BillHustonBlog: A different approach to Peace

Much of the work of achieving a peaceful, non-violent world
seems to be about changing the external world:

voting, civil disobedience, political actions
studying war, protesting war, petitions, lawsuits, blogging....

I ask you... have these strategies worked?

There is a different approach...

The view of Classical Western Science

All phenomena can be seen as effects of interactions of objects and energy in the external world of Space-Time.
This is the view of Classical Science (defined by Aristotle, Newton, Galileo, Descartes, Maxwell, Einstein, etc.)

This is called Dualism, but really only focuses on one side: the material.

The role of spirit / consciousness is denied or de-emphasized,
due to the non-substantial nature and due to science's blind spot with regards to the immeasurable.

We see our happiness and suffering as being brought about by changes in the external world:

Pleasure, Praise, Fame, Gain => These bring happiness
Pain, Blame, Shame, Loss => This bring suffering.

(....or so we think :)

The view of Classical Eastern Metaphysics

Another way of looking sees all phenomena as modulations of mind, waves of change in the internal world.
This is the view of ancient wisdom traditions of Buddhism, Yoga, Vedanta, and is emerging
from the New Science of Quantum Mechanics.

(As Fritjof Capra points out in Tao of Physics, it is really not new at all, and was clearly documented
in some of the oldest human texts, written in Sanskrit nearly 4,000 years ago)

These modulations of mind can be described by Six Axes or Dimensions of Mind.

As we study this material, and practice the techniques, we discover that while some pain and loss
and even death is inevitable, our suffering is caused by unskillful mind states, and is therefore, optional.

If we live in wretched land of suffering, Samsara, Babylon, the Matrix, etc., it is only by our own design.

With skill and practice, we can be free to return to the ground state of being: Nirvana, Heaven, Samadhi,
Satori, Sat Cit Ananda, Moksha: Lasting transcendent happiness and true freedom from all burdens.

"Why do you stay in prison
when the door is wide open?"
-- Rumi

"The only difference
between Samsara and Nirvana
is yo' head"
-- Lama Marut

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