PEACE, PEACE, PEACE …now and forever.
“It is the heart that knows no boundaries nor ego gratification thus knows no violence and remains open to love. Love is PEACE.”
- Dr. Nina Meyerhof, Founder and President of Children of the Earth
Take a moment to savor the words and inner musings of “Mama” Nina Meyerhof, Founder and President of Children of the Earth, as she discusses Peace.
PEACE, PEACE, PEACE …now and forever.
Dr. Nina Meyerhof, Founder and President of Children of the Earth
Peace is something we all want. We know it is more than the absence of war. We know it is a state of Being as well. We learn the words and seek the experience of inner peace for the road to world peace. Yet, what is this nebulous peace? With so many wars, confrontations, challenges and competitions, how do we ever even learn to live this word PEACE?
First and foremost, what are the appropriate words to describe what PEACE would look like? How would we know when we saw this in our lives? What does PEACE feel like? If you walked into a store or sat at a table for dinner, how would peace look differently than your present behavior? Recently I believe I began to understand the true meaning of seeking PEACE.
Peace is a rare state of non-violence and the mantra is total harmlessness. This is a truism reflected through thought, word and deed. Violence is a projection that resides in the mind resulting from our many life experiences. In this pursuit of peace we recognize a state of mindful nonviolence. Violence, living in the mind, is every mental separation and slicing of life into segments for our own personal ego gratification. It is the heart that knows no boundaries nor ego gratification thus knows no violence and remains open to love. Love is PEACE.
The mind’s violent nature is our personal neediness and ego display of desire. If I desire a materialistic need or a personal want then I am expressing this ego greed. This is how all greed exists in the world. If I greed to have, and another greeds to have; then the competition begins until the “more” is the powerful and over seer of the lesser. This imbalance causes distress and power concerns. Separation is emphasized and love is constrained to attachment to another to fulfill this need. So how do we move into heart-centered living? How do we direct the mind from the heart?
Of course, it is practically impossible to be a non ego-centered individual in a world where we live as individuals uniting in families, cultures, religions and nations. This PEACE thus comes from releasing mind separations or at least recognizing that this is not love. We recognize the heart moves us to embracing life. As the heart takes leadership, life becomes more harmonious and well -balanced.
It is work to strive to live like this. We meditate and contemplate to hear the inner calling that enlivens the HEART. If we give our hearts full permission then we move into the love that is necessary for PEACE as a non-violent state. Our goal is to experience unitive synergy: uniting as one and furthering the understanding of the collaborative group. Oneness of the soul within the self, co-aligned with oneness within all other selves. The soul self becomes united until it experiences one with the whole. The heart is where this potential resides. PEACE is possible.
Once the soul self knows this experience of unity then the self begins the process of releasing the mind from attachment. The desires that become the acts of violence diminish and the growing heartfulness leads us towards a life of unity and PEACE.
Children of the Earth, founded by Dr. Nina Meyerhof, pioneers and activates this understanding for young people worldwide. We serve young people in over 60 countries and have touched approximately 15,000 lives or more to become spiritually conscious leaders, through personal and social transformation for the advancement of a peaceful and sustainable earth. We are determined to create an arena that serves to attract those who are inspired to serve the world through the discovery of their inner authentic soul self 's passion for living a life of meaning. The young people come knowing they want a change and are willing to forfeit many external desires for a rich life of seeking peace for world harmony. They respond in actualizing their personal intention, becoming inspired to altruism, and weaving a web bridging all personal, cultural, national and religious divides. We offer workshops based on our training model: Reflect-Connect-Act building unitive synergistic momentum. Children of the Earth houses this understanding, fostering an “inner revolution for our social evolution”.
Our book "Pioneering Spiritual Activism" is used to invite individuals to use our model of going beyond the visible for moving from I to We to ONE as well as listening to our latest CD heralding Wisdom of the Heart - Songs to Inspire Transcendence and Peace. Both are products emerging from this oneness focus.
A human being is part of a whole, called by us "universe" - a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest…a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
--Albert Einstein