Peacemaking

9 Lessons for Changing Yourself,
Your Relationships, & Your World

by Dr. Barbara Condron

This is the question students and teachers at the College of Metaphysics asked as they built the first Peace Dome on their campus.

To find answers they enlisted the help of some of the greatest minds throughout history. People like American scientist Linus Pauling and Swedish stateswoman Alva Myrdal, Irish activist Betty Williams and U.S. President Jimmy Carter, – all Nobel Peace Prize laureates. What they had to say does more than inspire, it educates the mind that is hungry for peace.

What they did, and do, is a testament to the Truth each believe. Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun, cared for the sick and dying in the streets of Calcutta, loving those whom society had forgotten. Martin Luther King, Jr. practiced the principles of civil disobedience to draw attention to unjust laws, forgiving those who meant him harm. His Holiness the Dalai Lama lost kin and country yet gained a world through his grasp of universal responsibility. In PEACEMAKING you learn their stories, read their words, and realize how to make peace.

The genius of this book only begins there.

In the hands of Dr. Barbara Condron, each Peace Prize laureate teaches a lesson in what causes peace. Mother Teresa’s lesson of gratitude is taught through the power of a smile, Linus Pauling’s “culture worthy of man’s intelligence” comes alive in peace equations created by students, and Betty Williams’ life-changing nightmare becomes the springboard to identify our own defining moments. Here are the steps that free the mind to contemplate a spiritual concept like peace and enter into what Albert Schweitzer called “a new mentality.”

Why people are reading this book.....

Peacemaking has aided me to have a clearer image in my mind of what peace is, as a consciousness, a state of mind. The steps given are universal - any one can take them to cause greater connectedness and love within themselves and with others. Being present for the world’s Peace Dome’s dedication preparation and ceremony on the College of Metaphysics campus in October of 2003, a world where people treats others as they want to be treated is important to me. Reading Peacemaking aided me to realize this ideal to a greater degree as being the simple essence of what peace is. I am connected to this ideal every morning at 5:30 AM when reading the Universal Peace Covenant in the Peace Dome, an incredible and humble position of influence to experience the reality of peace in my lifetime.

--Jesse Aaron Kern

Read a selection from this book

Growing up I never seemed to have too many "friends" in my life. I felt like an outsider always looking in.

That is why I had to chuckle when Dr. Barbara Condron asked us to write about "What is Friendship?" that morning in the Peace Dome. I never considered myself as having too many friends. The facts were (so I thought) I had very few friends, if any. Oh sure, I had associations, acquaintances, but they seemed so disconnected, so distant.

I began to look around the circle of people, seeking some guidance as to the answer to the question. That is when I saw John Mestyanek. John is my classmate and I have always looked up to him. He has that "big brother" attitude written all over him. He looked up at me and gave me a warm and loving big smile, as he frequently does. I can count on him for that. Those times when I tend to feel lonely or downtrodden he is there with his big smile.

That is when the thought came to me – "Friendship is the love given in a smile."

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