I don’t often publish one of Joseph’s articles more than once. But, with the USA and Iraq teetering on the brink of war, I thought it appropriate to republish this one. In fact, I’ve published it several times before, including this past holiday season.

     Therefore, many of you have seen it, though most of our newer subscribers have not. Those of you who have seen it may find it worth re-reading. It’s short.

     I’ve read and re-read it myself many times. Especially when I find myself drifting away from the deep inner peace I’ve worked to create over the years. Or when I find myself tempted to judge others simply because they are different from me.

     People in this area (Washington, D.C.) are living under a cloud of fear right now. A cloud made bigger and blacker by federal officials’ recent warnings that Washington and New York are again potential terrorist targets. Around here there’s no sense of peace on earth, nor do many feel peace within their own hearts.

     A friend wrote me last weekend to ask if Joseph or I had any specific suggestions for "changing the world’s push towards war." She went on to say "I ... am feeling more compelled to put additional energy into balancing the war energies that are building. I have never believed that any particular collective act was inevitable and (I believe) that we create as we go along."

     Here’s my reply to her, followed by Joseph’s article.

     I agree with you - no collective act is inevitable. But when the energy builds for action (and Bush has managed to stir up a lot of "war energy" among the American people), it’s often difficult to stop it. I don’t pay much attention to the news any more, but I heard on NPR yesterday that polls are saying most Americans now favor war. I guess that puts you and me in the minority.

     Joseph and I do have specific ideas and suggestions - but they’re probably not what you’re looking for. Joseph said in one article some years back he does not favor peace meditations.

     And, of course, it goes without saying he certainly doesn’t favor war. Nor would he favor anti-war or anti-anything movements. Whatever you’re resisting (war in this case), you’re giving your attention to, and thereby increasing the chances of manifesting exactly what you don’t want.

     Joseph has always said, and I go along with him on this one, peace on earth must always, always, begin within ourselves. If we are feeling less than peaceful within our own hearts, minds, and bodies, then we have nothing to contribute to world peace. Any negative thoughts we hold contribute nothing to world peace - even if we are angry, frustrated, plain pissed off at folks like Bush and Powell, we are (to paraphrase Deepak Chopra) contributing to the wounding of the world.

     Peace, personal and global, always begins within the individual, within us. So to give you a specific suggestion, I would say absolutely the best thing we can do for world peace is to come to a place of deep personal peace - and to do whatever it takes to get there. If more people did that, that high, positive vibration would radiate out into the entire world. And who knows what miracles that could create?

     But regardless of what President Bush, or the American military forces, or the American people think and do - even if that results in a disastrous and tragic war - we who are on a different path can always be at peace. We don’t have to participate in their vibrations, in their creations. They create their realities, and we create ours. The choice of exactly what we create is always up to us individually, and is determined by our predominant thoughts and feelings.

-- John

     On your earth plane, you often have "peace meditations." And yet every individual’s definition of peace is different. There are as many definitions and kinds of peace on your planet as there are people walking upon it.

     Generally, I am not in favor of peace meditations. Why? Because everyone comes to the meditation - or whatever the gathering is - with different, often conflicting, ideas of what peace is. And that defeats the very purpose of your coming together.

     However, let me say this: Those who enter into these peace endeavors are coming from a pure heart, from a pure intention. There is certainly no malice in them.

     But the ONLY way you can create "peace on earth" is to FIRST create it within yourself. This is a premise many on the earth plane have missed. You must be at peace within yourself - you must have found peace for yourself - before you will have any peace to give others - before you will ever be able to show others the true path to peace.

     And when you do create this "peace on earth," know this: you will all STILL have different ideas of what peace is. There will NEVER be, in your experience in this lifetime, a time when ALL will agree on just exactly what peace on earth is.

     You did not come into this particular incarnation - at this particular time in your human history - at this particular time in your own individual history - to create total peace on earth.

     You came to this planet at this time to experience diversity - not oneness. And in that diversity you will ALL find joy, once you allow the diversity to be okay. Once you allow yourself, and all others, to be okay just exactly where you all are right now.

     In that allowing, and only in that allowing, will you ever find peace on earth.

     Peace will never come to earth unless you see - and understand - all will never be one and the same - you are all diverse and different.

     You will find peace - total peace - only in accepting and allowing the diversity, and in letting go of your need for sameness.      Peace be with you.

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