Peace Vigil 2012: End all forms of discrimination and we end the culture of violence. We are the ones who can make peace possible in our own personal relationships and in all the people we see. We are the ones who can make a peaceful community.

It is the very act of feeling superior to other race, other sex, other gender, other specie, etc that makes peace looks unattainable. Superiority is prelude to violence. When you think you are good, others think you are not. Same goes with the rest, unconciously, and subconsciously. Competition kills peace. For one to work for peace is to forego the "winning and losing" concept. Scores are for games, and games has rules and schedules only for playtime. People compete to get gold, a prize, the recognition, the rewards and the benfits that goes along with it. That is alright, when we talk about games and not relationships. Games are material gains but relationships are spritual gains. Peace is not a material concept, but a spiritual concept. It is a seed that we plant into a child's mind that we cannot see, but we can only feel, In due time, we can have what we planted in the child's mind. If we end all forms of discrimination now, we breed the next generation of children, whose mind is open to understand anyone, no barriers, no judgements, no bias. If we end even small acts of discrimination to other people's faith, religion, belief, traditions, gender, sex, race, etc, we invest for the security of peace in the future. Peace is a spiritual feeling and immaterial investment, but the effects that it give is forever priceless.

Peace Vigil 2012: "When unified, we are brought into synchrony; cooperation begins then we experience peace. This meditation process is not only to self but to society"

Work is a meditation process for as long as you keep your focus. To keep the focus is to stick only with work and stop thoughts of intrigues to co-worker. The office is a meditation area where employees meditate together at work. Meditation is an individual discipline to focus on the task at hand while joining the rest who applies the same kind of meditation discipline at work. Once, one of the employee deviate its focus from work to intrigues, then the group meditation shakens, resulting in disharmony at work, affecting the company's productivity. This discipline holds true with nation-building. If the people will always intrigue and discuss their complains to the people in authority, it affects the rest who are working for nation-building. The key is to maintain the balance. Take the case of the Philiipines, after its Edsa Revolution, people became open and free to raise their complain to the government. Philippine media became a magnate where politicians, leaders, etc fear out of bad publicity. Unlike with Arab uprisings where bloodsheds happened, Philippines' EDSA Revoltuion is peaceful, where only people power was used. However, the effect now, is that since 1986 until now, Filipinos developed the habit to complain before they cooperate. The presence of numerous NGO's also weaken the authority of the government to govern its people. NGO's are non private institutions whose funding are from various sources also provides services to the masses usually taken care of by the government and/or private companies. The result is imbalance, too much concerned will also produce too much complain. Thus, it is the hope to maintain the balance by going back to the basic of etiquette, that is the teaching to respect the people in authority. Support people in authority, the adminsitration, so that work plans can be implemented. The nation is the big scale of seeing the harmony of people to one another, when we see this, we can also see how the harmony is taking place inside the workplace, the school, and most of all the basic unit of society, which is the home, or the family.

Peace Vigil 2012: "There's no simpler proof of goodwill than to meditate with the person we disagree with

Just like basketball, only that we play for friendship and fun, not to compete, and take scores on who will win or lose. The games we play, enemies and friends, how long will it go on? We are both hurt of what happened in the past, that's why we call ourselves enemies for life, but where will this lead us? There are so many sufferings in this world, why do we need to join the crowd of noise, of hatred, and of apathy? What do we get from hating each other? We can curse, throw insulting words, kill each other's character until we bleed for mercy? But in the end, what does it take? More vengeance, more innocent souls perish brought by our own irresponsible moves of not giving into reconciliation. Let's not bury the past, but let's talk about it on how we can settle and heal the wounds we've caused each other. Sit with me, talk to me, look at me, and hold me. Let's give ourselves the chance to reconcile. Let's meet halfway. Let's meditate together in a free space, and with God's help, let's find a way. All trusting, we submit our commitment to each other to work for peace.

Wellness Tips for Peace: Enjoy the moment. Do not worry about the past or the future. Moments are glimpses of time and capturing one beautiful moment is priceless in our memory bank. Just one moment can make a cold heart love, a thirsty soul filled, and a restless mind at peace

Life is not short, but is filled with endless moments. Seeing these beautiful moments will remind us that living life is really worthwhile. Maybe we've been here before, like a merry-go-round, and we feel bored because it's the same thing all over again. But look closely, we are a better person now. More attuned to ourself and more knowledgable to face the same kind of people again, solving the same situation again. You were not stuck there, you happened to be there where you are right now, because you've gone through the process of hardships and rigorous test to be an expert in your field. Measure yourself and see how much wisdom you've got! And still how you maintain your humility, your simplicity and purity of your soul. You deserve it. Life life! Enjoy it! Because your moment is now! Do not worry, your virtues will protect you to face what is there that is still unexplored by your restless mind and rentless spirit! Go! Your people needs you, lead them and make way for peace... For more FREE Wellness Tips for Peace visit: Personality Development for Peace @ www.innovativemindandbody.blogspot.com

Peace Vigil 2012: Am I too human to be enlightened? We need faith to begin to meditate for God's enligtenment shines in human heart. Believe, pray and make peace

Human weakness can cripple one's faith. Once we succumb to temptations of the flesh and fulfill our sensual desire of power, wealth & sex to the point of greediness and obsession, it will be hard to take it away from the senses. It becomes a habit, and worst, it controls our being. If at this point, will it be hard to still attain the "enlightenment" and work to pursue "holiness"? Keep trying, because the discipline to attain holiness are not just meant for the saints. Humans are capable to do it, by way of holistic perfection. Holistic is the harmony of the mind, body and spirit as one connected to the Divine Creator, our God, who we believe is our Source, our Maker, the Powerful One. Thus, our holistic lifestyle is meant to take care our mind, body and spirit to continue life as we submit it to our God, thereby making us better caretakers of our environment. No human weakness should hinder us or stop us to work for holiness and perfection of humanity balancing spirituality. Do not isolate and be left alone in angusih because of failing to win over our weakness. Everything is work, and work is not easy, it will take efforts, consistency and professionalism. In the long run, we will learn how to get by, and at its best defeat our weakness. Just proceed, for as long as we believe and pray, we will never be alone, we will never get lonely, and we will always be at peace.

Peace Vigil 2012: When in doubt, talk it out. However if the other person doesn't want to speak with you, leave them alone, but pray for their soul to understand what you mean

Human soul have been the subject of debate for the atheists, and some agnostics. Different religions have their own descriptions on what a human soul is. But for me, I believe that our soul is our mind, and our spirit is the breath of God that is within and inside our body. Thus, the connection of mind, body and spirit. and I also believe that we need to take good care of what information we put into our mind, for doing so is protecting the composition of our soul. As the mind process everything like a working machinery, it transmit everything to our body for its reaction. The life that makes everything work inside the body is the spirit, the breath of God, that is a gift given to us to make use wisely. Thus, on matters of negotiation, we are used to meet people face-to-face in a meeting or a conference. With the presence of technology, meetings are done on-line via webcam. People are comfortable this way, because we see, we feel instantly what the other person is feeling or reacting. Humans as we are, we always seek for a confirmation of what we have in our mind as we relay it via "talk" or "meeting" with the other person on the other line. Humans have difficulty trusting people they don't see in person brought about by programming of the human species civilization to be extra "cautious". The civilization of humanity thus made human to be careful "for his/her security not to be harm" by other human. Barriers were put in place, discrimination resulted, groupings of who is in and out of the society's norms, etc. Imagine, with our century old of the mind programming of this kind, do you still wonder, why people have difficulty trusting other people? So for the sake of innovation, why not consider that there is also another way to communicate with humans (and other species). Because if you believe that you have a spirit (which is the breath of God) within your body, where God communicates to us everytime we pray, don't you think we can also learn to trust our capacity to communicate to the person we want to meet through prayer? Before we know it, those matters that we failed to agree upon to this person because of cultural differences and/or limitations of physical contact, can actually be resolved. It will take time, but the patience to wait and pray has its "fruits of peace" as God heals and mediates within.

Peace Vigil 2012: "Our perception of the world, which is culturally embedded in us, influences how we interact with others and how we approach particular situations

Humans are programmed to hate each other through exposure to situations, events and media programming. Hatred is not given, but was planted in our brain, that is why humans became racist, rebellious, angry, mean, and all inhuman attitudes that you can think of. The programming is deep-seated plus the trauma brought about by living life comprised the negative attitude of human to other humans. To be a peace worker is to discipline self to purify the mind and stop the negative programming process. We can do this by always searching for the balance in everything we read, hear and see in the broadcast media. While for the trauma that we we've gone through, is to have the conviction to be healed so as to put an end to violence. Because violence starts in the negative thoughts in our head, and not unless we clean it, we cannot stop the chain of violence. The whole process will take a big, really huge effort to do so. But if we do not do it, who else will? Once we start the call for peace work, we can always infect others to do so, and together, we can provide the justice in our little planet.

Peace Vigil 2012: "Reconciliation by its very nature has to do with relationships between people and/or between us and God. It is not a sytem or method" Thus, whatever it is that we feel is comfortable way for us to reconcile, just do it. No dogma or teachings will tell us the proper way to do it. It is our instinct that will tell us how to do it. Meditative Prayer will help us clear our doubts and will also help us to be brave enough to make the first step to reconcile.

The beautiful feeling of reconciliation is the chance to once again embrace the person we love so much, hold his/her hand, walk again together, share laughter once more, and a moment of silence just looking in each other's eye knowing that this person you are with right now hurt you in the past and you never even thought of that one day, you can sit beside him/her face to face like this up close and personal. It will take time to forgive, I know, I've been there. Meditative Prayer can help to clear the doubts and be brave enough to take the first step closer. Don't shut the door to renew the friendship, because it can happen again. The friendship that was once lost can be found there inside the purity of your heart and sincerity of your intention. Have faith and submit everything to the Powerful One, our Divine Creator to lead you to be reconciled, finally, to the person you are thinking right now.

Peace Vigil 2012: "As we dwell into the silence of Meditative Prayer, we discover that Life is indeed Simple and complexities are just by-products of our own actions"

What we give, we receive. We give love, we receive love. We give hate hate, we receive hate. We rebel, we receive rebellion. We follow, and we will be followed. Everything is a merry go-round. And nature is gravity. If we apply this to all the people we meet, we will have the discipline to control our reaction to their indifference to us. They have their own problems and they are suffering in their own ways. It just so happen, when they release their emotions, you are there. So, avoid being infected by their virus by doing the Meditative Prayer to save your own karma. Do not give back hatred, if they give you hatred because if you do, you will also get the hatred from others. So stay calm, be still, step back, find your own private corner and Pray meditatively. This way, you will not lose your focus, you will maintained your peace within as you pursue your mission in this lifetime.

Peace Vigil 2012: "The poor are not just individual souls to be saved, but as members of the society to be transformed"

Poverty is a state of mind. In the spiritual world, no one is poor because everything that is given and that is happening is a blessing. It goes totally different in the material world, because if one does not have enough to live decently, then he/she is poor. The standard of living in a place where the person lives is the measurement of his/her decent living. For developed countries, it is more than just a food in the table or a roof in the head, or suitable clothes to wear, these are just very basic, what they need are beyond that. Quality of life to live and not just to live out of mere existence. But, for underdeveloped countries, having just the basic of food, shelter and clothing is more than enough. In some cases, being given the basic is already, for them, a luxury! Poverty is both a mental and physical issue to be settled by those who are concerned to help the poor. The concept of wants will lead people to extreme poverty. The more a person works for what he/she wants the more he/she is dissatisfied because wants are endless. Mentally, if we want to help the poor is to divert their wants to what they need as of the moment. They need to it, they need to sleep, they need to work, so we provide what they need. We give them food to nourish their brain and be capable to think rationally. We give them clean clothes and place to stay where they will not be discriminated, so they can have the peace of mind to sleep and rest be ready to work. Then we give them work, a dignified work according to their capability, where they feel they are part of society and community as dignified workers and not slaves. We give them their professional salary as ruled by law. We let them work, we give them the respect due for every human being that we meet. We do not classify them as poor because that will give us the discipline to treat them as our equal. Thus, we respect their existence as our need to keep our earth moving in harmony with everyone. If we want to help the poor, we must clean our minds on the cobwebs of how we see the poor. If we think we are far beyond them, and we are just lucky that we are not like them, forget it, do not help the poor anymore because you will just make them pity themselves more. They will just succumb to depression and lose hope in life as they see you better than them. Avoid that. Treat them as equal and as a responsibility of your human race, of our existence here on earth. We provide because we can afford to give. We help them because we believe in their capabilities, in their talents, in their skills, in their humanity. That is why we provide, so that they can join us in working day by day in making the life of all God's creation here on earth worthwhile.

Peace Vigil 2012: As we all commune meditatively in Prayer, we have much to communicate leading us all to work for Peace. The Holy Spirit unites us all in faith

Our differences is cultural, not personal. We do not dwell too much into our differences but to our commonality. We accept that we have our own individuality. Each one with colorful personalities making each one of us unique and one of a kind.

Our conflict is healthy, because it defines who we are. What matters to us is we actively settle our conflict without losing each other.

We agree to find our point of contact, our basis of respect to peacefully co-exist in this world filled with personal, social, religious and political issues. We keep our faith to each other because we both agree to end our discrimination. We trust each other that we are working to have a beautiful place to live in and that is why we call ourselves the peace makers, the peace advocates, the peace workers...

We are rational individuals who knows how to tame our passion to manage very well what nature has to offer. We both know how to keep our peace within, because we know that only if we reconcile our innermost conflict can we effectively manage and solve the conflict in our home, family, workplace, community and society.

Thus, we both respect authorities and we made the commitment to find ways to work inside the system because of our loyalty to stop all forms of rebellion. But we actively use our mind to analyze, we do not just conform, we study all angles, we hear all sides, we remain open for all options available before we decide. But when we make our decision, we are brave to stand for it and pursue it to the end.

We work sincerely and we make things happen!

We both have the mission not to kill but to heal relationships. Thus, we value our friendship, and no matter what will happen, we will always be friends. We will no longer be enemies but partners in this journey to reach our destination.

We meditate together irregardless of what we believe in because we both understand and respect everyone's faith. We are together in this journey of life and we are both thankful that destiny gave us the chance to meet again in this lifetime to work for peace.

We will not let this moment pass by to take care of each other by praying for one another.

And as we both believe in the power of prayers in making peace possible....
....we now pray....
... we close our eyes...
... we connect to our God...
....and for a moment...
.... we are united in spirit
.... globally as one!

Peace Vigil 2012: Meditative Prayer purifies our heart, allowing us to be grateful of God.s greatest gift to us - our innocent child within, free from the complexities of life

Meditation is a rare moment of dwelling within the innermost core of our being. It is actually a privelege to enjoy for a certain moment in time to get to know ourselves better as designed by our Divine Creator. In meditative prayer, we get the chance to connect fully to God to have a clear vision of the life that we have, understanding deeply what we've gone through, facing the reality it gives and a pathway on what is reserved for us to take in the future. Meditative prayer is an opening, a gateway for us to go through life with confidence and entthusiasm. Meditative prayer helps us see the light of the way, and as we discipline ourselves to do the habit of praying deeply and unceasingly, we face the life's difficulties not as hindrances, but with full understanding and acceptandce. The discipline of meditative prayer make us more stronger, more attuned, more grounded to life as it unfolds its mystery day by day. Thus, we are not caught off-guard. We are given moments to contemplate and be enlightened by God's plan for us. In the process of doing the meditative prayer, we strengthen our relationship to God because we just revolve around Him. We feel God's presence sweeter and more intimate as we feel His guidance up close and personal. Meditative prayer is a moment with our Lord where we cuddle our innermost child, innocent and free from the complexities of life. We trust everything to God, our Father who makes us understand what we are going through in life, as we listen attentively like a child. Our doubts are erase and we learn to trust, we develop our capacity to love... unconditionally because we understand why we need to forgive ourselves and people who hurts us. For one to work for peace, meditative prayer is not just a necessity but is already a part of the person's existence. Once a person develops the habit of meditative prayer, peace is always there, available anytime. For God is there ready to communicate and cuddle us, anytime.

Peace Vigil 2012: Whatever our vocation is, we all need to belong to something ideal. There's one ideal, not news or views, but by Silence, and we call it Prayer

I got a feedback that those who are meek, pray, but those who are brave, fight. On the contrary, I should say, people who knows how to pray are in fact, brave! Why? Because these are the people who have a strong faith. The faith to believe that prayers can move mountains, can make miracles happen, can heal relationships. People who pray are brave to trust in the control and intervention of the Divine Creator. People who pray are leaders who lead by following the discipline of believing in the power beyond their human control. For the non-believers, prayers may be seen as a waste of time, intended only for those who have free time. But for those who believe, prayer is everything. Prayers is the oil that keeps the flame of passion to life burning. Prayer is the light to get through the dark tunnel of life. Prayer makes the impossible, possible!

But of course, I cannot impose what I believe in. I can just inspire through writings and actions. Having faith takes a conviction. Conviction cannot be gained right away. It takes the whole process. I know the process because I was once an agnostic myself. I am a humanist whose concept of humanity is to live in harmony with my fellow humans and be responsible to nature. I am an activist who pursue human rights causes for more than a decade. I trained myself to hold my emotion very well because other people see me as their leader, and so I should be firm, strong and dignified. I pursue human rights cases to the point of working earnestly to have a revolution inorder to change the system and make it pro-poor where justice is served and where there is equal opportunities for the rich and the poor. The work to make a better place for the future of the children is in my heart, and I dedicated my life to make it happen. It is ideal? Yes it is.... very ideal....

All throughout I live my life only on the humanist level with little and most of time, no spirituality. The work schedule and passion to fight for the causes of human rights fill my sched, that I do not have time to pray. I believe that there is God, but I don't think that I still need God, because then, I believe that God is not too powerful anyway. During that time, I find prayer a waste of time, because there's a lot of work to do, people to meet, and places to go, and prayer is not a necessity anyway. So why pray?

It took years for me to realize that my habit of not praying had actually caused more waste of time. I should have been more productive and more sensitive to humanity, should I took time to pray. It took years of trial and error on my activist life that I've learned that prayer is not a ritual, not just a recitation of chants or verses, but prayer, is plain and simple DIALOGUE: a meeting schedule to God, my Divine Creator, my Leader, my Mentor, my Boss, my everything.

Now in all the things that I do, I make it a point to first and foremost, make a dialogue, a prayer to God to clear all the doubts in my head, to show me the way, to guide in the process of doing my work. And it doesn't only help, but it made me more human. I became more sensitive to my fellow; I've developed my potential better as a leader because of the guidance of handling my strenghts and weaknesses well in order to pursue my mission. With the power of prayer, my idealism on human equality and ways to pursue it, found its direction. It is not trial and error anymore, but there is a vision, a plan designed not only by my mind, but my Divine Creator for me to implement as a missionary and a soldier of life. In prayer, I've found the fulfilment to make real what is ideal! And I see God everytime I pray - the reason why I am no longer an agnostic.

Conviction is faith. Faith is conviction. Miracles happen to those who believe. It may take time for the apathetic, but don't worry just like in peace work, everything is a process. It takes time...

But, if this article hits you, maybe the time for you to believe is near... very near... maybe, just a grasp away?

Peace Vigil 2012: "One refreshing dimension which Meditation brings, gradually and painfully, is liberty of spirit which opens the freedom from being dominated by emotions"

Meditation heals by opening the wounds of the past, cleaning it very well by reconciliation of self to the Divine Creator in the process of enlightenment. Healing is emotionally painful but liberating. Meditation leads us to light as we passed through the tunnel of darkness in our mind. All the thoughts that we cannot understand, all the memories that imprisoned us to live a beautiful life, and all the pain and the hurts of the past are reconciled as we communicate directly to God, our Divine Creator. Meditation is a private and personal discipline that can be done by anyone, whatever is the religion, or even if there is no religion. What matters is the faith and the willingness to refresh the self so it can always be ready to face life's challenges with a healthy body, sound mind and nourished spirit.

Peace Vigil 2012: Working for peace is a journey - we have to keep moving. Self-analysis on negative emotions are moods we pass through; stopping it at once helps to break our ego

Irritations are given and can go out of proportion if we allow it to explode. Anger is healthy only if it meant to work things out to continue giving life and not give death to relationships. Meaningful anger intends to make a point to make a relationship work for the better because something needs some fixing and mere act of kindness is not enough. It requires intellectual sensitivity to draw the line in making a point be heard. The drawing of line does not intend to push people away but to get them inside the drawn circle making them more closer. If you heard this line, this can best describes it: "Get close to your friends but get your enemies more closer to you". For the main reason that you have work to do, mission to accomplish and vision to pursue.