Inner Peace: Be-Have Peace

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Inner Peace: Be-Have PeaceBy Lama Choedak RinpocheRepresenting the Buddhists in AustraliaWorld Peace Forum, Sydney 29 March 2003

Our world is the unconditional giver of all that we are and we have. It is empowering to notice that the world is always peaceful and giving. She is the constant supporter to all living beings and she is never not peaceful. If we human beings were to be the mother nature we have and live in harmony with each other, peace will be our daily experience.

We all have genuine desire to do good and cause no harm to anyone. If everyone actualized this basic wish with mindfulness and concerted effort, we have neither time to create conflict nor to fear conflict. The intrinsic nature of all living beings is kindness, peace and good. But when we are unable to sustain this awareness, our mind becomes effortlessly afflicted by excessive desire to control things that are external. The unawareness of excessive desire breeds an ever-growing tension that develops into self-righteous anger. When ignorance, greed and hared are eliminated from our mind, peace is to be found wherever we go to. How the world manifest to us is determined by how we allow our attitudes to be and care to have those attitudes. As we only experience our own thoughts and emotions on the screen of other people and situations, we should see the importance of changing our own attitudes without waiting

for others to change. If we change our perception and thoughts about other people and situations, it does not take long to see changes without. With this optimism, let us pause for the cause of world peace and rejuvenate inner elements by emulating the qualities of five outer elements:

O mother earth! With your firmness and solidityRemind us to have courage and confidence without rigidityTo help those who fall to their weaknessWith gentle touch of tolerance to relieve the mutual anguish.

O goddess of water! With your life giving energy of fluidityWater the seed of kindness that run deep in our heartsTo care for beings suffering from greed, hatred and ignoranceAnd quench their thirst for forgiveness, compassion and wisdom.

O god of fire! With your ripening power of solar energyEmpower us to burn the fuel of afflictions and wrongdoingsAnd illuminate the darkness of selfishness and ingratitudeTo experience the spacious, clear and luminosity of our mind as it is.

O god of air! With your speed of discreet accomplishmentCarry us far away from the pollutions of guilt, blame and shameAnd bestow upon us the will to tame the wild oxen that pulls the wheelAnd unload the weight of idleness to fly in the air of joyous effort.

O god of space! With your magical fusion into all thingsBreak away the walls of discrimination and narrow-mindednessAnd let us all live in harmony in this spacious world of your generosityAnd let the sanity of humanity respect the equality of the people of all curiosity.

"The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. - Dr. Luther King Jr." © 2002 World Peace Forum 2003, all rights reserved.