What we want

The following Manifesto is worth reading and sharing with all your friends.  I invite to leave comments!

Manifesto for the Movement for a Free Earth

What we want is not to be normal but to be true.
What we want is not only to fight against the old system but to create a new system.
What we want is the full liberation of love and sexuality from fear.
What we want is to strengthen our will in the conscious decision to serve peace – outside and inside.
We won’t be able to handle the challenges which we will face with only our own power. What we want is to cooperate with the greater forces of life.
What we want is to experience the original form of humans living together: Community

We want these words to become a reality by building concrete life models.
The world has come to a point where it is not enough anymore to point out the change that needs to happen… We must be that change.

To be this change we follow three guidelines in our daily life:
Truth
Mutual support
Responsible participation in the community and in the world

All of this will only succeed in the long term with a base of humanely functioning, grounded community. We cannot realise the highest goals if we are not able to found functioning communities which can survive. Ecological humanism needs new social structures. A new culture arises by reconnecting with the eternal laws of love and community.
There are definately many ways to reach this goal but there is only one key to open the gate: Rediscovering trust.

We dedicate our life to peace work.
The education of a peace worker includes education in love. This is a high task with a high goal. But there cannot be peace on earth as long as there is war in love.

May we, the youth of all countries step out of our pasts and enter into the possibility of a new era of planetary thinking, planetary friendship and planetary joy. May the young people from Toronto, Sydney, Nairobi, from San Francisco and Kiev come together. May we celebrate our new world community in Colombia and with the Zapatistas in Mexico, in Bethlehem and in Tamera. May we draw and actualise the information and forces from the code of life that will lead us to a future worth living on a wonderful planet.
We will do it, the “Movement for a Free Earth“ is underway.

Movement for a Free Earth
Tamera/Portugal, May 2009

When will and vision come together at such high levels…

I just returned from a journey through the U.S., mainly through California, moved and almost overwhelmed by the beauty of this country and its nature, by the political commitment of many of its inhabitants, by many deep talks and meetings. For a long time America was known as the land of opportunity, and in some respects it still is. But the urgent question remains: How does it go on, for this country and for all others?

I would like to quote from the book “The Sacred Matrix” (link to amazon.com) by Dieter Duhm:

“We humans have the intelligence to build computer-guided weapons and space stations. We are about to send tiny submarines through arteries and nano-canons containing information into sick tissue. All this is no longer science fiction. It shows us the great possibilities that arise when will and vision come together at such high levels. It is also a question of will and vision whether or not we will invest the same amount of intelligence and effort in the human area and in finding a new order for our life on earth that no longer collides with the original order of life and of the universe but resonates with it.

We have the possibility of stepping out of our hardened cocoon of fear and armoring, choosing the Sacred Matrix for our further existence. This is not a never-ending task, for the Sacred Matrix already exists as a blueprint. We actualize it by seeing it, perceiving it, and accepting it. There is a deep connection between perception and actualization. Interestingly, the English word for this connection is “realize”. It is through our perception that latent possibilities are realized or called into existence.”

The dawn of a new era

Tomorrow, Oct 1st, a group of around 500 people will start a peace pilgrimage through the rainforest of Colombia, led by Padre Javier Giraldo (Colombia), Sabine Lichtenfels (www.the-grace-foundation.org)  and Benjamin von Mendelssohn (www.prvme.org). The participants are inhabitants of the peace village San José de Apartado, but they are joined from people all around the globe. They come from Israel, Palestine, Europe, USA and other countries of South America. (More information: www.grace-pilgrimage.com)

I want to greet them with a quote of the book “Future without War” by Dieter Duhm:
Sun Bear, a native American tribe elder said once: “Sometimes I dream that I am at a place where small groups of people are approaching over a hill. We all embrace each other and call out: “Brother, sister, you have survived!” All “isms” have disappeared. We no longer say: “Which religion do you belong to? To what do you belong? None of this is of importance anymore.”
I see a new generation of pilgrims from all countries travelling across the earth. They are not bound to any nation, language, race, culture or religion, to riches or possessions. They help in areas of crisis, they visit holy sites and they are on the way to centres, to new anchorages. They encounter each other at campfires, in barns or hostels, share their bread and develop a new quality of community, hospitality and willingness to help. In this way a young world citizenship of a new kind and beyond all institutions will come into existence – a different type of globalisation will take place. This development is supported by the emergence of completely new centres spreading slowly across the earth. We call them “Healing Biotopes” or “Peace Villages”. They serve the pilgrims both as hostels and as places to study and work in. In these centres concrete research is conducted, facilitating the development of a technological, spiritual and social basis for a non-violent world society. The centres stay in touch with each other through the growing flow of pilgrims. They are aware of each other, they are on the same path, and they have taken on responsibility for the future of the planet.
The beginning of a new culture, the dawn of a new era.

May the youth of all countries step out of their pasts and enter into the possibility of a new era of planetary thinking, planetary friendship and planetary joy. May the young people from Toronto, Sydney or Nairobi, from San Francisco or Kiev come together and meet. May they celebrate their new world community in Colombia or with the Zapatistas in Mexico, in Bethlehem or in Tamera. May they draw and actualise the information and forces from the world code that will lead us into a future worth living on a wonderful planet. They will do it, the “Movement for a free Earth” is under way!

No revenge

After a long and intense summer break I want to quote the following out of the book “Future without War” by Dieter Duhm, titled “No revenge”. Please read and think about it! Comments are appreciated!

“The ideas of a realistic future which is worth living also have a very personal side to them. They release us from old images of hostility and fear, because they provide a more powerful perspective. Tamera is cooperating with peace workers in Israel and Palestine. A young Palestinian friend was shot at by Israeli soldiers. He was hit by three bullets. He fell in a coma. My daughter Vera visited him together with Israeli and Palestinian friends. When he woke up from the coma, his first words were: “No revenge.”

The principle of revenge no longer serves, there is now a different one. Those who are our enemies today may have been our friends before. Those who are our friends today may have been our enemies before. In a coma, deep down where we no longer have a language, we are fully awake, but at a different level.
Those who have harmed us have suffered in similar ways, and they could be our friends. We begin to understand that, whatever we do unto others through our thoughts or deeds, falls back on ourselves. And we see that there is a different possiblity in life. For we are a part of the whole.

But we should never argue morally, as long as we are sitting in our warm living room, while outside terrible things are occuring which everywhere give rise to thoughts of revenge. Revenge is a principle of high energy. There are situations where one can follow no other thought than this one, because it is stronger than all other thoughts. I have experienced the truth in the saying that “revenge is sweet.” Whenever people or peoples, who have experienced great injustices, follow the impulse of revenge, they feel no fear and they are willing to do anything. It is absurd but true that for millenia the energy of revenge was the energy of liberation. What can we offer to the soul of humans if we want to deprive it of liberation through revenge? Is there truly something better? Here, there is no room for empty slogans.

We are dealing with a reorientation of human thinking. In science this is called a “paradigm shift”. Here, we are dealing with a paradigm shift in the deepest area of all. No revenge! Above all not when we see what they do. So what else, if not revenge? Reconciliation? How can you be reconciled with someone you hate? If the word reconciliation is to have any meaning at all, we must invent something for our souls that truly releases us from revenge and opens us up for reconciliation. This cannot consist of moral or religious appeals. It must be much more, much deeper, much greater.”

Globalization of Peace

“The current globalization of violence can only be stopped and overcome by globalizing a new power of peace that is “stronger than all violence.” The creation of global peace requires a fundamental change in our forms of life, forms of love, forms of economy, forms of villages, forms of thought and forms of belief. In the beginning, these new forms must be developed and tested within small pilot projects and research centers, before they can manifest globally. Global healing work therefore requires such centers. We call them “healing biotopes.” It is not the futurological super projects that are being planned today, but the small planetary models that take into consideration the innermost issues of human beings that will create the change needed today.” (more)

These words by Dieter Duhm, author of the book “Future without war” are part of a concrete and exciting plan to establish world peace. I am looking forward to receive comments, feedback, suggestions for cooperation partners and support to spread these thougts! Thank you!

A step surpassing everything we have ever done so far

There again are the rumours about an upcoming war from the US against the Iran in the internet. They now talk about August 2008.

What do we do with such news? Instead of an own comment I want to quote from the book: “GRACE. Pilgrimage for a future without war” by Sabine Lichtenfels. She describes her decision facing the threat of a possible war against Iran in 2005. Her words are as actual as never before:

“The idea bothered me day and night of another war where I would just watch without taking any action. Feverishly my mind was looking for peace and quiet, for protection, for perspectives. I studied books of art: Klee, Kandinsky, Käthe Kollwitz. All of them had been witnesses to wars, to insoluble political situations and had consoled themselves through art and in joining communities too. Alas, I did not come across any such consolation. (…)

What are your reasons for hope? The history that those in the West are proud of is nothing but a never ending tale of war. I hear the words of a typical patriarch who said smilingly: war is a law of nature and will always exist. My father spoke like this, although he was a convinced pacifist; Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest, wrote like this, although he sincerely followed the path of God; our pastors preached like this and so did most of our textbooks. And the matriarchies to which our female souls turn for comfort and appeasement have no evidence to offer that there ever existed a more peaceful Earth. There is no evidence for a non-violent culture. All that exists is the yearning, the untamed hunger for a better world, and this only, as long as we still admit to it.
How I can understand those people who prefer to go numb, become indifferent rather than be aware! To grow up means to adapt oneself to a given reality. It takes much strength to not “grow up” in this sense.
I cannot grow up. I have friends in Israel and Palestine, in Africa, in India and in Colombia. The nearer the world of the oppressed comes, the more indignant becomes my outcry against the world of the rich, the protected, against the world of my own roots. But alas I do not find any consolation in this outcry against it all!

I search for empowering literature in the peace movement in order to be able to quote it in the Ring of Power, a spiritual and political peace network that I founded. With the texts I send out I want to remind the peace movement that the world contains things of beauty and gentleness, of happiness and music. If it is not to create beauty, what is it then that we are fighting for?
A revolution which wants to find a way out of the dead-end street has to be accompanied by the development of a positive alternative. The revolution has to go to the trouble of including the inner psychological processes of us human beings in order that we can offer real answers to inner questions. One of the causes of war is to be found in human longing and in human life energy that are wrongly channelled. Or, do we seriously believe that young soldiers really stand ready to go to war, or really would follow orders, if they had another perspective for their strength, their courage, their longings for adventure and community? How would it be if they were to be guided by different archetypical soul images instead of those of heroism which prevail in our patriarchal culture? Could there be a military world at all based on order and obedience if human beings learned to follow their longing for love and thereby find and return to their own true source?
The unquenched thirst for community, love and religion has driven us into this present collective madness. If we only knew how to integrate rather than suppress the longing for love, the hope for trust and community, the surplus of vitality and life energy and the immense power of sexuality in our lives, then war would long have ceased to exist.

I have been to Israel/Palestine often enough to study this phenomenon closely. Many Palestinians who have witnessed Israeli attacks want revenge. This is only too human a reaction if one really knows the means with which the State of Israel acts against Palestine. The Israelis act the same way when a close friend, a child, a husband or wife is killed in a suicide attack. They feel continually threatened by the radical Hamas and by the suicide-bombers and their insatiable raging need for revenge. One needs to have been in the country in order to get an impression of the feelings an Israeli has when he steps on a bus, goes through a department store or sits in a restaurant. The whole of Israel is under the effect of a subconscious ghetto of habitual fear. Where fear has become daily life, the call for violence is easily followed. Our peace messages will be of no avail as long as we do not know how men and women feel when their child is shot by hostile neighbours, when their land is stolen from them or when their wives are violated and their husbands killed. One single voice cries out of all those hurt: I want revenge! At such times no one bothers to ask: How do we stand by a commitment to love? Hardly anyone is interested or has the strength to find the background political reasons or finds the necessary peace and quiet to be able to look for real solutions.

We, however, who participate on an international level and watch with dismay from afar, we ought to be asking ourselves what could it be that would give power to the peace movement? How can the spreading powerlessness be turned into a source of belief and power? Everyone who is seriously concerned must set themselves to finding a solution to the question ‘Is it possible that the Earth can still be saved?’
Much of the population, when asked whether they want war or peace, will answer: ‘We want peace, but what can we do about it all alone?’ But if all these people could only be brought together in an initiative that offers peace knowledge and a peace vision, one that is more powerful than the globalisation of violence, then this could lead to a turning point in peace work. To express it somewhat paradoxically: powerlessness is one of the biggest latent potentials for power! If the worldwide feeling of powerlessness could be transformed into a force for peace, if it could be changed into knowledge that pursues a defined goal, then the peace movement could easily succeed.
It is obvious that the international power systems rely on the weakness of their people in order to make them more governable and to keep them quiet. They do this so that ever more atrocities will be tolerated across a world where no one dares to stand up against them.
A turning point must be found. The immense reality of war needs to be countered with an immense dream. Our source of strength lies in the courage to remain true to this dream and to feed it with power and knowledge so that it can be realised. We dream the dream of a large and strong movement: the Movement for a Free Earth.
The purpose of this movement is the dissemination of a credible alternative; its task is to initiate a strong, joyous and non-violent revolution, one that is full of the zest for life and one that has the ability to provide everyone with the perspectives that will show how we can leave behind the global system of violence. Let us get out of being an accomplice to the system and get into the system of peace! This calls for a change of all our daily habits, it calls for a profound personal decision, a social revolution and a global alternative.

My decision started to take shape. I wanted to take a step, one which would surpass everything I had ever done so far. I strongly believed, and still do now believe, that we could have an effect with but a few people, if only we were to search seriously enough for new solutions.

I hope to reach out to these “few” people and invite for comments!

Taking the time to understand what is really happening there

I have made myself a hot cup of tea and enjoy the warmth of the beverage and the warmth of the room I am sitting in.
In the internet I read the following news:

(…) The suffering of the Tibetans under Chinese oppression is so unbearable that many do not see any other way out of it anymore but to commit suicide. In East Tibet, in Amdo and Kham, quite many people had to leave their houses and flee. They are now looking for refuge in the mountainous regions from the brutalities of the Chinese security forces. Without food, clothing and fuel they are captives in the mountains and woods. Their situation is life threatening and they are in urgent need of international support. (…)

What do I do? Do I carry on with my regular activities? Have I forgotten the news only minutes after hearing them, the way I have done countless times before? Have I been swallowed by my everyday life, my everyday sorrows, my everyday needs?
I pick up Dieter Duhm’s book “Future without War” and read:

“More people die from the consequences of colonisation and globalisation than ever died in a war. Can we continue to enjoy our privileges and limit our efforts to words? We need to find real ways to free the earth from war. We indirectly contribute to the war because we do not have the time to understand what is really going on there. Our culture is arranged so that nobody has the time to understand what is really going on.”

I decide to take the time today. Now, immediately, for the people in Tibet and Palestine, in the Irak and the Sudan. Equally I appeal to my fellow human beings to take the time. Now, immediately! Before we discuss the possibilities and impossibilities of global peace, before looking at different ways and strategies, we have to get in touch with this sound and intact place within ourselves, out of which we can know wholeheartedly: I want an planet without war! I notice this is not just my own small, personal wish – it is the dream of all of humankind. This dream has to be rekindled within me and within many others, since it is us, who still have a roof over our heads and enough time and strength to think and act.

I am grateful for the contributions and statements and I thank all those of you who take the time to understand what is truly happening.

The Totality of Possibilities

The issue of this blog is to present the book “Future without War” by Dieter Duhm by book descriptions, text examples, short excerpts and comments in order to find co-thinkers and co-workers worldwide willing to understand and realise together the peace plan which is described here.

To introduce this book I want to relate a personal experience:

Some time ago I met a few women for a talk. In the growing twilight Luz Maria from Colombia told us the story of her life. She was visiting Europe for the first time. She is a 50 year old campesina, a peasant, who can neither read nor write. At the age of sixteen she was almost killed. The machete missed her head by inches, but hit her left thumb almost severing it. Her husband and her eldest son were killed years ago. Since then Luz Marina has cared for herself and her six children all on her own. The campesinos are easy game for the armed groups, be they military, police, paramilitary, guerrillas or simply armed groups of bandits who are not bound by any moral authority nor subject to the rule of law. Only in the last few years over 150 people from her village were killed, some of them in a most gruesome way.

Luz Marina however cannot go away. Where to? The situation is just as bad elsewhere; at least there in her village she has a small piece of land where she can grow food to meet the basic needs of her family.

The fate of Luz Marina is the fate of millions, probably billions of human beings who live on our planet today. Where should they go?

“Future without War” has been written in response to such fates. The book wants to save people. To do so, the reader is asked in spite of today’s trendiness to study its theory, sentence by sentence, thought by thought. And by so doing it conveys the logic how to effectively help the world.

This book explains how the earth can be healed.

It is the knowledge of a new era. To quote Dieter Duhm: “New potential of intelligence and humanity is available when we concentrate on accessing previously unused information from the cosmic databank.” It teaches us to no longer separate theory from experience, the objective world “out there” and a subjective world “in us”. Equally it teaches us not to separate between those who live in crisis areas and those who do not, i.e. ourselves, who have a roof over our head and full refrigerator. We are all part of one and the same family of life. We all suffer from the same illness. Our own healing, together with help for the world’s poor, and the protection of the nature are all part of one and the same process which we must adhere to and reinforce by adopting life-changing decisions.

How can human beings live together correctly?

Recently I found following sentence in the internet:

“Even if we spent as much money on space exploration as we do on war, funding a mission to Mars would not solve any of our problems.” (Annalee Newitz)

Humankind is planning underwater habitats, the construction of huge eco-cities, the colonisation of another planet. The question remains: Would that solve any of our problems? Were our problem solved once we had conquered the last paradisiac island in the South Seas?

“How can human beings live together correctly? That is the deepest question of our time. In spite of all the necessary work in the areas of ecology, technology and strategy, we keep coming back to this goal. The areas of crisis of our time is the relationship between human beings. In this connection, I would like to quote Eugen Drewermann: “Human misery is international, it does not know any boundaries, nor does it allow any. At every place on earth, human suffering is great and it is transnational. In reality, one cannot say: Israel is here, and Canaan is there.” It is the task and the goal of our healing work to see, understand and end this misery worldwide.” (Dieter Duhm)

The central area of crisis

“We know the problems of hunger and war, criminality and violence, environmental destruction and impending climate catastrophe. But the central area of crisis of our times is the relationship between human beings. It is here where a futurological project has to take care that a deep change towards healing and trust can happen.

The currently planned future drafts of mega-cities and cyber worlds cannot bring peace. Humanity will not be fed and healed through technological miracles (as important as they might be sometimes). Also not through well meant ecological projects, healthy nutrition and self-sufficient energy supply. As fascinating and indispensable the new technological possibilities are, as much they require a new human and social structure for humaneness to unfold.” (Dieter Duhm)

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