8th International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action (8th ICPNA)

Theme:

Towards a Nonviolent Future:
Seeking Realistic Models for Peaceful Co-existence and Sustainability

organized  by

ANUVRAT GLOBAL  ORGANIZATION (ANUVIBHA), INDIA

in association with

ANUVIBHA JAIPUR KENDRA, JAIPUR

Psycho-Biological Research on Forgiveness

Suneet Verma, Dr.

When you forgive someone, you make the choice to give up your desire for revenge and feelings of resentment. You also stop judging the person who caused you the hurt. Instead of revenge, resentment, and judgment, you show generosity, compassion, and kindness. In forgiveness, you don’t forget that the offense occurred nor do you excuse it. You substitute your negative with positive feelings, thoughts, and behavior. Some people are naturally forgiving, both toward others and themselves. It’s easier for them to respond to any specific act of the person who’s committed the offense. Those who don’t have this ability may find it more difficult to grant forgiveness when they’ve hurt or harmed, but it is possible for them to do so, depending on the situation. Recent research on the health benefits of forgiveness shows that people who can make this mental shift may benefit in ways they didn’t anticipate—namely, by living longer. In general, studies show that people who forgive are happier and healthier than those who hold resentments. One study has shown that the positive benefit of forgiveness is similar whether it was based upon religious or secular counseling as opposed to a control group that received no forgiveness counseling.

"Weapon free" world for Peace and Security of mankind

Vidya Jain, Dr.

It is ideally possible to have a Weapon Free World. It is also desirable to have a dream of having "Weapon free" world for Peace and Security of mankind and all other living and non-livings, on this planet. Otherwise, the only alternative is to have MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), "Human free" world. On 6 April 2009, USA President Barack Obama, made a ground breaking speech at Prague in which he pledged, ‘to seek "Peace and Security” of a world without Nuclear Weapons. This re-orientation of US Security Strategies, by reducing Stockpiles of Nuclear Arsenal ushers a New Era of Hope for a Weapon free Word. The complete eliminations of all types of weapons may be a distant dream, but of "Weapons of War', there is a possibility. It is the mind of man which conceives the ideas, which get manifested. Thus the War and Peace are conceptualized first in the mind. If the mind is peaceful, then there prevails, harmony, peace, compassion, love, equity, justice, tolerance, truth and non-violence. But if the mind is agitated, it is then, filled with anger, revenge, hatred, greed, violence and war. The inner urge to seek peace, security, happiness, freedom from wants, compels human being to resort to all types of methods including use of instruments such as weapons of all types to achieve the objectives.

Possibilities of a Weaponless world

Vijay Mehta, Mr.

There are 22,000 nuclear weapons, 8 million small arms and a huge arsenal of fighter jets, tanks, ships, landmines, missiles including 25 million soldiers worldwide. This of use arsenal leads to violence and wars in our world. The world is becoming dangerously militarized with the global military spending in 2012 standing at $1.75 trillion, which is about 2.5% of the World’s GDP.
India, at this important time in history when we need more growth for poverty reduction, is dangerously militarizing itself which is a provocation for more violence and terrorism. India, China, Pakistan where poverty is the overwhelming problem are wasting their scarce resources on expensive weapons systems rather than on irrigation, pollution reduction, education and many other life improving essentials that their people currently lack. Vijay Mehta in his groundbreaking book, The Economics of Killing: How the West Fuels War and Poverty in the Developing World, describes how the power of global elites, entrenched under globalization, has created a deadly cycle of violence. The book explores the disarmament and demilitarization plans under a new initiative, 4D for World Peace (Disarmament, Demilitarization, Development and Democracy) which should result in saving huge amounts of money which can be deployed for peace-building and a safer future. The meeting will explore how through the process of disarmament and demilitarization, we can build a culture of peace for a weapon-less violence free world.

Dealing with emotions easily, effectively

Alphonse Fons Delnooz, Dr.

Emotions are a part of human life. Sometimes people are identified with their emotions: they are their emotions; they think and act out of these emotions. This can have a (very) negative effect on the people they live with. Other people suppress their emotions, which in the end can lead to psycho-somatic diseases.
For a world to be harmonious, people need to know ways to deal with their emotions so that they do not have to suppress them, nor act them out on others. In the past decade we have developed a series of techniques that has proven to be very effective. These techniques combine insights of East and West. In this lecture/workshop we would like to give a short oversight of the three techniques, and describe the first more in detail. For the participants there will be a free 15 page e-book available describing the first technique in detail.