CHAPTER FIVE: Power and THE PEACE BOOK

Peaceful people don’t wage war.

Peaceful people are more powerful than that. Powerful beyond measure.         

Power and force are two very different things. True power comes from within, and from understanding how energy works, and that there are different levels of human consciousness. Force is pushing your will onto someone else, and that never ends well for anyone involved. If you haven’t already, please check out David R. Hawkins’ work for more information on this topic.

Just to add confusion (kidding!) I will say true, authentic, connected power is like utilizing  “The Force” in Star Wars. Remember how Obiwan “Ben” Kenobi used The Force to overcome the “weak-minded” Stormtrooper guards in the original 1977 Star Wars movie, A NEW HOPE? With a little wave of his hand, the master dismissed the fearful energy of the guards, and the dialog went like this:

Stormtrooper: Let me see your identification.

Ben Kenobi: You don’t need to see his identification.

Stormtrooper: We don’t need to see his identification.

Ben Kenobi: These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

Stormtrooper: These aren’t the droids we’re looking for.

Ben Kenobi: He can go about his business.

Stormtrooper: You can go about your business.

Ben Kenobi: Move along.

Stormtrooper: Move along. Move along.

People who know who they truly are inside and have a deep connection with their higher self, whatever they call that higher power, don’t attack others (other people, the land, animals and other species) to get what they think they want.

I have a feeling someone is reading this chapter right now and thinking about how the suicide hijackers of 9/11 may have, according to some news outlets, praised Allah (Muslim word for God), possibly using phrases such as Allahu Akbar, which is kind of like Amen for Christians.

Do you think those hijackers had inner peace, that they were truly connected with Allah when making those decisions?

It’s a rhetorical question, yes.

I stopped watching “the news” years ago, but with a phone manufactured within the last 20 years, one can’t help but be inundated with “news” feeds in the digital age of social media. Something I saw this morning, about the person who is currently acting as the US President, had to do with predatory sexual behavior towards young women, teens still in their childhood.

Is that someone connected with their higher self, how a soul-aligned person would think and act?

Another rhetorical question.

We’re here in this world with a split mind – one part of us is still home in the spirit world we never left, and the other part of our mind appears to be trapped in these human bodies. And it’s in these human bodies the problems start. And the growth and the glory.

It’s up to each of us to make a choice. A decision.

Every thought is a choice. Or you can look at it that every thought is a prayer.

Our thoughts, woe though we may bemoan it, do not belong to us and us alone. I wish it were so – that any horrible thoughts towards others, and infinitely worse towards myself, I’ve had over the years did belong to me and me alone – and I could bury them or make them otherwise die and go away.

Well, I can’t. I mean, they did go away. By going off into the ethers where everyone and everything was impacted by what I thought.

I was about to say, “I really hate that thought.”

Get the irony?

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung first and probably best described the notion of a collective unconscious, wherein reside impulses and memories that aren’t individual to any one person. He also explored the idea of archetypes (warrior, child, mentor, queen, etc.) that are common in all different cultures and societies. Caroline Myss wrote an excellent book on this topic called SACRED CONTRACTS. Her book, which I read twice, helped me uncover my own archetypes; I even made mini-collage cards for all of them! Great fun.

I desire this holy instant for myself, that I may share it with my brother, whom I love.

It is not possible that I can have it without him, or he without me.

Yet it is wholly possible for us to share it now.

And so I choose this instant as the one to offer to the Holy Spirt, that His blessing may descend on us, and keep us both in peace. -Foundation For Inner Peace, A COURSE IN MIRACLES Licensed under CC BY-ND Used with permission. https://acim.org

The only book I’ve ever read, and then immediately bought eight extra copies of to give away, was Byron Katie’s LOVING WHAT IS. It’s the best self-help manual I know of to really dissect and start understanding and releasing all those thoughts that come into the mind, the thought-making machine, which can so easily keep us from our highest self. It’s really a matter and manner of noticing thoughts, releasing them, getting to the core of what is truly true. We can look from above, like we’re witnessing the goings-on of the thought-making-machine, rather than being enmeshed in the “mitote”, as Don Miguel Ruiz says in THE FOUR AGREEMENTS, and believing those thoughts are true.

I know this might sound odd, but most thoughts aren’t true.

Here are some primo phrases I’ve heard over the years that ended up in my thoughts.

-Always be a lady. (What does that even mean?)

-He who dies with the most toys wins.

-You have to go to college and get a good job in order to be successful.

-Watching the news is necessary to being informed and able to converse intelligently with others.

Here’s one that popped into my head yesterday when I started writing this chapter. “My husband just got home from work and was so negative; he must have had a horrible day.”  

He was pissed off because the squirrels messed up the bark dust and he noticed it right before he walked in the door. He got over it quickly.

THE PEACE BOOK  https://thepeacecompany.com/ by Louise Diamond provides 108 simple ways to create a more peaceful world. Things like listening with empathy, sharing with straight talk, and tapping into the creative spirit to create peaceful art.

Those examples may seem simple, but little, simple steps we each take will create inner peace within ourselves. And then we won’t be attacking anybody, even with our own thoughts. And then the world will be more peaceful.

Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter. It must begin with your own thoughts, and then extend outward. It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises. -Foundation For Inner Peace, A COURSE IN MIRACLES Licensed under CC BY-ND Used with permission. https://acim.org

Makes sense, right?

Go order THE PEACE BOOK now, will you? https://thepeacecompany.com/ And share with your neighbors, family and friends. It’s affordable at $6.95.

The greatest gift we can give to our children is to raise them in a culture of peace. We don’t have to be biological parents to give this gift. We all have children in our lives, directly or indirectly. Through our extended families, our neighborhood schools and playgrounds, the youth groups at our places of worship, or through our local and national policies on children and education, we all have some way to reach out and touch the lives of the next generation.

Raising a generation of children committed to peace as a way of life should be our most urgent priority. What we learn as children, we live as adults. When children learn violence – whether through video games, emotional abuse, or ethnic warfare – they repeat that violent behavior as adults. If they learn early how to resolve their conflicts nonviolently, and how to respect the differences among us, they will carry those lessons into their future.

One of the strongest messages of peace we can send our children is to honor their true natures. If we ignore them, put them down, or fail to give them the time, attention, respect, and fascination they deserve, we are doing great violence to our children’s souls. The children are our national treasure. They deserve the best of what we have to give. 

-Louise Diamond, THE PEACE BOOK Permission requested