Creed of Peace
[From The Rosicrucian Digest November 1949]
THE PEACE OF THE WORLD cannot be legislated. Neither are its real elements
formed across conference tables, at which sit the dignitaries who represent the
great powers. At this juncture of world affairs, too much stress is placed upon
the mechanics of peace--namely, commerce, industry, geopolitics, immigration,
and production--and too little upon the human equation.
It is the man in the street--the bootblack, the mechanic, and the clerk, for
example--who fashions wars and peace. It is well enough to prate that war is a
result of coalition of nations, or of selfish banking and political interests,
but such, after all, are composed of men. In every city there are those who
proudly boast that a certain wealthy industrialist, the mayor, or some dominant
political figure was once the son of comparatively humble parents. In fact,
parents the world over, where conditions permit, hope and dream that their
offspring will aspire to and attain a position of affluence and respect in
national and possibly international affairs. Therefore, how these sons later,
as diplomats, heads of governments, and financiers, exert the powers they have
acquired reflects the character and development of their simple beginnings--the
influences of the man in the street. The true articles of peace are not drawn
up in the marble halls of the courts and capitals of the nations of the world,
but in the personal aspirations and conduct of the millions of little people.
In their leaders, the people see symbolized their own noble or lamentable characters.
Consequently, let us, daily and sincerely, each affirm as our Creed of
Peace:
I am guilty of war when I proudly exercise my intelligence to the
disadvantage of my fellow man.
I am guilty of war when I distort others' opinions, which differ from my
own.
I am guilty of war when I show disregard for the rights and properties
of others.
I am guilty of war when I covet what another has honestly acquired.
I am guilty of war when I seek to maintain my superiority of position,
by depriving others of their opportunity to advancement.
I am guilty of war if I imagine my kin and myself to be a privileged
people.
I am guilty of war if I believe a heritage entitles me to monopolize
resources of nature.
I am guilty of war when I believe other people must think and live as I
do.
I am guilty of war when I make success in life solely dependent upon
power, fame, and riches.
I am guilty of war when I think the minds of people should be regulated
by force, rather than by reason.
I am guilty of war when I believe the God I conceive is the one others
must accept.
I am guilty of war when I think that a land of a man's birth must
necessarily be the place of his livelihood.
--Reprinted from The Rosicrucian Forum
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