World Peace Begins Within
by Hale Dwoskin
At our core, every human being contains the seed for world peace within them. This seed for world peace is our own presence of awareness or intuitive knowingness. In most of us, our awareness appears to be covered over by many layers of contrary beliefs, attitudes, thinking and feeling. We often treat these coverings as though they are who we are and as though they are the truth, thereby forgetting that we can simply let them go. This article explores a few of the key perspectives and processes that you can use to dissolve, see through, or let go of these obstructive beliefs, thoughts and feelings. These inner actions, when done in combination with positive external action, can make a huge difference in the outcome of our efforts to save this beautiful planet.
Be For the Solution and Let Go of the Problem
Since our world is a reflection of what we think and feel, what we resist or oppose grows stronger. We create our reality based on what the mind can picture. If you’re anti-war, for instance, what you are picturing is war, not peace. So, the best way to support any cause is to be for the solution, rather than being opposed to the problem. As you take action toward supporting world peace, hold in mind what you would like to achieve. If you find your mind fighting the problem, do your best to let go of the fight and refocus on your desired outcome.
Using world peace as an example, you can use these questions taken from The Sedona Method: Am I fighting or resisting war in this moment? Could I welcome whatever feeling this brings up within me? Could I let go of this feeling of fight or resistance? Would I let it go? When?
Dissolve Your Hate
To the degree we hate anyone, we hate everyone. If we feel darkness in our hearts, we tend to project and attract that into our world. We then feel like we have to fight with our world in order to accomplish positive change. The more we feel like we have to wage war for peace, the more we create the opposite in our experience. It is critically important that we work on our own inner landscape in addition to working on the outer landscape to create lasting peace on earth. The best way to do this is to let go of fear, frustration, hate, doubt or whatever inner obstacles you may be facing personally as you strive to do good. As you let go, you will naturally uncover the peace that is at your core and you’ll find that the outer opposition melts away as well.
You can use these Holistic Releasing questions to assist you. Ask the following two questions in succession several times and allow these two opposing energies to dissolve into each other. Could I allow myself to feel as hateful as I do? Could I allow myself to feel as loving as I do? Continue to ask these two questions one after the other until you feel your inner peace and love shinning through.
Become Transparent
As you move to help others, you may experience opposition as the world appears to push back. This can take the form of others resisting or doubting your efforts, acting threatened by you, or your own difficulty in following through on positive actions. In order not to collapse under this intense pressure, it is important to learn to become as transparent as you can to these turbulent energies as they appear to come at you.
Our reflex when challenged in this way is to contract, shut down, protect ourselves or simply push harder. When we protect ourselves in this manner, we are merely holding in the pain and suffering. Even though it is counter intuitive, the safest and most effective thing you can do when being challenged is to let go of whatever feelings this brings up within you. Open inside and become as transparent as possible. Transparency is what’s here naturally when you don’t erect artificial walls around you.
As you become transparent, you will discover that you actually feel safer and have more energy to support positive change. This allows you to act from what you know is best in each situation, rather than getting caught in defensive reacting.
If you find yourself shutting down or burning out, simply ask yourself: Could I welcome whatever is being experienced in this moment? Could I also welcome any wanting to do anything with this experience? By welcoming what you are experiencing, you naturally open, let go, and allow these energies to pass through your awareness.
Lasting Peace Is Beyond Belief
Recognize that the solution is beyond our beliefs. Most of us find that we get lost in or identify with our beliefs, both positive and negative. When we come across a belief in the world that we feel is destructive to the planet or ourselves, we tend to oppose the belief by trying to construct a positive belief in its stead. However, if you allow yourself to explore this, you will see that these opposing beliefs spar with each other, feeding each other and keeping conflict alive.
The best solution is to go beyond belief. This supports yourself and others in trusting their own direct knowingness rather than any belief. This helps us to allow everyone to believe what they choose and creates the opening to move beyond belief to our inner intuitive knowingness and trust in our positive thoughts and deeds. This knowingness that we are is a very powerful place from which to create positive change.
If you find yourself slipping into defending or attacking a belief, first remember that your beliefs are not who you are, nor are the beliefs of others who they are. Then, as best you can, let go of the desire to defend your beliefs and attack the beliefs of others.
If you find yourself getting stuck in defending a belief, you can ask yourself: Could I allow myself to welcome this belief? Could I let go of wanting to defend, justify, explain or prove it to myself or others? Could I let go of wanting to believe that again? If you find yourself feeling compelled to challenge others’ beliefs, you can ask yourself: Could I allow myself to let to of wanting to attack, discredit, argue with or disprove this belief? Could I grant this person or group the right to believe as they do?
Break Free of the Ego
True peace is beyond the individual. As long as we believe that we are separate from others, we feel unsafe and need to fight for our own survival in a hostile world. This prevents us from supporting an inner and outer environment of peace. The best way to go beyond this artificial sense of separation is to examine our basic assumptions about ourselves.
In this moment, see if you can actually find the “me” if you do not go into memory. If you are open to it, you will discover that in this moment there is no separate me at all.
You can also ponder simple questions like: Am I the body or am I that which is aware of the body? Am I the thoughts I think, or am I that which is aware of thinking? Am I in this body or is the body an appearance in or on the awareness that I am?
As you ponder these questions, examine your basic assumptions, and are open, you may just discover that what you are is not a separate person, but rather the presence of awareness in or on which the thought of “me” appears. As you discover that you are not actually separate, you feel safe and at peace within, which translates naturally into positive outward action that supports the whole. You become the living embodiment of peace.
I highly encourage you to explore these simple shifts in consciousness in order to bring the peace that is at your core into your every moment experience. The more energy you put into exploring these positive inner actions, the more you will find that your outward actions bear more fruit, and you will also find that your own experience of living will change dramatically for the better.
As we practice loving kindness and compassion in the world in order to give inner peace a chance, remember it is also important to let go of whatever is inside of us that is obscuring the peace that is already within. By letting go, we allow the flower of peace to bloom in our hearts and take root in the world. |
