A CHANGE OF HEART

How do we make peace. When I was living in the fullness of self-centered delusion I thought I had answers. If only people would see and let go of their greed and hunger for power. If only they would let go of being right. If only they would work for the common good and practice mutual aid. If only, If only...........

Now I see that on a more subtle level I have expressed the same violence, towards those I loved no less. How could I propose peace and demonize those I saw as violent when I was violent and selfish myself?

I have been led to a book I have begun to read that I think holds some answers. It is "The Bodhisattva Peace Training" by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. "In the last fourteen years of his life, Rinpoche gave the Bodhisattva Peace Training to hundreds of individuals in a multitude of settings"

I was blessed to have had Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche come into my life, a few years back, in a time of immense fear and impending doom. I opened up a piece of mail and there was his face beaming forth. I knew immediately that things were going to be fine. I have kept his picture in my living space and his image in my meditations since. I was blessed to have experienced one of his teachings and to have met him and looked into his eyes. It was the closest I have been to seeing God. The other place I have seen God is in the eyes of a newborn baby.

I share with you this excerpt from page six:

"For the spiritual power of peace to touch every person on this earth, it must radiate out from a profound peace within our own mind: across political and religious barriers, and across the barriers of ego and self-righteousness. To this end, we should seek an inner peace so pure and stable that we cannot be moved to anger by violence or to selfish attachment and fear by those who view or confront us with contempt and hatred. We can achieve such stability only by purifying mind's poisons--ignorance, anger, attachment, jealousy, and pride; then we can clearly see that war and suffering are but their outer reflections. The essential difference between true peace-makers and those who wage war of any sort is the presence of extraordinary patience and discipline in the minds of the peacemakers as they work with these pervasive poisons. If we truly understand this, we will never allow ourselves to be defeated from within or without."

This is my goal, but I have a long way to go. I pray that each day and each step I move closer to living peace. I apologize for the hatred and resentment that is often in my message as I try to bring to light many of the horrors waged upon innocent people by selfish hypocrites in places of power. Progress not perfection. May I be stripped of my own selfishness and hypocrisy.

Peace,

Alan