Gandhi – Engaging Peace

CRAZY WISDOM

Posted on December 3, 2018December 2, 2018 by kathiemm

By Stefan Schindler

Do you occasionally feel that you’re about to go crazy? Or think that perhaps you already have? Do you often feel like Don Quixote, vainly tilting at windmills? Yes, probably. But then you remember the meaning of the term Greater Fool. A Greater Fool is one who exhibits greatness in commitment to peace, no matter how foolish that commitment seems in a world intent on going mad.

You remember that you are not alone. You have comrades. Millions of brothers and sisters equally committed to kindness and compassion. They too are Greater Fools, like Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, Romero, Tolstoy, Emerson, Tagore. Like Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Dorothy Day, Helen Keller, Vandana Shiva, Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein. Like Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali. Like Mark Twain, William James, Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn. Like Meister Eckhart, Thomas Merton, George Fox, Matthew Fox, Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama. Like Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Jane Fonda, Joan Baez, Susan Sarandon, the Trung sisters of Vietnam. Like Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. John and Robert Kennedy, too. Greater Fools, one and all.

And, yes, The Beatles. “All you need is love,” they sang, and you hum it every day. War without end seems to be the world’s way, and yet you never cease to chant, “Give peace a chance.” The Statue of Liberty weeps. Mother Earth is crucified. Storm clouds darken the horizon. And yet you sing: “Here comes the sun.” Yes, I am you, you are me, and we are all the walrus. We have each other. We keep the faith. We persevere.

Chogyam Trungpa, combining Tibetan Buddhism and Zen, called it Crazy Wisdom. So, yes, it’s OK to be a little crazy, as long as your craziness is that of the Greater Fool. Humanity may elect lunatics for leaders, and go about their business sleepwalking through history. Yet you, at least, are awake. Indeed, you are part of The Great Awakening. You belong to The Global Peace Abbey. It welcomes all and has no walls. We are warriors for peace, on the cutting edge of evolution. There is no greater satisfaction, no greater joy, no greater service.

So rejoice, my friend. The angels sing your praises, and lend you unconditional support. The reward for service is increased opportunity to serve.

You don’t have to be Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted on October 22, 2018October 22, 2018 by kathiemm

by Kathie MM

In my years of preparing and teaching seminars in Family Violence and the Psychology of War and Peace at Boston University, I learned a lot about moral disengagement (the kinds of thinking that allow people to tolerate and promote violent and inhumane behavior) and moral engagement (involvement in behavior that promotes humanity, peace, and justice, even when doing so is unpopular and costly). Most of you know the names of some of the best-known models of moral engagement—e.g., Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Theresa, Howard Zinn.

Rejoice! There are thousands of less well-known people who live lives of moral engagement. I bet you’ve encountered a few in your own life. One such individual I know is Lewis Randa , who will be leading a new Stonewalk on October 24, 2018. Under his leadership, volunteers will unearth a memorial stone for Victims of Violence at its present location at the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, MA, and pull it, using human power alone, on a caisson to the September 11th Labyrinth at Boston College.

Ideally, a democracy should encourage morally engaged leaders like Lewis to flourish, to inspire, and to promote positive change. To improve our own struggling democracy, more people need to engage morally in the task of finding and supporting reforms and reformers at the most basic political levels in their communities, while doing their best to evaluate the characters and commitments of politicians who have reached, by hook or by crook, higher office.

Moral engagement may not be common at the top, but it is not absent either. The good news is that to help make your community, your country, and the environment better, you don’t have to be a martyr, you don’t have to help pull the caisson from Sherborn to Boston (although that would certainly show engagement!), and you don’t have to be MLK. However, there are things you can do. How about getting together with other reform-minded people and searching for ways to encourage morally engaged leaders to run for office–and win? Meanwhile, you can help get out the vote November 6.

And the Beat Goes On: 100 Living Peace and Justice Leaders and Models, List 4, Part 3.

Posted on August 18, 2018 by kathiemm

by Kathie Malley-Morrison & Anthony J. Marsella

This fourth list of Living Peace and Justice Leaders continues our efforts to honor the life and work of Reverend Martin Luther-King, Jr.

These are increasingly dangerous times. Peace and social justice activists like those cited in our four lists help us find ways to resist rising fascism, racism, militarization, corruption, greed, disregard for life, and utter contempt for a universal moral code like the Golden Rule.

These leaders and mentors, and thousands of others like them, need followers but, even more than that, they need comrades–not comrades-in-arms but comrades advancing arm-in-arm to work for causes that benefit all of humanity and indeed life on earth. Learn more about these leaders. Support their causes. Do not bow down to tyranny. Resist.

Nyarwaya: Eddy Kalisa Nyarwaya Jr. Executive Secretary of the Rwanda Institute for Conflict Transformation and Peace Building; President of the Alternatives to Violence Program
Orlov: Dmitry Orlov, predicts cultural, financial, commercial, and political collapse in US and elsewhere.
Pauli: Richard Pauli, climate activist
Pepper: William F. Pepper, attorney, investigator of assassinations, represented MLK’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit
Pitt: William Rivers Pitt,Teacher, writer, political activist
Prasad: Surya Nath Prasad, writer, Transcend Media Services, supporter of universal peace education
Prysner: Michael Prysner: S. army veteran, political activist
Priest: Dana Priest,investigative reporter, Washington Post, Top Secret America book
Pulley: Aislinn Pulley, Chicago Black Lives Matter, African American leader
Quam: Lois Quam, activist for health care and the environment.
Reimer: Kevin Reimer, peace psychology professor
Richards: Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood
Richtman: Max Richtman, President/CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare
Schindler: Stefan Schindler, Peace scholar, poetry for peace activist
Seed: John Seed, Saving the Rain Forests
Stevenson: Bryan Stevenson, Slavery Museum
Stone: Oliver Stone, film maker
Sulik: Gayle Sulik, Breast Cancer Founder
Sundarajan: Louise Sundarajan, Indigenous Psychologies
Tatour: Dareen Tatour, Palestinian citizen of Israel charged with inciting violence with her poetry.
Thapa: Lily Thapa, Single Women for Human Rights in Nepal
Theoharis: Liz Theoharis Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Todhunter: Colin Todhunter, writer, critic of international agribusinesses.
Toon: Brian Toon climate research
Torres-Rivera: Edil Torres Rivera, LatinoX Counseling for Social Justice activist
Townsend: David Townsend, J.D., Attorney, Mediator, Activist
Turbeville: Brandon Turbeville Writer for Activist Post, host of Truth on the Tracks, a weekly news roundup serving as a hub for activists, information, and solutions.
Tverberg: Gail Tverberg, Energy and Peak Oil Analyst
Vitchek: Andre Vitchek, revolutionary, internationalist, and globetrotter fighting Western imperialism
Vilkomerson: Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace
Wagner: Richard Wagner, peace psychology pioneer.
Wallace: Timmon Milne Wallis, Director of Peaceworkers UK.
Ward: Eric K. Ward, long-time civil rights strategist
Wedler: Carey Wedler, Editor, Anti-Media
West: Doe West, Native American scholar, pastor, social justice activist, disability rights advocate.
White: James A. White Jr., Prisoner who started numerous educational programs for prisoners
Wolff: Richard D. Wolff, Author, Marxist economist
Yumbo: Elisvan Greffa Yumbo, Peruvian activist fighting for protection of Amazon waters from oil industry.
Young: Andrew Young civil rights activist, U.S. Representative, Pastor, diplomat, mayor, educator.
Zimoz: Sergey Zimov, climate change activist working to preserve life in the Artic

And remember to vote in November.

Blessed are the peacemakers

Posted on July 31, 2018August 1, 2018 by kathiemm

Lewis Randa, Rededication ceremony, Peace Abbey, July 29, 2018

By Kathie MM

They will be called children of God, by whatever name God is known.

Blessed are the peacemakers for confronting violence with nonviolence, for speaking truth to power, for persisting with limited resources against the forces of greed and destruction, for joining hands in sister and brotherhood when so many others spew hatred and harm, for being brave beacons of peace while cutthroat cowards promote war for profit, for honoring and preserving life on earth while all around them lives are being destroyed with arrogant disregard.

This past Sunday, the Peace Abbey, in Sherborn, Massachusetts—one of the thousands if not millions of local peace and social justice organizations around the world–had a rededication ceremony at the Peace Memorial. In particular, they honored Muhammad Ali, Howard Zinn, Maya Angelou, Daniel Berrigan, Betsy Sawyer, Jeanette Rankin, Rachel Corrie, Corbett Bishop and Kenneth and Elise Boulding—courageous peacemakers, bless them all.

Please enjoy some photos from the event and the Abbey, and excerpts from the dedication poem by Stefan Schindler, a frequent contributor to engaging peace. If you would like a copy of the whole poem, please submit your request as a comment on this post.

A PRAYER POEM

by Stefan Schindler

I know that freedom is a slippery slope.

I know that children give us hope.

I know that rainbows bless the sky.

I know that Gandhi is the reason why

the bells of freedom ring

in the echoes of the voice of Martin Luther King.

And, yes, the saints and sages of the ages … will long sing praises

to the extraordinary story … of Rachel Corrie.

Hence we now recall that noble soul … whose goal was peace;

she gave her life so that war should cease.

Ah, Rachel, you died too young; just barely beyond

the age of 21; your life’s song … just barely sung.

Long indeed may your story be told; your bravery so bold.

You showed courage of conscience beyond measure.

Your life, and example, we shall always treasure.

Thus we promise to pause, every now and then,

to think of you … alongside Daniel … in the lions den.

With holy courage and conscience you took a stance,

and gave your life … to give peace a chance….

Green fields and forests the fruit of our toil;

nourished we are by earth’s rich soil.

With kindred spirit of animals and friends,

we trek the valleys and round the bends

of the river of time that never ends.

Yes, we too are pilgrims on Abbey Road.

Say, brother, let me carry that load.

United by Buddha’s Dharma-Gate tether, we frolic

in strawberry fields forever; with one who knows a love supreme,

the voice resounding: “I have a dream.”

Final note from KMM: if you want peace, value peace, hope and pray for peace for your children and granschildren, then work for peace and give to peace. Please support local peace organizations like Engaging Peace and the Peace Abbey. Volunteers and activists earn their way to Heaven, but donations help their work on earth.