Not for Cats

Musings on Life, Spirit, Creating, Religion, Politics, Death and more...

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Location: Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Mystical, practical, radical

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Active in me, peace?

In "peace is active," I see I have written about my own quest for peace within. What is the relationship in tension within me? How does the balance between violence and peace play out in that conflict? Am I taking an active position one way or the other? Am I blowing where the wind will take me? It appears that my understanding of justice is not much developed. I think of legal justice and I get an inkling of a higher form of justice, but I have no way of grasping it yet. I'm getting love and compassion and compassionate honesty as foundations to justice. But these are personal. Perhaps it starts personal and moves out from there. Just like all politics are local. When I think of a relationship in tension and at peace I think of a loving marriage. Each in the couple has desires, dreams, challenges and pain to live in, each must bring those to the marriage as fully as possible even though it be easier to let them be unknown. That can be done in love and honesty or in something else, fear and violence. Many times they come in both and that is where the balance of peace is evident, the active pursuit of love and compassion in the relationship. Could that be the definition of peace I seek? Clearly I must treat myself and my partner as equals while not expecting my partner to value my issue as I do, nor myself to value my partner's issue the same as my partner does. I can take this deeper and make it more personal by moving within, to the internal tension of daily life. Do I read or do the dishes? The value of each option can vary depending on the circumstances, such as reading for pleasure and a sink full of dishes or an article for business and a couple of glasses and plates that could go in the dishwasher. It is the way I treat my own identity, the needs of existence, growth, spirit, comfort, etc. All are equal within yet the actions involved in satisfying each can depend on my circumstances. The peaceful choice is the loving and compassionate choice. Here, I think, is where non-attachment comes in. And the discipline and freedom that are required to make such a choice. So is justice a word for loving compassion? As is peace? But in different contexts? Justice in the context of others in conflict and peace when it is me in the conflict? Perhaps that is why I said in "Peace is Active" that there can be no justice in peace since when one becomes aware of our interconnections then there is no "other" in conflict, all are always involved. Active loving compassion can only be peaceful, indeed, can be nothing else. Justice, in the veiw I am seeing, allows a separation that is illusion and can lead to only more illusion, the illusion of justice "being done." Only when there is no "other" and all "are" can there be peace.

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