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Seen a lot of gratuitous violence on Tv lately? Watched any war movies? Played any homicidal video games? Eaten any meat? Violence is so ingrained in our society, that we are quite comfortable with it and are even entertained by it. Some would say that violence is a natural part of humanity but what about a culture of peace? Does this sound like flaky, hippy jargon? Mother Theresa wrote that “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”. We are only beginning to understand this.

Physicsts are discovering that everything begins with a thought and that our thoughts carry energy. Japanese scientist, Masuru Emoto, studied how water molecules change shape because of our thoughts. Different intentions directed towards the water caused it to change its shape. Dr. Emoto discovered that crystals formed in frozen water changed when specific thoughts were directed towards them. He found that water from clear springs and water that has been exposed to loving words shows “brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns. In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors”. This is amazing when we consider we are made of 75% water.

Is it possible that our thoughts have shaped the world as we know it? Our prevailing beliefs of scarcity, powerless and fear have created conditions of poverty and war. We sink a lot of money and effort into these things and all these problems still exist on our planet. We are doing something wrong. We’ve attacked these problems through economics, politics and war. But the world’s problems might be instead rooted in the spiritual and need to be addressed through a different lens. This must seem very naïve. How weird is our normalization of violence?

Recently, I particpated in a exercise that asked you to think of directing a very positive thought to someone and visualize sending this thought to them and consider how this made you feel. Then try it again remembering a time when you hurt someone and consider what you said and then noting how this made you feel. This was a powerful exercise. The positive thoughts encouraged the feeling of an opening of my heart and I felt a sense of magnaminous power. The other experience left me feeling like a victim and trapped in myself as opposed to opening myself to the universe. It made me realize how much kind acts affects others and my own sense of personal power. It made me consider what am I sending out to the planet. What if our thoughts are creating our reality?

We have believed in scarcity, competition and that we are intrinsically bad. These belief systems have created oppression, destruction, materialism, racism and fear. What if we chose to think interconnection, co-existance, shared power, and inherant goodness. What are we doing by entertaining ourselves through graphic depictions of violence, buying our children violent video games, raping our agricultural lands, polluting our environment and torturing animals for food you can live without. Tich Nhat Hanh writes that “the roots of war are in the way we build our daily lives- the way we develop our industries, build up our societies and consume goods.” To want non- violence we need to be non- violent.

We could try and see all life existing as part of the same collective entity. That we are spiritually, all one. We are all part of one big lifeforce. Would it be so hard to see yourself, in your irritating neighbour, the homeless man walking by you, in the tree providing you with oxygen, or in the pig destined for the slaughter house? We all exist wanting to be alive and experiencing life. Can we think empathy and kindness instead of judgment and separtness? Why are we better than anyone else? Why are we superior to animals? Do you want peace? Then ask yourself, how can I contribute to a culture of non- harm? All it requires is your thoughts.