Peace in Action

Recycling a post from a couple years back today.   

“Let us take the risks of peace upon our lives, not impose the risks of war upon the world.” Quaker Proverb
 
Peaceful action, in my opinion, has little to do with how forceful or how tranquil the action itself is. Rather, the relevant inquiry is to examine the perspective from which the action arises. Even an action of great force can come from a equanimity of mind. When there is a true embrace of our shared humanity, I believe that even quite fierce or outwardly violent actions have the potential to move us toward peace. Internal state is where peace starts, and I believe that it's only through actions arising from an internal state of peace that we can bring the peace we have cultivated inside ourselves to the world around us.

On a wide scale, I believe humans have fallen into quite a different pattern. Our actions, large and small, aggressive and docile, are much more often fueled by a state of blameful separation and anger. The problem is that whether these actions succeed or fail in the short run, when we step back, we can start to notice that actions to taken with this blameful intention are in vain. The beast we think we are fighting just keeps getting stronger; it just keeps reappearing and morphing into more ruthless forms.

When Gandhi said “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” I don't see this as just a line of idealistic poetry. He was stating an observation about how certain kinds of actions work in the world. When we act in the hope for vengeance, in a belief that elimination and punishment will heal our wounds and make us safe, we become blind.

I notice a strong resistance to understand what offends us, and I think it is because we’re afraid that understanding would be like condoning or empowering what we think is wrong. So instead, we quite often choose to hate that which offends us. We choose the course of doing whatever it takes to eliminate, block, or oppose that which offends us. And in this course of action, we miss seeing an obvious pattern at work.

I believe that the opposite of our conditioned instincts is true. It is our resistance to understand, and the resulting hatred and loss of integrity that IS condoning and empowering the behavior that offends us. We're sending a clear message about what we think of as an empowered voice of opposition, and it actually invites the other side to continue speaking to us in the same language.

“Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” Gandhi

Entertain the possibility that this isn’t merely a lofty metaphor, but a statement of actual truth. Gandhi’s movement to free India shows how this principle can actually work to break the chain of violence and injustice. Gandhi was so unique in his approach to opposition. He never lost faith in the British; he firmly held that if they really knew what they were doing and saw it clearly, they would leave India. And as we all learned, he was right, and in my humble opinion, this faith in his enemy was one of the most unique and powerful waves of change the world has ever seen.