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A Yugoslavia and peace-meditation assessment
by Palden Jenkins
posted on Internet, 1 April 1999
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I believe (in a psychic sense) that we have all actually plunged into a very deep pool here, and no one knows what's going to happen next. The big problem with this whole conflict is that it arises from festering, longterm, unexpressed hurts, feelings and resentments, which have come into the open both as a cause and a result of the violence. In other words, it's like a fever which threatens to be deadly. However, in naturopathy and homeopathy, they take the opinion that, once an illness breaks out (moves from 'chronic' to 'acute'), the healing process is already starting. That is, the fever is an indication of a war going on between viruses or ill-health (death-force) and the immune system (life-force). In other words, it's a 'fightback' by restoring, healthy energies. Put in another way, there's a saying: The darkest hour is just before dawn.
Illness (or war) is not necessary. It is a result of excess and self-abuse. However, illness becomes necessary and can be an agency of healing, when things have reached a certain stage. (In this sense, cancer is a great gift to modern humanity, as an awakener.) Illness is a furious explosion of energy where all the normal rules break down, and it's a fight to the death. Yet it is during our illnesses that the greatest life-opportunities can emerge.
However, this requires choice. And here, this is why I ask people to stop opposing war, and to remain neutral on this. This means we need to be careful about our thoughts of peace. Generally, peace is right and good, and we can pray for peace in our world. But specifically, for Kosovo and Serbia, we ourselves cannot really know what is right for them – but nevertheless, if we're moved to do something for them, we must make our choices and act as best we can! In this sense, in my prayers and meditations on this issue, I have been praying not specifically for peace, but for deep-level healing, resolution and fundamental progress – a healing which means that these issues will never come up again in this way. If it involves three years of horror to create 500 years of peace, the investment might be worth it. If suffering leads to a fundamental learning, for the whole world, then it might be justified.
This is primarily for God and people to decide. However, once they have decided, it's our work, as meditators with spiritual intent, to help move things forward – whichever way they truly need to go. We need to work with Nature (or events), whichever way they go, to move them forward to fundamental resolution. Also we must watch not to override free-will, only to encourage positive choices.
As a healer, one sometimes has to help a person die well, and in peace. Sometimes, to apply life-saving medicines can cause suffering. There are many people alive today who wanted to 'die' earlier, and have been stopped by doctors from doing so! The following statement I'm saying to myself too!: as meditators, we need to be very careful not to 'play God', and not to specify too closely what we think is right for other people, unless we responsibly and awarely choose to bear the karmic consequences leading from that. So, to return to the beginning, I ask people to be very clear about the way they pray for peace, in relation to specific cases such as Serbia-Kosovo. Why? Because they're possibly acting a bit like NATO. Though perhaps without meaning to.
Both NATO bombings and peace meditations might be okay or not-okay and they might or might not lead to good outcomes – most realistically, they might lead to mixed outcomes. What's good about the meditation work everyone is doing is that we're progressing on this, and we're learning and growing up. We're getting beyond the 1990s 'Wow!' stage. But our prayers and innerwork need to be well thought through, and framed in a way which allows positive, healing forces to be innovative and miraculous. The universe is great and wide, and many are its designs.
So, I question that 'peace' is the best thing to pray for, because there are occasions when a cathartic war might be necessary, tragic and stupid that it is.
War is like marital breakdown, bigtime, with all the violence and tragedy – and the courts, police and social services weighing in too! Aaaargh! Total complexity! Everyone trying their best and making a mess of it! Yet marital breakdown is one of the greatest forces of positive change in our world today. With a lot of pain thrown in.
In Bosnia, the major issues were diplomatically covered over. The fever has abated, but the 'miasm' and the causes and symptoms of illness are only sedated and given antibiotics – not 'constitutional' remedies. The international community did not really want to face the big questions, and Yugoslavs did not really want to resolve their differences fundamentally – and Milosevic and his gang were not dealt with. So Kosovo came up. However, I feel that, this time, we're getting closer to a big truth-point, a real showdown, and a possible miracle. A miracle is something which is agreed to be impossible.
What I'm praying for is a therapeutic breakthrough which might cause Yugoslavs, Europeans and the whole world to make a Big Leap Forward, catalysed by what is now happening in Kosovo and Serbia. A mutual leap forward into genuine, long-lasting peace and resolution of age-old tribal problems. But, in this case, I don't instinctively oppose this war. What I am unhappy about is that it came to this. But now it has happened, the best use must be made of it. Since people have been unwilling to resolve their shit earlier, heavy shit has broken out, we've all gone out of control, we all have stumbled into the Great Unknown, and we'll have to drive this one forward by the seat of our pants! We're in a foggy domain where, for warmakers and peacemakers alike. We're treading a minefield, yet we're unwittingly close to a lump of gold.
And if all this hadn't happened in Yugoslavia, it would probably happen somewhere else. Because viruses will do anything to find a host body to replicate in. This Kosovan war is the symptom of a mass-psychological virus. A world issue.
I don't want war, and I believe that the next century will bring planetary peace – after a few showdowns which force humanity to decide to stop war, and the arms trade, and insecurity and oppression. And to step back from nationalism of an 'anti-them' kind – national feeling or pride does not have to harm others. As a white, male Brit, living in a warlike nation which is using its military skills in an abstruse exercise to make peace, I'm committed to working for peace, and correcting many of the wrongs my country has done. I do this by spiritual work, conflict-resolution groupwork, writing and speaking. And I'm aware we're in for the long haul in this meditation work. We can't just flash'em a few big meditations and walk away – post-crisis situations can be a nightmare too. And the crises across the world keep on escalating!
This NATO intervention will cost us billions – it's not a profit-seeking venture, as some imply. The weapons trade is dying, and smart weapons are too expensive for most warmakers from now on. Losing a stealth bomber is no financial joke – who would buy those things? Cruise missiles cost millions for every shot. The Twentieth Century is over, and things are changing – faster than governments and even background governments can really cope with. I sense that this Balkans conflict will cause us to cross some necessary and overdue moral and spiritual thresholds. And my prayer is that the cruel sacrifices being made at this time may be made worthwhile by fundamental positive changes.
All this has a remarkable undercurrent, unconscious effect for Europe, unfolding daily. I would suggest that the NATO offensive, whether or not it is mistaken, is actually surprisingly sincere and without hidden agendas (compared with Iraq, etc). At least, for Europe – I'm not so sure about USA. But the Europeans will follow through on this, whether or not Americans do, and it will cost us greatly, and we know we must do it. European integrity is at stake. It means a lot to us. And many refugees will come to our own countries. There will be collections of clothes and gifts in the streets. And, I believe, in future, this war might spark a lot more personal citizen interaction between Yugoslavia and the rest of Europe. There's a lot of discussion and arguing, but Europeans are behind this in their hearts – though they're only just discovering this as the days roll on. We're thinking more as Europeans, which is a breakthrough – and a healing. With or without the Yanquis, we have to follow this through – and I think there is the willingness to do it. Because Balkans people – even Balkans Muslims – are 'us', not 'them', to us! And this is our problem too.
We all have heaps of stuff to learn from this, and I encourage meditators to review the process whenever it ends, and to ask ourselves (I'm doing this to me too!): in what ways can we improve our chosen work? Y'know, we need to get really *real* about this, committing to following up our own love-bombs longterm! It's dead serious, and we're talking about stuff with the power of nuclear bombs – and, potentially, the power to completely unmanifest them! With zero mistakes, please!
I pray that I haven't caused any tragedies in my own meditation work – or in the thoughts I sometimes have when 'out of meditation' too – and I have to be honest with myself and admit that I might have done so (who knows?), even though I've been careful and well-meaning. And at times naive. I mean not to cause difficulty and further complicate things, and I'm committed to learning all that is necessary in order not to do so. In the end, that's the best I can do, and I believe it's better to do something, to try something, than not to. In these things, time and conscience will be our judge!
I try to remind myself too that it's better to do small things well than big things badly!
Here's wishing well to everyone, and keep up the good work!
© Palden Jenkins, 1999. All of these articles are copyright. They may individually be copied and shared with others in a spirit of knowledge-sharing and fair play, but they may not be sold, printed or reproduced in quantity or changed in form without the permission of the copyright holder. Magazine and other editors may e-mail me for permission to reprint. E-mail:
