Peace Is The Way – Rev. Linda Jackson
This video features the Sunday “talk” only. Watch the full service on our Facebook page.
DESCRIPTION
Peace is not just an ideal, but a way of being that shapes every aspect of our lives. Embodying peace internally leads to greater connections, resilience, and positive change in the world around us. AJ Muste said, “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.” Join us this Sunday to explore how cultivating peace transforms both our inner and outer worlds.
SUMMARY
The transcript discusses the importance of cultivating inner peace in order to create peace in the world. The speaker emphasizes that peace starts within, and we must practice and choose peace, especially during challenging times. They explore different perspectives on peace, including both inner peace and external peacebuilding. The key messages are:
- Peace starts within through spiritual practices, self-awareness, and meeting our own needs
- We must learn to engage with conflict in compassionate, constructive ways rather than avoiding or escalating it
- By focusing on peace and our interconnectedness, we can transform ourselves, our relationships, and our communities
- All violence is an expression of unmet needs, so understanding and meeting our own and others’ needs is crucial for creating peace
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Linda Jackson (00:00):
All right. Well I would just say one more round for the music team. Nora and Greg I always appreciate you and I just want to say a special thanks to Megan for filling in. She makes it look easy, right? To just show up and sing the songs. I would say that Paige is a tough fact to follow too. So we appreciate you being here… and apparently my screensaver is on or was on, so I don’t know how that’s affecting you. Okay, great.
(00:34):
So thank you for being here. I have so much appreciation for everyone for coming out in the rain. I was a little sad that I had to go out in the rain because I spent 45 minutes doing my hair this morning and then it was like, why? But it’s great practice for me. It’s great practice for me because not worrying about how I look or expecting to get my love from the outside is part of my ongoing work. So the universe provides these opportunities for me.
(01:09):
This month we’ve been exploring peace and this is the idea – when it feels like everything is falling apart, right? When it feels chaotic, when we’re confused and we’re in that illusion of separation, how do we find peace? And we’ve heard from three of our usual speakers that to find peace in our relationships, peace in community and peace in the world, we have to cultivate inner peace. So we’re being invited to check in with ourselves and see where peace is lacking here. And when we connect with our spiritual nature, when we connect with the divine and tune into our oneness and the unity of all, when we really dedicate ourselves to a life of mindfulness, then we are the peace. We experience peace. It all starts with us, but we have to choose it. Right.
(02:12):
So Rev, Aimee offered some breathing and mindfulness practices from Thic Nhat Hanh. She also suggested unplugging from technology and social media. Did anybody do that? Oh good. Alright. Nice. And the Hawaiian practice of ho opono pono for healing relationships. I’m just sharing a few nuggets from each of the speakers. Reverend Darrell invited us to make the effort- to effort and practice to bring peace into our thoughts and our relationships and that we have to practice to maintain peace. And Rev Rod shared the importance of making space for peace. So starting the day with spiritual practice. And he offered the affirmation, I can choose peace rather than this. So we can establish a peaceful mindset, a peaceful vibration, so that when we walk into a room, peace precedes us. Right people can feel that we are at peace.
(03:22):
In order to be peace, we have to avoid giving into the impulse to express negativity. That’s a tough one. Sometimes I think we kind of bond with one another often over well, it’s a way that we connect and it takes us out. It takes us out of alignment with the truth. So I’m suggesting that we practice connecting with one another in remembering our oneness, a sort of namaste, honoring the light in one another and that we bond that way instead.
(04:09):
So essentially practicing peace, practicing non-resistance requires staying in this consciousness, especially during the ups and downs, during chaos during election season where there’s divisiveness everywhere. When we practice, when we practice communing with the divine daily, we can embody the peace and radiate the peace. Peace can preceed us everywhere we go. So they all offered much more. And the recordings are there. I invite you to go check ’em out. But some of my key takeaways there, peace starts within. We have to practice and we have to choose peace.
(04:57):
Have you been practicing peace? Nice. This is why I come here. I hang out with people who do this in the world. What a difference we make, right? So you’re choosing peace. We’re being the peace that we want. So the good little researcher in me decided I had to Google what is peace? And it turns out that there are a few different ways of thinking about peace. Google, thankfully Google will give us all those answers, right? Freedom from disturbance, tranquility, or a state or period in which there is no war or war has entered. But then there’s inner peace, a way of being that exudes hope and reassurance and is not dependent on outer circumstances or what we experience in the world of form.
(05:57):
When we’re grounding ourselves in the divine for inner peace, we are free from disturbance, we have tranquility and that inner war ends. And it’s logical to follow that if we cultivate this, the entire world would be free from disturbance. If everyone were doing their inner work, there would be no war. And according to Google, that would be peace. So again, the key here is doing our inner work and noticing when we’re not at peace, what’s happening here. But I’m offering a both and perspective, right? Being inner peace to create peace in our outer world and doing work for peace in the outer world. So the being happens on the inside and the doing happens on the outside and we need to cultivate both.
(06:56):
So I had the privilege of attending a 10 day peacebuilding immersion training at the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding back in May. And this is from some of their material. They say that peace does not simply mean the absence of conflict. Disagreements and misunderstandings will always exist. Rather, peace means engaging in those disagreements, in compassionate, constructive ways. This is how peace is possible. And they go on to say, when people experience conflict, they often avoid it or escalate it. Anybody relate to that? Avoiding conflict or escalating it? What do you mean? Why do you say that?
(07:47):
But with proper skills and understanding, like nonviolent communication, solution focused, conflict coaching, the things that we were learning in this training with proper skills and understanding, people can learn to engage in conflicts in a way that can transform themselves and their relationships and their communities. So that leaning into the conflict actually expands us. It can make us better if we’re willing to do it in compassionate ways. And in this way, peace is possible. So by learning effective conflict resolution strategies and approaches, individuals and communities can be empowered to create a more peaceful world where different perspectives are valued and conflicts are resolved through peaceful means. Now, it may seem obvious, but if you look at the conflicts in the world, I don’t think everybody’s valuing different perspectives, right?
(08:55):
It’s clearly not obvious to everyone. So my talk title is Peace is the Way, and it comes from this quote. The quote is attributed to both AJ Muste and Mahatma Gandhi. Musty was a leader of the mid-century peace movement in America. And you all know Gandhi, I am sure a universal symbol of peace dedicated his life to nonviolence. “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” So I’m going to invite you to just pause for a moment and take that in. There is no way to peace. Peace is the way I feel a shift. When I read that maybe subtle, I’m going to invite you to read it with me. So let’s take a breath first.
(09:53):
Now let’s read. There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. If you feel that there is no way to peace makes it feel like something out there, like a way to peace, to get to something right. And peace is the way brings it back here, brings it back to me. There’s something I can do about it. So being inner peace to reflect that in the outer world and doing work for peace in the outer world, it requires both. And Ernest Holmes has this quote, which also brings it back to us. World peace is a thing that the average person believes is someone else’s responsibility when actually there is something very practical they can do about it. And he goes on, he tells us what the practical thing is. Here’s another quote from Ernest Holmes. We want peace on earth. Let us pray for peace in our own hearts.
(10:59):
Let us affirm peace in our own minds. Let us live as though peace were the mandate of God because it is So I think he’s saying the same thing. We’re doing the inner work, we’re praying for peace in our hearts. We’re affirming peace in our minds and then we’re living as though peace is the mandate. So for anyone new or newer, a shorthand version of what science of mind teaches is that what we think about comes about. So if we use the power of our thoughts, excuse me, to focus on what’s wrong in the world, then we will experience more of what is wrong in the world. So social media, the news, if we’re focusing on that, we’re creating more experience of that intensity for ourselves. Has anybody here thought about what’s wrong in the world lately?
(11:56):
Yeah. Right. So when we focus on what’s wrong, we get more of what’s wrong. If we use the power of our thoughts to imagine peace, if we spend our time cultivating peace, when we imagine peace, we reveal peace. And with the craziness of our times, peace on earth sort of feels unattainable. We have current wars. I mean they seem far away, right? But violence is right here. I mean, do you ever feel anger just driving down the street? It’s easy. It’s easy to have it happen. I mean, I work on that. It doesn’t happen to me too much anymore, but every once in a while I’ll be like, what?
(12:43):
I saw a couple of guys fist fighting right in the middle of the street the other day. I didn’t even know what to do. I was sort of afraid to go by him. I was like, is there a way out of this? And we have so many things in our world here in the city of Chicago, we see the poverty, the inequality. We have tent communities. We can see that we’re not exuding inner and outer peace. And we might understandably question how can there ever be peace? And all of that is focusing on what we don’t want. But I’m not asking us to spiritually bypass. It’s just important to acknowledge that spiritual principles says that what we focus on grows. It is the law of attraction and action. So when we focus on what we don’t want, we’re creating more of it.
(13:48):
And I’m going to go back to the reading that reading from Pema Children, and thank you Donna for doing such a lovely job with that. This is from her chapter on not causing harm and Not Causing harm is a basic Buddhist teaching on the healing power of non-aggression, not being aggressive with our actions, our speech, our minds. But it’s the next slide that I wanted to look at, not harming ourselves or others in the beginning, not harming ourselves or others in the middle and not harming ourselves or others. In the end is the basis for an enlightened society. This is how there could be a sane world. It starts with sane citizens and that is us, the beginning, the middle, and the end. That takes a lot of practice on the inside and on the outside to get all the way to the end. I mean, do you have anybody that you’re in a relationship with where you’re like, today I’m going to be on good behavior. I’m not going to be triggered by that thing and I’m not going to say that thing that triggers them. I’m good and we have a good beginning and then they just have to look at you a certain way or move a certain way or use a certain tone and all of a sudden there goes the middle and the end.
(15:20):
No, it’s just me. Seriously. Okay? It takes practice. That inner work helps us understand why we are triggered and that outer work helps us get curious and learn to value different perspectives and helps us get through the beginning, the middle and the end. And she goes on to say, the most fundamental aggression to ourselves and the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently. She’s saying the most fundamental harm is caused by ignorance, ignoring what we’re needing, right? We need the courage and respect to look at ourselves and mindfulness, meditation, our spiritual practice, this is what gives us the ability to begin to undo the ignorance. We start to know what’s really happening with us. We have to stay awake and aware and to slow down enough to notice what we say and do. So we can notice our knee jerk reactions, we can understand how we are being. And when we do that, it’s easier to refrain or make a different choice. And this is really where I think some of the juices where it becomes a way of life to slow down and to stay awake and to notice and to not be so reactive.
(16:59):
So 20 years ago, many of you have heard me tell some of these stories. I was working 80 hours a week. I was staying in relationships that weren’t good for me. And trust me, I wasn’t good for them either. My long time friend and business partner once asked me, well, what would you be doing if you weren’t taking care of your kids and putting all this time into work? What do you want? I didn’t really have an answer to that. I just thought that raising my kids and doing this job and providing for my family was what I was supposed to be doing. I didn’t really know. I mean, I had a lot of things that I enjoyed, but I didn’t have a vision for what I was creating other than my business and my kids, which is a good thing, but not in unhealthy ways.
(17:52):
And I’ve quoted Joe Jackson before as a singer from the eighties. You can’t get what you want until you know what you want. I didn’t know I was listening to a meta physician back then, but this time was the sort of precursor and this conversation of my friend asking me what did I want was the sort of beginning of me understanding what were my values and my needs. And a little throwback to last month really developing that self-awareness to see yourself honestly. And as Pema chore says gently, because this is not about beating ourselves up and making us wrong for what we’ve been doing. It’s about loving ourselves back into knowing our wholeness. And when we do this work, we notice where our trauma is. Our shadow is I had to learn to love myself. That’s really what I needed. I was trying, excuse me, trying to find my worth in my work, trying to find my worth in these relationships, and I had to know my worth. That’s the short version of it. There was a lot of longer versions of it too. But communing with the divine allows us this peaceful state not as a spiritual bypass, but to do the work necessary to cultivate the inner peace.
(19:26):
When we’re tuned into ourselves, we’re clear. When we’re not at peace, when we’re related to that, we have choice. And when we tune into our oneness to the unity of all, when we dedicate ourselves to this life of mindfulness, we are the peace. We experience harmony, but we have to be aware and awake enough to choose peace. And I’m going to shift just a moment to these powerful words of Desmond Tutu. If I diminish you, I diminish myself, not harming ourselves or others. Seems obvious to a group of people like us. If I diminish you, I diminish myself. But how often do we do it in subtle ways?
(20:24):
If I harm you, I harm myself. Another way to say it is what is good for one is good for all. So I’m inviting us to do our inner work before we take action to understand what’s going on in here and to do the outer work, to learn the skills and develop understanding, to be curious, to engage with conflicts in a way that honors our oneness. Because if I diminish you, I diminish me and I invite us to practice, practice, practice to stay awake and aware in the beginning, the middle and the end. And this is how we transform ourselves, our relationships, and our communities.
(21:16):
All violence is an expression of an unmet need. This is a good one, folks. All violence is an expression of an unmet need. And I’ve shared it before and I’m sure I’ll share it again. This is from Marshall Rosenberg of Nonviolent Communication. When we honor our values and meet our needs, then we have more compassion for the values and needs of others. And this is how we can work for outer peace. My friend Carla shared a Facebook is with me. So I’m not sure who to credit for this. Actually. Imagining you’re holding a cup of coffee and someone bumps into you and you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee? Because someone bumped into me. No, you spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. If there had been tea in your cup, you would’ve spilled the tea. So what’s ever inside your cup is what will get spilled out when someone bumps into you. So what’s in my cup? How are you filling your cup?
(22:30):
So that’s our spiritual practice, to fill our cup with what we want to exude when we bump into people, right? If you want to know what you need, if you want to know where your work is, look at what’s coming out of your cup and then ask how do you meet your needs? And I’m going to take us into a little meditation practice around this. So remembering that what we think about comes about, I’m inviting us into some inquiry to support us in being peace. So let’s begin by just pausing for a moment and taking a few slow breaths, feeling yourself anchored in your seat, getting yourself centered in whatever way works for you.
(23:30):
Perhaps imagine breathing through your heart center, staying in that space, anchoring in love, in peace, creating a comfortable space to do some inquiry. Now, allow a recent time to come to mind when you are alone and not at peace. Be with that for a moment. And recall the emotions, the physical sensations, perhaps remembering the story you were telling yourself. Now see if you can feel into this and identify what was the unmet need? What did you really need? Take a breath in that. And how might you feel this need for yourself, not trying to get it from someone else or somewhere else. How can you fill this need for yourself Now, agree to do this for yourself.
(25:13):
And if it would be supportive of you to move your body to release any of those feelings, feel free. We’ve learned over the past few months that allowing an emotion to move through to completion is an important part of the process. Now, allow a recent time to come to mind when you were with someone else who was not experiencing peace. Just be with that for a moment, recalling the experience, perhaps the emotions that were being expressed, and see if you can feel into what is their on unmet need? What did they really need? And is there any way to support them to understand this or to have this need filled or to fill this need for themselves?
(26:25):
And see if you can identify for yourself if there is an unmet need in this. And how might you feel this need for yourself there, a request you can make to ask for what you need. What do you need right now? How can you fill your cup? And again, if you need to move your body to release any of those feelings, feel free. And when you move through challenges in the coming days, if you observe conflict, see if you can tune in to the unmet needs, your own of others, rather than avoiding or escalating. How can you fill your cup?
(27:43):
And I am going to take us into prayer. I have so much gratitude in this moment for this community, for all the hearts that say yes to doing this work. And in this moment, I recognize that there is only one thing happening. And that is the life of God. The life of love. And it expresses itself in in through me. In each one in this room, each one listening or watching online. We are all individual expressions of the divine of love. And from that place, I just speak a prayer and an affirmation that we are being called to do our work, to notice our needs, to fill our needs, to dive in deeper to what Spirit is calling us to be in this time, to be the peace, to be the love, and to do what is called for us to be curious of others, to understand what others need and how they feel, even when it is very different from us. And I know that this is what transforms not just our personal relationships, but our communities and the world. And I’m so grateful. I’m so grateful to be with a group of people who are saying yes to being the peace, to changing the world. I’m so grateful for the fulfillment of this prayer. I let it go into the law that always says yes. I call it good. And so is.