The Sage-ing^® Guild

Making Peace
by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

But they are not likely to go away. There is not yet any light showing at the end of the tunnel. Some of us are feeling the pressure of the general situation and are confusing it with personal depression.

While some of this may be induced by what we have to do, in our sage-ing work, claims of unlived life and the urge for life completion, the greater part of our unease is just what's in the air.

The likelihood is that for the foreseeable time, it will not go away.

We are, after all, living with the threat of terrorists. The confusion in our government between what we must do internationally and how we are to deal with the internal economy is real. We are also in the state in which many of us have found that the nest of our next-egg has been robbed by greedy executives and the reduction in social services.

In this bleak panorama, there are several things open to us. First, the most immediate and essential is that we observe our behavior with those who are close to us and scan it for lack of kindness. During difficult times, it is doubly essential to be kind in the words we use and in the attitude with which we meet one another and with the vibes that we exude. What we put out is bound to come back to us. This will allow our moods and feelings and those of the people we live with to be gentle and even-keeled. We could then meet the difficulties with greater equanimity and friendliness.

Second, our current social situation is not conducive to the kind of neighborhood relationships for which we have nostalgia. In everything we do, we have to use our vehicles of transportation. It's not the same as it once was when we could walk from porch to porch and sit with our neighbors sharing the time of day or go and ask for a cup of sugar or a couple of eggs. Because of this sense of disconnect, it is important to create possibilities for neighboring with people who make up our support system.

Invite friends over. Leave the discussions about life's difficulties out. Share a meal, and the things that bring joy. Just as Norman Cousins found that a way to deal with illness was to give oneself to amusement and wholesome fun, so too, do we have to deal with the illness of our time. One of the best ways to do this is to check the calendar and see what holy-days, religious or civic are happening at this time and invite others to celebrate them.

Another form of outreach is also worthwhile. Call together some home or parlor celebrations and worship sessions that are not necessarily linked to a sectarian commitment, but in which all participants can express themselves in prayer and contribute inspirational readings and recordings.

Beyond these, and still deeper, there is the work that some committed souls can do in concert with others to spend each available meeting time "holding the field" for the afflicted parts of the planet. Many religious lineages have had elders do that for their tribes and clans, and that is now necessary to do this for the planet as a whole. Sometimes hearing difficult news on the radio or seeing it on CNN, instead of getting angry, experience the grief that others must be feeling at this time, and hold them in the light of healing and consolation.

These things are bound to help us through the dark times ahead.

With God's help, we will pass through these times and we will rejoice in the way in which we will have done what we could with these suggestions. If you have other things to offer to us, please send us a note of what you are doing in your neighborhood to support one another through this time. In this way, you will be doing your sage-ing work by thinking globally and acting locally.