Sparks from the Fire » prayer

Pray For Peace

Peter Link — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 15:00:35 +0000

Of all the problems in our world today, war has to be the worst of them all. I think it’s even worse than poverty.

Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace. ~ Charles Sumner, American politician and statesman from Massachusetts.

War is the absolute folly of mankind. Without war the human race would evolve to its next highest level and Planet Earth would be a place of a much higher civilization.

After the Viet Nam war, we had the first period of peace longer than 20 years in the history of our country. I actually thought we had learned something by that travesty, but then we went back at it again and have been doin’ it ever since.

Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. ~ Albert Einstein

If one of the five most intelligent men who ever walked the planet felt this way, why do we go on fooling ourselves and giving others excuses for this, man’s gravest mistake?

We must daily act!

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned. ~ Dag Hammarskjold, second Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Of course you ask, “But what can I do? I’m just one person.”

We don’t have to engage in grand and heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,

can transform the world.” ~ Howard Zinn (Historian) Author of: “A People’s History of the United States” & “and Terrorism and War”

Here’s an opportunity to do your part:

Odyssey Networks invites you to participate in A Million Minutes for Peace.

People of different faiths from all over the world will stop at noon and pray for peace for one minute – each in their own way on September 21st – the U.N. International Day of Peace.

Join us.

http://www.amillionminutesforpeace.org/

It’s simple.

It’s global.

I am presently orchestrating and recording Sebastian Temple’s classic song, The Prayer of St. Francis, to be performed at this event by Inspirational music artist, Jenny Burton, from Watchfire Music.

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope
Where there is darkness only light
And where there’s sadness ever joy

It’s just 10 minutes of your life. Spend it the right way.

Either war is obsolete or men are. ~ R. Buckminster Fuller

Even More Inspiration

The Allness Of God

Peter Link — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:40:21 +0000

My own personal definition of God has changed rather dramatically over the last several decades. I was never formally taught to believe in an anthropomorphic God, rather a God that is Love, Life, Principle, Truth, Mind, Soul, and Spirit. However, growing up in America, or perhaps even in this world of television and public schools and diverse peoples, it was inevitable that I should accept a God of Him or Her or Father or Father-Mother. So when I prayed, it was also inevitable and perhaps forgivable that I would pray to an anthropomorphic concept – not exactly that guy in the sky with a long white beard, but often somewhat close to that. World thought seeped into my little brain and I gradually took on an anthropomorphic concept whether I wanted to or not.

Sistine Chapel

Around 25 years ago I had my first rock the boat experience working with my religious teacher where my God concept was so severely challenged that it shattered and broke to smithereens. At the time it was a devastating experience. Looking back, it was, of course, a great turning point in my life and actually spurned a huge amount of growth on my part because I needed to have my false concept exposed and done away with. For a couple of years I even stopped praying because I had no idea who or what I was praying to.

Gradually, through study, meditation and certainly a form of prayer, I built back my concept of God on a different and more scientific and, you might say, natural gut level. I took great steps to eliminate that “guy in the sky” concept from my understanding as much as possible. I stopped using the gender words of He or She in reference and decided that in this English language, God would simply be, for me, an It. I changed my prayers from requests basically to acknowledgements – acknowledgements of gratitude, acknowledgements of infinitude, acknowledgements of goodness, etc.

Over time I felt much more comfortable with this concept and actually lived quite well with it for a number of years until it too began to evolve yet again. I remember thinking to myself, “Oh boy, here we go again. When will I ever nail this down?” Now I know that in this lifetime here on Planet Earth, the answer is probably “never”. The language is insufficient, this mortality a bit too confusing and far too many questions lie unanswered.

So as I’ve studied and prayed, when I’ve had my minor and major revelations about God, I’ve just let them come and tried to stay calm about it all and work it through to see if demonstration proved new thoughts to be valid. Within the concept of the tares and the wheat, I decided to just see what worked for me and trusted my basic goodness knowing that the mistaken ideas would simply fall away or go blowin’ in the wind in their own time.

Around the turn of the century I became very interested in Quantum Physics and read everything I could get a hold of, that my unmathematical brain could attempt to grasp. The discoveries of physical science always seemed antithetical to spirituality to me – having more to do usually with the material. And so I grew a great but respectful distrust of physical science. I’ve also never gone to doctors or taken medicine because I’ve been able to handle ultimately any healing I’ve needed through prayer.

So I read and pondered with great interest, the recent breakthroughs in quantum physics that came along and that actually, for the first time, supported many of my spiritual beliefs and understandings.

One of these readings that I’ve kept filed away for a number of years sheds light on some of these findings. I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know where I found this article – somewhere surfing the internet – but suffice it to say that there are thousands of articles on the subject that put forth the same ideas.

“Quantum Physics and the Undivided Whole”

“Eastern religions are built on the notion that we humans, the universe and God are all part of one undivided, seamless, inseparable whole—one collective consciousness. Quantum physics today is pointing to this notion as reality. Physicist Walter Heitler, author of a standard textbook on light/matter interaction, says that in spite of its obvious partitions and boundaries, the world in actuality is a seamless and inseparable whole. Fritjof Capra, in the Tao of Physics, as well as Deepak Chopra in Creating Affluence adds to this concept. David Bohm, author of The Undivided Universe, says, “One is led to a new notion of unbroken wholeness which denies the classical analyzability of the world into separate and independent parts. … The inseparable quantum interconnectedness of the whole universe is the fundamental reality.”

“Einstein said, “The illusion that we are separate is an optical delusion of our senses.” Irwin Schroedinger, the quantum physicist who developed the wave equation in quantum physics says, “If we could just measure the sum total of the minds in the universe there would be just one.”

Mary Baker Eddy, a woman whose works I’ve read over my lifetime, said over a hundred years ago in her seminal statement on life and being, “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.” This last part, God being “All-in-all” always eluded me, though somehow I trusted its truth, honored its largess. But grasping God as all on this planet I found often illusive and too often simply a mystery.

Then along come the principles of quantum physics that seemed to say the same thing. Finally physical science was shedding light on spirituality instead of fighting it. Finally the science of Mind and the science of matter were seeming to merge instead of moving in opposite directions.

And so my concept of God began to change, to evolve once again.

Now I must warn you here, dear reader, that this story has no ending – only a continuum. I’m not going to come to much of anything, no great climax, no dramatic turning point. Once again, I’m simply moving on through another maze of new thought and intelligence about my own personal view of God. I may be even barking up the wrong tree here, but it all sure is fascinating and at this moment seems to make some exciting sense to this man’s mind.

And so I take these thoughts and move on through life, eating breakfast, washing my hands, laughing with my wife, making my music – and trying to apply the principles of this new God idea to the every day things of life. Have I really got something here? Maybe. Is it all worth pursuing? Absolutely! Will it all change once again?

Probably.

Even More Inspiration

Drug Healing

Peter Link — Sat, 09 May 2009 19:57:21 +0000

In Alcoholics Anonymous they say, “Once and addict, always and addict.” Though I deeply admire and respect the work of this organization, I’m here to say that this is just not true. I know. I proved it.

I was a marijuana junkie for ten years to the second. Yes, a stoner. Inflicted with reefer madness. ) I first got stoned New Year’s Eve 1969 at 12:00 midnight and I stopped for good New Year’s Eve 1979 at 12:00 midnight. For the first three years I was what one might call a social smoker – weekends, parties, occasionally with a friend. For the next four years, I was a full-blown junkie, getting stoned every day around 3:00 in the afternoon and staying stoned the rest of the day. During that time I never really thought much about my addiction. It was just something I did, something a lot of us did in the mid-seventies.

Somewhere around the 200th anniversary of the birth of our nation I started having a rebirth. Some voice in my inner core of goodness finally started to speak up and from a point of knowing say, “This is wrong. This is not who I truly am. This is not who I want to be in my life.” At that point I started, each day, to try to stop. This daily process of trying to stop lasted for three years. Not a day went by where I did not want to or try to stop. And every day I failed to do my own will. If this ain’t addiction, I don’t know what is. They always said that marijuana is not physically addictive. Perhaps so, but it certainly was mentally addictive.

I believe that all afflictions – colds, being overweight, cancer, AIDS, heroin addiction, broken bones, flu, etc. are all the results of some form of negative mental activity. I won’t get into this now, knowing that this concept may be controversial with some of my readership, but suffice it to say, I was an addict, addicted to marijuana. It’s inarguable. I lived it. I tried to stop every day for three years and could not.

But then I did stop New Year’s Eve 1979 at 12:00 midnight. Why ten years to the second? I dunno, seemed like the thing to do. Call it a goal fulfilled.

Here’s how I did it: I began to understand that my life did not work. Getting stoned brought an instant flash of creativity to my work as a composer. During this time I wrote the music for many Broadway shows quite successfully. I would get stoned and for 45 minutes to an hour be wildly creative. But then, the rest of the day I would feel drugged, listless, unfocused. I would take a “hit” from time to time and get a burst of high, but there was always the law of diminishing returns in effect until the “hits” meant little to my energies. At that, I would go to bed wasted only to wake up the next morning and repeat the process.

The difference between then and now is that now, it might take me 15-30 minutes to warm up, but then I can always write with great creativity and focus for 8-12 hours. It’s a world of difference and I’m clear that I’m a much better artist in my “straight” mind.

But I digress…

I decided to look at why I did this stoned thing and where it really got me. So I began each day, when I would first smoke a joint, to then ask myself, “Pete, what are you getting out of this?” Day after day I was surprised to find that the answer was increasingly ‘nothing’. Oh, there were enjoyments to the addiction. I loved listening to music stoned, I certainly loved eating and it made for a fun social time with my other friends who would get stoned with me. But slowly but surely I began to realize and see that the benefits did not equal the subtractions.

This “Once and addict, always and addict.” AA phrase, quite honestly, scared me, because, though I knew I wanted to stop, I dreaded stopping and then wanting it every day after I did stop and living with that desire and lifetime of Herculean effort and challenge every day for the rest of my life. I did not believe that I was really up to it, that I had the strength to “just say no” day after day.

So I decided to heal the wanting, to absolve myself of the desire.

Every day I asked myself what I was getting out of the experience and every day, more and more, the answer came up ‘nothing’. I looked at this wanting from a hundred different angles until I worked completely through the logic of the act. Over time I realized that the act of getting stoned was illogical. It had no positive relevance to my life. It had ceased to give me anything positive and I began to see it as a completely negative act for me.

I understand today that this was prayer. I was getting in touch with the perfect image and likeness of God in me – the man that I really am, reuniting with my own spiritual man, that place in me that is goodness, clarity, pure creativity, innocence, God’s own child. The more I focused on this me, the more I saw the truth or, in fact, the error of the stoned me.

And this me, the stoned me, I did not want. Through my daily work and prayer I began to live more and more as a spiritual man and less and less as a mortal addicted man. I was tough with myself, not tough enough to stop, but tough enough to challenge my thinking every day for three years. Had I been stronger or clearer, I know now that it would have taken less time, but I had to work through each want, each desire, and see it for what it really was – false.

At last, I saw no point to the drug. It was clearly not for me, clearly not benefiting my life in any way. I understood this so completely through my daily work and prayer that one day I realized that I had completely healed the wanting. I simply did not want to do this any more. This realization came around Christmas of 1979. I then remembered starting almost ten years ago on that fateful New Years Eve and decided to make it an even 10.

Those next two weeks were miserable for me because, in my childishness of making it an even 10, I lived in a mind and body that was completely false. I continued to get stoned every day and I couldn’t wait till New Years.

And so I stopped.

When I stopped, I never looked back. Since I had completely healed the wanting, I never wanted. There was not one single time that I thought, “I wish I could smoke a joint, I wish I could get stoned.” I was no longer addicted. I would be at a party and the joint would come around. I would take it from one person and immediately hand it on to the next with no regrets whatsoever.

I have been straight, clean and free for nearly four decades now – completely healed. The desire, the want does not exist. I do not have to work on this daily nor have I ever had to readjust my thinking since that last New Years Eve. I was completely healed.

That man who was an addict no longer exists.

Even More Inspiration

The Sneeze

Peter Link — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:02:34 +0000

Perhaps you’ve heard or read this story as it was passed around. It’s worth repeating.

They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-two students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With their rich maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt.

Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and Moms freely brushed away tears.

This class would NOT pray during the commencements — not by choice, but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it.

The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families.

The speeches were nice, but they were routine… until the final speech received a standing ovation.

A solitary student walked proudly to the microphone. He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then, it happened. All 92 students, every single one of them, suddenly SNEEZED!

The student on stage simply looked at the audience and said, “God bless you, each and every one of you!” And he walked off stage.

The audience exploded into applause. This graduating class had found a unique way to invoke God’s blessing on their future with or without the court’s approval.

This is a true story; it happened at the University of Maryland.

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and information about Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.