I've been thinking a lot lately about processes of peace. I've always seen peace more as this process and less as the noun to which we so typically associate the term. Peace, the noun, can't possibly be achieved without peace, the verb. This seems like pretty basic knowledge to me.
Our society teaches us to love our egotistical selves--the self which we portray to the world in our experiences with other people. For many of us, this self manifests itself at work, in school, at the pub, at parties, at family gatherings. Perhaps we have so many "selves" that we are a different one each time we enter the world. This isn't too hard of a suggestion.
Perhaps we ought not to be concerned with people loving these "selves" too much (though we might want to think about this), perhaps we ought to be concerned with loving our true self, our internal self, our personal nature, our Inner Light (call it anything you want to have this make sense).
No process of healing can begin if the self is neglected. No process of peace can begin with conflicted souls. Or maybe it can, but it cannot be sustained without a constant devotion to loving your self. Only in loving our self can we even hope to begin to learn to love others and their self.
And what a hard process love is! Would you die for your self? I can't answer--I don't feel like I even KNOW my self. How do you know your self? I am more a novice than you, readers, and I struggle to find this truth.
Resoundingly yours.
the way of peace
- quaker j
- is a student, an activist, a quaker, a poet, a friend, a philosopher, an athlete, a chef, an intern, an educator, a learner, an emoter, a lover, a son, a brother, a grandson, a cousin, a child, a post-modern creation, an avatar, a cultural representation, a social animal, a human life.
3 comments:
Assumes facts not in evidence. Do you have a self? Or do you just assume that you must because that's what you've been conditioned to think?
What is a "self"? Does rain have a self?
We say "The rain is falling." As if rain has a "selfhood" about being rain. But, if it's not falling, it's not rain.
So is it rain only when it starts to fall. What is rain before it begins to fall?
google law firm
I found this when I googled the words "resounding peace". I've also been contemplating the idea of active peace. How do we encourage people to engage in peace? What does that even look like? Is it enough to avoid conflict? or is it more about how you avoid it, not so much as staying away from it or letting others get away with wrongful actions, but confronting aggression with peace, as an opposite and cancelling force; the action of accepting another's aggression and transforming it into compassion and understanding... I don't know. What do you think?
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