+Dear Friends
To counteract the countdown of this season – so many days until Christmas, so many days left of this year – i decided to count up. High up. A billion struck my fancy for this year’s Christmas meditation. This gave me a surprising perspective: we are closer than i thought to that historic «Silent Night» of Bethlehem, yet, farther away than i realized from «Peace on earth»— or maybe not; it depends.
A billion has a nice ring to it. And it feels good when the tip of my tongue touches my teeth as i say «billion.» But who can visualize so gigantic a number? Clever statistics come to our aid: A billion seconds ago it was 1959. A billion minutes ago Jesus was walking the roads of the Holy Land. Handel’s famous chorus calls him «Prince of Peace,» but something must have gone wrong. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes at the rate our government is spending money – and spending it not on peace.
Nature is lavish with its billions. There are not one but one hundred billion nerve cells in a single human brain. Admittedly, my «senior moments» may be due to a few crossed wires up there, but for the most part these neurons manage to cooperate in most efficient harmony. They smoothly coordinate functions which are far more complex then the software of Silver, the trusty computer on which i am typing this message. My heartbeat, my breathing, my digestion, they all work well without my understanding how – all the better, in fact, if i do not interfere by thinking.
If a hundred billion neurons in my brain can act in harmony, should not a mere 6.5 billion human beings on our planet be able to work together in peace? Yes, this is indeed possible. We can channel into our social relations the cosmic intelligence that animates our bodies. The same energy that creates harmony within us will then also create peace among us. This is not wishful thinking. In fact it starts with a suspension of all thinking – wishful and not – as a first step. And this brings us right back to the «Silent Night.» For, silence is the key here. Stillness.
In stillness we can step back and watch our trains of thought running in circles like toy trains under a Christmas tree. And the moment we step back from our noisy thinking, wisdom – infinitely deeper than thought – begins to act through us. Wisdom is the only force that can counteract our countdown as a self-endangered species. As soon as enough of us take this step back into stillness, the wisdom that guides a billion-billion interactions in the cosmos will guide our human hearts, too, and will bring all of us together in «the peace that passes understanding.»
May we, through stillness, find this peace. This is my wish for you and for all of us as we enter a new year.
Your brother David
