Choosing Peace in a World of Darkness

Introduction: Choosing Peace in a World of Darkness

When you look out into the world and see poverty, greed, hatred, and violence, you may feel a fire burning in you. Moreover, choosing peace may seem impossible.

On one hand, you may be ready to start a revolution and on the other hand, your sādhanā (spiritual practice) appears to oppose this force. Yet, the fire burning in you is a divine one.

So, don’t let hopelessness or anger take over. Use it, and let it drive you deep within so you can remove all the barriers in the way of your freedom.

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The Revolution we Need

Sometimes people roll their eyes, become defensive, or shut down at the mention of the word “love”. Likewise, I’ve heard people say “I don’t trust anyone that is “too nice”.

It seems we no longer believe that human beings are capable of love and kindness. How have we learned that love and kindness contain ulterior motives? The very essence of love is to extend and not to take away or deprive.

So, what is the cost of not believing in love? Is exchanging faith for faithlessness the choice we want to make as a society?

I sense that a fire has ignited in many of us around the world but this burning is not one of further destruction.

There is indeed a world of loveliness awaiting your return and it is beyond all the illusions of darkness that the ego has created.

The revolution we need now is a revolution of love because:

“For hate to be maintained, love must be feared and only; sometimes present, sometimes gone.”

– A Course in Miracles

The World of Darkness: The Root Cause that Shadows the World of Loveliness

A month ago, my husband and I signed up for a community garbage clean-up.

Eight hours and eight garbage bags later, I had a long shower, some food, and crawled into bed. Yet, I felt sore, exhausted, disheartened, and sick to my stomach.

So, I began to observe my thoughts: I can’t believe we live in a society where people don’t care about each other or the planet.

I realized that it was a blessing to be worried about trash in the neighborhood. I had a place to sleep and food to eat. Some people don’t have either.

That night, my mind began exploring everything wrong with the world: why do we as a society allow people to be without homes and food? I thought about everything from greed and prejudice to genocide, rape, poverty, war, murder, and so much more.

I observed these thoughts and saw that they were causing me to feel emotionally and physically sick. Finally, I had enough.

Through the eyes of the ego, there is only dissatisfaction, divisiveness, and condemnation. This is the root cause of the world of darkness.

Asking A More Genuine Question

Often, contained within a question, (for example, why can’t we all do our part?) a hidden perception is revealed. Thus, the answer sought is merely to support the already held notions about the inquiry.

For instance, if you ask the question “why is the world so corrupt”, then you have already judged the whole world and assumed that corruption is absolute.

As a result, this question will only provide answers that support your point of view. Then, your attention becomes narrow and focused, unlikely to detect anything that is not corrupt.

So, I try to be more conscious of the questions I ask and endeavor to ask different questions like:

“Can something be done?
Can I do something?
What should I do when I feel attacked and hurt?
What should I see when I look at the world?
Which way of seeing leads to peace and truth?“

And the question that sparked this post:

Is it really possible to maintain my sanity and keep choosing peace, despite this world of darkness that I see?

I consider these more genuine questions because they do not imply that I already know the answer.

From these questions, an answer did come.

Overcoming the World of Darkness in an Instant and Choosing Peace

In that moment, I made a choice to turn away from the tales my mind spun. I surrendered my judgments about the world and other people. I let life be.

As I let go, my mind returned to its natural abode, to rest in the peacefulness of my heart, and the world became clearer. For a moment, I felt grateful that I spent the day outdoors with my husband enjoying a mutual love for the earth.

My mind became still. Quiet inside. I was at peace and ease, with no judgment of good or bad. Everything was simple. In letting go, I freed myself and everyone whom I had carried judgments about.

The instant I recognized that my thinking was not in accordance with peace, an inner guidance came through to say:

There is another way of seeing the world.

Seeing Another Way and Recognizing Your Invulnerability

This past year, I have been triggered a lot and I became exhausted by it. So, I spent a lot of time recalling moments where I experienced racism, bullying, sexual assault, and other traumas.

I recalled the most distressing moments in my life because I was determined to see them another way.

We are all craving a return to love but choosing peace is difficult when we are too identified with our thoughts and casting judgments on “others”.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with experiencing pain.

In fact, if everyone could learn to be with their suffering, we would recognize our true invulnerability instead of projecting our pain onto the world.

Choosing Peace and Letting Go of Grievances

When we hold onto grievances, we continue the cycle of pain. Every time I remembered a time where someone hurt me, I relived it in my mind and felt it all over and over again.

I felt hatred and anger rise up within me, but little by little it dissolved and I felt free.

Through the eyes of the ego, we see separation and are quick to condemn, ridicule, and seek vengeance.

As a result, guilt and shame follow, and the belief “I am not worthy”.

The ego is sustained through these forces, maintaining its illusion of separation. It sees “others” who are “apart” from ourselves, without any sense of unity and love.

What I realized, is that forgiveness is not solely for someone else, it is also for you.

Forgiveness is where you leave the past behind and do not take any enemies into the future with you.

It is a way of seeing evil as unconsciousness, without carrying these mistakes into the present and reliving it in your memory. Furthermore, each time your mind relives a painful experience from the past, it causes you pain now.

If you do not believe you can forgive someone, forgive yourself this and surrender the rest to grace. In releasing this burden from yourself, you are choosing peace.

What Makes Choosing Peace So Difficult?

I am not denying that we are doing tremendous harm to the planet and that hatred and violence exist. Nor am I saying that it is easy to forgive those who want to see a world covered in darkness.

What I am saying, however, is that we have become ineffective at solving world issues and don’t believe we are capable of forgiveness, love, or kindness.

Likewise, letting hatred and destruction fester, doesn’t work. The more we give in to fear and hopelessness, the more we give away our power to love and heal.

So, I have been asking myself: What exactly is my duty in this life?

I felt like The Girl Under the Rug, I saw a world of darkness and wanted to see another way. Like her, I decided to let my heart be my compass.

Beyond the shadows of the mind, there are two stable forces shining in the compass of the heart

Peace and love are all that make sense to me in this life. Without this, life is meaningless. So, I have determined that these two vibrations must be the energy of truth.

Within them, my mind returns to sanity and I am free. For this reason, our sanity depends on choosing peace in every instant.

A Course in Miracles, poses the question, “what is dependable except God’s love?”

Likewise, the Indian sage, Ramana Maharshi said that love is not different from the Self, and that love itself is the actual form of God.

So, to give up on love and to give up on other beings, would be to give up on God, and in turn, abandon the truth of who you are for a dark shadow of the ego.

Whenever you Question Your Worthiness, Remember This

Recently, someone said to me that they felt “undeserving” and seemed to think “how dare I think I am worthy”, based on what they had done in the past. To which my response was this:

Feeling unworthy is another form of arrogance because love includes all, it is unconditional and eternal. You, me, everyone, and everything cannot escape love’s sight because love is what we are.

To say you are unworthy because of this or that is to say that love is wrong. The better question is “how dare I argue with love and exclude myself from it?”

Furthermore, to say that you or anyone else is excluded from love would be arrogant because love is unconditional. Would you really argue with God?

If it is not unconditional, then how can it truly be love? Would you really put a limitation on love? If so, again, what is the cost you would be paying?

The World of Loveliness: Can Such a World Really Exist?

Can you let yourself imagine for a moment that when you look out into the world, you saw a place of loveliness and joy, where corruption, evil, and hate don’t exist?

In this world, all beings are loved and cared for because each one is consciously choosing peace. It is a place where mistakes can be made and errors corrected, without condemnation, guilt, or shame.

In this lovely world, we support and joyfully cheer each other on with love and kindness, knowing that when one of us rises, we rise together.

Here, peace is prioritized and forgiveness is not necessary because unconditional love precedes it.

Wouldn’t this be such a wonderful place? Could it be more than just fiction? Do we have to wait a thousand years for mankind to change to see it?

The world of loveliness exists now and awaits your return, and it is more real than the world of darkness that the ego has created. You can return to this lovely world today and escape the chaos.

It is not negligent to do so, rather it is imperative for humanity’s salvation because choosing peace extends peace, lifting us from chaos and returning all of us to sanity.

The Real Question that Needs Answering: Are you Truly Ready to Choose Peace?

This is the question you must honestly answer in every instant you feel hurt, unloved, unfairly treated, angry, and far from joy: Are you truly ready to choose peace and love in every instant?

When we withhold one moment from our love, we give life to the ego.

So, here is your task:

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it”.

– A Course in Miracles

In other words, your task is not to seek and find all the barriers other people have built against love. Rather, your task is to go within and find the barriers within yourself.

This is your true sādhanā, to look within you, not outside you. From the perspective of the ego, it may seem selfish or self-centered to put so much focus on yourself.

However, if your self-centeredness allows you to love each one as yourself, to the point where there is no separation between you or another being, then I hope everyone becomes totally self-centered.

The Oscillation Between Peace and Pain

Many times we experience an oscillation between peace and pain. In truth, we have a choice to side with ego or truth. There is no other choice to make because this choice paints the world you see.

When the ego looks at the world, it sees “darkness” and “otherness”. It believes that what is unlike itself deserves attack and condemnation.

On the other hand, when love looks upon the world, it sees only love. Your True Self knows that what the ego calls chaos is simply a call for correction.

It is not a matter of being passive, apathetic, or dismissive. Rather, it is about deciding for love because that is the light that this world needs.

You have a choice of how you want to look at things. You can indeed choose your perceptions and choose to see peace.

Doesn’t peace and love return your mind to sanity and put your heart at ease? What could be more stable than this?

This is the compass to the world of loveliness. This compass and world of freedom has never left you but appears to be covered by illusions of evil.

Choosing Peace is the Choice Between Ego and your True Self

We have a culture of negativity, complaining, and reactivity that perpetuates darkness, and because many people believe the world is evil and corrupt, we collectively recreate evil and corruption.

Whenever you see a world of darkness with evil people, this is maya (illusion).

Your state of mind is the world you see. So, when you heal your mind, the world heals. It doesn’t take long for healing to occur, it is instant.

The ego actively seeks chaos, broadcasting its signals far and wide and picking up all the frequencies of anger, fear, and hatred. It twists every little error into a dark atrocity of evil, manipulation, and attack.

The ego-self perceives love as fearful, unworthy of trust, and chooses to imagine utter darkness. So, it spins tales or horror, which it feeds upon to strengthen its tiny existence.

Yet, your True Self never misses one small gesture of kindness or the simplest act of gratitude or charity.

The only frequency to ever reach the truth of who you are is that of love because that is all there truly is.

The Self is love and peace, and only looks upon what is true and real.

Conclusion: The World of Loveliness Awaits your Return

We were created by love for the purpose of love. Remember who you are.

There is a still and quiet place within you where darkness cannot enter. In you, is a timeless space of unity.

What you look for in the world, you will find. So, actively look for goodness everywhere, and you will see it everywhere you look.

When you see a world of darkness, say this:

Beloved One,
Who rests peacefully within my being,
I call on You,
In the name of Love,
Show me another way.

This instant of letting go is your choice for freedom, and you will always be shown another way if you truly want to see it.

Trust grace and let go of the arrogance that says your plan for salvation is greater than grace. The ego’s only plan is one of war and separation.

Really, this world of loveliness is ever-present. In choosing peace, you return to it in an instant realizing that you are not of the world. In truth, the world arises from your heart when you extend the love that you are.

You only need to place your faith in the One who dwells within you, not in the world outside you.

So, let the divine fire that burns in you, burn away your illusions of judgment, hopelessness, and separation.

May we join in love and faith, and continue choosing peace in a revolution of love.

With endless love,

Ravelle

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