How do we practice peace? I call it nonviolent living and here again we can go on forever – individually, in our relationships, and in our world. What about nonviolent living with ourselves? How many of us are living driven? We’ve got to get this done, we’ve got to do that thing, and the world is going to end if this doesn’t happen… Can you see how that’s violence? We are doing violence to ourselves. We were never meant to live at the pace that our modern society is calling us to live. Let’s think about that.
We have all these modern conveniences that are making it twice as hard for us to live at times. What is this about? Think about it. We have to acquire them and we have to maintain them. We have to do all these extra things. I think our forefathers gave us something challenging in the pursuit of happiness, because that’s what we do – pursue it continually – instead of accepting that it already is. I constantly say to people and to myself, if amassing all these things, and getting all these things done were really
important and you were to die today, what would you take with you? What’s really important? Where is your energy going?
What about all the over-indulgence in whatever it is? It’s doing violence to ourselves. What about putting ourselves down? Most of us do violence to ourselves in the way we talk about ourselves, in the way we deal with ourselves, instead of seeing ourselves as the very expression of God. How would you treat someone if you knew that right through your front door was coming God Itself right now? What would you do? How would you treat God? How would you experience God? That’s the Truth about who you and I
are. If it’s the Truth that we are individualized expressions of God, then why aren’t we treating ourselves as such? Look at the way we put ourselves down and find ways of making ourselves wrong.
In that chatter that says, not enough, you should be doing this. What’s wrong with that? Why isn’t this happening? Anybody else have that going on? Peace, the practice of peace, is looking in the mirror every day and saying, “I love you exactly as you are.” It’s a very interesting practice. If you haven’t done it for a while, do it for a week. Look in the mirror and say, “I love you just the way you are.” Let it be God’s voice – that Christ nature that’s trying to break through. Let the Buddha nature within
you, let your higher self within you, tell you what it thinks of you. Stand there and look in the mirror so you could hear it coming back. There’s a song, “How Could Anyone Ever Tell You?”, that makes everyone I know cry when they hear it: “How could anyone ever tell you, you were anything less than beautiful? How could anyone ever tell you, you were less than whole? How could anyone fail to notice that your loving is a miracle; how deeply you’re connected to my soul.” How about saying those words as you look
in the mirror? “How could anyone ever tell you?” and that means YOU. That’s the first person where the violence needs to stop. We need to find the peace within ourselves.
There’s a peace inside of us that’s unchanging, that’s transcendent. I love the passage where Jesus said to his disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid. My peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.” That was a promise. Perhaps some of you might not have read the Bible in a long time. I recommend pulling it out and seeing the promises. MY PEACE I GIVE TO YOU. It’s yours. It’s yours already. Are you willing to accept it? Are you willing to take it or are you hell bent on living the way
you want to live, putting yourself down? I have given you a gift. Do you want to use it or not? That’s what I hear happening here. So many of us are in effect saying that we’d rather live in pain and suffering, and would really rather focus on the things that aren’t working in life. Sometimes I think I do that. I wonder why I would rather focus on what’s not working rather than on the gift that I’ve been given? So, focusing on the Qualities of God is an opportunity to focus on that gift that has already
been given to us.
