The World Peace Council (or World Council of Peace) was formed in 1949 in order to promote peaceful coexistence and nuclear disarmament. It has been alleged to be a front organization of Communist parties due to its advocacy of unilateral disarmament in western countries and the active participation and funding of the council by the Soviet bloc as well as the leading role taken in the WPC by Communists such ...

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Including:

• World peace - History
• World peace - Assessment
• World peace - The democratic peace theory
• World peace - Cobdenism
• World peace - Mutual assured destruction
• World peace - World government
• World peace - Self-Organized Peace
• World peace - Notes

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Some historians identify a long-term trend where nation-states stop fighting and become united. For example, old Europe with wars culminating in World War I and World War II, compared with the European Union; warring Chinese states compared with the modern Chinese nation. Certain historians theorize that the whole world will eventually follow this pattern as well. Dr. Frank Laubach, an American missionary to the Philippines in 1935 saw poverty, injustice and illiteracy as impediments to world peace. He developed the "Each One Teach One" literacy program which taught about 60 millio ...

See also:

World peace, World peace - History, World peace - Assessment, World peace - The democratic peace theory, World peace - Cobdenism, World peace - Mutual assured destruction, World peace - World government, World peace - Self-Organized Peace, World peace - Notes

Read more here: » World peace: Encyclopedia II - World peace - History

Vision is the ability to see beyond the present; to be able to chart a map of the future. Is such a vision possible for a universal religion? When all technologies and knowledge in the world are converging, why should humanity have different religions?

One basic question has haunted us for long: Are the many religions of the world opposed to each other? If their common goal is universal welfare, why do we need so many religions? All religions echo the need for righteous conduct, truth and non-violence. But they differ in their rituals, which are unfortunately being projected today as their core. Dress, mode of worship and language of rituals have come to symbolise purity of faith.

(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)

In the perspective of Baha'u'llah's teachings, the greatest danger of both the moral crisis and the inequities associated with globalisation is an entrenched philosophical attitude that seeks to justify its failures.

Philosophically and politically, the concept of western civilisation presents itself as a kind of liberal relativism, economically and socially, as capitalism - two value systems that have now so adjusted to each other and become so mutually reinforcing as to constitute virtually a single, comprehensive worldview.

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

Kundalini Maha Yoga and World Peace

We are in a state of unbalanced development, lacking on the spiritual side. Therefore, to attain what is missing -- peace, harmony and brotherhood -- it is necessary to realize that the entire universe is the creation of God, that all life is one, and that all are children of love. This realization is spiritual; it is not intellectual comprehension of an ideal.

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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)

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)

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)

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)

Citizens everywhere today are demanding that their leaders make choices to advance the cause of peace. What is disturbing is the grotesque imbalance between our powers of destruction and our failing ethical capacity for empathy and self-restraint.

Genuine leadership must be based on a solid commitment to protecting the precious fabric of daily life. The ordinary citizens of the world are raising their voice, insisting that all decisions - whether political, military or economic - be made with this human reality firmly in view.

The common cause of human happiness is the strongest basis for human solidarity. In a world of intimate interconnection, solidarity cannot be limited to just one group or nation. It must embrace all the people everywhere.

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

On this day in 1893, Swami Vivekananda addressed the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. At the opening address, Charles Bonney, the Chicago lawyer who organised the congress, said: "The very basis of our convocation is the idea that the representatives of each religion sincerely believe it is the truest and best of all." In this context, Vivekananda 's "talisman of tolerance" was a vibrant civilisational message to the world from the soul of India.

Vivekananda's words gave the World Parliament a defining focus. He began by saying he was "proud to belong to a religion which had taught the world tolerance and universal acceptance". He explained that "we believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true". He said he was proud that his nation had always sheltered the persecuted - like it had, for instance, fleeing Israelites and Zoroastrians.

(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)

Does an enlightened individual need to remain caged in the body? Why not get liberated from the physical? For seven days, the Buddha grappled with this dilemma. In the end, he decided that there was nothing personal about enlightenment - the knowledge should be shared with all for the benefit of humankind. He spent the next 50 years doing just that and all those who listened to him benefited greatly.

It is necessary for all of us to discover truth but once we find it, it should be shared freely with others. This will not only provide more insight, but also foster peace and happiness. The desire to share our discoveries with the world is normally fuelled by greed for either fame or money. Very few are selfless enough to share their discoveries freely for common benefit.

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

The world over, women continue to suffer community-sponsored injustice, whether they live in a secular or non-secular country. We can know how progressive a community is, by the way it treats its women.

Shocked at the condition of Indian women, Swami Vivekananda said that there was no reason to view women as being inferior to men or as obstacles to salvation - contrary to popular misconception, there is no scriptural sanction for oppressing women.

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

The future is unpredictable, so the end is unknown to us. This is the mystery of human life. Ancient wisdom had no hesitation in accepting this truth. But today, we find it difficult to accept.

T S Eliot lamented: "Where is the wisdom, we have lost in knowledge;/ Where is the knowledge, we have lost in information".

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

If you yourself are at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world.

- Thomas Merton

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Buddhist Quotes: Lasting World Peace

Real peace is not just the absence of violence or of war… A mere absence of war is not genuine, lasting world peace. Peace must develop on mutual trust.

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(See also: Buddhism Archives, Buddhist Quotes, Inspirational Quotes, Love Quotes, Friendship Quotes, Life Quotes)

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What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.

- Mother Teresa

(See also: Inspirational Quotes, Love Quotes, Friendship Quotes, Life Quotes)