Creating Peace by Being Peace

World Peace—the healing of the world—is achieved through a very simple principle: We Create Peace By Being Peace. It is this universal truth that has inspired the Peace Every Day Initiative, a global, collective, daily, meditation of peace. The purpose is to unite a minimum of 8,000 people, while holding the vision of 144,000 or more people, to meditate/pray by becoming the vibration of peace for 40 minutes or more each day, individually and especially in groups. Any time of day is effective, though sunrise or sunset are powerful nodal times. This powerful thought-form of peace is enough to shift the global consciousness so that we may fully celebrate peace on earth! (Introduction, Creating Peace by Being Peace: The Essene Sevenfold Path.)

On Saturday afternoon, November 15, 2008, at Toronto City Hall, Gabriel Cousins’ overviewed a way to create sevenfold peace. Synthesizing decades of multidisciplinary work in meditation, psychiatry, psychotherapy, and spirituality, Dr. Cousins described a comprehensive plan for peace with the body, mind, family, community, culture, ecology, and God as a pervasive experience in life—moment to moment, day by day.

Cousens transfers a unique Essene insight into peace to modern Canadian seekers as a blueprint for realizing this reality as we walk in our lives; work according to our gifts, joys, and sacred design; and live the path of spiritual awakening—the sevenfold peace. The afternoon ended in mediation during which Dr. Cousins shared Shaktipat and an outdoor incense, candle and prayer ritual.

Gabriel Cousens, Director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, is a world-recognized peace worker since 1967, physician of the soul, M.D., M.D.(H), Diplomate of the American Board of Holistic Medicine, Diplomate in Ayurveda, psychiatrist, family therapist, meditation teacher, teacher in the U.S., India, Europe, Israel, Lebannon, and Morocco, and founder of the Peace Every Day Initiative.

On Friday, November 14, Gabriel Cousins led a worship service at Rainbow Body Yoga, Church Street, Toronto, to commemorate the start of ancient Essene-Kabbalishtic sabbat, which extends from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

The evening included ecstatic music and song led by Micheal Bedar and explication of the alter, discussion of the story of Job, relating of a Jewish parable of "the one who trusts in Hashem" (the story of the king who hated and was outfoxed by the fixer), meditation, and shaktipat delivered by a Rebbe Cousins.

The evening encompassed the rare treat of immersing in the Living Essene Way, Kabbalah, Mystical principles of the Living Torah, yogic philosopy, and Kosher, organic, vegetarian live-food grape juice and challah (challah is a traditional Jewish bread eaten on Shabbat and most Jewish holidays). It was a night of peace and healing for the individual and planetary soul.

An Intimate & Interactive Evening with Dr. Gabriel Cousens in Toronto

Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine Lecture, screening of “Simply Raw: Reverse Diabetes in 30 Days” followed by Q&A

On Thursday, November 13, 2008, I attended an event at Mel Lastman Square/North York City Hall, screening the documentary, Simply Raw. Seeing the six people in the documentary at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center (all diagnosed with Diabetes: five were type 2 and one was type 1) grapple over 30 days with executing Gabriel Cousins’ multi-levelled, food-based cure was gripping.

The challenges were striking: dissatisfaction with the raw menu, cravings for SAD offerings, lack of familial support, dealing with detox/withdrawal symptoms, the intense discomfort of shifting gears, and shifting expectations of the possibility of a real cure for diabetes. Been there.

Success seemed to come from surrendering to the process, patience, and working collaboratively and compassionately as a community. Gabriel later commented that change is better to come from a self-chosen internal place that involves the pleasure principle versus coming from an externally imposed force. It occurred to me as well that in fact all success, personal development, and self improvement, transitions through similar phases.

I was moved by some of the close ups showing facial expressions of shock, hurt, joy and compassion. Been there too. I was disappointed, as was most of the audience, when one of the older, male participants chose to leave the program half way through, in spite of his dramatic health improvements, due to his overwhelming psycho-physiological resistance to the change.

After the film, using a PowerPoint Gabriel overviewed some of the subjects outlined in his book Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine: calorie restriction and longevity; cause of disease as compromised terrain versus bacteria or virus; the self-composting action of the imbalanced body; the action of microplasmic pleomorphic protits; the necessity of growing your own food; list of mycotoxins; list of disesases; list of pathogenic microorganisms; grains, soy, GMO, vaccinations, chemtrails, and finally, a summary of his Phase I, Phase I.5 and Phase II anti-diabetes diet.

Questions from the audience included:

• Did the participants stay raw?
• Does the diet correct renal disorders?
• Does the diet correct low blood sugar?
• Is breatharianism possible?
• What is the youngest a person should be to healthfully fast?
• Can you go raw in a cold climate

The evening ended with a 30-minute meditation during which Gabriel shared shaktipat with each audience member. I’m looking forward to another shaktipat experience at the Shabbat led by Gabriel Cousins tonight.

Cleanse Journal Day 20

Yogic principle for the day: the external discipline of SURRENDER TO LIFE.

What does this principle mean to me?


See notes from Cleanse Day 10.

Ishwara pranidhana, or complete, free and unconditional self-surrender to God, is the highest virtue, the last niyama, and one of the trickiest niyamas. It is the release of ego and surrender to destiny.

It means “I give up.” It means “Thy will be done.” The foundation is in place and Divine will and communication is occurring to some extent. The mind prompts, "Do this" — I do it.

Patanjali says in the Yoga Sutras that one can even attain the highest form of samadhi, the final stage before kaivalya, if one can effectively surrender to God. Patanjali was an advaita vedantist, and did not understand the principle of God to be a separate entity. So Pantanjali is referring to the unchanging, ever-uniform reality, not nashwara, that which is changing, decaying, and creative.

In the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks Krishna, “Can you describe how a person who is realized lives, acts, walks, talks, sleeps, eats and moves?”

Krishna replies, “That person’s actions are no different to ours. He moves like you and me, he eats like you and me, he sleeps like you and me, he thinks like you and me. The only difference is that he has overcome the duality of life. Whereas initially we do everything for ourselves and are the centre of the universe, now love and compassion have become the centre of the universe, and everything else revolves around that.”

How do I honour it on a daily basis? What could I improve?
Release identification with the self and identifying with the Self. Through the generation of faith and innocence, letting go of the self-oriented, self-centred awareness, one is able to tune to God's energy.

Manage thoughts, ideas, beliefs and convictions and develop a new perspective. Developing a new vision marks the awakening of the spiritual faculty within us. Understanding, modifying and changing the mental vrittis indicates the beginning of spiritual awareness and surrender to life.

Daily food/elimination comments:
I’m drinking a lot of teas and a lot of water.

Performed my second round of basti, yogic enema and held only a few minutes this time. Also, forgot to strain the Dashmula.

Sleep record:
I was not tired Wednesday night, yet slept about 10 hours.

Additional thoughts or feelings:
This is easy. I continue to be generally quiet, at peace and optimistic about the future. I plan to continue the lifestyle beyond the 21 days of the cleanse.

I am so pleased with what I have learned and experienced during this cleanse. It was mind-body all encompassing, and the timing in my life and with the changing of the seasons was another synchronicity. I was at home long enough and alone enough to perform the routines and contemplations. I would recommend this for anyone looking to gear down, lighten up, and explore within.

Cleanse Journal Day 19

Yogic principle for the day: the external discipline of SELF STUDY.

What does this principle mean to me?

See notes from Cleanse Day 9.

Swa is Self: Adhyaya is study. Swadhyaya is Self study. No one can do this work for me. The study of Self is a do-it-yourself research project that begins with the question: If I am not the body, who am “I?” The search for the “I” is Swadhyaya.

The “I” is said to be Spirit, or “that" according to the Vedas and described only as “not this, not this.” The “I” is revealed when the conditioned mind is deprogrammed and the trinity of knower, knowledge and known dissolves.

How do I honour it on a daily basis? What could I improve?
There are a host of actions that can lead to direct knowledge or experience of the “I.”

• The study of the Vedas and holy texts.
• Working with a guru.
• Acting as Spirit.
• Non-attachment.
• Distinguishing between knowledge (indirect experience) and wisdom (the direct experience of the truth).
• Awareness of inner dialogue, words spoken, thoughts.
• Asking key questions: What is bliss?What is karma? What is free will?
• Kirtan and the repetition of mantra

Purify and practice Swadhyaya all the time until the truth is revealed.

Daily food/elimination comments:
I am enjoying my lifestyle.

Performed my first round of basti, yogic enema. Basti is the safest, easiest, and most pleasant of all cleansing procedures.

Sleep record:
I was not tired Tuesday night, yet slept again too long, about 10 hours.

Monthly Reading #5 Principles of Individualizing One's Diet

What was learned? How is it useful?
The focus for October was on individualizing one’s diet.

The focus in allopathic medicine about individuality has been that idiosyncracies have little or no functional significance to medicine.

Conversely, Roger Williams in Biochemical Individuality: The Basis for the Genetotrophic Concept indicates that there are numerous physiological variables that make each of us unique. Williams points out that in composition, enzymes, endocrine production, excretion patterns, pharmacological manifestations, basal metabolism, growth, temperature control, pain sensitivity, oxygen use, blood pressure, electricity, taste, presence of parasites and transplantation all manifest uniquely in individuals. If we wish to “do anything about” or treat any of these areas, we best customize the approach.

We can use a variety of systems to ascertain our unique mind-body psychophysiology: autonomic nervous system type; oxidative system, Ayurvedic; acid-alkali, endocrine, lipo-oxidation, and blood type. Questions we can ask ourselves about our nourishment are:

· What am I trying to say by this food choice?
· What is nature communicating to me?
· Can this food sustain my focus on the Divine?

It’s trial and error. Limit the variables and become both the scientist and the experiment. Because I spent 21 days in October this year in Pancha Karma, I spent a great deal of time contemplating the Ayurvedic modality, in particular, and its relevance to my mind-body.

My Ayurvedic RYT, AHE, in Toronto, Matthew Remski (who studied under David Frawley), assessed me as a robust pitta(3)-kapha(1.5) prakriti with excellent structural stability and a vast pool of emotional resource beginning to quiver under a hyper-competent intellectual and professional persona. Vata is over-excited on the level of reproductive power and manas by spiritual emergence. Pitta-type psychological drive has served me well in terms of artha but cannot stop for kama or contemplation or simple rest because of a long-standing fear that foundations are insecure. I was told my body is fairly clean. The raw diet has done me well on many levels: it has eliminated many toxins (clean tongue, improved skin, feeling of lightness). However, there are four issues that I would tinker with and balance out.

Under Matthew Remski's supervision, I responded to the assessment by conducting a 21-day cleanse and making some minor adjustments to my daily diet to support my Ayurvedic dosha balance.

This is not a search for a perfect diet, but a part of balanced, harmonious life. This is not a technique for enlightenment, just a support system to aid in harmonious, centred spiritual unfolding. We know we are eating optimally when we are glowing with life, have enhanced communion with the Divine and realize the highest state of awareness and functionality to fulfill our roles in the world. And over the month of October, I did feel more grounded, more at peace, healthier and radiant.

The higher purpose of diet is to aid in spiritual unfolding; to assimilate, store, conduct, transmit spiritual energies; to balance subtle energy centers, and to enhance peace on the planet.

Diet is the cause and effect of our awareness. David Wolfe writes in The Sunfood Diet Success System that food on the chlorophyll side of his Sunfood triangle can tune us into natural resonant frequencies. (page 184) I intuit that this is true. The more green I get, the more attuned, sensitive and energized. But I also have had to manage or balance this new state.

We want to transition wisely to a high proportioned-live food diet and use the triangle to modulate and customize: weight, stage of life, detoxification issues, hypoglycemian/diabetes issues, candida, mental clarity, athletics, temperature and grounding.

Cleanse Journal Day 18

Yogic principle for the day: the external discipline of PASSIONATE EFFORT.

What does this principle mean to me?

See notes from Cleanse Day 8.

Tapas is discipline, described as a heat or passionate effort, that releases or redirects energy and fuels spiritual passion or heat. Tapas manifests as a movement away from past dysfunctional attachments and habits and a movement toward freedom.

Tapas is an effortless release, a giving up, a surrendering (as in vairagya and ishvara pranidhana), an offering up of the old in exchange for the new. It is a free choice that manifests naturally and spontaneously without will power or effort. It was demonstrated to me the evening that I lost my interest in drinking red wine. Inexplicably and spontaneously, I realized that I did not need to drink red wine. Lovely as the experience felt, I realized that drinking a glass of red wine every night took something undefinable away from me. The whole release occurred spontaneously, in a thought, without words . My “craving” just disappeared. And I just followed with some curiosity, placed the sacrifice into the sacrificial fire for fuel, and watched the experiment to see what would happen.

From the outside the release often looks like austerity or sacrifice. My family and friends commented that my renunciation of wine was "too hard" for them to do. For me it wasn't hard at all; it was the natural flow of my impulses. From the inside, a part of me freely died and another was reborn.

How do I honour it on a daily basis? What could I improve?
Harness tapas by the conscious practice of energy conservation (pratyhara, vairagya, bhakti and tapas) one pointed focus and devotion to the Divine. Wholeheartedly desire to know the Truth of Self.

Any action that frees one from the dualistic illusion is tapas. Any action that redirects the outward flow of grasping of objects (physical or mental) is tapas. Any action that supports satisfaction (santosha) is tapas. Activities could include fasting, silence of speech and thought (mouna), and any and all of the other yamas and niyamas.

Before taking action, ask such questions as: will this activity lead to the truth? Is this action based on separateness or is it based on love? Will this action release energy or dissipate, confuse, distract, or disempower?

Daily food/elimination comments:
Losing interest in food. I am satisfied with eating much less.

Sleep record:
I was not tired Monday night, yet slept about 10 hours.

Additional thoughts or feelings:
This is easy. I continue to be generally quiet, at peace and optimistic about the future.