Meditating Peace

By Tamara Emerson

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Realizing our Interconnectivity in Hopeof Cessation of All Hostilities

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Is seems lately that we hear an increasing number of people express shared concerns over economic, environmental, and political developments that have defined the world as it is today. This increase in concern over global development and social progress reveals to us in greater clarity the truth that to be alive means being part of an entire working system, a living organism as some might call it. Indeed, we are beginning to experience this global interconnection between all of life more tangibly today than perhaps ever before, as witnessed by the increase in time and money it now takes us to fill up the same amount of gas in the same tank we’ve been filling up for years. With this increased understanding that many of us are developing concerning the interconnectivity between ourselves and the global community, we are forced to recognize that to be concerned for ourselves, for our own survival, means that we must be concerned for all global social, economic, and environmental development.

     What then, we must ask ourselves, is the relationship between social development and self-preservation? What responsibility do we hold to enact self-preservation to its fullest potential while also enabling social development that is beneficial to all?

     It seems that Gandhi was considering these questions when he stated, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” According to this statement, self-preservation’s full potential can be attained only if it takes into account all of life itself. To avenge in an attempt to make recompense for an action directed toward an individual through the same action, Gandhi suggests, has the potential not to enact justice but rather to completely destroy the working system as we know it.

     When we take into account this interconnectivity between ourselves and everything else in life, we are forced to realize that any self-preservation that we mentally and/or emotionally choose that takes into account only ourselves is a selfish self-preservation, as well as a poor intellectual and emotional choice, in that it has the potential to counteract our own self-preservation. A self-preservation, however, that acknowledges that the welfare of others does have an impact on one’s self—whether positive or negative—is a self-preservation of balance, harmony, and possibilities for individual as well as global peace.

     Understanding the difference between an isolationist model of self-preservation and one based on interconnectivity can help us move towards a sustainable and healthy world for all humanity. No longer can we merely continue to wish that all humanity could find economic, social, and/or spiritual fortune and not take action. This is the time to realize that our very inaction is what is keeping all of humanity, including ourselves, in suffering; the time to acknowledge that every relationship is an energetic exchange of emotions, beliefs, feelings, and actions, all of which we have the capability to manipulate and use for positive change and growth; and the time to utilize the mental technologies of prayer and meditation enacted through the vehicle of Love to generate energetic relationships that work toward peace rather than division.

Movement Toward Peace

     In his struggle to liberate India from British oppression, Gandhi challenged his listeners to “be the change we wish to see in the world.” Rather than merely showing concern for worldwide hostilities that affect our own self-preservation, Gandhi’s quote suggests that we can embody a vision of the world in which self-preservation for all people could be achieved with less global and individual conflict and more universal harmony.

     It is with this notion in mind that we challenge Chicago residents to accept the United Nations “invitation to all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities for the duration of” September 21, 2006, the International Day of Peace. By laying aside all personal hostilities and gathering to celebrate peace, we, as the global representatives of the city of Chicago , can support the U.N.’s challenge to all nations.

     In an effort to provide Chicago residents an opportunity to meet this challenge, Unity for a Change and Hope for All are organizing a Peace Meditation Vigil to be held on September 21, 2006 in which every Chicago resident will have the opportunity to visualize, pray for, and meditate on peace. In an attempt to use the technologies of prayer and meditation to their purest potential, we ask that any prayers or visualizations that day be only of peace itself and not concerned with the means to how peace can be achieved. We also ask that all participants direct any personal concerns they have over hostilities toward imagining a time in which all hostilities have ceased. We look forward to meeting many of you on September 21, 2006! Peace!

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Tamara Emerson at hopeforall.tamara@gmail.com

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