The other day, I read an article by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (HHDL) where he said we as people should be thinking of and working for the betterment of the human race. Betterment in spiritual terms and working toward world peace. I sent HHDL a tweet (we are buddies) saying, sorry mate, I think you have it wrong, but he didn't reply. Mind you, there is not so much you can say in 140 characters.
HHDL has wonderful grand ideas about world peace and I have a great deal of respect for him and what he says. He seems to have a wonderfully simple logic and way of explaining complex situations so you have no choice but to smile and listen. But, just because he is the Spiritual core of the east, it doesn't mean he is always right. So, in that vein, I challenge him and his view on world peace.
Of course, we are never going to find world peace, it simply doesn't exist and never will, it is a futile state. BUT, it is the constant will to try that is important. Yeah, yeah, I understand this and applaud it. But me, Simon Milton-Jones from a small place in the middle of the mountains in Norway, what can I do to affect world peace. Well, very little, -OK, I can pay some money to Amnesty International/Oxfam/Red Cross, but that would be me settling my conscience, not actually doing something.
I prefer to think about world peace in my own worldly terms. My world exists from when the kids wake me up, to all the activities I can get done during the day, to when I flop down into the sofa, with that wide-eyed WTF just happened look, after the kids have gone to bed. That doesn't leave much energy to try stopping Obama from taking over the world or persuading China that Tibet really isn't much of a threat, or even settle the long running debate of whether it is going to be pølse for dinner tomorrow or pasta and veggies.
We definitely need big thinkers like HHDL in order to point us in the right direction, keep us on track so we don't end up getting our panties in a twist and invading someone – whether they have lots of juicy oil, or not. But, for every big thinker, every HHDL, we need millions of us “normal” folk to do our bit. Not to worry about world peace or helping the world be more spiritually free, but to do something small, make a small change to the way we do things. I'm not talking about stuffing yourself with tofu, only buying organic food or replacing your ageing Dodge Viper with a Toyota Prius. I mean something far more difficult . . . being kind.
Huh?! He gone all “let's love one another” on us! Nope, not me, I can assure you. To be conscious of being kind is nothing but a very slight shift in your thinking. It's just to keep in the back of your mind that once or twice today, when you get the opportunity, be kind. It could be toward one of your kids, at work, on the way home from work, or to yourself. As I write this, I am on the bus to Trondheim and when I get there I intend being kind to myself by going to McDonnalds :-) I haven't been there in ages. OK, ok, so that's not exactly being kind but think about it, this being kind thing works in many ways and it's contagious. If you are kind to someone for no apparent reason, it will make you feel good, that person will also feel good and by proxy, will also do something kind for someone else (probably), and so on and so on.
Before you know it, your small act of kindness to John Smith at work, has ended up in solving the pølse/pasta problem and you get a phone call from Obama asking which tailor makes your saffron robes? It is all too easy these days to get caught up in the thinking that there is nothing you can do, the problem is global, too big, that you can't have any influence, but that's just an excuse, sorry everyone, you can have an effect, not by thinking in global terms but personal ways.
Sometimes it is not so easy to be kind and so feel free to choose not to be, but every now and then, consciously choose it. Then you can sit back, feel the effect, know that you did something good and that you have in your own way, done something to help global peace. You may not have brokered a peace treaty between warring factions within Afghanistan, but then that's not your job. So, think about Michael Jackson as much as HHDL and start with the Man In The Mirror. If you can help those around you be a little more kind every now and again, you will have had a greater effect than you can imagine.
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