Advocates for Peace - 'Martin Luther King'

 

 

'This is the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a big house,

a great 'world house' in which we have to live together - black and white, Easteners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Moslem and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, cultures and interests who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other'.

                                                     - Martin Luther King

 



Martin Luther King was 35 years old when he received the Nobel Peace Prize, making him the youngest recipient to be awarded this honor. Even today, 44 years after his untimely death in 1968, his sentiments and words on universal peace, equality and unity still reverberate around the world - the message they impart just as relevant today as it was back then.

A pastor and committed civil rights advocate - particularly for members of his race, by 1954 Martin Luther King was on the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - the foremost organization of its kind in America.

In 1955, King assumed leadership of the first ‘peaceful’ African-American demonstration in the US - the world famous ‘bus boycott’ conducted over 382 days. In 1956, following the Supreme Court’s declaration that current laws requiring segregation on buses by Negroes and whites were unconstitutional, US citizens ‘rode the buses as equals‘.

Despite being arrested, abused and having his home attacked during the boycott, King became a prominent and highly respected leader and president of a growing civil rights movement.  His beliefs and ideals were influenced by Christianity and Gandhian philosophy and he traveled extensively around America, speaking to large audiences ‘wherever there was injustice, protest, and action’.
 

King's legendary protest in Alabama acquired worldwide attention, resulting in what he termed ‘a coalition of conscience’, and would directly inspire his manifesto of the ‘Negro revolution’ - Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Seeking registration and voting rights for African-Americans, King organized a massive non-violent march on Washington, where - in front of several hundred thousand people, he made his famous speech, I Have a Dream.

‘…I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together…’

Rising to world prominence as a tireless and passionate civil rights advocate and the acclaimed ‘symbolic leader’ of African-Americans, Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, just before he was scheduled to lead another sympathetic protest march.


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Advocates for Peace - Mata Amritanandamayi

 

"Where there is compassion, God is there. God dwells in the hearts of the compassionate...if one has compassion for his fellow beings, it is like gold with fragrance. Its value and greatness is beyond all words."

- Mata Amritanandamayi Devi

Every day thousands of people travel to an ashram in South India, where they stand in line, often for hours, to be embraced by Mata Amritanandamayi Devi - such is the spiritual power of her presence. 

Born into a poor family in a remote Indian village, Sudhamani - now known affectionately as Amma - showed all the signs of being a very special child.  Displaying a passionate, heartfelt reverence for Lord Krishna from a very early age, as a young girl, whenever she could, she spent every waking moment immersed in the divine - meditating, chanting, dancing or praying to God, even though she was badly ridiculed by her elders and treated as a servant by her family and relatives. 

She writes, 'from birth itself I had an intense liking for the Divine Name.  So much so, I would repeat the Lord's Name incessantly with every breath, and a constant flow of divine thoughts was kept up in my mind irrespective of the place where I was or the work I was attending to...'

A deeply compassionate child, although she had a hard and difficult life, the suffering of those around her often led her to give what little she had to others - selfless acts which regularly resulted in more hardship for her, from her family.  

It wasn't until Amma was in her twenties that her true spiritual worth and vocation was finally recognised.  Spiritual seekers began searching her out and a community of devotees and followers built up around her, which today has extended to the hundreds of thousands.

Her selfless acts of service to others has seen dozens of humanitarian iniatives started, such as universities, schools, hospitals, vocational and medical training centres, counseling services, food, housing and flood relief programs, and earth care projects. 

Amma has continued to be recognised, 'by the international community as a treasured repository of practical spiritual wisdom, who has the capacity to guide the world towards a better, brighter future. She has been a featured speaker at the United Nations on three occasions, most recently when she was presented with the 2002 Gandhi-King Award for Non-violence.  Presenting the award, Dr. Jane Goodall referred to Amma as “God’s love in a human body'.

To learn more about Amma's work, head to http://amritapuri.org

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Advocates for peace - the 'Dalai Lama'

"Because we all share this small planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. This is not just a dream, but a necessity. We are dependent on each other in so many ways that we can no longer live in isolated communities and ignore what is happening outside these communities, and we must share the good fortune that we enjoy"  

 - The Dalai Lama

I was thinking about the format of this blog in the early hours of this morning - as you do - the overall shape and development of it, and I decided to have regular postings on people - past and present - who are leading lights in their advocacy for peace and harmony.

People like the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Mata Amritanandamayi, Saint Francis of Assisi, Swami Vivekananda - to name just a few.  And even those lesser known individuals, who may not have risen to world prominence as these visionaries have, but who nevertheless work just as tirelessly for this cause.

I thought I should start this section with someone I am familiar with.  The Dalai Lama - see his Bio below - came into my life over 26 years ago.  I wrote about that experience recently in a book I am writing - a travel memoir about my time spent living in India in a Himalayan refugee community, while I researched the roles of Tibetan women.

Here's an extract of my first encounter with the Dalai Lama,

courtesy of Fiu © All rights reserved @ Flickr

'I can't remember why I agreed to go with my mother to see the Dalai Lama at a public talk in Auckland.  I had not heard of him then,  knew nothing about his background, his cause or teachings. But karma, more commonly known as the law of cause and effect, was about to play a part in our lives, connecting us all in a very profound way, the extent of which, none of us at the time, were aware of ....

All I remember of the impressions of that night was an energy, thick and fluid, that filled the auditorium in the Aotea centre with a deep, all-encompassing peace. It was like walking into and through, an unseen but palpable wall of calm.   It raised the fine hairs at the base of my neck, scattered goose bumps over my skin.   As we filed into that hushed auditorium, I knew at that moment that something very special was about to unfold.  The stage was empty. Yet I sensed a powerful presence there.

When the Dalai Lama came onto the stage I, like everyone else in the audience, was captivated. Dressed in simple maroon and yellow monk robes, his smile, spontaneous outbursts of infectious laughter and open compassionate face, gave him a charismatic presence that immediately warmed people to him. Everyone was immersed in his aura and it mattered little that his disjointed, pigeon English made it hard to understand his message.

I did not know then that the Dalai Lama is revered by Tibetans as a living Buddha. And as an enlightened being or Bodhisattva, who has incarnated back, through fourteen life times as Chenrezig, the Buddha of compassion, his sole purpose on earth is to tirelessly dedicate his life, to help alleviate the suffering of humanity.'

BIO: Tenzin Gyatso - the 14th Dalai Lama, is the Buddhist spiritual leader of Tibet, and ever since his exile to India, following the Chinese occupation of his homeland in 1959, he has been a tireless advocate for peace.  His unwavering commitment and peaceful approach to finding a non-violent resolution to the conflict surrounding Tibet, saw him awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

He travels the world highlighting the Tibetan cause, speaking and teaching about Buddhist philosophy, to packed venues where thousands of people come to hear him talk about universal ideals - peace and compassion, tolerance and loving kindness.  

The Dalai Lama is also a strong advocate of the interfaith movement, believing 'all faiths turn to compassion as a guiding principle for living a good life', and has spent many years studying all of the main world religions. 

His interest in this area has taken him on pilgrimage to various holy sites around the world such as the Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, the shrines of Thomas of Aquinas and the Virgin at Fatima.  He has visited temples, mosques, churches, synagogues and gurudwaras, and has met, and continues to actively engage in shared interfaith dialogue and discussion, with many of the main figureheads from these traditions  - see Great Reads in the Pages section for details about his interfaith book.

He writes, "My fellow religious believers, I ask this.  Obey the injunctions of your own faith; travel to the essence of your religious teaching, the fundamental goodness of the human heart.  Here is the space where, despite doctrinal differences, we are all simply human.  If you believe in God, see others as God's children.  If you are nontheist, see all beings as your mother.  When you do this there will be no room for prejudice, intolerance, or exclusivity...Always embrace the common humanity that lies at the heart of us all".