own heart......................................

The world faces many challenges.  Some are political, others are social.  Some are economic, others are environmental.  In all cases, humanity suffers.  But the world's problems are very simple.  They are the lack of love between human beings, the lack of compassion, of tolerance, of humility, and of acceptance.  They are the arrogance, hatred, and violence that have polluted human hearts.  They are prejudice and intolerance.  If a person has no peace in their heart, there can be no peace around them.  Such a person will always find reasons to argue and fight.  Only when a person's own heart is peaceful can their interactions be peaceful.
     How to solve the problem of hatred?  Is there any political solution?  Can love and acceptance be legislated and enforced?  Can any law change the human heart?  The heart only changes when it decides to change.  And that is a personal choice that every person must make for themselves.  We cannot enforce it upon them.  We can only inspire them and offer them the tools.
     Therefore, rather than trying to transform others, let us devote ourselves to our own transformation.  As for others, let us be nondemanding of them.  Let us be content to love them as they are, to accept them as they are, and to be ever ready to serve them as we would the members of our own family.  This is the humanity that the world sorely needs.

-Kamlesh D. Patel,  The Heartfulness Way:  Heart-Based Meditations for Spiritual Transformation