Seek You and You Shall Find

World Meditation Day Statement by Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif

Meditation is a conscious act of focusing on clarity, love, peace and humanity. It’s an act of inner peace and mindfulness. In a world of so much external activity, meditation helps us return to our inner being and its treasures. It’s a bold affirmation of our shared humanity and our collective commitment to build a more peaceful, more equal world. 

As all profoundly spiritual prophets, mystics and saints understood: meditation is the inward journey where wisdom, compassion, empathy and peace for humanity reside. 

As we celebrate World Meditation Day – and think about the state of perpetual chaos, violence and uncertainty that seems to permeate our society – it becomes clear that today, more than ever, peace starts within ourselves, or as the late United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold said: “Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each of us.” 

It was in this spirit that Dag Hammarskjold established the United Nations Meditation Room in 1952, also called “A Quiet Room.” 

We live in a world shattered by the excruciating noise of bombs and guns; a world of innocent children crying out for help and protection amidst tormenting experiences of armed conflicts, climate disasters and forced displacement. 

We cannot continue like this. It is time to embark on the journey within. It is time to quiet the head and listen to the soul, because in the soul dwells a far greater mind. 

Only then can we achieve wisdom and courage to create peace, justice and security for every child and adolescent on the globe. The journey within has no short-cuts. Or, as Dag Hammarskjold said: “The longest journey is the journey inwardly.” This is the beauty and necessity of meditation in order to create a better world.