Meditate for transformation - Part 1

This is the first post describing a powerful meditation that my peace group has developed. If anybody's interested, I'll tell you more about it later.

Sit in a comfortable chair, close your eyes. If you have a meditation practice, just relax into it. You'll need about 40-50 minutes to do the whole thing, but doing it in parts is fine too. This is a guided meditation, so you might check into making your computer read the words aloud to you, or record yourself reading the meditaion slowly in a soothing voice. You can also either remember the visualizations, or just use them as a jumping off point for your own visualization, if you prefer.

With your eyes closed, imagine yourself in your home, wherever that is, and that you are going out the back door. There is a yard, which, if you already have a yard, is quite a bit more beautiful than it is normally. The plants are lush, the plantings are beautiful, and right in the middle is a very inviting hammock. You have the strongest urge to lie down in it. The day is beautiful and sunny and a little bit of shade is over the hammock, just right for a relaxed doze. You lie down in it, and feel the hammock softly swaying, back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.

Meditation for transformation - Part 2

Now, as you lie there relaxed, you hear the birds singing sweetly. You have never heard such wonderful bird songs. You listen more closely, and, in addition to the birds, you hear the world singing to you. Notice everything. The sounds of the buses, the refrigerator, the neighbor next door, all serve to remind you of the beauty the world brings to you. Listen, and relax. Listen, and relax. Your heart swells with gratitude for being alive, for being able to listen to such variety, to the reality of it all. You feel that gratitude descend slowly down your body, until it touches the earth, until it enters the earth, you feel it go all the way to the center of the earth, thousands of miles, and you connect with the earth itself, your mother, the only one you really have, still carrying you in her womb. You enjoy the connection, and then when you are ready, you bring that feeling up once again, slowly, slowly, to your heart, where you once again listen, and relax. And feel yourself, swaying, back and forth. Back and forth.

Meditate for Transformation - Part 3

Now, slowly you become aware of a light, right at the top of your head. It's very small at first, but it grows in intensity, it slowly rotates, then spins, and as it rotates, it expands, it glows, it deeply shines. Soon it is larger than your head, and at that point, a shaft of light descends to your throat area, and expands into a ball of blue light there. 

Then a shaft of light descends to your heart, and connects warmly with the earth energy that you visited. The warmth deepens to a fiery, glowing red. You feel so connected. You feel in harmony and at peace. 

Now, you become aware of a light, in front of your forehead somewhere, but off in the distance a bit. You allow the light to come nearer. You realize that this is the light of others who are also working for peace.

 

You stretch out your hands, and light starts to connect you all. Your hands reach out and touch other hands, and they touch you, and your heart reaches out and touches other hearts, and they touch yours. You realize you are not alone, that you are part of a grand network of peaceworkers. Your world changes, as you realize you are not the center of the world, but an essential, unique, irreplaceable part of a beautiful web of perfection and peace. 

Bask in the connection for a time, feel the harmony of celestial peace and earthly security, and then, finally, take a deep breath, feel the hammock once again securely rocking you, back and forth, back and forth. When you are ready, slowly, slowly open your eyes, and stretch.

Yes we can

Well, now that we've seen that Obama is the same-old, same-old, we know it's up to us. Thomas Friedman said at the Aspen Ideas Festival last week -- the economic crisis IS the environmental crisis. It's all intertwined, and if things get worse, we'll fight about food, water, land, you name it. Solving our problems in this century is critical to peace. And peace is critical to security. We forget that sometimes. What people really want is to feel secure. They don't really want peace (except when they yearn for it in a sentimental way). But they always want to feel secure. We need to connect those dots for them. What Friedman was specifically referring to was the way we interact with economics and the environment: we consider growth and expenditure of finite resources as good, without considering all the costs. We privatize profits and socialize costs (such as environmental and cultural consequences). As much as we're all getting tired of the word, this system is not sustainable. It will end, because by definition it cannot go on perpetually. It is only by moving into new ways of doing business and of interacting with Mother Earth that we will be able to have a civilization that can live on, in peace and security. But I have hope! A young relative of mine is working for a new company that's figured out how to "consumerize" solar panels. Another is working on low-impact ways to raise food and build housing. Let's join them; let's insulate our houses, figure out how to have one car or less (HourCar has finally come to the metro area!), use bikes more, demand better transit, subscribe to wind power, use whatever is available to us. I'm convinced that with just these superficial efforts, the US will save up to 40% in energy, giving us a breather. The next step of course is to spread the word to other countries.

Sad spring

It's been a sad spring with wave after wave of bad news. Lots of friends leaving this plane, the Gulf Deepwater oil spill, the Obama administration and the Supreme Court upholding Bush-era civil rights infringements.  I have an even firmer conviction that action must be carried out at an individual level. Leaders on a broad level are so inundated with bad news, bad action, and fear, that they are unable to act. I can personally testify to the wonderful effect that individual action has. Have you ever arrived at Grandma's and find her house needs a cleaning, a coat of paint, and the garden weeded? If it's just you, good luck, but if you have a large family, or a big group of friends or neighbors you know -- hey! It might just take one afternoon to spruce things up. Likewise, a lot of us at the individual level are feeling very overwhelmed and fearful. Take heart. It is very important right now to calm oneself (use Bach remedies or Traditional Chinese medicine if you need to), to look inside, and ask oneself, what is the very best, most highest action I can take for myself and the world? If we all take a moment to do this, and then act, we are tapping into our higher, group self which knows what to do. Make no mistake, things are very dire, but we still have a chance to complete ourselves at the higher vibration, and do some good for the world.

Welcome back!

If you were notified about this blog (I'm sure you forgot about it in the meantime!) then you are already registered as a user, so join in! Personally, I'm back after wearing myself out working to elect Obama. Not that I thought he was great, but once he clinched the nomination it was clear that it was either bumbling mediocrity or outright fascism. The bonus was electing the first African-American as President. Not the be-all and end-all but a great perk to be part of history, especially having been born in the cradle of the modern civil rights era.

The purpose of this blog is to comment on peace issues and innovative ideas for peace -- and not just me! All comments from registered users are welcome. I get a lot of notices from listserves, so they may be inspired by those occasionally, but personally I will try to keep it to lesser-known items. 

Here's an interesting sample: today Floyd Rudmin says:

I have for more than 10 years, been wondering how to initiate a sub-discipline on the psychology of history, something I have called "cognitive history".  That is, our historical beliefs are often mythic, filled with errors of omission, what you call "forbidden memories" and errors of commission, as well as other errors.  I came into this after discovering US 1930s war plans for the invasion and conquest of Canada.  The plans themselves were declassified in 1974, and anyone can buy them from the US National Archives.  When I would mention these, or show them to people, they would get very emotional, even angry, saying that this is impossible. The fact of having the actual copies of the plans in hand did not change the unreality of the historical facts.

I did a study of several thousand historians, trying to see what predicted disbelief in the war plans, and the strongest predictors were a) that Canadian-US alliance in WWI and in WWII precluded the possibility that they could have planned hostilities in the inter-war period.  I related this to the Fundamental Error of Attribution applied to nations as personalities.  That is, the USA has a consistent personality, and it would have been too inconsistent to have inter-war plans for hostility. 

I have one online paper about this, written several years ago for CounterPunch:

http://www.humiliationstudies.org/documents/RudminAmericanMilitarism.pdf

I have come to conclude that history is more like religion, in that beliefs are grounded on socially constructed and propagated beliefs and only very lightly on facts. But these beliefs become very active in individual psychology, influencing emotions, behaviors, and other beliefs.  

What is important about the psychology of historical beliefs is the very high degree to which mythic history motivates war.  It is much more wide spread than just the Israeli mythic history.

One of the bizarre aspects of US military celebrations is the relentless replay of WWII, especially D-Day as "the turning point in the war".  Factually, the turning point was the Battle of Stalingrad in winter 1943. After that, Germany cannot win WWII.  After the Battle of Kursk in summer 1943, the USSR cannot lose. The British and Americans had been postponing D-Day since 1942, and when they finally did invade in June 1944, it was largely to prevent the USSR from occupying all of Western Europe. Anyway, it is very important for Americans that they remember some aspects of WWII. The psychological question is, "Why?"  But the Korean War, had its 50 year anniversay from 2000-2003, and there was almost perfectly no national acts of remembrance for that war.  No sequence of movies. No new memorials.  No plane loads of old veterans flying to Korea. Again, "Why?"

Lack of Escalation in Congress

Well, so far Bush (or Shrub, as my mom calls him) has succeeded again in getting the debate in his court. At the exact time we need to be debating withdrawal of troops, he's moved us into debating the increase. Clever. So while we must, let's look at the Democrats (again, do we have to?). Americans elected them with a hope for change -- let's see, Harry Reid has introduced a resolution against the escalation/surge (voted on yesterday), big whup. A resolution is non-binding, although of course it helps to see the way the wind blows. Clinton voted against it. There goes her presidential hopes. Coleman voted against it, despite saying he's against the escalation (in its present form). Klobuchar voted for it, but if you read her editorial yesterday critically, you can see she probably won't vote for a measure with any teeth. See http://www.startribune.com/562/story/947961.html
She sure talks a good line, but so far, in the last eighteen months has been unwilling to step up to the plate and actually commit to voting against cutting off funding for the war. She keeps saying she doesn't want to leave the troops stranded. But that's even more disturbing, because it shows she hasn't even done a micron of homework on how defense/war funding works. There is 20-70 billion (depending on how you count it) in the pipeline for troop supply/procurement, already approved, from previous fiscal years (such funding can carry over from fiscal year to year). The troops are fine, as long as we withdraw now. The big question is, will the Bush administration complete the takeover of the Iraq oil contracts before Americans insist on withdrawal? Dresser and Halliburton's profits depend upon it!

Jan 11 protest

Here's something nice from my friend CC, her comments regarding the protests on Jan 11, 2007 following Bush's speech announcing war escalation: "I was interviewed by KSTP this a.m. at the anti-war escalation protest at Hwy 280 & Univ. Ave. It was fun and a good protest. The first one I'd been to since the Gulf War. About 200 people. The reporter started the interview by saying 'Aren't you a little old for this?' I said I was there because it's important and that I usually don't participate in protests. Someone mentioned that at 8:30 a petition was being taken to Norm Coleman. The reporter said 'But he's supporting no increase in troops" and I said "Maybe he'll become a Democrat again.' Later a couple of others went into their mini-tirade about Coleman being a chameleon and voting according to the polls. A small group of youth did a burial march carrying one of them prone on their shoulders, draped with an American flag. A couple of people played drums. The reporter asked me what I would do (which took me off guard) and I replied, 'I'd arm them all with musical instruments and we'd have a dance.' When you think about it, that's a better idea."

Give the dog a bone

Maybe I'm paranoid, but all the fuss this week about the additional 21,000 troops reminds me of the meat you throw into a pack of dogs to get you to leave you alone. Not that we shouldn't fuss about it! The logic of it is truly staggering -- we've been failing, so let's fail harder! But really, at this point in time we on the left were expecting to be debating the funding for the war, and instead, what the administration has lobbed out has made whether or not to INCREASE troops the issue! Clever.

Iraq Study Group

Finally, someone in the administration is talking sense, even if it is an independent groups of unelected politicos. Negotiate with your "enemy"! What a concept! Did peace ever come about through any other method than people saying, "We're tired of fighting... let's talk."

Pelosi/Murtha vote

I've been listening to the pundits for the last ten days, and they're totally missing the significance of the Pelosi/Murtha vote. The pundits keep using the assumption that Pelosi can't count votes, or that she's a woman (!) to rationalize the "failure" of Pelosi's choice. That is highly unlikely; Pelosi is a professional, and certainly counted the votes. The message to the peace community was clear though. She nominated Murtha in order to throw a bone to the peace community, whose intense organizing put the Dems over the top. Without us (without any one of the populist organizing groups in fact) the Dems would still be on the outside looking in. But by nominating someone who wants the U.S. out of Iraq, but not working the floor to ensure it happened, she (she of the traditional Dems) can say to us, "I really tried! Stick with us!" Meanwhile deadly weapons continue to be manufactured, 75% of your federal taxes continue to go into military coffers, earmarks continue to be hung, and Washington can party on as before. Don't be taken in by it. We still have lots of work to do, and we've come this far, so we know we can do it. We can eat the elephant, and the donkey too.

More stories

>>Children, cute little furry white polar bears drowning because Global Warming, whales getting killed by senseless and thoughtless sonar blasts, wars due to oil.
What are others?...

I've been doing some reading about the abolition movement as I mentioned, and their techniques were similar to ours, but I think more developed. For instance one thing they did was really highlight how slavery is/was a blemish on the American soul, a country which was formed for the sake of human freedom, equality and justice. They took people's patriotism and helped them see that America was not yet in consonance with its own ideals. It took decades, but a critical mass of people was finally made aware, through that and other mechanisms. So Americans were moved by their own story.I totally agree that a lot of people need stories of extinction, children poisoned, etc. But the story of our own moral development is very compelling.

To answer your question about what other stories do we have to motivate people to change, I could offer that, since I visited Guatemala, I found that fair trade is not always fair enough. For instance, coffee growers really need to make $3 a day to feed, house and educate their family (probably doesn't cover health insurance!) but they usually net out at about $1 a day. Fair trade coffee pays the farmer about twice the world market rate, but to live above subsistence level, farmers really need to make another 70% above that amount. So when you hear stories on the radio about countries where the income is $300, or $600 just know that these people are starving. They do not make enough to live on, even in their mostly agrarian culture. Probably no one in the world except those in very remote areas can make less than $1000 per family and survive without lots of malnutrition and illness, and certainly can't educate their kids. We can start connecting the dots between where we shop and the"globalization" violence offshore.

Another thought is Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer's statement last night that we CERTAINLY only have ten years to profoundly change how we live. Raising the temperature of the earth by 5 degrees within this century doesn't sound like that much, but he said it would put us back to a climate of 3 million years ago, where the seas were 80 feet higher. 1 billion people live on these lower altitudes and will be displaced. Talk about the potential for conflict. Maybe the Armageddonists will get their world war after all. But doesn't that light a fire under you? I have really been looking for ways to shrink my carbon footprint.

Regarding the potential for violence if we don't change our climate habits fast enough, we have to find a way. A lot of us know what non-violence is in action, such as discussion, seeing the humanity in your enemy, etc. How would YOU describe the implementation of non-violence? And have you taken any trainings?

Growth Through Conflict

I loved Peace Through Peace name's so much that I had to have something similar.
My new blogger name has to do with the idea that conflict is around us . It is everywhere and that it is not necessarily a bad thing.
Great growth, all around, can happen because of disagreements/conflicts/difficulties. Growth happens when people see something bigger than themselves and therefore want to work things out. What works for me are Children, cute little furry white polar bears drowning because Global Warming, whales getting killed by senseless and thoughtless sonar blasts, wars due to oil.
What are others?...

Hope is a good thing

Thanks Grace, for that glimmer of hope. Hope is a good thing, although not always the most excellent, as the Democrats found out a couple of years ago. You all are probably tired of me saying it, :) but I have always derived a lot of hope from the work of the abolitionists, mostly Quakers. They worked for almost 200 years to abolish slavery, at least in Europe and America. They kept working faithfully, not because they knew they were going to prevail, but because they knew they were right. I found a book about their techniques and I've been reading it, and hey -- we in the peace movement have been using some of the same methods. Talk about hope!

Candles: Symbol of Peace

Even in the deepest darkness of war news, we need to have hope and belief. We need a symbol for peace. For me, that symbol is a lit candle. Perhaps we could all start marking our blogs with a lit candle, representing our desire for the US to end this war and all engagement of war. Given the problems with fire hazards, I found an electric candle that I am going to leave lit in the window. In the middle ages, when our culture was in the deepest darkness, a candle represented a chance to read, write, talk or tell stories. It was supposed to help people find their way home. Let the lit candle be our hope to find our way home to peace.

Peace be with you!

Peace is a reality

A lot of people think peace would be nice. But they don't really think it's possible. Check out the Peace Platform at http://www.peaceintheprecincts.org and you'll see it's pretty ridiculously easy. Economic justice, universal nuclear disarmament, international cooperation, human rights and the rule of law, and sane defense spending. Did you know that 75% of that $$ that's withheld from your paycheck goes into military spending?