Sri Chinmoy:
The Peace Meditation at the United Nations

The Meditation Group at the U.N. sponsored its second programme of Gratitude on an International Day of Thanksgiving.

• Mr. Waldo Stewart of the Thanksgiving Square Foundation in Dallas, Texas  introduced a Film about the Foundation’s inter-Faith, international place of Gratitude.

• Haruna Kimura performed a dance of Invocation and Thanksgiving called “Shima no Senzai” in the Kabuki style

• Presentation of engraved Plaque expressing gratitude for the service and inspiration that Thanksgiving Square Foundation.

• An International Thanksgiving Dinner, catered by Annam Brahma Restaurant, was given that evening in the Ex-Press Bar of the U.N.
• At the dinner there was a dramatic dance in celebration of Kwanza-First Fruits Festival by the Olatunji Center for African Culture.

Following are Mr. Stewart’s remarks prior to the film presentation att he afternoon programme.

Mr. Waldo Stewart: It’s a real privilege to be able to meet together with a number of people who are interested in the concept of gratitude, of giving thanks. It’s a basic fundamental part of our individual consciousness. Since the earliest time of which there is any record, man has recognised that outside of himself there is a power which gives to him ability, consciousness and awareness, and he has had the urge to· communicate with other men about this power and his·relation to it.

This concept has appeared in artifacts from the earliest traces of civilisation. It has appeared in the great architecture and artworks of every age and people. Only now is the need of the individual and the need of the nations to recognise this higher power fulfilling them through the impetus of 31 gratitude. And perhaps it has come to fruition in our state of Texas, in our town of Dallas, in a place dedicated solely to this urgent idea of thanksgiving within people.

About twenty years ago, my brother (Peter Stewart) came to me and spoke to me about the concept of trying to make evident to people in the heart of the city, in the heart of their day’s work, a reminder that they owed it all to this Power outside of themselves which we call God, although throughout the ages He has had many names in many places – a reminder of this awareness of God, this understanding: that good comes from God in the form of power, friendship, ability to exist, ability to communicate. Therefore this place within a city could be held and consecrated by the devoted thought of people and maintained perpetually as a place where gratitude would be recognised and featured. It could become a repository for aH of the information there is from every culture and every historical period about what people have felt in the way of gratitude and how they have communicated it to others.

So in these last ten years, there have been a great many people meeting in Dallas for occasional seminars on the concept of gratitude. T hey have come from every culture. We had historians who have deeply studied every period of history and were finding that even in the remotest form of civilisation there is a trace and record of this animus of awareness of gratitude to God. Recently we found 32 in the Eskimo culture in Alaska, early traces of dance programmes done with masks where people were expressing gratitude for good hunting. We find parallels in all countries where people have the urge to express in painting, wall drawings, dance, action, jewelry, artifacts and architecture this concept of reaching outside of yourself and recognising this power-works of which there is record that they in some way have been created to express gratitude.

The architect, Philip Johnson, was engaged to design Thanksgiving Square and we must be grateful to him for immense patience in going through idea after idea, concept after concept, scale model after scale model, until finally there was an agreement that we had found a concept that seemed to really express what we’re after: a place quiet, serene, that would convey in the midst of the bustling city the sense of aloneness, inspiration and quiet. He achieved this by taking a plot of land right in the middle of the business district of Dallas and dishing the ground so as you enter the garden you move downward toward the centre of it. And as you get out of the sight of autos passing, your ear is taken over by the sound of water moving in a rushing cataract, in waterfalls, trickling streams, so that you can enjoy the trees, the grassy banks, the flower beds and an inspired chapel, which is perhaps similar to an old scroll of parchment.

It means many things to many people as they see in themselves a response to this idea. It’s a very small chapel, really. The circumference of it is smaller than this room and it will only hold sixty people, but it’s a quiet place. You will see in the film that it has plain white marble aggregate walls and the ceiling, in a spiral form, is stained glass used horizontally. In the chapel there is only a circular platform of granite and a square block of white marble on that as an altar. There is no art work at all that would be either denominational or representational, except an engraving in the glass over the entrance door of a dove – not the usual dove used in religious connotations descending,but this is an idea of a dove ascending, to picture the thoughts of gratitude moving upward from the individual.

The film is mainly concerned with concepts that served in the design and formation of Thanksgiving Square philosophy and project and it is a photograph of models. The Square actually is almost complete. The chapel will be consecrated Thursday of this week and the bell tower will be dedicated on Sunday. And there will be exhibits from time to time in the Hall of Thanksgiving and beneath the Chapel of Thanksgiving; there will be dance programmes, musical programmes, seminars and meetings concerned with the topic of gratitude.

We urge each of you, when you have the opportunity, to come to Dallas to be part of this concept. I think you’ll find peace and inspiration. We will have the film now.

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After the film, the Meditation Group presented Mr. Stewart with an engraved Plaque expressing the Group’s gratitude for the service and inspiration that Thanksgiving Square Foundation is offering to the international community.

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