All beings tremble before violence.
All fear death.
All love life.
See yourself in
others.
Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do?
He who seeks
happiness
By hurting those who seek happiness
Will never find happiness.
For your brother
is like you.
He wants to be happy.
Never harm him,
And when you leave this life
You too will find happiness.
(Buddha)
Violence
Our culture has
embraced
violence to a serious extent.
It is a part of who and
what we are.
We are excited by visually stimulating imagery but ignore the reality of
violence.
Violence means brutality, pain, fear and emotional upset.
Conflict
Conflict is the root of violence.
When the idea and reality do not correspond, people frequently become upset.
This behaviour stems from early childhood and reflects the need to
demonstrate emotion in order to gain attention.
These people grow to become bullies and use their emotional instability to
impose upon others.
At the root of their aggression lies
fear.
Peace
When conflict ceases, peace occurs naturally.
This sounds straightforward in principle but is more complex in reality.
Few people are prepared to
let-go of anything - thoughts, opinions,
memories, adverse emotions, greed...
Even people who are dedicated to peace are often crippled by their own
opinions and create conflict in their effort to bring about peace.
It is easy to attach yourself to a cause yet the very notion of 'fighting
for peace' seems fraught with contradiction.
You cannot accomplish peace by going on marches and demonstrations; shouting
and waving banners.
Such behaviour is hostile and promotes conflict.
Peace occurs when conflict ends...
Compassion
Compassion is easy.
It simply requires that you look at another and see that they too deserve a
happy life.
If you can see yourself in the other,
they cease to be your enemy or your food source.
Love
Love is not just
romance and sex.
Caring for your partner, family and friends is as much to do with possession
as love.
Love is feeling rather than thinking.
Nobody who feels could comfortably be
cruel to another or lack compassion
for any
living thing.
When you love, you see friendship in every face, harmony in every leaf - and
you experience
tremendous sense of warmth and belonging.
Page created 8 January 1999