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Old 04-12-2012, 05:45 PM   #30
Tom Verhoeven
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Location: Auvergne
Join Date: Aug 2011
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Re: The Restoration of Peace

Quote:
Mary Malmros wrote: View Post
We all bring our own context to things. My personal context, the one in which I'm reading this thread, is one that is presenting some challenges to the definitions or descriptions of "peace" that I'm reading here. I've been reading Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, a background and history of the recent Congo wars. And so my thought is: it's all well and good to talk about how peace, and the pursuit of peace, is a matter of a spiritual discipline, or of getting one's head right, or whatever...but what does that have to do with the experience of the people who lived through (or didn't live through) the events of that book? Is this "peace" something reserved for those privileged to not live in a war zone?

If the word "peace" has any meaning and any relevance, surely it must include the experiences of those people.
One of the things that I learned from the stories of my father of his experiences in WW2 (he joined the US army) is that peace is a choice and a never ending task. I do not think peace is a privileged state of mind for the happy few. Or only meant for the European or American continent. I think that we can only be satisfied with the whole humanity experiencing peace. But that means we have to make certain choices and that we need to find the right politicians on the right places. And we need to be active our selves. That to me is the real spiritual pursuit. Sitting on a zafu in a sheltered home feeling very spiritual may not be enough.
Best wishes,
Tom
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