The Path To Peace

Leaders in disagreement -- How it began -- Moving in opposite directions -- Madrid to Annapolis -- A missed opportunity -- Contested territory -- Overcoming the trust deficit -- Much process, no progress -- Isratine -- A path to peace.

"The Path to Peace will be a balm to your soul, a beacon of hope, and a declaration of God's loving-kindness that never fails for his people." --GRETCHEN SAFFLES, bestselling author of The Well-Watered Woman Overwhelmed. Stressed out. Burnt out. Fried. However we name it, all of us know what it feels like to deal with circumstances and worries that drag us down and wear us out. Many of us experience persistent anxiety. Peace can be hard to find. But it is in the middle of our stress and fear that God extends his unshakable peace to us. In this beautiful book that is part devotional and part Bible study, Ann Swindell shares how the biblical stories of eight women and men helped her realize that what she needed most in her own journey wasn't a stable job or healthy kids or good friends--it was God's peace. Through forty faith-stirring readings, Ann will help you: · Experience God's peace in your daily life · Respond to challenges with faith rather than fear · Find hope in God's goodness and faithfulness toward you The good news is that even if our situations don't change, we can still experience Christ's peace in our daily lives. The Path to Peace is for everyone who longs to experience a soul at rest.

Beloved Buddhist nun Ayya Khema expertly guides the reader through ten meditations on generating loving-kindness and cultivating the fifteen wholesome qualities necessary for igniting compassion and boundless love. Having escaped Nazi Germany in 1938, Ayya Khema has singularly profound perspective on creating peace, unconditional love, and compassion. She gently teaches that inner peace is not necessarily natural or innate. Instead, peace should be considered a skill that needs intentional practice—every day. Peace is the sum of many parts, namely the fifteen wholesome qualities the Buddha himself noted in the Metta Sutta, including usefulness, mildness, humility, contentment, receptivity, and others. Ayya Khema expertly guides us through each individual condition, using her trademark humor and personal narrative, to help each reader shape their own path to self-transformation. The second part of the book includes an eye-opening discussion of metta (loving-kindness) as both a morality and concentration practice, as well as ten meditation practices that use visualizations rather than more traditional mantra repetition. These visualizations include your heart as a "Fountain of Love," reaching those close to you and those far away, and a "Flower Garden," where we tend to the blooms in our hearts through love and compassion and share them with others. Edited by her student and retreat leader, Leigh Brasington, this book is a complete course in practical ways to calm and brighten our minds.

As a young girl in Kenya, Wangari was taught to respect nature. She grew up loving the land, plants, and animals that surrounded her--from the giant mugumo trees her people, the Kikuyu, revered to the tiny tadpoles that swam in the river. Although most Kenyan girls were not educated, Wangari, curious and hardworking, was allowed to go to school. There, her mind sprouted like a seed. She excelled at science and went on to study in the United States. After returning home, Wangari blazed a trail across Kenya, using her knowledge and compassion to promote the rights of her countrywomen and to help save the land, one tree at a time.

The news media have become the central arena for political conflicts today. It is, therefore, not surprising that the role of the news media in political conflicts has received a good deal of public attention in recent years. Media and Political Conflict provides readers with an understanding of the ways in which news media do and do not become active participants in these conflicts. The author's 'political contest' model provides an alternative approach to this important issue. The best way to understand the role of the news media in politics, he argues, is to view the competition over the news media as part of a larger and more significant contest for political control. The book is divided into two parts. While the first is devoted to developing the theoretical model, the second employs this approach to analyse the role of the news media in three conflicts: the Gulf war, the Palestinian intifada, and the attempt by the Israeli right wing to derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

In this book the core of the Buddha's teaching is comprehensively cast in modern models of thought - borrowed from science and philosophy - and informed by contemporary concerns. It sets out the basic instructions for the life-changing way of the Buddha (the so-called 'Noble Eightfold Path') wholly in the context of contemporary and everyday life, personal experience, human relationships, work, environmental concern and the human wish for peace. The reader, who may be completely new to Buddhism, is accompanied along the Path with practical exercises that are fully explained. The Path begins with an introductory overview and then proceeds through Right Speech, Right Acting, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Concentration, Right Mindfulness, Right Understanding and Right Resolve, and concludes with a short chapter on the relevance of the Path to the current global crisis. The reader is mentored throughout by practical meditational and contemplative exercises, with tables, diagrams, analogies and stories. Gradually the reader who has followed this handbook with commitment will feel the benefits of growing peacefulness, wisdom and compassion.

It's easy to get lost in the busyness of every day. But taking a walk and discovering God's presence along the way will bring you back to where you need to be. The Walking Bible Study, a series of short readings and meditations, is your field guide to learning more about Scripture as you travel through nature and life. Wherever you walk, take it along with you and follow the paths of God. "Walking changes us; it can transport our spirits from being weighed down by life into the joy of God's presence." - Becca Stevens Each study consists of four sessions. Sessions include prayer, Scripture, Becca’s thoughts and stories, questions to think about or discuss, and activities. The Path of Peace In this study Becca looks at various nature images used in Scripture from Isaiah to Paul that describe God’s paths. Being in nature allows us to glimpse the peaceable kingdom and to experience the gift of creation. We are reminded that God is on every path, and that in looking at God’s handiwork we discover again the specific and unique ways that we are loved by God.

In this brief essay by Henri J.M. Nouwen, one of this century's most inspiring spiritual guides, the subject is peace. Peace is found in weakness, Nouwen says, when we surrender our self-sufficiency. Where we are the weakest, peace is hidden.