John Bishop, who works with HeartMath here in Chicago, sent this in response to my email invitation for The Practice of Peace workshop in June…
Journey to Peace, a feature documentary, explores the role of the individual in creating peace in times of unrest: within ourselves, our homes, workplaces, communities, countries, and the world. Nobel Peace Laureates who consciously chose to embrace peace in the face of devastating violence reveal their private stories and insights about initiating peaceful responses in themselves and the people around them.
While filming the award-winning documentary, Shadow Over Tibet: Stories in Exile, Journey to Peace, producers Valerie Mrak and Martha Howard received an unexpected answer from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When asked what he meant by wishing Tibet be designated a “zone of peace,” instead of giving a bureaucratic or structured answer, he said that what he sought was not only external manifestations of peace towards animals, people, the environment; foremost, he knew that people would need to create a zone of peace in their hearts.
That struck a chord with the producers, and after returning to the US, they began asking themselves what a “zone of peace” meant to them as individuals and to society in general. They also observed what seemed to be escalating incidences challenging the idea of peaceful resolution to conflict—school violence, road rage, workplace pressure, fractured home life, and the continual reflection in the media of our worst tendencies.
The website is simple and beautiful, well worth a brief trip. It offers some links and resources for discussion groups, too.