Peacefulness is weakness?
By Deepack Chopra, 15/10/2001

 

Question:

Why are so many people getting bent out of shape about others trying to be so peaceable - regarding the war against terrorists?

Answer:

Peacefulness is commonly associated with weakness in our society, not with strength. Most people feel that something must be done to stop terrorism and that if one is encouraging a peaceful response, they think nothing is being done to stop terrorism in the future. Power and strength is still seen almost exclusively in terms of the physical manifestation of force. That is why terrorists resort to violence, and that is why governments resort to violence to stop them. Also, many people are uncomfortable with a pacifist approach because they feel it sends a message to the terrorists that what they did was justified in some way. People are afraid that not retaliating is accepting a kind of responsibility or misplaced guilt for what the terrorists did, when there can be no equivalency between the US government’s foreign policy and the willful act of killing thousands of innocent people. It is true there is no relationship between those actions, but peace does not imply accepting blame or guilt.

If society understood just how powerful consciousness is when it is united in peaceful intent, then more people would choose peace over retaliation. The power of peace can stop terrorism without being an apology for it. Establishing true peace is a way to step completely outside the arena of justifying actions based on who did what to whom when. It has nothing to do with assigning blame. If terrorism and war can be likened to a pot of water boiling over, then peace is turning the stove off and cooling the pot down. Violence begins in people’s minds, and so does peace. We all carry within us the subjective technology of transforming violence into peace, we only need to choose it and it will happen.

Love,

Deepak

 

Source: http://www.chopra.com