Pledge is not an idea. It is fortitude and passion, and insatiable thirst.
We entered the Quest with goodwill, knowing that we cannot leave until we resolve it. That time is now.
Pledge is not an idea. It is fortitude and passion, insatiable thirst. We are aiming for new words, new concepts, new identity. Pledge means reconstructing the dilemma we began with, from the inside out, so that it ceases to exist. It means resolving the problem before it is formed. It is the challenge to integrate inner and outer, self and society. It is choiceless awareness. It is becoming a citizen of the world we are forging, Visionary Citizen.
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Put an end to war in yourself
When you enter an intractable, impossible conflict, whether it is personal or political, local or global, bring to bear everything you have – your intelligence, sensitivity, passion, talent, skill, money and time.
Become capable of peace. Put an end to war in yourself.
– Question your need for power, position, prestige, money.
– Recognize your own brutality.
– Repent for your complicity.
How to approach conflict
– Use force for protection, assistance, and building, rather than aggression.
– Transform the conflict situation itself.
– Engage with an open heart. Use humble love.
– Look at evil with the eyes of a mother.
Undertake
with sustained, arduous goodwill
– Understand the grievances of the opposing side.
– Understand the suffering of the opposing side.
– Look for the flaws, but focus on the good.
– Find a resolution that takes opponents’ interests into account.
– Collaborate with any and all peace actors and organizations.
Who are you?
Everyone is able to make a direct, personal response to help victims and victimizers, and change the conflict situation itself, partly by expressing soulfulness in everyday life. We must become capable of resolving human fractures spontaneously, immediately, and fully.
First and foremost, peace means becoming capable of peace, by the person that you are:
– Put an end to war in yourself.
– Question your need for power, position, prestige, money.
– Recognize your own brutality.
– Repent for your complicity.
– Use humble love.
Who are you in conflict with?
What would it take to understand the reality of their position?
Look at evil with the eyes of a mother (Brother David Steindl-Rast)
"Spirituality means aliveness. Spirituality is never a private affair. Grateful living is a building of networks upon networks. It’s a communal affair, and its revolutionary." Brother David Steindl-Rast, Who is Awakening (41:40), for the definition of spirituality and spiritual gatherings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmJAsd4NPDk, 41:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFTYZwcAtMI, 1:30
Atone for the wrongs you inflict on others (Albert Schweitzer)
Atone as far as possible for our wrongs. This is a spiritual response to addressing conflict and injustice. “Such is the predicament in which we seek the first sign of the spirit in which we must place our trust. This sign can be none other than an effort on the part of peoples to atone as far as possible for the wrongs they inflicted upon each other during the last war.” Albert Schweitzer, 1952 Nobel Peace Prize
War makes us guilty of the crime of inhumanity.
“It is my profound conviction that the solution lies in our rejecting war for an ethical reason; namely, that war makes us guilty of the crime of inhumanity. Erasmus of Rotterdam and several others after him have already proclaimed this as the truth around which we should rally. The only originality I claim is that for me this truth goes hand in hand with the intellectual certainty that the human spirit is capable of creating in our time a new mentality, an ethical mentality. Inspired by this certainty, I too proclaim this truth in the hope that my testimony may help to prevent its rejection as an admirable sentiment but a practical impossibility. Many a truth has lain unnoticed for a long time, ignored simply because no one perceived its potential for becoming reality.”
“Such is the predicament in which we seek the first sign of the spirit in which we must place our trust. This sign can be none other than an effort on the part of peoples to atone as far as possible for the wrongs they inflicted upon each other during the last war.”
Albert Schweitzer, 1952 Nobel Peace Prize
You may not offend anybody (Mohandas Gandhi)
“You may not offend anybody; you may not harbor an uncharitable thought, even in connection with one who may consider himself to be your enemy… A man who believes in the efficacy of this doctrine finds in the ultimate stage, when he is about to reach the goal, the whole world at his feet. If you express your love - Ahimsa - in such a manner that it impresses itself indelibly upon your so-called enemy, he must return that love.” Mohandas Gandhi