PEACEFULNESS

BEING PEACE AND MAKING PEACE

Paperback: 242 pages

Publisher: Spirit of Humanity Press (28 Sept. 2017)

Language: English

What is ‘Peacefulness’?

I co-edited this book of essays with my colleague Scherto Gill for the Spirit of Humanity Forum. The essays not only resonate with deep human needs and spiritual longing but also inspire the reader to reimagine the possibility of global peace. In contrast to 20th century peace studies, which were often undertaken within the context of warfare and violence, this book argues that peace is the most fundamental of all human values and peacefulness an inherent human virtue and disposition, and a primary character of the universe. At the same time, it proposes that peace cannot be fully expressed as our innate state of being without it being also the structural condition of the society and vice versa. Drawing on ideas and insights from wide ranging sources, including interdisciplinary literature, wisdom in spiritual traditions, international peacebuilding practices and healing experiences of individuals and communities, the authors put forward a compelling case for lasting peace on our planet. Therefore, this book will appeal to students and scholars, peacebuilders and peace practitioners, leaders, educators and anyone who is interested in transformative understanding and practices of peace and peacefulness. Indeed, if the limit of our imagination is the limit of our future, then the hope here is that the book and its narrative will put wings on our shared vision for a truly peaceful and flourishing world.

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Peacefulness arises from within us as an expression of who we always have been and who we may become.  It is rooted in love and compassion and is nurtured by stillness and silence.
 
We are so used to looking for answers in the external world of things and events, placing our enquiry ‘out there’ and making that enquiry by what is called objective observation, that the suggestion that this might be fruitless is likely to be received with derision.  But suppose that derision is ill-founded.  Suppose that when it comes to the quest for peacefulness, it is possible that our inner being is the best place to start – perhaps the only place to start.  For might it be possible that peacefulness is not really a thing or an event that can be found out there, but is a way of being that arises, can only arise, from within?  Perhaps peacefulness can only be found by being peaceful.

Edited by Scherto Gill and David Cadman

About David Cadman

David Cadman's work is centred upon teachings of love and compassion, wholeness and connectivity.  For many years David held professorial titles or fellowships in universities both in the UK and America.  He is currently a Harmony Professor of Practice at the University of Wales Trinity St David, where he is exploring principles of Harmony in Education, in Food and Farming, in Wellbeing, and in Business and the Economy.  Together with his colleague Scherto Gill and colleagues in China and America, he is presently involved in a research project titled ‘A Narrative of Love’.  Formerly Chairman of The King's Foundation and a Trustee of the Prince’s School of traditional Arts, he is Harmony Adviser to The King's Foundation based at Dumfries House in Scotland.  

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