Posted on May 12, 2014
by Jerry Alatalo
“There is no way to peace, peace is the way.”
From the back cover of Deepak Chopra’s 2005 book “Peace Is the Way”.
This statement has never been more true. Now, Deepak Chopra expands on A.J. Muste’s insight, teaching us how to expand awareness, stop reacting out of fear, and reject war – one person at a time. As Dr. Chopra says, “Violence may be innate in human nature, but so is its opposite love. The next stage of humanity, the leap we are poised to take, will be guided by the force of that love.”
Deepak Chopra is one of the world’s bestselling spiritual authors.
After watching a rebroadcast of “Global Spirit” on Link TV the other night, it seemed time to write on something a little more in line with hope and encouragement. Just as high school and university athletic teams have their cheerleaders and screaming fans, those who spend time “on the field” of gathering information to help in some way to build a more just and peaceful world need times of regeneration before returning to the grindstone of debate.
That particular Global Spirit episode originally aired in early 2010. During the program Mr. Chopra mentioned the potential of the internet. As an act of public confession, this writer admits a certain, personal coming up short as far as using anywhere near that potential since first getting a personal computer and connecting to the internet a little over two years ago. A few things got accomplished since then, including “Chopsticks”, beginners-piano-like attempts at nonfiction book writing in an awkward impersonation of writers like John Perkins, Howard Zinn, Marianne Williamson, Mr. Chopra, Gandhi, Rolling Thunder, and all the others whose names are not readily available because their books were given away through the years.
Then came WordPress in May 2013, where practice has led to a still great distance from perfection, although at least less and less of the beginner’s monotone, in-serious-need-of-editing style ends up in the content. But as far as what Deepak Chopra praises about the profound potential of the internet, I admit to not even scratching the surface. One act of reaching out that approaches Mr. Chopra’s internet potential was emailing presidential candidate Dr. Olga Bogomolets (bogomolets.com) of Ukraine yesterday, in an effort to get her very profound and extremely important – translated – message to, especially, Americans, and the English-speaking world.
Dr. Bogomolets must become Ukraine’s next leader.
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It’s a truth that the first time we as human attempt something new there are errors, such as taking a few spills after removing the training wheels from the bicycle. You may, after hearing of the first self-publishing experience, laugh so hard that tears roll down your cheeks and/or get that really, really good laugh where you snort. Anyway, years ago I took some programming courses at Northern Michigan University. When you write programs, all the code must be typed in all-caps, so ever since those days, until self-publishing the first book, any typing on a keyboard was all-caps.
Unfortunately, since I never owned a computer since 2012, I had no idea that communicating through emails etc. was considered “shouting” and rude. Although never owning a computer, I had a job where there were a lot of emails and other business-related computer communications. So, having no clue all-caps was the worst choice, the programming habit continued. The company computer guy in another state replied to an email asking me why I was “shouting” at him, and I thought he went off the deep-end. I felt terrible for him because I thought he was suffering mental illness of some type.
Looking back, it’s surprising nobody explained the error of using all-caps, because there were hundreds of emails to a variety of recipients. Anyway, the problem didn’t get resolved until I published the first book in all-caps! Thankfully, a neighbor who I believe earned a degree in English or some writing-related study kindly explained to me that “you need to fix that.” Somehow I learned how to convert the content to lower case, went through for hours capitalizing where needed, and dropped the “all-caps addiction” forever.
Have you snorted yet?
There are more snort-inducing, utterly embarrassing stories I could tell, but those are for down the road. It was a long time ago, in a land far, far away that I vowed never to end up guilty of someone’s “laughing themselves to death”, and now is not the time to break it. Did I ever tell you about the time I got written up by a superior on a job because I made one of my co-workers “laugh against their will”?
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So, a little detour into humor there. Getting back to Deepak Chopra, here are some of the endorsements from the front of “Peace Is the Way”:
“Deepak Chopra envisions a world within our reach where we are the instruments of peace instead of war. Peace Is the Way provides practical tools to help us know in our hearts that each one of us matters and is important to the other. In the African tradition of ‘Ubuntu’, we say a person is a person through other people. The daily practices suggested in this book offer readers a way to become more fully human and actively engaged as peacemakers in their homes and communities.”
DESMOND TUTU Nobel Peace Laureate 1984
“The late author-poet Carl Sandburg once wrote, ‘Someday there will be a war and no one will come.’ How we long for those words to become a reality. Deepak Chopra, who I am honored to call a friend, knows the world can change one person at a time. His spiritual compassion shines clearly on every page. Yet Deepak is fully aware of the long, hard struggle necessary to change this cruel world. Peace Is the Way is beautifully written and clearly shows nonviolence is the weapon of the strong. Follow his teaching and become a Peace Person. It truly is the only way forward. Thank you, Deepak.”
BETTY WILLIAMS Nobel Peace Laureate 1976
“In recent years, the immediate need to counteract aggressive military policies has led many people to neglect their own personal vision of a more peaceful world. In this timely and urgent work, Deepak Chopra argues that there is a way to rise above the engulfing logic of war: that way is peace itself, a spiritual and compassionate approach to humanity that depends on individual transformation. I highly recommend Peace Is the Way to all those who want the global peace movement to find its heart again.”
OSCAR ARIAS Nobel Peace Laureate 1987
“Although I earned my living in the boxing ring, the power of peace has never escaped me, even in my everyday life. In his most recent book, Peace Is the Way, Deepak Chopra brings the idea of peace and the power it has over conflict, hatred, and despair into focus. He offers a clear pathway to make this world a better place for all. Deepak often says what you think about and bring into consciousness expands. He invites us all to bring the vision of peace to the forefront of our individual and collective consciousness, where our thoughts will manifest into reality and what a wonderful world this will be.”
MUHAMMAD ALI U.N. Ambassador of Peace
“Peace Is the Way is an excellent book for our troubled times. My grandfather said, ‘We must become the change we want to see in the world.’ Peace starts with the self and then the whole world joins in.”
ARUN GANDHI Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi
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Chapter titles:
- War Ends Today
- The Way of Peace
- The Specter of Them
- Beyond Toxic Nationalism
- The Myth of Security
- Diabolical Creativity
- The Politics of the Soul
- (Still) Mad as Hell
- Why Does God Want War?
- The Metaphysics of Terror
- The Body at Peace
- Our Best Hope
Seven Practices for Peace:
- Sunday: Being for Peace
- Monday: Thinking for Peace
- Tuesday: Feeling for Peace
- Wednesday: Speaking for Peace
- Thursday: Acting for Peace
- Friday: Creating for Peace
- Saturday: Sharing for Peace
Last words of Peace Is the Way:
“Right now (2005) there are 21.3 million soldiers serving in armies around the world. Can’t we recruit a peace brigade ten times larger? A hundred times larger?
The effort begins now, with you.
In 2014, peace remains the way.
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(Thank you to Link TV at YouTube)
THE ONENESS of HUMANITY 