Peace

Peace is a state of mind.
Peace is not the absence of war; war cannot exist in a statenof peace.
War is not an option for peaceful beings.
Peace is a state of mind, an intention to live peacefullynwith all beings.

Waging war will never bring peace, just a temporaryncessation of war.
The last war fuels and justifies the next war.
The last war teaches hatred, domination, and power.
The last war trains leaders for the next war.

Peace is not without conflict.
Conflict is an unavoidable result of the diversity of humanndesires.
In a state of peace, conflict is resolved without harm tonanyone.
Violence does not resolve conflict-it nourishes it.

Peace is possible when each person, community, state, andncountry has access to life’s necessities, along with anreasonable opportunity to achieve life’s dream.

You and I can bring peace to the world.
How many hundreds or thousands of beings do I encounter innmy lifetime?
How many do I influence with a peaceful state of mind?
How many in turn, does each of them influence?

A culture forms person by person over time.
We built this culture of belief that war is acceptable,njustifiable, and appropriate.
You and I built this culture step by step, day by day.
We idolize and glamorize violent behavior, praising andnteaching violence through entertainment.

We declare wars on poverty, AIDS, and terrorism.
Poverty, AIDS, and terrorism still exist, proof that warnenergizes its targets.

War is good for the economy, though we would never harbo
war for that reason.
Or would we?

We believe war is natural because we’ve been warring forncenturies.
People have always killed other people: that’s just the waynit is, we say.

We confuse natural with normal.
Normal means a behavior is prevalent and accepted.
Natural means a behavior is inherent.
It is normal to kill others because we created a violentnculture.
It is not natural to kill others, contrary to claims thatnsurvival behaviors in nature support this thesis.
Humans do not naturally and inherently need to kill tonsurvive.

We’ve decided to kill to resolve our conflicts.
This is the culture we built.

Tomorrow’s culture begins today.
You and I, acting with love, acceptance, and respect, beginnto form tomorrow’s culture.
You and I, acting with vengeance, hatred, bigotry, or greednbegin to form tomorrow’s culture.

Which culture shall we shape today?