Peace Challenge: Taking Action

 

Many of you have been Blogging for Peace with me for over a year and a half now. I have no doubts that our posts have had an effect on countless individuals in ways we may know or never know. I thank you for all you have done for peace.

Now, I’m going to ask you to take a step further. I am inviting you to take action.

As some of you may know, I’m launching a new website called RaisingCompassionateBoys.com. This is my effort to bring peace back to our schools where violence, bullying, and viral humiliations have run rampant.

So here is my challenge:

1. Watch the videos on RaisingCompassionateBoys.com about how to cultivate compassion in boys and ourselves.
2. Find a boy or group of boys to raise, mentor, befriend, coach, or teach. Some of you may have sons. Others might be youth leaders, coaches, counselors, aunts and uncles, neighbors, or teachers who interact with boys on a regular basis.
3. Practice cultivating compassion in this boy or these boys on a daily basis.
4. Role Model compassion for any boys in your presence.

I have no doubts that if a critical mass of adults take on this challenge of raising compassionate boys, we can change not only our schools, but also our society, the world, and the future.

Click here to receive the free videos on raising compassionate boys.

I hope you and your friends and followers will join me on this challenge in whatever form you deem feasible.

With Gratitude,

Kozo Hattori

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T-Shirt Love

The Bloggers for Peace T-shirts are in!

I will start sending them out to all the bloggers who completed all 12 Peace Challenges in 2013 as soon as the lines at the post office calm down from Tax Day.

For those of you who didn’t do all the Peace Challenges last year, but still want a t-shirt, Rarasaur and Goldfish set up a RedBubble site where you can buy one! http://www.redbubble.com/people/b4peace

So thankful for everyone who has made B4Peace a reality. {{{Hugs}}}} Kozo

Monthly Peace Challenge: Peace Child

To help inspire the Bloggers for Peace (B4Peace), we will have a Monthly Peace Challenge. To participate, tag your post with B4Peace and make sure you copy your URL to the Linkz collection. Anyone who completes all twelve Monthly Peace Challenges in 2014 will receive a Free B4Peace T-shirt. Yes, I’ve decided to offer the second annual Bloggers for Peace T-shirt as a prize. I envision a day when we will all gather for a Bloggers for Peace Conference donning our various Bloggers for Peace T-shirts.

Sorry this post is a bit late, but we had some daycare issues this month, which serendipitously gave me the idea for this month’s challenge. Let’s focus on children. How can we teach children to prioritize peace? How did you experience peace as a child? What in your upbringing made you a Blogger for Peace?

Here are a few suggestions:

• Post a song, poem, photo, video, or story that will lead children towards peace. Remember the anti-littering campaign featuring the crying Native American? I swear that that commercial is the reason I never litter to this day. Can we create something as powerful for peace?
• Tell a story about when you were a child and you found/experienced/learned peace. What are your first memories of peace? What images, music, events, people introduced you to peace?
• Post a practice, activity, tip, or suggestion for parents to raise peaceful children. (You don’t have to be a parent to do this. The Dalai Lama, to my knowledge, has no children, yet he offers advice to parents everyday.)
• Post photos, images, artwork, poems, songs, or stories by/of/for children that bring you peace.
• Tell a story about how you would re-parent yourself to make your life more peaceful. What would you tell your 3 year old self to help her find peace in the face of the experiences that are ahead of her?
• Describe the resources you would give a child to live a peaceful life or make the world a more peaceful place.

Don’t forget to link to at least one other B4Peace post and add your post to the Linkz collection. Here is how:

• Copy your URL to the Linkz collection. You’ll find the link below. It’s the drunk blue frog smiling for peace. Click on it and follow directions.
• Go visit this site to read and comment on other posts related to this Monthly Peace Challenge.

 

2013 Bloggers for Peace T-shirt Update:

I have the final count and have rectified overseas mailing problems. Rarasaur and I are finalizing the Peace Cat image, so I hope to order the t-shirts this month and mail them the first week of April. This way, if I don’t get them out in time, I can say, “April Fools!” Sorry, for the delay. Thank you for your patience.

Monthly Peace Challenge: We Are Family

To help inspire the Bloggers for Peace (B4Peace), we will have a Monthly Peace Challenge. To participate, tag your post with B4Peace and make sure you copy your URL to the Linkz collection. Anyone who completes all twelve Monthly Peace Challenges in 2014 will receive a Free B4Peace T-shirt. Yes, I’ve decided to offer the second annual Bloggers for Peace T-shirt as a prize. I envision a day when we will all gather for a Bloggers for Peace Conference donning our various Bloggers for Peace T-shirts.

We’ve been blogging for peace for over a year, so I’m going to push you with this challenge. This month, I want you to focus on your family. Is there anyone you don’t fully embrace in your family? Do you feel resentment, shame, or anger towards someone blood-related?

Yep, I went there. Let’s deal with it. This months challenge is to make peace in yourself with someone close to you. Here are some suggestions:

• Write a letter to someone that begins “I resent…” Explain exactly how you feel about this resentment in this letter. Let your anger out if you have any. Release all the negative energy surrounding this person. Sending the letter or reading the letter out loud to the person is optional.
• Write a letter confessing all the secrets you have been withholding from someone close. Check out a book called Radical Honesty for examples. You might also want to listen to some Byron Katie CDs to find the courage to do this “work.”
• Write a love letter to someone in your family who you can’t seem to connect with. Tell them all the wonderful things that they have brought into your life. What events do you remember that you enjoyed with them?
• Describe an event from more than one perspective where someone caused you misery.
• Tell a story about a family event that included “necessary suffering” and healing/forgiveness.

Don’t forget to link to at least one other B4Peace post and add your post to the Linkz collection. Here is how:

• Copy your URL to the Linkz collection. You’ll find the link below. It’s the drunk blue frog smiling for peace. Click on it and follow directions.
• Go visit this site to read and comment on other posts related to this Monthly Peace Challenge.

Last Chance for 2013 Bloggers for Peace T-shirt

Everyone who completed all the 2013 Monthly Peace Challenges make sure you email me your shirt size, blog name, and address to everydaygurus@gmail.com by February 15, 2014. I want to place the order for t-shirts. Once I place the order, you cannot receive your free t-shirt if you did not email me. Thank you.

Monthly Peace Challenge: The Neuroscience of Peace

To help inspire the Bloggers for Peace (B4Peace), we will have a Monthly Peace Challenge. To participate, tag your post with B4Peace and make sure you copy your URL to the Linkz collection. Anyone who completes all twelve Monthly Peace Challenges in 2014 will receive a Free B4Peace T-shirt. Yes, I’ve decided to offer the second annual Bloggers for Peace T-shirt as a prize. I envision a day when we will all gather for a Bloggers for Peace Conference donning our various Bloggers for Peace T-shirts.

For the first Monthly Peace Challenge of 2014, I first thought about resolutions, but resolutions are usually destined to fail and make us feel bad about ourselves. So I’ve simplified the challenge. What one thought will you focus on this year to bring more peace?

Neuroscience tells us that “neurons that fire together wire together” which means that we actually change our brains by what we think. Changing our brains changes our thoughts, behaviors, habits, and destinies.

Decades before fMRI brain scans, Gandhi said,

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.”

So I’m just asking you to post one thought that you will focus on this year. Call it a mantra, a resolution, a pebble in the pond of your consciousness that will send out ripples of peace throughout the year.

You can use these websites to pretty up your thought:

• Quozio.com
• Recitethis.com

For example, my thought for the year is:

“Abide” is a word that I am focusing on in meditation. It means:

• To remain in a place
• To continue to be sure or firm; endure
• To dwell or sojourn
• To put up with; tolerate
• To wait patiently for: “I will abide the coming of my lord” Tennyson
• To withstand

“Abide as the Stream” is a term Dr. Rick Hanson gifted me with in his essay Eddies in the Stream. In his essay, Dr. Hanson explores the intersection of neuroscience, quantum physics, and enlightenment. To abide as the stream means to sit in the field of infinite potential, “fertile noise,” or “quantum foam.”

When I am able to “abide as the stream” during meditation, I feel an overwhelming sense of connection with all beings that I can only describe as love. So my thought for the year is to “abide as the stream of love.” I want to spend as much time as possible realizing this thought. What thought do you want to realize this year?

Don’t forget to link to at least one other B4Peace post and add your post to the Linkz collection. Here is how:

• Copy your URL to the Linkz collection. You’ll find the link below. It’s the drunk blue frog smiling for peace. Click on it and follow directions.
• Go visit this site to read and comment on other posts related to this Monthly Peace Challenge.

Thank you for spreading the peace. {{{hugs}}} Kozo

FREE Bloggers for Peace T-shirt

CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed a year of Blogging for Peace. I hope writing and publishing your peace posts brought you as much peace as it brought me. In gratitude for your heartfelt sincerity, dogged perseverance, and radical honesty, I would like to give you a free Bloggers for Peace T-shirt.

I’ve decided to use Peace Cat for the 1st Annual Bloggers For Peace T-Shirt. Shout outs to Rarasaur and Grayson Queen for designing and creating Peace Cat.

If you completed all 12 Monthly Peace Challenges, then email me your name, address, blog name, and shirt size (Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, etc.). My email address is everydaygurus@gmail.com

If you did not complete the 12 Challenges, but would like to have a Bloggers For Peace T-shirt, then email me and I will send you an address to send a check or money order. I’m thinking $20/shirt which includes shipping and handling.

I want to thank everyone who participated in Bloggers For Peace this year–even if you just read Peace posts. I feel a shift in the Universe that I hope we can expand upon in 2014.

Thank you for reading, smiling, and/or sharing.

Peace in 2014 (Pi4teen)

Monthly Peace Challenge: Party On, Garth!

Hurray! This is the last challenge of the year. Those of you who have been here since January have one more post to get your FREE B4Peace T-Shirt! I will continue posting challenges next year for a different prize (to be determined), but this challenge ends an incredible first year of Bloggers for Peace. Before I give you the challenge, I want to thank everyone who participated in B4Peace this year. I can honestly say that you brought more peace in my life which means you brought more peace in the world. Special thanks to Rarasaur who designed the B4Peace logos, badges, and T-shirt (hint, hint).

After last months challenge of loving thy enemy, I want to give you a party.  So this months challenge is to plan a party that will ripple peace to the world. Use everything in your imagination for this peace party. Here are a few ideas:

• You can hold your party anywhere. Where would you host your peace party? How many people would be at the party?
• You can invite any guest you want from the past, present, or future. Who will play music at the party? Who will contribute artwork for the party? Who will give speeches?
• What food can you serve that would bring peace in its consumption?
• What about a group activity at your party? Would you have everyone at the party participate in one action for peace?
• Feel free to use images, videos, or music in your post to give others the idea of what your party would be like.
• What combination of events, people, and place would bring about the most peace at your party? What if you had Bob Dylan perform a duet with Ysuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)? What if you had a panel on compassion featuring Jesus, the Buddha, Muhammad, and Mother Teresa? Let your imagination run wild for peace.
• What would you have at your party that would bring more joy, smiles, love, and peace into the world?

Don’t forget to link to at least one other B4Peace post and add your post to the Linkz collection. Here is how:

• Copy your URL to the Linkz collection. You’ll find the link below. It’s the drunk blue frog smiling for peace. Click on it and follow directions.
• Go visit this site to read and comment on other posts related to this Monthly Peace Challenge.

Related articles

• Monthly Peace Challenge: Love Thy Enemy (everydaygurus.com)

Tweet: “I’m meditating with Jon Kabat-Zinn”

Spring came early in the form of a week of incredible growth. In the past 7 days, I had three incredible experiences that I wish to share with you with a serendipitous surprise that could generate huge waves of Peace.

Day-long workshop with Jeff Foster

If you don’t know who Jeff Foster is, today is your lucky day. In a small church room surrounded by windows, about 40 disciples sat around an unassuming bearded man giving a sermon. Here are excerpts of the Gospel shared that day.

“Your life is suppose to be imperfect/a mess.” 

Monthly Peace Challenge: Acts of Kindness

In a few hours, we officially start the Bloggers for Peace 2013. At this point, we have 40 bloggers committed to publish at least one post a month on/for/about peace. That is 480 peace posts, more than a post a day, that will uplift the internet throughout the year. If you want to join Bloggers for Peace click on the badge to the right. From this tiny seed, how big a tree of peace can we grow? What about a multinational forest of peace?

To help inspire the Bloggers for Peace (B4Peace), we will have a Monthly Peace Challenge. To participate, tag your post with B4Peace or leave a link to it in the comments. Anyone who completes all twelve Monthly Peace Challenges will receive a Free B4Peace T-shirt.

Wouldn’t it be great if Peace went Viral?

@09Serenity Love it Sunshine. Wouldn't it be great if Peace went viral? #B4Peace #peace

— Kozo Hattori (@everydaygurus) December 26, 2012

Sent this tweet this morning, but then I went to check out #Peace and found that most tweets about peace looked like this:

https://twitter.com/tomfun9/status/283889042934878208

This reminds me of when Bono, the lead singer of the band U2, introduced U2’s cover of the song “Helter Skelter”: “This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles; we’re stealing it back.” I say we steal #Peace back.