On the Brink of War
Forces of love-compassion and anger-hate are always functioning in the world. It is a game of seesaw. The question is, which end of the seesaw do you want loaded? If we are really on the brink of a terrible situation, it is all the more important that the spiritual process be applied more vigorously. Ultimately that is the only thing that will maintain sanity in the world.
The moment you start believing in things that are not a living experience for you, you are naturally in conflict. Please see this. You are a peaceful person today, but tomorrow when somebody really confronts your belief system you will stand up and fight.
What is the intelligence in moving into belief? What is the benefit of moving into belief? The only thing is your ego feels comfortable. ‘I don't know' is a big loss for the ego. ‘I know' is the only way you can make the ego grow, isn't it? In any given situation, when you say ‘I don't know' you are incapable of fighting with anybody, you are incapable of conflict. You are a very humble and wonderful human being.
Without being capable of bringing peace into your own being, there is no way you are going to be capable of bringing peace to the world. If you can't make this (your) little mind peaceful, where is the question of making the world peaceful? Whatever you're seeing in the world is just a projection of your little mind. Is there anything happening in the world which is not happening in your mind? It is happening, isn't it?
The science of yoga is a way to look inward. To look inward not from any standpoint, simply to look inward. You cannot look inward if you're identified with something. The moment you're identified, all doors are closed to you. Please see, the very way you think and feel depends on what you're identified with right now.
Let's say, for example, you identify yourself as an Indian. Now when a situation happens, the very way you feel and respond to it is in a certain way. At that moment in national interest, maybe it's a good thing, but still, instead of reacting to it you can respond to it more intelligently. When you're identified, you just become a reaction. You have no choice to think any other way. You have no capability of seeing the other person's point of view. You have no capability of seeing from where the problem is springing. You will just react.
It is better that you come from your intelligence, not from your reaction. To come from intelligence, the first thing is you must be able to look at things just the way they are, not from an identity. The moment you look at anything from an identity, you are prejudiced about it.
Meditation is a way to help you drop your identity and experience true peace. At least when you sit and meditate nothing else exists. There is just being, nothing else is there.
Peace means nothingness. Peace is not something that you create. Peace is not something that happens. Peace is something that always is. Peace is the fundamental existence. What happens on the surface is disturbance. This is just like the ocean. On the surface of the ocean there's turbulence, but deep down it's perfectly peaceful. Only if you are in tune with that quality, you know true peace.
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