Send Them Peace

To make The Challenge work, first get beyond materialistic limits.

Our upbringing in thought, especially much of scientific thought, has been holding us back.

While we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater, meaning, we should not give up our quest for measuring or observing effectiveness as we come together and meet The Challenge,... pushed by a desire to "see if this thing is working or not," ... know that all that is needed, is the conscious INTENTION to make it work.

Here is a part of this puzzle of finding others in self. Finding that all are one, and beginning to live as though that were true. But approach this cautiously nevertheless.

Is there a path here?

The presentor above is John S. Hagelin. He is by training, a particle physicist. He is also a key director of the American Transcendental Meditation Movement (TM), centered in Fairfield, Iowa.

Just to be clear, SendThemPeace.com and The Challenge, have NOTHING TO DO WITH TM.

You can easily find links by "Googling" if you want to know more. The links of TM to science (in some form) remain an important component of its outreach. You can see that here at Hagelin's International Center for Invincible Defense site in New York. Here is a counter-balancing perspective:  from a person who after participating with TM, seems to have been left with  a quite negative, though studied perspective on TM.

We have neither time nor interest for engaging in the TM debate. If they can actually bring Peace where it is needed, all the better. But at what cost? One need not look too far on their various sites to find the " Donate" button, a button that you won't find at SendThemPeace.com. That may say something important about their methodology, (and ours). The donate link above, present on Hagelin's bio page, takes one to Maharishi University of Management's Donation Form page.

But now that (or if ), you had a look at the above video, what can you conclude? In spite of the suggestion that a scientific method exists for defining the ground of consciousness, the Universal Field, and therein, the source for World Peace, ... did you extract from this presentation, a method that you could share with your neighbor? A tool or technique for Send(ing)ThemPeace tomorrow?

Perhaps not. And perhaps clarity of intention, some would say transparency, may be lacking therein as well.

Part of the impasse arises ...

... in trying to use brain to understand mind. Delving more deeply into the implications of what quantum physics has revealed about our entangled existence,  may still leave one with a feeling something like: "Wow! Amazing! I wish I could understand that better..."

The impasse also arises in Man's near constant desire since Man was Man, to go beyond our physical form. Or at a minimum, escape from the reality that physical form, seems to inescapably, one day, drop dead.

So a question remains, which one might phrase: "OK. I'm amazed. But what am I going to do to apply this to my life on Monday after I get up?"

So here's a pragmatic solution.

1. Want to know more about Quantum Physics? Laudable. Take a course at your local college. And if you don't have the course pre-requisites or requirements to sign up for their course, take the course at home.  A university level course, for non-science individuals, but taught by a recognized expert in the field. The only "donation" will be when you buy the course and download it online from "The Great Courses." I have two to recommend : "Einstein’s Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists," and "Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science." These will take you the time it takes to listen to multiple lectures, as though attending at university. After that, you can explain it all to your neighbor. These come without hidden message or agenda.

2. Give The Challenge a try. It has nothing to do with TM.

   Join with others. Take 20 minutes out of your busy day. Read about the current Target ahead of time. Show up at the right time. Use a GEM if helpful during those 20 minutes. Tell friends about this, and get them involved as well. And let's notice together what happens in our world, including in your world. 

All that's missing is a child's level of Intention and Trust ...

How does one face someone who is completely enraged ? Someone who manifests only destruction, hatred and prejudice?

And if that person has a gun in hand, The Challenge becomes certainly greater.

But perhaps the lesson at its base, remains the same.

Let's ask that question of Thích Nhất Hạnh ..., and extract what we can use here, as we begin to accept and meet The Challenge.

What I heard : 

• Sources of rage : jealousy and wrong perceptions
• To transform rage into calm, takes time
• "Enraged people" exist in all walks of life, including clergy and ordinary society
• The way to respond to rage, is not to respond.
• Never respond to insult or attack. Not even to try and explain it.
• Respond with complete silence.
• Do not try and justify one's position. This will only increase the anger of the enraged.
• Breathe in and out. Accept. Do not reply. Do not react.
• One can do even better. A few days after the encounter, write a love letter to the one who was enraged. It is doable, and has been done.
• To someone who has betrayed you and your community, and made you suffer a great deal ... write that person a nice letter, aimed at helping that enraged person suffer less.
• Participation in Peace, may not look safe to those who rule a country.
• How could Peace be viewed as a threat? When its true strength is feared. When it appears to be beyond one's control. Then the source of Peace will be disbanded by the enraged.
• And if one resists with compassion and non-violence?... it may not guarantee protection from eventual destruction. But one can still send a message saying that those enraged are not hated. That in their suffering they may have been victims of wrong perceptions, that give rise to fear and anger.
• It is possible to respond to violence and anger with love. Using compassion and understanding.
• Organize the victims of war and poverty and help them: Even if this places you at risk of bad treatment by those with wrong perceptions.
• Eventually, one can succeed against actions aimed at the suppression of Peace. But it may take time.
• Meeting misunderstanding with understanding and compassion, succeeds eventually, but it takes time.
• Read "Learning True Love" by Sister Chan Khong, which explores such encounters.

Clearly, The Challenge is not for the timid.