A World that is Rejecting
The Divine Eye: Seeing the Good in Everything and Everyone, March 24, 1995, Oasis Bookstore, Amherst, Massachusetts
I have a question. When you’re talking about peace, world peace. I know for myself, I tend to get caught up sometimes in very, very negative thinking about what goes on in the world. And I find— if I try different organizations, for instance, that are working for world peace— I don’t last an hour. I get very depressed and very burnt-out, and very depleted, and then I feel guilty, and I go into a very negative spiral. And I don’t really think that that is helpful. So, I’m wondering you know, you talk about, there is only good; there is no bad. It is kind of a personal thing; I’m wondering what you would suggest?
Those who are doing what you are doing often suffer, because they know in their heart, there is only good, and no bad. But there is no evidence for that in their work. They see only the good and the bad of the world in that work. And so, there is great suffering among those who dedicate themselves to creating peace. Great heartache out of proportion to what one ought to have to suffer in this life. Actually, it is even greater than you are aware.
You, yourself have suffered more than you feel. And others around you suffer more than they appear to. You are far from the only one who suffers immediately upon committing yourself to a cause for social activism. The suffering in those causes is very great. That is because your heart longs not to have to do that effort, not to have to kind of impose God’s will upon a world that is rejecting it. Your heart cries at the very thought that that God’s will is not allowed and accepted by all people. It is very unhelpful for people to keep throwing themselves into these situations when it does cause this depression and this very great grief.
[The tape-recording stops and needs to be turned over to restart. Meanwhile, Eon recommends that the questioner disengage from peace work] …for at least six months.
Would you be willing to try that? Six months of no world peace work?
Well, I was thinking this summer of going on a peace walk, which is like a spiritual peace walk. The spiritual part of it is very uplifting for me. But, a lot of time the material that you’re working with— I have to be careful; you know for me it is like...
It is a closed environment in which the intensity builds as the march rolls on. And it is a very difficult thing to stay level-headed about on a peace walk. You start off feeling idealistic, and you end up feeling quite fatalistic sometimes, on those things. So, they are dangerous walks to go on, if you cannot resist the encouragement of other people around you to get carried away.
People get carried away in negativity on these marches often. They exchange stories about how horrible the world is. They convince each other that no one is listening and nobody cares. Some of them even take that as a badge of pride: “We’re out here, and they’re not even listening. We’ve been out here for fifty years, and they’re not even listening.” And if people listen, they ignore them, because that would prove them wrong. So, these marches are a big difficulty for people who truly want to make a difference because they have the potential, but it all depends upon the people involved, and their ability to focus, and to stay optimistic.
You, if you go on a march like this, you should have a goal. And that goal should be, “I want to reach from point A to point B. And that by my mere presence, I will have made some difference.” If you have a goal like that, and if you can remember that goal, as all this encouragement is going on around you, to be feeling bad. Stick to your goal, “I’m only here to there, and that my presence will make the difference.”
You can survive that kind of experience with that kind of goal in mind. And that goal is better than all the high-flying goals of people, who don’t even remember the goal the next step they take. Small goals. Resistance to that negativity. Then the march can be an effective and fun thing to do. But otherwise, it’s only bad to put your body and your hearts through that grueling ordeal. From where to where will the summer march be?
From the Atlantic to the Pacific.
You will not go in just one summer then, ah?
No, it is a long—
A long march. A return march, is it?
It’s a Native American march.
Do you walk back?
No, we don’t walk back.
It is a return from the Great March from the Pacific to the Atlantic that happened some years ago.
That is true, yeah.
This is a— the great danger is on short marches of about two to six weeks in duration. After the six-week time, you develop a knowledge, a wisdom about the march, about your internal process, where you are really immune to a lot of things you wouldn’t want to have. But between two to six weeks, that is the time when you need to stick to a goal. And the goal should be extremely simple, like the one we mentioned. Otherwise, we would encourage you not to do peace work for six months or so.
So ... you... so... you don’t...
Yes, because the guilt is something to overcome. If you fast, you have to overcome your urge to eat. If you avoid peace work, you have to overcome the guilt that you are doing nothing.
If you avoid peace work, yeah that is right.
So, you can make a choice in this. It is a great opportunity. Would you be upset if you didn’t march the whole way?
Well, no, probably not. But I just wondered just in general, how to-- you’re saying I shouldn’t do peace work. I mean if I don’t do the march?
[Others in attendance say:] Just for six months.
For six months. If you don’t do the march, don’t do peace work for six months. Work instead, with your guilt about not doing it. Because then, if you should choose to go back, if you have conquered that guilt, you will be much more valuable. Much more flexible. Much more responsive to the true needs, and not to the ghosts in the mind.
Most people in peace work are still responding to things that are not happening in the world now. But they don’t know that, because they are so hypnotized by their own passion, and by the terror that grips this world when it is not at peace.
We have great empathy, and we are very grateful to the people who do peace work, but they should also be aware that many of them are not awake to the present moment. So, if peace came, they wouldn’t notice. That would be awful.