| One perspective is that individuals, by first creating
a congruent state within themself, can [*lead by example*] others
who will tend to follow their lead because it is has the
force of sincerity, unity of purpose, and some commonality with
aspects of the experience of many others. An example of the wrong
way to create peace (under this concept) would be to *violently*
protest for it. ;-)
In creating a "congruent" peaceful state within an individual,
several approaches are known to me. One involves understanding
each aspect of your own intentions, and engaging in something
resembling a negotiation process to create a single focused intention.
Another approach is to follow the psychological chain from
Wishing ---> Wanting ---> Being ---> Planning ---> Doing ---> Having.
Wishing and Wanting.
Wishing for something is simply formuating a vague goal and feeling
that it would be desireable. Wishes almost never manifest into
reality, except by coincidence. Nearly all, if not all of us wish for
peace. Wanting is establishing a focused, directed, congruent desire for
a more specific outcome. This is done by visualization, ritual, and
various other tools. Death and sleep are forms of peace. Clearly,
more specific outcomes need to be envisioned at this point to create it
in reality.
Wanting and Being.
The natural result of formulating a congruent intention is that your
personality begins to display that intention in many subtle and
perhaps not so subtle ways. This is being. It is recognized as
part of the roles we play and the way we play them.
Being and Planning.
Part of being is formulating general and then more detailed plans for
achieving specific aspects of your goal. Another part is the planning
and achieving done by our more intuitive and less conscious aspects,
which may not be linear as we normally think of planning. Short and
long term outcomes involve planning, but of different types or orders.
Planning and Doing.
As plans are formulated, from a congruent, focused intention, they are
carried out partly 'unconsciously' and partly by force of will. Those
who choose to believe in direct manipulation of reality through thought
would, in this approach, be actually changing things toward their goal at
this point. Those who choose to believe that their will must be
chanelled through physical action of their body would at this point
begin to set the motions into place to achieve their result (rallies,
letters, etc.).
Doing and Having.
As the result of being of congruent, focused intention, and leading by
example (or contagion ;-)), and creating and executing plans to
achieve the result, it begins to occur.
If many people wish to implement this process, it seems they would
need to be of the same or at least very similar intentions, using
visions with some degree of commonality. Peace through Superior
Firepower, for example, is a different vision than Peace through
Disarmament, and although both visions call the result the same,
their image, and thus their 'being' are very different.
Todd
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| Todd,
A couple of thoughts that came up for me:
Peace is not necessarily the absence of conflict, but rather the
absence of hostility. So looking at the ways in which we deal with
conflict can be extremely insightful. To resolve conflicts, openness
and a true willingness to listen to the other (or other part(s) of
ourself) is necessary. How well do I listen? Am I truly receptive
to what the other is saying? Or is it feigned interest? What do I do
with what I hear? Do I welcome honesty in communications - both giving
and receiving?
One of the best things each person can do to create world peace is
to heal the war within themselves. (paraphrased from a author whose
name escapes me at the moment.)
Btw, _How Can I Help?_ is a book that has a great chapter devoted to
social activism that ties in real closely to this topic.
Karen
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| re: <<< Note 1417.2 by CARTUN::BERGGREN "Caretaker of Wonder" >>>
-< Living a compassionate life >-
Those were great thoughts, Karen. I think what you describe as
an attitude of compassion is essential to what I was calling
negotiation of our own intentions, if our intentions are truly
oriented toward ending unnecessary violence, individually and
collectively. Personal compassion is absolutely at the heart of the
Peace intention, as far as I can tell, and if it is not, Peace
a "wish".
toddy
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