The man of the hour on December 25th, Jesus, is often called the “prince of peace.” And even though I’m a Buddhist, I have always found Jesus to be an inspiring figure, especially the Jesus of the Gnostic writings. In honor of the holiday’s true meaning, I offer 20 possible ways to embody and create peace in the world. I encourage readers to offer your own ideas to the list. May we all be inspired to be more peaceful, now and always.
1. Be kind to a stranger. Many strangers.
2. Stop watching hours of TV and believing the stories about our supposed “enemies” coming to get “us.”
3. Do loving kindness meditation for yourself, your friends and family, the community, nation and world.
4. Get out in your community, volunteer, help build organizations that address systemic poverty, racism, class-ism, and all the other isms that are destroying lives and leading to wars.
5. To those who think state-sanctioned warfare (very different from an individual defending himself/herself) is somehow necessary, admit to yourself that you might be wrong.
6. To those who are pacifists, or non-violent actionists, remember that brow beating and inflamed arguing that condemns others is also a form a violence.
7. Raise your children in non-violent ways, and teach them how to solve conflicts without violence.
8. Stop defending the past.
9. Go out of your way to read about people and groups doing peace-promoting actions.
10. Join those groups, or talk to those people, and learn what they’re doing and how it might be effective.
11. Stop using the Buddhist sutras, the Bible, the Koran, or any other spiritual text to defend warfare.
12. Learn all you can from veterans of war. Even if you disagree with their views of it, you can learn a lot about what happens to people in actual combat.
13. Stop believing in enemies coming to get you, even if there might be people who want to kill people like you.
14. Use your imagination to see a world without war, and how we might get there, knowing it’s not going to happen anytime soon. (i.e. put that vow to liberate all beings into action in your mind first, and then work from what vision comes, letting go of all possibility of fruition.)
15. Stop thinking you have all the answers, and that nothing will ever change.
16. Do your best, but don’t assume that anything you do will ultimately help.
17. Love the one(s) you’re with. Right now.
18. Use civil disobedience, wisely.
19. Don’t assume that any vision you’ll ever have of a peaceful world is what it is. Visions, like teachings, are only pointers.
20. Disagree with others passionately, but kindly.
Photo Credit
“peace dove” AlicePopkorn @ Flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.
Nathan,
I wish there were more articles like this one around, as people need to have these ideas before them whether they like it or not. It is amazing how many Christians systematically disregard the most important invitations and challenges that Jesus gave us.