CHAPTER 8: The Way of Peace

THIS IS THE WAY OF PEACE: Overcome evil with good, falsehood withtruth, and hatred with love.
It is hard for people to understand that all war is bad and selfdefeating.
People in their immaturity attempt to overcome evil withmore evil, and that multiplies the evil. Only good can overcome evil.
My simple peace message is adequate—really just the messagethat the way of peace is the way of love. Love is the greatest poweron earth. It conquers all things. One in harmony with God’s law oflove has more strength than an army, for one need not subdue anadversary; an adversary can be transformed.
One day as I was walking along the highway I began to sing peacewords to a familiar tune which I believe sums up the present worldsituation in a nutshell:
The world is feverishly working to build the things of war,The world is preparing destruction of a kind unknown before.
I hear much cursing of enemies, and arguments increase,But, oh, the world is longing, is yearning,Is praying for peace—for peace!
The nuclear bomb says to us: “Make peace or perish!” We recognizethat we can no longer think in terms of military victory, that anuclear war would mean mutual annihilation. Many face this criticalsituation with apathy, some with frustration, but only a very few faceit constructively.
There is such a great need for constructive peace action.We liveat a crisis period in human affairs, and those of us who are livingtoday face a very momentous decision: A choice between nuclearwar of annihilation and a golden age of peace. All who are livingtoday will help to make this choice, for the tide of world affairs nowdrifts in the direction of war and destruction. So all who do nothingin this crisis situation are choosing to let it drift.Those who wish tochoose peace must act meaningfully for peace. And become a part ofthe stirring and awakening which has begun and is accelerating. Andhelp to accelerate it sufficiently to turn the tide. In this crisis situationpeace is certainly everybody’s business! The time to work forpeace is now.
Ultimate peace begins within; when we find peace within therewill be no more conflict, no more occasion for war. If this is thepeace you seek, purify your body by sensible living habits, purifyyour mind by expelling all negative thoughts, purify your motives bycasting out any ideas of greed or self-striving and by seeking to serveyour fellow human beings, purify your desires by eliminating allwishes for material possessions or self-glorification and by desiringto know and do God’s will for you. Inspire others to do likewise.
Some will prefer to work on an interim peace—a setting up ofmechanisms to resolve conflicts in a world where conflicts stillexist—so that although there may still be psychological violencethere will no longer be physical violence. If this is the peace youseek, work on a world scale for world disarmament and reconstruction,for a world government which will include all people, forworld thinking: placing the welfare of the human family above thewelfare of any nation.Work on a national scale for changing thefunction of the so-called Defense Department from destruction toconstruction. So much constructive work is needed among the lessfortunate peoples in the world, and for the adjustment of our economyto a peacetime situation. Lots of problems to solve here. Getothers to work with you.
We can work on inner peace and world peace at the same time.
On one hand, people have found inner peace by losing themselves ina cause larger than themselves, like the cause of world peace, becausefinding inner peace means coming from the self-centered life into thelife centered in the good of the whole. On the other hand, one of theways of working for world peace is to work for more inner peace,because world peace will never be stable until enough of us findinner peace to stabilize it.
My inner peace remains in spite of any outward thing. Only insofaras I remain in harmony can I draw others into harmony, and somuch more harmony is needed before the world can find peace.Thisdoesn’t mean that I am not concerned about world happenings. Atime like this calls for much peace prayer and peace effort. All rightwork and all right prayer has effect, all good effort bears good fruit,whether we see the results or not. In spite of the darkness in thepresent world situation I am not discouraged. I know that just ashuman life proceeds toward harmony through a series of hills andvalleys, so a society has its ups and downs in its search for peace.
There is within the hearts of people deep desire for peace onearth, and they would speak for peace if they were not bound byapathy, by ignorance, by fear. It is the job of the peacemakers to inspirethem from their apathy, to dispel their ignorance with truth, to allaytheir fear with faith that God’s laws work—and work for good.
Knowing that all things contrary to God’s laws are transient, letus avoid despair and radiate hope for a warless world. Peace is possible,for thoughts have tremendous power.
A few really dedicated people can offset the ill effects of massesof out-of-harmony people, so we who work for peace must notfalter.We must continue to pray for peace and to act for peace inwhatever way we can, we must continue to speak for peace and tolive the way of peace; to inspire others, we must continue to think ofpeace and to know that peace is possible. What we dwell upon wehelp to bring into manifestation. One little person, giving all of hertime to peace, makes news. Many people, giving some of their time,can make history.
One day a lady said to me, “Peace, I’m praying with you forpeace, but of course I don’t believe it’s possible.” I said, “Don’t youbelieve peace is God’s will?” “Oh, yes,” she said, “I know it is.” I said,“How can you tell me that which is God’s will is impossible? It’s notonly possible, it’s inevitable, but how soon is up to us.”
Never underestimate the power of a loosely knit group workingfor a good cause.All of us who work for peace together, all of us whopray for peace together, are a small minority, but a powerful spiritualfellowship. Our power is beyond our numbers.
Those who seem to fail pave the way and often contribute morethan those who finally succeed. I cannot help feeling grateful to thepeace pioneers, who worked for peace when the going was roughand there were no apparent results.
One of the most common questions asked of me is: “Have youseen any results from your pilgrimage?” The answer is that I’ve neverasked to see results—I leave the results in God’s hands.They may noteven be manifest in my lifetime, but eventually they will becomemanifest. And, believe it or not, I have seen results: Lots of lettersfrom people indicating they have been inspired to do something forpeace in their own way—anything from writing letters to Congressto making peace with some friend or relation. And it all adds up.
Now, as I look back at the overall efforts of all the peacemakers,I can see the results.When I began my pilgrimage, people acceptedwar as a necessary part of life. Now, the peacemakers are on the popularside! When I started out, there was very little interest in theinner search. I could actually make an inquiry at a state college anddiscover that two-thirds to three-quarters of the students at that timeconsidered themselves agnostic if not atheist. Now, I can hardly finda student or a person who isn’t interested in the deepest kind ofsearching.To me that is the most hopeful sign of all.
On the one hand it can be said: How tragic that our materialadvancement has gotten so far ahead of our spiritual advancement that westand on the brink of destroying all life on earth. On the other hand it canbe said: How good that we finally realize that military victory is impossible,so that immature people and even not-good people now have an incentive tolay down their arms. Both statements are true.
There is no greater block to world peace, or inner peace, thanfear. It has led us to manufacture implements of mass destruction.
What we fear we tend to develop an unreasonable hatred for—so wecome to hate and fear. This not only injures us psychologically andaggravates world tensions, but through such negative concentrationwe tend to attract the things which we fear. If we fear nothing andradiate love, we can expect good things to come. How much thisworld needs the message and the example of love and faith!
Peace and freedom! These things shall be! How soon these thingsshall be—whether now or whether after great destruction and newbeginnings and eons of time—is up to us!
Much research and experimentation needs to be done on peacefulways of resolving conflicts.We can work as groups, or as an individualright where we are, undertaking specific peace projects,commending and strengthening the good wherever we find it.
You can only expect to change one nation—your own.After yournation has changed itself, the example may inspire other nations tochange themselves. If any influential nation had the great spiritualstrength to lay down its arms and appear with clean hands before theworld, the world would be changed. I see no evidence that any influentialnation has such great spiritual strength and courage.Thereforedisarmament will be a slow process, motivated by the wish to survive.
The darkness that we see in our world today is due to the disintegrationof things out of harmony with God’s laws. The basic conflictis not between nations, it is between two opposing beliefs.
The first is that evil can be overcome by more evil, that the endjustifies the means.This belief is very prevalent in our world today. Itis the war way. It is the official position of every major nation.
Then there is the way that was taught two thousand years ago—of overcoming evil with good, which is my way, the way Jesustaught. Never lose faith: God’s way is bound to prevail in the end.
In order for the world to become peaceful, people must becomemore peaceful. Among mature people war would not be aproblem—it would be impossible. In their immaturity people want,at the same time, peace and the things which make war. However,people can mature just as children grow up.Yes, our institutions andour leaders reflect our immaturity, but as we mature we will electbetter leaders and set up better institutions. It always comes back tothe thing so many of us wish to avoid: working to improve ourselves.
The sanctuary of peace dwells within. Seek it out and all thingswill be added to you.We’re coming closer and closer to the timewhen enough of us will have found inner peace to affect our institutionsfor the better. And as soon as this happens the institutions willin turn, through example, affect for the better those who are stillimmature.
Peace will probably come to the world in the same way as it hascome to our land. Out of the chaos of civil war, Indian wars and theduels of hundreds of years ago, has come order. Mechanisms have beenset up to avoid physical violence, while psychological violence stillendures.The smaller units, the states, have given up to the larger unit,the United States, the right to make war. Yes, I think the time willcome when the smaller units, the nations, will give up to the largerunit, the United Nations, one single right: the right to make war.
I don’t believe the nations would or should give up other rights.
People have the most control over their affairs at a grass-roots level.
Anything that can be fairly and efficiently handled at a grass-rootslevel should be thus handled, and only delegated to a higher authoritywhen necessary.
The United Nations would have as its job maintaining a peacefulsituation in the world. As long as we remain immature the UNwould have a police force to deal with individual offenders againstthe peace of the world—by removing them, I would hope, for theirrehabilitation. Also it should have an unarmed peace force to dealwith war prevention. While our nation can deal with problems likean inadequate food supply, the UN would have to deal with problemslike a country striving for freedom—and freedom is now thedesire of all human hearts.
I once said to a woman who believed in war and Christian values:
“On the one hand you talk about Christian values, on the other handyou say, ‘Isn’t force the only deterrent they respect?’ This has beenour trouble down through the ages—we have given only lip serviceto Christian values, and lived by the jungle law of tooth and claw.Wehave quoted ‘Be not overcome of evil, overcome evil with good’ and thenattempted to overcome evil with more evil, thereby multiplying theevil.We worship God, but have no faith in the working of God’s lawsof love. The world awaits the living of the law of love, which willreach the divine within all human beings and transform them.”
The pastor of a large Canadian church, who had recentlyreturned from a visit to the Orient, told me that the Buddhists aresending two thousand missionaries to convert the Christians to theway of non-violence!
During World War II, an American Sunday School teacher whowas in the Pacific had captured a Japanese soldier. In marching thesoldier to camp, the American discovered that his prisoner spokeEnglish. “You know what,” said the Japanese soldier. “I was once aChristian.” The American deliberated a moment and then said,“Whydid you give up Christianity?” A look of surprise came upon theJapanese soldier, and he answered with a puzzled expression, “Howcan I be a soldier and still be a Christian?”
What people do not realize is that nonviolence can be applied inall situations, including World War II. I met four of the Danish peoplewho used the way of nonviolence and love in World War II, and it wasa wonderful story.
Now, when the Germans occupied France, the French wouldoften kill the German soldier who was patrolling, and then theGermans would wipe out the whole block in retaliation. When theGermans marched into Denmark, the Danish people began aprogram of non-cooperation.You know, they say the way to a man’sheart is through his stomach—many Danish people actually usedthat way.They would say to the German soldier who was patrolling,“As a representative of the Nazi Government, you have no right to behere anymore than we would have the right to be in your land, butyou are also a young man far from home. Maybe you’re homesick,and if you as a fellow human being would like to take off your gunbelt and come in and share our evening meal with us, you arewelcome.” It usually didn’t take more than one try. After that theGerman soldier would get to thinking, “Gee, these are nice people.
What are we doing here?”
The Danes also used nonviolent ways to protect the Jewishpeople in Denmark.
I met a Jewish woman who had been married and living with herparents in Germany under Hitler at the time of World War II. Shewas married when she was sixteen. Her first child was born whenshe was seventeen and the second when she was eighteen. She wasnineteen when three things happened to her. The first: her home wasdestroyed and her parents killed by an English bomb. I guess theythought they were liberating her. The second thing that happened:
her husband was taken away by the Nazis, and she assumed he wasdead because she never heard from him again. The third thing thathappened: she was injured and her two small children were killed byan American bomb.When I saw her she still carried the effects of theinjury. Again, we were ‘liberating’ her.
In her injured condition she wandered round and round with therefugees. Sometimes extenuating circumstances make you take aspiritual leap. She began thinking, They have injured and even destroyedour bodies, but they have injured their own souls, and that is worse. She wasable to feel compassion and pray for all connected with the situation,the killed and the killer. She was able to maintain such a good attitudethat she was befriended by German people, who at the risk oftheir lives, got her to England where she was befriended by the Englishpeople, and eventually got to the United States.
Now obviously this represents the most amazing victory of thespirit under the most difficult circumstances you could possiblyimagine. It also illustrates something else. Who or what was thatwoman’s enemy? Was it the English who destroyed her home andkilled her parents, or the Germans who killed her husband, or theAmericans who injured her and killed her two small children? Theanswer is amazingly obvious: it was war that was her real enemy. Itwas the false belief that violence will accomplish something, that evilcan be overcome by more evil. That was her real enemy, and it’s thereal enemy of all mankind.
Just as a human soul that faces great difficulties also faces greatopportunities for spiritual growth, so a human society that facesdestruction also faces the opportunity to enter a period of renaissance.
I think that, barring an accident, the wish to survive will keepus from a nuclear war. And I think both sides will change.We willmove toward more economic and social democracy, and they willmove toward more political and individual democracy. The idealsociety has yet to be built—one which balances nicely collectivewell-being and individual well-being.
Stories about Non-Violence.
One day as I was musing beside an old fort, I wondered what itwould say to the people of the world if it could speak, and I wrotethis article:
AN OLD FORT SPEAKSWhen I was built much time and money was spent on me,because it was thought that I would defend the city against allinvaders. Now I stand forlorn, since it does not require great wisdomto recognize that I am obsolete. But I am not the only materialdefense which is obsolete. Even the most modern of them are obsoletenow, although you in your fear and your bewilderment still clingto them. But while in your immaturity you lavish your time and yourtreasure upon them, you know in your hearts that they cannotdefend you against anything. You know that you stand, seeminglydefenseless, facing a new age, while the nuclear bomb says to you,“Make peace or perish!” But are you really defenseless because allmaterial defenses have crumbled as they were bound to crumble?
Have you forgotten the defense which cannot crumble, the defensewhich lies in obedience to higher law? Down through the ages yourbest teachings and your best selves have been telling you that evil canonly be overcome by good, and experience has shown that if youwant to make friends you must be friendly. When will you havewisdom enough to forsake the path to annihilation and turn to thedefense which is timeless and ageless and changeless? People ofearth, the decision is before you! You can still choose life, but youmust choose quickly!
THIS STRANGE CREATURE CALLED MANAn outsider might view this strange creature called Man thisway:
A Being from another world parked his space ship in an isolatedspot. The next morning he passed a military camp, where he sawmen sticking knives fastened to odd looking poles into bags of straw.
“What is this?” he asked a uniformed youth. “Bayonet practice,”
answered the youth.“We’re practicing on dummies.We have to learnto use the bayonet a certain way to kill a man. Of course we don’tkill many men with bayonets.We kill most of them with bombs.”
“But why should you want to learn to kill men?” exclaimed theBeing, aghast. “We don’t,” said the youth bitterly. “We are sent hereagainst our will and we don’t know what to do about it.”
That afternoon the Being passed through a large city. He noticeda crowd gathered in a public square to see a uniformed youth beingdecorated with a medal. “Why is he being decorated with a medal?”
inquired the Being. “Because he killed a hundred men in battle,” saidthe man beside him. The Being looked with horror upon the youthwho had killed a hundred men and walked away.
In another part of the city the Being heard a radio announcingloudly that a certain man was soon to be executed. “Why is he to beput to death?” asked the Being. “Because he killed two men,” said theman beside him.The Being walked away bewildered.
That evening, after the Being had thought the matter over, heopened his notebook and wrote: It seems that all youths are forced tolearn how to kill men efficiently.Those who succeed in killing a large numberof men are rewarded with medals.Those who turn out to be poor killers andsucceed in killing only a few men are punished by being put to death.
The Being shook his head sadly and added a postscript: It looks asthough this strange creature called Man will exterminate himself very quickly.
A Vision of Hope for Peace.
At the end of my forty-five day period of prayer and fasting, as Ilay between sleeping and waking, a wonderful vision came to me...
a vision of hope. I saw the nations of the world arming for war. Ispoke to them, but they would not listen. I wept for them, but theypaid no attention. I prayed for them, and then as I looked about meI saw that the people of the world were praying with me. Next Inoticed that a luminous mist was rising above us as we prayed, and itgradually took form. A radiant figure emerged whose white robeswere full of light and whose face was so bright I could scarcely lookupon it. When the figure spoke the gentle voice had the power ofthunder. “Put up your swords!” the figure said. “Those who take thesword shall perish by the sword!” And the nations of the worldlooked up startled and dropped their armaments, and the people ofthe world rejoiced together.
More Thoughts on Peace and Disarmament.
I would like to emphasize again that right prayer leads to rightaction, that “faith without works is dead.” An excellent way to putthoughts into action is to write a letter for peace.
Disarmament is slow in materializing—partly because fear is soprevalent, partly because there are vain hopes that arms might stillaccomplish some desired objective, partly because some economiesseem to be functioning rather profitably in a situation of war preparation.
The new age demands higher values.Those who spoke of peacewere once called idealists, but in this nuclear age the idealists havebecome the only realists.We have always thought of ourselves ashaving high ideals. Let us apply some of them in this crisis situation.
Believing that war is contrary to the will of God and to commonsense, and feeling that the way of peace is the way of love, I shallwork for peace by using the way of love myself, by helping any groupI am a part of to use it, by helping the nation of which I am a citizento use it, by helping the United Nations to use it, and by praying thatthe way of love be used all over the world.
I would say to the military:Yes, we need to be defended; yes, weneed you. The Air Force can clean up the air, the Marines can takecare of the despoiled forests, the Navy can clean the oceans, theCoast Guard can take care of the rivers, and the Army can be used tobuild adequate drainage projects to prevent disastrous floods, andother such benefits for mankind.
We limit ourselves by thinking that things can’t be done. Manythink peace in the world is impossible—many think that inner peacecannot be attained. It’s the one who doesn’t know it can’t be donewho does it!
The basic cause of all our difficulties is immaturity.That’s why Italk so much about peace within ourselves as a step toward peace inour world. If we were mature, war would not be possible and peacewould be assured. In our immaturity we do not know the laws of theuniverse, and we think evil can be overcome by more evil. Onesymptom of our immaturity is greed, making it difficult for us tolearn the simple lesson of sharing...
Now, I realize that sometimes the symptoms become so acutethat if we don’t work on them we might not survive to work on thecause, so during the war in Vietnam I did participate in some peaceablepeace demonstrations.That was an amazing time.The people ofthis country stopped the war in Vietnam, in spite of the government.
It just shows the power of the people of this country.
Then there are symptoms of symptoms, like extensive starva-tion. I would like to give everyone access to pure food, pure water,and pure air. I would like to be able to supply all their material needs,and also give them access to good food for thought, and beautifulsurroundings and all things that inspire.You don’t have to be verygood at arithmetic to figure out that if the nations of the world wouldstop manufacturing implements of destruction, the conditions for avery good life could be provided for all people.
We must walk according to the highest light we have, encounteringlovingly those who are out of harmony, and trying to inspirethem toward a better way. Whenever you bring harmony into anyunpeaceful situation, you contribute to the cause of peace.When youdo something for world peace, peace among groups, peace amongindividuals, or your own inner peace, you improve the total peacepicture.
We must never forget that disobedience to God’s laws brings disaster,although people eventually do learn by their own mistakes.
Now let’s look at our world. A poor, war-weary world.What’sthe matter with us? We’re so way off on the material side: even if wedo not have it we desire it.We are so lacking on the spiritual side:
whenever we discover all the technological advances, the first thingwe do is to turn them into weapons and use them to kill people.Thisis because our spiritual well-being lags so far behind. The validresearch for the future is on the spiritual side.We need to bring thetwo into balance so we’ll know how to use well the material wellbeingwe already have.
During the war in Vietnam there was intense peace activity.Whenthe war was finished there was a letdown and a period of apathyresulted. I suppose this was inevitable. It happens after every war.
After every war there is also a period of violence. I saw it afterboth World War I and World War II. I remember after World War II aman in Camden, New Jersey had just killed five people on the street,and when they grabbed him he said, “You taught me to kill.” He wastaught by the military. The man who shot from the University ofTexas tower and killed fifteen people and wounded others was taughtby the military during the Vietnam War.
The Price of Peace.
We seem always ready to pay the price for war.Almost gladly wegive our time and our treasure—our limbs and even our lives—forwar. But we expect to get peace for nothing.We expect to be able toflagrantly disobey God’s laws and get peace as a result.Well,we won’tget peace for nothing—and we won’t get peace by disobeying thelaws of God.We’ll get peace only when we are willing to pay theprice of peace. And to a world drunk with power, corrupted bygreed, deluded by false prophets, the price of peace may seem highindeed. For the price of peace is obedience to the higher laws: evilcan only be overcome by good and hatred by love; only a good meanscan attain a good end.
The price of peace is to abandon fear and replace it with faith—faith that if we obey God’s laws we will receive God’s blessings.Theprice of peace is to abandon hate and allow love to reign supreme inour hearts—love for all our fellow human beings over the world.Theprice of peace is to abandon arrogance and replace it with repentanceand humility, remembering that the way of peace is the way of love.
The price of peace is to abandon greed and replace it with giving, sothat none will be spiritually injured by having more than they needwhile others in the world still have less than they need.
People of the world, the time for decision is short. It is measuredin a few years. The choice is ours as to whether or not we will paythe price of peace. If we are not willing to pay it, all that we hold dearwill be consumed in the flame of war. The darkness in our worldtoday is due to the disintegration of things which are contrary toGod’s laws. Let us never say hopelessly this is the darkness before astorm; rather let us say with faith this is the darkness before the dawnof the golden age of peace, which we cannot now even imagine.
For this, let us hope and work and pray.