Being Peace

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.

Thich Nhat Hanh:

Being Peace

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First of all, I put my feet on this particular path, not because I was seeking to become righteous, but because I finally understood that I was, in fact, quite insane. We repeat this as an essential part of our recovery in the Second Step of AA when we say; Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

   Finally, once I recognized that my drinking and drug use was insane, I also came to understand that much of what I did besides drinking could be considered insane too. This has proven to be a far more profound admission than the first one. I needed to get a full grasp of the meaning of insanity if I ever was going to cede to a Power great enough to restore sanity to me in all my affairs. Chogyam Trungpa calls much of what I believe in, and act on, to be a neurosis even when I think I have gotten myself on the right spiritual path. This he calls Spiritual Materialism because I am prone to drift into what I think of as profound spirituality in things that are, frankly, none of my business. Based on fear, fear based spirituality is the root of much of the suffering caused by what goes on in the name of righteousness; right practice, right thinking and political correctness.

   The man quoted in my opening meditation was in the forefront of the movement to end the Viet Nam War during the chaos of the late sixties. However, Thich Nhat Hanh didn’t lead by protesting but he walked through peaceful action. Too often protests were nothing more than an attempt by certain leaders to, manipulate and contrive a legitimate anxiety over that War, to acquire power for themselves. To accept my own insanity is to begin by refraining from inflicting it on others. If I am to pretend to end all suffering I must be clear on how I must end my own suffering.

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