For Gaza.. For Tibet.. For Kabul.. For Syria.. For Myanmmar.. For War torn areas everywhere,
Peace on our EvolvingPath
My last blog post made it quite clear what Peace on our EvolvingPath was so no need to go into that. Here, I am going to talk about my experience in these 15 minutes. But before that, I would add the reasons why i was enthusiastic about this event. Having just written an article being overly critical about Colhelo one might even wonder whether I m being a little bit hypocritical too (BTW, i got a lot of criticisms for that article. Valid ones too, i d just like to say i said in the beginning of the article I like Colhelo as a writer and there are some parts of his work i m ok with, but i maintain my stance on his over optimism)
Anyhow, Why I supported this event was for a couple of reasons:-
1. Having experimented with meditation myself, I have seen its benefits.. I have seen how it truly relaxes you and brings inner peace.
2. I believe in the Individual. Sure, governments and large organizations can do a lot of things to maintain peace in the world. But as an individualist, i've always believed it must start from you and me.. from all of us.
3. Every day we go on with our lives and we don't even think of the people suffering in Africa and I will never blame us for that.. As my 'The Perks of being a Wallflower review' said, at the end of the day for each of us our own problems will take center stage. That's just human nature. So such a 15 minutes of thinking about War torn areas, about peace allows us to take a break from our lives to think about those who are suffering.
4. It showed solidarity. In over 9 countries, even if one person was meditating at the same time with us, it showed unity and that there are people globally, who believe in the same sentiments.. who themselves are taking a break out of their lives to think about the people suffering.
5. I have always found that my best ideas come to me when i m alone and lost in thought. And that folks, is what meditation really is. Its not religious. Its spiritual. Its going deep into your psyche and finding answers within it, unlocking our own good ideas. finding our potential.
6. ETC!
THAT being said, over to my experience
I meditated with HMHanyf. With the lack of someone to take a photograph, unluckily thats not there. For the first five minutes i worked on what i always do when i meditate. Finding that part within myself, that is not distracted from the background situations; delving deep into my psyche. Once I was there, then i thought about everything thats going around the world. Myanmar, Arab Springs, Poverty, Corruption, Syria, Gaza, Child Abuse, unrest back at home in Maldives etc. I guess when I started thinking about how to end all this, i was lost. In a perfect world, I could whip up a magical solution where everyone would drop their weapons immediately and embrace.. But we do not live in a magical world. And the fact we have to accept is it would never be entirely peaceful. There will always be forces at play, working to make us fight each other. So the path to peace must be a consistent effort.
I m not fond of the guy but the late Neil Armstrong when he supposedly stepped on the moon said,
The next way forward with peace is understanding. Knowledge and Peace go hand in hand. The reason why we are in a continuing chain of conflict is cause, quite frankly its human nature to be scared of what we do not understand. And people that we have heard rumors about and had never actually met, scares us. We'd rather believe that they are bad people then allow our age long beliefs to fall, rendering us vulnerable. So ryloggers, i guess what i m trying to say is if you have a problem or a prejudice with a certain type, race, nation of people the best thing to do is get to know one of them. Do not generalize an entire race, for the actions of few. As a muslim, it d be my initial instinct to hate jews but I don't. I know better. I know they've wronged muslims. But we have wronged them too, and quite frankly we are scared of getting to know each other.
This sounds very idealistic but its not. I've seen this happen. Only over a month ago when I saw Pakistanis and Indians meet and lets face it, there are few other countries who have had a long history of conflict than these two. They got to know each other and they knew how they were not so different. So Yea, Knowledge shatters Prejudice and A Prejudice free life leads to Peace,
I'd really like to talk a lot more about knowledge and peace, but this is a post about Peace on our EvolvingPath and yes, those were some of my recollections from it. Much thanks to Hardik from India, a friend and a fellow delegate in South Asian Youth Conference 2012 for coming up with this amazing event. In this spirit lets take some time each of us from our every day life to sit back and think about the world we live in. It doesn't have to be long. 15 - 10 minutes can impact your day.
So, yes ryloggers from my 15 minutes of reflecting what i think is a way forward with peace is Knowledge, Tolerance and Acceptance. If you have got a problem with someone get to know them. If someone goes against your views tolerate them too and if you were to re-butt them do it in a peaceful manner. And accept, other people. After all, "There is Your way. There is my way. As for the right way and the only way it doesn't exist."
Anyhow, Why I supported this event was for a couple of reasons:-
1. Having experimented with meditation myself, I have seen its benefits.. I have seen how it truly relaxes you and brings inner peace.
2. I believe in the Individual. Sure, governments and large organizations can do a lot of things to maintain peace in the world. But as an individualist, i've always believed it must start from you and me.. from all of us.
3. Every day we go on with our lives and we don't even think of the people suffering in Africa and I will never blame us for that.. As my 'The Perks of being a Wallflower review' said, at the end of the day for each of us our own problems will take center stage. That's just human nature. So such a 15 minutes of thinking about War torn areas, about peace allows us to take a break from our lives to think about those who are suffering.
4. It showed solidarity. In over 9 countries, even if one person was meditating at the same time with us, it showed unity and that there are people globally, who believe in the same sentiments.. who themselves are taking a break out of their lives to think about the people suffering.
5. I have always found that my best ideas come to me when i m alone and lost in thought. And that folks, is what meditation really is. Its not religious. Its spiritual. Its going deep into your psyche and finding answers within it, unlocking our own good ideas. finding our potential.
6. ETC!
THAT being said, over to my experience
I meditated with HMHanyf. With the lack of someone to take a photograph, unluckily thats not there. For the first five minutes i worked on what i always do when i meditate. Finding that part within myself, that is not distracted from the background situations; delving deep into my psyche. Once I was there, then i thought about everything thats going around the world. Myanmar, Arab Springs, Poverty, Corruption, Syria, Gaza, Child Abuse, unrest back at home in Maldives etc. I guess when I started thinking about how to end all this, i was lost. In a perfect world, I could whip up a magical solution where everyone would drop their weapons immediately and embrace.. But we do not live in a magical world. And the fact we have to accept is it would never be entirely peaceful. There will always be forces at play, working to make us fight each other. So the path to peace must be a consistent effort.
I m not fond of the guy but the late Neil Armstrong when he supposedly stepped on the moon said,
"One Small step for man.. One Giant Leap for Mankind"and also to quote from the famous hindi movie, 'Main Hoon Na' , there is a quote that caught me.
"Raastaa kitne bhee dhoor ho, shuruwat tho ek gadam se hoti heiSo to prevent myself from going on about this and boring you all to death, i d get to the point. We can all take this one step every day in our lives. By being more tolerant. By waiting to hear the other person out before reacting. By being patient. You might wonder how this has anything to do with the big problems in the world? But the big problems have all escalated out of larger ones. If we are to inspire our leaders to be tolerant, we must learn to tolerate other people too.
Translation :- However long the road is, it must start with one step."
The next way forward with peace is understanding. Knowledge and Peace go hand in hand. The reason why we are in a continuing chain of conflict is cause, quite frankly its human nature to be scared of what we do not understand. And people that we have heard rumors about and had never actually met, scares us. We'd rather believe that they are bad people then allow our age long beliefs to fall, rendering us vulnerable. So ryloggers, i guess what i m trying to say is if you have a problem or a prejudice with a certain type, race, nation of people the best thing to do is get to know one of them. Do not generalize an entire race, for the actions of few. As a muslim, it d be my initial instinct to hate jews but I don't. I know better. I know they've wronged muslims. But we have wronged them too, and quite frankly we are scared of getting to know each other.
This sounds very idealistic but its not. I've seen this happen. Only over a month ago when I saw Pakistanis and Indians meet and lets face it, there are few other countries who have had a long history of conflict than these two. They got to know each other and they knew how they were not so different. So Yea, Knowledge shatters Prejudice and A Prejudice free life leads to Peace,
I'd really like to talk a lot more about knowledge and peace, but this is a post about Peace on our EvolvingPath and yes, those were some of my recollections from it. Much thanks to Hardik from India, a friend and a fellow delegate in South Asian Youth Conference 2012 for coming up with this amazing event. In this spirit lets take some time each of us from our every day life to sit back and think about the world we live in. It doesn't have to be long. 15 - 10 minutes can impact your day.
So, yes ryloggers from my 15 minutes of reflecting what i think is a way forward with peace is Knowledge, Tolerance and Acceptance. If you have got a problem with someone get to know them. If someone goes against your views tolerate them too and if you were to re-butt them do it in a peaceful manner. And accept, other people. After all, "There is Your way. There is my way. As for the right way and the only way it doesn't exist."
No comments:
Post a Comment