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ACWR - An Interfaith Peace Organization combining meditation practice, dialogue and a concrete peace and social justice agenda
. . .moreA Spiritual Agenda for World Peace
From a new international, decentralized security concept to massive disarmament to development for all
. . .moreSo many religious initiatives for the promotion of peace come to nothing or degenerate to merely humanitarian or charitable activities, because the original process of inverting the attention within, as taught by a Godman, is forgotten or incorrectly passed on after his death. As people are no longer guided correctly, and meditation becomes a matter of thinking, contemplating and visualizing, they are not able to come into contact with God inside. Instead of turning inside, they turn outwards and act from the level of the senses and intelligence, instead of acting upon divine inspiration. This is why their peacemaking efforts fail.
It is only when we actually experience in meditation who and what we are, i.e. souls in the image of God, and thus brothers and sisters in the fatherhood of God, that we will not be tempted to become violent against others, whether human beings, animals, plants or the elements of nature.
Violence, whether direct or structural, is the outcome of a long chain of misguidance. In order to prevent any kind of violence, people must be addressed and taught meditation and the principles of spirituality before they are misled and persuaded to resort to violence. Once they have their own experience of God inside them, they will not be so easily misguided. So the major principle here is to reach out in time and nourish the small but healthy roots and to make them resistent before thoughts of violence have a chance to grow in people minds.
Active peacemaking should start on the level of the individual man, without regard to his social or cultural labels. The individual human being is the nucleus of social groups, and this grass-roots level is where to start, so that violent thinking will not permeate groups, societies and cultures.Daisaku Ikeda (President of the Japanese movement Soka Gakkai International) presents a model of seven steps or levels of peacemaking:
- individual level (peace within the individual)
- interhuman level (dialogue for conflict-resolution)
- social level (with extra attention to economics)
- cultural level
- national level
- international level
- political level
If the practice of meditation is pursued on the first level, i.e. that of the individual person, then the effects will spread to the higher, more complex levels. However, any measures first introduced at a higher level will not have much effect because, taking the last step before the first, they lack a firm and reliable foundation in the individual. This is why, though the UN, for example, has very good and highly qualified, intelligent people working for it, the UN is to a great degree ignored by small and large: It is a mistake to tackle Politics as a first measure, because it is in effect the LAST level to be tackled. Even the second level of interhuman relationships and communication will not work peacefully if the individuals concerned do not have a clear understanding of the brotherhood of man.
