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The Way to Peace
Adapted from Peace is the Way, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 2005).
The way of peace doesn’t claim that God must be a pacifist. The gulf between pacifist and warmonger belongs in our psychology, not in the nature of God. Divine schizophrenia can be overcome by seeing certain spiritual truths and hanging on to them.
God isn’t a person.
We cannot read his mind.
The essence of God is consciousness.
Consciousness can be used for either violence or peace; the choice is ours.
When it is expanded, human consciousness chooses non-violence since that is compatible with love.
If these principles are valid, then God doesn’t have to jump into the middle of human affairs. He stands for the pure essence of life and love. For me to solve my personal anguish over war, I must transform my consciousness until violence is no longer an option. By now this is a familiar argument. Millions of people understand it.
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20 comments
add your comment »consciousness is energy: to call it god is obscurantist, distractive and detractory
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Here is a way to accomplish it on Care2......
A Course In Miracles Network And Study Group. A discussion, networking and study group for anyone interested in A Course In Miracles (ACIM).
www.care2.com/c2c/group/CMSG
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(conclusion of preceding comment:)
When will humility catch up and overtake our overinflated, arrogant egoism? THAT's the piece that is missing as we grope our way towards "peace" and "love," little realizing that they are with us all the time, if only we could pause, reflect, and understand that our attitude is the real problem.
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Dr. Chopra states: "God isn't a person" and "The essence of God is consciousness" with both of which I heartily agree. But between these two he says, "We cannot read his mind."
Here's where I get stuck, because immediately he has reverted to the personalized (and MALE) idea of a humanoid deity. Moreover, "mind" is more than likely to be interpreted as a human attribute. Back to Square One.
I prefer to try to break through this bind in the following ways: first, I spell the Great Mystery "Godde," which is neither male nor female, but something Other ... something indefinable ... something so far beyond our limited imaginations that to try and characterize it - let alone to think of it as "like ourselves" (which is what "And God fashioned man in his own image" really means) - is insufferable cheek and presumption.
Similarly, the notion of a "God" which has a "mind" is begging the question of whether the whole ball of wax is "mind," as I suspect (e.g., consciousness); but the trick is not to stumble over anthropomorphism again or try to humanize the idea of mind as a working part of a humanoid whole, or person.
What I'm fumbling towards, here, is to avoid confusing the amorphous "mind" with the physical tissue that we call a brain - which immediately brings us back to the humanoid construct which I believe we urgently need to leave behind!
When will humility catch up and overtake our overinflated, arrogant egoism? THAT's the piece that is missing as we grope
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Hi everybody,this is my first time here and first of all I wish you the best MARRY CHRISMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.The message of love and peace is more important that anything else material.Love especially for our parent,family and friends.
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Yes, Joanna V., they do read the comments, but I think the comments are more for the writers than the readers. Writing clarifies our response to what we have read. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, one must satisfy survival needs first. Then, one must feel safe. Once our physiological needs and safety needs are meet, we can then work on our love and belongingness needs, as well as, our esteem needs. When all of these are satisfied we can expand our consciousness. That is when we achieve those moments when we touch our true selves...it is called self-actualization. Who and where in the world are the needs met sufficiently to allow this growth and expansion. We are all on the path. Some at different levels. All the world is a stage...
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During the Vietnam era we ,who opposed and refused to participate in WAR, had a simple saying, "What if they threw a War and nobody came?"
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But more millions do not. Most unfortunately, many are unable to discipline/convince/comprehend/modify the "fight or flight" syndrome we've inherited from predator ancestors. This is why we need ethics, spirituality and saints...yet it is still hasn't been enough to evolve consciousness.p.s. does anyone read these comments?
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Like I always say...."Love is the way..."
Hugs,
Tracey Huguley
www.traceyhuguley.blogspot.com
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"I believe he will come back as a lion, in that, he gave us the free will to choose life or death/light or darkness."
We already have it.
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