Peace Cannot Exist Without War
This is a truth in the absolute. One cannot know and experience a state of peace unless there is an opposite of peace to compare it to. Peace does not mean anything without war, it cannot.
One of my friends often asks me what I want and my reply is always, "Peace, love and happiness." The other day he told me that I cannot have peace unless I'm willing to declare war on all humankind and force them to come together against a greater evil than themselves.
At first this idea upset me. How can one think that the only way to peace is through an act of war. Upon further thought I decided that, in the realm of the absolute, he is 100% correct. People cannot know of peace, desire peace, choose peace unless they witness it's opposite and give it context. Therefore we must have war if there is ever going to be peace.
Here is where my beliefs change direction though. In this world, we have witnessed war. We know how war brings suffering and loss, pain and despair to those it touches. We have witnessed war's destruction and it's disregard for human life. We have felt the greed and superiority of leaders staging war. The experience is there. It's already taught us what war is and what it can do. Therefore in my opinion, we do not need a bigger, grander war for people to choose peace.
Peace is the light beyond war. It is tollerance of others who have different ideas and opinions. It is a knowing that despite our differences, we can choose to get along with those that share our planet. Peace is an individual decision that we each can make for ourselves without regard or consideration of the choices others have made.
In this moment right now, I choose peace. It is a choice that I will have to make many times throughout my life, but hopefully I will be able to reflect on past experience each time and see clearly that peace is the higher thought. I believe peace is obtainable one person at a time. You right now can look at the world and say, "I choose peace."
"I choose to lay down my weapons of destruction today, even though in the past I have felt that my opinion was somehow more right than yours."
"I choose to accept that we all have different beliefs and customs due to our life experiences."
"I choose to learn about our differences in a peaceful way and to find areas of common ground."
"I choose to agree to disagree on topics where we cannot reach common ground, but still I value you as a human being and respect that your experiences have led you to different conclusions in these areas."
"I choose to accept my neighbor even if they choose not to accept me."
Tell me now, in this moment, what do you choose?
One of my friends often asks me what I want and my reply is always, "Peace, love and happiness." The other day he told me that I cannot have peace unless I'm willing to declare war on all humankind and force them to come together against a greater evil than themselves.
At first this idea upset me. How can one think that the only way to peace is through an act of war. Upon further thought I decided that, in the realm of the absolute, he is 100% correct. People cannot know of peace, desire peace, choose peace unless they witness it's opposite and give it context. Therefore we must have war if there is ever going to be peace.
Here is where my beliefs change direction though. In this world, we have witnessed war. We know how war brings suffering and loss, pain and despair to those it touches. We have witnessed war's destruction and it's disregard for human life. We have felt the greed and superiority of leaders staging war. The experience is there. It's already taught us what war is and what it can do. Therefore in my opinion, we do not need a bigger, grander war for people to choose peace.
Peace is the light beyond war. It is tollerance of others who have different ideas and opinions. It is a knowing that despite our differences, we can choose to get along with those that share our planet. Peace is an individual decision that we each can make for ourselves without regard or consideration of the choices others have made.
In this moment right now, I choose peace. It is a choice that I will have to make many times throughout my life, but hopefully I will be able to reflect on past experience each time and see clearly that peace is the higher thought. I believe peace is obtainable one person at a time. You right now can look at the world and say, "I choose peace."
"I choose to lay down my weapons of destruction today, even though in the past I have felt that my opinion was somehow more right than yours."
"I choose to accept that we all have different beliefs and customs due to our life experiences."
"I choose to learn about our differences in a peaceful way and to find areas of common ground."
"I choose to agree to disagree on topics where we cannot reach common ground, but still I value you as a human being and respect that your experiences have led you to different conclusions in these areas."
"I choose to accept my neighbor even if they choose not to accept me."
Tell me now, in this moment, what do you choose?
Comments
oh...and glad to see you here!!
The only Thing is that people tend not to hold on to the past as much as we would hope they all would, it this feeling of war is something they must experience for themselves for it to seem real, and be that comparison. Your view is certianly the ideal view and we can only hope that it would work that way, keep spreading your wisdom, and hope it catches like a brush fire through out the world.