Maybe one of the things that are unfair in life is the responsibility you have in creating peace. I wish it were easy, but everything outside of us is not real. I think once we realize this, maintaining peace becomes easy. Until then we have to do it for ourselves. The first thing for us to have peace is to take responsibility for how our lives have turned out thus far. The best way to take responsibility is to not blame others. The best way to not blame others is not to ignore the harm they’ve done, but to forgive them.

Inner Peace vs Outer Peace

It’s really hard to be at peace even when going through hard circumstances. That’s still one of my biggest questions. How can I be happy when my outer circumstance isn’t reflecting what I want my inner feelings to be? I think as we go on this journey together, we are starting to realize that a majority of the things that occur outside ourselves are not real. Can we truly believe this statement and be reminded of it when we go through aspects of our life that can typically be triggering? 

The only thing we can do to heal ourselves from the unfairness of the world is to forgive. As we go deeper into forgiveness, we start not even paying these hardships any mind. I know all of what we’ve talked about so far goes against our initial inclination of anger. So what if we defined forgiveness here and now? When we’re talking about forgiveness, we are using our energy for better uses outside of holding grudges and nursing wounds of resentment. By doing this we know we can’t be hurt by others because we’ve used this energy to accept others as ourselves. More times than not, we tend to not forgive unless someone asks our forgiveness. Here we are trying to get into the habit of forgiveness because a delay in forgiveness is a postponement in our happiness. Rehashing past hurt does not give us peace.

No Justice, No Peace

With all this forgiveness talk, you might be asking, where’s the justice? Forgiveness doesn’t mean that a person is immune to consequences. It doesn’t mean that you have to be the one to give it. Firstly, always remember that we are connected. Harm against you is harm against themselves. There is no way that people are going to go unscathed, at least mentally, when they hurt someone else. Secondly, A person can commit a crime against you and still go to jail. You can still forgive them while they may be facing the punishments that the world upholds. I think the hard truth however is not seeking justice. If something happened to me and I had the chance to press charges on an individual, I probably wouldn’t. If I want to see that person suffer through justice, it means that I hadn’t forgiven his person.

I think there is a fundamental flaw in our justice system because it’s based on punishment. Where there is punishment there is no love. The jail system is portrayed as a place where people can learn from their mistakes and try to move past what they’ve done, regardless of significance. Instead, it’s a place where people are reminded of their crimes. They are given jumpsuits and are made to feel less than others. Imagine if this were not the case. Imagine if people went to jail and those who ran the jail only had the intention of love. Instead of what it is, it can be a place of safety where those who visit can learn how to forgive themselves and forgive the past hurt that lead to them being locked up. I guess even then, people who go to jail have to be responsible for their peace.