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January/February 2007 Featured Stories
Peace is Possible

by Vicky Thompson

Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, founder of Sarvodaya Shramadana in Sri Lanka, and Sharif Abdullah work for peace in the hearts of people in conflict.

"We know from all of our wisdom teachers that once the people awaken, they can move in some really powerful directions," says Sharif Abdullah, author of The Power of One: Authentic Leadership in Turbulent Times and Creating a World that Works for All. "Finding and catalyzing the leadership of the people is something that will make the change on our planet."

Abdullah, founder of Commonway Institute, an organization dedicated to the creation of a society rooted in spiritual values, is a leading proponent for inclusive social, cultural and spiritual transformation. His peace work has taken him around the globe, from assisting U.S. city, county and federal governments to The United Nations.

In Sri Lanka, Abdullah works with Sarvodaya Shramadana, a self-help development organization based on Gandhian and Buddhist non-violent principles, to help the war-torn island end its two decade-long civil war.

Through analyzing and understanding the human field of thought or psychosphere, Abdullah believes that warring nations see each other as the enemy, but truly society's greatest enemy is its belief in its own fear. We create stories and reasons to justify fighting other nations and groups, but "it's the killing and the willingness to do violence to support our viewpoint" that needs to be eliminated, Abdullah has found. "Once we get past that, all of the problems or challenges that we have are doable and we can work them out."

In his work, Abdullah uses the tool of inclusivity to shift the energy of the psychosphere beyond exclusivity and divisiveness.

"If I recognize that anything that happens to you has an effect on me, and anything that happens to me has an effect on you, I will automatically treat you in a different way. If I'm only operating at the level of my fears and my desires, then appropriate behavior is anything that feeds my fear, feeds my desires," he says.

Awakening to Peace

Abdullah believes that society needs to awaken from its "herd" mentality to live as a peaceful community. Pulling from Buddhist principles on human evolution, Abdullah uses the five levels of human development to show the potential growth of humanity toward peace.

1. Lower

Lower people have low volume, low frequency energy. Their energy does not rise up to the level of the intellect. They tend to be stuck in base, lower emotions and needs (fight or flight, or sensory satisfactions). They have a darkened mind -- like walking through a room lit by a 25-watt bulb. They can see things, but not clearly. Lower people tend to be on the receiving end of signals, only reacting and not really making decisions. Lower people form a herd, not a community. If things are given to them, they can be peaceful. If disturbed, they react as a herd.

In quantum physics, everything is interconnected. However, at the lower level, people do not recognize their basic interconnection or understand the forces that are at work in their lives.

From a political perspective, Abdullah believes most politicians do not want the awakening of consciousness, preferring that people stay in the herd.

"What they want to do is become the herd master," says Abdullah. "The leaders of these herds come in two different ways: They are either of the herd themselves-they're like the alpha male in the gorilla troop-or they may actually have a higher order of consciousness, but make a conscious choice to control the herd."

2. Human

With human energy, emotions are raised to a higher level, including love, affection, compassion and friendship. People can raise energy to energize their intellect and higher mental functions, making decisions for themselves. Humans can form communities. They experience bonds that are not based on low level needs, desires and addictions.

According to Abdullah, the term Sarvodaya means the awakening of all. "We want to wake people up to this level at least. If they do, they will interact in a very different way," he says. "This is the first level that you've got the capacity to put aside one's own personal desires and personal wants in favor of something that's larger."

3. Great

People at the great level have energy to give to others. They tend to help others with their energy, but they may not be consciously aware of their power or their impact on others. They can make decisions that are for the good of the whole. Others tend to gravitate to them.

4. Noble

Noble is the Bodhisattva level of energy. Noble people are conscious of their energy, their impact and placing their energy in the world to be of service to the conscious evolution of the planet. Much of their energy is at the level of the transcendent.

5. Divine

A divine person has no energy limits. They are aware of their existence through the cycles of birth and death, through the 400,000 cycles of existence. Jesus and Buddha are examples of divine masters.

"You also get a lot of other people who may be completely invisible to you. They may be in the world, but we at our lower or human levels can't even see them," says Abdullah. "This may be why there's this disconnect between people who treat Jesus as icon and people who treat Jesus as a teacher. The difference may be between a person who can see the outer form or shell of Jesus, but they lack the capacity to hear anything that he says."

Following the path of inclusivity, Abdullah believes that people will wake up to a new level of being where peace is the cornerstone of community.

For details on Sharif Abdullah and the Commonway Institute, visit www.commonway.org. For details on Sarvodaya Shramadana, visit www.sarvodaya.org.