Searching For Peace

We live in a day and age characterized by an extraordinary amount of agitation and lack of peace. This tendency manifests itself in our spiritual as well as our secular life. In our search for God and holiness, in our service to our neighbor, a kind of restlessness and anxiety take the place of the confidence and peace which ought to be ours. What must we do to overcome the moments of fear and distress which assail us all too often in our lives? How can we learn to place all our confidence in God and abandon ourselves into his loving care? This is what is taught in this simple, yet profound little treatise on peace of heart. Taking concrete examples from our everyday life, the author invites us to respond in a Gospel fashion to the upsetting situations we must all confront. Since peace of heart is a pure gift of God, it is something we should seek, pursue and ask him for without cease. This book is here to help us in that pursuit.

A comprehensive guide to conflict resolution that draws on the Transcend approach to peace-making, now adopted by the United Nations.

"An absorbing chronicle of discovery" (Booklist) from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Reviving Ophelia and The Shelter of Each Other Like most lives, Mary Pipher’s is filled with glory and tragedy, chaos and clarity, love and abandonment. She spent her childhood in small Midwestern towns, the nurturing daughter of a doctor mother and a restless, jack-of-all-trades father. Later, as a wife, mother, and therapist, she was able to do what she most enjoyed: learn about the world and help others. But after the surprising success of Reviving Ophelia, she found herself overwhelmed by the demands on her time and attention. In 2002, Pipher experienced a meltdown. She realized that success and fame were harming her, and she began the long journey to a quieter, more meditative life that would carry her toward self-acceptance and joy. In Seeking Peace, Pipher tells her own remarkable story, and in the process reveals fundamental truths about our individual search for happiness and love. Candid, surprising and moving, Seeking Peace offers a map for our own journey toward a more fulfilling, more joyously lived life.

Using authoritative extracts from the relevant and important sources at the time, this volume, originally published in 1972, deals with the problems and difficulties of maintaining peace in the world. The control of the use of force remains the most intractable, and yet the most important, problem in international relations. Although the antagonists change, antagonism appears to be almost an inherent feature of inter-state relations and although global conflict has been avoided for the past quarter of a century, the risk is always present. The cost of such anarchy in international relations, measured in terms of human suffering and wastage of resources, is appalling. In this book, Dr Bowett looks at the need for peaceful settlement of international disputes, the peacekeeping role of the United Nations, aid to developing countries and disarmament, and suggests that the structure of international society based on the Sovereign State could be modified to lessen the risk of conflict. The extracts include statements by Khrushchev, Mao Tse-Tung, Che Guevara, Dag Hammarskjöld, U Thant, Ho Chi-Minh, and selections from many national and international documents.

A revealing memoir by the Israeli leader who almost made peace with the Palestinians Written almost entirely from inside a prison cell, Searching for Peace is the compelling memoir of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. The child of parents who were members of the Irgun, the paramilitary group that fought for the establishment of Israel, Olmert became the youngest member of the Israeli Knesset in 1973, serving in the right-wing Likud party. He rose quickly in the party, serving in national government before being elected mayor of Jerusalem in 1993. As mayor he overcame decades of municipal malaise, inertia, and waves of terror attacks to bring huge improvements in the city's infrastructure, education, and welfare. Although a child of the Israeli right, it was during his mayoralty that he realized the inevitability of compromise and the need to divide the city in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. Olmert rejoined the national government in 2003 as a top aide to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. After Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke in 2006, Olmert took over as acting prime minister, then led Sharon's new centrist party Kadima to victory in elections. Heading a coalition government, Olmert led Israel through the war with Lebanon in July 2006 and approved the dramatic strike on Syria's nuclear reactor the following year. From late 2006 through 2008, Olmert engaged in some three dozen negotiations with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. The talks, Olmert says, came “within a hair's breadth” of reaching a comprehensive peace deal. At the same time, Olmert was fighting allegations that he had illegally accepted large sums of money from a well-connected American businessman. He was acquitted of all but a minor charge against him, but in 2014 he was convicted on charges of taking $15,000 in bribes involving the construction of an industrial park while he served as Minister of Industry and Trade. He served 16 months in prison, using his time to write these memoirs. Searching for Peace offers a riveting political story and an unparalleled window into Israeli history, peacemaking, politics, U.S.-Israel relations, and the future of the Middle East.

About the Book: This book explores our ideas of self, repeatedly revealing "who we are not" to gently bring us into peace without attempting to alter our external conditions. It is well known that when we dissociate ourselves from all our worldly identities, we will naturally come to peace. This book lays out a clear roadmap to achieve enduring peace through detachment. But detachment does not mean renouncement of all types of pleasures and living a life of inactivity and boredom. In truth, detachment can relieve us of all the burdens and baggage we carry, leaving us free to enjoy all the genuine pleasures available on earth to the fullest. The only condition is that we must not cling to the pleasures but be ready to let them go freely. Hence our life here can be one of unending joy and achievement. About the Author: Born in 1960 in the rich culture of South India and educated in English, he was exposed to two opposing world views enabling him to achieve synergy and realize true harmony. He belongs to the linguistic community "Saurashtra" who were silk weavers patronised by kings of yore. His ancestors are said to have migrated from the western part of India to Tamil Nadu in the south several centuries ago. Born to a father who served in the lower ranks of the Indian Central Government and a mother who was less educated, he was brought up by his grandmother, a very traditional woman, in the extended family. With his two younger brothers he was afforded English education from the beginning that enabled him to become fluent in the language right from his childhood. Graduating in Agriculture from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore in 1982, he secured the prestigious position of Probationary Officer in State Bank of India, the premier bank in India. After a dedicated service of over two decades, he ventured out on his own to learn about real life outside the cocoon of privileged living that his parents and his job had offered him till then. Growing up in the country as India underwent its pangs of Westernisation, he was able to synthesise the self-oriented Western perspective with the community oriented native one to arrive at a wholesome concept of self after considerable efforts and experimentation. This book is the culmination of decades of efforts in discovering his real place in the world. Married to Vijayashree with a daughter Meenalochani, who has gifted him with a lovely granddaughter, he lives in the Southern Indian cities of Bangalore and Coimbatore with his family and his aged aunt.

Frustrated with an increasingly polarized society, award-winning photographer John Noltner set out on a road trip across the US to rediscover the common humanity that connects us by asking people the simple question What does peace mean to you?

The struggle to attain inner peace has been with humankind since the earliest times but what does it mean and is it even attainable? Are people being deprived of inner peace because of obstacles in the path, both real or perceived? How does a materialistic outlook affect one's search for inner peace? Most importantly, what is the only guaranteed way to achieve true and lasting inner peace? In this book, Jamaican-born scholar Dr. Bilal Philips examines the topic in detail and provides concrete and satisfying answers.