A POETICS OF PEACE

Autumn comes. Photo by Kathleen Malley-Morrison.

by  Stefan Schindler

Autumn comes; the leaf falls from the tree.

Does the leaf release itself?

Or does the tree release the leaf?

The answer, my friend,

is blowin’ in the wind.

…………………………………………

 

 

Beauty before me; beauty behind me;

beauty above; beauty below.

Beauty all around.  I walk in beauty.

………………………………………………..

A quantum chorus of birdsong bright,

a golden, glowing, holy grail overflowing

with holy, healing, divine white light;

ecstasy of rainbows blanketing space,

empowered by love’s unconditional grace;

communing with creatures great and small,

happy to serve them one and all.

………………………………

 

Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi and King,

all said the same thing; their words fraught

with provocative jewels, hanging, or not,

from the head of the mule.  We, brought up

on Dylan and the Dead, heard the music and said,

Give peace a chance.

…………………………………………

Do you have faith in space?

Can you catch a moonbeam in a seashell?

Actually, the dream was never over,

because John never ceased to Imagine.

……………………………………………..

Let us go, make a start,

to the place where buffalo thunder

runs like a river through your heart;

sun rises, while the moon still sparkles on the dew;

song of the Tao calls to you, from the butterfly’s dream

of Chuang Tzu.

………………………………………………

Note from Kathie MM: Through countless generations, poetry has proved to have the power to stir the emotions, mobilize behavior, push towards peace and social justice.  Please comment on Stefan’s poetic post by sending us your own poems regarding peace and/or social justice.

 

  

The Golden Rule: Eleven World Religions (and New Commentary)

Memorial engraving of the first ‘World Day of Prayer for Peace’ in Assisi (1986), with Pope John Paul II hosting religious leaders from around the world. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: User:Chris Light

By Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D

  “If you seek justice, choose for others what you would choose for yourself.” (Baha’i)

 “One should seek for others the happiness one derives for one self.”  (Buddhism)

 “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” (Christianity)

 “What you do not want done to yourself, do not unto others.”  (Confucianism)

 “Do naught to others which if done to thee would cause pain.”  (Hinduism) 

“No one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” (Islam)

  “We should . . . refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear   undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves.”   (Jainism)

“What is hurtful to yourself, do not do to our fellow man.” (Judaism)

 “As thou deemest thyself, so deem others.” (Sikkhism)

  “To those who are good to me, I am also good; and to those who are not good to me, I am also good.  And thus all get to be good.”  (Taoism)

   “Do as you would be done by.”  (Zoroastrianism)

It is indeed ironic, tragic in fact, that the Golden Rule is considered an essential truth of world religions, and yet is abandoned by religions in favor of self-serving social and political goals keeping people apart, separate, and disconnected. As has been said by wise voices: “There is no other.”

Apparently, the mere presence of alternative beliefs confronts people and religions with an experienced threat to their beliefs, diminishing the value of their beliefs, because there is an alternative.

“How can you say this?” they claim, “when I know fervently in my heart and mind, and, because of everything I have been told, my view is the only right view. ”

“Now I must try to inform you of your errors, even if I must use force and violence.  It is for your sake I do this, so you may know the truths I know and believe. My God is more powerful than your god.”

There is no easy answer to this paradoxical behavior, rooted as it is in complex historical, cultural, political, and economic reasons. Perhaps, a first step is for an individual to say:

“Peace begins with me! I will practice non-violence, and offer healing to all in need. I will constantly ask forgiveness for the acts I committed bringing sorrow and grief to others.”

Humility is required!  There is healing in apology. Individuals, groups, and nations can forgive, and can apologize, and with these acts can find “Truth” in the Golden Rule, and a new sense of identity and purpose in these acts.

As Vaclav Havel noted: “Perhaps it was always there, and our selfishness prevented us from seeing it and knowing it.”

Special appreciation to an old friend, Stephen Blessman, for his knowledge of the Golden Rule in world religions.

October, 2017

A Wondrous Quartet

Women’s International League, May 1, 1922. In the public domain.*

I have often preached on the indispensability of empathy in cooperative human relationships—e.g., here and here and here. But to “make the world a better place,” as so many of us want to do, empathy is not enough. It is also essential to sympathize with individuals and groups treated inhumanely, to feel compassion for the sufferings and misfortunes of others, and to accompany those who are struggling against violence and injustice.

If we ask people with which sex they are most likely to associate these characteristics, my guess is that most of them would say “women.”

Not coincidentally, all four of the indispensables are reflected in the mission statement of the Women’s March on Washington, which led the protest movement against the Trump agenda in January. For example:

“In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore… We practice empathy with the intent to learn about the intersecting identities of each other….[Nonviolence] is a positive force confronting the forces of injustice and utilizes the righteous indignation and spiritual, emotional, and intellectual capabilities of people as the vital force for change and reconciliation…. ”

Wednesday, March 8, is International Women’s Day.  The theme this year is #BeBoldForChange. The organizers of the Women’s March on Washington are staging another series of events for Wednesday—a Day without a Woman action. Please read about the plans for that campaign, and think about how you can express empathy, sympathy, and compassion, and also accompany the protestors in words and spirit even if you will not be actively protesting, as they strive for social justice, human rights, and peace.

To read some suggestions for participation in Wednesday’s events, read this.

*

 

 

All the light we can learn to see, Part 1.

A dear friend asked me, “What are the seeds of peace?”  My answer was prompt, “Empathy and compassion.”

What IS empathy?  It’s 1) the ability to put oneself in the shoes of others, to see the world as they see it; 2) to feel events–particularly painful events—as others feel them; and 3) to manage one’s own emotional responses to pain and grief in others so that instead of being overwhelmed, one can to be helpful.

In a world beset by competition and conflict, empathy can help alleviate tendencies to be violent and inhumane towards others, particularly  others labeled as dangerous and less than human.

What feeds the roots of empathy? One answer is: literature, specifically literature demonstrating the ways that pain, fear, love, joy, and a remarkable range of human reactions unite all of humanity, regardless of the divisive little categories like age, sex, religion, and ethnicity that we shove people into.

One such book is All Quiet on the Western Front  by Erich Maria Remarque, based on Rmarque’s experiences as a German soldier in World War I. I first read the novel my sophomore year in high school. At that naïve age, I found myself stunned to recognize that the characters who were wringing my heart were Germans, German boys and men of the type who attacked our boys and men in two world wars. Germans, yet so human, so vulnerable, so inherently good.

Read or reread the book. How could anyone not empathize with Remarque’s character Paul Bäumer, a boy who is himself engulfed in empathy–and compassion– after witnessing the death of a French soldier whom he has stabbed:

“‘But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony–Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?'” All Quiet on the Western Front, Chapter 9, p. 223.