Education & Parenting for Peace

This is the fourth booklet in the current series to be titled, What is Right with the World. Including the last three, this fourth, and next presentation, the five titles will be:

1. Perennial in the Millennium, composed as a Millennium Message to meditative disciples.

2. Unifying Streams in Religion, a presentation on the occasion of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Leaders in Religions and Spirituality.

3. Meditation: the Unifying Stream in Religion, offered at the regional conference of the World Parliament of Religions (Delhi Peace Summit), December 2003.

4. Education and Parenting for Peace, presentation at the conference of MWPS WCRL Ethics Initiatives, January 28" 2004.

5. Global Ethics: Contemplative Altruism, forthcoming.

There might be more as time passes and the need or inspiration arises.

What are presented in this series are basic ideas addressing contemporary concerns within the context of what Aldous Huxley called the Perennial Philosophy, an attempt to formulate concepts that are not meant to provide solutions to problems; are not for preventing wars, not for pre-empting the next act of terrorism. They are meant to help search for a way of life for human beings, a modus vivendi, in which these problems cease arising because of an internal evolution in the spirit of the Homo Contemplatiens, for the words ‘man’ and ‘mind’ are derived from the proto- Indo-European or Sanskrit verb for contemplation.

These presentations and proposals arise from the lineage of the Himalayan yogis, and all other such contemplative traditions worldwide are agreed on their perennial values.

One of the purposes of these short publications is to evoke a response from those endowed with power and mundane means to:

• help support the concepts presented through detailed and methodologically organised research, and
• develop practical ways to institute the ideas presented so as to benefit the global society.

The thoughts offered in this booklet are brief notes, almost in the category of mnemonic devices. Each paragraph waits to be developed in full, requiring a complete chapter all its own – a bonanza for those who seek ‘problems’ to solve in their doctoral theses. Just the study of the variety of education systems, and incorporating their strengths in mainstream education, will enhance peace to a great extent.

Some of the suggestions made therein may be too ‘spiritual’ for some minds, but so were the systems like Ayurveda and meditation thought to be ‘strange’ just a few decades back. However, ow they have found a respectable place in the mainstream western society. Slowly and steadily the steps for the application of these thoughts can be developed, starting with the most easily acceptable ones of these.

It is hoped that the leaders of the Millennium World Peace Summit and its subsidiary organisations including the World Council of Religious Leaders and the Global Ethics initiatives will formulate proposals based on these concepts. The proposals may then be presented to and be accepted by the different forums, such as the UN, UNESCO and others, that guide the direction that humanity’s future is to take.

May the Beneficent One grant the Bene to all living beings.

**Contents and Sample Pages**