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Shahriar Shahriari |
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Message of the Month
October, 2001
Peace
With much of the world gripped by the claws of fear, anger and hate, and poisoned by the venom of temptations of War, many of us are persuaded to justify our intentions to "fight for Peace" - the ultimate oxymoron.
In our haste to restore calm, we tend to overlook the fact that "Peace" is not an outcome, but a state of being, an attitude if you will.
Peace is not something out there to attain. It is a perspective, a worldview. Peace is the ability to separate the reaction from the action. The courage to accept what has happened and what is, as just that. And the wisdom to know that what is to come can be completely independent of what has transpired.
Peace is a possibility, and a choice. It is knowing that I can set into motion any chain of reactions that I choose. That I can either react to what has happened, or I can choose to proactively create new beginnings.
The next time I get upset with my family, or get angry with my boss, I can take a deep breath and remember that I don't need to react to them. I don't need a trigger to determine my next action. I can start from nothing, and instead of resisting my family or fighting my boss, I can inspire them to also pause and make different choices. I can be the cause of a new chain of events.
And as it is with my family and my boss, so it is with my neighbor and friend, be they in the house next door, or the country across the oceans.
And as it is with my neighbor and friend, so it is with my adversary and enemy. To love my enemy is not to subjugate myself to their unwise choices, but to inspire them to find out and rise above their pettiness. But to do this, I must first rise above my own pettiness.
To pause, to ponder, to proactively create, and to patiently rehabilitate - that is what it takes to bring Peace to my life and to my world.
Peace unto you and to the lives that you touch.
© Shahriar Shahriari
Los Angeles, CA
October 2001
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