What is Peace?
What is the Energy and Experience that Rooms For Peace Seeks to Support?
As described elsewhere on this site, Rooms For Peace exists to support and direct
funds to any number of other non-profit organizations that are working for "peace"
in some way. Those ways include efforts to reduce war and violence among people
and nations, surely, yet we recognize that there are many, perhaps
thousands of other expressions of peace.
For peace is also found in stillness and quietude, in calm reflection, in kindness
and sincere friendship, in building community and relationships, in renewal of ecosystems
and cultural heritage, in personal growth and health, in reverence and respect,
in love and generosity...in many ways, shapes, and forms (see the list of peace-related
qualities below). Each aspect is indeed a doorway into a greater reality of peace that's
expansive, timeless, and universal.
More generally, peace has a three-fold nature.
Peace is, for one, a state of being (direct peace), a quality of consciousness
within oneself (or even within groups). It is more than just an absence of conflict:
it is a dynamic calmness that remains untouched by even the greatest outward challenges.
It is what allows one to "stand unshaken," as a great teacher once put it, "amidst
the crash of breaking worlds."
Such inner peace, while detached and untouched, is yet deeply engaged applying
creativity in service to life. For it is from such inner strength that the greatest outward
movements of peace have sprung. Think of souls like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Nelson Mandela, and others, whose outward influences were, in a very real way, merely
reflections of their powerful inner calm, in each case arising from a deep sense of connection
with that greater reality of peace.
In this we see the second aspect of peace: as states of relationship
(or structural peace, between groups and/or individuals). This is the realm of doing,
of how one's inner state of being is actively expressed. It's what we speak of when we use terms like
"peace-making" and "peace-building"; it is to engage in works that seek to better
the world and strengthen the manifestation of peacefulness.
It's essential, of course, that such action does not disrupt or negate that inner state of being. Serving
the cause of peace must include both what we seek to achieve through
our actions and the effect of those actions upon ourselves.
We must be at peace, in other words, with our actions themselves by giving our best loving
energy to our work while letting the results--the forms--take shape on their own.
For we cannot control how the world will respond to our best-intentioned efforts.
To be attached to specific responses is to risk frustration, anger, and
resentment, all of which diminish peace. With non-attachment, on the other hand, there is always
success; gradually you realize that no such effort is ever wasted. For the world
must respond to positive energy, oftentimes in ways that surpass whatever
expectations we might have imagined!
And such is the third aspect: peace as a universal effect (cultural peace)
on people, plants, animals, and both natural and man-made environments. We all know
the feelings of being in a peaceful environment--a quiet forest or garden, a silent
group meditation, an expansive mountain or ocean vista, a sacred place, a well-designed
building, and even a well-decorated room. We also know the deep inspiration we can feel from
art, dance, music, drama, and even a calm yet energetic and positively-focused meeting.
The creation, maintenance, or stewarding of such places, events, and cultural experiences is thus a service
to peace also. They give others the opportunity to experience peace directly, drawing from that
experience the inspiration to both seek deeper peace in themselves--that state
of being--and to bring that peace into dynamic outer expression.
And so we see how all these aspects are inter-related and inter-connected. Taking
steps toward inner peace empowers the creation of outward peace; outward peace inspires
a greater desire for inner peace. Again, every aspect of this greater reality of
peace is a doorway into the whole: no matter where you begin, no matter what your
abilities or talents, whether in ways small or grand...taking a step into peace adds to its power in our
world and perhaps opens yet new doorways through which it can find its way into the hearts and minds of all.
Qualities of Peace
| abundance |
confidence |
fulfillment |
orderliness |
self-reliance |
| acceptance |
connectedness |
goodness |
patience |
serenity |
| altruism |
contentment |
grace |
placidity |
service |
| balance |
coolness |
gratitude |
poise |
silence |
| beauty |
cooperation |
groundedness |
purity |
stability |
| benevolence |
courtesy |
harmony |
quietude |
stillness |
| calmness |
creativity |
honor |
receptivity |
sustainability |
| caring |
empowerment |
interdependence |
relaxation |
tranquility |
| centeredness |
equability |
justice |
reliability |
trust |
| cleanliness |
equality |
lightness |
respect |
unification |
| comfort |
equanimity |
modesty |
reverence |
unity |
| communication |
even-mindedness |
nobility |
safety |
universality |
| compassion |
expansiveness |
non-attachment |
satisfaction |
well-being |
| completeness |
faith |
non-violence |
security |
wholeness |
| composure |
freedom/liberty |
oneness |
self-assurance |
wholesomeness |