When first asked to write and submit an article on our given topic, I wasn't sure what the best approach would be. I had not given "peace" much thought. Growing up it was a given factor, that someday the world would achieve this form of unity. I was facing some big questions:
- Is the world becoming more peaceful? For who is it becoming more peaceful?
- What things/forces are keeping us from achieving peace?
- How do you approach peace, either at an inner or outer level or at the individual or world level?
- What does peace look like? (and again, at what level)
- Why do we want peace? Is peace a positive or negative force?
- Is peace tangible or non-tangible ?
- How do we achieve it?
- What are the thought's of others on peace? The thoughts of past leaders and thinkers?
- etc.
They are not questions that I could answer anytime soon as I have only started thinking about this issue, and the list can continue. Then what is the point of posing such questions? Its about starting to think and reflect about peace! What kind of thinking/reflection? Thinking at a conscious level!
I do not intend to imply that you (or anyone for that matter) does not think of peace consciously. Rather that we should keep it at the forefront of our thoughts, constantly framing and re-framing "peace" to better understand it at a deeper and deeper level. That is, we should be careful of not falling into the trap of "we have answered the questions/we understand peace, and now we can stop thinking about it". This is something we do when we are shopping for a television, that I have now bought one and do not need to continue the search. No, instead it needs to be that we do not stop thinking about peace because at some level peace is a concept that is non-physical abstraction, where as the television is a physical abstraction. The beauty of this method is that it can be expanded to other major concepts such as nationalism, prejudices, morals & ethics, etc.
I do not intend to imply that you (or anyone for that matter) does not think of peace consciously. Rather that we should keep it at the forefront of our thoughts, constantly framing and re-framing "peace" to better understand it at a deeper and deeper level. That is, we should be careful of not falling into the trap of "we have answered the questions/we understand peace, and now we can stop thinking about it". This is something we do when we are shopping for a television, that I have now bought one and do not need to continue the search. No, instead it needs to be that we do not stop thinking about peace because at some level peace is a concept that is non-physical abstraction, where as the television is a physical abstraction. The beauty of this method is that it can be expanded to other major concepts such as nationalism, prejudices, morals & ethics, etc.
As a way of expanding our thoughts, it can help to have a constant reminder, I give Thoughts 4 Peace, four original wallpapers to help in that journey (note image resolutions are 1920×1080).
Thoughts 4 Peace Wallpapers by Sama Rahimian
is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
It has been a pleasure being the guest blogger. I wish you all the best in your search and reflection on peace.
-- Sama
Sama is a student at Fanshawe College who enjoys thinking about major concepts, such as peace, and its relationship in philosophy, religion, and consciousness, as well as creating on Photoshop and Gimp.
The opinions expressed in this post constitute the author’s personal understanding and do not necessarily represent the official position of the London World Peace Forum, George McNeish, or any religions and their teachings represented on this blog.
Right on Sama (or should I say write on) In Paris Talks Abdu'l-Baha tells us the importance on keeping our minds on peace.
ReplyDeleteI charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 29)