For centuries, Chinese calligraphers have painted bamboo as a spiritual exercise. Bamboo is graceful, upright, and strong. Hollow inside, receptive, and humble, it bends with the wind but does not break.
The “Tao Te Ching” tells us:
At birth all people are soft and yielding.
At death they are hard and stiff.
All green plants are tender and yielding.
At death they are brittle and dry.
When hard and rigid,
We consort with death.
When soft and flexible,
We affirm greater life.
(Diane Dreher, The Tao of Inner Peace)
Peace is based on respect for life, on a true reverence for life. And it means becoming soft and flexible—bending, but not breaking—through the opening of the heart.
I chose this theme today because of what is going on in my own life and in the world, and our need to find the flexibility within, even when we do not see it without. With the election this week, it has been difficult for many of us to feel truly peaceful.
If you are worried about our democracy and the loss of freedom, think instead, “Our desire and will for freedom is stronger than the desire or will of those who would oppress us. We are free, and no chains can bind us.”
Think it a thousand times. Think it a hundred thousand times. We don’t have to worry if we don’t believe it the first hundred thousand times we think it. That is not the point. We just keep thinking it and thinking it, cutting that new channel in the hillside. It is one powerful way to create a peaceful mind.
Only when we find peace within ourselves can we see more clearly, act more effectively, cooperating with the energies within and around us to build a more peaceful world. Humorist Ashleigh Brilliant said, “All we need for a peaceful world is to ban all discussion of politics, sex, and religion.” (Pot Shots) He also said, “Honk, if you love peace and quiet.”
The root of the Hebrew word for peace, “shalom,” means “whole” and points to this twofold meaning: peace within oneself and peace among people. Both inner and outer peace begin in the heart. Carl Jung said, “The utterances of the heart—unlike those of the discriminating intellect—always relate to the whole.”
It is said that one of the most difficult journeys we ever take for our wholeness is the 18-inch journey from the head to the heart. In other words, we may hear a truth and understand it intellectually, but to own it in our heart, to truly experience its meaning, may take a long time and a lot of effort.
Traveling from the head to the heart does not mean giving up the head but balancing the two. Then, we lighten up and experience peace—true inner peace. And don’t we all long for peace—for the true happiness that comes from inner peace? And paradoxically, there is no way to peace, for peace is the way. Peace is a choice, an attitude, a path of the heart.
Let us strive for a peaceful mind these next few days and next few months. Remember, “We are free, we are unlimited, there are no chains that bind us. We are free, we are unlimited right now!”
Love & peace,
Rev. Kathy