Projection and Tao

It’s difficult to find oneself desiring universal peace and the coming to the hard realization that you’re in a minority. It’s as though it’s unthinkable that someone else might not want peace. But they don’t. Some people believe that violence is the only way to combat what they see as violence. Some people say peace only comes through the willingness to defend it. Some people don’t have a choice and if they want to survive, being violent is the only way they can.

Some, for whatever emotional and cognitive reasons, don’t want peace. These people live in violence and choose it as a way of life, they often offer that they are fighting for peace as they embrace violence. Fighting is its own reward. This position is often tied to the wealth that comes from war and those who seek power.

Gautama was very specific when he encouraged each person to look to their own actions, look to their own philosophies, look to their own hearts, and become those things they found skillful. In this way we can plant seeds of peace in others with the art of attraction. But I don’t find long winded explanations, arguments, or controlling how others live life ever changes their hearts, they may pretend for a while, but the emotional structure will win in the end. I can’t make other people change their hearts vision, only they can do that.

Can we be satisfied with our own peaceful actions? Can we dwell peacefully in our own hearts while others live in chaos? I believe that although it’s a challenging journey to take, it offers the world a vision of peaceful possibilities.

Be at peace, be a lamp unto yourself.

Bryan Wagner