In a world where war is entertainment, killing is sport, & betrayal is common....how do we make peace?

A PEACE MAKING LESSON

on SMILING!

Each Sunday morning, most people in the College of Metaphysics community gather for what we call PeaceMakers. PeaceMakers have been meeting for five years now. Attending our evolution has been a source of delight for me and a privilege.
This meeting is the first of its kind in a new year – 2003; the year that will build toward the dedication of the world’s first Peace Dome set for October 11th. Preparing our consciousness is the essential core of the message we want to convey when we welcome people from around the world to this place on Earth. We want to know peace, with our reasoning minds and our intuitive minds so we can be living examples of peace.

Since the School of Metaphysics was founded in 1973, thousands have learned the principles and practices that produce peace of mind. We have learned that to directly grasp the truth of peace means holding it in your mind and heart, expressing its beauty, its form, its spirit, and to be acapable of teaching others to do the same. We want to embody the thoughts expressed so eloquently in the Universal Peace Covenant1 thus bringing it to life for ourselves and for others.
Today begins this preparation. The words " led by grace" come to mind as I describe what transpired this morning. I had been contemplating for days what direction we might move in. Of all the possibilities, my mind kept coming back to three: creating a musical-drama centered on well-known songs of peace arranged to tell the story of every person’s quest, evolving the Power of Prayer around the World Cantata presented during the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions, or experiencing a Circle of Love gathering which begins with a Prayer for Enlightenment2, includes reciting the Covenant and concludes with a Circle of Love where all present join hands in a guided imagery of universal brotherhood and love.

The first two ideas were too early in their formative stages to share. They had yet to take a form that I could easily communicate. It would have been like a screenwriter working out his ideas with the director and actors before he even knows what they are. The result would fall somewhere between an improvisation and a collaboration, neither of which were compatible with how I knew PeaceMakers needed to evolve. This conclusion meant the more reasonable choice for tomorrow’s PeaceMakers would be the Circle of Love. I went to sleep knowing this much and turned the matter over to my subconscious mind for clarification.
In the morning, PeaceMakers filled my mind. The gathering we call a Circle of Love begins with a Prayer for Enlightenment around the world, affirming the prevailing of peace on earth, and ends with the sharing of love among all in attendance and with the world and beyond which School of Metaphysics people have, for the past three decades, called a Circle of Love. The inner content of the gathering is variable.

I knew I wanted to include the Universal Peace Covenant. We had all made a commitment to read the Covenant once a day, and many of us wanted to commit it to memory, so we might know it by heart. I knew reading it this morning could be helpful especially if we took time to talk about what the words mean to us.
My conscious mind would have let it go at that. My inner, subconscious mind tugged at me. I had a strong sense that something was incomplete, unfinished.

Scanning my bookshelves in the hope that this sense would take on a physically recognizable presence, my eyes rested on a tiny book half an inch thick and about three inches by five inches. I reached for The Words of Peace.3 Its diminutive size belies its expansive contents. Here are wisdom words from many of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates, some of the greatest people who ever breathed on this planet.

Opening the pages near the middle I found the words of a woman I had grown to admire – Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who served in the streets of Calcutta and through her dedication to God and humanity founded over 100 missions around the world. Reading her thoughts, my conscious mind knew why I was experiencing the inner unrest. Here was the lesson for today’s PeaceMakers.
We gathered in the College chapel, sitting on the floor in a circle. Before offering our prayer I shared my vision of daily gatherings once the Peace Dome is open. Each day whoever desires will come together to offer the Prayer for Enlightenment and read the Universal Peace Covenant. It will be like a breath of fresh air fortifying the thoughtform of peace every twenty-four hours. Whether spoken by one or by a thousand, the beauty of the still and open mind, entrained in unity, dedicated in connectedness, will have a profound effect upon all of us.

" Today,"I said, " we begin preparing for this. " We then offered in unison the Prayer for Enlightenment.

May Peace Prevail on Earth!

We pray for light in the people of North America
May enlightenment be in North America
May light be with us all ways.
May peace prevail on Earth.

We pray for light in the people of South America
May enlightenment be in South America
May light be with us all ways.
May peace prevail on Earth.

We pray for light in the people of Europe
May enlightenment be in Europe
May light be with us all ways.
May peace prevail on Earth.

We pray for light in the people of Africa
May enlightenment be in Africa
May light be with us all ways.
May peace prevail on Earth.

We pray for light in the people of Asia
May enlightenment be in Asia
May light be with us all ways.
May peace prevail on Earth.

We pray for light in the people of Australia
May enlightenment be in Australia
May light be with us all ways.
May peace prevail on Earth.

We pray for light in the people of Antarctica
May enlightenment be in Antarctica
May light be with us all ways.
May peace prevail on Earth.

We pray for light in the people of the Earth
May enlightenment be in Earth
May light be with us all ways
so that peace may prevail on Earth.
Amen.
I asked those present what they saw in their mind’s eye when they spoke these words. Mari Hamersley and Erika Scholz spoke of the light spreading throughout the continents, blanketing the entire globe. While they spoke I saw my own thought echoed back to me, as this was often the image I created, and in that moment a new image was given to me. In it I saw the Earth herself radiating, glowing, from the inside out. The finer stuff of my mind was now active in a way I had been wanting.

Paul Blosser and Christine Madar talked about Pran, their native guide during the 1999 People to People sojourn to India, and others they know who live on six continents. Christine said she didn’t know anyone who lives in Antarctica but she always thinks of penguins when the prayer moves to the South Pole. We all laughed, nodding in agreement. I too begin each continental mind visit where people I have physically met now live. For me, this is the focal point from which light emanates. It is the human element in my prayer, for I know this infusion of light and love helps keep those I love safe and secure.

It was Paul Madar’s idea which gave me a new perspective of the prayer. He said he projects himself to the continent he is imaging, and once there radiates love and light throughout the continent. ?What a concept!? I thought. The idea had never occurred to me, and I could appreciate it for its pure and honest maleness; its willingness to give. I knew I would think about this again and again in the coming days, opening my mind to its possibilities.

These experiences served as an appropriate introduction to the excerpts we would consider this morning. I spoke of the ideals in the Universal Peace Covenant. Its boldness in defining what makes peace. Literature worldwide is filled with ideas that try to talk about the concept by describing what it is not. Too often peace is defined as the absence of war, conflict, or disagreement. What a difference it will make when words like tranquility, calm, ease, security, and accord tumble from our minds as readily!

Our venture today, and probably for several future PeaceMakers, would be exploring the thoughts of those we have collectively honored and celebrated for their peace-making effort and skill.

-from PEACEMAKING 9 Lessons for Changing Yourself, Your Relationships, & Your World by Dr. Barbara Condron, ©2003 School of Metaphysics. In reprinting please site origin by this copyright notice.

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