EXPRESSIONS OF NON VIOLENCE
The Christmas Truce
by David G. Stratman From his book We Can Change the World
It was December 25, 1914, only 5 months into World War I. German, British, and French soldiers, already sick and tired of the senseless killing, disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with "the enemy" along two-thirds of the Western Front (a crime punishable by death in times of war). German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs, "Merry Christmas."
"You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high.
A shudder ran through the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court martial. By March 1915 the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice in 1918, fifteen million would be slaughtered.
Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a ballad about the Christmas Trucep The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. "Even more startling than the number of requests I get is the reaction to the ballad afterward by callers who hadn't heard it before," said the radio host. "They telephone me deeply moved, sometimes in tears, asking, `What the hell did I just hear?'"
I think I know why the callers were in tears. The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people. It gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be and says, "This really happened once." It reminds us of those thoughts we keep hidden away, out of range of the TV and newspaper stories that tell us how trivial and mean human life is. It is like hearing that our deepest wishes really are true: the world really could be different.
The Wisdom of Gandhi
"I had never thought of Gandhi as a man with human frailties just like the rest of us - that he grew up with fears as a child, that he was married and listened to the advice of his wife. He grew into his beliefs and way of life through his spiritual practice. From his example, I know I can make a difference too." --Bonnie Chappa, series participant
http://www.unityofthevalley.org/Gandhi.htm
- We can live life in the Spirit, affirming our oneness with all peoples, all creatures and the natural environment.
- "All the Masters ... gained an understanding that there is nothing in this outer world of changeable conditions that will give you peace unless it's led by Spirit." (Baine Palmer: "Out of the Ego Cage")
- The sermon spoke of the Buddha: on the night of his enlightenment, the Buddha arrived at the radical discovery that we do not exist as separate beings. He saw into the human tendency to identify with our separate state of existence and discovered that this belief in "I" and "mine" is a root illusion that creates our suffering and removes us from the joy, freedom and mystery of life.
- At first, Gandhi found, "it was painful to give up his time or pleasure for the sake of others' needs. But the freedom that followed was exhilarating. Gandhi's joy knew no bounds." (p. 28)
"Through many years of living for others, rather than himself, Gandhi found that what he had eliminated from his personality was only his separateness, his selfishness and his fear." (p. 115) Like Gandhi, if you were to focus more on understanding the needs of those around you, how would this reduce your feeling of separateness from other people? Notes for discussion:
- "He who devotes himself to service with a clear conscience, will day by day grasp the necessity for it in greater measure, and will continually grow richer in faith." - Gandhi (p. 29)
- "Albert Schweitzer said that the purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others. He goes on to say, 'I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know, the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.' " (Baine Palmer, "Out of the Ego Cage")
- As St. Francis said, "It is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying (to self) that we are born to eternal life."
How does self-will or self-interest get in the way of being effective in our actions to help others? Notes for discussion:
- "Self-will blocks the release of the tremendous inner power of satyagraha (soul-force); removing self-will frees it." (p. 152)
- Self-will diminishes our spiritual awareness and our ability to know the truth. (p. 28)
- "Truth is God ... God alone knows absolute Truth" - Gandhi. "We ... can pursue only a relative truth; but if our search for truth is pure and devoid of self-interest, Gandhi believed, we will not come to harm." (p. 151)
- "But truth alone is not enough. Gandhi knew human nature and felt that, by itself, truth could become 'unethical': 'It is because we have at the present moment everybody claiming the right of conscience without going through any discipline whatsoever that there is so much untruth being delivered to a bewildered world.' What can make the search for truth impure, 'unethical,' is his 'self-interest.' Gandhi's antidote to untruth was the systematic reduction of self-centeredness, which he spelled out in a simple tenet, 'Reduce yourself to zero.' This reduction of self-will is the discipline he mentions above, and without it, the search for truth can lead to self-righteousness, arrogance, even tyranny." (p. 151)
Albert Hammond - Give a little love:
Link to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JOhdTDeGZw&mode=related&search