Outer Peace is Only Possible Through Inner Peace
by @shahbanoaliani
As a species, human beings possess both a deep appreciation for peace and the capacity for great violence and conflict. Most of us on the planet engage in and suffer from conflict almost on a regular basis. For some of us it is the routine friction of living and working with other human beings, for others it is the daily threat of drone and terrorist attacks on our homes.
Most of us want peace in our world. It appears, however, that the more we yearn for it, the more it eludes us. Families and communities across the world are increasingly torn apart by domestic violence, armed conflict and wars. Many people, therefore, from different ideological perspectives and walks of life, continue to work tirelessly for peace — researching it, studying it, campaigning for it and devoting their lives to it.
Martin Luther King Junior, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela — some of the most famous and respected leaders in recent history — have all practiced and talked about the link between outer peace and inner peace — peace that exists within the individual human heart.
If you look at the issue from a purely rational perspective, this has to be true. How can we preach or work for peace, with any integrity, unless there is peace within ourselves, unless we are at peace with ourselves and with those immediately around us?
It becomes important, therefore, to understand and purposefully cultivate inner peace as a cornerstone of our endeavours for peace in the outer world. It is vital to do this work deliberately because we run the risk of assuming the problem is not in here with us, but only out there, with the aggressors, and, therefore, all our effort must be dedicated to the outer and towards the other.
How many of us, however, who have been engaged in peace activism for any length of time, can truthfully say that our political and personal struggles have been free of conflict? How many of us can say that our hearts, homes and workplaces have been filled with peace?
In my own activism — which ran the gamut from involvement in the anti-war movement to women’s rights and immigrant workers’ rights in the United States — some of the most painful conflict I witnessed and experienced was often within the movements themselves and with those of us who were on the same side.
This conflict, which I experienced with my own sisters and comrades was the most devastating for me personally, which led initially to burn out and, eventually, to introspection and reflection about my own contribution to the difficult situations I had encountered.
Although inner traditions such as Buddhism had always been very appealing to me, as an activist I had initially rejected them because I thought spiritual practices were a “cop out” and self-serving as they were focused on the self and did not appear to have any concern for others. Eventually, however, when my own introspection and health problems led me to the Sufi path (the Islamic mystical tradition) I realised how superficial my dismissal of spirituality had been and how much it can offer to those struggling for peace and social justice in the world.
I will therefore explore the issue of peace from a spiritual perspective, in particular, the kind of worldview that can engender wholesome and truly peaceful and compassionate human beings who can contribute to peace in the world.
Peace is harmony — the absence of violence, conflict or hostility between individuals and groups of people. From the most innocent to the most egregious, in every single instance, conflict between two people or two groups arises because one wants something from the other. It may be a tangible thing — like money or property. Or it may be intangible — the need to be recognized, to be affirmed, to be right, to be better, to be more important or to be powerful.
In any conflict it has to be true that the individual who initiates hostilities considers the other person to be distinct and separate from her or himself. It is also true that the initiator wants something from the other — which the other has some power to withhold — and wants it badly enough to engage in conflict to secure it[1]. The same holds true for groups of people as well.
When I claim I am separate, I am saying that what is in my interest and what is the other’s interest are in opposition, precisely because we are distinct. Only when I believe that we exist as two separate, unconnected individuals (or groups) can I do harm to another in pursuit of my own interests and gratification.
When I initiate hostilities to secure my interests, I am also acting consistently with the belief that the ends (my interests) justify the means (my actions in pursuit of my interests); and that my interests — what I want, need or have a right to — take precedence over values. I do not have to act correctly, fairly and with respect. I can act with hostility to get what I want.
There are some existential assumptions underlying the outward behaviours associated with conflict as well. If I believe existence is the product of a Design, the universe is a friendly place that takes care of me, and life has meaning and purpose beyond gratification and accumulation, can I act in an unjust and violent manner towards another human being to pursue my own self-interest? Clearly, the answer to this question would be no.
It has to be true, therefore, that the hostile person assumes (even if at the subconscious or unconscious level) that the universe is a hostile, arbitrary place and that life has little meaning or purpose beyond accumulation, consumption and possession. The other is viewed as there to serve the self and to be consumed by the self in pursuit of its gratification. The self, therefore, can and must do whatever it can to secure its own interests.
This is what sages and mystics over the ages have identified as “separation,” the disease at the root of all human suffering. The idea that we exist as separate individuals in an arbitrary, hostile universe, in my opinion, also lies at the heart of conflict between people.
The cosmos is vast beyond description. Human beings are tiny specks on a planet that is a tiny speck in a galaxy which is a tiny speck in a cosmos that extends infinitely in every direction. To experience existence as a minuscule, separate human being, pitted against a cosmos that is vast beyond measure, is to live in perpetual anxiety[2]. This worldview, therefore, produces the conditions under which people live in fear and alienation. It also accounts for over consumption and accumulation along with the lack of purpose, meaning and values such as honesty, courage, generosity and compassion. It, therefore, also accounts for conflict and violence.
Our age perpetuates and entrenches this alienating and deeply destructive worldview. Mainstream materialism suggests that the pursuit of self-interest is not only natural, it is also desirable because it makes people ambitious and competitive and brings out the best in them. Our age glorifies adolescent concerns, encouraging us to compete and vie for individual recognition, significance, accumulation and gratification. Competition is just another name for conflict. Far from bringing out the best in people, competition breeds alienation, conflict and in extreme cases, violence.
It is no wonder then, that our planet is beset with catastrophic environmental destruction, exploitation, crippling poverty and increasing conflict and alienation across the world. If I believe that I exist as an individual and I am here for myself only, then why would I worry about the environment or about the poor in my country? In fact, why would I be concerned about anyone but myself? And what would stop me — apart from the threat of legal persecution[3] — from pursuing my self-interest and self-gratification at any cost, even at the cost of harming another human being? What would stop me from conflict and violence?
This world view not only leads to violence, it does great violence to the truth.
Each one of us comes to the world from nothing, as a shivering mass of completely defenseless and helpless flesh. We do not design our births, our lives or our amazingly functioning bodies. Everything comes to us, is given to us, from other than us. Our bones are made of cosmic dust, our blood is made of iron ore from the earth, our tears are made of sea salt. With every breath of air, every sip of water, every morsel of food, we are nourished and given life by other than us. People have worked over millennia and made possible crop cultivation, house construction, furniture craft, the production of life saving drugs and the myriad of other products and services that enable our lives — things we often take entirely for granted. Without the earth and all the people who have existed and still exist on it, we would not be able to survive for even a single second. How can we claim an independent existence? The idea that we exist as separate individuals is an illusion. We are deeply interconnected.
The assumption that the universe is arbitrary and hostile is also incorrect. We function and our lives function because there is a design to our bodies and our lives. My eyes, hands, spleen, lungs and liver function — with little or no deliberate effort on my part — because they have been designed to function. It isn’t as if I have an eye ball growing out of the sole of my foot and you have one growing on your back. Both of us have a set of functioning eyes on our faces, where they are most useful for us, so we can see what is in front of us, so we can see where we are going.
The sun is a controlled nuclear explosion positioned just so it provides us the energy we need to thrive on earth without scorching us into oblivion. Is this really an accident?
The evidence for Design is overwhelming, if we are only receptive to seeing things as they are.
If the universe were hostile, would we — little specks on a distant planet, in a small galaxy in the corner of the cosmos — be able to survive? If the universe were an arbitrary, hostile place, the sun would have burnt us to cinders in a flash. It wouldn’t have been positioned so precisely and so perfectly to nourish us. Or a meteor would have taken us out. If other people were really hostile towards us, it would take no more than ten or twelve of them to destroy one individual. I walk out of my door every day and go where I need to go because I trust that people will not kidnap me and sell my kidneys to the highest bidder. And they don’t.
The fact that there are over seven billion people in the world, and increasing every day, demonstrates that overall, the universe is a benign and friendly place. It is a place that affirms and nurtures life.
The diseased worldview — that we have a separate existence in a world that is hostile and arbitrary — is what needs to be challenged and transmuted in ourselves before we can hope to make a difference in the world.
Any kind of deeply entrenched individual or group identity — based on religion, gender, political ideology, ethnicity or nationality — by definition is a process of othering and separation. Everyone who is not me, not like me and does not agree with me — the vast majority of the world — becomes the other. The result can only be deep alienation and conflict.
The healing of separation is the antidote to the isolation and terror that lies at the base of our being — the terror of minuscule beings in the face of an unimaginably vast universe. The homecoming to deep interconnectedness, gratitude towards and trust in life and other human beings is the foundation for real compassion, kindness and generosity; the foundation for real and lasting peace.
But changing our worldview is not a simple matter of changing an opinion. It is about honestly looking at the world around us and arriving at the conviction, based on our own experience, that the universe is an interconnected, friendly and purposeful place that deserves our gratitude and trust. It is about practicing and living this conviction — turning our resentment and accusation against the other and life to gratitude. It is about transmuting our fear and anxiety into trust. It is about dealing with other people with generosity, compassion, kindness and courage, as required.
The spiritual pursuit is an extremely practical endeavour. I have discovered that most serious inner traditions[4] are not simply about forsaking the world, reading esoteric texts and chanting in ancient languages. Through deliberate practice, the spiritual pursuit is about discovering our true nature and our highest potential. It is about coming into fruition as the being we were designed to become and leading a life of freedom, meaning and authenticity. It is about unconditionally serving others, treating them with compassion and finding lasting contentment and peace inside and outside ourselves.
Shahbano Aliani, BBA (Hons) from IBA (Karachi), MSc from Cornell. She spent the next ten years after graduation working for women’s rights, immigrant worker’s rights and human rights in New York City. From 2006 through 2012, she worked as a senior manager for a large development organization in Sindh, Pakistan, promoting gender equality and raising funds for women centered projects and humanitarian assistance during times of disaster.
Shahbano also pens beautiful poetry on Sufism and spirituality.
This article first appeared on the Schuitema Blog on 25th Nov 2013.
