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By Yonas Adaye Adeto

(Director, Institute for Peace and Security Studies, Addis Ababa University)

Peace is a positive relation within and between parties. It is a form of love, which is the union of body, mind and spirit; in a more general sense, love is the union of those unions, according to Professor Johan Galtung. Love is the miracle of sex and physical tenderness; the miracle of two minds sharing joy and suffering, resonating in harmony; the miracle of two persons having a joint project beyond themselves including constructive reflection on the union of body, mind, and spirit. Extending this metaphor of love for peace to a community or country, we find that, as Galtung said, “the body is the economy, the mind is the polity, and the spirit is the culture, particularly the deep, collectively shared, subconscious culture,” which is the basis of inner peace. It is this interconnectedness and complexity that constitutes peace.

Peace can also be viewed as an intrapersonal (within oneself) as well as interpersonal (between persons) positive relation. In either case, the condition for peace is altruism, compassion, dignity, equality, equity, love, reciprocity, respect, etc… not necessarily in this order, though. A structure without all or some of these elements is not giving to others what they deserve and demand for themselves making the realisation of peace difficult. Once these qualities are developed within an individual, they then are able to create an atmosphere of peace and harmony. As Dalai Lama said, this atmosphere can be expanded and extended from the individual to their family, from the family to the community and eventually to the global world.

How can we internally transform ourselves as individuals and nurture inner peace in order to feel at peace with ourselves during the global pandemic?

I propose the 5P’s for internal transformation of individuals to acquire inner peace, which need to be diffused and permeated to the family, community, the country and to the global level during the pandemic turbulence: These are purpose - the rationale behind or justification for us to seek peace; passion - our commitment, compassion or dedication to peace; prayer - peace transcends the material world, it has a spiritual dimension, it goes beyond the here and now physical world; partnership - peace is relational, like love, peace is expressed in interaction; and finally, practice - peace is never passive, like love, it should be expressed in action, it must be seen, admired, celebrated, gently touched, hugged, embraced, caressed, felt, respected, smelt, shared, cared for, lived with, and so forth.

Purpose: Why Peace?

There is an inner hunger and yearning for peace of mind particularly during the global pandemic of the coronavirus. What we currently view through the window of our televisions almost all the times is the death, despise and destruction caused by COVID-19. Before our very eyes on the TV screen, thousands and tens of thousands are buried at times in an undignified manner, reminding us how fragile and frail we are! Deep down we feel completely empty, helpless, and depressed. Hardly anywhere in the world could we turn to for any news of hope, news of comfort, news of positive information, news of peace. We feel completely drained and in need of filling the yawning gap with inner peace. No food or drink can satisfy that hunger. The evening or morning news are filled with the images of mass graves in this or that part of our world.

We look at our children, the children of our neighbours, and mull over their hopes, and ask ourselves: “Do they have any future?” “Can they ever have peace?” They are all locked down, no more schools, no more plays, all locked in some bitter lessons from the most advanced countries (which could not prove their economic tag of being advanced) in their efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. Only inner peace and peace of mind do we cry and yearn for now. We know only too well, both theoretically and practically, that it is impossible to imagine any meaningful life without inner peace.

Essential for inner peace, in my opinion, is to maintain positive attitudes towards and relations with the self, others, nature, and one’s own conscience or a Creator. Our quest for inner peace is not only for self-preservation and our loved ones, but also for saving our planet from anthropogenic destruction by ego-centric individuals. The importance of peace in general and inner peace in particular remains evident for its effect on human life and human development. It is this reality, which should be tapped to transformative pedagogy and peace education in Global Citizenship Education. It ought to prepare the young generation to develop their own strategy to nurture inner peace in a time of unexpected crisis and, through time, transform those adversities into opportunity by using skills, passion and capacities from the transformative pedagogy in the Global Citizenship Education classes.

Passion for Peace

Passion for peace is an individual’s psychological resilience, strength and a collective action for peace. Passion is a commitment, which is an engine to gather momentum for inner peace. It can be realised through creative and innovative approaches to peacebuilding through peace education.

To me, passion implies dedication to make what appears to be the impossible possible through creative engagement in community peacebuilding activities; it means to dare to walk on fire thinking that tomorrow is a better and brighter day, even though today is clouded with the coronavirus pandemic. This way it is possible to imagine peace amid crisis and visible war against an invisible enemy. This is the missing link in most peace studies classes, which I recommend for Global Citizenship Education, so that it prepares the young generation for the uncharted future, the unexpected and emerging global human insecurities brought on by pandemics such as COVID-19, and for future unknown pandemics, by going beyond the here and now and stretching as well as igniting their imaginations.

Prayer: Crucial for Inner Peace

The most effective strategy to build a better life with inner peace, in my view, is to know one’s limitations, acknowledging it, and working to fill that gap. The most remarkable lesson COVID-19 must have taught humanity is or should be that human capacity is limited. Science is limited. Civilisation is limited. Human beings are frail, fragile and vulnerable. Humanity has not yet controlled its fate. Developed as well as developing countries are almost equal before COVID-19.

In my personal experience, prayer is crucial for inner peace since it is communion and conversation with the Creator, irrespective of the different names we attach. It is directly related to spirituality, which is the deep awareness of something beyond the sum of individuals and it is the foundation for attaining inner peace.

In the words of Galtung, “There is something beyond us.” It is by transcending the here and now, it is by transcending the physical and material world, and it is by going beyond our body and reaching out to our mind and spirit that we can have inner peace during the turbulent times of the global pandemic. This is yet another area almost neglected by our education systems and I, therefore, strongly recommend it for Global Citizenship Education classes because it creates a whole-rounded personality by creating peace within oneself and with others.

Partnership, the Most Essential Antidote for Hopelessness of Daily Life

Peace is relational. We are not just a sum total of isolated individuals. We live because of the inspiration we get from those who went before us and those who are next to us. We are in the network called relations and our task in life is to inspire others. Simply put, we have cascades of inspiration. We are interconnected to each other as the African philosophy, Ubuntu, teaches us. In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “A person is a person through other persons.”

In the turbulent times of COVID-19, partnership, irrespective of social distancing rules, is the most essential antidote for hopelessness, loneliness, and the dreariness of daily life. In the partnership, we discuss and dislodge some of our heavy feelings accumulated over the day, chocked with coronavirus updates of how many people were tested positive, how many survived, and how many died. Inner peace and comfort come when we are in a partnership. Peacebuilding and relationship building entail partnership. Peace by its very nature is relational and isolated individualism is not natural to inner and perpetual peace. This is the very fundamental point for Global Citizenship Education; it is the source of inspiration for learning and living a healthy life as learning itself is life when learners are holistically engaged and when the learning makes meaning for the learners before they practise what they have learnt.

Practice: Peace Is an Active, Dynamic Force

In its meaning and purpose, peace is neither a state of perpetuation nor the status quo. It has nothing to do with inactiveness. Peace is an active, dynamic force. Committing to it as a goal offers an individual or a group the strength to respond to any and all types of violent conflict. Moreover, ideas of peace generate enthusiasm and illuminate the path for humanity’s progress. Being the basic source and centre of peace, communicating peaceful ideas among partners or networks brings a human being out of the domain of individualism and inspires action for the welfare of others, as Albert Einstein and Galtung argue.

Through learned practices and new activities, people move forward on the pathway to peace. Like love, without action, interaction and pro-action, peace does not have life. It requires a new reality from old relations. In love affairs, as a couple metamorphose from isolated and boring singularity to a singularity of the heavenly paradise of a collective and complete life and a new relationship, so does peace metamorphose from turmoil to tranquillity, from insipidity to inspiration, and from darkness to light when it is practised. This aspect of peace phenomenon needs to be included in and reflected on Global Citizenship Education if we mean to achieve world peace that works at individual as well as community and global levels.

Final Thoughts

We need essentially new ways of thinking of peace and adapting it if we are to survive as a human species during the global coronavirus pandemic, as well as after it as a human community on planet Earth. To this end, we must internally transform ourselves by entrenching purpose, passion and prayer as well as a partnership for peace, and by practising peace. We have to learn to celebrate not only the peace elements in our own cultures but also those in others, by celebrating each person’s gift to humanity during the global crisis and beyond.

In the words of Einstein, we must radically change our attitudes towards each other and our views of the future. It is up to our generation to succeed in thinking differently in order to achieve inner peace through internal transformation at the individual level, which is the foundation for peace at the family, community and global levels amid this present or future pandemic turbulences.

URL:

(No.6) Peace in the Time of Global Pandemic > EIU in the World - APCEIU (unescoapceiu.org)