World Peace

World peace is here now. Among the truly religious people, and the truly spiritual who don't follow any particular faith, abides world peace. After all, these souls encompass every country and city of the globe. When they meet they joyfully recognize one anothers' spirit selves, and realize that they have a helper and protector in the other person.
What qualities does the truly religious (or deeply spiritual) person have? That person will embody the precepts common to all the major religions—not just the religion he prescribes to. A short list might be: kindness, generosity, truthfulness, trustworthiness, caring, understanding, wisdom, patience, gentleness, and mercy. He will work for justice and equity in all things. Instead of judging others, he will remember his own faults and seek to understand them better. These are the pure in heart, and they meet one another because they are attracted to like souls. When they meet, the power of both becomes instantly greater and any apparent difficulty or problem can easily be solved.
If you think of the young children of this world, do they not also live almost solely in the world of peace and harmony? They are spreaders of light and wisdom wherever they go, often without having any idea that this is so. They are constantly teaching receptive souls what they need to learn so that they can live more fully at peace with others. And many of them are willing to provide a heavenly refuge to those that have suffered. Do you see? World peace is not just something we can look forward to, or hope for, but it is already established. It is just a matter of bringing all members of humanity into it; therein lies the challenge. And of course, bringing ourselves more fully into it, day by day.
Are these two tasks not our most important work on this planet? Is there anything that anyone is doing which is more significant?
We must realize how powerful each of us is to help one another in this way. And if we are living a very spiritually conscious life, we will continually ask ourselves, at least subconsciously, how this is done. “How can I help bring those around me more fully into the land of peace?” We realize that sometimes it means putting distance between ourselves and another, at least for a time. Everyone needs enough personal space to be able to think through things and meditate. But it usually isn't peace-promoting to completely avoid someone, to shut him out. The peace-promoting person will be open to interactions with all sorts of people, no matter where they are in their understanding of the world and themselves. But even when we are not directly interacting with someone, we can still teach him—through our own actions, our example. People can very successfully and thoroughly learn how to live by the example of others. This is primarily how children learn. They watch all the adults around them, also listening to their words, and emulate what seems to be good and effective. This is why we must not continually indulge in harmful activities around our children. They come to view these activities as a necessary part of life which have some redeeming quality about them. If we will not faithfully put aside our “bad habits” and live a pure and holy life, we will be promoting similar habits in our children. At a certain point, they will likely step wholly out of the land of peace. But this mustn't be so! Our children can and will retain their pure and holy qualities into adulthood, if only we demonstrate that it can be done, and how! After all, it should be painful and difficult to put aside a life of heavenly communion with others, accepting a worldly and material-oriented life. Who would desire to do that? It is only the growing child who has not learned all he needs to know, who will accept materialism and sensual pleasure as his mainstay.
We are all called to venture into areas of darkness at times, in order to assist others who are lost there. It is a beautiful act, to bring one's light into a dark place and provide some sort of assistance. Even a warm, loving smile can be the light at the end of someone's tunnel. But the truly spiritual and/or religious person will not allow himself to be completely darkened, and this includes our growing children and teenagers. If the universe (including their parents or guardians) has taught them the essential knowledge to live in this world, they will retain their light in dark situations, staying pure and holy.
We all have an incredible task ahead of us; but as we take steps towards our goal, day by day, it becomes more and more joyful—even the work required to get there. Let us keep learning and growing and sharing with one another the little secrets that lead us to paradise. May we all be open and receptive, and pray that our children never cast themselves out of paradise. World peace abides in those hearts that are peaceful, pure, and holy. May we all appreciate what a great blessing that is.

May 23, 2013