today marks the 53rd anniversary of  Kent State, a day when students all over were protesting the war, a day that turned tragic with four dead in Ohio, a day that would lead to a general strike four days later when four million of us gathered to wage peace…

 in this sacred moment of eternity, let us weave these threads together, the threads of coming home to the heart and re-membering all those who serve peace by sharing the sage wisdom of a woman named Mildred Norman Ryder who inspired this poetic peace pilgrimage and me along with hundreds of others… on a New Year’s Day many years ago, she left behind her home, her family and her name, to begin what would turn into a 28-year walk for a meaningful way of life. Peace Pilgrim’s fearlessness, love and simplicity continues to inspire people worldwide. Hear her words on the four relinquishments, or what we might call today surrenders or softenings, that powered her way of life and that are so divinely timed now during this most powerful eclipse season calling for transformation, for letting go…

“IF YOU REALIZED HOW POWERFUL YOUR THOUGHTS ARE, YOU WOULD NEVER THINK A NEGATIVE THOUGHT.”
~ PEACE PILGRIM ~

“Once you’ve made the first relinquishment, you have found inner peace because it’s the relinquishment of self-will. You can work on this by refraining from doing any not-good thing you may be motivated toward, but you never suppress it! If you are motivated to do or say a mean thing, you can always think of a good thing. You deliberately turn around and use that same energy to do or say a good thing instead. It works!

The second relinquishment is the relinquishment of the feeling of separateness. We begin feeling very separate and judging everything as it relates to us, as though we were the center of the universe. Even after we know better intellectually, we still judge things that way. In reality, of course, we are all cells in the body of humanity. We are not separate from our fellow humans. The whole thing is a totality. It’s only from that higher viewpoint that you can know what it is to love your neighbor as yourself. From that higher viewpoint there becomes just one realistic way to work, and that is for the good of the whole. As long as you work for your selfish little self, you’re just one cell against all those other cells, and you’re way out of harmony. But as soon as you begin working for the good of the whole, you find yourself in harmony with all of your fellow human beings. You see, it’s the easy, harmonious way to live.

Then there is the third relinquishment, and that is the relinquishment of all attachments. Material things must be put into their proper place. They are there for use. It’s all right to use them; that’s what they’re there for. But when they’ve outlived their usefulness, be ready to relinquish them and perhaps pass them on to someone who does need them. Anything that you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions. We are not free.

Now the last: the relinquishment of all negative feelings. I want to mention just one negative feeling which the nicest people still experience, and that negative feeling is worry. Worry is not concern which would motivate you to do everything possible in a situation. Worry is a useless mulling over of things we cannot change. Let me mention just one technique. Seldom do you worry about the present moment; it’s usually all right. If you worry, you agonize over the past which you should have forgotten long ago, or you’re apprehensive over the future which hasn’t even come yet. We tend to skim right over the present time. Since this is the only moment that one can live, if you don’t live it you never really get around to living at all. If you do live this present moment, you tend not to worry. For me, every moment is a new opportunity to be of service.”

may we all empty ourselves to create a vast spaciousness, a field out beyond for planting seeds of peace within and service dedicated for the benefit of all…

~

“Being a victim of oppression in the United States is not enough to make you revolutionary, just as dropping out of your mother’s womb is not enough to make you human. People who are full of hate and anger against their oppressors or who only see Us versus Them can make a rebellion but not a revolution. The oppressed internalize the values of the oppressor. Therefore, any group that achieves power, no matter how oppressed, is not going to act differently from their oppressors as long as they have not confronted the values that they have internalized and consciously adopted different values.” ~ Grace Lee Boggs ~

today, as i re-member the quest ion Grace Lee Boggs would always ask – what time is it on the clock of the world – the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a disarmament advocacy group founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein announced the moving of the hands of the “Doomsday Clock” that reflects the risk of nuclear conflict ten seconds forward from the current 100 seconds to 90 seconds to midnight… this decision is thought by many experts to not align with the gravity of the situation we face with the US/NATO/EU proxy war against Russia waged in Ukraine and their refusal to negotiate with Russia and so would push it from 90 seconds to one second or a nanosecond which brings me right to the lineage of the order of the  zen peacemakers and their practices which open the space for the deep peace arising from the emptiness of our true self, when we do the inner work of changing consciousness from dominator to partner… let us go to the edge trusting in the implicate order to bring all that is into cosmic balance…

SiddhiZen Peacemaking

THREE REFUGES OF A ZEN PEACEMAKER

Inviting all creations into the mandala of my practice and vowing to serve them, I take refuge in:
Buddha, the awakened nature of all beings.
Dharma, the ocean of wisdom and compassion.
Sangha, the community of those living in harmony with all Buddhas and Dharmas.

THREE TENETS OF A ZEN PEACEMAKER

Taking refuge and entering the stream of Engaged Spirituality, I vow to live a life of:

Not knowing, thereby giving up fixed ideas about myself and the universe.
Bearing witness to the joy and suffering of the world.
Healing myself and others.

TEN PRACTICES OF A ZEN PEACEMAKER

1. Peacemakers throughout all space and time recognize that they are not separate from all that is.  This is the practice of Non-Killing.  I will not lead a harmful life nor encourage others to do so, and will abstain from killing living beings, thus living in harmony with all life and the environment sustaining it.
2. Peacemakers throughout all space and time are satisfied with what they have.  This is the practice of Non-Stealing.  I will not take anything not given, and will freely give, ask for, and accept what is needed.
3. Peacemakers throughout all space and time encounter all creations with respect and dignity.  This is the practice of Chaste Conduct.  I will give and accept love and friendship without using or clinging.
4. Peacemakers throughout all space and time listen and speak truthfully and compassionately.  This is the practice of Non-Lying.  I will compassionately and constructively speak the truth as I perceive it, purposely deceiving no one.
5. Peacemakers throughout all space and time cultivate a mind that sees clearly.  This is the practice of Not Being Deluded.  I will embrace all experience directly.
6. Peacemakers throughout all space and time realize lovingkindness.  This is the practice of Not Talking About Others’ Errors and Faults.  Accepting what each moment offers, I will realize that I am not separate from any aspect of life.
7. Peacemakers throughout all space and time realize equanimity.  This is the practice of Not Elevating Oneself and Blaming Others.  I will not blame, judge, or criticize others, nor compete with others or covet recognition.  In this way, I practice inclusiveness.
8. Peacemakers throughout all space and time are generous.  This is the practice of Not Being Stingy.  I will not foster a mind of poverty in myself or others, and will use all the ingredients of my life, giving my best effort and accepting the result.
9. Peacemakers throughout all space and time transform suffering into wisdom.  This is the practice of Not Being Angry.  I will not harbor resentment, rage, or revenge, and will roll all negative experience into my practice.
10. Peacemakers throughout all space and time honor their lives as instruments of peacemaking.  This is the practice of Not Thinking Ill of the Three Refuges.  I will recognize that I and all beings are expressions of oneness, diversity, and harmony.

shanti, shanti, shantihi…

today i want to share a peace that may come as a surprise to those who know of my upbringing as it is the farewell address given on January 17 1961 by the former World War II general and soon to be retired commander-in-chief/republican president of the usa who used this opportunity to caution the American public “against the acquisition of unwarranted influence… by the military industrial complex.” (he had included congressional in the “mic” but his advisors told him to remove congressional as he was addressing the congress)

listen now to this oh so prescient cautionary tale from one of the most seemingly unlikely of peacemakers and it is a tale we ignore today at the world’s peril:

“This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America’s leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle — with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present — and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.”

~ Dwight David Eisenhower ~

may we all wage and be peace with our every breath co-creating a cosmos of mutual trust and respect…

~

today marks the 52nd anniversary of  Kent State, a day when students all over were protesting the war, a day that turned tragic with four dead in Ohio, a day that would lead to a general strike four days later when four million of us gathered to wage peace…

 today, let us weave these threads together, the threads of coming home to the heart and re-membering all those who serve peace by sharing the sage wisdom of a woman named Mildred Norman Ryder who inspired this poetic peace pilgrimage and me along with hundreds of others… on a New Year’s Day many years ago, she left behind her home, her family and her name, to begin what would turn into a 28-year walk for a meaningful way of life. Peace Pilgrim’s fearlessness, love and simplicity continues to inspire people worldwide. Hear her words on the four relinquishments, or what we might call today surrenders or softenings, that powered her way of life…

“IF YOU REALIZED HOW POWERFUL YOUR THOUGHTS ARE, YOU WOULD NEVER THINK A NEGATIVE THOUGHT.”
~ PEACE PILGRIM ~

“Once you’ve made the first relinquishment, you have found inner peace because it’s the relinquishment of self-will. You can work on this by refraining from doing any not-good thing you may be motivated toward, but you never suppress it! If you are motivated to do or say a mean thing, you can always think of a good thing. You deliberately turn around and use that same energy to do or say a good thing instead. It works!

The second relinquishment is the relinquishment of the feeling of separateness. We begin feeling very separate and judging everything as it relates to us, as though we were the center of the universe. Even after we know better intellectually, we still judge things that way. In reality, of course, we are all cells in the body of humanity. We are not separate from our fellow humans. The whole thing is a totality. It’s only from that higher viewpoint that you can know what it is to love your neighbor as yourself. From that higher viewpoint there becomes just one realistic way to work, and that is for the good of the whole. As long as you work for your selfish little self, you’re just one cell against all those other cells, and you’re way out of harmony. But as soon as you begin working for the good of the whole, you find yourself in harmony with all of your fellow human beings. You see, it’s the easy, harmonious way to live.

Then there is the third relinquishment, and that is the relinquishment of all attachments. Material things must be put into their proper place. They are there for use. It’s all right to use them; that’s what they’re there for. But when they’ve outlived their usefulness, be ready to relinquish them and perhaps pass them on to someone who does need them. Anything that you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions. We are not free.

Now the last: the relinquishment of all negative feelings. I want to mention just one negative feeling which the nicest people still experience, and that negative feeling is worry. Worry is not concern which would motivate you to do everything possible in a situation. Worry is a useless mulling over of things we cannot change. Let me mention just one technique. Seldom do you worry about the present moment; it’s usually all right. If you worry, you agonize over the past which you should have forgotten long ago, or you’re apprehensive over the future which hasn’t even come yet. We tend to skim right over the present time. Since this is the only moment that one can live, if you don’t live it you never really get around to living at all. If you do live this present moment, you tend not to worry. For me, every moment is a new opportunity to be of service.”

may we all empty ourselves to create a vast spaciousness, a field out beyond for planting seeds of peace within and service dedicated for the benefit of all…

today i want to share a peace that may come as a surprise as it is the farewell address given on January 17 1961 by the former World War II general and soon to be retired commander-in-chief of the usa who used this opportunity to caution the American public “against the acquisition of unwarranted influence… by the military industrial complex.”

listen now to this oh so prescient cautionary tale from one of the most seemingly unlikely of peacemakers and it is a tale we ignore today at the world’s peril…

“This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America’s leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle — with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present — and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.”

~ Dwight David Eisenhower ~

may we all wage and be peace with our every breath…

today marks the 51st anniversary of  Kent State, a day when students all over were protesting the war, a day that turned tragic with four dead in Ohio, a day that would lead to a general strike four days later when four million of us gathered to wage peace…

 today, let us weave these threads together, the threads of coming home to the heart and re-membering all those who serve peace by sharing the sage wisdom of a woman named Mildred Norman Ryder who inspired this poetic peace pilgrimage and me along with hundreds of others… on a New Year’s Day many years ago, she left behind her home, her family and her name, to begin what would turn into a 28-year walk for a meaningful way of life. Peace Pilgrim’s fearlessness, love and simplicity continues to inspire people worldwide. Hear her words on the four relinquishments, or what we might call today surrenders or softenings, that powered her way of life…

“IF YOU REALIZED HOW POWERFUL YOUR THOUGHTS ARE, YOU WOULD NEVER THINK A NEGATIVE THOUGHT.”
~ PEACE PILGRIM ~

“Once you’ve made the first relinquishment, you have found inner peace because it’s the relinquishment of self-will. You can work on this by refraining from doing any not-good thing you may be motivated toward, but you never suppress it! If you are motivated to do or say a mean thing, you can always think of a good thing. You deliberately turn around and use that same energy to do or say a good thing instead. It works!

The second relinquishment is the relinquishment of the feeling of separateness. We begin feeling very separate and judging everything as it relates to us, as though we were the center of the universe. Even after we know better intellectually, we still judge things that way. In reality, of course, we are all cells in the body of humanity. We are not separate from our fellow humans. The whole thing is a totality. It’s only from that higher viewpoint that you can know what it is to love your neighbor as yourself. From that higher viewpoint there becomes just one realistic way to work, and that is for the good of the whole. As long as you work for your selfish little self, you’re just one cell against all those other cells, and you’re way out of harmony. But as soon as you begin working for the good of the whole, you find yourself in harmony with all of your fellow human beings. You see, it’s the easy, harmonious way to live.

Then there is the third relinquishment, and that is the relinquishment of all attachments. Material things must be put into their proper place. They are there for use. It’s all right to use them; that’s what they’re there for. But when they’ve outlived their usefulness, be ready to relinquish them and perhaps pass them on to someone who does need them. Anything that you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions. We are not free.

Now the last: the relinquishment of all negative feelings. I want to mention just one negative feeling which the nicest people still experience, and that negative feeling is worry. Worry is not concern which would motivate you to do everything possible in a situation. Worry is a useless mulling over of things we cannot change. Let me mention just one technique. Seldom do you worry about the present moment; it’s usually all right. If you worry, you agonize over the past which you should have forgotten long ago, or you’re apprehensive over the future which hasn’t even come yet. We tend to skim right over the present time. Since this is the only moment that one can live, if you don’t live it you never really get around to living at all. If you do live this present moment, you tend not to worry. For me, every moment is a new opportunity to be of service.”

may we all empty ourselves to create a vast spaciousness, a field out beyond for planting seeds of peace within and service dedicated for the benefit of all…

“Just as compassion is the wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering, loving-kindness is the wish that all may enjoy happiness. As with compassion, when cultivating loving-kindness it is important to start by taking a specific individual as a focus of our meditation, and we then extend the scope of our concern further and further, to eventually encompass and embrace all sentient beings. Again, we begin by taking a neutral person, a person who inspires no strong feelings in us, as our object of meditation. We then extend this meditation to individual friends and family members and, ultimately, our particular enemies.
We must use a real individual as the focus of our meditation, and then enhance our compassion and loving-kindness toward that person so that we can really experience compassion and loving-kindness toward others. We work on one person at a time.”
~ The Dalai Lama ~

today, i’m still celebrating the beginning of the end of nuclear weapons and contemplating how we wage peace and  i come to being deep peace of the flowing wave and boundless sky which brings me right to the lineage of the order of the  zen peacemakers and their practices which open the space for the deep peace arising from true emptiness of false self… let us go to the edge trusting in the implicate order to bring all that is into cosmic balance…

SiddhiZen Peacemaking

THREE REFUGES OF A ZEN PEACEMAKER

Inviting all creations into the mandala of my practice and vowing to serve them, I take refuge in:
Buddha, the awakened nature of all beings.
Dharma, the ocean of wisdom and compassion.
Sangha, the community of those living in harmony with all Buddhas and Dharmas.

THREE TENETS OF A ZEN PEACEMAKER

Taking refuge and entering the stream of Engaged Spirituality, I vow to live a life of:

Not knowing, thereby giving up fixed ideas about myself and the universe.
Bearing witness to the joy and suffering of the world.
Healing myself and others.

TEN PRACTICES OF A ZEN PEACEMAKER

1. Peacemakers throughout all space and time recognize that they are not separate from all that is.  This is the practice of Non-Killing.  I will not lead a harmful life nor encourage others to do so, and will abstain from killing living beings, thus living in harmony with all life and the environment sustaining it.
2. Peacemakers throughout all space and time are satisfied with what they have.  This is the practice of Non-Stealing.  I will not take anything not given, and will freely give, ask for, and accept what is needed.
3. Peacemakers throughout all space and time encounter all creations with respect and dignity.  This is the practice of Chaste Conduct.  I will give and accept love and friendship without using or clinging.
4. Peacemakers throughout all space and time listen and speak truthfully and compassionately.  This is the practice of Non-Lying.  I will compassionately and constructively speak the truth as I perceive it, purposely deceiving no one.
5. Peacemakers throughout all space and time cultivate a mind that sees clearly.  This is the practice of Not Being Deluded.  I will embrace all experience directly.
6. Peacemakers throughout all space and time realize lovingkindness.  This is the practice of Not Talking About Others’ Errors and Faults.  Accepting what each moment offers, I will realize that I am not separate from any aspect of life.
7. Peacemakers throughout all space and time realize equanimity.  This is the practice of Not Elevating Oneself and Blaming Others.  I will not blame, judge, or criticize others, nor compete with others or covet recognition.  In this way, I practice inclusiveness.
8. Peacemakers throughout all space and time are generous.  This is the practice of Not Being Stingy.  I will not foster a mind of poverty in myself or others, and will use all the ingredients of my life, giving my best effort and accepting the result.
9. Peacemakers throughout all space and time transform suffering into wisdom.  This is the practice of Not Being Angry.  I will not harbor resentment, rage, or revenge, and will roll all negative experience into my practice.
10. Peacemakers throughout all space and time honor their lives as instruments of peacemaking.  This is the practice of Not Thinking Ill of the Three Refuges.  I will recognize that I and all beings are expressions of oneness, diversity, and harmony.

shanti, shanti, shantihi…

for today’s edition of the astonishing light of your being, i want to share a peace that may come as a surprise as it is the farewell address given on this day 60 years ago by the former World War II general and soon to be retired commander-in-chief of the usa who used this opportunity to caution the American public “against the acquisition of unwarranted influence… by the military industrial complex.”

listen now to this oh so prescient cautionary tale from one of the most seemingly unlikely of peacemakers…

“This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America’s leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle — with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present — and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.”

~ Dwight David Eisenhower ~

may we all wage and be peace with our every breath…