A note on Satyagraha and Change

It is in the search for truth that true meaning comes, not in the arriving.

Fiction and misinformation fits so well with truth,
it is sometimes difficult to separate.

The choices are given, and decision are ours.

It is maybe not necessary to discuss all the changes that are occuring these days. In fact, I believe that the more changes the more possibility for good things to happen; but I am an optimist and an idealist. Still, change seems to be the theme of life. And the important thing to note is that if you are ready to adapt and survive than the change can be a good force called life. Only when you are not ready for change does it bother you. And only when you are not aware of what the changes mean do you suffer. Here's to a little more time each day spent on meditating and prayer, preparing and evaluating where we are and where we are going.

Being an optimist I am able to build up a little immunity, or defense, to all the terrible things I see. Still I see them and they still hurt but, by holding on to the idea that each individual is capable and responsible for their own decision on how to react, I can place them in the catagory "lesson learned". From international relations, wars in the name of religion and civil rights, resource availability and all the occasions where the occurances not directy alterable by my own hands I try to remember to practice satyagraha, the search for truth. It's a constant struggle to remember to always be kind and gentle, not to even raise my voice or honk my horn. But these changes will happen whether or not I'm here honking and meditating or not here at all. One more thing on these changes, I believe the Buddist way to affect change is to change those things in themselves and then they will (somehow) see them differently when they return to focus on the outside world. Like Gandhi said "Be the change you wish to see in the world". In physics this is explainable by (I believe Einsteins comment that) object or occurance that is watched or viewed is changed by the position or location of the viewer. Now we can begin to talk about metaphysics.

There is the physical world and then there is everything in between. Simple but sufficient for understanding that between you and me, the Earth and Sun, electons and protons, there is energy. Also known as God, magic, electricity, the unknown, etc. Metaphysics is a level at which we have to begin working from to comprehend the occurances and changes we face today. Like, it is not just the U.S. government that is responsible for war. It is what is in between me and you, oil and religion distance and closeness. All these ideas, and energies that cause salafist and citizens alike to "bump" into the U.S. and the U.S. bump back.

Without making a lot of examples I hope that you understand how to better see the things that cause change and with that same idea how to cause some change in the world for the better. Just being conscious of your actions and thoughts will radiate so much benefit to everything.

And finally this is where the work of satyagraha begins. There is plenty to read and plenty to learn about Gandhi's employment of satyagraha and Martin Luther King's. We can all benefit from reviewing there cause, and understanding why, and for what effect they were enduring, facing, and confronting the relationships or "energy" between people, governments, the economy and the future.