Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte and#8220;Finding Inner Peace,and#8221;asks: Is Peace Enough? Are we able to meet even the little frustrating moments with calm, positive intent? With a beautiful reading from the Dhammapada we are reminded that when we can meet anger and hatred with love, it does have a positive effect in the world.
This short, thoughtful reflection is an excerpt from the talk and#8220;Buddhism and Peaceand#8221; given by Parami at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 30th July 2011 in the series Buddhism and the Big Questions.
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. [music] So all of this in a sense is about the finding of inner peace. It's about a search for inner peace. And for those of you who have come into the center, perhaps through meditation, often that is what people are looking for. Often people are, you know, in this the world that we live in today and all that for all those reasons, people often feel that they don't have much peace either in their head or their heart. You know, they kind of feel very full of what they're doing. People often have very stressful lives. Many, many people come to learn meditation or come into the center because they're meant to learn how to deal with that and find a sense of inner peace. And I think we do have things we can offer that can really help that sense of peace to be developed. But is that enough? Well, I would argue it's not enough really that the seeking for inner peace cannot be the end of the story. And I think even if we don't mean it to be anything else, to the extent that when does have an inner peace, then we will start having an effect around us anyway. And I've often had this experience of getting into some kind of situation where an argument might arise. I don't mean people, friends. I mean the person in the post office that shuts the window just as you get to it. Or those frustrating moments in life where you just feel frustrated and blocked. And I can feel that sense of wanting to engage with that in a particular way which is argumentative. And actually feeling how, when I've occasionally fallen into doing that, how it just heats up. And it just, you know, escalates. So even in a very immediate sense, if I can approach that, if we can approach those very minor but sometimes quite frequent situations in life, with that bit more calm and that bit more peace and that bit more kindness, actually it diffuses something. And I'm sure all of us have had that experience. And it does diffuse something and it does mean that that other person also can get a little bit more space around them. And can actually maybe then not move the chain on to get an anger with somebody else. I'm sure all of us have kind of had that experience. And the point for me of a Buddhist practice is not just to feel better. So for me the sense of that sense of inner peace can only really be a starting point. So can we really stop hatred and violence in the world? Well it's a big question. And we don't have, most of us are not going to have the opportunity probably to work at the kind of level where we're effective on a national or a global level. So it's probably unlikely that most of us are in the sense peacekeepers in a kind of situation where we can actually act in a way that is going to stop a war from happening somewhere or is actually going to stop some kind of escalation of violence on the planet. Maybe we can do things that do move towards that. But I think even if we just start by thinking what can we do in our immediate environs then it does start to have an effect. The Damapada which is one of the most original, one of the earliest Buddhist texts says "He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me." In those who harbor such thoughts hatred is not appeased. He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me. In those who do not harbor such thoughts hatred is appeased. Hatred never ceases through hatred in this world, through love alone does it cease. This is an eternal law. So that seems to me to be a very clear statement of intent and a very good piece of advice. And again I'm sure we've probably all had that experience. When we can meet anger and hatred we'll love. And it's not easy to do, but where we can do that it does have an effect. We create an ambience. I'm sure most of you remember the photograph of the young girl given a soldier, a flower, facing the barrel of a gun. You know there's all sorts of images like that where it seems to me not naive to believe that those kind of things do have an effect. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]
