Negotiating Peace "From the Inside Out"
This process and exercise can be done in any situation, from the most intimately personal to the stage of world events. It can help in cases where you can't yet rightly see how to understand a situation, to deal with feelings it triggers, or where you're not sure what to do as a course of action. It can be done in small increments day by day, or in more concentrated, extended sessions, according to need and available time. I "work" these methods in my own life daily, and may follow several issues at a time, each until I can see its dynamics clearly, and the possible steps by which it could resolve.
Besides thinking and picturing, I find it best to write these thoughts and insights down. I look forward in future too, to practicing this together with others. In times that grow seemingly ever more divided, I feel possibilities here not just for real co-work with others, but for ways through the sharp dangers we face.
Think It Right
In the depths of the First World War, people from many countries gathered around Rudolf Steiner in Switzerland, to help build the magnificent first Goetheanum building. Deeply disturbed by the slaughter of a generation of European youth, and the violent uprooting of an old European culture, they asked Steiner how to deal with their helplessness, or counter this terrible brutalization of life.
His suggestion was that as best possible they "think it right" ; namely that they read the newspapers and inform themselves of the situation, in all details and in real depth ; and having done this, think exactly of what would be needed to redeem it. How might they themselves - but also the warring parties, and whatever their faults, their own national political leaders - best think, act and communicate to change the course of events going forward, "unravel the threads" of the massive conflict, and find a realistic, achievable way to peace ?
These recommendations suggest a definite process - one which might actually also be applied elsewhere. What might the step in such a process include ? Some possible components :
- To build up an inner image or picture of the situation to be considered, based on real events, facts and circumstances of the situation - including, not least, the needs and emotions of those affected by the situation or problem.
- To discern what insights and actions might be needed on one's own part, on that of other participants and again, on that of others affected, to change the situation for the better - first of all on the level of thought.
- To take any and all possible steps - inner, outer, social - to turn the insights gained into realities.
These potential solutions could then also be held as imaginations, adjusting and improving insights and actions in a continuing way.
How real is our world of thought ? Well, if we build a house, or any machine or technology, first of all we think it, and at some point create a clear design or blueprint. In our own lives we think or imagine actions, make plans for the future, often long before we can ever realize them. Our dreams and plans can be durable - we may carry and refine them even over years, so that when we finally do carry them out, it seems to others as if we manifest them almost “out of nowhere”.
If we think of mathematics or the laws of science, these are also things completely invisible, of which we know nothing until we learn or discover them. Yet they’re connected at all times to things in the real world, and have active, powerful applications there.
To "think it right” in our world is not different than to build plans or intentions for our own life, except that here we turn our activity outward – and that we do it on behalf of others too.
To think our world right also has this in common with mathematics, with a scientific law or a blueprint : that the thoughts must be true, be accurate to the real world if we hope for them to work there. The bridge we build in thought must be able to bear the traffic of real life, in the real world.
To think problems right requires real and sustained effort. But it also makes us healthier in the process. To a religious person, this activity might even be seen as “striving to discern the will of God”. At the very least, it's a helpful and useful way to prepare for prayer.
Caveat
"What we do with right intention
The gods take up
And as they do
Correct it and perfect it."
- A verse by Dr Ita Wegmann, given to nurses in her clinic.
After World War I, Rudolf Steiner observed that the war had actually accomplished nothing - and that the punitive terms of the Versailles Treaty for Germany virtually guaranteed a later, still more devasting war. At that this same time he also foresaw that neither would this war resolve the conflicts and thinking that gave rise to it ; and that even yet a third great war must eventually come. Follow world news and events yourself in this year 2025 and ask yourself : can you see the potential for this ?
"Think it right" may not prevent a terrible - we have, after all, no direct power on the actions and attitudes of others. What will happen will happen, however it must. But our own thinking, our integrity and goodwill are ours to perfect. And beginning at first inwardly, they too are a force. and can have effects. What might be hoped for, and how do we begin ?
A third and terrible war may come. But it might also be delayed, them, in a and can contribute , thinking or good , but the urgency to practice of it , underlyitensions problems not address, would fail to resolve underlying problems foresaw To take up world problems in the ways shown may
is way may contribute more to solving them than we ever see. It is, however, no guarantee And it’s as needed now as in the days of that first world war.
- Jeff Smith RN (Retired)
More Articles in the Spirit of "Think It Right"
The Fullness of Life : Recent Articles on Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea
"Something New Under the Sun"
A Way Forward : From Social Illness to Social Health
Rethinking Philanthropy : Steps Towards a More Human Future
This process and exercise can be done in any situation, from the most intimately personal to the stage of world events. It can help in cases where you can't yet rightly see how to understand a situation, to deal with feelings it triggers, or where you're not sure what to do as a course of action. It can be done in small increments day by day, or in more concentrated, extended sessions, according to need and available time. I "work" these methods in my own life daily, and may follow several issues at a time, each until I can see its dynamics clearly, and the possible steps by which it could resolve.
Besides thinking and picturing, I find it best to write these thoughts and insights down. I look forward in future too, to practicing this together with others. In times that grow seemingly ever more divided, I feel possibilities here not just for real co-work with others, but for ways through the sharp dangers we face.
Think It Right
In the depths of the First World War, people from many countries gathered around Rudolf Steiner in Switzerland, to help build the magnificent first Goetheanum building. Deeply disturbed by the slaughter of a generation of European youth, and the violent uprooting of an old European culture, they asked Steiner how to deal with their helplessness, or counter this terrible brutalization of life.
His suggestion was that as best possible they "think it right" ; namely that they read the newspapers and inform themselves of the situation, in all details and in real depth ; and having done this, think exactly of what would be needed to redeem it. How might they themselves - but also the warring parties, and whatever their faults, their own national political leaders - best think, act and communicate to change the course of events going forward, "unravel the threads" of the massive conflict, and find a realistic, achievable way to peace ?
These recommendations suggest a definite process - one which might actually also be applied elsewhere. What might the step in such a process include ? Some possible components :
- To build up an inner image or picture of the situation to be considered, based on real events, facts and circumstances of the situation - including, not least, the needs and emotions of those affected by the situation or problem.
- To discern what insights and actions might be needed on one's own part, on that of other participants and again, on that of others affected, to change the situation for the better - first of all on the level of thought.
- To take any and all possible steps - inner, outer, social - to turn the insights gained into realities.
These potential solutions could then also be held as imaginations, adjusting and improving insights and actions in a continuing way.
How real is our world of thought ? Well, if we build a house, or any machine or technology, first of all we think it, and at some point create a clear design or blueprint. In our own lives we think or imagine actions, make plans for the future, often long before we can ever realize them. Our dreams and plans can be durable - we may carry and refine them even over years, so that when we finally do carry them out, it seems to others as if we manifest them almost “out of nowhere”.
If we think of mathematics or the laws of science, these are also things completely invisible, of which we know nothing until we learn or discover them. Yet they’re connected at all times to things in the real world, and have active, powerful applications there.
To "think it right” in our world is not different than to build plans or intentions for our own life, except that here we turn our activity outward – and that we do it on behalf of others too.
To think our world right also has this in common with mathematics, with a scientific law or a blueprint : that the thoughts must be true, be accurate to the real world if we hope for them to work there. The bridge we build in thought must be able to bear the traffic of real life, in the real world.
To think problems right requires real and sustained effort. But it also makes us healthier in the process. To a religious person, this activity might even be seen as “striving to discern the will of God”. At the very least, it's a helpful and useful way to prepare for prayer.
Caveat
"What we do with right intention
The gods take up
And as they do
Correct it and perfect it."
- A verse by Dr Ita Wegmann, given to nurses in her clinic.
After World War I, Rudolf Steiner observed that the war had actually accomplished nothing - and that the punitive terms of the Versailles Treaty for Germany virtually guaranteed a later, still more devasting war. At that this same time he also foresaw that neither would this war resolve the conflicts and thinking that gave rise to it ; and that even yet a third great war must eventually come. Follow world news and events yourself in this year 2025 and ask yourself : can you see the potential for this ?
"Think it right" may not prevent a terrible - we have, after all, no direct power on the actions and attitudes of others. What will happen will happen, however it must. But our own thinking, our integrity and goodwill are ours to perfect. And beginning at first inwardly, they too are a force. and can have effects. What might be hoped for, and how do we begin ?
A third and terrible war may come. But it might also be delayed, them, in a and can contribute , thinking or good , but the urgency to practice of it , underlyitensions problems not address, would fail to resolve underlying problems foresaw To take up world problems in the ways shown may
is way may contribute more to solving them than we ever see. It is, however, no guarantee And it’s as needed now as in the days of that first world war.
- Jeff Smith RN (Retired)
More Articles in the Spirit of "Think It Right"
The Fullness of Life : Recent Articles on Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea
"Something New Under the Sun"
A Way Forward : From Social Illness to Social Health
Rethinking Philanthropy : Steps Towards a More Human Future