Global Peace on the Move VII: Exploring The True Dream

Someone once said, “there is nothing like a dream to create the future”*. When we have dreams we create an ideal situation in our mind which is the start of creating that ideal reality since all things in our world have their origin in our minds. When we are young we have great dreams, imagination allows us to believe we could be anything, we could do anything, and that anything was possible. But as we grow older and the logic of rational thinking takes over, our dreams and often they are lost. The Peace Revolution Global Peace on the Move Fellowship VII was held from 14 – 27 February 2012 at the idyllic Koh Yao Noi Island in the south of Thailand, and re-ignited childhood dreams. Each of the 21 participants came with different dreams searching for a method to attain them.

In order to qualify for this special fellowship the peace rebels had to complete a 42 day online self-development program on the Peace Revolution website, as well as complete a “special ops” project. They practice under the theme of PIPO, Peace in – Peace out. Practicing meditation and developing good habits creates a “peace in” or inner peace. The inner peace they cultivate is shared through a “special ops” project or peace in action assignments, where they share meditation and virtues with their families, friends, colleagues or university students, this creates “peace out” or outer peace.

Upon arrival the participants were treated to a true Thai refreshment, coconut water served in coconut shells, afterwards the games begin. This day was a day for “getting to know each other” and the ice –breaking kicked off with musical chairs, mystery clues, and a 4 station walk rally. The games centered around the theme “find your dream”, the participants could dress up as make-believe superheroes tasked with the mission to ‘save the world’.

The following day the retreat commenced, peace rebels were introduced to the teaching monks not as religious guides but as teachers and meditation experts,. The sessions included morning loving-kindness meditation, and three more meditation session at various times during the day.

The retreat meditations taught them advanced inner peace techniques, and stilling and stopping the mind as a mean to cleanse it of impurities and undesirable thoughts, emotions etc. Wernoka from Poland shared her experience of inner peace, “ ... Inner peace is a feeling inside me that makes me more comfortable with myself, I can feel myself better, I can know myself better. Now I know that I don′t need to fight with bad people.”Barbara from Chile explains the intimacy of inner peace, “it is my home…my home. Everywhere where I go, if I have inner peace I’m at home. It′s my home…my secret place in the world.”

The meditation sessions were supplemented with knowledge on how to live a virtuous life in the present day based on ancient universal knowledge. They trained themselves to be mindful of their speech and actions. As the body and mind work together as a synergetic being, through cleanliness, patience, respect and self-discipline. These were implemented in activities such as “clean in-clean out”. Moreover, in their personal time, they could connect and share with each other, build lasting friendships and help each other with achieving their dreams.

The two week fellowship proved to be a transformational period for the participants. Santosh from Nepal said, “…I feel some changes in me, I feel I′m developing the habit of seeing the good virtues in others. And the greatest change that I am feeling now a days, whenever I do something I do it with mindfulness and much more paying respect to my work..”

Carmen from Mexico, “ ... When I cleaned my mind of all this disturbing thoughts I have change myself in a positive person, so is the most important change that I have experienced and I think that is the most significant because all the things start in the mind: so if you change your attitude, if you are a better person, if you are more positive, you can change also the world ... ”

We are interconnected in ways we could not see before, and know that by changing ourselves we have already begun to change the world .But by going within, stilling our minds, and finding the path that can make our dreams come true, we discovered the true dream within us.

Thomas from Liberia has a powerful message to share with the world, he says, “ ... I want to tell the world that we should be one. Becoming one is like forgetting our differences: political, social, religious, cultural, and so forth race. Just one. For the world to become one, we have to forget about all our differences and do our best to relate to one another, do our best to console other people, how to confront issues in a very polite manner, and be a smiley face and not of all the time be so emotional in a negative way that will end up in somebody getting hurt. ...”

Let′s wish together that all our dreams to come true, and may all our dreams be true dreams. Change your mind to change the world.