Your Primary Responsibility by Alan Cohen

A friend confided in me that he was struggling to understand his responsibility in a world obsessed with war. I told him the answer is simple: choose peace.

While you cannot control the attitudes or actions of politicians or others, you have total control over the thoughts, feelings, and energy you are exuding. If you are steeped in fear, anger, a sense of victimization, or separateness, you are contributing to the darkness.

If you hold a sense of peace, wholeness, compassion, kindness, and the presence of love, you are contributing to healing. As Kipling nobly penned, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing their's…”

Mother Teresa was once asked to speak at an anti-war rally, and she refused. “If it were a pro-peace rally, I would attend,” she explained. “But fighting against war, like fighting against anything, is just another form of war.”

Ram Dass recounted that on his altar he has pictures of Christ, Buddha, and many other spiritual masters. He has recently added a photo of George W. Bush. Why? As Ram Dass explains, “Until I can find the same divinity in George W. Bush as I find in other holy beings, I am stuck. When I can see and honor his soul, then I am in a position to protest. Until then, I am ineffective.”

The power of prayer and intention goes a long, long way. At any given moment the world situation is a precise expression of the consciousness of all the people who live here. As you shift your consciousness in the direction of peace, wholeness, and faith, you tip the balance in that direction. You literally become the tipping point for the world you would like to create.

Be less concerned with what you are doing and more concerned with how you are doing it. Actions that spring from fear or hatred, no matter how nobly clothed, create only more of the same. Actions that issue from faith and love, no matter how humble clothed, create only more of the same.

A visionary thrives under all circumstances, for he or she sees beyond the obvious. At this time the world needs good visionaries. If you would save the world, begin with your own consciousness.