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Perspective<br />
Is Peac<br />
ace<br />
Possible<br />
sible?<br />
Cassandra Kish<br />
Lokaha samasta sukhino bhavanthu. May<br />
all beings, everywhere, be peaceful<br />
and free. This simple mantra is<br />
repeated daily by many a yogi, it is used to<br />
invoke vibrations of peace. Is it wishful<br />
thinking on the part of the person who<br />
repeats this chant that sending a certain<br />
vibration out into the atmosphere could<br />
actually have an effect? Is world peace<br />
possible? Is it something that humanity<br />
actually desires, to live among people of<br />
different origins and beliefs and not let<br />
these differences bother you? Does the<br />
human race tend to accept people who are<br />
“not in the group”?<br />
At a glance, war has been part of human history since time immemorial. In general the best<br />
predictor of the future is the past, so one would conclude peace is not possible. You don’t<br />
need to be an incredibly educated scholar to see the majority of humanity thinks and acts<br />
with a team mentality, excluding a person or group and setting themselves against the<br />
others. Inevitably arguments erupt within the groups, further segregating and ostracizing<br />
people seen as different. We have been walking the Earth for many years, you’d think we<br />
would be a little further along in the patience and acceptance departments.<br />
THE LARGER QUESTION AT HAND - “IS PEACE DESIRED BY HUMANITY?”<br />
It isn’t necessary to plumb the depths of history to come to the conclusion that conflict<br />
seems to be the desired outcome and here we are..... War, Genocide, Revolution on the<br />
world scale... divorce, pub brawls, and suicide on a small scale.<br />
We, as a society, talk a good game. Meaning we speak of World Peace, donate money,<br />
participate in the yogic practices hoping to bring about peace and then, not 5 minutes off<br />
of our mats we are criticizing something or someone for being unacceptable or different.<br />
If we look at current events we gravitate towards the extreme. It seems we have become<br />
immune to the scenes of horror that are flashed on the nightly news as the commentators<br />
pontificate about their version of what is right and wrong. The level of violence and bad<br />
behavior we are willing to accept is quite high. We don’t recognize the damage done when<br />
we speak negatively about someone, when we team build against someone that we<br />
consider different. This somehow makes being in the middle of a conflict okay.<br />
WORLD PEACE BEGINS WITH YOUR THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS<br />
If there were a “Fear-ometer” attached to every single person, we would be more closely<br />
familiar with the bully who demeans and criticizes because his level of Fear is so high it is<br />
impossible for him to have a decent thought, a positive thought unless someone else is<br />
being demeaned. This is where we begin, the rule is simple… if you are having a negative<br />
thought, change the thought. If you have a negative thought and you have voiced this<br />
opinion to someone, you are team building and your thought is not based in reality. If you<br />
find yourself defending your negative thoughts and actions as though you were defending<br />
your child or best mate, now you are in trouble. It is necessary to divorce your self from<br />
this thought process. These little things that seem harmless have a huge effect on the<br />
energy we put out.<br />
One person or a small group can cause huge change in society at large. When one person<br />
gives blood, it makes a difference to the whole, when one family recycles paper and plastics,<br />
it makes a difference, when one person decides to stay quiet when a negative thought comes<br />
to mind, it contributes to world peace. We have examples in history of people who have<br />
vigilantly stuck to their positive ideals and morals… they are the men and women who<br />
changed the world.<br />
A closer look at world history reveals these “Guardians of Peace” who have devoted their<br />
lives to non-violence in an effort to uphold ideals of mutual respect and human rights.<br />
These great souls are found in every generation and are from every continent. In general the<br />
Peacemakers are not accepted in society at large. It would seem that militaristic, warring<br />
leaders are more within our comfort zone.<br />
Wayne Dyer says “We honor our living conformists and our dead trouble makers.” This<br />
statement hits home when we consider the lives of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King,<br />
Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Rosa Parks, Henry David<br />
Thoreau and Jesus Christ, to name only a few. All of them were either beaten, jailed or put<br />
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