The concept of peace ranks among the most controversial in our time. Peace undoubtedly carries a positive connotation; almost nobody admits to opposing peace; world peace is widely seen as one of the most noble goals of humanity. Various groups, however, differ sharply about what peace entails, how best to achieve peace, and whether peace is even truly possible. Peace - What is peace?. Peace is many things: the meaning of the word peace changes with context. Peace may refer specifically to an agreement conc ...

Including:

• Peace - What is peace?
• Peace - Selfless Act of Love
• Peace - Absence of war
• Peace - Absence of violence or of evil; presence of justice
• Peace - Plural peaces
• Peace - Peace and quiet
• Peace - Inner peace
• Peace - Environmental Peace
• Peace - Is violence necessary?
• Peace - Historical examples and counter examples
• Peace - Peacemakers
• Peace - Nobel Peace Prize
• Peace - Quotes

Read more here: » Peace: Encyclopedia - Peace

See also:

Peace, Peace - What is peace?, Peace - Selfless Act of Love, Peace - Absence of war, Peace - Absence of violence or of evil; presence of justice, Peace - Plural peaces, Peace - Peace and quiet, Peace - Inner peace, Peace - Environmental Peace, Peace - Is violence necessary?, Peace - Historical examples and counter examples, Peace - Peacemakers, Peace - Nobel Peace Prize, Peace - Quotes

Read more here: » Peace: Encyclopedia II - Peace - What is peace?

The single most notable feature of the Peace of Antalcidas is the Persian influence it reflects. The Persian decree that established the terms of the peace clearly shows this: King Artaxerxes thinks it just that the cities in Asia should belong to him, as well as Clazomenae and Cyprus among the islands, and that the other Greek cities, both small and great, should be left independent, except Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros; and these should belong, as of old, to the Athenians. But whichever of the two parties does not accept this peace, up ...

See also:

Peace of Antalcidas, Peace of Antalcidas - The end of the war, Peace of Antalcidas - Terms of the peace, Peace of Antalcidas - Effects, Peace of Antalcidas - Footnotes

Read more here: » Peace of Antalcidas: Encyclopedia II - Peace of Antalcidas - Terms of the peace

The preamble to the United Nations Charter sums up the existential dilemma of today:

"Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that defences of peace must be constructed".

 In a land where history had sought to be sketched in an arc from Gautama to Gandhi, it is appropriate reflect on such defences and revive them today when war and terrorism have cast their shadow on the world.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

The spiritual approach to peace-making is radically different from the worldly approach, said Jesus Christ. In the worldly approach, both peace and war are driven by vested interests - so the one is indistinguishable from the other. Wars, St Augustine warns us in The City of God, are waged mostly in the name of peace.

The road to peace is truly simple: Make peace politically profitable and war-mongering politically costly. There should be a constructive collaboration between democracy and spirituality.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Most world leaders, international organisations and so-called peace summits tend to define peace in the shadow of war, as 'a situation where there is no war"between nations.

By doing so they are actually taking a negative view. By viewing the positive element in contrast to the negative, we will end up underrating the former'spotential. By defining light as the 'absence of darkness"or, life as the 'absence of death", we assign greater importance to the powers of darkness and death, or in the case of peace, to war, rather than peace.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

More than 50 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi offered a startling truth: "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." To a country bogged down in the morass of war, this could be a beacon of hope.

Gandhi went further to show that the way of peace ends suffering and oppression, not by warring against an enemy but by bearing witness to wrongs and allowing sympathy and common humanity to do their patient work. Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa lived different aspects of peace, which was proven to be a viable way to achieve great things.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

The computer era has popularised the term "solution". All metros now display advertisements and posters that offer a variety of solutions.

The names are equally enterprising: "Ideal Solutions", "Smart Solutions", "Party Solutions", "Curtain Solutions", "Critical Solutions"... the list is long. When the question is of one's well being, a superficial solution will not work.

Non-apprehension of Reality is the cause for all misapprehensions. A deluded mind creates misunderstandings. One who broods over the past mars the present which is what shapes the future.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Recently, this sentence stopped me short: "Before we can live in peace, we have to be able to imagine, to image peace." On similar lines, sculptor and activist Dana Toomey writes of how once, reading the newspaper, she counted 50 different kinds of war around the globe.

Why is it when most of us want peace, war is so prevalent, she wondered. Trying to envision a new culture without war, she asked herself - since humanity has never experienced life without violence, what would peace be like? How would we get the things we want? Who would be our heroes? Is anyone or anything pointing the way?

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Even as we prepare to deal with the threat of war and conflict, we need to focus on the equally critical issue of the impact this has on people's hearts and minds. The signal failure of military action to produce a clear prospect for peace has left many feeling suffocated with illusions of powerlessness and dread.

The impasse could be broken through military force or other forms of "hard power". At best, however, such action only responds to the symptoms of conflict. To the extent it plants further seeds of hatred in regions already torn by strife, it deepens and entrenches antagonisms.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Advocates of peace all over the world continue with their avowed mission. They are working towards creating greater awareness of the need for promoting universal feelings of amity and compassion.

The annual Maramon Convention held recently in Kerala - which was first organised in 1896 by the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, an ancient Christian community of India - is one such collective effort to bring out the spiritual essence of the Word of God.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Technologically we live in a borderless world. In reality, however, we exist in compartments, separated by walls of caste, religion and geography. We acknowledge the information explosion as being a great achievement and take pride in describing ourselves as a knowledge-based society. Snowed under as we are with mounds of information, we are facing a paradox - we find that ignorance levels are growing as well. The rate at which we are accumulating information is not commensurate with the rate at which our awareness is growing.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

In the language of yoga, the purpose or the effect of continuous nada sadhana on the human mind is ananda - extreme bliss.

Nada, or sound, is divided into two parts - aahada and anhada, heard and unheard. Heard means that which is possible for you to hear 'through the physical ears', and unheard means 'felt', which is the condition of nada before it is musically shaped and regularised. Then come the shrutis, then swaras, notes, which from time to time have been explained by the masters.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

The gory massacre at Godhra and the subsequent retaliatory slaughter throughout Gujarat underlines how easily communal passions can be aroused among otherwise normal people.

A major cause for such behaviour is a mindset, found both among Muslims and Hindus, that believes that tolerance is a sign of weakness. Convinced about the infallibility of their own faith, they are totally intolerant to the views of others. Bolstered by the exhortations of their religious and political leaders, they feel no compunctions in smashing all that stands in their way including the laws of the land.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Despite continuing conflict, prejudices that once seemed inherent in our nature, are giving way. However, frequently, organised religion poses a formidable obstacle in the path, especially when fanatics seek credence from it. Yet, a lot has been achieved elsewhere: Women were generally regarded as inferior. But now, globally, the concept of equality of the sexes is a universally accepted principle.

Nationalism faces a similar fate. One has to distinguish between patriotism that enriches one'slife, and submission to inflammatory rhetoric that provokes hatred and fear. Nationalistic rites are as often marked by feelings of awkwardness as they are by the strong convictions and enthusiasm of earlier times. The fetish for absolute national sovereignty is on its way out.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Wars happen when intolerance reaches epic proportions, when the reasons for war become greater than the sanctity of peace. Wars happen when we fail to realise the value of being alive. World leaders try to bring peace, but it is not an issue of institutions. It is human beings who start wars. Before a war begins outside, it starts inside.

The war on the inside is more dangerous because it is a fire that may never be put out. Wars are being fought because peace is not being found within, because it is not being allowed to unfold.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Buddhism advocates tolerance - to accept that there are differences in human experiences; that diversity is part of life, whether in experiences, cultural backgrounds or religions/faiths. Buddhism is the religion of compassion, mercy and forgiveness for all life forms.

It does not preach the superiority of its belief systems over those of other religions, nor does it believe in any sort of hierarchical ordering of faith systems; it does not discriminate against anyone, least of all on account of faith or belief. The recognition and embracement of diversity and pluralism and the resulting absence of any coercive or violent means for proselytising is the very essence of the humanism of Buddhism.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Silence is the womb of the tangible world. In the Christian Biblical version of Creation, God 'spoke' and the world came into being. With the pronouncing of the Word, speech became primary, but silence remained primordial.

The heart of Christian meditation is to return to this primordial state of being. It is a journey from words into the creative word of God; this Word is enveloped by silence. By its very nature, silence is unexploitable, often purposeless and for that reason very frightening.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Until 3,000 years ago, all religions were pantheistic and polytheistic as Hinduism, Taoism and Shinto still are. They tolerated the religions of other tribes and cultures, recognising in their worship the same divine energies as their own, albeit with different names.

Why then did patriarchal, monotheistic religions arise in the Middle East 3,000 years ago, and spread in their Christian forms throughout Europe and then on to the European colonised overseas territories during the last 1,500 years? Why did these monotheistic religions fight so fiercely to eradicate nature worship in the lands they controlled? Why did Christianity promote a dualistic antagonism between the spirit and the flesh, with only the former conceived as being in the "image of God"?

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)