GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

Everybody's talking about:
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m

All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

-John Lennon

When John Lennon penned this verse, it was 1969: a time of turmoil, of conflict, of a general rejection of convention in favor of something new. New ideologies were being hatched and debated endlessly in the forum of popular opinion, and society was flailing to regain its footing in the midst of the destruction of the rules and mores that had held us together in the preceding centuries. Ultimately, however, no ideology can bring about peace. No idea of some new social construct can ameliorate suffering. No intellectual struggle can bring about liberation. Each iteration of an ideology creates its antithesis - it merely acts to polarize. It is the opposite of peace, liberation, and harmony.

Peace is truly ineffable, and to recognize it we have to look beyond our ideas of right and wrong, our opinions about justice, and the belief that when something changes out there things will be right with the world. If you can drop your constructs and ideas about the way things should be, you can discover this peace immediately, and it will resonate the world over.

Maezumi Roshi once said:

“From time to time we complain about all kinds of things about other people, and we feel we are being deceived. My father told us that these others are not living outside ourselves.”

The first step is to realize peace is not out there and is not gained by some sort of reason or imposition of will. If we then drop away our fixed ideas of how we think things should be, and our judgments about how things are, something very magical happens: we wake up to what is.

When we awaken to what is, we come face to face with suffering and witness it firsthand. If we can then just stay with it, if we can stay present and not wax idyllic with judgments and ideas and retreat into rumination something manifests. This something is the recognition of our true selves - and it doesn’t manifest as an idea: it manifests as peace, oneness, and compassion. The idea of self has dropped away and we manifest as the embodiment of compassionate action.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus presents himself to John the Baptist - his forerunner - to be baptized. Clearly, Jesus has no need of baptism by John - but he insists:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. (Matthew 3:13-15)

Jesus pragmatically, and skillfully, works through the fixed ideas of the day so that he can disarm anyone clinging to ideas and conventions and manifest as peace. He becomes selfless as an act of mercy to deliver his message of reconciliation and forgiveness.

As I mentioned before, it begins with being with what is, staying present with what comes up rather than retreating into a story, and skillfully working with what is to manifest as compassion. This is what we are practicing on our cushions, preparing ourselves to bloom as flowers of peace.

Give it a chance? Stop by soon for meditation…