Honoring a truly great man, deserving of peace prizes

by Stefan Schindler

Nobel Peace Prize: The medal

There are many things we could say about this leader and the respect he has earned–for his courage, his values, his integrity. But he says it best himself.

“I ain’t draft dodging. I ain’t burning no flag. I ain’t running to Canada. I’m staying right here. You want to send me to jail? Fine, you go right ahead. I’ve been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for 4 or 5 more, but I ain’t going no 10,000 miles to help murder and kill other poor people. If I want to die, I’ll die right here, right now, fightin’ you, if I want to die. You my enemy, not no Chinese, no Vietcong, no Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won’t even stand up for me right here in America, for my rights and my religious beliefs. You won’t even stand up for my right here at home. “ — Muhammad Ali (nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the US Gandhi Foundation, 2007)

That quote says it all. Which is why we  honored Ali with The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award (“we” being The Life Experience School and Peace Abbey family and friends), and why we were equally honored to have his presence and his words at the unveiling of The Memorial Stone for Unknown Civilians Killed in War — Ali reminding all of us gathered there that nine out of ten casualties in modern war are civilians, and more than half of these are children.

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Muhammad Ali receiving Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award

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 GraceDiscoursing with the GodsThe Tao of Socrates, and America’s Indochina Holocaust, and Buddha’s Political Philosophy.

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.

The Things We Carry Still. Part I

by Stefan Schindler

To get to the truth of a war story, find the square root of an absolute, then multiply by maybe.  That’s Tim Obrien’s formula for guessing the veracity of any tale told by Rat Kiley.  Kiley was a platoon buddy during the Vietnam War.  O’Brien declares: “It wasn’t a question of deceit.  Just the opposite: he wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you would feel exactly what he felt.”  Admirable; and understandable.  “This isn’t civilization.  This is Nam,” says O’Brien.  “The thing about remembering is that you don’t forget.”

These are quotes from O’Brien’s celebrated memoir, The Things They Carried.  Here’s another: “The land was haunted.  We were fighting forces that did not obey the laws of twentieth-century science.”  And another: “I’d pulled enough night guard to know how the fear factor gets multiplied as you sit there hour after hour, nobody to talk to, nothing to do but stare into the big black hole at the center of your own sorry soul.”

O’Brien has a way with words.  Like the best of writers, he makes writing seem easy, even though it’s not.  I recall a poet saying: “It’s easy to write.  Just stare at a blank sheet of paper until droplets of blood form on your forehead.”

As with T. S. Eliot’s mixture of memory and desire in “The Wasteland,” O’Brien’s stories heat to a sizzle, then reach from the page to scorch your eyes.  Sometimes I think he channels Dylan.  For example: “You’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead.”

It’s been said that in war, the first casualty is truth.  But there is a truth that can be said.  It is this: War is the ultimate obscenity.  It ranks right up there with slavery and rape.

What too often goes unnoticed, though, is that soldiers are almost always slaves to the stories they’ve been told by the spin-meisters of profit and power.  Such soldiers rape – and slash, burn, maim and kill – because their capacity for reason and conscience has been sucked into a vortex of patriotic idolatry.  Unaware they’ll be brutalized by their own brutality, they are sent to the killing fields by what Eliot calls the “hollow men” who rule from the heights of hubris.

Stefan Schindler is the co-founder of The National Registry for Conscientious Objection; a Board Member of The Life Experience School and Peace Abbey; and author of America’s Indochina Holocaust: The History and Global Matrix of The Vietnam War.  His forthcoming book is entitled Buddha’s Political Philosophy.