Practice of Peace in Sweden--A reflection on the Issue

[Therese Fitzpatrick]

I am not a Christian myself but I believe that Jesus Christ was one of
the greatest visionaries that ever lived.  His invitation to love is
quite radical.  Isn't he the one who invited humanity to find a
different way of being through radical love?  If the U.S. response to
9-11 has been to turn the other cheek, and if every time someone
attack responded by turning the other cheek, humanity could quite
rapidly achieve a different state of being.  The transition could get
uglier than things already are. . . it is the transition when good
people are turning the other cheek that keeps war alive.  People
aren't afraid of nirvana. . . they are afraid of letting go and
engaging in radical love and the uncertainty right after they let go.
The law of two feet, which is rooted in love, is the answer.


On Sun, 5 Dec 2004 14:09:19 EST, everett813 at aol.com <everett813 at aol.com> wrote:
> Thomas: is anyone dealing with the question "If war and violence are so
> horrible and are what we don't want, why are we not already peaceful?"  Who
> wants violence?  Who wants war?  Why do we have war when few people want it?
>
>  Joelle and I have been noodling that question around for a while.  We think
> it comes down to an inability to agree on whose 'story' is going to be told
> and lived and our inability to allow someone else to live their story their
> way and for them to allow us the same freedom.  We seem to have to have
> forced agreements, codified into laws, which further entangle us (great
> article recently in NY Times about how laws are strangling education in the
> US) in disputes.  Lawyers abound.  Lawsuits follow.
>
>  Ex:  North Ireland.  Whose story will be the dominant paradigm.  Protestant
> or Catholic?  To which country do those counties owe allegiance?  Why is
> that a question?  What laws and rules will be put in place that reflect the
> different world views?  What is the fighting about?
>
>  Ex: Palestine.  We could ask many questions of the same order.  In fact,
> wherever there is conflict, we can ask the question:  whose story is
> striving to be told, agreed on, and lived?  Who is resisting the story and
> why?
>
>  The issue might become:  what does it take for a group of human beings to
> allow and create enough space for freedom of choice (that doesn't compromise
> someone else's freedom of choice) in how they live their lives?  What is the
> mental, emotional, spiritual construct necessary?  Is it even possible?
>
>  Ex: the dispute between religious fundamentalists and others on what will
> be taught about evolution in the United States.  Is Darwin's theory a
> fantasy or do we have scientific proof?  (I think we do).  What to do then
> about the slippery argument of "Intelligent design" and what will be taught
> in our schools?
>
>  That brings me back to the issue of consciousness, (the role of the ego,
> shadow, etc.), the concepts of selfhood and a mass of other considerations
> which roil our human relationships.
>
>  Which leads me to the despairing question:  Is peace even possible??  Are
> we wasting our time talking about it or even trying to  practice it?  If so,
> what should we be practicing instead?  Maybe tolerance with majority power,
> the rule of law, legal structures, prisons for lawbreakers, etc., is the
> best we can do in our current state of conscious evolution and we'd best be
> focusing on raising our own individual consciousness, tolerance level and
> inner beingness and forget about peace as a target.  Peace will emerge when
> we emerge into a different state of being.  Radical thought.
>
>  These would be my reflections if I were there.
>
>  Paul Everett * * ==========================================================
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