Peace is the Curriculum of Your Life

 

I dreamed of teaching Peace,

It felt like a calling to teach not preach,

For I had never thought of it before,

It was a subject for which I would stand or fall,

I had to reach the top of this mountain for sure,

To navigate a Khyber Pass of inhospitable terrain,

To believe the impossible is possible,

To pass a camel through the eye of a needle is a course in miracles,

A Bermuda Triangle of mystery beyond time & space,

A core curriculum with an epicentre of great value,

Calling out to me to find an answer,

This was the single question driving my life,

It is the wind beneath the kite of transformational change.

 

I asked ‘is Peace taught in schools’?

A teacher answered ‘we teach War and Peace’,

‘Is it curriculum?’ I ventured,

‘No, it is subject matter’, he contended,

I wondered …. ‘Does the subject matter’?

What if it is not science, visible or grounded in fact,

Are the terms of trade the current account of success?

Or is peace the real currency of a unified field theory?

 

I was the Fool that did not know the journey is the curriculum,

Is the Wisdom of the Fool an oxymoron?

To meditate on an existential question takes you on the road less travelled

for you will be seen as a fool,

For where is the fool’s gold in aimless musings?

Where is the success in living alone?

Yet to be alone and amused by life is the beginning of the meaning fool,

For the Fool learns to step off the cliff of conventional wisdom,

To find wisdom keepers are beyond conventions,

For the peace that passeth all understanding,

Is within YOU.

 

The first lesson plan is to allow life to lead,

The second lesson is to follow positive impulse,

To ‘act before you think’ opens the present to infinite possibilities,

This is to live in the Now not the future or past,

For all is an imagined reality,

Why not test reality and venture into the quagmire of uncertainty,

This is where knowledge ends and adventure begins …

 

Is certitude the attitude that is right thus  
‘I don’t know I don’t know’,

Is wisdom the altitude that allows life as the kite citing ‘I know I don’t know’,

Can you see the difference in perception?

One is finite
the other infinite.

Do we want to stay the same, rearrange the deck chairs or redesign a new earth ship?

For the mighty Titanic is sinking,

They said it was ‘unthinkable’ an ‘unsinkable’ ship,

The structure is sound the engines unstoppable,

Yet human ego takes the helm and pushes the ship beyond natural limits to realise the Statue of Liberty is the Ark of the Covenant,

To learn service to self or service to humanity determines if the ship is sea-worthy,
For the ice is melting in climates of real change.

 

Personal responsibility becomes the Crest,

The Quest is to understand Peace in truth,

How can I know if I don’t know?

Is it to not know to know?

This is the rubrics cube of combinations or Koans?

I studied war and peace to know,

Terrorism and counter-terrorism,

Principled nonviolence and human rights,

Conflict, disagreement and violations,

Conciliation, arbitration and mediation,

Conflict resolution and restorative justice,

Righting the wrongs in deed?

Reconciling opposing forces in treaties?

Meeting in the middle of negotiations?

Yet never resolving positive peace in reality.

 

Many ask do we educate for Cultures of Peace?

Are values and ethics the drivers of real change?

Will perpetrators realise the errors in their ways?

Will politicians become democrats and allow a say?

Will industry reclaim social responsibility?

Is there a responsibility to protect?

Are we each other’s keepers?

Do we care about what is fair?

Is this the peace that is beyond all understanding?

 

I travelled the World to find the truth of Peace,

To uncover the Philosophers stone of wisdom,

I looked out upon an over-cultivated world,

And listened within,

I observed the passing parade of Asian markets,

The busy-i-ness of mass populations of disparity in the Indus valley of spices, rice and IT cities,

To retreat in quiet meditation on the centre peace of Gandhi’s ashram to find the light in the darkness,

A spinning wheel threading peace as self-reliance,

Is there sanity within islands of insanity of unlimited economic expansion with real limits to growth?

I searched for higher-glyphic inscriptions of Egyptian Pharaoh’s open to star gates in the Orion correlation.

I asked why the Greek Agora’s democratic forums are reduced to anarchistic graffiti scribbled on walls of a dismembered European Union bailing out the abuse of power rather than investing in the true value of common unity,

What is it an economic union or a social union?

Which is the true marriage of unity?

Then I travel to the mother country or a father land

is to understand the parental lineage of a

United Kingdom with Scotland and Ireland?

A Kingdom of repression or Magna Carta of human rights are turning points or a turnpike question?

A House of Commons or House of Lords defines the class or the system?

Protestors for Peace in the Middle East with slogans, makeshift camps, poetry and song 

felt the establishment had got it wrong,

Yet how can you fight for Peace or Liberation of oil?

So then I did the Highland fling in Orkney to take in

Neolithic sights of ancient temples, mounds and village life,

Was this the precursor to civilisations plight?

I danced and played in Dublin’s squares and pubs,

New grange spiralling circles of ancient wisdom and sacred insights,

Why were Irish eyes not smiling?

 

In the Americas from Chicago to Chile,

A fool for peace smiling on the streets,

Reminding all that peace smiles at all without discrimination or permission,

The ancient Mayans put a stop to their calendar,

For life cycles to higher spirals of awareness in unison,

Celestial movements of historical star maps navigate,

Culture, language, social customs, ancient myths

change complexions and reflections on Peace,

For we are same same but different!

 

New Zealand the land of the long white cloud,

An island archipelago of north to south,

Pristine sky blue rivers and crystal streams,

Remarkable mountains, glaciers and deep ravines,

Milford Sound amplifies the silence of the scene,

Peace permeates the tea brewing in steaming spirals,

As the fresh wind uplifts the spirit of a long journey,

The Kea is the flightless bird mischievous and cheeky,

There are no enemies on islands of tranquility,

People select for war or peace,

Nature sustains homeostasis with ease,

Planting greed or renewable seeds is natural selection,

All choose the world in their image on reflection,

Thoughts are the scaffolding constructing the world of their own making,

Emotions are the heart feeling the contour of an inner world of their own making.

 

For me,

The peace that passeth all understanding

Is Unconditional Love,

It is the truth sets all free to see,

We are One family,

This is my wish this Christmas as I close my eyes

I blow the thistle to set the fairy seeds free on the wind,

My wish is for Peace on Earth,

For I AM the Peace beyond all understanding,

And this is the secret Garden of Eden we all live in,

Let’s cherish this garden and set all people free,

To be … HAPPY!

 

Happy people do not bully or divide,

They celebrate and realise the unity in diversity,

For this is the sustainable university of the future,

That understands that life is the curriculum within which we journey,

It is an endless adventure of uncertainty,

It is to come bright and leave bold,

As FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real,

For there are no limits to Y/OUR growth,

Your Happy Destiny is Unavoidable!

 

Happy Christmas