Mantra of peace

[Prasanam]

The first mantra I learned was the mantra of peace.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

That means; Om, peace, peace, peace. We say it three times to have this experience of peace at the physical, emotional and mental level.

Years later I got in a bouddhist seminar and the master were talking about what is peace.
Peace is this absence of war. It's not a state of being where you force yourself to get in, it always been there. When we are angry, or our mind can't stop fighting, we must find where the illusion of war started and then, the peace come back. Each time we start a war inside us, we should look why, what is going on and bring back the peace naturaly.

There is no war, there is no peace.

[Edwin]

Originally Posted by Prasanam

There is no war, there is no peace.

My teacher once said something that made me look at the world in a whole new way.

He said that people like Marten Luther King, John Lennon and Mahatma Ghandi were destined to be killed because of what they did.

Peaceful demonstrations while rejecting violence, is an act of violence in itself, he said.
Peace is the opposite to violence, and everything should be in balance.
Refusing one will ultimately result in a balancing of the scale, often dramatically tipping the scale in favor of violence for a while.

In the Netherlands there is a movement that you can join, that has a slogan which roughly translates as "I am against pointless violence".
It tells you how you can help a person who is being hurt by others, like a robbery or those groups of people who think it is "fun" to hit and kick people who can't defend themselves against a group.

My first reaction when I heard their slogan was: "Pff tss as if there is useful violence".

But ever since I heard my master say what he said, I now understand that yes, there is useful violence, namely a defensive counter-movement to neutralise pointless violence. Simply standing around saying that you don't approve of violence is not only an act of violence to the victim, but also an invitation for the group to start hitting you as well.

As noble as peaceful demonstrations may seem ( and check out what is going on in the Middle East at this moment ) they will eventually cause the scale to tip in order for a balance to re-appear.

The western world is quite balanced, as it only takes a few cops to maintain a relatively safe environment for most of us.
Take a way those few cops because you don't approve of their violence, and the balance is tipped the wrong way again.

Sorry for rambling, your post triggered something within me

[Prasanam]

I like what you brought here.

Peaceful demonstrations while rejecting violence, is an act of violence in itself, he said.
Peace is the opposite to violence, and everything should be in balance.
Refusing one will ultimately result in a balancing of the scale, often dramatically tipping the scale in favor of violence for a while.

I agree with it. What I mean with' there is no peace, there is no war' is everything start within us. If I have to fight with someone to stop him to hurt me, or anyone else and inside me I am not in peace, I must do something, I must win, I must defend myself etc...it's not peace. If I have no problem with the fact to use my strengh to stop someone, my state of being is still peace.

I use the wrong words to express what I meant and I jsut realise it. When I speal about war, I speak about the war we start with ourselves. All those little fight we have with ourselves prevent us to be in peace.