by Rev Jim Fuller

All people want to feel safe, to be free from harm. But if you read a newspaper or watch a news report there seems to be no end to the constant stream of harmful situations encompassing our world. The covert invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the kidnapping of schoolgirls by Nigerian rebels both recently occupied and troubled my mind. Why didn’t someone do something? Why didn’t armies or police forces intervene swiftly and forcefully? Such action would seem not only reasonable but warranted and even necessary. Noticing as those thoughts repeatedly moved through my mind I became aware of two things. First it was clear that those thoughts represented a belief that harm or violence could be helpful for resolving or eliminating harm or violence. I also recognized that those ideas also turned the Russians and the rebels into undesirable “others” rather than my spiritual brothers.

While each of these situations may be temporarily “resolved” by war or police action, threatened or actual, no amount of threat or violence can produce ongoing freedom from harm. And turning Russians or rebels into “others” won’t put an end to the competition, anger or greed that seems to be the root cause of many of the problems in our world. But are these really the causes of world problems or simply symptoms of an underlying problem that lies a bit closer to home?

If minds are creative, and I assure you they are, what might be the net effect of my belief that violence or threats of violence against “others” can keep me safe from harm? According to spiritual principle focusing on any type of thought and believing it to be desirable will serve to create more of it. Even if violence is defensive, perhaps threatened rather than actually enacted, the underlying idea held in the mind (harm) is still strongly present. The more we hold ideas in our minds and the stronger our belief in them becomes and the more they tend to show up in our lives.

What if there was another way of protecting ourselves and others from harm? What if holding different ideas in our minds could eliminate dangers and keep us all safe from harm? We believe that we need armies and police forces because we believe that individually we are weak and powerless, easily subject to harm. We believe that we need external protection because we believe that “others” are more powerful or dangerous or perhaps evil. At the very least we believe they are misguided enough to be a threat to us. What if we decided to change our minds about some of those things? What effect might that have?

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Blessed [or fortunate] are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8) What if by purifying our hearts and minds we might see God instead of danger, violence or harm? And where might we see God? Where else but in those same places where we now see “dangerous others” that cause us upset and fear? But in order to see things of God instead of fear we must first purify our hearts and minds, releasing our ideas that our brothers or sisters (God’s children) are evil or dangerous. This may seem like a real stretch of imagination but perhaps that is what is exactly what is being called for? Only by stretching our imaginations beyond what we currently believe in can we uncover something different.

The Bhagavad Gita, which on the surface is the story of a war, reminds us that the victory goes to those who choose God (Krishna) over armies. It is the story of a battle that the hero Arjuna is encouraged by God to engage in rather than to avoid as he initially desires. But as the story progresses we discover that the actual battle is an inner one, a battle to overcome Arjuna’s own misguided beliefs and habits. The Eastern teacher Paramahamsa Yogananda offers a beautiful metaphysical interpretation of the Gita in his book The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita. It offers a complete but not overly complex metaphysical interpretation of the various characters in the Gita and what they represent in us. We can also find similar teachings in writings like the Tao Te Ching, an ancient Chinese text on how to wisely rule (our own minds). I like the contemporary translation of the Tao by Stephen Mitchell.

Jesus points toward the same things with his teachings and beatitudes. Love your neighbors; and that includes everyone. Love even those who appear to be your enemies. Blessed [or fortunate] are the peacemakers, for they will be known as children of God. Blessed [or fortunate] are the pure in heart, for they shall see God! Purifying my heart, changing my thinking day-by-day and thought-by-thought, becoming harm-less rather than harm-filled; these may not seem like ways to resolve the problems of the world but they just might be. God-aligned thoughts and beliefs held in the powerful and creative minds of God’s children have the power to literally form (and heal) worlds, yours and mine.