A Moment’s Peace – Newsletter AMP/1982-01 August 1982

Filed under Moments peace - Update Pub & Archive

WELCOME: This is the first issue of “A Moment’s Peace”, the monthly newsletter of Sri Chinmoy Meditation at the United Nations.

Through selected interviews, articles and summaries of speeches, we hope to highlight many of the progressive viewpoints currently being discussed or considered at the United Nations. -Part of each issue will devoted to the philosophy and practise of meditation, especially as it applies to the larger concerns that govern our lives at the United Nations.

Content Highlights:

Disarmanent Programes

The Meditation Group held two special programmes on the occasion of the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament. Excerpts from these programmes follow.

– Mrs. Margaret Y. Catley-Carlson, Deputy Executive Director (Operations)
of UNICEF: DISARMAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

-Ambassador Zenon Rossides of Cyprus: DISARMAMENT AND THE
UNITED Nations CHARTER

Stress Management – body, mind, diet, relaxation, breathing, meditation

Peace quote – from Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, Lima Press Conference, 17 December 1981

NEW VOICES AT THE U.N.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

 

NEW VOICES AT THE U.N.  POEM – SONG  “A moments truth…peace…love.”  Music score and listen to audio recording.

 

– – – – – – – – – – –  –  – –  Details Below – – – – – – – – – –  – – – – – – – – – – – –

Disarmanent Programes 

The Meditation Group held two special programmes on the occasion of the
United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament. Excerpts from these
programmes follow.  More complete texts of the below talks appear in the June 1982 issue of the Meditation Group’s bulletin, Meditation at the United Nations.

  •  Mrs. Margaret Y. Catley-Carlson, Deputy Executive Director (Operations) of UNICEF: DISARMAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

Development and disarmament themes are usually linked by those who would compare the costs devoted to arms against the needs of development. I think it is right and –necessary to do so. Put- in terms of UNICEF, every four hours the world spends in arms what we in UNICEF spend on a yearly basis to take on the staggering burden of the needs of the world’s children.

There are other important links, between disarmament and development which have certainly been brought vividly home to us in UNICEF during the last week, when our staff has been working around the clock to try to bring relief to the children and families of Lebanon. Whether a child is shivering from cold because of flight from the family home in the wake of armies, or because the family income cannot protect him, because his area has become deforested with the rise in price of petroleum or because he is hungry and there is simply not enough food intake to warm his body, he is still a shivering child. It really doesn’t matter much whether a child is taught to hate as part of the grinding-down process of poverty, or taught to hate as part of the hatred of one race for another being inculcated into a child at an early age. The result is still the same: a hatred that turns a child against his or another society, and against being a productive member of world society. That is the second connection between development and disarmament – the-effects-of-their lack are so startlingly the same.

The third connection is perhaps the most important of all, and it is probably the one I will have the most difficulty communicating, because it is in understanding this connection that I think solutions begin to emerge. Recourse to arms and lack off development both result from profound communication breakdowns. This is a coin with two faces. That children die, that people starve, that there is waste, that arms are picked up, that societies turn to guns to solve problems, these are the most profound and absolute breakdowns of communication in the human system. In terms of hope, both these represent the most profound intellectual challenge of our time. The answers are of staggering complexity, More food does not mean the end of malnutrition; more money does not mean development. More money can, in fact, increase malnutrition, When the family arrives at the state of income where it has enough money to stop breast- feeding and buy Coca Cola, it may do both . As a result, more money may actually be increasing malnutrition. Money does not buy peace. Development does not buy peace. Until populations reach a certain level of development, there is neither the degree of nutrition, wellbeing and strength, nor the degree of education or knowledge, to actually revolt against the conditions that are causing the underdevelopment. When you add money, when you add development, you increase the chances that there will be less peace. These are staggeringly complex realities. More arms does not mean more peace; at the same time, more arms has meant, in some cases, the absence of war , There is no-doubt that fear of  war has installed a balance of terror in some places. To my mind it is in the acceptance of the complexity of these equations that cut across development, disarmament, money and ‘peace-all the questions of human survival-that we begin to find their solutions.

  • Ambassador Zenon Rossides of Cyprus: DISARMAMENT AND THE UNITED Nations CHARTER

As we know, disarmament is an effort to disarm , The arms race represents the opposite effort – to arm, and to compete in acquiring arms, These two contradictory endeavours are carried out simultaneously by the same governments, Each government has a large number of people trying to promote its arms race against other nations and Which endeavour is going to win? Which has been winning so far?

The only way to evade a nuclear catastrophe is to work for the enforcement of the United Nations Charter. Many people do not realise that the United Nations does not work in accordance with the Charter. From the very day of its establishment it has been deprived of the means of ensuring security because the Security Council cannot enforce its resolutions. What is the meaning of a Security Council whose resolutions remain unimplemented?

In every country there are laws. These laws are not there for people to accept or reject; they are enforced . There is a legal maxim which states that law without enforcement is no law. Similarly, a Security Council without the means to enforce its resolutions cannot be effective in providing security. Yet this situation has continued to exist for thirty-six years.

The Security Council should have available a strong armed force which, when called upon by the United Nations, would go and stop a war . Each Member State would be obligated to make a contribution to the Military Staff Committee so that the force could be very formidable. .

Again, international security cannot be achieved solely by the intellect of man. The intellect of man has invented the nuclear weapon and taken us to the moon and the stars. But the intellect does not necessarily work in the right direction, because it is often influenced by personal interest.

But the spirit of man-which each one of us has deep within us always turns towards the good. The spirit always represents the highest quality of man, but millions of human beings on earth do not know that they have within them this spirit. So first we have to awaken the spirit so that the good in man can come forward. That is our great task. Once the spirit is awakened, human beings will work untiringly for peace.

More complete texts of the above talks appear in the June 1982 issue of the Meditation Group’s bulletin, Meditation at the United Nations.

Stress Management – body, mind, diet, relaxation, breathing, meditation

We can and we should protect ourselves from the many potential stress-inducing influences in our life and work. There are several practical techniques which can achieve this end, if we will only take a little time each day to practise them.

By now, the interaction of mind and body are quite generally acknowledged. Some of these stress conquering techniques reach the mind through the body, some affect the physical through the mind and some work on both together. The most uniquely effective techniques are those found in yoga. Breathing exercises, diet, physical postures, deep relaxation and, most importantly, meditation can all contribute to remarkably quick and effective stress management.

Breathing exercises calm the mind while energising the whole being, by counteracting the enervation of the nervous system. The food we eat also deeply affects the state of the body and the mind, while yoga postures give us strength, flexibility and muscle tone . It is only logical that a strong, healthy body should be better able to resist stress. Deep relaxation techniques further release both physical and mental tension while teaching us the conscious relaxation habit.

Meditation undoubtedly has the most far-reaching effects of all, in that it enhances the effects of all the previously mentioned techniques for combating stress. But meditation ultimately goes much further in calming the body and mind, by developing a lasting inner peace and poise that can see us through all manners of inner and outer crises. It also strengthens concentration and will power and sharpens our perception and our discrimination by expanding our intuitive capacities.

Peace:

When I say peace, I am referring . . . not only to the absence of conflicts but also to progressive advancement, because there can be no other way to the well-being of mankind. Peace means well-being.

– Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, Lima Press Conference, 17 December 1981

NEW VOICES AT THE U.N.

 Since man’s most progressive and humanitarian impulses often see their first expression in the arts, the Meditation Group is planning a series of programmes this fall to support and nurture artfst1c ideals among the interested members of the diplomatic community. In this connection we are sponsoring special events in which delegates will offer expressions of their national or individual talents in music, art and poetry.

 OUR 14 SEPTEMBER PROGRAMME, WITH AMBASSADOR DAVIDSON L. HEPBURN OF THE BAHAMAS SERVING AS MASTER OF CEREMONIES, WILL BE OPEN TO ALL DELEGATES INTERESTED IN PERFORMING ON INSTRUMENTS OR SINGING.

 Our October forum will be dedicated to original poetry and participating delegates can have their recitation published in a special volume of poetry as a record of the occasion. This will be followed later in the fa ll with an exhibition of painting, sculpture and photography by individual delegates or delegations.

 FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PARTICIPATION IN ANY OF THE ABOVE PROGRAMMES, PLEASE CONTACT K. PECK.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS –  Please confirm all scheduling.

 Ongoing events

  • Introductory meditation classes
  • Silent meditations led by Sri Chinmoy, twice weekly

 September programmes .

  • 14 September-“New Voices at the United Nations” . -musical concert by members of delegations
  • 20 September-“The Opening of the General Assembly : Opportunity and Challenge” -a forum
  • 28 September-Third talk in the lecture series highlighting the contributions of women in world affairs

 October programmes

  • Symposium commemorating U.N. Day
  • Programme on Universal Children’s Day
  • “New Voices at the United Nations” – poetry recitations by members of delegations

 

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