On Martin Luther King Day: Spirituality and peace

[wildflower]

I thought this might be a good time to reflect upon the spiritually based words of Martin Luther King, Jr. and peace.

What does your faith say about peace?

What is your favorite quote or speech of MLK?

Why do you think it is that some religions would appear to counsel war rather than peace? Is it simply that their foundations (e.g. the Bible, the Koran, the Tora, etc.) are being misinterpreted?

-wildflower

[Ranec]

1. The essence of non-violence is love.

King believed that non-violence was the only way for spiritual people to bring about change because we should love even our enemies.

http://www.ipoet.com/ARCHIVE/BEYOND/King-Jr/Loving-Your-Enemies.html

"Now first let us deal with this question, which is the practical question: How do you go about loving your enemies? I think the first thing is this: In order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self. And I’m sure that seems strange to you, that I start out telling you this morning that you love your enemies by beginning with a look at self. It seems to me that that is the first and foremost way to come to an adequate discovery to the how of this situation."

Please go read this speech, it is wonderful. I wish had this deep understanding and love. One of my goals on my spiritual path is to discover an understanding within myself of outer conflicts. How can I love my enemies? Why are they my enemies? And what enemies do I carry around and hang on people I meet?

"A second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his enemy is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and everytime you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points."

[wildflower]

2. An excellent speech.

I too think all should read it.

I liked this story he told:

"I think I mentioned before that sometime ago my brother and I were driving one evening to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Atlanta. He was driving the car. And for some reason the drivers were very discourteous that night. They didn’t dim their lights; hardly any driver that passed by dimmed his lights. And I remember very vividly, my brother A. D. looked over and in a tone of anger said: "I know what I’m going to do. The next car that comes along here and refuses to dim the lights, I’m going to fail to dim mine and pour them on in all of their power." And I looked at him right quick and said: "Oh no, don’t do that. There’d be too much light on this highway, and it will end up in mutual destruction for all. Somebody got to have some sense on this highway."

"Somebody must have sense enough to dim the lights, and that is the trouble, isn’t it? That as all of the civilizations of the world move up the highway of history, so many civilizations, having looked at other civilizations that refused to dim the lights, and they decided to refuse to dim theirs. And Toynbee tells that out of the twenty-two civilizations that have risen up, all but about seven have found themselves in the junkheap of destruction. It is because civilizations fail to have sense enough to dim the lights. And if somebody doesn’t have sense enough to turn on the dim and beautiful and powerful lights of love in this world, the whole of our civilization will be plunged into the abyss of destruction. And we will all end up destroyed because nobody had any sense on the highway of history. Somewhere somebody must have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I Have a Dream

that whole speech is inspirational.

To get peace, BE peace-find the peace within your heart. Then maintain that peace with every breath-a practice that I find, in these troubling days, to not be all that easy.

The essence of all religions is peace.

The Qur'an, though it speaks of war, speaks of how to act in war, and that is to go to war only as a last resort. Even then, one should forgive enemies, and once peace is made, let bygones be bygones. The word "Islam" has as part of it the word "Salaam", which means peace.

[wildflower]

5. Reminds me of one of my favorite holiday songs...

"Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me."

I think you'd really like the writings of Peace Pilgrim.

It is my feeling that the most of the sacred writings of religions do not counsel a worldview of violence, but they are interpreted that way by some followers.

However, it seems to me that there are a few religions or sects - and I am somewhat ignorant on this, so someone may have to correct me - that seem to have a basis for violence in the writings; for example, the Book of Revelations. Or, if not violence, then at least the idea of a punishing God rather than a loving one.

Interested in your thoughts.

-wildflower

[Maat]

4. Peace is everything.

Peace is one of the attributs of God. And MLK Jr. looked forward to the day when we could all show our peace, and live in peace together.

[elshiva]

6. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a saint.

Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. spread the truth of non-violent actions, which radiate from the Heart of the One God.
Let us revere them, but let us also strive to imitate them.
Peeved with the powers that be? Call your senators and congress person, if you can't organize a peaceful protest. Non-violent actions speak louder than any fist or bomb.