December is the time when we are reminded to envision “Peace on Earth; Good Will Towards All.” Actually, this book’s title, Peace is the Way, comes from Mahatma Gandhi’s teaching: “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” Peace is not an anti-war movement, but rather a way of being that has its own agenda for bringing about peace on our warring planet. As Chopra notes in his first chapter, “War Ends Today,” in 2003 there were an estimated 30 million military conflicts being fought around the world. Unbelievable!

The book’s organization makes a contrast between what the author calls a tangled hierarchy of fear, greed, and unsustainability—our current norm—with a tangled hierarchy of love, sharing, compassion/sustainability, and peace consciousness. Throughout the chapters, he uses this negative and positive tangled hierarchy-concept to explain how we can move from what he calls “Toxic Nationalism” (Chapter 4) and the “Myth of Security” (Chapter 5) to “The Body at Peace” (Chapter 11) and “Our Last Hope” (Chapter 12).

Deepak Chopra has taken on a giant to tame. War seems to be the norm and peace seems to be the exception, and the author weaves his way through the chapters so that we can flip-flop these concepts to make peace the norm and war the exception. The book is idealistic, but then, where would we be without ideals? Here are a few of Chopra’s quotes that hopefully will demonstrate what I call his practical idealism for creating peace, something we need to work on not just at holiday times, but every day of the year.

“…the way of peace isn’t based on religion or morality…what it asks for is something new: conscious evolution.” (p. 4)

“Those emblems of the old order [military stockpiles and multinational corporations] are nothing more than frozen consciousness……Anyone who knows how to move consciousness in an evolutionary direction is part of the peace movement.” (p. 23)

“The process of integrating material life, with all the good it has to offer, and spiritual life, with all the good it has to offer, is a lifelong challenge.” (p. 75)

“The way of peace is a soul journey to acquire the ability to change reality.” (p. 116)

“Contrary to what we hear, the real enemy of peace isn’t evil but chaos. In a state of chaos such as terrorism wants to create, society breaks down.” (p. 174)

“Love is stronger than terror because ultimately every impulse can be traced back to out deep need for love.” (p. 185)

Peace starts within, and at the end of his book, Chopra writes a list of items under the topic: “Putting the Body at Peace” (p. 206), which includes putting fear in perspective and finding an outlet for your anger and anxiety.

In the final chapter Chopra talks about healing our own emotional apathy in order to bring about peace. Or as Chopra states so succinctly: “A change in consciousness happens one person at a time.” (p. 234)

Finally, the saying at the end of my review came to me as a recalled George Burns in two movies in which he played the part of God. In the second movie, he appoints a little girl to bring awareness about God to the world and she and her friend come up with a very simple slogan: “Think God.” So I ask you, the reader, to start the New Year with a similar request: “Think Peace.”

NOTE: Peace is the Way is available at bookstores or online. It is published by Harmony Books, New York and was released in 2005.

Deepak Chopra is a certified medical doctor from India who is trained in the eastern philosophy of Ayurvedic medicine and seems to have combined Eastern and Western medical philosophies successfully. I have heard him speak and he is mesmerizing. Chopra has written many books, most of which are spiritual in nature, but always have some medical stories to add emphasis to his ideas.

This would be a great book to give to anyone or a group studying conflict resolution, especially those who believe war is inevitable in our society, because after reading this, there may be a change of hearts and minds.

December is a busy month, starting with my birthday on December 2nd. I also have many friends who are Sagittarians (Birds of a feather flock together), and this year I sent out this essay that I read in a magazine two years ago. It is such a beautiful story that I decided to include it in This ‘n That for December, with proper credit for the source. (I took the liberty of making extra space between paragraphs for easier reading. ES)

“Now That’s a Birthday Party” by Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush from Compassion in Action, Random House as reprinted in
Yoga International Magazine, Oct./Nov. 2004.
(I believe the narrator in this story is co-author Ram Dass.)

While in Madras in South India, I was asked by one of my guru’s devotees to join him and his family in celebrating his birthday. We were to meet outside my hotel entrance the next morning at seven-thirty. It seemed a strange time to celebrate a birthday.

He arrived in his car, which already contained his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and daughter and son-in-law. As is the case with all Indian transportation, there was room for one more. We drove through the city in the early morning toward the birthday celebration. I was mystified about what it would be.

On the far side of Madras, we entered the gates of what appeared top be a very poor ashram. In fact, it turned out to be the poorest ashram in the city. It was a home for the destitute aged and the mentally disturbed. My host drove the car into the middle of the courtyard. There were several hundred inmates standing there, each holding a tin plate.

When the trunk of the car was opened, there were huge covered pots of steaming rice and vegetables and wonderful Indian sweets. Each of us was given a pail and a ladle. We filled the pails again and again from the pots, serving the contents to all the people now sitting cross-legged on the ground in rows. When all had had their fill, the sweets were distributed, and the ashram served tea.

The pots empty and the utensils back in the trunk, we drove out of the ashram gates. In the car we were all silent, each alone with his or her reflections and images gathered from such an intense experience. There were tears in all of our eyes. My host broke the silence with the words, “Now that was a birthday party!”