I look up at the stars and
I feel both small and big at the same time.
Gazing at the stars leaves me with both a sense of wonder and a
realization that we are all on this planet together, connected. This week’s headlines in the world news left
me feeling sad. Headlines that feature
violent acts, which in turn illicit fear, anger, misunderstanding,
disconnection, and calls for revenge and yet more violence. Such stories can lead people to grow fearful
of people that they don’t even know and it can lead to beliefs that there is an
“us” and a “them.”
Recently my husband and I
saw a bumper sticker that read “I am already against the next war.” Yes, indeed, that is how we both feel. Yet, what can we two small individuals do in
the big scheme of things to prevent something as big as war?
I have been reading a book
in bits and pieces, as there is much in it to contemplate and digest. The book is by Ed and Deb Shapiro and is
called Be the Change: How Meditation Can
Transform You and the World. The
authors include amongst their own stories the stories and words of more than
one hundred meditation practitioners.
Those included vary from Oscar award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn, to
Jon Kabat-Zinn who is director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health
Care, and Society, to best-selling author and inspirational speaker Marianne
Williamson.
In one section entitled
“What One Person Can Do” here is what is written:
“One person can make a difference, as we have seen
many times throughout history. Usually,
the only thing that stops us from stepping out and taking action is our own
sense of inadequacy or doubt. Rama had a
vision of bringing people together, and, as a result, nearly 10,000 Soviet and
American citizens have participates in her Citizen Summit programs. And yet when she began this work, she was a
housewife and a yoga teacher with no idea how or if she could do
anything.” Rama Vernon shares this about
her story “The Cold War was at its peak.
The Korean Airlines disaster had recently occurred, bringing us very
close to a nuclear war. As I put my
children to bed, they would ask, ‘Mommy, are we going to be blown up?’ ‘No, of course not,’ I would reply,
reassuring them as much as myself. ‘Our
government would never let that happen.’
And then, through my yoga-teaching work, I was invited to travel with
thirty others on a Peace Mission to the Soviet Union. So, quite
unexpectedly, I was in Moscow,
standing in the center of what Reagan had termed the Evil Empire, behind what Churchill has called the Iron Curtain. I was raised to believe that our thoughts
create our reality, and what scared me most was that I was not alone in my
fear, that thousands of Americans shares those same fear, and that if enough of
us continued to hold those fears, we would create the very thing that we feared
most. I realized that the only way to
change such a stereotype that we have been conditioned to believe is to bring
people face to face with one
another. We could not take the Russians
to the United States, so I resolved to bring the United States to Russia.”
While there is a great
deal of depth in this book, there is also sometimes humor. One such moment is when Ed Shapiro’s shares a
personal story about him and his wife Deb’s private meeting with HH the Dalai Lama:
“After some thirty minutes of discussion, I was feeling so moved by this
gentle, simple, and loving man that I just wanted to stay there and learn from
him. I did not want to leave! I was completely in love with the compassion
and wisdom emanating from this delightful being. Finally, I said to him, ‘I don’t want to
leave; I just want to stay here with you!’ I thought he would say yes, how
wonderful, I recognize your sincerity, but instead he just smiled and said, ‘If
we were together all the time, we would quarrel!’”
It was both surprising and
refreshing to hear that a revered spiritual leader and icon like the Dalai Lama
could admit to at times being quarrelsome.
It also led to a brilliant
realization by Ed when he shares this about relationships:
“So, relax, if HH the
Dalai Lama, someone who meditates for a few hours every day, can quarrel, then
so can we! Inevitably, there are going
to be times when a relationship is troubled, when differences collide and egos
clash, when stories and histories intrude, or needs are not met. But the holding on to such disagreements and
the ensuing shame, blame, and hostile silence is the real problem. There will always be times of flow and times
of discord. Having a disagreement or
even getting angry does not make us an angry person; it is not the whole of
us. Who we are is still basically good;
we needed to make a point and just may have done it in a rather unskilled way.”
 |
| Interfaith Peace mandala |
When Deb and Ed Shapiro were
with the Dalai Lama they also asked him what they could do to help humankind to
awaken to caring and kindness. The Dalai
Lama said that people of different religions should come together in peace and
respect and talk openly, honoring each other’s differences and similarities.
Do you meditate?
If yes, do you do it regularly and why?
What are your thoughts about being the change? Do you feel empowered to create change? If
yes, how? If no, why?
What do you think you could do to make a
difference?
In the midst of events
taking place on the larger political scene there are things that give me hope
and that demonstrate how people from around the world want us to come together
in peace. On elephantjournal.com I came
across a slideshow of photos taken at a pro-USA demonstration in Libya following the deaths of four Americans, including
Ambassador Christopher Stevens. You can find the slideshow of photos by clicking here.
I have also been following
the Israel Loves Iran campaign on Facebook. The photos, letters and stories that continue
to be published on-line are incredibly touching and show the very personal side
of people who do not wish to be at war with one another. Here are a handful of the photos that have
been shared.
Hillary Clinton also made powerful remarks in light of the recent violence.
If you would like to read
more about meditation and transformation ~
Here are some more stories that appear in the book Be the Change:
Sylvia Boorstein – “The
point of meditation is to keep the mind free of confusion. Meditation, past
calming our nerves, past being good for our blood pressure, past allowing us to
work out our own internal psychological dramas, which it does, past helping us
to get along with our kin and our community, is a way of really deeply seeing
the truth that the only way to ameliorate our own suffering and the suffering
of the world is to keep our minds clear.”
Robert Gass and Judith
Ansara – “We can get lost in the story, which usually has fault or blame
attached to it---I’m feeling this because this happened or you said that---and
so we have learned to just drop the story.
Even when we are not in the place that we would like to be, we do not
process about how we got there or about how we are going to get out of it; we
just stop, because otherwise we can start tearing at each other. Usually, one of us will say, ‘Are we having a
conversation that is contributing to the greater good?’ We get connected first and then talk about
what was disconnecting us, rather than tearing at each other from a place of
disconnection, thinking that will get us connected.”
Seane Corn – “First yoga
changed my body; then meditation changed my attitude. Then I realized that whether my practice was
fifteen minutes or four hours was irrelevant because it was not about how yoga
changed me, but how I, through this practice, can being to change the
world. What I really felt was how dare I
not step into the world and hold that space?”
“I first started by
working with child prostitutes in Los Angeles. I did not
know how my life was going to change when I entered the shelter, but I met my
shadow there. I hated those girls ---and
it wasn’t just girls, it was young boys too---they were so arrogant and defiant
as they were so wounded. They were also
like a mirror in which I saw the part of myself that had been abused, and how I
had nto dealt with my own defiance, arrogance, or wounding. They really did not accept me at first. Are you kidding? This big-mouthed, floppy-headed white girls
from new Jersey bounding in to tell them how to do yoga? They slaughtered me! It was the most humiliating experience I had
ever had because I went in trying to fix them.
I did not go in there recognizing that I am them. They took one look at me and were totally
unimpressed. No way I wanted to go back. I sat in my car and cried and cried. The next
time I went, I was way more humble as I had recognized that we were there to
serve each other.”
Ajahn Sumedho – “We are
not isolated entities; we do affect each other.
The more we experience this in meditation, the more we recognize how our
own relationship to society need not be one of just being critical or putting
up with or ignoring it, but of using our abilities, intelligence, and talents
to serve each other. If I feel a sense
of ‘me’ as a self-centered isolated being, then I will just think of my own
immediate pleasure or needs and I have no relationship of sensitivity to
anything else. But as I open to the
truth of our connectedness, then I have a respect for all life; I no longer see
others as just there for my own selfish exploitation.”
Kirsten Westby- “I needed to mediate before I could even
leave my room in the morning. It gave me
the strength to recognize that suffering is the human experience that we all
have in one form or another, and not to feel overwhelmed by it, not to lose my
balance…I worked with Urgent Action Fund for five years, traveling into war
zones and listening to stories of what was happening to women and girls…More
than anything else, meditation released me from anger. I could feel anger coming up, but I knew that
my way of surviving and working in this context was to let it go, to know that
these boys were not the enemy, but were just as much a victim of this whole
machine of war, forced into the army at such a young age. Really there was no enemy; it was just a
whole environment of people who had been used and abused. I would constantly remind myself of their
human qualities so I could start the day without any aggression.”
Joseph Goldstein – “There
is one basic understanding that helps us in every dimension of relationship;
that each one of us is totally responsible for our own emotions. Some time ago, I was in a relationship with
someone and as we were having a little argument, she turned to me and said,
‘Stop making me feel aversion.’ I
started to laugh, which, of course, did not help the situation, but nobody
makes us feel anything. How we feel and
how we relate to what we are feeling is completely up to us. Generally, we blame others for how we feel;
we think others are responsible for our mind states. If we all took responsibility for our own
emotions, then most of our interpersonal relationships would be a lot easier.” “If we have the view that other people are
responsible for how we feel, then we are turning over all the power to
them. We cannot control what other
people do—their minds, their attitudes, or their behaviors. But if we understand that how we are feeling
is completely up to us, then we can reclaim that power. Then, no matter what anybody else does, it is
up to us how we react, how we relate.
Nobody can make us feel a certain way.”
Mark Matousek – “Albert
Einstein described human self-absorption as a kind of optical delusion of
consciousness. Our obsession with
physical survival prevents us from seeing beyond this primitive level, which is
why meditation is so mind blowing.
Dropping below the animal level, we discover another way of seeing and
being that is more vast, inclusive, loving, and durable than the fearful,
self-protective mind we use ordinarily.
With meditation, prayer, yoga, or some tool for reaching through the
selfish mind to our greater nature, we are doomed to remain in the animal
mind.”
