the power of peace

it is my wish that the spiritual power of peace
will touch the mind of every person on this earth;
radiating out from deep peace within our own minds,
across political and religious barriers,
across the barriers of ego and conceptual righteousness.
our first work as peacemakers is to clear our minds
of mental conflicts caused by ignorance, anger,
grasping, jealousy and pride. spiritual teachers
can guide us in the purification of these poisons
and through this purification of our own minds,
we can learn the very essence of peacemaking.

the inner peace we seek should be so absolutely pure,
so stable, that it cannot be moved to anger by those
who live and profit by war or to self-grasping and fear
by confrontation with contempt, hatred and death.
incredible patience is necessary to accomplish any aspect
of world peace. the source of such patience is the space
of inner peace from which you recognize with great clarity
that war and suffering are the outer reflections
of the minds' inner poisons.

if you truly understand that the essential difference
in peace-makers and war-makers is that peace-makers
have a discipline and control over egotistical anger,
grasping, jealousy and pride while the war-makers,
in their ignorance, manifest the results of these poisons
in the world - if you truly understand this,
you will never allow yourself to be defeated from within or without.

tibetan buddhists use the peacock as the symbol of the bodhisattva,
the awakened peacemaker who works for the enlightenment
of all sentient beings. the peacock is said
to eat poisonous plants and to transmute them into
the gorgeous colours of its feathers.
it does not poison itself, just as we who wish for peace
must not poison ourselves.

as you meet the powerful, worldly men who sit at the top
of the war machines, regard them with strict equanimity.
convince them as effectively as you know how, but be
constantly aware of your own state of mind.
if you begin to experience anger, retreat.
if you can go on without anger, perhaps you will
penetrate the terrible delusion that causes war
and all its hellish sufferings.

from the clear space of your own inner peace,
your compassion must expand to include all those
who are involved in war - the soldiers caught
in the cruel karma of killing and who sacrifice
their precious human rebirth; the generals and politicians
who intend to benefit but cause disruption and death instead;
the civilians who are killed, wounded and turned into refugees.
true compassion is utterly neutral and is moved by
suffering of every sort, not tied to right or wrong,
attachment or aversion.

the work of peace is a spiritual path in itself,
a means to develop perfect qualities of mind
and to test these qualities against urgent necessity,
extreme suffering and death.
do not be afraid to give your time, energy and wealth.

chagdud tulku
the path of compassion