The Equation We Haven’t Tried

Do you know what it took to put you in that seat that you're sitting on? Do you know how many species went through evolution so you could be like you are?

We all take it for granted. "Oh, here I am!" But do you have any idea of how much evolution it took, how many experiments it took, so today you could sit in that chair?

What is the world that we live in? What is this world that we live in? Think about it. There is more food available today than there ever was. One of the points that I'm trying to make is, there was a time when people thought that if we had enough food we would have peace. Well, guess what? We have enough food, and we still don't have peace.

Once upon a time, people thought that if we would have enough wealth we would have peace. Guess what? We do have more wealth now than we've ever had. There is more wealth in this world than there ever was, but there is no peace.

People said, "If people were educated there would be peace." There are more schools now than there ever were, and there's still no peace. People said, "If we could communicate with each other, there would be peace." Boy! Do we know how to communicate with each other! So, we have more means of communication than we ever had, but do we know what to say? So, that's the problem.

The only equation we haven't tried is that peace begins with you. That the kindness needs to be surfaced. We need to have a society in which we are mindful of our kindness. We are mindful of our compassion, we are mindful of our capability to be able to help the ones around us, if they need help–and that help will begin by first helping ourselves.

— Prem Rawat