1. Purification of the bodily temple.Are you free from all bad habits? In your diet do you stress the vital foods - the fruits, whole grains, vegetables and nuts? Do you get to bed early and get enough sleep? Do you get plenty of fresh air, sunshine, exercise, and contact with nature? If you can answer "Yes" to all of these questions, you have gone a long way toward purification of the bodily temple.
2. Purification of the thoughts.
It is not enough to do right things and say right things. You must also think right things. Positive thoughts can be powerful influences for good. Negative thoughts can make you physically ill. Be sure there is no unpeaceful situation between yourself and any other human being, for only when you have ceased to harbor unkind thoughts can you attain inner harmony.
3. Purification of the desires.
Since you are here to get yourself into harmony with the laws that govern human conduct and with your part in the scheme of things, your desires should be focused in this direction.
4. Purification of motives.
Obviously your motive should never be greed or self-seeking, or the wish for self-glorification, you shouldn't even have the selfish motive of attaining inner peace for yourself. To be of service to your fellow humans must be your motive before your life can come into harmony.
The Uniqueness of Peace Pilgrim
She has been called a prophet, a mystic, a saint, and a person who walked her talk. Her message was not new, but practicing it was. Here was someone who had relinquished all earthly possessions to live a focused life based upon spiritual truths and immutable principles. Hearing her message was like hearing any one of the world's great religions. Those who were Christian were sure she preached the beliefs of Jesus Christ. Those who were Jewish, felt she represented the way of Yahweh. Buddhists, Bahais and Jains were sure she spoke their religions. And those who were Muslim were certain that she preached the teachings of Islam.
In her message, she combined the teachings of all the world's great religions. She was original in the sense that she gave her message only after she had tested, verified and demonstrated its efficacy in her own life. She had found the "kingdom within" and lived to share it with others. She has been described as "a gentle, soothing, spiritual tornado" whose simple, direct message delivered a compelling challenge to conscience. A friend from India wrote that "it was not the scholar's erudition that spoke through her, but the saint's imprisoned splendor, released in its full effulgence for three decades."
What was also unique about the Peace Pilgrim was that she was the living example of the potential that can be unleashed when someone is fully engaged in doing what they believe is the most important thing in the world for them to be doing. She believed people only scratched the surface of their real potential. To everyone who came in contact with her, she was living proof that changing your life was possible. She lived the change she wanted to see. Her own life said, "You can do it too!"
She lived by faith, and by the energy of her own Inner Light. In our time, and certainly in our country, no one else was like her. She has been called a 20th century St. Francis of Assisi, and is often compared to Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Like them, she had "a peaceful heart, and a warrior's spirit." But unlike them, she had no political organization, no religious institution, and no specific cause or people to champion. The whole world was her cause and wherever she walked, she called it home. She felt at ease everywhere she went because of her "homelessness" attitude, and because she lived so completely in the present moment. She is probably the 20th century's most underrated and least known spiritual leader and peace activist.
Glorious Transition
In the mid 1950s, her message of inner and outer peace did not find as great a reception as it did by the 1960s and 1970s, when working for peace and especially spiritual harmony, was becoming more popular. "When I started out, people accepted war as a necessary part of life. Now, people are looking for alternatives. Now people are looking inward," she said. As the years wore on, she was in greater and greater demand as a speaker, often having to book herself a year in advance. She spent fewer nights along the roadside, and began accepting more rides to keep her engagements, always being returned to the spot she had left off walking.
The last spot for Peace Pilgrim was Knox, Indiana. The day before she had given her last speech in Valpraiso, Indiana. In order to make the next scheduled meeting, she had to be driven. She was on her way, just outside Knox in the afternoon of July 7, 1981, when an on-coming car crossed the median strip and struck the car she was riding in head on. She died soon after impact, and her driver died four hours later. With that car collision, she finally went to what she called her "glorious transition" to a "freer life."
Mildred Lisette Norman Ryder was cremated, and on July 18, 1981, the date of what would have been her 73rd birthday, her ashes were interred in the Norman family cemetery plot in Galloway Township, NJ, not far from Egg Harbor City where she was born. Her ashes were buried in the gravesite of her most influential aunt, Lisette Norman, after whom she was named.
Peace Pilgrim's Legacy
Her peace legacy was large and compelling especially when measured by her own principles:
We must walk according to the highest light we have, encountering lovingly those who are out of harmony, and trying to inspire them to a better way. Whenever you bring harmony into any unpeaceful situation, you contribute to the cause of peace. When you do something for world peace, peace among groups, peace among individuals, or your own inner peace, you improve the total peace picture. No action is fruitless.
There is within the hearts of people deep desire for peace on earth, and they would speak for peace if they were not bound by apathy, by ignorance, by fear. It is the job of peacemakers to inspire them from their apathy, to dispel their ignorance with truth, to allay their fear with faith that God's laws work - and work for good....My simple peace message is adequate - really just the message that the way of peace is the way of love. Love is the greatest power on earth. It conquers all things...
Beyond those lives that she touched directly during her life, what was her legacy? 2003 marks the 50th anniversary of her first walk across America. What can we point to as her "achievements"? Did she plant the seeds for fundamental change, or did many of those seeds fall on fallow ground? Like many powerful individuals whose message - if followed - is world changing, qualitative results are most potent but difficult to gage, while quantitative results are more concrete and limited as a true measurement.
Perhaps the greatest testament to her influence is the fact that the bulk of her teachings and writings have been published and distributed posthumously, and with it, the recognition that her life and teachings were of enduring value. Otherwise, interest in her would not have grown exponentially each year, as it has, without money, marketing or organization. Twenty years after her death, she has become better known and sought after than when she was alive. More remarkable, her fame has been achieved exclusively through word of mouth, and the dedication of a few friends.
SOURCE:PEACE PILGRIM
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