Peacemaking

A highly-respected spiritual author offers insights, stories, and practical tools to help us train our minds and be an island of peace wherever we live and work.

 When we read about the wars and suffering in the world, it's easy to feel a sense of helplessness. What could we possibly do that could make a difference? But Easwaran tells us, “If there is no peace in the world, in our communities, or in our homes, it is not because war is built into our genes; it is because we have no idea of the requisite mental skills of peacemaking.” In this short ebook, Easwaran tells us what those skills are, why they are so vital for our world and for our children, and how we can go about acquiring them.

“ In order to do effective peace work, to reconcile individuals, communities, or countries, we have to have peace in our minds,” he writes. “If we pursue peace with anger and animosity, nothing can be stirred up but conflict. In the end, the tide of violence we see rising day by day can be traced not to missiles or tanks but to what builds and uses those missiles and tanks: the minds of individual men and women. This is where the battle for peace has to be won.” 

This book includes articles on peacemaking, instructions in Easwaran's universal method of passage meditation, and stories of his own efforts at peacemaking in times of considerable political tension.

 “We may not have found a world at peace ourselves, but it is quite within our power to create one for the next generation,” Easwaran promises, “if we will only make peace the first priority in our lives.”

Eknath Easwaran (1910–1999) is the originator of passage meditation and the author of more than 30 books on spiritual living. Easwaran (pronounced Ish-war-an) is his given name; Eknath is the name of his ancestral family. Born in Kerala, India, Easwaran was a professor of English literature at a leading Indian university when he came to the United States in 1959 on the Fulbright exchange program. A gifted teacher, he moved from education for degrees to education for living, and gave talks on meditation and “spiritual living for 40 years. His meditation class at UC Berkeley in 1968 was the first accredited course on meditation at any major university. In 1961 he founded the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, a nonprofit organization that publishes his books and the video and audio recordings of his talks, and offers retreats and other programs. Easwaran lived what he taught, giving him lasting appeal as a spiritual teacher and author of deep insight and warmth.