Defining and Creating a Better World
Recently, there has been a great deal of focus on peace, peace prayers, visualizing world peace, and obtaining a peaceful world. But should we be focusing on something even greater than peace, that will create peace as a side effect? Most people who are involved in the peace movement, or visualize/pray for peace, want a peaceful world of kindness, gentleness, freedom and love. And compassionate, caring people, want that kind of a world for everyone, not just themselves. If everyone in the world was like that, you'd have peace. But peace would be the result of caring, not the cause of it. Why is that so important? Unfortunately, a peaceful world, doesn't necessarily mean a kind, gentle, loving world. In fact, a world at peace could also be the result of tyrannical dictatorship. If you oppress people hard enough, stomp them down through force or threat of force, you can create peace. For instance, if Hitler had not been stopped, he would have taken over the entire world, and there probably would have been world peace. That's not what most people have in mind however, when they pray for, visualize, or promote world peace. But we must be careful what we ask for, and how we ask for it.
There is a problem with blanketly visualizing or working for peace. Unless the conditions of peace are strictly qualified in prayers, visualizations, or physical efforts we make, we could end up with something far from what we hoped for, and even far worse than the violence and wars we wish to stop. So is there a better way to create peace - and insure that it is the kind of peace we want? YES!
The first step in solving any problem, is to clearly identify the problem. The lack of peace, caring, giving and love in the world can be traced to one source - individual selfishness. Greed for money/power, possessiveness, envy, jealousy, lust, hate, are all just aspects of selfishness - fruit of the selfish tree. And it can be traced even further back. Selfishness is attributable to not being ONE, i.e., being separate from God/the Universal Spirit - because when you are living the illusion of being separate, you are experiencing being separate, and you are for all practical terms, separate. You then think as separate, feel separate, and act separate. To one who is separate, the mentality is thus "us and them". Selfishness is just the logical outcome, and the logical way to think, feel, and behave.
So there we have defined the real root problem. Selfishness is the disease that causes all the problems, world problems AND person problems. People have a tendency to see world problems only on a grand scale, but think - all the world's problems are CAUSED by INDIVIDUAL humans. What does that mean? It means that WORLD problems come from the same place that PERSONAL problems do.
If selfishness/separateness is the disease and cause of all problems, then what is the cure? Breaking the illusion of separation. How? By transcending our selfish separateness with Unselfish Love. Unselfish Love is the famous "Golden Rule" ("Love thy neighbor"/"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"/"Love one another as I have loved you" - in other words, love everyone with a "Christ-like" unselfish love). Unselfish Love is the natural way of being for a person who is One with All, One with God, but more importantly, it is the cure for separateness, selfishness, and all problems (including, but not limited to war and violence). So peace is a natural side-effect.
If we focus on creating a world full of Unselfishly Loving people, starting with ourselves, we will be moving towards world peace. The fact is, you can't help but have a peaceful world, if everyone is Unselfishly Loving. But more than just peaceful, it would be paradise.
All "good" people agree that Unselfish Love and its virtues (kindness, caring, compassion) are good things that we should all live by. It is the best way to help make the world a better place, one person at a time.The Golden Rule Organization (GRO) is dedicated to that goal. It is omni-denominational and non-denominational, thus good people of all cultures and beliefs (or lack of belief), find common ground with GRO. So next time you hear someone talking about world peace, suggest that maybe we shouldn't just leave it at that, but rather, we should focus on world Unselfish Love, and get peace as part of the package!