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| Finding Peace in an Insane
World Maryam Hand, MS, MEd. It is very difficult to find words to
describe deep feelings, which are only just beginning to crystallize into
clear thoughts. As I reflect on the state of humanity at a global level,
as I grapple with the agonizing perplexity of good and evil in our world,
as I watch darkness and light increasingly polarize and as I agonize at
the role the United States is playing in this global drama, I find it is
imperative to find those words. Many years ago, I watched a documentary of
the practice of clitorectomy on four-year-old girls in an African country.
The horror I felt as I watched an unanesthesized child shaking in shock
and pain as the procedure was inflicted upon her left my whole world
shaken. I went to bed with a cry of pain rising from my soul. "How,
My God, am I to understand this level of brutality? How am I to make sense
of this and all other evil in this world?" That night, I had an
experience more vivid than a dream. What I experienced was that behind the
image of the child being mutilated was an ocean of deep blue peace.
Somehow, what was communicated to me, was that the experience of the
underlying tapestry of creation is love and peace and that this transcends
all of the horror that we experience in this created world. I felt in the
core of my being that there is something bigger, greater, a deeper truth,
a fabric of love, a tapestry of connectedness grounded in love, peace and
stillness that was somehow more real than the apparent suffering and evil
of this world. As with all mystical experiences, it is very difficult to
describe in words the essence of the transcendence of the experience.
Nevertheless, something inside of me changed and I had a way to deal with
my despair. Since that time, whenever I have witnessed incomprehensible
horror, I have gone inside to the wisdom that was revealed to me through
that "dream" experience. I share this with you now because since
September 11, I have watched a world that is growing increasingly
unbalanced. For me, there are two critical indexes that point to our
having gone widely astray. How we treat our earth through our
environmental policies and how we treat humankind, whether they live in
this country or another. Without going into long details, I will say that
I believe in my heart of hearts that we are failing to care for the earth
and for the majority of the world’s people. There are global
consequences for this failure that even the most unconscious person can
see, if he or she chooses to. Daily, I struggle to cleave to the deeper
underlying Reality of love and peace as I witness almost incomprehensible
suffering all over the world. What is most painful to me at the moment, is
the terrible conflict in the Middle East. My teacher has said that
Jerusalem is the heart of the world and there cannot be peace in the world
until there is peace in Jerusalem. I feel a personal responsibility to do
whatever I can to help to bring about peace in this "heart" of
the world. So what do I do? I do what I can in the
material world. I write letters to the president, the legislators and so
on, I send informative emails to my friends, I speak out to correct
misperceptions born of highly biased reporting and I pray. I tend to my
own heart. I take every opportunity to bring myself back to the
Transcendent Reality of love and peace. I share what I have learned with others if
they are interested. So what have I learned about living in an
age of insanity? I have learned to limit my exposure to the biased
mainstream media. I have learned to focus on love and peace both within
myself and with the people I come into contact. I try at every moment not
to allow myself to succumb to despair. I have recognized that there is no
good thing that I can do when I am in that place within myself. As much as
possible, I make choices that raise my energetic vibration, not lower it.
The more of my actions that are based in love, non-judgement and
compassion that I can manifest, the more light I can carry. I have found
that the more I have healed my own heart of bitterness, hatred, anger,
jealousy, fear and so on, the more space there is inside me for love. And
I have clearly seen that almost everybody is attracted to love and peace
and want this for themselves. My spiritual journey has been very simple: clean the heart and enlarge the capacity of the heart to contain love. It is simple but not easy. It takes discipline and patience and a deep yearning to know the Creator. But the rewards are astounding. I used to live in fear. I used to restlessly search for peace. I used to run from myself. Now, most of the time, I experience a deep centeredness, a deep love and peace within my heart and a desire to help others to heal their hearts and find these qualities within themselves. I am grateful for this gift because without it, I would be at a loss at how to walk in this world. You may be wondering what simple thing I have learned to do to open myself to the gift of love that I have in my life. I remember God. The Sufis call this Remembrance or Dhikr. There are three ways to remember God. Silently as you go about your business, as a seated meditation, and in a group. It is best to remember in a sacred language and although there are deep mystical teachings to substantiate this, it is beyond the scope of this article. However, if you come from Jewish roots, "Eloheim" is the name of God that loosely translates into Unity. (Literally, The One in the Many). If you are of Christian roots, then you might choose the Name of God that Jesus spoke in Aramaic, "Alla-ha." I personally use the name of God "Allah." In Arabic, this means, The Eternal One or The One God." It is the Name that Unifies. Same God that Moses prayed to, and Abraham, and Jesus as well as Muhammad, may God’s peace be upon them all. Remembering God brings peace. Peace to your own heart and peace to the world. Forgetting God brings pain and suffering and we certainly have enough of that to go around these days. I opt to remember! Contact the author: maryam@ntr.net |