The Beauty In Conflict

So the crazy undertaking of the Global Peace Conference ended with 1,987 participants from 135 countries! While it was utter madness behind the scenes, there was so much hope and nourishment we drew from everyone involved — from each other as organizers, from each and every presenter, performer and panelist, and every member of the audience. Our youngest facilitators were pre-teens and the oldest presenters were some of the last survivors of the Nagasaki atomic bombings. And then there was everyone in between, spanning generations, identities, borders, genders and ideologies. Somehow, the universe brought us together in this aspiration for peace.

After a 24-hour conference, I’ve landed into facilitating a week-long interfaith dialogue with what now seems like a tiny bunch of less than 30 people. We’ve been engaged with this group for three months now and the challenges are telling of what we’re grappling with in our collective unconscious, including deep-rooted fears, intergenerational trauma and propensities for divisiveness.

Navigating between these experiences — one with relatively big numbers but with singular focus and commitment to peace, and another with small numbers but holding strongly to inherited and chosen identities — is proving to be a full-spectrum view of myself, of how I enable life and the aspiration for peace, and how I come in its way.

In the last few weeks, there have been several conversations around how peace is equated with calmness and comfort. There’s really very little calmness or comfort on the road to peace, for the road is paved with conflicts that need to be integrated, within and outside. And peace is certainly not a state to be established. Much like the archetypes of beauty, truth, goodness and justice, it is something to aspire to eternally. Conflict facilitates that aspiration. It is essential for life and for evolution.

The violence in the conflict on the other hand, is entirely a choice. The othering is a choice. The bigotry is a choice. Left to itself, conflict can be beautiful: much like how a day has to stop existing for the night to begin; the conflict between them creates a breathtaking sunset.

If we learn to tap into the beauty of conflict, peace takes on a whole new meaning.

#RukminiIyer #ExultSolutions #peacebuilding #peace #conflict