Louise Diamond, author of The Peace Book and member of propeace.net, reports in her blog the words of the Dalai Lama in response to a request for a prayer at the recent Culture of Peace conference.

What it would take to transform the current culture of violence in our societies to a culture of peace? This could take a long time, but we could accomplish it with perseverance, vision, and hope.

Let’s start with VISION, which, as we know, is an important part of successfully manifesting our shared desire. Someone at the conference wisely said, “When we leave this world, where are we at ... still arguing about what peace is, or being in that peace?”

We may not have had the conversation yet to agree on the specifics of what a culture of peace would look like, but we know, extrapolating from the conference proceedings and from our own experience, what the general picture would be. I offer it in present tense, to affirm its power:

We live in a society where the basic truth of our oneness and interdependence is recognized in our cultural norms, our institutions, our policies, and our relationships. Our children grow up with positive peace-related images, media, and life-skills, including knowing how to tap into that place of inner peace from which true peace unfolds. Life-affirming respect, equality, and justice form the basis for our activities, our economy, our national and foreign policies, and our governance. Violence in all forms is considered aberrant, not normative, behavior.

Our many differences of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, etc., are seen as enriching the whole. We practice creative collaboration and cooperation as the way to insure a safe, healthy, and sustainable world for all. Love, not fear, is the pulse of our lives together, and partnership, not domination, structures our relationships. Our media reflects all of this, the arts enhance it, philanthropy sustains it, and religions inspire it.

Louise reports that someone else at the conference said, “We as peacemakers energize the potential” by way of recommending contemplation of the Dalai Lama's words. She writes:

The VISION above is a statement of potential. We could possibly disagree on the wording of it, or find more sentences to add, but for now, let’s use it as a draft vision for a culture of peace. How can we energize this potential, while withdrawing our energy from the current, violence-oriented state of affairs by non-reactivity? This is where the heart comes in.

In our hearts, we already know all about peace. The seed of peace is embedded in our very nature; it is our birthright, our spiritual DNA. Because of this, we all have access to the frequency of peace and have surely experienced it in some moment(s) in our lives. Therefore we can energize this vision by going to that place of peace within and literally holding this vision (or some version of it) in our hearts with love. We can amplify it even more by linking with (thinking about) all others who also believe in this future, and saying ‘thank you’ to them and to the universe that this vision now becomes manifest.

When we look at this VISION, we realize there is a significant space between it and our current reality. That space, that tension, is what spurs action. And so we come to His Holiness’ second point, PERSEVERANCE. Perseverance means continued action; acting over and over again, putting one building block on top of another, knowing that every act, no matter how small or how large, makes a difference. Again, a quote from the conference: “Your contribution does not need to be earth-shaking to make a difference.” Indeed, every thought, word, prayer, action, image, song, dance, or dream for a culture of peace makes a difference.

PERSEVERANCE also means trusting that the journey takes time and is worth pursuing, no matter what current circumstances might appear to be. It is a commitment to keep going, above all. And this is where His Holiness’ third point comes in, hope. Hope means keeping the heart open, the eyes focused on the prize, and the feet moving toward the vision, in spite of or even because of the events around us.

It means having faith, trusting that we’re on the right path. Indeed, as old forms based on dominance, violence, and separation come to their inevitable end as ways for us to live together, the immediate situation may appear quite daunting. Only by remembering that we are energizing and cultivating the peace garden that will ultimately replace the old ways with a whole new system can we maintain our momentum and fulfill our promise to ourselves and to the web of life.

The Dalai Lama has given us three markers on the path to a culture of peace, and I do not pretend to know what he meant by his words: vision, perseverance, and hope.

I offer these musings as a basis of reflection, and to encourage you all to come to your own understanding of His Holiness’ charge to us in these times. What is your vision? How do you persevere? How do you hold to hope through troubled times? This wise man has given us the prescription, and now it is up to us to elicit our own wisdom to apply the medicine, for the benefit of all our relations.

We can hold our vision, we can find the strength to persevere, and we can keep our hope alive by tapping into the spirit of gratitude and celebration.