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A state of peace is difficult for most people or most societies to achieve and not because it's citizens are evil but instead because they are all inherently good. This may seem to be an irrational statement but really it is based on the assumption that every man acts from a fundamental intention of good which may sometimes have bad results. We are all to some degree aware of the feeling which arises in our own heart when an injustice has been perpetrated against ourselves or against others for whom we care. This feeling is universal, the human race shares an innate sense of fairness and moral value, this sense of morality comes from a deeper part of the our nature, deeper than our intellect or our ego. This sense of justice and fairness comes from the part of our being which created our intellect and our ego, it comes from a universal shared spiritual source deep within.

Our spirit exists as a permanent psychological backdrop to our all thoughts and actions, it's greater wisdom continues to inspire and motivate us but it's values do not over rule our ego's evaluations or decisions. Our decisions which are based on our beliefs and ideas and are always our own, we are not mere robots which are programmed by spirit. Our spirit permits us to have your own ideas and beliefs even at the cost of contradicting inner spiritual guidance. The remarkable thing is that despite our intellectual freedom spiritual values are none the less routinely evidenced in the laws of our governments and in our personal life.

Mankind never losses contact with his moral spiritual center even when the worst human atrocities are committed, they were committed in the name of some twisted spiritual or moral value. How then, you may ask, if man is so good, how does that goodness get so distorted and produce all the apparent evil that exists in the world, how does man's good intentions get turned upside down into cruelty, conflict, and hatred. ?

To shed a little light on this question let us isolate an the important psychological factor in this discussion. This factor is man's free will, free will is primarily what differentiates man's form of consciousness from all the other sentient beings which exist here on earth. It is the evolution of free will in mankind that ironically is the necessary psychological precondition for the development of moral cognition and responsibility. If all our values were programed or left at an instinctual level, that is, if they were mandated biologically, we would never have been able as a species to become self aware. To become self aware you need to be able to choose how to behave and have that behavior reflect back to you your decisions. We could never have evolved to become human beings without the fundamental psychological attribute of free will, it is primal. .

Free will is also the necessary precondition for all moral and spiritual comprehension and for the evolution of moral responsibility. Free will is absolutely necessary for the development of the human psyche without it we would be no different from the animals who never act out of calculated cruelty but who can never achieve divine enlightenment either. Freedom of choice is at the heart of spiritual growth and development. Free will is an absolute evolutionary necessity. Yet free will was not given to man without support, man's free will is always tethered through inspiration to it's spiritual home base. So our intellect or ego with it's free will is not left out there all alone to figure it all out by itself. Through our intuition, our imagination, and our feelings our higher spirit's wisdom and knowing telegraphs us and secretly informs us of right action. Despite this communication many wrong choices are frequently made. Even when there might be a direct attempt by our intellect to make contact our inner spiritual ideals and wisdom great errors of judgment will often still be made.

It is our free will which allows us through the theater of our life to experience all the ramifications of our individual and collective ideals and beliefs. Our free will by its own nature permits us to make moral mistakes and to experiment with a myriad of right and wrong actions and by doing so it allows us to create rich cultural and artistic beauty and a unique life's experience for each and every one of us. It is our mistakes and misjudgments even our cruelties together with our brilliance our genius and our continuous acts of loving kindness, which produces the deepest most relevant means for self understanding and self development.

All of us are haunted by a moral yearning to one degree or another whether we admit to it or not. A dramatic example of this yearning may be observed in the arena of war or combat where each side's anger and courage is roused and reinforced by the degree to which his own sense of justice is felt to be violated. Both sides in any conflict believe that God or the equivalent of God (Goodness) is on their side. This is because all men naturally seek to conform to an inner sense of love and right action which is felt to be a tangible force coming from within. All human beings without exception, no matter how depraved or apparently immoral, find it difficult to murder or to be murdered without some moral justification, no matter how far from reason those justifications may stray.

In Yoga it is understood that thoughts and feelings are real, they are a type of energy which has electromagnetic properties, this energy can be described as event formation or reality building energy. Similar thoughts gather together around beliefs or strongly held ideas and they build up energy, this energy then ultimately manifests into our life's events or experiences. This process is also known in Yoga as the law of Karma. No man can be exempt from the laws of karma because it is under the laws of Karma that man receives the most tangible evidence of his own spiritual development. This law is therefore considered to be the very first law of life. It is only by experiencing the materialized consequences of our thoughts and feelings that we can eventually learn moral responsibility and so develop our inherent spiritual qualities. If we could learn moral responsibility without the aid of physical feed back then human life on earth would not be necessary but the imposition of life and death consequences seems to be a vital step towards spiritual development.

Earth is then a very vital testing ground for our spiritual development, here is where our spirit seeks new expressions and new development every day. The consequences of hatred and of love are both dramatically portrayed for us in your own private lives as well as in the historical events of your times. If we choose to hate then that hatred always turns back against us one way or another. Under the law of Karma we are always drawn to that which we love or hate, when we hate, that hate vibrates out effecting all the events and relationships which make up your every day reality. And if we continue to hate, that hate will continue to effect all of your future life times as well. So choose to love and return home to joy and everlasting peace.

Despite all the hate and violence in the world, I feel that there is extraordinary hope for humanity because every human being is subject to the same laws of Karma and Karma is a very wise master. Karma's consistent wisdom will ultimately serve to create a world of joy and peace because love is the source, the goal, the rudder, which will lead us to back to love. Love is that which has created everything and hate is merely the reaction to it's absence. With enough time every man will learn to choose right actions, he will learn to embrace his natural feelings of love, forgiveness and mercy because cultivating these feelings is the simplest way to power, security, happiness and creative fulfillment.

There is no religion, no idea, no society, that is more powerful than the force of LOVE. We need to recognize this spiritual imperative within ourself and find the roots of compassion and forgiveness and love which lay concealed there. From this love and compassion we can create true peace, not only for ourself, but for the whole world.

Written by Ava