Let us Love One Another.

(Above: The famous "Tank Man" who stood down the might and power of the Chinese army during the Tienanmen Square protests in 1989).

Today I just want to reach out to whomever is reading and share a moment of humanity together.

I want to share today how much I love them. Regardless of political viewpoint, religion or non-religion. We are all human beings that deserve love, respect and tolerance. I call on all of us to make this year a peaceful one--we must stop insulting one another and actually listen to one another. We CAN work together--it has been done before, so we know it is possible. My heart is brimming over with compassion for this wounded but beautiful world--if my arms were big enough I'd give the whole world a hug. We need to let go of our pride and heal one another because we're all each other has on this far-flung planet.

So, what can we do to heal this world? Well, not much on a global scale--we are pretty helpless as individuals toward changing global problems. However, we can affect great change in our own daily lives. These are the moments in grocery store when we can share a smile. Times when we can offer a hug and a patient ear to a friend who just had a bad day. These are things we can do daily--if not multiple times a day. And they make a difference. You may have no idea what sharing a smile with someone might do for their day. Maybe they're cynical about the world but that smile gave them hope that not everyone in the world is a jerk. Or maybe you shared some words of empathy with a depressed person and forgot the incident a day or two later but chances are those words were like giving water to a person parched with thirst from wandering in the desert. It might even save a life.

I can attest first hand to the power of a strangers smile, words of empathy or concern. I sometimes struggle with suicidal depression from having a psychiatric disorder, as many of you know. I can tell you that there were several times when the seemingly smallest thought of kindness gave me the strength to go on and live another day. We just don't have any idea what impact our words and actions will have on someone. So, don't disregard those few minutes of empathy that you shared on the bus with a person struggling. It might not seem it but one word of compassion can start a chain-reaction of interdependent causes that touch countless lives for the better. And that momentum builds, slower, but exponentially until one day we witness societal changes that would seem otherwise to have come from nowhere. Yet they didn't. They were a constant wearing down of hatred, anger and delusion like a seemingly weak trickle of water cracked a giant boulder into two pieces.

We don't have to be the next Nobel Peace Prize winner, a world leader, the Dalai Lama or a celebrity to bring hope, strength and confidence to millions of people. Recall the skinny, lone man who stood a column of tanks down during the Tienanmen Square demonstrations in China? His "small action" inspired countless people to challenge not just unjust authority and power but to challenge their own unjust oppression--around the world and beyond time because I am still being inspired years later in far away America from this man's action in the past. This could be the courage to leave a violent relationship, face our often crippling fears or inspire us to be better people to ourselves and those we interact with.

So, don't doubt yourself the next time you get the urge to show some kindness toward another. Don't blow it off thinking your few words couldn't help much because perhaps not to you in your present moment because you aren't in a state of torment at that time. However, to the person who those words would be directed toward, it could mean the difference between life and death. That is how we save lives. That is how we change the world for the better; sharing the present moment with another person to connect and share our common bond is about as powerful an action we can perform!!

~Peace to all beings~

Non-Violence is the Right Choice--It Works.

New York, USA -- Nonviolent resistance is not only the morally superior choice. It is also twice as effective as the violent variety. That's the startling and reassuring discovery by Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, who analyzed an astonishing 323 resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006. "Our findings show that major nonviolent campaigns have achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns," the authors note in the journal International Security. (The study is available as a PDF file at http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org).

"First, a campaign's commitment to nonviolent methods enhances its domestic and international legitimacy and encourages more broad-based participation in the resistance, which translates into increased pressure being brought to bear on the target," they state. "Second, whereas governments easily justify violent counterattacks against armed insurgents, regime violence against nonviolent movements is more likely to backfire against the regime."

James: I think that one of the reasons that Buddhism and Buddhists are so peaceful, nonviolent (with some exceptions of course) and less likely to engage in violence and aggressive intimidating divisive talk that often breeds tension and conflict between religions is because of Buddhisms lack of a belief in a god. This helps neuter the defensiveness and aggression that often comes with religions that claim to be the sole religious truth and the fight that often ensues of "my god is superior to your god." It divides people to the point of seeing those who don't believe in your god and absolute truth as inferior and evil, which can divide families as well as turn brothers, friends and fellow human beings into enemies and set them against each other.

It can and often does very breeds intolerance rather than acceptance. It often leads to an attitude of superiority, which can also easily escalate to violent conflicts such as in the crusades, the inquisitions, the purge of pagans and Islamic jihadism/terrorism. This is not to say that all members of these certain religions act in such ways and agree with such aggressiveness.

As for nonviolence in general I think that it is more effective because it appeals to everyone's internal desire to avoid suffering and most people (except perhaps the most deranged) suffer greatly when they employ violent behavior, thought and speech. This can be seen throughout history when eventually the rank and file members of a violent organization/military either desert or turn on the leaders to end the bloodshed, oppression and overall suffering.

Nonviolence comes from a place of strength and violence a place of weakness therefore nonviolence can usually be sustained for a longer period of time. It is not unlike a strong oak tree that bends in the strongest wind but doesn't break for its roots are deep in the soil of interdependence. This a weird analogy but the word fascism is derived from the Italian word fascio, which means "bundle" or "union", and from the Latin word fasces. ^[12] The fasces, which consisted of a bundle of rods often tied around an axe.

The idea being that one twig on its own is weak and can easily be broken by force but when many weak twigs are tied together in a thick bundle not even the strongest hands can tear them apart. When a population unites together in a literal manifestation of interconnection their numbers and willpower will overwhelm and outlast the strongest, largest army. The general population of a country is almost always greater than the numbers of a military and unlike a military every citizen can participate in a nonviolent movement including the old, sick and young. Especially when the global population adds to the numbers. I'll end this post with one of my favorite quotes from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who explains why a seemingly weak strategy of nonviolence is so powerful:

Nonviolence is a powerful weapon and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

~Peace to all beings~