It is not an easy choice to go for thoughtful, contemplative, peaceful means when so much around us promotes a lie that either the end justifies the means or that there is no end, so it makes no difference about what means we use.

Put another way, the entire human race lives with the accumulated historical traumas of thousands of years of cruelty, inequality, fear, prejudice, hatred, irrationality, injury, and despair. That we are yet capable of even beginning to come to grips with that massive burden, let alone to begin to shift it to where it is less of a burden to future generations, let alone to make real accomplishments towards establishing more compassionate systems of living – that is testament to the power of the human soul, when it turns to good. Pacifying the beasts of the past is a gradual process, but once we understand Gandhi’s statement, “There is no path to peace. Peace *is* the path.”, we are ready to begin that process, starting with our own heart, mind, spirit, and soul.