Samantha Thomas
Futurist

What About Peace?
     It is now clear that the War in Iraq has nothing to do with "fighting terrorism," securing our Freedom, assuring Freedom for anyone else, spreading the supposed glories of democracy and free-market capitalism, or anything else you could think of that might possibly justify a war. There is simply no such thing as a just war.
     Consider, furthermore, that everything you believed or hoped or had been told about America is a lie. We've been bamboozled, and the lies keep coming.  No matter what we've been taught, we are not the "good guys." We are not "peace keepers" or "liberators." Our soldiers are not heroes; they are criminals, and that may be the most disgusting aspect of this offensive. To take young people, who want nothing more in life than to do what is right and honorable, and turn them into war criminals, through conditioning or subtle extortion, is perhaps the gravest harm that can be inflicted on Human Beings. The federally-regulated system of education in the United States is proficient in producing mostly patriotic drones, zombies and corpses. We kill our children here.
     If this is upsetting -- if this offends the value placed on the inauthentic plea to "Support Our Troops" -- well, too bad.  This is an opportunity to reflect on how many of "Our Troops" have died while we've been "supporting" them.  What if we chose to support them in coming home?
     Peace is already always Just, and requires no justification. Peace is fundamentally important to the continued presence of Human Being in this Universe, along with the rest of life. Pray for Peace if you like; it doesn't really make any difference, even if you feel better doing it. Fighting or struggling for Peace is absurd and obviously the antithesis of Peace, especially if you feel better doing it.
     To have Peace, one must begin by Being Peace. What does it take to Be Peace? Create a way for yourself. Perhaps we could start by giving up our internal turmoil over the customary dramas in our own lives that keep us distracted, while horrendous crimes are being done in our names. Perhaps we could overcome our own coldness, deadness and stinginess to really forgive the people we love for not meeting our expectations. Maybe we can be generous and compassionate toward loved ones with whom we are angry. Although it may not make you feel better, it will certainly make a profound difference in the World. Be Peace!

Happiness Is ...

     Happiness, for most of us, is the complete confluence of all circumstances, at any given moment, such that these circumstances appear to be consistent with our expectations of how life should be.  In other words, if everything turns out the way we want it, we're happy.  And if things aren't the way we want them to be, we are not happy.    Further, we consider that even if just the most important areas of life (according to one's individualized categorizations of life, along with one's self-invented system of relative values by which those categories are prioritized) are "handled" -- aligned with most of one's expectations for those areas of life -- then we'll be content.  We think we could be happy with that.  The problem with happiness, in this paradigm, is that the experience of happiness is based on present circumstances, which are generally considered to be external to oneself, and over which one clearly has no control.  (Right now, what can you do about the way things are right now?)

     You may think or believe or know that you're in control of your life, but that's not being in control of your life.  That's thinking or believing or knowing -- not being in control.  A moment’s reflection will tell you that there are billions of people, trillions of other creatures -- large, small and microscopic -- and all the unquantifiable forces of Nature and the Universe working on the production of this present moment.  You are not -- even in your finest, most powerful moments -- in control of your present circumstances.

     Remember also that circumstances change from moment to moment.  Everything changes, even the rocks and mountains.  The only thing that one can count on consistently is that things will change.  If you are happy right now, with the circumstances right now, there is some bad news on the horizon.  Things will change.  Even if you are not happy, things will change.  They might get better.  Or worse.  You might have more (or less) of a good (or bad) thing.  Without a doubt, It will be different.

     The pursuit of happiness has never produced happiness.  Trying to get happy, or at least somewhat happier, has never brought anyone any happiness.  Whether or not you get the circumstances you desire, the pursuit of happiness inexorably leads to something, but not happiness.  In fact, it might bring you to almost anything except happiness.  It can lead to anxiety, depression, anger, fear, embarrassment or surprise, but never happiness.  True happiness is the product of something you can't control by force of will, no matter what you think or believe or know about it.  Seeking happiness (or anything) opens a gap between the seeker and the sought.  This gap is a gaping chasm held open by one's expectations -- one's self-invented fiction of the way things ought to be.

     Real happiness, true joy, is found when one is willing to give up his or her expectations of how life should be, in the moment of confronting the circumstances, exactly as they are.  When something comes up in life to be confronted -- something disturbing or uncomfortable, perhaps something tragic or some degree of that -- it is exactly what one needs to confront in that moment.  In this paradigm of happiness, there is always the opportunity to recognize that everything is just as it should be, along with the power to create the willingness to give up the inauthentic belief that it should be some other way than it is.

     In Paul's epistle to the Philippians, he writes: 
     I have learned (emathon indicates learning by practice, experience or through the acquisition of a habit), in whatever condition I am in, to be satisfied (auto is self, and arkeo is satisfied, and so the word autarkes indicates a satisfaction within oneself, independent of external circumstances).  Note that he doesn't infer that this happiness, satisfaction and contentment was a product of an upturn in circumstances.  He was, as a matter of historical record, in prison when he wrote this letter.  He also didn't attribute this happiness to a miraculous gift from some benevolent deity.  Instead, he indicates that he learned to be happy and satisfied through practice or inquiry or creating a habit of being happy.

     We can "learn" this, too.

     In the moment of being willing to give up one's expectations or preferences, in favor of what is possible in the present moment, with the circumstances exactly as they are, a miraculous thing occurs.  The course of life alters.  The universe bends to your willingness.  Your willingness in that moment creates a clearing for a new future, and you get to declare it into existence.  Paradoxically, it is this willingness to give up the pursuit of happiness that produces real happiness.