone, like war, but constructive, beautiful and awe-inspiring. Bravely exposing the true self hiding behind the mask.
Here's another favorite poem of mine that is clamoring to be included now:
Ekla Chalore (Walk Alone) by Gurudev Rabindraneth Tagore:
If they answer not to thy call,
Walk Alone.
If they tremble and cower mutely,
Facing the Wall,
O thou of evil luck,
Open thy mind and speak out alone.
If, when crossing the wilderness,
They turn away and desert you,
O thou of evil luck,
Trample the thorns under thy tread,
And along the blood-strewn path,
Walk Alone.
If when the night is troubled
With storm,
They do not hold up the light,
O thou of evil luck,
With the thunder flame of pain,
Ignite thine own heart,
And let it burn alone.
Om.
Talk about courage and valor.
If world peace is hard to imagine, maybe inner peace is easier. Ah, but the inside is as conflict-ridden as the outside. I have been meditating for a while now, and find that I can calm my inner waters for a while, reaching for the still center that underlies all like Jude Hill"s "thing that runs through it" (spiritcloth.typepad.com), but holding that equibrium is dicey. As I consider inner peace I wonder how to maintain it in the face of life's sometimes brutal upheavals. One path that helps me is from Philip Shepherd's book, New Self, New World. He expounds on the concept of wild peace:
"...the present is always doing; the present is always just being. It is a perfect generative unity of male and female, the same generative unity that moves the Tao, the Logos, the artist, the mother and the hero. If we were to describe that dynamic unity, we might say that the precise nature of the present is that of a wild peace. Despite all our efforts to subdue the world's energy or harness it or impose order on its subtle chaos, the world remains wild because the present flows on unstoppably and unpredictably on every scale: from subatomic to galactic, it is a dance of burgeoning transformations of the utmost sensitivity, utterly beyond the reach of any structures of control- an improvised celebration that no one can tame, and to which we all belong. But similarly, and despite all our consternations about the unknown, the wild present is also completely at peace: the One Mind rests in perfect wholeness even as it moves through every trembling leaf, burning star and floating snowflake......The paradox of wild peace, then is the fundamental nature of the world in which we live. You cannot liberate yourself into the dynamic of wholeness-the present cannot live in you and through you- until you liberate yourself to its spirit of wild peace, such that you know that wild peace as a unity and ultimately discover that unity in yourself. To feel peace within is one thing; to feel wildness within is another; to feel your own spirit of wild peace within is to open your heart to the unity of self and world. And then you can celebrate the present in all you do."
Peace as a wild river sounds more like my life than peace as a tranquil pond, although I can go to the pond sometimes. Peace is not boring when we expand our definition to include wild peace. Receptivity to all that is is the key (here's to you Grace (windthread.typepad.com), and you, Michelle (mscomfortzone.blogspot.com)). Keeping my heart open no matter what happens feels like a true act of valor sometimes, but the present must be seen with all the attention we can muster so we will know where to train our work and love and save ourselves from conflict. I can imagine a world where everyone is valued, where children are safe, where work has meaning, and there are no enemies.
So, peace. If it can be imagined, it can be done.