"SUPPOSE THEY GAVE a war, and no-one came?" This quote was made famous over thirty years ago by anti-Vietnam War protester Leslie Parrish. In the late '60's and early '70's the peace movement took on a life of its own as more people than ever before united together to make themselves heard. During 1966 there were 80,000 separate demonstrations, pickets and rallies across the United States. In 1969 a record 25 million people marched on Washington D.C, demanding an end to war. Since then, millions of people have gathered all across the world throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia, protesting every single war that the government decides to put on, all voicing the same message that was crying out forty years ago. People want peace.

So why, by 2006, have we not managed to achieve peace? Why has there been constant fighting going on, somewhere in the world, every moment since then? Could it be that the answer lies in a simple truth? Could the answer lie in the belief that anything and everything, including peace, starts within?

Shrugged off by the Western world as a spiritual, even naive ideal, this basic concept has been embraced and followed by millions of indigenous, Eastern and spiritually-minded folk for centuries. When you follow the concept through, it makes a lot of sense.

Perhaps if John Howard or Tony Blair had a stronger inner core, they would be able to stand up to George Bush and tell him thanks but no thanks to his invitations to go hunting. Issues of self-worth, a need to be validated and accepted by people outside ourselves, a fear there is not enough of everything to go around, a fear that all we have will be taken by others, and a craving for outer security are issues we all share until we realize we are whole within ourselves.

When you are truly connected to your wholeness - when you remember the truth of who you really are - you know that you have all you need in every moment. You will always have enough, you will always be enough.

World leaders are only acting out what many of us act out on a daily basis. We all want to feel we will be loved, protected and provided for always, and until we realize we already are receiving all we need through our connection to our inner knowing, we seek to get this feeling fulfilled elsewhere. We have sought it by trying to please and impress our boss, our partner or our friends. Likewise, leaders who go along with Bush may be trying to please and impress the man they believe will give them this feeling. They have allowed themselves to be held to ransom by a man who is like the school bully, threatening everyone that he will press the button or take away his protection if we don't do as he says. Meanwhile, Bush's motives may lie in trying to impress the man from whom he seeks love, attention and validation - his father perhaps. Most of us can resonate.

It takes self-love, self-knowing, strength, courage and an invincible belief in yourself to stand up to a bully and realize he is only coming from his own fears, insecurities and inferiority complexes. Knowing this, one can then say "No, enough is enough!", and stop the pattern that is passed on from playground to playground, from warzone to warzone.

We all have father issues and mother issues until we do something about them. However, when we want to prove ourselves we might go get a law degree or become a successful parent. For George W to prove himself, he is going to have to do something quite spectacular to put on a better show than dad, and he is taking the entire planet along for the ride!

It may be a hard truth to swallow but the people who create and participate in wars are only doing what so many of us humans do every day - albeit on a much larger, more aggressive scale. Writer Ayn Rand says it well in her book Capitalism The Unknown Ideal:

Men are afraid that war might come because they know... that they have never rejected the doctrine which causes wars... the doctrine that it is right or practical or necessary for men to achieve their goals by means of physical force (by initiating the use of force against other men) and that some sort of 'good' can justify it.

The current dramas being played out on the world stage are dramatic reproductions of our own life scripts. Have you ever resorted to violence or abuse, whether physical, emotional, mental or verbal, toward yourself or another person? Can you truly say you are living in a state of inner peace, built on a foundation of self-love? Or are you still projecting your inner discord outward onto people and situations that actually have nothing to do with your issues?

Attacking another country in this day and age, sending people off to die, is not right no matter the reason. Attacking anyone, in any way, whether it is on the global level or in your own home, or even only in your mind, is not right. Are we still attached to the caveman mentality? Are we still running off old survival tapes that say kill or be killed? Why aren't we listening to our intuition, calling us to find another way?

Intuition is a feminine energy, and the world is currently being led and overpowered by an outdated and archaic form of masculine energy that has become stuck. We have denied and dishonoured the feminine energy for thousands of years, and as a result the entire planet is out of balance. Relationships and people are out of balance. It is time now to correct that balance, on every level of our lives, starting within. The law of nature will demand it happens - you may have noticed Mother Earth has already started. We can either help the process along in a peaceful way, or resist it kicking and screaming. How painful or joyful the experience is, is up to us.

Peace starts within. If you want peace on the entire planet, then each country must be in a state of peace. For each country to be in a state of peace, each community in that country must be living peacefully, in harmony with each other. For a peaceful community, each family within that community must be at peace amongst themselves. For a peaceful family, each person who belongs in that family must have peace within their own hearts. Don't process this with your mind, and immediately accept or reject it. Feel it with your heart and look into your own life to see whether or not it rings true for you.

Think about your family, or the people you share a home with. Have you ever been in a situation where the entire household is disrupted just because one member is causing chaos with their outbursts of anger, violent behaviour, negative patterns and habits, or sullen moodiness? It is impossible to sustain an aura of calm peacefulness in that home, regardless of how peace-loving and peace-seeking the other family members are. More often than not, the behaviour of the one triggers reactive behaviour in another and a domino effect begins.

Now we go out into the community where all the families have gathered for a meeting. They speak about the need for peace within that community, but each family is privately and quietly in a state of disharmony, wounded by the battles of the days and nights before. They have arrived with good intentions - they truly do desire peace - but their energy speaks louder than words. Each family circle has brought with it its own brand of turbulence, thus the community as a whole is awash with instability.

Next, all communities across the country gather in an attempt to discuss their various ideas and needs. However, they have all brought with them the tension that resides within that community. Talks stall and arguments break out, they find it hard to come to any sort of agreement.

The countries come together, in a last ditch effort to communicate with each other. The countries are in a state of emergency by now, frustrated by their inner turmoil. The countries start hurling abuse at one another, throwing blame at whoever triggers them the most, for the problems they are experiencing. They all believe they didn't start the fight, and they all believe they want peace. In a way they are right; in another way, they need to take responsibility. We all need to take responsibility.

We have all played our part in creating the disharmony. We have all been that person in that family who, by a word or action, created unrest, sadness, hurt and anger, because that is how we felt inside ourselves. We are united today in a call for peace, and we are all equally responsible for creating that peace. Don't just think peace or wish for peace, live it with every thought, word and action.

The ability to live your peace comes from finding it within. Make a commitment to go on that journey and uncover who it is you really are. Deal with your issues and stop projecting them onto other people. Delve into your inner core. Your true self has been covered in blankets of untruths that were thrown on us by the media, by the manipulated history taught in schools, by society, and by fear. Throw off the blankets and masks and see what lies beneath.

There lies your deepest truth, knowing, love, peace and the intuition that can guide us to a new way of living and being. Start today with yourself, and see how fast the dominoes spread out to your family, community, country and ultimately the entire planet.

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