I still don't know what I am doing here on iPeace. I guess I am not one for reaching out to make those connections. Is it, I wonder, because I feel awkward just relating with text? No, I feel awkward out on the street most times.

No matter, I do seem to ramble to empty space all the while, so why not on this site, where someone may read. And on a recent internal journey I came across something overlooked, which spoke to me of peace, so I thought I would share it. Perhaps it is a logic for peace?

Something struck home the other day. I guess you know how it feels when something seems right, when the clicks are physical. It is as if the knowing isn't just in your head, it changes your very being, your very perception, it seems like something very real is happening. Well this thought had the qualities of this, yet still it remained one step removed. It had the smell of truth, but not all the connections arose, I guess it's still a work in progress, and it has my attention. It also seemed to have a profound implication for peace.

I was looking into causality. By that I mean the cause of me, the being sitting here, the thoughts, the feelings, the sensory perceptions.... And I realised that none of the information I receive though my senses are in real time, they speak only of the past. So nothing I can sense could possibly be a cause for my NOW, this present. What I sense can only be a trace in memory, a cognition of what has already gone. And what is gone can never be a cause for the present.

Then I got to wondering, what then is causing my present, and I realised that this was, evidently, the present of everything other than me. Which of course includes the everyone else. The present can only affect the present, remove one cause, and the result is different.

I guess you need to bear with me on this one, because it seems counter intuitive, and it is. After all we all have a belief in apparent temporal causality. But when you look into this it must be an illusion, just like the illusion that what you see or what you hear is showing you present, when it can only ever be past trace, an echo.

Then I pondered, that if the intricate web of everything, gives rise to me, and what I perceive has already happened, then I only experience from outside the past causes of me NOW. So then why should I ever be upset by an appearance? That appearance has already been one of the causes of my present, it is history. Then I thought, so what do I do? I realise that I do have the power to act, and all my actions contribute to the causes, not for my self but for other's NOW.

Then the penny dropped. Ergo, all I can ever do is be one cause (amongst many) for others and conversely all other's actions (in the widest sense) are the cause of me.

And this is why, if I want peace, I need to help create peace for others in my actions, and if I want happiness I need help to create others happiness. This for me makes sense of the Bodhisattva ideal in Buddhism, an ideal where one vows to remain here until all sentient beings find release first. In fact it could be no other way, we are all in this together.

Am I am on the right track with this logic? Is it a logic for peace? For me it gives a whole new meaning to the idea of responsibility.

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Comment by David Gould on March 13, 2009 at 2:56am
I Have Found

As a Peace worker I struggle with the concepts
of what it is we do, what it is we represent
and how we go about our business.
But I have found some things are set in stone,

I have found the end does not justify the means
the means must always be compatible with the end.
If we want peace we must seek peaceful ways to it.
There is no room within my heart for revenge, fire or hate.

I have found that I do not permit others to commit violence on my behalf,
I am indeed prepared to die for others and for the cause of peace
but I will never ever find a cause for which I can kill.

I have found love in places they said there was none
because I went offering only friendship and myself,
and I have found rejection in the very places I expected love,
among those that said they stood for love but didn't.

I have found comfort from strangers that I didn't know,
who are moved by simple acts of forgiveness and love
when they might have expected an anger I never showed
for deeds done by those blinded by their own anger.

I have found a world ready for our message of Peace
hungry for human compassion, respect and caring;
a world ready for the change that is coming with us
and all because I refuse to hate those that hate me.

David © 31st October 2008

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