The world is like the kink of a dogs tail, said one great master from the Far East, as long as you are holding it you think it is straight but the moment you let go, it just kinks up again. This phrase haunted me as I sojourned to the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war between the US and USSR. I was not a peace activist. I believed that the greatest gift of peace I could give to the world was my own inner peace. But now I found myself traveling with a group in the name of peace. It was 1984 just after the Korean Airline disaster that nearly catalyzed a nuclear war between the two Super Powers. There were no sports, education or cultural exchanges at that time and fear of the Soviets was rampant. President Reagan's label of the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire gave fuel to U.S. films depicting Soviet invasions and enhancing the enemy stereotypes.
The only borders that keep humanity apart are the borders within the human mind.
This trip was an opportunity, I thought, to travel behind what Winston Churchill so colorfully called, the iron curtain, to glimpse the enemy for myself. As I came face to face with Soviet women, children and those that survived the Stalin purges and the Kruschev era of the cold war, I could not find an enemy. Their children's laughter was the same as ours, their cries the same as ours. Their tears and laughter was the universal language that transcended all boundaries and borders of them and us, Soviet- American, Communism and Capitalism. Our hopes, fears, dreams, visions for our future and the future were the same. Even the ducks that swam in the ponds of Gorky Park looked just like our ducks. After many years of deep inner work through meditation and Yoga, I was shocked at how I had been influenced by media in the U.S. to believe that these people were the enemy. Thousands if not millions of Americans shared this mistaken belief and together we were creating a morphogenetic field of fear that would draw to us like a magnet the thing we feared most.
I must, I thought, bring thousands of Americans here to see for themselves; to transform the stereotypes they held of the Soviets; and help the Soviets to transform whatever negative images they may have had of Americans. After seven long years and over fifty trips to the Soviet Union, creating and coordinating many exchanges and conferences based on Joint Project development between the citizens and officials of both countries, Soviet officials said that it was groups like ours that ended the cold war between our two nations, not just our leaders. The success of our work was a surprise to me more than anyone. Perhaps the world was not like the kink of a dog's tail. I was witnessing positive change between our countries and the peoples within them that would have lasting effects. In one of our conferences Soviet and American counterparts birthed one thousand joint projects. A Soviet official with tears in his eyes said, "The effects of our work together will go far beyond our lifetime."
Soon our work expanded into other countries where my husband and I were invited to create dialogue and conflict resolution/transformation roundtables between warring factions. We worked with Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Central America, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Yugoslavia, Kosovo and the most difficult area of conflict -- the Middle East. In time we expanded our attention to Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan bringing Americans to hear and see "the other side". We developed a Conflict Resolution curriculum that emphasized the correlation between personal peace and global transformation and how the two are inseparable and mutually interdependent.
I've recently returned from Afghanistan where wars and invasions have taken their toll on the country and their people for decades. I was invited to assess the needs of widows and orphans and to explore the possibility of creating a women's conference with representatives from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Russia and Turkey. Meetings were arranged with highly educated women of the Rotary Club in Kabul. Many of these women are journalists, educators, and members of Governmental Ministries active in rebuilding their countries. They are very enthusiastic about coming together with their sisters from neighboring lands, in the hope that through these connections, they might prevent future conflicts and war. One of the leading women journalists of Afghanistan who appears on television said suddenly, "Men destroy. Women rebuild". The men in the room did not flinch but instead with downcast eyes, nodded their heads in agreement.
I have gained a unique window into the Afghan society by traveling with the Hartung sisters, who lived in Afghanistan during the 1960's, a time when Afghanistan was experiencing the most stable period in its national history and developing a democratic government. Marnie and Ruth offered insights into the effects of war on the country that provided a valuable comparison to current conditions.
Training different groups of Afghan people while on the trip gave me first hand opportunities in seeing how we could provide the in-depth training the Afghan people themselves feel that they need. This has led me to help create and promote a program we have begun to call "Face-To-Face with Islam". We are being joined by a consortium of multi-organizations committed to international training programs that promote humane and environmentally sustainable economic development within the context of social activism for world peace.
Many Afghan leaders I met and worked with during this trip shared the sentiments captured by Najia Said, Executive Director of Wala Wala, a women's literacy and job skill training project in Afghanistan who said; "Yes, we need the resources to help ourselves, but we need more the training to overcome the conflicts that we are experiencing and to not get discouraged."
"Face to Face with Afghanistan" best reflects a strategic design that will provide the Afghan people access to greater flexibility in their daily life, and will initiate ways to educate the American community to the remarkable Afghan culture so that both countries can work together to address the great threat of terrorism to world peace.
Much work is ahead of us. Rural Afghanistan is still governed by tribal warlords who are barely cooperating with the new central government. Ordinary Afghan's still struggle to feed their families and are once more tested regarding their political loyalties. All of this suggests that we are in a new era of threat brewing in this fragile region where poverty is a key component to the conflict.
Yet with all this in the present moment a future is held within the hearts and minds of the Women of Afghanistan. In spite of all the adversity, there is a movement, a drive forward with purpose, creativity, and resolve, within the people. A critical milestone in the reconstruction of Afghanistan came about in December 2003. The Loya Jirga produced the new Afghan Constitution that recognizes women's rights for the first time in Afghanistan's history. I believe the Women are on their way and I am grateful for the privilege to be walking with them and their sisters throughout the Middle East Region.
I guess my story goes on, from Russia more than twenty years ago creating dialogue opportunities that brought understanding between Soviets and Americans and growth of conflict resolution programs that have helped contribute not just to resolution but to transformative evolutionary change.
My journey is every person's journey that begins where the feet stand. When the desire to serve becomes so great, the forces of the universe align to help bring forth all that is needed to fulfill whatever our piece of the universal vision may be. Today, our world needs our prayers, our quietness in meditation and our love beyond every boundary of good and evil, right and wrong, liberal and conservative, terrorist and military. Can we remain balanced between all the growing polarities that form the walls and borders that separate us from one another and the realization of the oneness of all humanity?
A few years ago, I was with the Dalai Lama as he conducted a sunrise meditation on a mountain overlooking the four corners of the Middle East. He stood on the mountainous precipice with only the early morning sky for a backdrop. As he turned from side to side his gaze swept over the convergence where, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia meet. "I don't see any environmental or natural borders here," he laughed quietly. Which made me think that the only borders are within the human mind. That has become an abiding thought for me.
The only borders that keep humanity apart are the borders within the human mind.