Peace

[tinhuviel]

My friend Kathleen sent this to me and I wanted to keep it here in my journal. I wish there was a way I could make certain I could send it to the Shrub, that is, if he's even literate enough to read and understand it. feh..

STORIES AND REFLECTIONS ON PEACE
Rodney R. Romney
Seattle Fellowship of Reconciliation, January 25. 2003



In his book, "The Art of Peace," Morihei Ueshiba suggests that the greatest deterrent to peace is fear. Ueshiba was the founder of the popular Japanese martial art known as Akido, and he taught martial arts not as an aggressive act of violence but more as a means of alleviating fear in the event of an attack.

Fear is the hallmark of this present moment in history. We have a government that is beset by fear and believes that aggressive action is the only proper response we can make to the threat of terrorism. We have a populace that is equally fearful, but to a large degree it is fearful of the aggressive action that our government would like to level against Iraq. There is a clear and nearly equal divide in this country as to how we should respond to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, and to the old festering wound of the Persian Gulf War. We are a nation plagued by fear, fear against an enemy invader as well as fear of a government determined to launch a war.

Ueshiba suggests that the art of peace functions everywhere on earth, from the tiniest plants and animals to the vastness of space, and that we need to discover the Art of Peace that allows us to perceive and tap into the tremendous reserve of universal energy that is always in search of harmony. He says that a true warrior (a warrior of peace) is always armed with three things: the radiant sword of pacification; the mirror of bravery, wisdom and friendship; and the precious jewel of enlightenment. The Art of Peace, said Ueshiba, is nonresistance, for those with evil intentions or contentious thoughts are instantly vanquished by nonresistance. To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace. There is more to the Act of Peace that Ueshiba taught through Akido than I am able to detail here, but his basic teaching is that we are to rely on peace to activate our powers, to pacify our environment and to create a beautiful world.

Jesus suggested that peace is the result of a non-violent approach to life and that to injure an opponent, or anyone else is to injure one's self. Innocent people are always injured in war and all random acts of violence. Jesus was clear, direct, and uncompromising in his teaching that violence only begets more violence, whereas peace induces peace.

Shortly after September 11, 2001 I was asked to give a talk at a church in Seattle on the topic, "What Should Be Our Response to the Terrorist Attack?" Afterwards a man came up to talk to me. We had never seen each before. I could tell he was visibly angry and shaken. He began by saying in a loud, belligerent tone, "I fought in the Vietnam War. I was a warlord, and I killed hundreds of civilians. There was no choice. I did it so that bastards like you could stand up and give the kind of talk you just gave and then go home and sleep safe and sound in your bed at night." Instinctively I knew that his was a soul in torment. It was not just my words he was fighting. Something else was bothering him. I decided to try a different approach than to respond to his words.

"What was your rank?" I asked, in as sincere and friendly a voice as I could manage.

"I was a sergeant. It was not pretty, let me tell you."

"What do you do now?"

"Used to run a construction outfit, but I'm retired now."

"So am I. How do you like retirement?"

"It's okay. I've been retired for several years."

"What do you do that gives you joy, now that you're retired?" I asked.

His entire demeanor had now changed. His face grew soft, his eyes wistful. "My grandkids," he answered almost reverently. "We get them every afternoon. I love those kids more than anything else in this world."

"They must be lucky kids to have a granddad that loves them and wants to have them around," I said.

He nodded. "If anything ever happened to them…" He stopped, unable to go on. His eyes were filling with tears.

"If anything ever happened to them, you would grieve terribly," I answered gently. "You see, it is the same for everyone. We all hurt when we lose the ones we love, no matter who we are. The most precious gift we have is the gift of each other."

His face contorted, and I knew he was carrying a terrible pain inside that had tortured him for him a long time, the pain of knowing that he had undoubtedly killed the children or grandchildren of someone who had loved them terribly. He turned away and left.

War does this. We send our finest and best young people to fight wars that politicians or terrorists have declared, wars that the young people did not start and do not always understand. We expect patriotism and a sense of God being on their side to carry them through. But the wounds many of them bring back are deep and do not heal. In protecting our freedoms they have sacrificed their own.

When are we going to learn a better way of handling disputes than wars, wars that are usually started by old men, wars that inevitably kill and maim the young and the innocent? Sometimes I wonder what would happen to war if we passed a law that those who declare war must be the ones to fight them. Surely the violence in the Middle East that escalates daily should convince us that violence leads nowhere but into more violence. No one will win this war between Israelis and Palestinians. Their only hope is to find and abide by a peaceful accord that will give security to everyone.

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, speaking forty years ago, said, "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie. You may murder the hater but you do not murder hate. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

Instead of trying to eliminate Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and all their cohorts and sympathizers, we must first eliminate from our hearts all fear, hatred and violence, for as long as we harbor such thoughts, we contribute to the wounding of our world.

President George W. Bush in a television interview once said that when he had accepted Christ into his heart his life had changed. But how can one accept Christ and not accept his teachings? His teachings constitute the most authentic truth about his life that we know. His words offer neither compromise nor equivocation on the subject of nonviolence.
Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be God's own children.
You have heard it said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," but I tell you this: Do not resist those who wrong you. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn and offer the other also.
You have heard it said: "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you this: Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors; only then can you children of God.
Always treat others as you would like others to treat you: love fulfills the law.

Hear again these voices that come from different religious traditions on the subject of peace.

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is a state of mind. Lasting peace can only come to peaceful people. -Jawaharial Nehru

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -Mohandas Gandhi

Peace is more important than justice. Peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace. -Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Instead of loving what you think is peace, love other men and women and love God above all else. Instead of hating all the people you think are warmongers, hate the appetites and disorders in your own soul which are the causes of war. -Thomas Merton

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other. -Mother Teresa

Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to us; peace is our gift to each other. -Elie Wiesel

Without inner peace, it is impossible to have world peace. -Dalai Lama

War may sometimes be a necessary evil…but no matter how necessary, it is always evil, never good. We will never learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children. Jimmy Carter, former US president.

Finally, from Rumi, a Sufi poet of the mid-thirteenth century: Don't pray to be healed, or look for peace in some other world; you are the soul and the medicine for what wounds the world.

I speak as one who believes my way as a Christian is not the only way, nor is it a better way. It is simply another way. And I also speak as one who believes there is a Higher Way, one that most of our religious systems have yet to define and demonstrate fully, and that is the Way of Universal Love. To find that Way requires a process of letting go of that which no longer works and taking on something new that will lead us into a bright new future. Here then are a few things we need to release, if we are going to make way for the new to enter our lives.

1. We must give up trying to establish a "Christian America," a national community in which Christianity is the preferred religion. We must stop piously intoning "God bless America" and begin to pray, "God forgive America." We are not without some blame in recent world affairs, for we have ignored the fact that much of the world is starving, while a large percentage of Americans have been growing steadily richer. Nor can we ignore the fact that some of our national policies favor big corporations and are simultaneously destroying the natural environment and the fragile ecosystem that supports all of us.

2. We must give up our idols. Some Americans have turned our form of government into an idolatrous system that makes an idol out of the president, one who can do no wrong (as long as he comes from the right party). For some Christians, theology is their idol. Perceiving Jesus Christ as the sole mediator between God and humankind is to my mind a form of idolatry. This doctrine is a human construct that denies the transcendence of other religions as a locus of God's activity. We must let Jesus be who he was, a Jewish prophet whose insights and life can have impact for all of us today, if we are willing to consider him apart from our human doctrines. He asked us to stop judging others and to start loving our neighbors as ourselves. To make exclusive claims for our particular tradition being superior is not the way to do that.

3. Finally, we as a nation need to let go of our attachment to war, beginning with our president and his cabinet. The war against Iraq will do irreparable damage to the people of that country. The United Nations estimates that 4.5 million of Iraq's 22 million population will be without food as soon as the invasion begins, that 900,000 Iraqis will become refugees in neighboring countries, most of whom will require immediate assistance to survive, and that the World Food Program that supplies food for 60% of the population will totally collapse once the violence begins. Are we so afraid of Saddam Hussein that we are willing to sacrifice millions of his people in an attempt to get him out of the way? Can we not find a common voice among people of faith and peace that will lead us in a better direction?

Those who wish to collaborate in the cause of God will not do it by killing others, for to kill another is to profane a piece of God. The law is clear and inflexible. It is found in every religion that exists: you must treat others as you would wish to be treated, for what you do to others you do to yourself. The truth is we are all part of the same cosmic family, and until we acknowledge that oneness, we will always be at war. Ignoring this law has brought us today to a critical divide, the precipice between unity and oblivion.

We must all work together to resolve the issues of injustice, oppression, war, bondage, discrimination, exploitation and homelessness, as well as the need for education and development of the poorer countries of the world. We can either use such events as the 9-11 attack to bring the peoples of the world together to assure a viable quality of life for all people, or we can launch a major war in which there will be no real winners. We are on the cusp of one of the most significant times in history. This could be the beginning of worldwide annihilation, or it could be the beginning of the peaceable co-existence of all the nations of the world. The choice is always ours. Once we accept the truth that we are all one, that we are all individual parts of the same family, then we will realize that what we do to others we do to ourselves.

I go to a gym three times a week. In the locker room most of the conversations are fairly dull and predictable, largely centered around sports events. But the other day I listened to two men, probably in their late 30s, affirm that declaring war against Iraq is the only sensible route. An older man with snow-white hair listened patiently, until there was a lull. Then he said, "I have fought in two wars, and I can tell you that war is never sensible, never glorious and never productive. It is the most horrible, devastating and heartbreaking enterprise humans ever undertake. If we don't find a better alternative to settling disputes than war, we will only bring greater futility and destruction to this world." He finished dressing and left the locker room quietly. There was no more discussion on the sensibility of war, for a warrior of peace had just spoken the truth.

Peace building is the greatest work we humans can do. Peace building is, in fact, the work that is even now moving around this globe, bypassing governments that are immobilized by wealth and power, and motivated in part by those individuals who know that we have now reached a critical divide between oneness and destruction. When all is said and done, the most important gift we will ever make to the world is the gift of ourselves as a peacemaker.