World Peace Prayer and Meditation Announced
Hundreds of people will gather together April 11 at 7:30pm at the Olympic Collection in Los Angeles for a guided meditation and prayer for world peace. The evening will also include a talk based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, author of one of the best-selling spiritual classics,”Autobiography of a Yogi,” whose life was featured in the recent film, “Awake.”
The night will be led by Nayaswami Jyotish Novak, 45-year disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda and Spiritual Director of Ananda Sangha Worldwide, an organization dedicated to spreading Yogananda’s inspiration with the world. He will be joined by his wife, Nayaswami Devi. The evening will be hosted by local yoga and meditation center, Ananda Los Angeles.
“Meditation connects you with your own inner powers of vitality, clarity, and love. When done deeply, it also gives you an expanded sense of connection with life and an experience of profound joy,” says Nayaswami Jyotish in his book, “How to Meditate.”
Millions of people in the world face chaos, violence, and confusion. This evening offers hope and a solution: a meditation technique and scientific healing method for peace and harmony, that Yogananda brought from India to the West.
The talk will also include Yogananda’s revolutionary teachings on deepening relationships; attracting true friends; a concentration technique for courage, calmness, and confidence; and a way to find true and lasting happiness and success.
The first 200 attendees will receive a free copy of the book, “How to Have Courage, Calmness, and Confidence” by Yogananda. More information is available at http://www.AnandaLa.org.
World Peace Caravan Announced
In the history of mankind we have not managed to create sustainable world peace yet. Perhaps we need fresher, less jaded, more forward-thinking and guileless minds to help find the solution. Perhaps we should ask our youth for their ideas. After all, they are our next generation of leaders. Why not engage their optimism, ingenuity and dynamism now?
The World Peace Caravan is doing just that. A global peace movement that will culminate in a 12 day camel caravan from Petra, Jordan to Jerusalem in December, 2015, the World Peace Caravan is selecting a delegation of 12 Youth Ambassadors, ages 16-24, from a worldwide pool of candidates to spearhead the caravan. Furthermore, they are fostering an online Youth Community to provide young people everywhere a platform through which to share their ideas, voice their opinions, educate and be educated. The Youth Ambassadors and members of the Youth Community will participate in a unique, solutions-driven, project-based, global educational program based upon some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Young people the world over will be collaborating on tackling such lofty goals as eradicating poverty and hunger, ensuring environmental sustainability, and attaining healthy lives for all.
Three separate times, Gary Young, CEO of Young Living Essential Oils, dreamt of leading a long caravan of camels through the desert on a journey for peace. The camels, ridden by people of all faiths, came from every direction and merged into one united stream. After the third dream, so vivid it was almost jarring, Gary decided to tell his wife and two of his closest friends about it. Uncannily, they each responded with the exact same words, “This you must do.”
And so began the plans for the inaugural World Peace Caravan, 2015. Gary had recognized the trail that the caravan had traveled in his dreams as the Ancient Frankincense Trail in Arabia, since he had explored the storied trail many times on his travels there to research frankincense for his essential oils company. 3,000 years ago, the Queen of Sheba journeyed 1,400 miles with 750 camels on the ancient trade route to bring her peace offerings to King Solomon in Jerusalem. It was decided that a modern day journey for peace be created that would invite people of all cultures, faiths, and backgrounds to come together on a caravan for peace that will retrace the steps of this earliest peace movement along parts of the Frankincense Trail.
The World Peace Caravan 2015 will begin in Petra, Jordan on December 15, 2015 and end in Jerusalem on December 26. The caravan will be spearheaded by the 12 member World Peace Caravan Youth Delegation and anchored by two landmark events, a two day World Peace Caravan Peace and Health Conference on the Dead Sea in Jordan and a World Peace Caravan Concert for Peace in Jerusalem. After a pre-launch celebration in Petra on the 15th, participants will caravan through Jordan by camel, horse or foot for four days and nights, camping along the way while exchanging multi-cultural activities including music, dance and educational seminars and exploring historical and religious sites.
The caravan will break on December 20 for a high-level, interactive WPC Peace and Health Conference at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Centre on the shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan on December 21 and 22. The conference of invited international peace advocates will focus on health, education, and the role of women and youth in peacemaking.
On December 23, the caravan will cross the border into the Palestine Authority for a visit to Jericho and a two day trek through the Judean desert, arriving in Bethlehem on December 25. On Saturday, December 26, the caravan will culminate with a Peace Walk into Jerusalem and the blockbuster World Peace Caravan Concert for Peace. Internationally renowned musical artists will mix with musicians from around the globe for a night of once-in-a-lifetime performances at the new state-of-the art Jerusalem Arena. The evening’s festivities will be broadcast and streamed around the world.
The WORLD PEACE CARAVAN is founded by the international D. Gary Young Foundation, a 501 © (3) non-profit organization.
For more information, visit www.WorldPeaceCaravan.org
How to make our lives and our society less violent
We pay large amounts of money to watch people kill one another on giant movie theater screens.
Video games allow for players to live a psychopathic life of crime.
America’s favorite sport, football, clearly rewards brutality.
“Our increasing tolerance of, and lust for, vicarious violence is frightening,” says scholar L. Craig Williams, author of “The Fourth Army,” (www.lcraigwilliams.com).
The upward trajectory of vicarious violence is matched by the increasing amounts of dehumanizing media we’re exposed to: “Reality television” turns supposed real-life personal heartbreak and tragedy into entertainment. The internet is casually rife with porn and horrific imagery.
“It’s no surprise we’re seeing more and more mass shootings at schools and other public venues, more incidents of road rage, and even more heinous crimes committed by children,” Williams says. “When we’re inured to violence and we lose our appreciation for the value of every human life, society can become terribly cruel, even sadistic.”
How can you shield yourself and your family from dehumanizing media?
• Don’t give your children “junk food” media. You wouldn’t let your kids eat a candy bar with Yoo-hoo for breakfast; pizza for lunch and a plate of cheese fries for dinner. Discourage junk media by encouraging stimulating discussions and edifying reading material at an early age. Children are full of curiosity and wonder; don’t be afraid to engage with them on their questions about life, even if you don’t have all the answers.
• Already addicted to vicarious violence? Exercise your empathy. Are you captivated by clownishly aggressive young women having meltdowns on TV? Rather than taking petty pleasure with a palpable dash of superiority in witnessing that footage, you might instead wonder why you are supporting the exploitation of broken, emotionally immature people. That young woman could be your daughter, sister, friend, coworker, etc. who forever regrets her misguided choices while a young person.
• Read a book! Focusing on anything for an extended period of time is inherently pleasurable, and reading a book – but please not a murder mystery – provides the kind of engagement that is far more satisfying than vicarious violence. If it has been awhile since you’ve read a book, you’ll feel just as good as you do when you exercise and eat right. Reading is good for you. Fiction is shown to increase empathy among readers, and nonfiction books broaden your understanding of how the world works.
• Engage with the people around you. One way vicarious violence works is by a disassociation with the person being abused. This disassociation is probably being amplified by seeing people as two-dimensional profiles online – more like vague entities than human beings. Take time to renew and strengthen relationships. Pay attention to your family members; understand your neighbor may have had a rough day – heck, maybe the checkout girl at the store could use a smile and a kind word. Isn’t life more interesting when you’re engaged with what and who is around you?
About L. Craig Williams
L. Craig Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in European History and a Juris Doctor, specializing in international law. He has written extensively about human resources and individual leadership. Williams has been an International Fellow of Columbia University and has published articles on comparative law and was a director of the German-American Law Association for many years. He has lived in Germany, France and England and makes his home in New York.
Detecting and protecting against workplace bullying
By Rakesh Malhotra
Stories of workplace bullying are commonplace throughout the United States. Some real-life examples:
Mavis: “When I started there, I was told that someone had been acting in the position and had expected to get the job. This person continually undermined me and turned other staff against me. I endured 12 months of hell, and felt as if I was sinking in quicksand.”
A male employee at a different company: “The misery took over my whole life. I turned nasty and bitter and treated my wife and kids like whipping posts. After many visits to a psychologist, I was able to think of all the positive things in my life. Now I look back and think I wouldn’t want to go through that experience again.”
In general, there are no legal repercussions for non-physical bullying except in specific cases, such as sexual harassment. In fact, bullying is a character trait that tends to be condoned in American society. Consider our national obsession — football. The object of this celebrated game is to get the ball to the other player’s goal, no matter what it takes: trampling, hitting, pushing, screaming. If football is a metaphor for American society, then the winner is the person who pushes others out of the way and wins no matter the cost.
Bullies win by controlling situations and people around them. They crave power and the attention that comes from getting what they want.
The effects of working with a bully
Adults have a difficult time performing their jobs effectively when subjected to bullying by a co-worker. It takes a toll physically because of our physiological responses to emotional stress. Typically, victims endure feelings of depression, guilt and shame, and they suffer sleep loss and fatigue. In some cases, victims begin to believe the bully’s behavior is warranted, and they develop feelings of worthlessness. They cannot complete tasks at the same level as others in their units.
Victims of bullying may suffer from panic disorders, post traumatic stress syndrome, agoraphobia and stress-induced high blood pressure. If they leave the job or are docked because of resulting lowered performance, they face economic issues. Some take their own lives.
The abuse takes a toll on victims in every way imaginable.
Are you a bully?
Being accused of being the bully can be difficult to accept. You may believe your actions were unintentional, or a justified emotional response to provocation. Perhaps, you see yourself as the only one in the office qualified to do anything right. However, whatever you have said or done, whether purposefully or not, you have created a culture of negativity for at least one person and you need to honestly assess the situation and your role in it.
Symptoms that you may be the bully include:
• Insulting a coworker (remember, one person’s “joke” may be another’s insult).
• Undermining another employee’s work by creating a hostile environment or perhaps by consistently calling their attention to “flaws”. (Bullies focus on a person, while constructive criticism focuses on a task.)
• As an employer, ignoring your employees’ suggestions.
• Humiliating your employee in front of others.
If any of these sound like something that you may be doing, it is important to address this immediately with your victim. You may want to speak with your doctor about getting help, such as counseling, sensitivity training, anger management and other seminars.
It is important to understand the signs and symptoms of a bully in order to help the victim and the victimizer deal with and exterminate the behavior.
If you are a victim, diligently record workplace bullying events. If you choose to make a formal complaint, you will be responsible for providing information should there be charges brought against the bully.
About Rakesh Malhotra
Rakesh Malhotra, founder of Five Global Values, is a world-traveled, values-driven business leader who specializes in organization behavior. Rakesh’s fascination with the connection between human behavior and core values was sparked many years ago. As a result of working, living, and traveling around the world to nearly 40 countries, Rakesh realized that the Five Global Values determine overall human behavior across all cultures. He is also the author of Adventures of Tornado Kid: Whirling Back Home Towards Timeless Values.
