a multidimensional phenomenon, its different layers are often also built upon each other. Since our actions in this world always have their origin in our thoughts and beliefs, in other words in our minds, the dimension of inner peace can safely be considered the source of what form outer peace – distorted or not – takes in our world.
This does not mean that inner peace is the absolute source of outer peace, however. It just means that the state of our inner being, our emotions, thoughts and beliefs, often create the material circumstances and situations that we find ourselves in. Sometimes, we are surprised by the situations and circumstances we appear to be placed in, and at other times we almost expected things to turn out the way they did. Since this is something that most of us have already experienced more than once in our lives, it can be considered as some kind of proof that your inner world mostly determines the state of the outer world you find yourself in.
Because these two main aspects of true peace are so closely related to each other, they need to be understood as being one and the same, and therefore their principles need to be applied and lived as a whole in our daily lives in order to create lasting peace.
True and lasting peace will never be achieved in our world otherwise, because these two main aspects will act and behave like counterweights to each other if only one of them is actively pursued by us in an attempt to create peace on this world and within ourselves.
What needs to be done, then, is understand the complex and multifaceted nature of these two aspects of true peace and make use of them in symbiosis with each other. For, in truth, one is created out of the other. From inner peace comes outer peace, and from outer peace comes inner peace. As above, so below. As within, so without.
In the past, many people have tried to promote peace in this world. Some have formed peaceful movements, other have written philosophical texts promoting peace and yet others have tried to bring peace into this world by leading by example. Although those various attempts of creating peace were successful to a certain degree, complete true and lasting peace has not been achieved, yet. There are still wars being fought, violent acts being committed and hostilities being propagated throughout our world.
Just by looking at these facts, it becomes clear that there is still a lot of work to be done toward creating true and lasting peace. Although all the effort and energy of those wise and courageous people who tried to propagate peace in this world in the past have made an essential contribution toward more peace and left us with a powerful legacy, the work is not done, yet. And that is why it is our responsibility to build upon this legacy and finally make that step leading us toward a world full of true and lasting peace.
We cannot let their work and effort go to waste because not only our present, but also the future of this planet and all future generations depend on it. They need us to make a change in the here and now, and turn this world away from war, violence, greed and hatred.
Let us become the guardians of Earth instead of its destroyers and bring it back onto a path of peace, love and harmony. Humanity has been at war with itself and nature for far too long, many millennia, if not more. We should not be discouraged by this fact but, rather, see it as all the more reason to finally change that for good.
However, when doing that, we also need to avoid repeating the mistakes our forebears made in the past, but we should not ignore them altogether, either. Rather, what we need to do is learn from their mistakes and take responsibility for our own current behavior, so that we do not run the danger of repeating those mistakes and even making new mistakes in the process.
Let our ancestors be our teachers from whom we can draw wisdom and build upon the work of all those who have tried creating true and lasting peace in the past.
In order to do so, it is first necessary to have an understanding – preferably a deep understanding rather than a superficial one – of the basic principles which govern all of our universe and, by extension, also our current reality here on Earth. Through the comprehension of those principles, it will become possible for us to make better sense of why things are currently the way they are in our world, as well as how we can make use of those principles in order to implement true and lasting peace.
Then, it will be necessary to shine a light at the reasons why true and lasting peace isn’t already a reality here on Earth. From that, we can gain a perspective of what might have gone wrong in the past and why true peace was not possible at those points in time. This will provide us with an understanding of what we need to avoid and what we can do better on our path to achieving true and lasting peace for ourselves and all other lifeforms on this planet.
And lastly, what we need to do is work on finding appropriate strategies which will enable us to implement true and lasting peace not only inside ourselves but also in the world around us. Those strategies can encompass anything from thought patterns to behaviors to conscious actions, aimed at creating true peace. This will take up a whole section of the book later on.
To most of the people reading this book, it will have become clear by now that this will not be a simple endeavor, for true and lasting peace is something which needs to penetrate and infuse every aspect and every fiber of our lives as well as our collective attitude toward life in general.
However, this does not mean that this endeavor will not be full of joy, happiness, fulfillment and even easiness. It all depends on how we choose to tackle this problem of global non-peace and how easy, happy and joyous we make this journey for ourselves. Just like an old master once said, there is always more than one way to achieve something. The result will be the same eventually, but whether you make it hard for yourself or decide to take the easy road is entirely up to you.
There is one more point which needs to be addressed when it comes to the complexity of true and lasting peace. In order to understand what true peace is all about, is will be necessary for us to expand our mental horizons, so to speak, and be open for ideas and concepts most of us are normally not familiar with on a daily basis. In fact, this is not just a way to make understanding true peace easier, it is much more than that. Indeed, it is almost essential to understanding this type of complete and wholesome peace. The reason for this is that our current understanding of ourselves and the world around us is incomplete and lacking in certain aspects, which can be easily proven by the fact that war, violence, greed and hatred are still existing on our planet. If we knew and completely understood what true and lasting peace is all about, war and many other negative influences in our lives would be a thing of the past.
This is why it is important to be open to new information, knowledge and wisdom. For some people, the concepts and ideas in this book might be unheard of and shocking in one way or another. To others, it might seem like make-belief or the delirious fantasies of a young author. All that can be asked for at this point is to just be open to the ideas and concepts written down in this book. See if you can contemplate them deep within yourself and then decide whether they can help you achieve true peace within yourself and in the world around you.
This is all anyone could ever ask of you, and so I will not ask for more than that.
YIN AND YANG – THE LAW OF BALANCE
Yin and Yang are one,
The universal balance,
Black and white merging.
The principle of balance, which is called Yin and Yang in many Eastern traditions, may be one of the oldest – if not the oldest – universal principles known to humankind.
Many people have already seen the famous symbol of Yin and Yang at some point in their lives. They have seen the round shape of a circle with a beautiful curve separating the circle into a black slice with a white dot and a white slice with a black dot. The shape of this symbol
