This is a trial to write a diary. From reading on Kos and other sites, I have become aware that this world situation is taking a toll on most of us. I guess we all can agree that we would like a better world and most of all peace for all. But what can we do? Well, this morning after talking with a friend on the phone, I decided maybe one thing I can do is to write a diary about this topic.
My friend and I talked about how before the fall of the wall in Berlin, there used to be all those demonstrations for peace and maybe not known to all, there was a world-wide meditation circle, where at 12 noon local time, people where meditating, praying, visualizing or using whatever techniques they had available to them, for peace – just a few minutes. Did it help? Who knows? Fact is, for a while the world seemed to be more peaceful. Maybe it is time to reactivate such a circle again. We have nothing to loose and only to gain. Even if it does not help the world at large, it can help on an individual level to calm a little and deal better with the stress .
In this connection I always think of Gandhi who lived in this world, but never was willing to give up his inner peace and calm, and still, or maybe because of this, became such a powerful force in this world.
Two things I would like to achieve with this diary. Maybe to get this good “force” flowing stronger again and to start a discussion and sharing, on how to best deal on the inner plane with the political situation in this world. We will need some inner strength and endurance if we want to effect a change in this world.
I have been a “New Age-Freak” for many decades now (oh, my God, how time passes) and have learned a few things along the way on relaxation techniques, meditation, yoga and more on this line. Would any of you be interested to learn more about these things in future diaries?
just as a hint to what I mean by sharing coping techniques – my way is regular meditation and Hatha Yoga.
While I laud your sentiments–and this is only a trial diary, and my first post, so I’ll be gentle–the idea that personal meditation by a liberal will produce any kind of change in the geopolitical situation of our fair globe is somewhat narcissistic.
It may not bring about world change, but it can bring about change in self, which is where all change starts. And it can help one focus on what direction one wants to take action.
I think we all need to take a step back from the madness of politics once in a while, so we can recharge our batteries and return to the fray refreshed in body, mind and spirit.
Of course, that’s just me…
Thanks, that’s just the point I wanted to make. Besides I believe that to dissociate from the chaos of today’s world helps to reevaluate and open up for solutions, at least, to begin with, at a personal level.
And I do think, it is not just you…
Perhaps you don’t understand what meditation is all about?
Fran,
It’s good to see you jumping in – you have provided so much useful input on the various site where we post.
I don’t agree with the above reply. At least when you are meditating and praying, you are not hurting anyone, and that’s already something today.
You know my personal situation. Although I don’t believe in these things, I always welcome them because they certainly don’t hurt, and maybe they do help. So keep up the good thoughts/prayers/meditations!
point about when you’re meditating/praying, you’re not harming anyone else.
Maybe we could take up a collection and send Bush and his “Christian” colleagues to a week-long retreat, preferably led by Pastor Dan and other like-minded individuals. If that doesn’t get them on the right track, at least we’d potentially have one week of sanity around here…
I’m buddhist and would love to read more diaries that encourage peace of mind. We all need to start with ourselves.
New age freak here also (and for many years too), and I would love to see more about this. I agree that prayer circles, meditation, etc. do work and do help. I also remember the times of the worldwide prayer circle and I personally do think it helped. The more we can interconnect in any way has got to be positive.
Also remember hands across America, think that was in the 80’s. We could have hands around the world, maybe?????
Haven’t heard about hands across America, would like to know more. What was it about and how did it work?
On the afternoon of Sunday, May 25, 1986, more than five million people joined hands to form a line that stretched 4,152 miles — from New York City’s Battery Park to a pier in Long Beach, California. This much-hyped mega-event, called Hands Across America, was intended to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness. From New York, where 200,000 people participated, the line crossed the East River by means of the George Washington Bridge. Passing through New Jersey and Pennsylvania, it dipped down to the nation’s capital and across the White House grounds before extending to Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis and Dallas. Continuing across the desert Southwest, through Albuquerque and Phoenix, it came to an end at Long Beach, having crossed sixteen states in all. For fifteen minutes, beginning at 3 p.m. EST, participants joined hands and sang “We Are The World,” “America the Beautiful,” and the Hands Across America theme. Among those who took part: Jazzercisers, Hell’s Angels, disabled teenagers and nursing home residents, Hopi and Navajo Indians, 500 Little Leaguers at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, numerous celebrities, and President Ronald Reagan.
Critics worried that such mega-events lulled Americans into believing that a single extravaganza like Hands Across America would solve the problem it was designed to address. Concern about “donor fatigue” worried organizers. As one megathon followed another, public enthusiasm seemed to wane. Hands Across America hoped to raise $50 to $100 million by charging participants $10 to $35 apiece. But by Memorial Day weekend only $20 million had been raised and organizers were offering to let people join the transcontinental human chain free of charge. Held on the same day, Bob Geldof’s Sport Aid involved 20 million people in 266 cities worldwide, but interest in Sport Aid was lackluster in the United States. As the Eighties wore on the annual Farm Aid concerts drew smaller and smaller crowds.
There’s more at http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id312.htm
there was a world-wide meditation circle, where at 12 noon local time, people where meditating, praying, visualizing or using whatever techniques they had available to them, for peace – just a few minutes. Did it help? Who knows? Fact is, for a while the world seemed to be more peaceful.
Actually, that is NOT a fact. It is an unsubstantiated assertion by you.
You are claiming that meditation/prayer/visualisation has tangible effects in the world. It is one thing to assert that these things bring some kind of inner comfort, quite another to claim agency in the world which can be verified, or refuted.
I doubt that you are interested in the possibility of learning that it doesn’t work, or that you are interested in objective measurement at all.
Yet, like most irrational believers, you try to grasp a bit of scientific method, a bit of the terminology of reason, to pretend otherwise. You assert a causality that you claim is “fact”.
If you simply said, “I believe,” no one could argue with you.
We have nothing to loose and only to gain.
On the contrary, we have very much to lose. Giving people the false illusion that they are doing something worthwhile to make the world a better place by sitting and doing nothing is quite harmful. Imagine if the entire world followed that advise, and that, in fact, there were no tangible results. Think of all the worthwhile efforts that would be wasted.
Wishing the world were better doesn’t make it so. If it did, the world would be a much better place (you don’t really believe that the majority of humans on this planet spend their waking hours actively wishing for the world to get worse, do you?)
What makes the world better is human attention, energy, effort and time devoted to the common good, rather than personal betterment, whether material or not.
I have nothing against meditation, as a personal exercise. But don’t proselytize your beliefs by telling people that there is “proof” that wishful thinking will solve our problems.
What we need is more communication and less silence.
In my opinion.
Galiel, lots of assumptions and assertion coming from you about me. Well, didn’t it seem that the world was more peaceful during the 90s. And nowhere did I write that you should do nothing else besides meditation. I do know from people I have worked with, that meditation helped them to deal better with stress and difficult situations in their live, it helped them to access their inner resources to be able to help other people more. So maybe we could have a more constructive discourse here if you would not assume so much about my words and me and maybe ask questions about what I mean if may words may not be properly chosen, due to the circumstance that English is not my native language and not the one spoken in my everyday life. But thank you anyway for the feedback, I will try to improve and to learn to choose my words better.
challenges to your arguments.
You clearly made a connection between meditation/prayer and results in the world in your original post.
I made clear that that was the source of my objection. I even went out of the way, twice, to emphasize that I raised no objection to the idea that meditation may have personal benefits (although research shows that the same personal benefits to the practitioner, in both physiology and brain-chemistry – hence emotional and mental state – can be achieved without the mystical or ritualistic trappings surrounding them). Fundamentally and critically and as a matter of principle, I neither care nor should I have the right to influence what you choose to do as an individual, as long as it doesn’t directly harm others.
Rather than get all personally defensive and accusatory, you could simply either withdraw your assertion, or present evidence supporting it.
Instead, you continue to assert, with no evidence, “well, it seemed more peaceful in the 90’s”. Whether or not that is true, that does not mean that the collective meditation exercises you propose had any effect on that circumstance.
It is a simple matter, and the only reason it is so controversial is that we have a cultural taboo on challenging matters of popular faith.
If you had claimed that standing on one foot and scratching your head counteracted global warming, no one would hesitate to refute your claim. If you claimed that praying to Zeus for succor made the world more peaceful, no one would hesitate to ridicule you for it.
But if you claim that meditation made the world more peaceful, or that praying for peace actually makes the world more peaceful, or that chanting a mantra makes the world more peaceful, then challenging you will be considered rude, anti-religious, and the product of cold, lifeless scientism.
I call a spade a spade. You claim x causes y, in a way that actually violates the known laws of physical reality, I call your bluff and say, prove it.
I’m a little late to this party, but I would like to offer a slightly different take on what you are saying.
I’ve never been much of a ‘new age-freak’, but I do think being centered within yourself is important, however you achieve it.
But more, I think with so many things to fear and worry about being shoved on us (thru TV, news media, terror alerts, genocide and so on) finding that place within to deny the fear, rise above it and turn it around to positivity will be very important. Not only personally, but politically and socially.
Because it’s my belief that what is going on nowadays is being fed and supported mostly by fear… of terrorists, of not having enough money when you grow old, of not being able to do anything about people killing people, of gods being taken away, of, of of… there are so many things, something for everyone. And it reminds me of the Blob or the Brer Rabbit story or something… the more you fight it, the more powerful it becomes and the more stuck you are.
So, finding peace, serenity, a center, meditation, prayer… whatever people use to get to the point where they are looking forward to what can be done, instead of over their shoulders to what may be lurking behind them to keep them from doing it, is a good thing if you ask me.
Agreed, we could all take a few deep breaths every now and again.
But fear (which breeds hate) is fed, in turn, by ignorance. We fear that which we do not know, do not understand, and can’t control.
The cure to irrational fears is to cure the ignorance. Knowledge truly is power. More magical thinking does nothing to heal the root cause of fear.
So, by all means, breathe deep, seek peace. But, then, we should gird ourselves to fight the real, ultimate enemy that divides us: ignorance.
In my opinion.