Peace September 16, 2014 By Alicia Anka This past weekend, I went to London for the night with a good friend of mine. We spent two full days there walking around, soaking up the city, shopping, spending time with my sister and talking and reflecting on life. It was one of those recharge and restore weekends that lifts your spirits and opens your heart. Sunday morning, we were taking a walk in Battersea Park and we passed the most beautiful monument, the London Peace Pagoda, along the River Thames. For those of you who don’t know it, monks, nuns and followers of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist order built it in the 1980’s and it is one of 80 peace pagodas around the world. (And unlikely place for a pagoda, I know, so if you are curious to know more, see batterseapark.org/history/peace-pagoda/) The pagoda is dedicated to the realization of Universal Peace and is a symbol of light in the darkness of today’s world, a visible prayer to awaken humanity to peace. And indeed it does… you cannot help but feel reverence in its presence. You are humbled by the size of the gilded bronze Buddha sculptures that adorn it and feel a sense of peacefulness, sacredness as you walk around it. After spending some time there, we walked away both contemplating the words written at the bottom of the pagoda’s steps, “Civilisation is neither to have electric lights, nor airplanes, nor to produce nuclear bombs. Civilisation is not to kill human beings, not to destroy things, nor to make war; civilization is to hold mutual affection and to respect each other.” I have thought a lot about the pagoda, as well as the words written there, since I have left London. I keep thinking about how easy it is in today’s world to choose to ignore the chaos around us, turn our backs on what is happening in countries far away, or even to just feel helpless about how each one of us can help – especially when living in a place like Monaco, which can often feel so isolated. Some of us spend so much time worrying about getting ahead, about keeping up, about fitting in, that we forget that we are all in this world together, not to succeed, surpass and accumulate, but to learn to exist all together and to respect one another. This may seem impossible when looking at the entire world, but that impossibility should not stop us from beginning with ourselves, with our immediate community. The International Day of Peace is coming up this Sunday - another reminder in the world to work towards nonviolence, towards global unity. Let’s all try to be living, breathing monuments of peace this week. Let’s wake each morning and send love and peace into the world, especially to those places in the world that are suffering most. Let’s challenge ourselves to be more accepting of others, most of all those who seem the most difficult to accept. And let’s take time to cultivate peace within ourselves, whether it’s through meditation, yoga or simply a few minutes spent in quiet each day. We can all work on letting go of any anger, resentment or negativity we may be storing inside – choosing forgiveness instead. And when we find ourselves getting frustrated or angry this week because of traffic, construction noise, or difficult people or situations around us, let’s see if we can go inward and find a bit of peace inside ourselves to carry us through those challenging moments. “Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” (Robert Fulghum) Namaste
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 18:09:15 +0000
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