It seems to me that with all of the noise that surrounds us daily, it is easy to see our world as one shrouded in chaos, incompetency and tragedy; that we’re all helplessly and hopelessly destined to march down a path that will only lead to a world torn into little pieces of division, aggression, and moral corruption. Most of us yearn for an alternative world filled with peace, prosperity and goodwill, but, as it has been throughout the history of mankind, that appears to be forever illusive. What wise sages and prophets have preached throughout the ages is that the only real path to attaining peace on this earth is though our own inward transformation which will invariably lead us to outward action. Inward transformation is not isolation. It is not withdrawal nor does it preclude our collective action toward contributing to a more righteous world. On the contrary, there can only be righteous action when there is righteous thinking and there is no righteous thinking when there is no self-knowledge, ergo, without knowing yourself there can be no inner peace and, unless we possess inner peace, there can never be shared outward peace.
For the most part, the ideal of collective world peace bantered about by today’s leaders is merely an escape and an avoidance and a contradiction of what is. Such an ideal of a universal communal awakening among all the peoples of the earth, in my view, actually constructs barriers to our achieving that end by masking our own responsibility to take direct individual action over the only thing we really have control of–ourselves.
To have peace, we have to love. To possess love we must begin with ourselves by knowing ourselves. We begin our journey of self-awareness by not seeing the image of the ideal world as being only one in which all people join hands and see all things as one, but, rather, when see ourselves as we are and act upon that to transform ourselves as necessary.
As long as each of us primarily seeks psychological security, our obsession with the physiological security we need; food, clothing and shelter, becomes secondary. Many will nod their heads and say, “I agree,” and then they go outside and do exactly the same as they have been doing for the last ten or twenty years. Their agreement is merely verbal and has no significance, for the world’s miseries and wars are not going to be stopped by our casual assent. They will be only stopped when we realize the danger, when we realize our responsibility, when we do not leave it to somebody else. If we realize the suffering, if we see the urgency of immediate action and do not postpone, then we will transform ourselves and by doing so, transform the world.
It is my hope that the following story will better illustrate what my conglomeration of words is attempting to communicate:
There was a man who had a little boy that he loved very much. Every day after work the man would return home and play with the little boy. He always tried to spend all of his extra time playing with him for he truly cherished the time spent he with the his child.
One evening, while the man was winding up his day at the office, he realized that in order to meet the deadline that was looming on a major project he was working on he would have to take some work home with him and thus postpone his playing with the little boy he so loved. But, he wanted to be able to give the boy something that would keep him occupied and busy while he devoted himself to his extra work. So, looking around his office, he spotted a magazine with a large map of the world on the cover. It gave him an idea. He removed the magazine’s world map cover and then patiently tore it up into small pieces. Then he put all of the pieces into his coat pocket.
When he got home, the little boy, as was his routine, came running to his father embracing him with his tiny arms and squealing in excited anticipation of their playtime ritual. However, today was different. The man knelt down so that he was eyelevel with his son. He then explained that he had extra work to do and, hence, they would not be able to play just now. Then he led the tot into the dining room, and taking out all of the pieces of the map, he spread them on the table. He explained that it was a map of the world, and by the time he could put it back together, his extra work would be finished, and then they could both play. The man thought to himself, “Surely this will keep my boy busy for hours.”
About half an hour later the boy approached his father and said, “Okay, its finished. Can we play now?”
The father was surprised, saying, “That’s impossible. Let’s go see.”
Sure enough, on the dining room table was the complete picture of the world, all put together, every piece in its place.
The man exclaimed, “That’s amazing, Son! How did you do that?”
The boy replied, “It was simple. On the back of the page was a picture of a man. When I put the man together the whole world fell into place.”
“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.” – Lao Tzu
Have an AWE-full Weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacqué