Peace

[Sunlight81]

This woman was a devout Christian, feel free to substitute "Nature" for "God."

From 1953 to 1981 a silver haired woman calling herself only "Peace Pilgrim" walked more than 25,000 miles on a personal pilgrimage for peace. She vowed to "remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food." In the course of her 28 year pilgrimage she touched the hearts, minds, and lives of thousands of individuals all across North America. Her message was both simple and profound. It continues to inspire people all over the world:

"This is the way of peace: overcome evil with good,
and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love."

I once said to a woman who believed in war and Christian values: "On the one hand you talk about Christian values, on the other hand you say, 'Isn't force the only deterrent they respect?' This has been our trouble down through the ages - we have given only lip service to Christian values, and lived by the jungle law of tooth and claw. We have quoted, `Be not overcome of evil, overcome evil with good' and then attempted to overcome evil with more evil, thereby multiplying the evil. We worship God, but have no faith in the working of God's laws of love. The world awaits the living of the law of love, which will reach the divine within all human beings and transform them."

The pastor of a large Canadian church, who had recently returned from a visit to the Orient, told me that the Buddhists are sending two thousand missionaries to convert the Christians to the way of non-violence!

Believing that war is contrary to the will of God and to common sense, and feeling that the way of peace is the way of love, I shall work for peace by using the way of love myself, by helping any group I am a part of to use it, by helping the nation of which I am a citizen to use it, by helping the United Nations to use it, and by praying that the way of love be used all over the world.

We can work on inner peace and world peace at the same time. On one hand, people have found inner peace by losing themselves in a cause larger than themselves, like the cause of world peace, because finding inner peace means coming from the self-centered life into the life centered in the good of the whole. On the other hand, one of the ways of working for world peace is to work for more inner peace, because world peace will never be stable until enough of us find inner peace to stabilize it.

The Price of Peace.

We seem always ready to pay the price for war. Almost gladly we give our time and our treasure - our limbs and even our lives -for war. But we expect to get peace for nothing. We expect to be able to flagrantly disobey God's laws and get peace as a result. Well, we won't get peace for nothing - and we won't get peace by disobeying the laws of God. We'll get peace only when we are willing to pay the price of peace. And to a world drunk with power, corrupted by greed, deluded by false prophets, the price of peace may seem high indeed. For the price of peace is obedience to the higher laws: evil can only be overcome by good and hatred by love; only a good means can attain a good end.

The price of peace is to abandon fear and replace it with faith - faith that if we obey God's laws we will receive God's blessings. The price of peace is to abandon hate and allow love to reign supreme in our hearts - love for all our fellow human beings over the world. The price of peace is to abandon arrogance and replace it with repentance and humility, remembering that the way of peace is the way of love. The price of peace is to abandon greed and replace it with giving, so that none will be spiritually injured by having more than they need while others in the world still have less than they need.

People of the world, the time for decision is short. It is measured in a few years. The choice is ours as to whether or not we will pay the price of peace. If we are not willing to pay it, all that we hold dear will be consumed in the flame of war. The darkness in our world today is due to the disintegration of things which are contrary to God's laws. Let us never say hopelessly this is the darkness before a storm; rather let us say with faith this is the darkness before the dawn of the golden age of peace, which we cannot now even imagine. For this, let us hope and work and pray.


I would say to the military: yes, we need to be defended; yes, we need you. The Air Force can clean up the air, the Marines can take care of the despoiled forests, the Navy can clean the oceans, the Coast Guard can take care of the rivers, and the Army can be used to build adequate drainage projects to prevent disastrous floods, and other such benefits for mankind.

Happy 4th of July

[Ann]

Happy 4th, Sunlight, and peace be with you.