She was the mentor and close friend of one of my teachers in America and I got to know Peace Pilgrim through her words and stories. I would like to relay her teachings and wisdom to all of you that are on the path of growth and awakening to help you as much as she helped me.
Born in July 1908, in New Jersey, under the name of Mildred Lisette Norman, she was the oldest of 3 children. Although poor, her family was admired in a community of German immigrants, whose relatives originally settled the area after escaping Germany in 1855. She related that her physical journey began after having experienced a spiritual awakening, following a long period of meditation practice. She started a pilgrimage on January 1st, 1953 in California that lasted 28 years. Expressing her ideas about peace, she referred to herself only as “Peace Pilgrim”.
Her only possessions were the clothes on her back and the few items she carried in the pockets of her blue tunic which read “Peace Pilgrim” on the front and “25,000 miles on foot for peace” at the back. She had no organizational backing, carried no money, and would not even ask for food or shelter. When she began her pilgrimage, she had taken the vow to “remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food”.
STEPS TOWARD INNER PEACE (SUMMARY)
FOUR PREPARATIONS
1. ASSUME A RIGHT ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE
Stop being an escapist or a surface-liver as these attitudes can only cause inharmony in your life. Face life squarely and get down below the froth on its surface to discover its verities and realities. Solve the problems that life sets before you, and you will find that solving them contributes also to your growth. Helping to solve collective problems contributes also to your growth, and these problems should never be avoided.
2. LIVE GOOD BELIEFS:
The laws governing human conduct apply as rigidly as the law of gravity. Obedience to these laws pushes us toward harmony, disobedience pushes us toward inharmony. Since many of these laws are already common belief, you can begin by putting into practice all the good things you believe. No life can be in harmony unless belief and practice are in harmony.
3. FIND YOUR PLACE IN THE LIFE PATTERN
You have a part in the scheme of things. What that part is you can know only from within yourself. You can seek it in receptive silence. You can begin to live in accordance with it by doing all the good things you are motivated toward and giving these things priority in your life over the superficial things that customarily occupy human lives.
4. SIMPLIFY LIFE.
Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. Many lives are cluttered not only with unnecessary possessions but also with meaningless activities. Cluttered lives are out of harmony lives and require simplification. Wants and needs can become the same in human life and, when this is accomplished, there will be a sense of harmony between inner and outer well-being. Such harmony is needful not only in the individual life but in collective life too.
FOUR PURIFICATIONS
1. PURIFICATION OF THE BODILY TEMPLE
Are you free from all bad habits? In your diet do you stress the vital foods – the fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and nuts? Do you get to bed early and get enough sleep? Do you get plenty of fresh air, sunshine, exercise, and contact with nature? If you can answer “yes” to all these questions, you have gone a long way toward purification of the bodily temple.
2. PURIFICATION OF THE THOUGHTS
It is not enough to do the right things and say the right things. You must also think the right things. Positive thoughts can be powerful influences for good. Negative thoughts can make you physically unwell. Be sure there is no unpeaceful situation between yourself and any other human being, for only when you have ceased to harbor unkind thoughts can you attain inner harmony.
3. PURIFICATION OF THE DESIRES
Since you are here to get yourself into harmony with the laws that govern human conduct and with your part in the scheme of things, your desires should be focused in that direction.
4. PURIFICATION OF MOTIVES
Obviously, your motive should never be greed or self-seeking, or the wish for self-glorification. You shouldn’t even have the selfish motive of attaining inner peace for yourself. To be out of service to your fellow humans must be your motive before your life can come into harmony.
FOUR RELINQUISHMENTS
1. RELINQUISHMENT OF SELF-WILL
You have, or it’s as though you have, two selves: the lower self that usually governs you selfishly, and the higher self which stands ready to use you gloriously. You must subordinate the lower self by refraining from doing the not-good things you are motivated toward, not suppressing them but transforming them so that the higher self can take over your life.
2. RELINQUISHMENT OF THE FEELING SEPARATENESS
All of us, all over the world, are cells in the body of humanity. You are not separate from your fellow humans, and you cannot find harmony for yourself alone. You can only find harmony when you realize the oneness of all and work for the good of all.
3. RELINQUISHMENT OF ATTACHMENTS
Only when you have relinquished all attachments can you be really free. Material things are here for use, and anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you. You can only live in harmony with your fellow humans if you have no feeling that you possess them and therefore do not try to run their lives.
4. RELINQUISHMENT OF NEGATIVE FEELINGS
Work on relinquishing negative feelings. If you live in the present moment, which is really the only moment that you have to live, you will be less apt to worry. If you realize that those who do mean things are psychologically ill, your feelings of anger will turn to feelings of pity. If you recognize that all of your inner hurts are caused by your own wrong actions or your own wrong reactions, then you will stop hurting yourself.
Peace Pilgrim’s Chart of Inner Growth
1. The ups and downs of emotion within the self-centered nature.
2. The first hump of no return: Complete willingness, without reservation, to give life to serve the higher will
3. Battle between the God-centered nature and the self-centered nature
4. First peak experience: A glimpse of inner peace
5. Longer and longer plateaus of inner peace
6. Complete inner peace
7. Continuation of growth on a steadily upward path
Peace Pilgrim’s books that I really recommend reading:
- Steps Toward Inner Peace (1964)
- Peace Pilgrim, Her Life and Work in her Own Words (1983)
- Peace Pilgrim: The Spirit of Peace (1997)
- Peace Pilgrim: An American Sage Who Walk Her Talk (2000)
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