A community open to people of all faiths and traditions. A gathering of people interested in spiritual education and practice in relationship to the faith of their choice and practice, with a desire to be engaged in serving the whole community.
A Peace Community in Action is variety of people from many different spiritual traditions including integration of subgroups gathered together in recent years. In other words our direction will be to live in peace and to help others to find peace in their own lives. We will by sharing our traditions with one another while learning to honor others' traditions and not judge in our hearts and minds. It's about learning to be a true community with all those who want to know about and experience teachings and rituals from these spiritual traditions around the world. Like Thich Nhat Hanh (a well known Buddhist monk and author) has written and described community as a "fruit salad" and not a "melting pot".
It is written in the Talmud (one of the Jewish Holy books) that the Messiah will return when one of two things happens, 1) we are at a point of destruction on the earth, or 2) we have entered into community. Our direction of choice as APCIA (A Peace Community in Action) will be towards building community. Unfortunately fear has had its run these days and people use it to do violence to others and unknowingly at the same time they bring violence into their own lives and those around them.
As we practice and learn to live mindfully we will learn that we are all interconnected in this world to one another and being people of peace can transform us into whole human beings. Carl Jung, one of my favorite psychologists, has written extensively on the subject of wholeness equating it with healing and salvation.
Bob Marley wrote and sang in Redemption Song, "emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind, have no fear of atomic energy cause none of them can stop the time". For me his music has been healing and valuable in learning about freedom and redemption for all people. His depth of understanding social justice and love were evident in all of his music and life. We all hunger for freedom and peace at the root of our being, but only by living in community with compassion will we ever experience this on a larger scale. It's not up to the politicians or the religious groups, it's up to each of us as individuals too.
The other day I was driving a young guy to the hardware store when out of nowhere in a "not thinking" mind according to Buddha: Is the same as "Only Don't Know Mind according to Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn So) he says to me, "what does everyone in the world want?" Which he answered himself right away, "peace, right?" I agreed and he said," but religions stop it because most wars are fought because religions don't get along". It reminded me of a time when I was working in Canada in 1975 while in prayer, the thought came to me "there is no room for competition or comparison in the Kingdom of G-d. Also referred to as Nirvana, Heaven, etc.
APCIA will offer classes in comparative religions/spiritual traditions, Zen meditation, Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Gung, Yoga, Old Testament (TaNaK), New Testament, Medical marijuana concerns (such as growing and the laws on the issue), as well as a variety of life courses for reminding and teaching the basics that our parents taught us and we learned in kindergarten.
We will gather Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for sitting Zazen (meditation practice), open 6 days a week to sit Zazen independently. Friday evenings we will have a lively Sabbath service with the lighting of candles, welcoming of the Sabbath prayers and Kiddush (Blessing of the Wine and bread according to Jewish tradition. Sundays we will offer a Bob Marley kind'a Christian communion service with prayers, enthused singing and live music. Yes we are open to ideas on classes, workshops, music, talents, etc.
All services are open to everybody especially to those who are burned out on religion in a box. We are also planning to embrace those who have been kept out or down in society, for example the Gay community and the 18-40 age group of people who no longer attend Church or go to Temple because it's boring and doesn't speak to us. I personally have had my medical marijuana license for three years now and remember when I couldn't talk freely about it to fellow church members. People want to have fun and need to play as much as they work according to C.G. Jung (psychologist), in order to be whole and happy.
One of my books on Native American wisdom is titled, Touch the Earth, and one quote reads, "the West wasn't wild until the white man moved here" and another author P. Chardin wrote, "we are moving away from the earth to quickly", each of these quotes reminds us that the earth is our mother and we owe her respect and honor and all who inhabit her. We have been living much to rapidly in the technological world and have slowed down meeting face to face, heart to heart so we breed distrust and separation. There is much to do and it will only be completed by living in community with the world recognizing that we are all connected to each other even though we have differences. Rituals are important, but must be flexible if they are to be living and organic, which is life giving. Even Mahatma Ghandi said, "you can't increase life by increasing its speed". We must learn to slow down, recreate, and learn to live in the now. The past is gone, and the future is not here, we must learn to breathe deeply and listen deeply in order to know ourselves and others and therefore bring peace and compassion to all.
More to follow as we find a space to gather.
Recreation: Redeeming and healing the world- the earth.
Meditative: Contemplative.
Health/Healing Conscious.
"TO LABEL IS TO LIBEL" -C. S. SONG
