{"id":19118,"date":"2020-07-27T09:07:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T13:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19118"},"modified":"2020-07-27T09:32:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T13:32:19","slug":"change-comes-from-the-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19118","title":{"rendered":"Change Comes From the Inside"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Being Peaceful Change<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Change\nComes from the Inside<\/strong><br>\nMonday, \u202fJuly 27, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4Ke37l7lpBs\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>As we come to know our soul gift more clearly,\nwe almost always have to let go of some other \u201cgifts\u201d so we can do our one or\ntwo things with integrity. Such letting go frees us from always being driven by\nwhat has been called the \u201ctyranny of the urgent.\u201d [1] Soon urgency is a way of\nlife, and things are not done peacefully from within. What if we choose to\nsimply do one or two things wholeheartedly in our lives? That is all God\nexpects and all we can probably do well. Too much good work becomes a violence\nto ourselves and, finally, to those around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s just use our different gifts to create a unity in\nthe work of service (Ephesians 4:12\u201313), and back one another up, without\ncriticism or competition. Only in our peaceful, mutual honoring do we show\nforth the glory of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Gospel is not about being nice; it is about being\nhonest and just, and the world doesn\u2019t like those two things very much. Our job\nis to learn how to be honest, but with love and respect. Dr. Martin Luther King,\nJr. taught us that before we go out to witness for justice, we have to make\nsure that we can love and respect those with whom we disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine the surrender necessary for those who have been\noppressed for hundreds of years to continue to work peacefully for justice.\nFrankly, I don\u2019t know how anyone can do it without contemplation. How do we get\nto that deep place where we do not want to publicly expose, humiliate, or\ndefeat our opponents, but rather work, as King said, for win-win situations?\nSeeking win-win solutions, not win-lose, takes a high level of spiritual\ndevelopment and demands spiritual conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we are hurt, we want to hurt back. When we are put\ndown, we want to put down the opponent. This is our ego\u2019s natural defense\nmechanism. We all move toward the ego, and we even solidify it as we get older\nif something doesn\u2019t expose it for the lie that it is\u2014not because it is bad,\nbut because it thinks it is the whole and only thing! We change from\ninside\u2014from the power position to the position of vulnerability and solidarity,\nwhich gradually changes everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>True\ncontemplation is the most subversive of activities because it undercuts the one\nthing that normally refuses to give way\u00ad\u00ad\u2013our natural individualism and\nnarcissism. Once we are freed from our narcissism that thinks we are the center\nof the world, or that our rights and dignity have to be defended before other\npeople\u2019s rights and dignity, we can finally live and act with justice and\ntruth. People don\u2019t really change by themselves. God changes us, if we can\nexpose ourselves to God at a deep level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being Peaceful Change<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Inner\nUnity<\/strong><br>\nSunday, \u202fJuly 26, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Before you speak of peace, you must\nfirst have it in your heart.<\/em>&nbsp;\u2014Francis of Assisi<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generations of Christians seem to have forgotten Jesus\u2019\nteachings on nonviolence. We\u2019ve relegated visions of a peaceful kingdom to a\nfar distant heaven. We hardly believed Jesus could have meant for us to turn\nthe other cheek here and now. It took Gandhi, a Hindu, to help us apply Jesus\u2019\npeace-making in very practical ways. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929\u20131968),\ndrawing from Gandhi\u2019s writings and example, brought nonviolence to the\nforefront of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The nonviolence of Gandhi, like that of the civil rights\nactivists, affirmed a unity of peaceful ends and means. Thomas Merton,\nreflecting on Gandhi\u2019s nonviolence, wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Non-violence was\nnot simply a political tactic which was supremely useful and efficacious in\nliberating his people from foreign rule . . . the spirit of non-violence sprang\nfrom <em>an inner realization of\nspiritual unity in himself<\/em>. The whole Gandhian concept of\nnon-violent action . . . is incomprehensible if it is thought to be a means of\nachieving unity rather than as <em>the\nfruit of inner unity already achieved.<\/em> [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Training in nonviolence helps us admit that our secret\ninner attitudes are often cruel, attacking, judgmental, and harsh. The ego\nseems to find its energy precisely by having something to oppose, fix, or\nchange. When the mind can judge something to be inferior, we feel superior. We\nmust recognize our constant tendency toward negating reality, resisting it,\nopposing it, and attacking it on the level of our mind. This is the universal\naddiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authentic spirituality is always first about <em>you<\/em>\u2014about allowing your own\nheart and mind to be changed. It\u2019s about getting your own <em>who<\/em> right. <em>Who<\/em> is it that is doing the\nperceiving? Is it your illusory, separate, false self; or is it your True Self,\nwho you are in God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Thomas Keating said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re all like\nlocalized vibrations of the infinite goodness of God\u2019s presence. So love is our\nvery nature. Love is our first, middle, and last name. Love is all; not [love\nas] sentimentality, but love that is self-forgetful and free of self-interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is also marvelously exemplified in Gandhi\u2019s life and work. He never tried to win anything. He just tried to show love; and that\u2019s what <em>ahimsa<\/em>\u00a0[the Hindu principle of nonviolence out of respect for all living things] really means. It\u2019s not just a negative. Nonviolence doesn\u2019t capture its meaning. It means to show love tirelessly, no matter what happens. That\u2019s the meaning of turning the other cheek [Matthew 5:39]. Once in a while you have to defend somebody, but it means you\u2019re always willing to suffer first for the cause\u2014that is to say, for communion with your enemies. If you overcome your enemies [through force and violence], you\u2019ve failed. If you make your enemies your partners, God has succeeded. [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"307\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Screen-Shot-2020-07-27-at-9.04.10-AM-500x307.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19121\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Screen-Shot-2020-07-27-at-9.04.10-AM-500x307.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Screen-Shot-2020-07-27-at-9.04.10-AM-300x184.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Screen-Shot-2020-07-27-at-9.04.10-AM-768x471.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Screen-Shot-2020-07-27-at-9.04.10-AM.png 1994w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being Peaceful Change Change Comes from the Inside Monday, \u202fJuly 27, 2020 As we come to know our soul gift more clearly, we almost always have to let go of some other \u201cgifts\u201d so we can do our one or two things with integrity. Such letting go frees us from always being driven by what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19118"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19118"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19123,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19118\/revisions\/19123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}