The art, Chakra Peace, shows the energy system and the figure forming a peace sign, and includes a poem about war which implies the question, is peace merely an illusion in our world, an unattainable ideal. Many would say that it is. Does peace belong in the same category as fairies and unicorns, nice to talk about, but not grounded in any sort of physical reality?
It is a question worth asking, especially given the current state of our world. War has become so prevalent that it is not even considered news. The Invisible War has been waged for over 11 years now, so named because no one is reporting on it, all details hidden from the public. Now drone warfare is being employed, so that killing of random and targeted people can occur from the comfort of a lazy boy recliner. Hundreds of children and thousands of innocent people are murdered without accountability on the part of the military. Communities are ripped to shreds and left to rebuild after senseless and unjustified destruction.
Many, including the president and even my own dad, an ex-marine, would say that there is no easy solution to this problem. It seems we have dug ourselves a hole that is now so deep we cant see our way out of it.
I admit I have also felt the weight of the problem, and the lack of clear solutions, even as I put the pressure on the president to call an end to drone warfare and the killing of foreign innocents. At the same time, many individuals wonder what they can do on a personal level to affect change, to make the world a better place.
I have long believed in meditation as an avenue to personal healing and growth, but after Fridays blog on peace and the psychic energy system, something else came to my attention. The Maharishi effect establishes the idea that individual consciousness affects collective consciousness. When just one percent of the population is practicing trancendental meditation, effects such as reduced crime rates and positive social, economic and political changes can be seen. The affect on consciousness can register on a national level, as improved national harmony and well being, and on a global level as improved international relations and reduced international conflicts. Studies have shown that with a group of just 7,000 people meditating, positive effects appear immediately, including reduced international conflict and reduced incidence of terrorism. For those who like math, 7,000 is close to the square root of one percent of the worlds population.
Meditation is not complicated or difficult. There is no need to spend a ton of money or time sitting in classes to learn it. You do not need to master yoga or a martial art to understand it. Meditation can take many different forms, and no one form is more valid or inherintly more effective than another. A person can meditate while doing the dishes, bathing or for a few minutes before they fall asleep at night. Meditation can be mixed with movement, such as jogging, dancing or stretching, or practiced while sitting in a quiet room. There are as many different forms of meditation as there are personality traits, it is just a matter of finding a style that works for you.
Chakra meditation involves visualizing the energy in you and around you and bringing it into an ideal state. This takes some imagination. Imagine the spheres of energy, one at a time, starting with the red. For example, lets say your red energy is weak. It has been allowed to spread too far. Instead of a bright swirling ball, you see red energy dissipating through the pelvis, with streaks of brown muddying the color. Since red energy represents the needs of the physical body, this could be because you skipped breakfast and ate fast food for lunch. Your body is reminding you to take care of it. You imagine yourself containing the red energy, moving it back into a ball shape at the base of the spine, letting a breeze air out the chakra until the color is shining, a true bright red.
Now you move up to your orange chakra. You do the same for each of the chakras, recognizing the part of you that each chakra represents, visualizing its current state and taking steps to bring it back to its natural state of harmony. This visualization can take less than 5 minutes, and helps align the energy within our bodies. It becomes more than just imagination. It can even produce changes in physical health, since blocked energy can produce illness or pain in our bodies.
And I imagine the effect on the physical world around us works in much the same way. Imagine clearing the air around you, allowing negativity and conflict to be swept away, while inviting peace and harmony. Doing this over your own household can create more harmony in your family. It can change our communities, our cities, provinces, states and countries. The Maharishi effect shows that if just one percent of the population would do this on a daily basis, we could maintain world peace.
