Being peaceful

What does it mean to be at peace? Perfect peace is perfect balance. To put a number to that , it means nothing, zero, which is perfect balance. Alas perfection is a dream for most of us, including me.

Each one of us has a dream. No matter what you do to earn a living, you are supporting each others dream. You can counter that understanding because that is your own choice. However, if you believe in that you will see the vast potential of a support network. Life takes on a new vibrancy when you feel the reality that everyone is there to help.

If you do not believe that reality, every moment is a struggle. You have to fight each other because you believe you must. The only reason to fight rests in the fact that you believe you must. 

Many people view peace as being obtained through sacrifice and difficult work. Such a mentality can have negative connotations. Negative ideology in the mind has come to be understood as bad. However when peace is truly in the mind good, bad, right, wrong are indicators of your own personal directions.

The knowledge of right, wrong, good or bad are there to inform you of patterns/methods of understanding. Being at peace does not mean you will no longer feel anger, frustration or confusion. However it does mean that you will be more at ease with those emotions. You will develop different patterns of venting such thoughts and emotions in a more balanced manner.

One of the toughest parts I have found is that there is a constant need to be mindful of others emotions plus your own. Being peaceful means knowing the consequences of actions and weighing the impact against the overall goal of peace. There are times when others actions are so selfish that an entire relationship or society is harmed, even though what was said or done had justification.

Managing your speech and actions are skills that take a great deal of energy to do. The popular term is being diplomatic. Being a peaceful person takes great skill and energy, mostly due to the managing of emotions and desires to trade “shots” with someone that has caused you harm. In such situations it is very difficult but when everything is understood, rarely has those moments of trading shots ever improved or helped solve anything. The immediate gratification is quite irresistible but the overall impact is more harmful. Thus, such actions will only prolong the unwanted conflict.

As you become embroiled in such conflicts, often the battle is so brutal that you can lose sight of the overall goal. The immediate goal of ending the conflict soon escalates into annihilation of your opponent. Due to the violent conflict there develops a wider impact on society. These impacts can take more resources and energy to resolve than the original conflict.

For example the destruction of entire towns, child soldiers, lost economies, racism and many other factors will take generations to heal. Even in our personal lives there are situations where a great deal of hatred can be carried towards others for entire life times. Carrying such hatred will destroy you. We have Palestine and Israel as an example on the international scale.

It takes time and energy to be peaceful with others. I have not even mentioned inner peace.