Staying Centered in
Peace
by
As a chaplain at a local church I am trained to see
the “highest good” even when things on the outside seem contrary. I am
trained to see the perfect expression of God in all situations. So for
example, I have been taught to see beyond outer manifestations such as disease,
and see the inherent wholeness and perfection in all people.
Yet when the events of September 11, 2001 happened,
it was a struggle to see beyond the pain. I just couldn’t see the
“good” in the situation, when all I felt was pain and all I could see all
around me was tragedy and devastation. Yet, I knew I would be called to
pray with others and would need to come to terms with my own feelings regarding
this horrible tragedy. I would need to find my own “peace” of mind
regarding the horrific events.
As a person on this
spiritual journey, like many of you, I seek advice and solace from many mentors
in the spiritual/ personal growth arena. So I wondered what some of the
great minds I had studied, like Neale Donald Walsch, Marianne Williamson and
others would say about the recent tragedy. What would their perspective
be, and what words of wisdom would they offer to help me and others move beyond
the paralysis of pain to the comfort of healing? Thus the book Peaceful
Earth: Spiritual Perspectives on Hope and Healing Beyond Terrorism came to
fruition.
After reading the
collection of stories and insights from all of these spiritual teachers, I was
able to come to a place of peace and centeredness. I was able to go
forward with a feeling of expectancy for all the good that could come about.
I was filled with hope and peace. I know anyone that reads these powerful
messages will also be able to stay centered in peace.
All the stories and perspectives in the book have a
common theme. Even though there are many different authors, and many
different ways of saying or expressing their feelings they all basically say the
same thing. And in order to demonstrate the three main themes I would like
to tell you a story. I often see things in stories, so I would like to
share this one with you.
It was Christmas-time at a crowded bus station.
One man stood out in the crowd. Why? Because he was rude and
obnoxious. He had an angry face filled with hatred; you could see it in
his eyes. His forehead was crinkled and he glared at anyone he made eye
contact with.
The man reeked of body odor, and his physical
appearance was disheveled. He wore mangled clothes, and his facial hair
was matted together.
His language was obscene, and under his breath he
was cursing at everyone.
Not only that, but he was obscenely drunk. He teetered and stammered as
he bumped into anyone in his path. He had no concern for the space of
others.
People at the bus station were getting upset at the
actions of this vile man. Many of them decided to push him back when he
bumped into them.
One young man, pushed the drunken man when he bumped
into him, and said, “Watch where you’re going, Jerk.”
As the man pushed the drunken man, he became easily
off balance and bumped into more people. Everyone started pushing back and
yelling things like, “Jerk, Scum”
This only fueled the anger already in the man’s
heart. He cursed louder and became more obscene. Before you knew it,
everyone in the bus station was full of anger and disgust.
Suddenly one man pushed the drunken man so hard,
that he fell over and landed near a woman sitting on a bench with her
eight-year-old daughter.
The eight-year-old girl looked at the man trying to
get up, and then looked at her mom. “We should help him, don’t you
think?” she asked her mom.
The mother responded, “Normally, dear, we’d
help, but not in this situation. This is different.” The mother
silently prayed that the vile man would not come over and disturb them.
Suddenly, the little girl got up and went over to
the man, who had at this time stood up.
The little girl looked the man directly in the eyes
and said, “Sir, why are you so angry?”
The drunken man slurred and yelled at the little
girl to go away. “Leave me alone,” he yelled.
The little girl was persistent. She pulled on
his shirt and got the man’s attention.
“Leave me alone, get away from me,” he slurred.
The little girl again, looked him in the eyes and
said, “The reason I asked is because I was wondering if there was anything I
could do to help?”
The man froze in his tracks. The angry look on
his face softened, and he broke into tears.
The three of them; the drunken man, the little girl
and the mother, cried together.
They found out that a year ago, the drunken man’s
wife had died. They had been living paycheck to paycheck as it was and
with the high cost of funeral expenses, and the downgrade to only one salary,
the man took a turn for the worse. He lost his car and lost his home, and
most importantly, he lost the love of his life. He became homeless.
On that day, the year anniversary of his wife’s
death, he had sold his only winter jacket in order to get bus fare so he could
visit his wife at the cemetery.
Many of you may be wondering how this story relates
to the recent terrorist events. Yet, there are three principles
demonstrated in that story that parallel our recent tragedy.
The first is that behind every act of lashing out in
anger, there is a deep-rooted pain. We may not know what it is, but the
outward manifestation is anger. Like the drunk man in the bus station. All
we see on the outside is a disgusting man with no respect for others. We
don’t know his situation, we don’t know his pain. We just see the
outside manifestation of his anger. Yet, all anger has pain at its root.
In order to solve the problem, like Neale Donald
Walsch said in the book, we must look at the cause, or the root of the problem.
If we ignore the deep-rooted pain, or the cause of the anger, the problem will
not go away and we will never fully heal.
I love Jean Houston’s analogy in the book when she
likens the terrorist events to a cancer. To further the analogy, if we
rely on the doctors to remove the problem, (like we’re relying on government
to solve the problem) through surgery, but we continue to smoke, for example,
than we haven’t solved the root problem, which is the cigarettes. The
doctors can keep performing surgery to remove pieces of the diseased lung, but
until the culprit (cigarettes) is stopped the problem will continue to manifest.
So I ask all of us to not just look at the outward
manifestation, which was the act of terrorism but to look at the cause behind
the bombing and to remember that behind every lashing out in anger there is a
deep-rooted pain.
Second, anger begets anger. In the above
story, the angry man angered others. When the people at the bus station
retaliated with anger it only fueled the anger that was already in the man’s
heart. Eventually, the anger spread throughout the whole bus station,
leaving everyone angry. Yet the problem still continued, and was even
compounded.
I heard that in Native American tradition they have
a saying that says the man who seeks revenge must dig two graves, one for the
person he is seeking revenge upon, and one for himself. This illustrates the
principal that anger only begets more anger.
The last principle illustrated in the above example,
was that the only thing that could dissolve the man’s anger was the pure,
innocent love of a child who cared enough to find out what was going on inside
the man.
Like Alan Cohen reiterated in the book, the quote
from Gandhi that said, “the pure love of one person can offset the hatred of
thousands.” What a powerful illustration of the power of love.
In Alan Cohen’s
story he talks about the fact that in Native American tradition one person is
assigned the role of Faith keeper. That person is responsible for keeping
the faith of the entire village, even when drought, disease or famine is
prevalent.
This is our mission
now, to become Faith keepers of peace. To keep love in our hearts, and to see
peace everywhere. We all know the power of staying centered in peace and seeing
only peace in the world until it becomes a reality.
How do we stay
centered in peace? The easiest and most natural thing that I do is “put
myself in another’s shoes.” If someone appears to be disrupting the
peace, I choose to look beyond the situation and put myself in his or her
situation. And, even though I may not know what is going on in their life,
I can sympathize with them, knowing that they must be in some kind of deep pain
in order to be so angry or act foolishly. Again, it doesn’t mean I’m
condoning the behavior, only trying to see or understand the cause of their
behavior.
The second thing I do
is pray. Whenever I feel like I’m not centered in peace, I pray. I
acknowledge the perfect peace all around me. I confirm the peace of the
world, and my part in it. I utilize my chaplain training, and “see”
peace everywhere. As part of my prayer I see myself connected to my
friends and immediate family than connected to people in Africa, Australia,
England, China, etc. I see a ball of energy joining us all together.
And, I acknowledge that “we are all one.” I send love out to the world.
I see it radiating outward to everyone.
Lastly, I remind
myself of the readings and words of our great spiritual leaders. I
remember Alan Cohen’s story about being a Faith keeper, then I make a
conscious decision to be one or I remember Dan Millman's statement about not
giving power to “a small group of zealots, to not let them live in our head
rent-free.”
Like St. Francis of Assisi said, “while you are
proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it more fully in your
heart.” Once peace is in the hearts of each and every one of us there will be
no violence, there will be world peace. But we can’t expect world peace,
when we can’t even be at peace with our coworker or mother. So, again the
three tools I use to stay centered in peace are: Sympathize, Pray, and Remember.
Change starts at the individual level, then spreads
like wildfire to the hearts and minds of everyone.
Lisa Hepner is a chaplain at the Living Enrichment Center in Wilsonville,
Oregon and has been studying spirituality for over ten years. She is an
entrepreneur, creating inspirational products. She compiled her second
book, Peaceful Earth: Spiritual Perspectives on Hope and Healing Beyond
Terrorism which contains insights from leading spiritual
thinkers like Neale Donald Walsch, Marianne Williamson, Jean Houston, Dan
Millman and more regarding the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
For more information, or to purchase "Spiritual Perspectives on Hope and Healing Beyond
Terrorism", please visit Lisa's website at: www.peacefulearth.org)
