ALANDA GREENE reflects on how peace begins within, drawing lessons from irritable ducks, daily provocations, and the steady support of spiritual practice.
On a hot summer day, waiting at the ferry landing, I sought respite in the shade under the boat ramp. Ducks had made the same choice. Several settled on the sand, curled their heads onto their back and slept. One cranky duck, hissing and snapping, waddled into their midst. One by one, the sleepers rose and moved a few steps away from the irritant, settling and quickly dozing again. Cranky Duck kept going, disturbing their rest, forcing them to move. Repeatedly, the ducks rose, moved, and returned to sleep. Finally, Cranky gave up and also dozed.
It evoked a familiar, anonymous quote: Peace comes not from the absence of conflict but the ability to cope with it. Those ducks understood this wisdom.
Globally, peace is shattered with violence and war, deprivation and catastrophe. How can it be attained in such circumstances?
In my teaching days, we often sang a piece called “World Without War.” Each verse concluded that there might be hope for us to make a world with no war. The song expressed how choosing thoughts, words, and actions that do not enflame anger, violence, or resentment can support the hope of a peaceful world. One student protested the lyrics. “There’s nothing we can do to get rid of war in the world,” he said.
“You can get rid of it in your own world,” I offered. The ducks’ world stayed relatively peaceful because they didn’t react to Cranky.
I’m not always as wise as the ducks in situations that feel provocative, unjust, unfair, or unkind. Sometimes it takes a long time to regain equanimity. But knowing that peace is possible, knowing I have tools to bring me back, gives me choice.
Still, I sometimes resist. There’s a twisted kind of satisfaction in being a grump, or feeling self-righteous, or feeling that a severe response is the only reasonable one I can make.
Yet great peacemakers of our time—Gandhi, Dag Hammarskjold, James O’Dea, thousands of Tibetans facing the violence of invading Chinese soldiers—demonstrated that peace, first, is an inside job. From peace within, outer actions to create it can be effective, rather than perpetuating violence and disharmony.
Spiritual traditions worldwide offer ways to find peace within, tools and practices that provide the knowledge and experience of that inner condition. Meditation, breath techniques, reflection, body movements, and the repetition of sacred phrases are among them.
The promise that peace is an inside job is always available to experience. From a place of inner peace, there can be hope that the violence so endemic in our current world can be like a seed, growing peace elsewhere. Holding to peace supports its manifestation outwardly.
Because in the end, Cranky gave up and went to sleep with the other ducks.
The promise that peace is an inside job is always available
to experience. From a place of inner peace, there can be
hope that the violence so endemic in our current world
can be like a seed, growing peace elsewhere. Holding to
peace supports its manifestation outwardly.
Alanda Greene
