CHIMES OF FREEDOM

The Freedom Bell which resides in the Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge. his file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Senojor1

by Stefan Schindler

William James, Mark Twain, I. F. Stone.  Emma Goldman, Helen Keller, Molly Ivins.  Jim Hightower, John Pilger, William Blum.  Lewis Lapham, Michael Parenti, Victor Wallis.  Vandana Shiva, Joan Baez, Naomi Klein.  Ami Goodman, Abby Martin, Daniel Berrigan.

David Talbot, James Douglass, Thich Nhat Hanh.  Oscar Romero, the Dalai Lama, Dan Ellsberg.  And, of course, Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn.  These are just a few of the torch-bearers of the spirit of Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King and John Lennon.

Peace is possible.  Progress has been made.  Meanwhile, the struggle continues.

A crisis can be ongoing and deepening for a very long time.  This has been the case with the USA for forty years at least.  1968 might well be seen as the pivot point.  The full and fatal swerve toward economic apartheid and the rollback of FDR’s New Deal began in earnest in 1981 with Reaganomics.  The hammer-blows against social enlightenment have kept the war machine in full throttle and kept too many Americans in thrall to sloganeering and sophistry.

The earth groans, bees disappear, and in 2020 the wasteland grows.

But danger is also opportunity.  Breakdown is often breakthrough.

Behind the news there is a global dance.  A collective invitation to give peace a chance.

What is true for the individual is true for the whole.  Fate is determined by the choices we make.  Let us use our freedom wisely.  What Kant said at the end of the 18th century is true now: “We live in an age of enlightenment; but we do not yet live in an enlightened age.”

Perhaps the essence of life really is learning and service.  Siddhartha Gautama, Meister Eckhart and Thomas Merton thought so.  I believe it too.

Keep the faith, my friend.  We may yet be on the verge of something great.  A turning of the civilizational wheel toward the wisdom of James and Twain and company.  You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

And ye shall inherit the whirlwind (or learn to live in gratitude and grace), Part 3

Bridge Interrupted by Reverend Dr. Doe West

by Stefan Schindler

We are free to become free.  This is the lesson taught by Socrates.  It is also the essence of Buddhism.  The word “Buddha” means “awake.”  Awakening, as Plato would say, is recollecting the sanity we were born with.  Nietzsche quotes Pindar: “Become who you are.”

We are inextricable strands in the holistic web of being and becoming.  Said the poet Byron: “Are not the mountains, waves, and skies, a part of me and of my soul, as I of them?”  John Lennon said: “I am the walrus.”

Whitehead said: “In order to acquire learning, we must first shake ourselves free of it.”  To shake ourselves free from chains of illusion, William Blake –implicitly evoking Plato’s allegory of the cave – urges a cleansing of “the doors of perception.”  This has long been the virtue of Zen; and it is a sign of hope for human survival that the “mindfulness” movement is today finding widespread resonance in what Marshall McLuhan called “the global village.”

To give birth to a government by and for the people, we need a concerted effort, both individual and collective, to shatter the illusion that democracy and capitalism are synonymous.  The two terms desperately need to be separated: analyzed and evaluated on their own merits, and put together again only in a modest, enlightened, socially pragmatic fashion, in conjunction with – and this too is a crucial point – a radical dismemberment of the specious and misleading caricature of Marxist politics that has so long reigned supreme in the American psyche, placed there in service to the captains of capital.

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish teenager.  Imbued with ecological despair and courage of conscience, she is leading a global youth revolt against the status quo.  As the climate crisis intensifies, the glaciers melt, polar bears die, and the earth burns, she calls on politicians “to act as if your house is on fire.”  She was recently honored by Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, as a major world peacemaker and a voice for sanity and virtue. 

John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy, John Lennon – the brightest lights of a generation shot out to assure the triumph of the corporate counter-revolution against The Spirit of The Sixties.  Giving peace a chance would not be an option. Yet, despite the victory of the mega-wealthy and the war-machines during the tragic course of the last half-century, there is a global undercurrent of awakening that daily increases in momentum.  More and more people are realizing that it is better to swim against the current than to be swept over the cliff.

If philosophy is the journey from the love of wisdom to the wisdom of love, so too is our collective journey to peace, justice, and survival.

Note from Kathie MM: Pegean says: I have become who I am. I am fat and fluffy, warm and affectionate, and I know the wisdom of love. Join me in it. There’s room for all of us.

And ye shall inherit the whirlwind (or learn to live in gratitude and grace), Part 2

By Reverend Dr. Doe West

By Stefan Schindler

The vast majority of American citizens have been conditioned to think that democracy and capitalism are synonymous, and that socialism equals fascism.  To which we can apply Mark Twain’s observation: “Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.”

John Lennon said: “I think our society is run by insane people for insane objectives.  I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends.  I think they’re all insane.  But I am liable to be put away as insane for expressing that.  That’s what is insane about it.”

Noam Chomsky notes: “I don’t know what word in the English language … applies to people who are willing to sacrifice the literal existence of organized human life so they can put a few more dollars into highly stuffed pockets.  The word ‘evil’ doesn’t even begin to approach it.”

Plato said in The Phaedo that “all wars are fought for the acquisition of wealth.”  Today, the American landscape is littered with statues of generals on stallions, while memorials to prophetic peacemakers are barely to be found.

War memorials abound, but where are the institutes for the study and practice of peace that could hold the promise of a better future?

Imperialism is the most potent and nefarious force in human history, and it haunts us today.  America has nearly a thousand military bases scattered across the globe, mostly in countries that don’t want them there.  New York calls itself “The Empire State;” and the Empire State Building on Fifth Avenue in New York City remains a popular tourist attraction, its very name unrecognized as a paean to the unrelenting violence, death and destruction of mega-wealth’s imperial ambitions.

Decade after decade, American students say history is the most boring subject in school.  Perhaps this would change if every history textbook began with Mark Twain’s observation that “America’s flag should be a skull-and-crossbones,” and if parents and students demanded to know why he said that, and teachers were sufficiently well-informed to provide an honest answer. 

The only sane and civil alternative to global capitalism gone amok is democratic ecosocialism, wherein citizens are keenly attuned to the lessons of history, respect and revere the biosphere, have ample time to continue their self-education, and are well-schooled in the critical thinking skills necessary to detect and refute sophistic speechifying.

A just society is committed to the well-being of all, and is therefore committed to egalitarian economics, universal healthcare, voluntary simplicity, free lifelong educational opportunity, preservation of natural resources, and a modest and well-tamed military overseen by “guardians” committed to peace.

Note from Kathie MM:

Pegean says, “”Joy is a form of resistance.” (Attributed to Maya Angelou)

And resistance can be joyful.

Shanti Sena and the Modern Blooming of Ahimsa

Gandhi Memorial at the Peace Abbey. Author: Stefan Schindler

by Stefan Schindler

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Kindly join me in appreciating that The Life Experience School and Peace Abbey “family,” near and far, belong to an unofficial organization – Seth would call it an Unfoundation – called Shanti Sena.  Shanti Sena means Peace Army.  It was founded by Mahatma Gandhi in India in the 1920s.

John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and The Beatles – unofficially and unknowingly, but with great determination – joined Shanti Sena in the 1960s.

So did Jane Fonda, Joan Baez, and Yoko Ono.  So did Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama.  And Paul Newman, James Baldwin, Joni Mitchell, and Muhammad Ali.

Today, their life and legacy is carried forth by Greta Thunberg, Victor Wallis, Vandana Shiva, and so many others, recalling the courage of conscience of Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Dorothy Day, Helen Keller, Mark Twain, Thomas Merton, and Oscar Romero.

In this sense, then, we – as honored members of the Engaging Peace community and supporters of positive peace – are all students for a democratic society; indeed, for a global village of ecological sanity and egalitarian harmony.

T. S. Eliot ends his poetic masterpiece, “The Wasteland,” with … “Shantih shantih shantih.”  And thus, I salute you.  For you are bodhisattvas and kalyanamittas.

A bodhisattva is committed to a life of learning and service; and, therefore, to the active practice of “positive peace-making,” rooted in ahimsa (non-violence).  Kalyanamitta means: “virtuous friend” and “spiritual companion.”

Let us recognize that the dream that never dies also grows.  And let us remember that the dream was never over, because John never ceased to IMAGINE.

Therefore, let us keep the faith, and daily water the seeds of peace with our commitment to justice and universal brother-sisterhood.

The Shanti Sena does indeed endure.  And together, with a reverence for Mother Earth and the sacred spark that grew us in the womb, we are – Yes, we are! – creating a Rainbow Bridge to The Peaceable Queendom.

Said the sage: “The reward for service is increased opportunity to serve.”

Om Shanti Om.

Don Stefan

PS: Here is the link to the Peace Abbey website: www.peaceabbey.org.

The Peace Abbey grew out of The Life Experience School.  Together, they house The National Registry for Conscientious Objection; present The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award to individuals who embody the spirit of Shanti Sena; promote vegetarianism and animal rights; still hope to have the Memorial Stone for Unknown Civilians Killed in War planted in Arlington National Cemetery; and maintain The Pacifist Memorial Peace Park (in Sherborn), at the center of which is a nine-foot statue of Gandhi, fanning out from which are brick walls displaying bronze plaques in honor of those peacemakers who have received the Courage of Conscience and Champion of Peace awards.

Now, here is the link to a short, thrilling, video-tribute to The Life Experience School and Peace Abbey, created by film-makers at The Radiance Project. ………………………………………………………………………………….

Stefan Schindler is a philosopher, teacher, and poet.  He is co-author with Lewis Randa, the founder of The Life Experience School and Peace Abbey, of The National Registry for Conscientious Objection.  Stefan is a frequent contributor to Engaging Peace; a Board Member of The Life Experience School and Peace Abbey; author of The Courage of Conscience Awards for John Lennon and Howard Zinn; and author of Space is Grace, Discoursing with the Gods, The Tao of Socrates, and America’s Indochina Holocaust.  His newest book – Buddha’s Political Philosophy – will be published later this year.