Spirituality and Peace - Global Meditations and Prayers for Peace

By David Nicol, Fumi Johns Stewart and Philip M. Hellmich

From the dawn of humanity, people have prayed and meditated for personal benefit and collective peace.  Ancient spiritual traditions and modern science are finding common ground as scientific research is proving the efficacy of prayer and meditation in both promoting positive benefits in health and influencing events in the outer world. An emerging field known as ‘subtle activism’ is advancing the notion that consciousness-based practices like meditation and prayer may indeed play a crucial role in supporting change in the world.

The Summer of Peace in 2014 will feature a number of exciting collective meditation events that will bring thousands of people together to actualize personal and collective peace. There are five initiatives to highlight here: World Peace and Prayer Day; World Peace Prayer;  Spirituality and Peace Series;  BeThePeace; and The Peace Pole Project.

These initiatives are only a small sample of the burgeoning field of subtle or sacred activism. They will synergize with many other collective meditation projects to enhance global harmony through spiritual action.

World Peace and Prayer Day: June 21
Live in person event, Wappingers Falls, NY: June 17-22, 2014
Global synchronized meditation event at 12 noon Pacific on June 21 -- Occupy the sacred sites around the planet

Also known as Honoring Sacred Sites Day, World Peace and Prayer Day was envisioned by Chief Arvol Looking Horse as a day to join worldwide communities and people of all races, ages, genders, and faiths, who share concern for the welfare of the Earth and humanity. Honoring-ceremonies, invocation and prayer are observed in collaboration with local indigenous representatives. Special guest speakers, wisdom keepers and activists of all denominations share spiritual insight and discuss important environmental concerns and cures—on both a local and global level. This profoundly auspicious time is elevated by a cross-cultural celebration of music, dance, and storytelling.

The guidance of Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Pipe Bundle and recognized spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Sioux Nations.

Chief Arvol says, “We have come to a crossroads in our evolution on this planet, when it is vital, despite our differences, to unify our minds and hearts for the well being of all. For this reason World Peace and Prayer Day has traveled around the world to actively bring people together – drawing attention to the relevance of sacred sites in this 21st century.”

World Peace Prayer: June 21, 11.30am - 12.30pm PDT
In honor of World Peace and Prayer Day, this special global teleconference/webcast is co-sponsored by the World Peace Prayer Society (WPPS), Gaiafield Project, Pathways to Peace, and the Evolutionary Leaders, and it will help launch the Summer of Peace Program. The World Peace Prayer will feature prayers of peace from Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the Evolutionary Leaders, Minute of Silence invocation by Avon Mattison of Pathways to Peace, an Attunement meditation by David Nicol of the Gaiafield Project, and May Peace Prevail on Earth Prayers by Fumi Stewart of WPPS.

The Spirituality and Peace Series is a three-month annual tele-series that features mystics and elders from the world’s wisdom traditions leading practices to support personal and collective transformation. The series is co-produced with the Gaiafield Project and occurs as part of the Summer of Peace teleseminar program.

The series begins on June 21 with the World Peace Prayer special event (see above).

Then, each Sunday from June 22 to September 14, a mystic from a different tradition guides a practice online to support personal and collective peace. Each call contributes a layer to a diverse field of peace that builds in momentum and quality over the summer. The end result is an extraordinarily rich and vibrant field of peace that comes to a joyous peak on September 21 with BeThePeace, one of the largest annual global meditation events on the planet.

BeThePeace was launched on September 21, 2012 as one of the largest synchronized global meditations in the history of the International Day of Peace. That first year, meditation groups gathered in 248 cities worldwide. In 2013, groups in 564 cities came together to experience inner peace and to create a profound moment of world peace. Thousands more connected to each other from their own homes via teleconference and audio webcast for a Global Attunement for Peace.

The goal for 2014 is to have meditation groups in over 1000 cities worldwide and to involve 8,400 or more people in synchronized meditation. 8,400 represents approximately the square root of one percent of the world’s population. Research by scientists associated with the TM organization suggests that this amount may be the threshold number of meditators needed to produce a measurable effect on global harmony.

This year’s BeThePeace event also features a special partnership with the World Peace Prayer Society and the Peace Pole Project.

The Peace Pole Project
Peace Poles carry the message and prayer, May Peace Prevail On Earth in the languages of the world.  The message was founded by the late Masahisa Goi of Japan whose hope was to anchor a message of global peace and harmony from the country which experienced the first atomic bomb. Since the founding of the peace message in 1954, Peace Poles have been planted the world over and is now one of the most recognized icons dedicated to peace on earth.  It is estimated that there are over 200,000 Peace Poles standing in every continent and region of the world creating a planetary grid of light.  The Peace Pole Project is an activity of The World Peace Prayer Society with supporters worldwide who live in the spirit of the universal message and prayer, May Peace Prevail On Earth.

An extensive campaign will be made to invite all who own a Peace Pole to plan a gathering around their Peace Poles on the International Day of Peace, September 21 as part of the BeThePeace event. Peacebuilders everywhere will also be invited to buy or craft their own Peace Poles -- either the large versions to plant in the ground or a desktop size smaller version to sit on a personal or community altar.

On September 21, we will come together to perform a powerful act of planetary acupuncture by sending energy through all the Peace Poles around the planet! A free global teleconference/webcast as part of the BeThePeace event will link participants everywhere for a guided meditation to activate the grid. Hosts of Peace Poles from every continent will be on the call.

The World Peace Prayer, Spirituality and Peace series, BeThePeace event and the Peace Pole Project are all intended to harness the power of collective meditation and prayer to support a shift to a true and lasting global culture of peace. The whole series is understood in terms of subtle activism, whereby the benefits of the practices are intended to affect change at subtle levels of collective consciousness, leading to real results in the outer world.

Participate by:

• Attending the live World Peace and Prayer Day event in NY, CLICK HERE.

• Joining the FB event for the World Peace and Prayer Day Global Meditation at 12noon Pacific, June 21: CLICK HERE

• Joining the World Peace Prayer Teleconference/webcast on June 21, CLICK HERE

• Registering for the Spirituality and Peace series from June 22-September 14, CLICK HERE

• Meditating with BeThePeace global meditation event on Sept 21, CLICK HERE

• Joining the Peace Pole Project - where to purchase, how to make, etc - CLICK HERE

David Nicol, PhD, is the co-founder and director of the Gaiafield Project and the Center for Subtle Activism, an action research center based at the California Institute of Integral Studies that advances the study and practice of subtle activism. His forthcoming book, Subtle Activism: The Inner Dimension of Social and Planetary Transformation is the first comprehensive academic treatment of the topic. David is a former environmental lawyer from Australia. He now lives in Berkeley California with his wife Kate and dog Jackson.  To learn more, go to: http://gaiafield.net

Fumi Johns Stewart is Executive Director of The World Peace Prayer Society promoting May Peace Prevail on Earth activities worldwide. She was born in Tokyo, Japan and grew up with a sincere wish to bridge the two cultures of her American and Japanese parentage. Fumi was instrumental in introducing the Japanese based May Peace Prevail On Earth movement to the international community in the early 1980s. She brought The Peace Pole Project out of Japan and helped to establish the international Peace Pole Movement. She assisted in opening the International Headquarters of The World Peace Prayer Society which was registered as a non-profit in the state of New York in 1988. Fumi also serves as US liaison to sister organization, the Goi Peace Foundation of Japan. She currently lives in San Francisco and travels extensively to promote May Peace Prevail On Earth activities.  To learn moren, go to: www.worldpeace.org

Philip M. Hellmich serves as the Director of Peace at the Shift Network. He has over 25 years of experience in peacebuilding including 14 years with Search for Common Ground. He also served for four years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone where he lived and worked in small remote bush villages. A published writer, Philip recently published God and Conflict: A Search for Peace in a Time of Crisis. He serves as adviser to The Global Peace Initiative of Women. A long-time meditation practitioner, Philip enjoys studying and teaching about the parallels between inner and outer peacebuilding.