A Vow

I think if our society progressed to the point of being able to live up to the standards of inalienable rights we espouse to possess, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we could not only greatly reduce the violent nature of our society, we could bravely enter the 21st century with a newfound sense of what being free truly means, and how peace on earth may be realized.

Sadly, being that we want to have a capitalistic way of life, in that we sell our very time, our very selves, for money, why would it then matter how others spend their time or invest in tomorrow; as long as they are harming not others. But investing money in tomorrow does harm others because that time and resource would be better spent feeding a sister and brother today, just as the very act of selling a love song indicates we are at war with one another (some say freedom is not free, but when even love costs money we are all on the losing side in a zero-sum game); so peace is truly an empty concept in a capitalist society. Nevertheless, decriminalizing activities that are unjustly deemed crimes would go a long way in making our society less violent, freer, and consequently more peaceful. The primary activities of which I speak are “drugs” and prostitution.

Peoples’ personal use of drugs as long as they are not harming others should be of no concern to other people. We can go into the decidedly medically beneficial qualities of marijuana, the occasionally enhancing attributes of cocaine, the acclaimed epiphanic nature of peyote, mushrooms, and poppy, etc., and these aforementioned organisms of our world are naturally occurring as compared to methamphetamine, the manufacture of which can pose a physical danger to communities; but why do we even need to debate these matters. As long as nobody else is harmed by the actions of a moral agent then how can we deem their actions illegal? If we are to say, “well they are harming themselves and we know better”, should we then outlaw cigarettes, alcohol, soft drinks, eating pig, tattoos, etc., ad nauseam . . .

We can always provide services for those who may seek help with addiction, and we will always protect our children under the age of eighteen, but we have no right legislating how somebody may pursue happiness.

Prostitution likewise is nobody elses’ business but the two consenting adults who are spending time together. There are only two possible laws they are breaking, one biblical and one civil. The biblical notion of prostitution being a sin has no legal bearing on how a society predicated on separation of church and state should legislate or adjudicate civil law. The civil law that prostitution would be breaking would be untaxed income; alright, make sure they pay their taxes in this service oriented industry.

Society economically benefits, the police forces diminish, lessening government and saving more money, and all the meanwhile we can then re-focus our work force and resources in whatever productive industry our fertile minds can imagine, in stark contrast to the waste of life and human potential in the death of more prisons and more guns! And these are but two examples of victimless “crimes” where theology clouds civil reasoning, and “war” erupts in areas of life that ideally, in the eyes of the respective pursuers of happiness, seek to promote in their lives peace by making money or chemically altering their perception of reality.

Making money and wanting to alter ones’ perception of reality are avoidable terrors, but not in a society where profit is the bottom line of life.

Peace can always break out, but not as long as we are locked into wars (such as “wars on drugs”, “wars on prostitution”, and even ironically enough “wars on poverty”! Poverty would disappear if there was peace; so maybe we should start ending entirely needless wars and unite in fighting the only war we need to win before peace is possible: right now let us declare war on war!

Resistance is violent and futile, peace is non-violent and forgiving; and I know we all need forgiving. I vow: I forgive myself, I forgive you, and may the Lord forgive us all.

Pass it on.

Peace

It is ego's job to vow for this or that and Nature's Scheme of Things' job to break them to push-evolve the man not only beyond ego but beyond any type of bondages, even the bondages of vows.

The final goal is to be utterly natural, to flow with the flow, to be spontaneous, to be true to your own self, to be true to the situation of the time/space you find yourself in and then to do your duty accordingly (as Krishana advised Arjuna). Whtehr then what happens is violence or peace must be the need of the hour.

Hello Deepak and Everyone,

I think that Harb has put it well in his #2...

:)

ruth

I suppose we won't be hearing these old humanity saws anytime soon:

"Give me liberty or give me death!” or that ever popular license plate slogan from NH:

“Live free or die!”

I would have been really impressed if this vow was taken right after a McCain/Palin win

Fight On, I mean Non Violent On everyone,

Steve

Hi Deepak,

When I read that my thoughts were similar to Harb. Most of the people you were talking to were I expect predominately non-violent. I am my self by nature, a non-violent person it doesn't require a vow. It sort of reminds me of members of congress being out of touch with the reality of most others. Both the conservative and liberal elite have very little incentive to bring real change except when they feel threatened. I am sure there are a few exceptions. I am not saying this is a fault as much as it is the reality of that role and character. At the other end of the spectrum the working class and those in poverty also share culpability for their situation.

I would suggest for the Alliance for a New Humanity a commitment to compassion and creating an environment, systems, and consciousness to create…

EVERYONE A LIFE WORTH LIVING

And

Balanced Systems

I live in the second most safest city in the United States 20 minutes from the 2nd most dangerous. There is a mix of people from all cultures and countries in both places. I can see what the difference is leading to safety in one place and danger in another, scarcity and lack. I would agree that this scarcity and lack has to do with a level of consciousness. By the way Detroit it is really not that dangerous I think it depends on your consciousness. In addition to the level of consciousness systems and policy that create imbalance are a contributing factor and need to be changed.

The real question is how to reach the bowels of human consciousness with awareness, how do we help raising that consciousness? How do we simply expose those minds to that which will lead to an increased awareness? How do we bring compassion to them so they also become it?

I would also add that when the working class and those in poverty change their consciousness they will bring change to the systems that are contributing to the imbalance. It’s happening now, a revolution, and it will get very naturally uncomfortable for those that are perceived to design and control the systems creating the imbalance.

There are some very “real world” changes that need to be made with executable steps, which I have outlined on Intent Blog, but I do not see all those claiming the intention to bring Peace and Balance to the world acting on them yet perhaps due to ego impediment.

Although we are limited in our ability to bring balance to the mind of others, we are not limited in helping to bring balance to the physical body, both the balance of mind and body being reciprocal.

The number one goal of the world body should be to eliminate nutritional deficiency which gives rise to disease, an unnecessary cost burden on humanity.

If we all really want to avoid violence then I suggest we implement many of the changes I and others have outlined by first creating awareness of them.

Blessings on everyone and wishing and intending all the highest good, since I wouldn’t claim to know what would be best for everyone individually on their evolutionary path.

“No one is at fault but everyone is responsible”
~OneSelf

Keep up the good work Deepak.

``
Yes I think Harb put it very well.

It is the "natural" evolutionary sequence to awaken and challenge, then to transcend and merge, and finally to destroy and rebirth. In this process consciousness explores every possibility, leaving no stone unturned in the application of creativity to this universal process.

Sometimes that means plowing under the old into compost to fertilize new seeds of life. I suppose whether that is violent or not would depend on if you are the compost or a seed.

b

How is violence defined? Would one still use physical force to defend life?

I think what matters is if one is acting from compassion or fear. If one resolves to not act on fear thoughts, it changes everything, and is much harder to do than simply resisting from hitting or killing someone.

What about the other forms of violence? Greed, or profiting from disease and fear?

I had suggested before that we have a global ban on profits resulting from war this includes interest earned in financing them.

Rather than a commitment to non-violence if 100 million people would provide $1.00 I am certain this one could have the world feeding itself within 3 years. Ending hunger will not happen from token handouts of food. It would come creating awareness of the closest thing to Manna which is Amaranth, it has unusual properties, so that there would be a demand and then even the unskilled could create value in the system by growing it. We would build a supply chain that eliminates the middle men adding no value that usurp the wealth created by the real producers. One would also move mountains literally crushing the rock, spreading it on the soil to create accelerated weathering which both traps CO2 and replenishes the soil which creates a bountiful and nutritional harvest without the need for petrochemical fertilizer, pesticides, or genetically modified plants which introduce foreign protein into the natural systems.

Perhaps what we should question most is how come the individuals and organizations tasked with solving such problems are not able to come up with the solution, much less deliver them, but rather one not tasked with such things, at least by any institution of man, can do so.

So when those that really want to end violence on the planet resolve to do so, we will be hearing these words coming from their mouth “Remineralization” and “Amaranth” not the hocus pocus that some would offer as a solution.

By the way Elzie Crisler Segar the creator of Popeye did not base his characters “power” from eating American Spinach, but rather Chinese Spinach which is “Amaranth” although the American media depicted it as American Spinach. Yet even this is mistaken because the information regarding the benefits and seemingly magical properties of Amaranth are based on the seed not the leaf.

This is great. I join the tidal wave for the vow of non-violence and peace. However, I doubt I will commit to bringing two people into the loop, as I think one has to find this place of peace on their own and surely I am not one for sharing it openingly, so my vow is silent and remains within my heart.

Deepak:

I have to agree with the majority here.

A vow is a string of words that may or may not hold any weight.

Their are many people that have never taken a vow of non violent thought - speech - action and they live non violent lives.

Their are many many people that take vows of non violence repeatedly that cannot seem to embrace a non violent living.

It's like drug addiction.

It has something to do with the core of the individual and not the standing up and "vowing".

Richard is on to it.

I've shared this here before. During the Balkan wars many refugees came from the former Yugoslavia to Switzerland, an extremely wealthy country.

Did we see Croats and Serbs and Albanians taking up arms against each other when they arrived here in Switzerland? No. We saw the Swiss educating and employing.

When someone is not in fear of starvation and watching their family dying from hunger, when someone can make an honest days pay, go home with groceries, send children to school etc etc etc........

Harb did put it best. Vow is an ego thing. It creates bondage.

I see nothing creative in violence and death; but I do see people will go to great sophistical lengths to justify violence; alas we are the only animal that I know of that claims to have a soul:

one day God-willing we will act like we really do.

Violence removes us one by one from this Earthly frame.
I make no promises. I am.
Violation I would not. I must be ever mindful.

Yet Mother Earth She suffers the jack-boot of Man.

Thank you all.

Better to be a thief than a saint by vowing. A thief will eventually become a saint - without vowing and irreversibly - while a saint by vowing over this and that will always remain in the danger of degenrating to the level of a thief.

Respect your own unique natue, your own unique pace/way of reaching your next evolutionary goals. Short-cuts under the influence of others will always be dangerous. Gandhi made many people psychological wrecks by influencing them overtly or covertly to take the vows of celibacy.

Good Morning Deepak,

Thank you for back bone and for being a leader in our world. We are "on a roll" and this personal and collective vow keeps us in momentum.

Non-violence begins with self love and that requires forgiveness. Because we are a collective body this love and forgiveness moves inside out.

Sustaining non-violence is like gardening. A weed will pop up from the dark fertile collective unconscious. An aware gardener gently removes the weed and plants flowers. (In this realm there are no real "weeds" since all plant life has a purpose. Most weeds are edible or medicinal and it's our turning away from Nature and true selves that has caused this loss of relationship.)

What images and sensations come through one's imagination? I smell sweet fragrance and see bees happily pollinating one to one. Goddess and bees are associated according to some texts. Non-violence requires the Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine to work together within individual bodies and in our collective body.

I think Obama has both qualities as do you and many other leaders, teachers and authors. "Let the mountains speak, let the rivers run" comes up through unconscious field. It's a song John Denver wrote and sang for environmentalist David Brower. Mother Earth's bio-systems will heal when humans practice non-violence.

By their fruits ye shall know them...

Thank you, Deepak.

Trish~~

I think everyone is not going to monitor their thoughts all the time, it is simply impossible.

Humans are biologically endowed with the capability for violence, and the body is biologically set up to respond with adrenaline surges when threatened.

Therefore, I cannot realistically promise to never have a violent thought. Nor can anyone else.

What I can vow is this:

1. I vow not to indulge in violent thoughts, and when I have them, shift my attention out of the violence, and break the chain reaction of violent thoughts.

2. I vow to continue to work on myself so as to remove any ideas of harming others, seeking revenge, etc as a way of clearing karmas from my psyche.

3. When confronted with violent situations I will seek a way to resolve the situation without violence, and/or to protect myself and others by removing myself/us from the scene of violence.

4. If I can intervene in a situation to prevent violence (such as to beak up a heated argument that seems likely to end in violence) I will take the social responsibility to do so.

5. I will not participate in frivolous wars, and I will not be conscripted to kill people, although in a clear situation where my people are directly threatened by those seeking to kill us (direct attack), I would participate in some non-violent way to help my people.

6. I vow to never act on a violent impulse towards another (see vow #1). This includes leveling curses and verbal threats at others, as well as physical violence.

7. I vow to recognize, and be responsible for, the karmic effect that any violent thoughts or actions have upon myself or others.

I cannot agree to evangelize non-violence, only to state that I have committed to it. I am willing to explain my position, but I cannot promise to make anyone else take any vows, just as I cannot promise to make someone else meditate.

Why complicate it? Every heart knows what peace is, what violence is. Just ask it, it will tell you in the moment. Committing to peace means committing to allowing unconditional love.

Refering to the video that followed, that sounds much better, a vow to "be" an embodiment of Peace.

In contrast to a vow of non-violence, to "not be" something.

It might more powerful or be of more substance to "be" something then to 'not be' something. If you’re just ‘not being’ something then it doesn’t define what you are being, but “to be” something defines both.

I think is easier to “be” then to “not be”.

Of course that is just my mind and perhaps nothing more than semantics.

Or perhaps somebody else can express it better.

One can't BE greater than ONE and ONE will be all-inclusive...

In One some will be at a time/place who will need to be violent and some will be at a time/place who will need to be non-violent or peaceful.

Of course in the course of One's evolutionary scheme of things there are times when things need to be pushed towards peace and there are times when things need to be pushed towards violence to jerk-awake the same peace or the status quo to make a quantum jump to the next level.

When something is contextualized in terms of good and/or bad, judgement gets involved.

There are times for both.

I vow to be the same goofball I am and to be that with as much compassion as possible.

peace comes from peace

derek

Hello Derek and Harb,

Every One is a world or a Universe on Ones own.

When I was born the One gift of life I was given was breathing. I had to, cause otherwise I would not have existed. I would not even be aware of the fact that I exist if I did not breathe.

I, do not have to vow for anything, I just accept the fact that I am, alive and breathing and capable of receiving and giving life. The rest follows by itself.

And One can make or break Oneself.

Love, Mieke