One Percent For Peace

January 23, 2007

Hi Y'All!

In the summer of 2005 I read an article about how just a few people

meditating together can have a profound effect on violence around

them. This was right around the time we were all finishing up our Guru

Gita sankalpas, and I thought how appropriate it was to our situation

then.

Unfortunately, before I got the chance to share it my computer broke.

Well, I happened across it last night, so I'm posting about it now.

It's even more relevant to our current sankalpa, especially since, in

contrast to the meditators spoken of in the article, our intention and

mantra are actually focused on manifesting peace.

Here's some quotes:

One Percent for Peace

The Real War on Terror

An Interview with John Davies By Sandra Anderson

Appeared in Issue June July 2005 of Yoga International magazine [this

is now called Yoga+ Joyful Living.]

"In 1981, at the height of the Lebanese Civil War, physician Nader started teaching his patients to meditate. It was the best thing

he ever did for them. Shortly after a critical number of people began

practicing meditation, the bombs stopped exploding in Nader's village

in the Chouf mountains. The violence continued, even escalated, in

surrounding Muslim and Christian villages, but no bombs fell again on

Dr. Nader's village."

[Later, in a separate study on the Lebanese war]

"Did those 200+ meditators make a difference in the war?

Yes, absolutely. After the first few weeks, the results were obvious.

Then the experimental and statistical controls and the multiple

replications made it clear beyond the shadow of a doubt. The level of

violence in Lebanon was significantly less during the course of the

study, down by 40 to 80 percent on average, depending on the measure

used. We replicated this result seven times from 1983 to 1985 with

seven different meditating groups."

"The results of the study showed a broad societal impact that only has

one reference point that makes sense-the meditation intervention. The

implication is that when you have coherence in the collective

consciousness, it creates an environment that allows people to

approach issues differently. It provides an enabling environment.

People not only tend to stop killing each other, but are able to come

together and perceive new possibilities for cooperative work and

partnership, even with their enemies."

"In Lebanon we had Muslims and Christians meditating together even in

war conditions. Today, we need more Muslims using traditional dhikr

(remembrance) practices, for example, to experience the tawhid

(unity). We need Christians using traditional contemplative practices

such as St. Teresa's prayers of quiet and of unity. We need Buddhists

practicing the meditation of the heart, and so on within all of the

different spiritual traditions. It will bring them together and take

them to that level of what the Sufis call "the unity" and to peace in

their own tradition...

We need to promote the idea that even a small proportion-just one

percent of people on the planet, or the square root of that if we

practice in groups-living from this transcendent level of unity will

make a huge global difference."

The implications of this article are important for everyone. They

demonstrate in the world of matter the truth of Mother's perceptions

of the non-material, that these practices really do change the world.

The entire article can be read here (it has the best formatting):

http://www.estrip.org/articles/oda/35.html

Jai Maa!

Chris

January 23, 2007

Namaste!

This is excellent food for thought. I would like to suggest that when we do our mantras, that we spend a few minutes at the end of each session meditating on peace for this universe, and meditate upon the mantras going out into the universe to manifest peace.

Jai Maa.

Chris Kirner <chriskirner1956 > wrote: Hi Y'All!