john dennison's blog

You're sick and tired of all the fighting, not to mention all the fallout that comes from the pursuit of self-interest that goes with it -- environmental degradation, business excesses, corruption and control in government, disparity of wealth and circumstance, etc.

So far, though, you're probably not quite sure what to do about it. You don't like the way things are. And you sure don't like where they're headed.

But trying to change the way things work without changing human nature is like being a salmon swimming upstream to spawn. Even if it can avoid the bears and other predators lying in wait and finally does reach its destination to lay its eggs, it then collapses in exhaustion and dies.

What kind of life is that? Does creating peace mean living a life of self-sacrifice to change a system that doesn't want to be changed?

The fundamental challenge is not one of fixing the problems we've created for ourselves. Rather, it's about influencing behavior by changing human nature -- or more precisely, expanding the consciousness that motivates it.

For a guy who talks so much about peace, I sure don't feel very peaceful these days. The state of our nation is on my mind, in particular politics and the functioning (an oxymoron?) of our government, and it's got me fuming!

It goes without saying that politics is a game of power to determine who will control the mechanism of government -- and in so doing set the course of our common affairs.

As with any game, people play to win. When some win, others lose. Like the cliche says, to the winner go the spoils. And to the loser? The chance to try, try again -- and do whatever possible to regain power at the next election.

Ah, elections. That's a good place to start. When I was young, I used to hear about how bad the soviet system was, offering its people only the illusion of choice, that the system was rigged to elect the candidate selected by a central ruling elite.

So what makes us think it's any different here, just because we get two (and sometimes more) candidates to choose from for most offices? The American electorate is trained to think our choice is meaningful, but for our vote to "count," we dutifully must cast those votes for either a Democrat or Republican. That is, unless things deteriorate to a point that we demonstrate our ire by voting for some third party because we don't like the choices propped up for our consumption.

Mitch Gold of HomePlanet.org has asked for our support. He's got a petition asking people to endorse the ISO 26000 standards for corporate social responsibility. Here's the link:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/implement_the_ISO_26000_standard/

We've signed it. Maybe you will, too.

While you're there, check out the link to his crowd-funding project as well.

Dealing with the outer world is hard enough. Learning to navigate our inner one is even harder, especially through all the unnecessary filters and conditions we use to distort the flow of our light and love into the world.

One of the biggest is in the demands and conditions we impose upon ourselves and how we go about our lives -- how it should look, what we want it to bring, what we're willing to do, and especially what we're not.

Most of us aren't even aware we have them. But we do. They shape what we create and how we go about it probably more than any other factor.

Take me, for instance.

You've heard me write about this future reading by the Buddhist monk who said I was to be a religious leader. It set off a whole wave of conflicting vibrations within me. "Not me," some inner voices cried out.

"Why not me?" others pleaded. "You've got a lot to offer there."

So I went about trying to do both. First, walking the path of spiritual teacher, sharing what I saw. And then, doing my very best to go in any direction other than that one.

Why should this be important to you?

As far as my own stops and starts or impact, it shouldn't. But as far as the things going on in you that affect your life, it might perhaps start you looking within to see what's going on there that's affecting your life.

Most people never learn how to look inside themselves. It's not an art that's taught in high school or college. And for that matter, not in many spiritual schools, either.

Photo source The Telegraph

Tornadoes have wreaked tremendous damage to large parts of our nation, destroying countless lives and property in the process. Most will have the chance to pick up the pieces and move on. Some, though, are gone, leaving broken hearts and empty lives behind.

It makes me think of the storms that have blown through my life, left to wonder whether I'll be standing and where once they subside -- assuming they do.

They will, won't they????? One can only hope . . . But I digress.

It was almost a decade ago that Tsen Tsing talked to me about embracing the unknown, and trusting that there was a path carved for me. He described the western desert, where even there subtle gullies -- even if unseen -- existed to channel the water during the rare torrential rains.

It was an accurate prediction of what my life was going to be like. My law practice gave way to a long period of what was described by a Buddhist monk as preparation to be a spiritual leader (she used the term religious) -- a leader of whom, to where and for what I had no idea. Moreover, I resisted, not wanting the spotlight and responsibility that often go along with leadership, not to mention I wasn't a religious kind of guy.

My life was always an exercise in trying to go my way, even though the rest of the world seemed headed somewhere else. And when I interacted with it, it was often combative, fighting off others' efforts to direct me where they wanted me to go and into what they wanted me to do. Even when they weren't, I was stirring things up, challenging beliefs and practices that were usually about imposing them upon one person/group or another.

Maybe that's why I now talk about peace so much -- it's like a counterbalance to the first 50 years of fighting, and when I wasn't, training myself for combat.

If that's leadership, it's a new one on me. Because I'm not really trying to lead anyone, but just go my own way. It's just that I do it openly, sharing both my destination and what I discover along the way. And if anyone wants to join me, that's great. If not, that's okay, too.

So what you get from me are breadcrumbs I drop from the insights I pick up along the way. How you use them, if at all, is entirely up to you.

Anyway, on with the story.

Creating a better life or world doesn't happen in a vacuum. It takes place right here in the midst of all the chaos, conflict and control that buffet our daily affairs. Those who want to make a difference must somehow weave through the minefield of obstacles that block their way.

Answering an inner call to serve can be fraught with difficulty in the face of the onslaught of an outer world that can seem hell-bent on stopping us, not to mention the challenges of playing the hands life deals.

Knowing what we're all about is an evolving process. What we think we are or know today isn't necessarily what will be tomorrow. There's always more, and the unfolding of that discovery is part of the mystery and joy of human life.

What we find determines how we live and what we do, and the outer identity we create that others can see and relate to. Unfortunately, those images we project often change dramatically over the course of our lives.

I admit to undergoing such changes. Perhaps you have as well.

While we're always continually evolving, we now live in a time of even more dramatic change. Those changes are seen everywhere, not the least of which are in the social, scientific and technological ones that have taken our world by storm.

It is all part of a process I attribute these to the energies of Ascension, that will ultimately end duality and empower us to give birth to the promised Golden Age. The energetic bonds of old ways and patterns are being stretched by a massive influx of light, triggering a loosening of the status quo that once allowed us to live comfortable, complacent lives.

Part of that discomfort is of our own making, the result of our self-absorbed and self-aggrandizing ways, assailing us with problems we've long ignored that are now getting to the point of no return.

These energies are forcing us to take the next step in human evolution by more effectively integrating our inner aspects into the affairs of this outer world.

Okay. So now you're steeped in peace. Nothing can disturb your reverie, right?

Wanna bet?

No matter how much at peace you think you are, there's always more. There's always a deeper peace waiting.

Finding your state of inner calm is important. In fact, it's going to be essential for you to begin the next step of our journey together -- actually dealing with the things that steal your peace.

Perhaps nothing in your life does. You are like a saint, living with such equilibrium that it doesn't matter to you if your world is collapsing around you.

Traveling the way of peace doesn't mean withdrawing from the world and all of the situations that steal our peace. The deepest levels of peace are attained only by engaging the reality that life serves up and doing the best we can to find and keep it.

Too often, though, we don't, instead content to "work on ourselves" and pretend the rest of the world has nothing to do with us, much less the peace we seek. Wrapped in a protective blanket of denial, isolation, and avoidance, we find an uneasy peace that is all-too-easily disturbed.

While such actions may allow us a relative calm amidst the outer storms, sooner or later the search for lasting peace will demand we deal with them.

For rarely do these things go away on their own. Instead, they keep growing in number and volume until they become like the squeaky wheel that will give us no peace until we fix it.

We all know what happens by then. The problems often escalate in scope and complexity, and demand much more of our time, effort and resources to deal with.

That's where our world is today.

Situations that have been cooking for years are bubbling up all over, now getting to a point where we're forced to do something about it. Their threats are so great that many of us are throwing open our windows and screaming, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more."

So how are we to find peace in times like these, when the world around us is falling apart and screaming for our attention to fix it before it's too late?

For a long time you've experienced the pain of dealing with a world that makes life hard, that requires conflict and struggle as the tools of daily existence.

You've had to make many difficult choices just to get by and carve out a life that has worked for you, albeit not always as you would have liked.

Along the way, it's exacted a heavy toll. Perhaps on your health. Or finances. Or relationships. Or maybe just on your peace and happiness.

Yet, something within you has changed. The pain is no longer the focus on your attention, though it demands it from time to time in an ever-constant reminder that world is still there, with all the challenges it brings just to survive within it.