Selections from “Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers” by Thich Nhat Hanh

“Listen, Listen, the sound of the bell

brings me back to my true home.”

“Listening to the bell I feel the afflictions in me

begin to dissolve. My mind is calm and my body

is relaxed. A smile is born on my lips. Following

the sound of the bell I go back to the island of

Mindfulness and in the garden of my heart the

flowers of peace bloom beautifully.”

“In Buddhism we speak of the world of phenomena (dharmalakshana).

You, me, the trees, the birds, squirrels, the creek, the air, the stars are all phenomena. There is a relationship between one phenomenon and another.  If we observe things deeply, we will discover that one thing contains all the other things. If you look deeply into a tree, you will discover that a tree is not only a tree.  It is also a person. It is a cloud. It is the sunshine. It is the Earth. It is the animals and the minerals. The practice of looking deeply reveals to us that one thing is made up of all other things.  One thing contains the whole cosmos.

When we hold a piece of bread to eat, if mindfulness is there, if the Holy Spirit is there, we can eat the bread in a way that will allow us to touch the whole cosmos deeply.  A piece of bread contains the sunshine. That is not something difficult to see. Without the sunshine, the piece of bread cannot be. A piece of bread contains a cloud. Without a cloud, the wheat cannot grow. So when you eat the piece of bread, you eat the cloud, you eat the sunshine, you eat the minerals, time, space, everything.”

This next excerpt is from the book, “Happiness Now” by Robert Holden, in which he speaks of being in the “now”.  

“The gift of happiness is wrapped in your heart, not the world.  thus, your happiness will never be mailed to you! In truth, your happiness has already been delivered, sitting in your inner mailbox - your heart – waiting to be opened.  This is what the sacred now is really all about.  In essence, then, you are the key to happiness.

                  “Now has enough wisdom to last you forever,

                  because within you, right now, there is all the

                  wisdom you listen for in others.

                  Now has enough love to last you a lifetime,

                  because within you, right now, thereis the

                  love you continually cry out for.

                  Now has enough peace to last you an eternity,

                  because within you, right now, peace of mind

                  is one though away at most.

                  And Now has enough joy to outlast the world,

                  because within you, right now, the joy you chase

                  is not in things – it is in you.”

Witness for Social Justice and Nonviolent Resistance, Activists Arrested at U.S. Captiol by Janice Sevre Duszynska ARCWP

Members of National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance Arrested

On Steps of U.S. Capitol for Pleading for An End to War Funding

Janice Sevre Duszynska ARCWP wearing stole

by Janice Sevre-Duszynska ARCWP

“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be impossible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change things for the better.” Daniel Berrigan

Early morning July 12^th, Thoreau’s 200^th birthday, Max Obuszewski and I drove from Baltimore to the Greenbelt Metro Station. We were wearing bloody t-shirts as part of NCNR’s “Rivers of Blood II” action. Our NCNR community had written a petition to end the wars the U.S. has been conducting, cut off funding and instead put the money into much-needed social programs. The petition would be delivered to four leading members of Congress. This year was the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech at the Riverside Church in Manhattan.

On the train three people heading to D.C. for a business meeting asked us about our shirts and we told them our purpose for going to Capitol Hill.  Max asked if they knew how many wars the U.S. was engaged in today.  One thought two, the other three. They were surprised when he told them we were at war in seven countries. One man said he had heard on NPR that 19% of the discretionary federal budget goes to the military. We assured him it was more than 50%. As we were leaving, one businessman wondered if our group would be able to get into the Congressional offices.

We met with Joy First, Malachy Kilbride, Phil Runkel and Alice Sutter at Union Station. Along with other supporters we walked toward the Senate and House office buildings. It was already quite hot. I put on my stole as we entered the Russell Office Building and delivered our petition to Senator Mitch McConnell’s office in Room 317. We were told that it would be given to the person who works on military spending and we received her contact information.

In the Hart Senate Office Building we visited the office of Senator Chuck Schumer. His assistant, Faiq S. Raza, whose parents are from Pakistan, listened to our pleas to stop the killing and military weapons spending. He told us that constituents can have an effect on Sen. Schumer.

We then made our way to the Cannon House Office Building to Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s office where we delivered our petition. Legislative aides, however, were at a meeting. We asked for and were given the contact information for the aide who handles military spending.

Next we went to Rep. Paul Ryan’s office in the Longworth House Office Building. His door was locked and a sign posted which read: “Only people with a scheduled meeting are allowed to enter.” We knocked but there was no answer. So we slipped the petition under the door along with a flyer that Joy had prepared condemning U.S. military operatives. We handed it out all through Capitol Hill.

Wearing our bloody tee shirts, we walked toward the Capitol steps, across from the Supreme Court, carrying our banner which read, “Stop the War Machine: Export Peace. Once on the steps we unfurled a red sash to symbolize the river of blood flowing out of the Capitol. The banner and sash were confiscated by the police. Surrounded by Capitol Police Officers, we began taking turns reading the petition but were constantly interrupted by an officer warning us that we were facing arrest. Each time the police officer spoke, I would tell him that we were not doing anything illegal. We were speaking for the people. All we wanted to do was read our petition.

After the fourth warning, Max was removed, then Alice, a retired nurse from New York, then Phil, an archivist from Wisconsin of Dorothy Day’s papers, then Joy First, a grandmother activist also from Wisconsin, and then Malachy, a Quaker from Maryland. While they were being held in custody, I remained on the Capitol steps. I told the police I was going to finish reading the petition. Although they crowded around me, I did finish

reading the document.

Then they took me into the shade where the others were sitting and wondering what had happened to me.  I was surprised as were the others. We were allowed to keep our possessions. We were not handcuffed or frisked. Nor was there a police van waiting to take us away to a police station. Instead, in the sweltering heat, we were given cold water.  There was no fingerprinting but our photos were taken. Then tables and chairs were brought out of a police van and the police took our information before giving us a release document. We were to report on July 13^th to the U.S. Capitol Police Headquarters to request a court date.

It was discovered that the commander on site during the arrest was the mysterious writer of an email sent to First claiming he had been arrested before. The plan will be to subpoena him to appear in court during the trial.

However, on July 25, Mark Goldstone, the pre-eminent First Amendment attorney in Washington, D.C, notified the group that charges were dismissed for First, Kilbride, Runkel and Sutter, a day before their arraignment. Max and I are scheduled to be arraigned on August 2. It is presumed that charges will be dismissed for us as well.

The Capitol Steps Six are savoring this victory for freedom of speech. However, they are already conspiring to do another action to honor Dr. King’s Riverside Church speech.

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Olga Lucia Alvarez Benjumea ARCWP Calls For Reconciliation, Non-Violence, and Justice in Colombia

Alert of July 27, 2017

The Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy (REDLAD) denounces the systematic assassinations of leaders and leaders who have been registering since last year in Colombia. Likewise, it condemns and expresses its deep rejection of the threats that members of the National Victims' Bureau belonging to Social Organizations and of the Corporación Viva la Ciudadanía de Colombia, as well as several leaders and social leaders of the Colombian regions, have received from the Last June because of its defense of the peace process and the demand for the construction of a Social and Democratic State of Law.

On July 13, the Colombian Ombudsman's Office informed the country that according to its investigations there are 52 leaders murdered in 2017, and if the 2016 cases are added, as the UN has denounced, the figure reaches almost 180. Especially in Areas where the FARC previously operated and which are also part of territories of different indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities, some of which today are under constant threat from other groups outside the law that have occupied the places of power of the FARC. Demobilized guerrilla.

On the other hand, "on 22 June 2017, through an e-mail, the National Bureau of Victims belonging to Social Organizations, several of its leading organizations and leaders and the Corporación Viva la Ciudadanía, we received a threat from the Group called the Capital Block of the Black Eagles, as it has been several times in the past; And on Sunday, July 23, some of us received text messages on cell phones with accurate personal references that endanger our integrity and that of our families, "said the statement issued by Corporación Viva la Ciudadanía on July 26 .

In connection with the above, the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation has authorized a tool (see here) that allows establishing the number of selective violence cases that have been presented in the different territories of Colombia, from the year 2013 to date.

REDLAD, as a platform for civil society organizations, activists, social and political leaders, academics and journalists in the region who defend democratic principles and human rights of all people, calls for alertness and urgency and therefore :

We demand that the Government of Colombia take all necessary measures to protect the integrity and life of the people who have been the object of threats, which the Corporación Viva la Ciudadanía and other social organizations have denounced.

We request the competent authorities of Colombia to undertake the pertinent investigations to find those responsible for these threats and the murders, and to bring them to justice.

We urge international organizations and the Inter-American Human Rights System to pay special attention to this serious humanitarian situation.

We demand the Government of Colombia and other competent authorities to protect and respect the territories of indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and other rural communities that are being affected by this situation, in coordination with their traditional authorities and organizations.

We invite civil society organizations, activists and political and social leaders of the continent to stand in solidarity with the people and organizations threatened.

It is the duty of everyone to protect the integrity of these people and to defend the peace process in Colombia that has saved thousands of lives.