I heard a story today that I would like to share with you. During the Vietnam War, an older man by the name of A.J. Muste, who was a lifelong pacifist, stood in front of the White House in North America night after night. Every night for years, he would turn up, holding a lighted candle in a one-person protest.
One rainy night, a reporter asked him, "Mr. Muste, do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night with a candle?"
"Oh," Muste replied, "I don't do it to change them. I do it so they won't change me.”
It may seem ridiculous to some to share a meditation for peace at such a time in the world. Like Mister Muste’s protest, meditation is often conflated with not being a realistic part of the world. But in truth, real meditation reveals our true selves to us, and more than this, it unearths the nature of existence. At times such as these, to know oneself, to see the conditioning and the biases that have been programmed into us, and to understand the sacred aspect of awareness that is within you is not just the greatest protest; it is the road to action and change. It is the only way we will change anything towards the good in a sustainable way. This knowing rather than believing connects you deeply to the family of life. It leads quickly from the typical reactivity, tyranny and warring we see and engage in back to a place of responsiveness and meaningful action.
In my other space, The Open Space, on our Authentic Living website, we often talk about how facing one’s conditioning and programming is the true act of courage. It is the coward who resorts to war, who destroys another from greed, but the one of courage is the one who can sit with another, who is perhaps unlike them, in ‘worldly terms’ and shut the hell up, so to allow themselves to be with the other at the level of being. What happens then? This is the opportunity that is truly on offer. This is the offering I share with anyone interested through the sharing of the teachings and the practices. It may look like it needs ‘courage’ and ‘fearlessness’, but actually, what is really required is only an inch of imagination and only an inch of love. That is enough.
This meditation was recorded in a live online session. It contains readings from the Tao Te Ching and The Prayer of St. Francis, which were requested during the practice. I hope you find this session a healing place where you can draw strength so that you may be responsive and active in a meaningful way as we teeter on the brink in these - our times.
Lots of Love - Let me know how you get on
John
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