difficult times

I will begin this commentary by quoting a passage from the book, Chronicles of Tao, by Deng Ming-Dao.

"Saihung saw that scholars and aristocrats, people who had appeared formerly as examples of righteousness, were now the most hypocritical and despicable of all. Insensitive to the miseries of the villagers, they strolled about in fine silken clothing, casually fluttering their exquisite fans. Purposefully conspicuous on streets lined with beggars and the lower class, they almost seemed to welcome the suffering. In their shortsighted way, Saihung thought, they enjoyed this state of affairs, because it highlighted their status and gave them continuing opportunities to exact profits. They were self-centered and repressive. Nothing seemed to matter as long as they could continue to stand on the backs of the peasantry."

He was speaking of what he saw in the countryside of Shaanxi province China in the 1930's. However this sounds awfully familiar. We can, in 2011 America, simply replace the words exquisite fans with fancy cars and peasants with the poor and working people.

 So what does this have to do with being at peace? If you have chosen, as I have, to live in the world and not apart from it on a mountain somewhere, than we are forced to deal with and learn from the environment in which we live.

 I do not have to go into the details of it, since we are all immersed within it every day, but there is no doubt that we live in difficult times. However there are some who are living quite well despite what is going on all around them. That is fine and I wish them well. However, if you are in that category, I ask, are you living in judgement of, or being purposefully blind to those who are struggling, as if they are less than or something is wrong with them as people? Conversely, I also ask, if you are struggling simply to survive in our land of plenty do you look at your life and play the role of a victim? Do you look upon those who are enjoying success with envy or hatred?

The way of peace understands that this story is as old as human society. Even if we choose to live a life with house, family and job we can still have as our foundation the idea that what we really want is to be at peace. When we begin there, at peace, then whether you are living a life of luxury or living a life of poverty there is a happiness that goes beyond the changing that can occur that may or may not be our doing.

What comes along with this is also the idea of compassion for our fellow human beings. We can see that when we live within society we are part of the whole and we are not alone. We no longer only say "What's in it for me?" We say "What is in it for me, so that all may benefit?"

This is not easy to do when so many who claim righteousness are doing what they do simply to improve their own lot in life and are seemingly succeeding. However there is no peace in that way of being and there will never be enough because in the end what we all want is not more stuff, it is to be at peace.