Carrying in her tunic
pockets her only possessions--toothbrush, comb, pen, and later, her Steps
to Inner Peace pamphlets--she took a vow to walk penniless, and
to remain a wanderer until mankind had learned the way of peace,
"walking until given shelter and fasting until given
food." She had no organizational backing and never
accepted money. She owned only what she wore on her
back. She stepped out for peace on faith alone, and in so
doing, undertook a daring and groundbreaking feat that represented
enormous moral courage.
She introduced herself to people as a pilgrim--walking not to a
place but for an idea. Her message was a simple
one about the way to peace. She said to all who would
listen: "This is the way of peace: Overcome evil
with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love."
Her definition of peace included peace among nations, among people
and individuals, and the most important peace--within oneself--for
only with inner peace, she believed, can the other kinds be
achieved. She said that her message should not be taken
lightly, or viewed simply as impractical religious concepts, but
rather, as universal truths to be lived:
These are
laws governing human conduct, which apply as rigidly as the law of
gravity. When we disregard these laws in any walk of life
chaos results. Through obedience to these laws this world of
ours could enter into a period of peace and richness beyond our
fondest dreams.
Setting out at the
dawn of the nuclear age, she carried three petitions: one to end the
war in Korea, the second to establish a U.S. Peace Department (both
directed at President Eisenhower and Congress); and a third petition
directed at the United Nations, urging world disarmament and the
redirection of arms spending towards human needs funding. She
delivered all three.
On her journeys, she preached that the basic conflict in the world
was not between nations, but between two beliefs: 1) that evil
can only be overcome with more evil (the dominant, present belief);
and 2) that evil can only be overcome with good (the belief for
which she walked). "What we suffer from in the world is
immaturity," she said. "If we were mature people,
war would be unthinkable and peace would be assured." In
her life, her belief in maturity was put into daily practice.
She wrote:
No one walks
so safely as one who walks humbly and harmlessly with great love
and great faith. For such a person gets through to the good
in others (and there is good in everyone), and therefore cannot be
harmed. This works between individuals, it works between
groups and it would work between nations if nations had the
courage to try it.
She walked for the
next 28 years, weaving back and forth across the country, making
trips into neighboring countries. From the start, her life on
the road-- walking, talking, eating, sleeping--was undertaken as a
reverent, loving prayer, integrating what she believed were the
important things of living, into a penniless, simple, committed
existence of love and service.
She never approached anyone, but waited for people to approach
her. Her commitment was to make herself available to the
serious, the concerned and the curious. She spoke tirelessly
to those who wanted to talk. With her message covering the
entire peace gamut, from the international to the individual, she
asked people to overcome the selfishness and pride within themselves
first, and then do whatever they felt called to do for peace in the
world.
For those who asked, she gave out her Steps Toward Inner Peace
pamphlet, which outlined her preparations for inner peace, including
simplification of life and purification of the body, bringing the
inner and outer well being into harmony. She always stressed
that there was no particular order to the steps, but rather, one
should begin wherever it made sense. (These Steps were
first printed in 1966, when, during a radio interview, a friend
asked her to share them with listeners. The friend copied them
down and made a little booklet, Steps Toward Inner Peace,
which has been in print ever since).
(Taken from peacepilgrim.net. Read her full bio--an amazing
story-- at http://www.peacepilgrim.net/htmfiles/mdppbio.htm.
You'll find more information and free copies of her writings there,
also.)
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