For the next four weeks, we’re delving into an in-depth discussion about putting our spiritual ideals into action. All of the reading selections will come from an article in the Spring/Summer 2017 Blue Mountain Journal, a special issue with the theme, “Turning Ideals Into Action: The Spiritual Challenge”.
While you may have seen the Journal by now, we wanted to share the following excerpt with you here. The eSatsang offers a unique venue to take this theme deeper, and engage with each other on these important conversations.
What success have you had with being rooted in love, whilst being in the face of criticism or disagreement? If it hasn’t gone so well, what ideas do you have to prepare for the next time? Do you have other reflections on Easwaran's words?
If you are still having any issues making comments below, please watch this 2 minute tutorial or write to us at esatsang@easwaran.org.
The excerpt below is from the Spring/Summer 2017 Blue Mountain Journal, by Eknath Easwaran.
Make Peace Your State of Mind
“Peace,” according to Spinoza, “is not an absence of war. It is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, trust, and justice.”
From this one quotation, you can see how far beyond politics the mystics’ definition of peace goes.
There is a vital connection, they assure us, between the peace or violence in our minds and the conditions that exist outside. When our mind is hostile, it sees hostility everywhere, and we act on what we see. If we could somehow attach a monitor to the mind, we would seethe indicator swing into a red danger zone whenever consciousness is agitated by forces like anger and self-will. Acting in anger is not just the result of an agitated mind; it is also a cause, provoking retaliation from others and further agitation in our own mind.
In order to do effective peace work, to reconcile individuals, communities, or countries, we have to have peace in our mind. If we pursue peace with anger and animosity, nothing can be stirred up but conflict.
I knew hundreds of students in India during Gandhi’s long struggle for independence from the British Empire. I met hundreds more in Berkeley during the turbulent sixties, when students all over the country were honestly trying to work for peace. I watched their relationships with one another, especially with those who differed with them, and I saw that these relationships often were not harmonious. If your mind is not trained to make peace at home, Gandhi would ask, how can you hope to promote peace on a larger scale? Until we develop enough mastery over our thinking process to maintain a peaceful attitude in all circumstances – a “disposition for benevolence” – we are likely to vacillate when the going gets tough, without even realizing what has happened.
After some of those demonstrations that were capturing headlines, I used to remind my friends that agitating for peace and actually bringing it about are not necessarily the same. Stirring up passions, provoking animosity, and polarizing opposition may sometimes produce short-term gains, but it cannot produce long-term beneficial results because it only clouds minds on both sides. Progress comes only from opening others’ eyes and hearts, and that can happen only when people’s minds are calmed and their fears allayed. It is not enough if your political will is peaceful; your entire will should be peaceful; the whole of your personality should be nonviolent.
The meaning of nonviolence
It is a living law, a law governing all of life, that ends and means are indivisible. Right means cannot help but lead to right ends; and wrong means – waging war, for example, to ensure peace – cannot help but result in wrong ends. Gandhi went to the extent of telling us to use right means and not worry about the outcome at all; the very laws of our existence will ensure that the outcome of our efforts will be beneficial in the long run.
“Select your purpose,” he challenged, “selfless, without any thought of personal pleasure or personal profit, and then use selfless means to attain your goal. Do not resort to violence even if it seems at first to promise success; it can only contradict your purpose. Use the means of love and respect even if the result seems far off or uncertain. Then throw yourself heart and soul into the campaign, counting no price too high for working for the welfare of those around you, and every reverse, every defeat, will send you deeper into your own deepest resources.”
If we grasp this great truth – that the Lord lives in each and every one of us, regardless of who we are – we will never be discourteous to others, we will never be unkind, we will never try to avoid people, we will always be glad to work in harmony with those around us. Then it becomes impossible to quarrel, to be angry, to hurt others, to move away. This doesn’t mean weakening your convictions or diluting your principles. Disagreeing without being disagreeable is one of the arts of civilized living.
This is what Gandhi means by nonviolence, and he calls it the most active force in the world. You don’t retaliate, you don’t retire; you just stand where you are, firmly rooted – rooted in wisdom, rooted in love, unshakably kind in the face of criticism, opposition, calumny, or slander.