May your heart be filled with hope, love, care and unlimited blessings

I was talking to my Zen teacher (a Tibetan Buddhism monk) about how much it hurts to see a relative with a death wish slowly killing himself with alcohol .. and my teacher told me that just as I have compassion for my cousin, I also need to have compassion for myself and my own suffering (yes, even if my suffering is a response to the suffering of others). The Great Dalai Lama says we are all the same, all less than happy and trying to find ways to become happy. And most of the ways we try to use don’t work.

So the Buddhist's advice is to use our pain as a motivator to commit more to doing the practices of Buddhism, so that we can stop suffering .. and then once we have attained that (countless lifetimes from now), then we can help others who wish to escape suffering by guiding and teaching them (This is the essence of the Bodhisattva Vow). If you aren’t a follower of Buddhism, hopefully there is something here that is useful for you. But .. it is not easy to see so much suffering, is it?

If Buddhism doesn’t appeal to you, an alternative would be to get a degree in psychology, or any other type of field that helps others adjust (teaching included). Just be prepared … the only person who can really change someone is that person themselves. No matter which helping profession you go into, the majority of people won’t benefit from your efforts. But you do it for those few who you can help.

Ask yourself a very simple question. Do I have the power in me to change the world? If the answer is yes, then by all means change the world. If the answer is no, then quit worrying and do not feel guilty about being at peace. Do what you can to help where help is needed and where it is within your power to help and at other times stop knocking yourself for the suffering in the world. When you are in deep sleep, where is the world? Does anyone worry about anything at all in deep sleep? All your suffering is in wakefulness because you have created it for yourself. It is okay to be at peace and happiness while the rest of the world is suffering, since there is nothing you can do about it.

Only self-surrender and giving up internal struggle and conflict. What happens in the world does not matter. Inner peace is entirely an inside job. We resist, struggle, fight, and are in conflict with ourselves, others, and the world…and disturb and dispel peace. Surrender…cease resistance, struggle, and conflict…and peace arises. Its the struggle of all time. It gets worse before it gets better. Much worse. The only, only answer I can see that will give you peace is in the holy books. Belief in one God. Meditate on His word and you’ll find everything playing out exactly as He says. Note how it ends….. God protects the believers and the guilty fry.

A little Meditation and Prayer to an Unfathomable Mystery every morning when I wake up and every night before going to sleep (both in bed) has helped me a lot, though I have no idea what these are. Trying to connect with people now and then. Taking a long-range historical view of events, realizing that even the worst will not last for ever. Try to be of some practical help to others , at however modes a level as possible. Trying not to have any rancor towards anyone, including politicians I don’t respect. Being genuinely sympathetic to the sufferings of others. I don’t attain peace by these means, but I manage to endure the surrounding pain a little more calmly.

The lack of peace in your heart is not caused by the world raging - it is caused by you raging. When the world rages is because there is conflict between two sides. One side is right, the others side is wrong, and the two fight against each other. There are, generally speaking, two ways to find peace inside of this fight: Pick a side and commit to it completely. Accept it and believe in it so completely, so unquestionably, that the sheer force of your unmovable belief in the rightness of your position will ground you solidly, remove all doubt, disappear all hesitations and provide you with a burning and all-consuming sense of purpose.

Trying to change the world to get peace within is never going to work, it has to happen the other way. Peace is the natural state of a human when his basic survival needs are met. The problem is humans have exaggerated what they need for survival and go into this endless circus of regurgitating the past, worrying about the future with attachment to all superficial identities like race, religion, color, sex, status, etc.. All it needs is gain control of your own faculties and remove the mental clutter to experience peace within.

What happens outside is never going to be in your control or your way, but what happens within you is totally in your control. Learn to do that and you will not be controlled by outside world. The best way to get control on your mind is practice meditativeness, learn proper technique and experience first hand yourself. Ignore as much of it as possible. Focus on things that make you happy, relaxed, and peaceful. Don’t let it bother you to the point you’re daily life is miserable/unsatisfactory. Cheers!