I Find Peace Like This
Indra’s net, in Hinduism and Buddhism, is a metaphor used to illustrate the philosophy of interdependence. The image associated with it is beautiful! A net where every node is a jewel (diamonds) representing life, and each jewel reflects all the others.
The first BRIDGE Peace Fellowship organized by Peace Revolution project took place in Bakuriani, Georgia, from 4 to 9 May 2015. It brought together young people from Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. The main aim of the fellowship was introducing mindfulness and meditation as tools for personal and professional growth for the youth in the region, and networking for development of sustainable world peace through inner peace cultivation thus, making a change in their local community.
“Happiness is real only when shared,” Christopher McCandless “Into the Wild”
In February Peace Revolution, represented by Peace Architect Manuela Puscas, went to beautiful Budapest for the first time. Over 120 people of amazing diversity joined the events, from fifth graders and students to university professors, hypnosis and Gestalt therapists, yoga teachers, economists and other professionals, trainers, social workers and local NGO members.
World military expenditure in 2012 was estimated to $1756 billion, representing 2.5 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) or $249 for each person in the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. By end-2013, 51.2 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, generalised violence, or human rights violations, shows the 2013 War’s Human Cost report by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Imagine your country goes through a severe conflict, economical crisis and collective anxiety that gets so strong you can even smell it in the air. Ask yourself what would you do? Would you run around panicking and contributing to the overall madness or would you be a tiny candle light and little island of peace in the sea of war?
You say they are of another faith,
Another creed, or another race,
Incompatible, un-mixable
One evening in Mooktawan, we were watching a video of Peace In Peace Out (PIPO) event in Africa. Just when the screen showed a monk sitting on the beach, he exclaimed – “THAT could be Cox’s Bazar!” Thus was Carsten’s vision and very soon he convinced me to have the same dream – to bring Peace Revolution to Bangladesh. And we did it! Three months later, crossing many obstacles, we co-created some meditation events to spread the message of mindfulness in our networks in Bangladesh.
The PEACE REVOLUTION MENA Salam Fellowship will take place in Turkey, 13-17 March 2015. The leitmotif of this second edition? MENA Salam Fellowship: Towards a New Peaceful Coexistence. 40 young leaders from Middle East and North Africa will gather to inspire each other and exchange best practices on building a sustainable peaceful coexistence in the MENA region.
