The only way out is in

We can never obtain peace in the world if we neglect the inner world and don't make peace with ourselves. World peace must develop out of inner peace. Without inner peace it is impossible to achieve world peace, external peace. Weapons themselves do not act. They have not come out of the blue. Man has made them. But even given those weapons, those terrible weapons, they cannot act by themselves. As long as they are left alone in storage they cannot do any harm. A human being must use them. Someone must push the button. Satan, the evil powers, cannot push that button. Human beings must do it.

The Dalai Lama

In yoga we believe that there can be no world peace without inner peace.  "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he."- Proverbs 23:7.    Every action begins with a thought. If you want peace in your world, schools, malls, neighborhoods, and home YOU MUST become that peace. Individual by individual we can change the collective consciousness.

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.” 

Mahatma Gandhi 

God is Divine intelligence, consciousness, the creator of everything.  Each and everyone of us has this intelligence, this divinity within.  But we were also given free will.  Our consciousness can be used towards good or evil- the choice is ours. In the yoga scriptures, The Yoga Sutras by Patangali, the second sutra (instruction) states,  

YOGA CITTA VRITTI NIRODHAH

 

This means, the restraint of the modification of the mind stuff is yoga.  In plain English, one way to look at this is that our mind is our biggest enemy, because it is subject to evil and idle thoughts. Once we begin to take over the whims of the mind and start cultivating a practice of inner peace and harmony the world as we see it begins to change. Ultimately this is also how we connect to the God within by quieting the mind (ego) and in the space of inner peace we yoke up, unite, become one with God.  It is also in this place that we are able to see the God in everyone else.  If  you recognized the divinity within yourself as well as the divinity within the other person, would you could you blow them to pieces? You can not know this divinity within unless you experience it for yourself.  At this point you might be saying to yourself, "Sure that sounds like a nice idea but all this horrible stuff that is happening in the world is reality.  This inner peace crap is not reality, innocent people are dying."  

 

I'll use the example of an orange.  Squeeze an orange and what do you get? Apple juice?  No you can only get orange juice.  Squeeze a person who is grounded in inner peace are you going to get violence?  No, only peace.  Squeeze a person who angry, frustrated, fearful, greedy or mad, will you get violence- absolutely.  

 

Lets be real for a moment.  Have the wars, or guns, or weapons produced a safer more peaceful world?  Are we really free when our public spaces have now become targets for massacres?  Really how different are we than those in war torn countries? How else are we going to achieve peace?   There is a lot of controversy given all the  recent violence here in the U.S. about gun control. Some say get rid of all guns. Some say everyone should be required to own a gun, but really guns are not the main issue. The issue is that way too many people are spiritually bankrupted and their inner worlds are chaos. When the inner world is violent, anything can become a weapon.

 

That is why it is sooooo important to cultivate a spiritual practice in order to have inner peace, joy and happiness. Spirituality is action.  To just simply say you are a spiritual person, maybe go to church, and pray when you want something is not a spiritual practice.  Your spiritual practice must be worked upon daily.  Every action creates an equal and opposite reaction.  And every action comes from a thought.  It is crucial to start taking control of your thoughts. Even more now than ever, in our plugged in world, lack of control of our own thoughts has led to many destructive behaviors.  Daily prayer and meditation is a great place to start.  Even if it's only 5 to 10 minutes a day. Consistency along with desire to grow will do wonders for your mental well-being.  It won't change over night but it will begin to change.

 

I am going to start doing some more spiritual posts under the label "this spiritual life".  Please note I am simply sharing my experiences and do not claim any authority.  The only true authority is your personal experience.  Until you experience a thing you can not know it's truth.  Next week I will do a post on how to start to cultivate your own spiritual practices.  Until then, peace be with you!