Meditation for Peace - Ven. Mettavihari

Through concerns for the violence of war, particularly at this time in Kosovo, a meditation was led by the Ven. Mettavihari in the Buddhavihara, St. Pieterpoortsteeg in Amsterdam on May 1, 1999. The following is a summary of Ven. Mettavihari’s words preceding the meditation:

We know there is war going on, killing, hate, anger, desire, and above all there is delusion or ignorance.

You want to see peace in this world, but that’s rather difficult. There’s never real peace in this world, in Samsara. Why? Because ignorance is there, very rooted. With ignorance there comes also desire and hate. That is what we now see going on; we recognise it very clearly, on all the news media.

We wish it would stop but to do that we have to see peace. In the first place peace will come with good faith. So if you have belief, that means any kind of faith, it will bring peace in your mind.

So we are going to stop the war. Where? In ourselves. We’re not going to decide who has started a war, we will not join any party but we’re going to create peace. You cannot be against the war itself without being at war in yourself. So we should stop the war within ourselves with the intention to make our minds at peace and to reduce the war. To reduce irritation, agitation and hate. Hopefully when we do it more and more it will influence our consciousness. Then it can influence the war. Even when you hear the news, see the pictures, you just have peace in you. It’s very hard to do of course but then you have to recognise, to see Karma.

Where does Karma come from? In Buddhism we recognise 3 entrances by which Karma acts through us: Thought, Word and Action. This is how Karma is created. Mostly through our thought, but when it comes out more strongly also as Word or Physical Action. By meditating we can prevent that Karma takes hold of us. Sometimes you just sit quietly, calmly, but your mind doesn’t stop, it just goes on with your thoughts. That’s conditioning, it’s neither Good nor Bad. But these thoughts and feelings are impermanent, and when you recognise this you begin to see with Wisdom. Wisdom recognises impermanence. With Wisdom ignorance will be uprooted.

How do you know that ignorance has been removed? Because there is no hate. There is no greed.

So that’s what we try to do here this evening. We want to see the process of Samsara, of which we are part, the oneness of everybody and everything. When we can see even a fragment of this oneness there is peace, you are happier. Even if there’s a war going on, there’s no war in you.

You want to help, so that we can achieve peace and happiness in life. We can do that only by preventing new Karma being created through ourselves. Not creating something you prefer, something you prefer is selfishness, something you don’t prefer is also selfishness; it’s your ego, and it comes back to you every time. So if we really want to stop war, first stop it in yourself. And the war will stop; war is impermanent. How long can they fight? If they have nobody to fight, or they are all dead, war stops.

We have compassion for those in ignorance. If you have compassion you’ll not despair. If you love, you get confronted with despair, desperate. If you love somebody dear to you and that person is in a bad way, dying, sick, then you despair. And every time you become desperate in your mind you loose your power, your meaning, you’re not able, you’re finished. So you cannot help.

So we should cultivate compassion. In our thought. First understand that there is Karma. Second not taking sides, not judging, then you’re fair and free. When you take sides you’re not free, you commit yourself to one party and you carry your burden. Then you can’t do so much with your power because you already put some of your energy into the side you agree with, love, or want.

As a meditative community, we will help. War needs help, we see that. But if you look at it with Wisdom, you recognise more clearly what’s going on. Every morning I wake up I recognise it, it becomes clear in my mind how sharp Karma is, how bad Karma is, how strong Karma is. Nobody can stop it. Its power is so great until it turns itself and stops. When they have not enough resources to fight, it will stop. Karma stops itself. That’s it.

So now we have the time to sit for an hour; of course you’ll have a lot of pain or suffering. Accept it, and do it for those suffering in the war. Every pain and every suffering gives you Wisdom. I want you to reconcile to pain, to welcome pain. My human friend is suffering, and what I have seen in the pictures, is more than I can feel now.

By my words I want you to lead yourselves, to see the war, to feel the pain, but in yourself, now, here. That’s very useful, helpful, its directed to you and it will influence them. That’s what we can do here. More we cannot.

After the meditation, there was opportunity to ask questions and to listen to the answers of the Ven Mettavihari. The following is a selection from the Q & A session.

Q: What can you do when you are actually confronted with violence; at the moment it happens ?

A: Get peace in yourself. Get into one point of the mind what you are going to do and do only that which you want to do. No consequent action, no expectant concern, no pre-condition. Pre-condition is in the past. At this moment we have a pre-condition for Kosovo, but the moment we sit its not there anymore. Also expectant concern, it’s also not there…. Stop the war in yourself, that’s what we do now. If the war doesn’t stop after your meditation, you’d get very desperate, because it is still there. Therefore we have no expectant concern, but we meditate anyway. We keep on doing it, for peace.

Q. You mentioned Karma, you said Karma is going on in the war …

A. not only in the war, everywhere, …

Q. everywhere, yes, … does it mean that we should not intervene ?

A. We are intervening now, but we do it in another way, with compassion…. To spread our positive intention towards the war; to every party, to everyone concerned. In them there should be Wisdom, …..If they start to recognise the pain caused…. those who lead the army, those with power, they will stop it. They have to find a way to stop it. If they cannot stop at once at least then the motivation is already there, to stop, not to go on with this war.