Being Peace

Human perception embraces ideas about reality. The key word here is idea.

People see a water bottle and then construct a reality about the essence of what the water bottle should be. The problem, however, is that people’s perception is not always correct.

To illustrate this point, Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh tells a story of a man who crashes and almost sinks his boat by being run into by another boat. The man becomes furious at the other driver until he realizes there is no one in the other boat. The man then stops being angry and laughs at his misfortune.

This story illustrates humanity’s inevitability to misperceive reality.

Misperception garners hatred and severs peaceful relationships. It is what leads humans to hating one another instead of being peace to one another. Misperception is a serious reason for violence. It qualifies misunderstanding which creates room for anger – and anger is the doorpost that leads to violence.

The answer for avoiding misperception is beginning in on a quest towards wholeness. For Nhat Hanh this is known as Buddha; and you obtain wholeness when you learn the art of mediation or reflection.

Meditation, though, confuses Christians (at least white, Southern Christians in America). It is believed to be (I realize this is going to be an overgeneralization) an anti-Christian practice that calls on demons or idealizes the sinful self when it should be focusing on being forgiven. The old Southern guard says that Christianity is a one-time-decision, save-your-soul kind of faith. You do not need to grow, mediate, or be on a quest if you have already secured your place in heaven. In addition, it was believed that pretending you can connect with some higher form of self is blasphemy.

A few months ago Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote an article pleading Christians to stop participating in yoga for it is an unorthodox, pagan practice. The reasons given for not participating in yoga were to keep good-minded, soul-searching Christians from practicing meditation.

I find this to be foolish and a direct example to Nhat Hanh’s description of misperception. Even today we good-minded, bible-believing Christians still misperceive, misunderstand, get angry at, and create strands of separation which is, according to Nhat Hanh, the leading cause of violence.

Nhat Hanh offers a solution for us to move beyond the borders of misperception. He suggests we can be peaceful to one another if we learn to understand one another. But in order to understand one another we must first understand our own true selves, our own sufferings, and our own perceptions. We must first meditate.

Christians can learn a lot from the art of meditating. If everyone began an inward journey to the heart, a quest towards wholeness, then violence would begin to subside. People would begin to smile. Life would begin to be enjoyed. For Buddhist this is called Dharma. For Christians it is allowing the spirit of the triune God to actually play a role in an individual’s life as well as in this world.

But who would want that?