Waging Peace

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If the Earth were your body, you would be able to feel the many areas where it is suffering. War, political and economic oppression, famine and pollution wreak havoc in so many continents. Everyday, children are becoming blind from malnutrition, their hands searching hopelessly through mounds of trash for a few ounces of food.

Adults are dying slowly in prisons for trying to oppose violence. Rivers are dying and the air is becoming more and more polluted and with difficulty to breathe. Although the two great super powers are becoming little more friendly, they still have sufficient nuclear weapons to destroy the Earth of dozen times.

Many more people are aware of the world's suffering; their hearts are filled with compassion, they know what needs to be done and they engage in political, social and environmental work to try to change things around. But after a period of intense involvement, they may become discouraged if they lack the strength needed to sustain a life of action. Real strength is not in power, money or weapons, but in deep, inner peace.

Practising mindfulness in each moment of our daily lives, we can cultivate our own peace. with clarity, determination and patience, the fruits of meditation, we can sustain a life of action and be real instruments of peace.

We had seen this peace in people of various religious and cultural backgrounds who spend their time and energy protecting the weak, struggling for social justice, lessening the disparity between the wealthy and the poor, stopping the arms race, fighting against discrimination and watering the trees of love and understanding throughout the world.

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