Embodying the Grace of Peace

The World As It Is. . .
Having been invited to speak about "World Peace and Harmony," I ask
myself: What is the cause and nature of conflict in today's world?
Does religion contribute to conflict as so many people assert? And can
the idealistic calls for world peace by religious leaders produce any
real effect? How can I speak anything more than truisms, sentimental
clichés, and ideas we've all heard before? Can the teachings of the
world's great mystics effect any real change on the societal level or
are these teachingsmeant only for personal transformation?
Without a doubt spiritual teachings can bring more peace into one's
own heartand increase peace between people, perhaps, even, among
different communities. But peace ona global level? If we are to work
toward peace and harmony at the global level, we must hope to
understand the world as it is.
The more I study the situation at the global level—a subject that
interests me because I routinely travel among countries involved in
serious conflicts—the moreI am convinced that there is a behind the
scenes competition over the resources of the world and this leads to
long term strategies aimed at regional domination. The world is a
game-board andthe players conceal their identities and their purposes.
Let's be realistic: we live in a world where war is a profitable
racket, not a noble endeavor. My heart feels compassion and pity for
the young people who enlist because they actuallybelieve they are
"defending our freedom." This is a world where many people are in
love with war. Surely, if they actually knew war, they would not love
it. One day, we can hope, the atrocity of war will be seen for what it
is: a crime against humanity. We do not need to be pacifists to
recognize this. It is our job to make war inconceivable.
Neither Islam, nor any religion is the primary problem, but religions
maybe used by the powers thatbe to control a suggestible population.
Religion is used to manipulate the population because it has apowerful
effect on the emotions and opinions of sleeping people.
Consciousness is the best corrective for this suggestibility, and it
is the responsibility of practical mystics to help people wake up, to
become conscious in their own livesand thus to be less manipulated and
controlled.
After human beings have become minimally self-aware, they can move on
to compassion, justice, and truth—the foundation on which a lasting
peace can be built. Peace withoutcompassion, justice, and truth is an
illusion, a hoax.
Truth is essential to peace, but the Great Lie governs much of public
life. The Lie is needed to obscure the lack of justice and compassion.
But it is a principle that truth will in the end prevail. The Quran
says: God hurls the Truth against falsehood. When Truth comes
falsehood must wither.
While the Lie may temporarily drown out the voices of the oppressed,
it is a spiritual law that the cries of the innocent and oppressed
reach to the high throne of heaven.
Meanwhile almost everything in the media is a combination of
performance, spectacle, and entertainment designed to distract us from
what is really going on and what we should really be paying attention
to. We are all subjects in a vast program of mind-control. The
deception is far more extensive than the averageperson could imagine.
Human beings' suggestibility is easily exploited because the great
majority of human beings are living without a spiritual center capable
of withstanding the weapons of mass distraction. The power of
suggestion, whennot balanced by conscious thought, can lead us to be
programmed to believe almost anything.
The principle means of control are the desire for pleasure which keeps
us interested in sensuality, the need to belong which may be satisfied
through sectarianism and patriotism, the need to winapproval and
attention which makes us manipulatable by authorities.
Under Islamic Law it is not allowable to kill indiscriminately, or
even touse fire as a weapon. Weapons of mass destruction are haram ,
forbidden, according to theteaching of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and
blessings be upon him, though I am not aware of any so-called Islamic
government that honors this.
The Urgency of Consciousness
The conscious human being can witness, be aware of the contents of the
mind and the drives of the ego. This is the beginning of spiritual
freedom. This can lead us out of our enslavement to fear and the
endless desires of the false self, theselfish human ego.

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