Scribe
Scribe
2013
A Lasting Peace
“I disagree and radically propose everyone toss their guns and take up meditation.”
That’s how a good writer-friend of mine replied to one of my news blog posts on gun laws and rights. She was at variance with some of my point of view, but did not go into detail with specifics. (To quote: “But you make many excellent and realistic points – and in your usual articulate and thoughtful way.”)
However, I surmise that it is the last two paragraphs of my perspective that she departed from: The reason I have a gun safe and conceal-carry in one of the most liberal-gun-friendly states in the nation is because I remember being chased by white teenagers when I was seven. I remember watching the telecasts of African Americans being beaten down, dogs and fire hoses turned loose on them, and the spade of lynchings occurring throughout the deep south.
I support gun regulations and I support doing all that the law allows to not be a victim of the male insecurity and identity crisis sweeping this country—where the gun has become the outward extension of virility in a nation that is becoming more and more racially, religiously, and gender-wise diverse; and more intolerant and militantly bigoted.
My friend is a self-acknowledged pacifist, and like many spiritual-minded proponents of various spiritual traditions, she believes we must eliminate all participation in those aspects of the human condition that are connected to the pernicious or harmful side of life. She reckons guns to be irreconcilable with peace, to be a causative link in the chain of violence, regardless of the intention. The solution, therefore, is to “toss” them.
Many spiritual traditions and teachers would agree. As they see it, guns typify the old adage, “violence begets violence,” or more accurately concerning gun ownership: violent means begets violence. But the question is—two actually—will eliminating guns (and other tools related to destroying life) in our individual lives bring about lasting peace on earth; will it grant those meditators greater immunity against harm than the next person? Even if one argues that removing personal harm is not the point, is lasting peace ever within reach on this plane of existence? Is there evidence—between myth and legend and literal reality—to idealize enduring peace as possible? Is there a tipping point, a critical-mass number of meditators to shift world consciousness whereby peace is inevitable?
It’s not even about whether any relative peace is worth the effort. Most would agree that any amount of peace for any period of time is worth pursuing. I certainly feel that way. The overarching question, though, is peace on earth an unfulfilled reality or a motivating contrivance to push us in the right direction.
Sure meditation/contemplative practices will naturally raise the awareness of individual human beings. The evidence, however, demonstrates that there is only a marginal transformative affect on world consciousness at any time. This is due to the nature of samsara and impermanence. There is no static population on this plane whereby a tipping point can ever be reached, where the majority of the earth’s population is enlightened enough to usher in and maintain a predominating age of permanent peace.
By virtue of reincarnation the population is always shifting in percentages of light-dark, enlightened-unenlightened. The learning curve obstructs the critical mass necessary to do more than achieve an ever-shifting status quo, in my opinion. It is my experience in life and bearing witness to history that there is a certain relativity that we must face in doing spiritual practice for the good of the whole. Non-duality still rubs against duality in the play of opposites. Samsara is maintained by duality. Rising above good and evil changes us individually, not this plane. Samsara continues as we move beyond it – still existing for those trapped in it.
True enlightened beings know this to be true. They encourage us to outgrow samsara, not fix it, yet are careful not to discourage us in our efforts to awake. They employ, as I see it, a “skillful-means” illusion of peace that cannot be fully realized. Samsara can’t be anymore than samsara, fluctuating between the two extremes of its nature.
Carl
Tuesday, February 5, 2013