Excerpt from a commentary on an article entitled “The Vocabulary of Peace” given by Lera Chacon, February 10, 2010.

What do I do to promote peace?


Here’s 6 things that I came up with:

1. I promote peace by understanding that the world out there is simply a reflection of the world in here, and then doing what I can to make my inner world peaceful.

2. I promote peace within, by reminding myself, when necessary, to simply allow “what is.” Part of “what is” is that there is peace and there is no peace. I prefer peace. In any given personal situation, I’ll operate on that preference. But I allow that not everyone else feels the same way.

3. I promote peace within, by acknowledging the mystery. I know that there’s a lot more going on than I can perceive and I’m convinced that I don’t know what is good for anyone, including myself. Who am I to say that something that exist, should not be?

4. I promote peace within, by trusting that “What is” is GOOD in some way that may not be obvious. Another way of saying this is: I trust Life is for us, not against us. A quote comes to mind from the Bible: All things work together for good (for those that love the Lord.) My version is: All things work together for good
….to point us in the direction of love.

5. I promote peace within, by trusting that everyone is doing the best they can, at any given moment, with the resources they have available, and with the life experiences and conditioning they have endured, so there is no one to blame. No one. Not even those who practice violence.


6. I promote peace within, by catching my negative thoughtforms and my less than peaceful reactions, and doing something about them. A phrase from Emotional Freedom Technique has helped me tremendously in forgiving the world and myself.
When I see something that I judge as not right or not as it should be, I take full responsibility for it being in my world and for my experience of it. The phrase from Emotional Freedom Technique is: Even though I (fill in the blank) I fully and completely love and accept myself. For example, I might say: Even though I experience manipulation, deceit, and greed, I fully and completely love and accept myself. Or: Even though I feel angry. I fully and completely love and accept myself.
Even though I just judged someone and made them wrong, I fully and completely love and accept myself. I keep repeating the phrase with different versions of “what is” until I feel the peace.

All of these ways I promote peace within sounds like I don’t do anything out there in the world. Of course that’s not true. I act. (Sometimes more successfully than others.) But I’ve found if I can maintain peace within myself, I am guided to more skillful action in the world. When I maintain peace within myself, it’s as simple as doing the next most obvious thing. And I never know what that will be in advance, so it makes life interesting.