“If we
could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.
As a man
changes his own nature,
so does the
attitude of the world change towards him. ...
We need not
wait to see what others do.”
Mahatma Ghandi
As I meditated this morning, the quote associated with Mahatma
Ghandi (of which the above actual quote is from Ghandi) “Be the change you wish
to see in the world,” came to me and I asked myself the question, what changes
could I make to myself to help heal the world. Given the extensive news
reporting on the terror attacks that took place in France but even more so the lack
of news coverage on the attacks that killed 2,500 people in Boko Haram in
Nigeria. When I first discovered that
there was a blanket silence on the latter my initial response was to question why
would the media choose to report one terror attack over another? Then I realised that I felt a judgement
arising in me over the injustice that one did receive more media coverage than
the other!
Ghandi’s words came flooding to me in that moment, as I
could feel the anger rising in me. I
took a breath and pondered, how could I view this situation differently, how
could I reconcile my emotional attachment to this situation? Be the change you wish to see in the world, the
voice in my head reminded me. In order for me to be the change I could not
let my anger, whose root cause is fear, be the impetus for any of my
thoughts. I could not let hate or any
such emotion fill my being because that would make me into the very same people
who cause these terrible atrocities. The
antidote to hate and fear is love, so how could I view this from a place of
love? I began to understand what Ghandi
meant, as I looked to my own environment, in my own workspace and in my own
community. Be more kind loving and
compassionate to those who are closest to me.
I understood that I needed to cultivate more of a quality of forgiveness
to those whom I had passed judgements
towards. I understood that I need not
feed into the opinions of others and reinforce the hate and fear that such
reports fuel into our psyche.
Each day that we are given the chance to live and breathe
again, choose to cultivate the change you wish to see in the world. If you wish to see more love, then cultivate
more love in your heart. If you wish
more peace in the world, then act in peaceful ways towards your fellow man.
Just for today, breathe life into the qualities that you
wish to see into the world by encouraging those same said qualities in
yourself. The healing of our planet
begins with you, let this weekend be the beginning of the change you wish to
see.
Namaste
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