Some years ago, as we were approaching the end of another calendar year, I was asked what my New Year’s Resolution would be. I stopped for a moment, and said, truthfully, “My resolution is that all being live in peace and harmony.” As soon as I said it, I realized that somewhere inside me was a flicker of belief that this was not possible.
When we look at the way humanity is programmed and human life is conducted, the obvious conclusion of the mind is that it is not possible. The very programming of the survival of our species appears to preclude peace and harmony. And the belief in that conclusion is what keeps us from fully and completely resolving ourselves to peace and harmony.
So, obviously, there has to be the desire and the willingness to override what the mind says, to resolve fully and completely that all being everywhere, in every situation, live in peace and harmony. It is the resolve to be true, not to what you have become, but to who you are. This resolve, that all being live in peace and harmony, is not a trivial kind of resolve. The history of the world, the history of survival, is filled with both beauty and horror. Our history is filled with stories of crimes perpetrated, and of revenge sought for those crimes, of children and children’s children seeking revenge on and on and on. It is who we have become as a species.
It is essential not to hide from the horror or be in denial of that horror. It is essential to meet it straight on, eyes open. This is not about just putting on a happy face. There has to be the willingness to meet, straight on, all the horror.
It begins with you, with your own mind. Rather than projecting the horror over there or finding blame over there–an enemy, an other, a them–there can be just the willingness to stop and to see it. Peace is revealed, harmony is revealed as your own self, your own nature. Not what you have become, but who you are.
What you have become is a mix of the beauty and horror. We like to think that we are just the beauty, and they are the horror. Or, in some cases, we flip it. They are just the beauty, and I am just the horror. But that is what one has become, not what one is.
The possibility is to discover what you are before all becoming and after all becoming–what you are now: the vast, undiminished innocence at the core of all being.
To be true to that takes huge resolve. It is the resolve that all being, all being–no one excluded, no tribe left out, no nationality excluded, no species denied–all being live in peace and harmony.
When you resolve this fully, then you are the proof. You yourself are the proof of the possibility, you are the willingness. I invite you to join me in this immovable willingness. What else would you rather be doing?
