Yoga & A Culture of Peace and Non-Violence
Following the Unifying Threads of the Culture of Peace by David Wick
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.” ~Steve Jobs I am trusting the inherent unifying thread of the Culture of Peace. United Nations Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury spoke to the Rotary E-Club of World Peace on 1 September 2020 on “Peace, Peacebuilding and the Culture of Peace” at my invitation. Given that his roles at the UN have included Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations, President of the UN Security Council, President of the UNICEF Board, and co-founder of the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace, I virtually introduced Ambassador Chowdhury to Rotary International President-Elect Shekhar Mehta on February 14, 2021. This was an intentional step to enhance the relationship between the United Nations and Rotary International, raise Rotary’s profile within the UN, and to introduce the UN’s Declaration and Programme of Action on the Culture of Peace (A/RES/53/243) to the leadership of Rotary International. Following and co-manifesting the high vibrational thread of the Culture of Peace has been a continuous journey for me which now led me to serving as the President of the Rotary E-Club of World Peace 2021-2022. This is a capstone to my 40 plus years of peacebuilding dedication. I am currently seeing the emergence of more dots and threads to be connected. As I explored the Light on Light website, I came across and watched the video on Unitive Justice and Global Security where Bob Atkinson said, “We are living in an unprecedented dark night of the collective soul…. A holistic vision prioritizes the whole, brings about cooperation and harmony and places a unity of purpose above all else. This consciousness calls for a complete shift in how we related in all things. A new story of wholeness is emerging, a global community built upon a Culture of Peace is forming.” I have experienced first-hand the emergence and evolution of this global community. While living in the San Francisco Bay Area I became a member of the UN NGO Pathways To Peace (PTP) since 1980 when it was coming into being and I collaborated with co-founder and president Avon Mattison until her recent passing. I continue today as the current president of PTP. Avon and PTP helped to establish the International Day of Peace (IDP) at the UN in 1981, and we organized the first major civil society IDP celebration in San Francisco in 1984. PTP helped evolve the concept of the Culture of Peace in the 1980’s and subsequently collaborated with Ambassador Chowdhury and others to provide wide-spread education and inspiration. 107