PEACE

TEXT
The gross material of which you are composed is at the mercy of the four elements, earth, water, fire and wind;  the fine material of which you are composed is at the mercy of the four phases:  birth, being, decay and death.  Followers of the Way, you must right now apprehend the state in which the four elements and four phases are formless to avoid being buffeted about by circumstances.”  ("The Record of Linji", Chapter XIV, trans.  Ruth Fuller Sasaki)
 
“There is no way to peace.  Peace is the way.”  (Thich Nhat Hanh)

COMMENTARY
Where is peace in the midst of “buffeting circumstances?”  Suffering is  the first of Buddism’s “Four Noble Truths.”  It is where we start.  It’s where the “spiritual enterprise” starts, the need to make sense of material circumstances gone awry.  Such was the case in the Buddha’s time, in the suffering of Israel that gave rise to Judaism, in the suffering of Jesus that became Christianity.
 
We live in such a time (was there never such a time?), a time of existential crisis, when the very survival of human life on earth is in question.  The paradox is that our success, our technologies, bring us to this moment;  the paradox that is life itself, that both life and death are who we are, what everything is.
 
How do we act in such times?  What do we do when police batter down the doors of refugees who escaped violence in their home countries, only to face new violence and life threatening deportation?   How do we respond when systems of financial aid both national and international in scope are eliminated?
 
Where is legitimate authority in such times? 
 
Zen teacher Joshu Sasaki once equated leadership with “resurrected personality.”  Everyone has “self” as a matter of consciousness.  Yet who we are is more than an individual self.  Self-consciousness must also disappear, must die, and be “resurrected” as “selflessness,” the power to act from the standpoint of inclusiveness, from the standpoint of connection, generosity, and responsibility to others.  Then action is based on true and legitimate authority.
 
Thich Nhat Hanh said: “There is no way to peace.  Peace is the way.”  Legitimacy lies not in personal wealth and power, but in selfless connection and responsiblity to community.  It is the power of peace,  the power to stand up to oppressive self-interest.  
 
Each of us has the power of peace.   It is not achievable, “there is no way to peace,”  because it is the truth of who we are.  To go beyond desire for peace to its actuality, is to "apprehend the state in which the four elements and four phases are formless,”  and  “to avoid being buffeted about by circumstances.” 
 
In final words ascribed to the historical Buddha:  “Look within.  You are the light.”