can we find peace

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wags
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can we find peace

Post by wags »

i wanted to start a new thread, i hope it's a new thread, about peace in the world. i don't know if this is the right forum, maybe the hero thread is a better choice so feel free to move it if need be.

is peace achievable? both in our personal life as well as a world view?
may peace preceed your every step, wags

bodhibliss
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Post by bodhibliss »

Good question.

But what is peace?

One can come home from a difficult day at work to a chaotic household and tell the wife and kids "I need some peace," retreating into the den with a bottle of scotch. That's peace, of a sort.

Is peace merely the absence of disturbance, the absence of conflict - on the collective scale, the absence of war? Do we define it only in terms of it's opposite?

Or can we free it from the negative, define peace in positive terms?

When we talk about peace, seems to me we mean more than just the absence of conflict - something closer to the idea of harmony (which may be why "peace and harmony" trip so easily off the tongue).

Are there myths of peace?

Isn't Jesus called the Prince of Peace?

Yet we're also told when He returns, He will bring a sword - which can be confusing, if we take scripture literally.

And then there is the peace of Death.

What are other myths of peace?
Last edited by bodhibliss on Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:11 am, edited 2 times in total.

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Volcano goes off in great cloud of fire and smoke and destruction. People die. We don't follow such an event with talk about "giving peace a chance".

The idea of peace is the polar opposite of war, the first born's excuse for living. We love our war makers. We're about to elect a new set of them here in the states. Whoop-dee-doo! :roll:

There is conflict. There is negative emotion. There is complete, total psychosis, and none of that's war.

War and genocide are special. Often seen as "heroic" when the victim is viewed as an evil, dangerous nemesis like the Soviets or the Nazis or the Imperial Japanese or, the gods forbid, the fundamentalist Moslems.

Is peace possible? Not while we're stuck on "leaders" who were the first to be born in their families and do everything they can to please everyone (politics) and seek out conflict for the helluvit (leadership).

I hate first borns.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

Evinnra
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Re: can we find peace

Post by Evinnra »

wags wrote:
is peace achievable? both in our personal life as well as a world view?
Yes.

In my private little 'dictionary' peace is a state of mind described by balance between ideas/actions/emotions within the individual. Although anyone can achieve this balance it takes an awful lot of practice to learn how to stay on this point for longer periods of time. When I get overly enthusiastic about an idea, or scared by another, it takes effort to catch up with my actions and settle my emotions. But the good news is, it can be done.

On a larger scale perhaps our world is not at peace right now because we have gigantic data input, unresolvable emotional stimulus and frustrated will to act well on a daily base. If the world is Indra's net, I think peace would be when this net shimmers with a healthy flow of interpersonal communications between balanced people. So, perhaps the 'sword' is a metaphorical representation of 'cutting off' what disturbs the balance?

Could the 'Christ consciousness' be nothing less than elimination of those inputs that are not resolvable within us after we tried long enough?

Would it not require ignorance ? :shock:
'A fish popped out of the water only to be recaptured again. It is as I, a slave to all yet free of everything.'
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Myrtle
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Post by Myrtle »

Lakota Mythology
Whope is a goddess of peace. Known as the Beautiful One, she is the daughter of the Sun and the Moon, and the wife of the South Wind. Whope is also identified with the White Buffalo Calf Woman who gave the Lakota’s the sacred pipe.

Norse Mythology
Forseti is a god of justice, peace and truth. One of the Aesir, his home is Glitnir which means “shining” – referring to the hall’s silver ceiling and golden pillars.

Greek Mythology
Eirene (Greek for “Peace”) is a goddess of peace. She is one of the three Orai (Greek for the “Hours”). Her sisters are Eunomia (Greek for “order” or “harmony”) and Dike (Greek for “Justice”). In Roman Mythology, Eirene’s counterpart is Pax (Latin for “peace”).

The Greek Playwright Aristophanes wrote The Peace (or Eirene) about 421 B.C.
Story: A farmer named Trygaeus flies to Olympus on a dung beetle for an audience with Zeus. Trygaeus finds that all the gods have left except for Hermes, War and his servant Tumult. He also discovers that Peace has been imprisoned in a deep pit covered in heavy stones. Trygaeus asks the chorus to help him rescue Peace. Together they release Peace and her companions Harvest and Festival.


Myrtle
Last edited by Myrtle on Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hoban
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Messy playground

Post by Hoban »

The January page of the Follow your bliss calandar, still available at Amazon, quotes Joe C as, "The world is perfect. It's a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives.”

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Joe is the same guy who said that we should all identify with the planet.

It's perfect. It's a mess.

Joe Schmoe!
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

Hoban
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Post by Hoban »

...
Last edited by Hoban on Mon Jan 14, 2008 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

boringguy
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Post by boringguy »

Hey Hoban,


Then again maybe Campbell realized the result of his advice as, I believe it was Ghandi who said, to paraphrase, you become the change you wish to see. It's like voting, at least then you have had a chance to impact the mess to your liking. :wink:


bg

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Post by A J »

Seems like peace is hard to find, even on a thread devoted to doing so. To my mind, personal peace is a result of being and acting in harmony with the universe - following one's bliss - being "on purpose." or however you might phrase the concept. When I am on purpose, I can maybe pass that on to those around me. I can only work on me, though. If the tiniest cog in a machine is off track, it can stop the whole action, so even though I'm just a tiny cog, if my intent is to stay on track, it's important, and all I have control over. World peace - I don't know. My hope is that we are evolving toward it. It seems that more and more people are coming to the idea that we can't hurry it along by trying to control violence with more violence. Maybe someday.

AJ
"Sacred space and sacred time and something joyous to do is all we need. Almost anything then becomes a continuous and increasing joy."

A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

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Post by Og »

Is it the same thing as enlightenment? The immovable spot at the center of samsara? The christ in you loving your enemy and hating your friend? Is it you at your central mountain under your feet? Is it you clicking your heals together and realizing that you were home all along?

I think that I would point to that as peace if asked. Nirvana. The bindu on the hindu's forehead. The dot in the middle of the mandala. The crucifix. Transcendence.

What is the sound of one hand clapping? Peace.

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Post by wags »

kapasa,

maybe world peace will come when we hear that booming voice from the universe that say's " you all now have been reminded of My Will" boy if we ever needed a blunt sign, it is now because it's never to early for change.

my toast is burning so...
may peace preceed your every step, wags

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Peace.........sometimes it's obvious, like the difference between a storm at sea and a still pond on a windless day.

Sometimes it's not so obvious, like the raucous townhall meeting when people are being civil in a noisy, angry way.

Personal peace can include excitement and being completely overwhelmed, and we know that there are people who behave in horrible ways while seeming to be absolutely calm and people who look almost dead with thoughts churning like a hurricane.

The perfect storm rarely occurs, and when it does, it has a sublime peace about it when it makes sense.

I hope this carries some sense in it somewhere, because this is an important topic when some people are being devastated by war and others are tearing their last remaining hairs out trying to figure out how to stop the carnage without causing even more of the same.

It's important in an age when young students coldly take guns into schools and mow down everybody they meet before turning the weapon on themselves.

Individually, peace is always possible, even when it seems terribly difficult.

The planet is a huge place. Diversity mitigates against the acceptance of peace as a condition everywhere for an extended period.

It's better than war, and it can be boring.

~

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