"Tools for Achieving Peace"

1) Deep Listening

* Listen to the screams of the Arabs and Muslims regarding the loss of their Palestinian brothers and sisters. Hear their intense desire for a Palestinian homeland. Hear their concern about military troops desecrating the sacred Saudi lands of the Prophet Muhammed. Listen to their concern about American values infiltrating their modest ways. Hear their concern for innocent lives lost in Afghanistan and Iraq.

* Listen to the Jewish peoples agonizing over the instability of their lives, the threats of homeland, once again, being taken away. Hear their desperate desire for settledness in Israel and their need for allies they can trust. Hear their weariness over fighting and their fear about the future. Hear them begging America to not let them down, to not leave them feeling abandoned. Hear their request to not be isolated and discriminated against.

* Listen to Palestinian and other Christians in the Holy Land who feel left out of the Middle East decision-making processes. Hear them say they feel unsupported and abandoned. Hear their concerns about the future and the enormous way in which politics tries to deny their religion and their rights.

* Listen to Americans wailing over their loss of lives and innocence from the terrorist attacks on the United States. Hear their fear of bio-terrorism and other possible threats yet to come. Listen to their confusion about Israeli and Palestinian requests. Hear their genuine desire to bring peace to Israel/Palestine, met with their genuine uncertainty about how to do that. Hear America listening to Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Slowly, but surely, in the midst of cloudiness and overwhelming grief. Hear America redefining itself as the simultaneous friend and ally to Arabs, Palestinians, Muslims, Christians, and Jews.

* Listen with complete unconditional acceptance and non-judgment.

* Acknowledge the fears, frustrations, dreams, and legitimate emotions and concerns of each party.

2) Prayer  

* Pray daily for divine guidance in all areas of our personal and collective lives.

* Draw inspiration and practice from Islam's faithful call to prayer five times a day.

* Draw inspiration and reverence from Judaism's early monotheistic psalms, proverbs, and prophets.

* Draw upon the Christian teachings in the New Testament to bridge the teachings from the Old Testament and the Holy Qur'an.

* Elevate our consciousness above the historical teachings of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

* Trust Jesus' words about the importance of loving our neighbors and forgiving those who trespass against us.

* Draw upon grace in all ways to know that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the same God, the same Higher Power, the same Creator of the Universe.

3) Meditation

* Meditate daily in order to still the mind and cultivate inner peace.

* Draw upon the importance of each breath as a way of calming our minds and connecting to our bodies.

* Practice body prayers each day (walking, running, stretching, swimming, sports, yoga, martial arts).

* Walk lightly upon the Earth and gain wisdom from Indigenous Spiritualities. 

* Do all we can to preserve our natural resources and environment.

* Eat healthy, natural foods that help maintain the body, mind, and spirit in a harmonious, meditative balance.

* Draw upon the mystical wisdom of Eastern, Western, Middle Eastern, and Indigenous traditions to find stillness deep within the soul.

4) Political and Cultural Involvement

* Be pro-active in our political and cultural efforts to coordinate peace between the United States and the Middle East.

* Provide Jews a forum for sharing about Judaism and the importance of the Zion homeland.

* Provide Palestinians a forum for sharing about Islam and the importance of the Palestinian homeland.

* Provide Christians residing in the Holy Land, a forum for sharing about their values and needs.

* Provide Americans a forum for sharing about their vision and practical approach to bringing peace to the Middle East.

* Support all American efforts to immediately help settle conflict in Israel/Palestine so that both Israelis and Palestinians have their own, independent, and autonomously governed homelands.

* Support all American and United Nations efforts to declare the sacred city of Jerusalem a neutral territory to be cherished by ALL nations and religions of the world.

* Support the United Nations and worldwide organizational bodies in holding the Palestinians and Israelis equally accountable for any sabotaging of short and long-term solutions for peace in the Middle East.

* Enforce strict, non-violent consequences for breaching peace treaties.

* Universally declare all violent protests to be unacceptable methods of resolving conflict. Establish mediation and non-violent resistant centers where oppressed persons can verbally communicate their injustices.

* Support all American efforts to honestly and courageously revise our political and business policies abroad so that they are less invasive and offensive to other cultures.

* Communicate encouragement and gratitude to Americans in authority for taking the bold steps needed now to resolve these pressing issues  (president@whitehouse.gov); (secretary@state.gov).

* Reach out across common boundaries and befriend Jews, Arabs, Muslims, and Christians living in the Holy Land, in the United States, and throughout the world.

* Encourage interfaith, intercultural exchange to increase knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of Middle East and American peoples.

* Offer sensitive, American outreach programs to Middle East countries through tourism to historic and cultural places and pilgrimage holy lands.

* Provide American hospitality to Middle Easterners in America and to those abroad. Bring the best of sensitive cultured American art, music, cuisine, technology, and entertainment to the Middle East world. Above all, continue to offer beneficent, philanthropic contributions to hurting, Muslim countries.

5) Creativity

* Recognize the powerful gift of creativity within each of us which comes from the ultimate Creator.

* Utilize this unending resource of creativity as a way to visualize and manifest a positive, hopeful future, one which transcends our current conflicts and fears.

* Clear out the clutter of our lives -- old thoughts, habits, material items so we can make room for the emergence of new discoveries, insights, and attitudes.

* Keep life as simple as we can possible make it. Decrease our focus upon materialism,  consumerism, and electronic and newsprint media. Remember that greatness is often born out of nothingness. 

* Embrace a creation-centered spirituality which acknowledges the spiritual purpose of all humans, all religions and diverse lifestyles. Recognize that there is a creative pattern to life which is intended to help us grow to be our best spiritual selves. Life, like nature, often works in cycles exposing us to four general rhythms intended for our edification: A) Celebrating and being grateful for the abundance in our lives; B) Letting go of that which we cannot control and accepting that pain is a part of life; C) Being a willing co-creator with the Divine to utilize our God-given creativity; and D) Developing a genuine compassion and attitude of justice-making for all suffering beings of this world (Matthew Fox).

6) Compassion

* Share all the love and resources that we have with those humans who are less fortunate than ourselves.

* Work for the preservation and respect of all non-human species.

* Don't give up until we are assured of a safe, healthy, prosperous world for all.

* With all of our decisions remember how they will impact the seventh generation.

* Remember to make love the center of our lives, for nothing is a greater sign of the presence of the Creator.

7) Sharing our Common Universe Story

* Explore the current cosmological paradigm which recognizes that the Universe is 13-billion-years old.

* Incorporate the ideas of modern geology and biology which suggest that planet Earth is 4.5-billion-years old and that life as we know it has been evolving through a delicate balance over all these years.

* Acknowledge the recent discoveries in physics which suggest that all of life, all of existence is interrelated and therefore interdependent.

* Share this cross-cultural story of our mutual origins and mutual connection as a way of both celebrating our diversities and embracing our similarities.

* In light of the latest scientific knowledge, re-define the human as "That being in whom the universe reflects upon, activates, and celebrates itself in conscious self awareness." (Thomas Berry & Brian Swimme)

* Draw upon the latest scientific reports which suggest that the vital natural resources of our planet Earth are dangerously threatened. Promote the creation of cross-cultural teams to work for the preservation of water, air, soil, and species.

* Accept the critical environmental challenges before us as a way to harness our collective energies into a new direction for the good of all. Remember the words of biologist Rachel Carson: "Those who dwell among the beauties and wonders of the Earth are never alone or weary of life."

* Work towards international research and development of solar and other renewable energy sources which eliminate the world's dependence upon oil in the Middle East.

* Assist the Middle East to make the transition from economic dependence upon the unstable, finite income from oil revenues.

* Provide educational and business opportunities in the Middle East and abroad, which help the Arab world to establish non-oil-based economic independence.