Peace in Our Time

In a recent survey asking people the three things they wished for most, a consistent response was “Peace” or “World Peace”.

Most people would consider ‘peace’ perhaps to be the absence of conflict, and that might be in any context from personal to global, but the absence of all conflict on the planet would seem to be a very difficult state to attain.

But then there’s internal peace, peace within ourselves.

Most people find this very difficult again to achieve as most religions and faiths seem to have a vested interest in maintaining adherents internal conflict so that they turn to the ‘faith’ as an answer.

But there are some faiths, particularly those in Eastern culture that specifically encourage internal peace and provide techniques to achieve it.

Consider what causes conflict, what makes it so difficult for the majority of humanity to achieve either internal peace or peace with each other?

It’s back to those two key motivators that influence most people on this world, fear, and greed.

Fear, or as some would have it ‘false evidence appearing real’, is generally based on ignorance.

Not knowing what other people might do, not knowing how other people think, not knowing what might happen next, and so on.

Fear of the unknown.

There are many passages in religious texts that clearly state that ‘ignorance is sin’ but most people downgrade this definition in favour of believing that ‘sin’ has something to do with sex – it doesn’t, there are no references that state that sex in itself as a ‘sin’, rather the opposite, in that it is more of a duty to ‘go forth and multiply’.

The ‘original sin’ and the ‘fall from grace’ have nothing to do with sex – at least not until the other factor in conflict, greed, comes into play.

The fall from ‘grace’ is about the abandonment or loss of knowledge – ‘sin’ is ignorance.

Ignorance breeds fear, and fear breeds conflict.

So, what about ‘greed’?

Greed can come in many forms and perhaps a better word to describe this emotion is lust.

Lust for power, lust for money, lust for sex, and so on

‘Greed’ encompasses most of the ‘seven deadly sins’ and the others are accounted for by ignorance.

The trouble with that list is that people misinterpret it, especially the ‘sin of lust’ which many people assume simply means ‘sex’ although the two are entirely different concepts.

‘Lust’ despite popular usage, is not just about sex. It’s also about Gluttony, Pride, and Envy, as well as being the same as Greed.

The other two ‘deadly sins’, Wrath and Sloth, are accounted for by ignorance.

These two ‘super-sins’, Ignorance and Lust are the cause of all conflict, internal and external, and the enemy of Peace.

Peace therefore is not just the absence of conflict but also the absence of sin – although it’s really the same thing.

But how does humanity, or just you and I, achieve this state called peace?

Actually, it’s not that difficult.

The mistakes that society makes about achieving peace are first, that it can be achieved by one big action, by ‘everyone’ agreeing, or by a ‘peace treaty’ which actually means very little.

Neville Chamberlain’s ‘piece of paper’ springs to mind.

You see, people say they agree, or agree to differ, but they don’t, they continue to hold incorrect beliefs about the other side (ignorance) or continue to believe they are entitled to something held by the other side (lust).

The second mistake is that ‘peace’ is someone else’s responsibility – someone else will ‘resolve the conflict’ on their behalf, while they continue without changing anything in themselves.

Peace can only be achieved one step at a time – and that process starts with you and I.

The sins of Ignorance and Lust are easy to remove, and when we’ve removed them we automatically become at peace with ourselves.

And until we become at peace with ourselves it’s not possible to be at peace with others.

You and I can resolve ignorance by knowing that we ‘don’t need to know’ and removing any preconceived ideas about things that we don’t know to be true.

When there is something that we don’t know that crosses or approaches our timeline we can speculate on potential responses, but we must not make assumptions, which our subconscious then turns into ‘facts’, about anything we don’t really ‘know’

This is what is called keeping an open mind while being prepared for any eventuality.

Assumptions are, more often than not, wrong, so our mind prepares for the wrong outcome or contact, and everything falls apart resulting in internal and/or external conflict.

When you and I keep an open mind and ‘go with the flow’ whatever ‘happens’ is what the Universe intends to happen

Getting involved with assumptions, fears or plain ignorance just screws everything up.

Lust is usually about wanting something we don’t have or wanting more of something that we do have, and it can be quite focused.

But it’s a bit like driving a car at a brick wall.

What we lust after is on the other side of the wall and to get it we have to conflict with the wall, with whatever is in the way of our objective – usually another person or other people.

Lust arises among people who forget, or just don’t understand, that the Universe will provide.

You and I know that when we have complete clarity about what we want, about who we want to be, and understand the fundamental Laws of Attraction, Gratitude, Reciprocity and so on, then the Universe will provide.

What we want will come about, not always in the way we might have envisaged, but it (or something better) will happen, and within the timescale we set (or sooner).

You and I know hat we don’t need to know too much about the ‘how’ of these things being achieved, it’s ‘above our pay grade’, but those who suffer from lust focus more on the how they will get something they want and just go for it not understanding that the Universe will react to their actions with some form of retribution.

Get clarity on your visions and dreams and don’t be concerned about how it will happen – the actions you need to take will come to you.

Disregard what you don’t yet know and don’t make assumptions about ‘alternate realities’; you will be drawn to learn about whatever you do need to know.

Have a peaceful week.