By TRACY CARREON

"This is it. The moment when we choose our evolution." These were the words that came to me on September 11th as I stood before my television, watching, with the rest of the world, as smoke stained the blue backdrop of a day never to be forgotten. I didn't watch long. Something called to me, leading me out the back door of my Tennessee home. I needed to feel the heat of the sun, the solidity of the earth, and the breeze of impending autumn. I needed to remember that there was still beauty in the world, to centre myself in the knowledge that I must determine what part I was going to play in the history that was unfolding. I thought of Jesus, and I chose compassion.

Sitting on the grass I closed my eyes and did the only thing I knew – I imagined myself on a street in New York, cradling in my arms a child hurt and afraid. I offered these comforts across the miles, focusing in the direction of peace, in the spirit of healing. As I rocked her and cried, I hoped that if somewhere in the rubble a child, woman, or man lay in fear that they might feel my embrace and that I might, through the meridians of space and time, offer what I could – the simple choice to be an agent of love and not a soldier of hate. 

And now, nearly one year later, my heart spills open while the world plays out her tragic song. I listen and ache with the pain of choices I do not understand. I look back through the pages of history, my mind taking pause at the prophets of peace, those enemies of hate whom the world has so often revered and then damned, until it comes to rest again upon the simple Jewish peasant called Jesus.

My plea reaches back over 2000 years, my questions mirroring those of many: What is the path to peace? Where do we begin?

And the answer I hear comes in one word: within.

I know it is not the answer we seek; it seems not practical, political or timely. It comes with no policy or governmental promise. It takes the responsibility out of the hands of leaders only and places it in the palms of each man and woman, every member of the human race. 

The level of change that is needed depends upon the inner transformation of individuals; it was to the common man and woman that Jesus gave his wisdom, saying, "You see the sliver in your friend’s eye, but you don’t see the timber in your own eye. When you take the timber out of your own eye you will see well enough to remove the sliver out of your friend’s eye." Our future will be determined by the way we perceive and interact with others, which depends primarily upon the relationship we cultivate with ourselves, which in turn depends on the level of honesty we are willing to reach. To set course on a road that leads not to mere survival, but to the transfiguration of existence is to begin at the centre – the centre of the human heart. 

Jesus said, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Until we have done the work necessary to love, respect and forgive our own being we will continue to project our inner conflicts onto the world stage. So we must dive within to discover where and why we drop emotional bombs on ourselves and others. What wounds bind us to fear, leave us feeling threatened, with our hearts closed to forgiveness and compassion? It is personal, difficult work – the work of sages and mystics, whom we are now called into becoming. Just as Jesus went to the wilderness to face his demons, so must we enter the wilderness that houses our own.

But we need not think we are alone. This task of healing is for all humanity. To achieve it we use the tools, ancient and modern, that this age offers – meditation, prayer, dance, contemplation, reflection, therapy, workshops, books, the power of our own breath.

It is essential that we approach this task with a commitment, not to cultivating egocentricity, or to nursing our wounds or using them to exact further wounding, but to finally heal them so we may get to the business of saving the world. And with an understanding that the energy that lives inside of us is what we give – consciously or unconsciously – to the collective energy that is helping create our individual and global experience. Our lives, and the world, deserve to be built from joy and love. 

I am a strong advocate for the incorporation of daily practices of self-care into one’s life. My own rituals include prayer, meditation, yoga, dance, and journaling. We are all different, and our practices will take different forms. But what matters is taking the initiative to learn ways for reducing stress, building inner fortitude, opening the heart, setting healthy boundaries, and developing a strong sense of self – what teachers of mine have called "self-soothing" and "self-defining." My personal vision of saving the world includes offering classes in hospitals, businesses, health clubs, churches, anywhere possible to help people create such individualized programs. More importantly, I would like to see school systems implement such classes for our children. We teach kids reading, writing, and math, but not the skills to become balanced, healthy, loving, and joyful human beings. We say this is the job of parents, but if we ourselves have not been taught, how can we share it with our children? 

As a counselor and teacher, I have seen the impact of things so small as deep breathing and meditation on the lives of at-risk youth and women in recovery. I will never forget a teenager prone to fighting who told me how she chose to sit and breathe rather than engage in an argument. In that one moment she claimed true power and made a choice for peace. Does this sound insignificant in the face of terrorism? Not to me. I heard in her story the mustard seed of which Jesus spoke – the small seedling that seems insignificant in its planting, but that in time takes over all in its path. We can only trust that the work we do is planting such seeds. 

To truly heal this planet and this world will require a paradigm shift of major proportions. All countries are challenged today to view themselves as cells of a single organism, intent on restoration and transformation of the whole, rather than committed to pure self-interest. National policies and international collaborations, such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Kyoto Protocol, need to rest on the fundamental principle that we are all responsible for maintaining life on this planet. It is not "us" against "them," for as mystics and scientists alike tell us, we are one. Energetically, and in the eyes of that which gives and sustains life, there is no separation between us. And if this is so, then it is our responsibility to begin seeing the map of the world as the architecture of our own home, treating each room as we would the place we most cherish, as the people we most adore.

The question rings, "How?" Perhaps it begins and ends with cultivating deep reverence for life. Jesus, in all that he taught, and in all that he was, treasured the sanctity of life. His message centred on the Kingdom of God in contrast to the Kingdom of Rome, which symbolized the hierarchical constructs of man. He taught that this Kingdom with which we should align ourselves is not to be found in the outside world, but within. This kingdom is not a place, nor a coming time, but a changed state of consciousness through which all living things are regarded as kindred, with compassion and love. Jesus reached out to those whom his culture had forsaken, and through the touch of kindness healed them by affirming their value as human beings. For Jesus, the virtues he advocated were not mere personal qualities to strive for, but sociopolitical necessities for the betterment of humankind. 

In attempting to overlay Jesus’s teaching upon current events, one must seek not only the Jesus who embodied peace and love but also the one that is seldom remembered, the political activist. Jesus did not travel the sands of Galilee simply preaching that one should lie down in the face of oppression, exude love, and ignore evil. Rather, he actively undermined the injustices of the status quo and inspired people to believe in and pursue a new social order – one based upon radical egalitarianism, forgiveness, compassion, strength of Spirit, and oneness with God. "Turning the other cheek" was not a suggestion to run, but to stand with self-respect, refusing to raise a hand in return, insisting on looking the enemy in the eye and seeing a brother, and claiming in oneself an equal. Jesus’s actions were a proclamation: 

History has given us figures like Jesus, Gandhi, King, and Mandela who have left footprints for us to follow. And there are others most of us don’t know. Thomas Tanemori lost much of his family in the bombing of Hiroshima and immigrated to America with a heart set on revenge. For over forty years he gave "pay-back" speeches, until a single moment transformed his hate into forgiveness. On the website of the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance (www.forgivenessday.org), Tanemori relives his inner struggle: 

Tracy Carreon, M.A., teaches classes and offers workshops in creative writing, stress reduction, and self-care. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.