Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words

I found Peace Pilgrim while helping in a book store, this is a most amazing woman and is truly a Legend, there ought to be a statue of her. I keep books while traveling and have now passed out more than 200 copies...we all need to know how to spread her wonderful words of Love and Peace !

Peace Pilgrim walked alone and penniless "as a prayer" more than 25,000 miles across America to inspire others to pray and work for peace. Her message was simple-"This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love." Her 28-year pilgrimage started in 1953. She would not tell you her real name this silver-haired lady with penetrating blue eyes "Peace Pilgrim" is the only name she wished to carry. And she would not tell you the years that she had spent in this world although a friend said she was probably around 80 when she died in a car accident in Indiana in 1981 on her way to a speaking engagement. After walking 25,000 miles, which took her until 1964, she stopped counting the miles. Although she mostly slept under the stars without a sleeping bag she never had another headache or pain or cold once she started her pilgrimage. Carrying in her tunic pockets her only worldly possessions: a comb, a folding toothbrush, a ball point pen, her current correspondence she vowed, "I shall remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food." She talked with people on dusty roads and city streets, in churches, colleges, to civic groups, on TV and radio discussing peace within and without. Her pilgrimage covered the entire peace picture: peace among nations, groups, individuals, and inner peace-because that is where peace begins. She believed that world peace would come when enough people attain inner peace. Since many of us are in deep despair about the human cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan the life and teachings of Peace Pilgrim are particularly compelling right now. The press continues to report the grim tally of American soldiers killed in action in Iraq-922 killed and 5,457 wounded. But there are figures neither the Pentagon nor the press talks about-the more than 11,000 American soldiers that came home disabled injured and sick in what the Pentagon considers non-combat circumstances. Nor do we know the number of Iraqi and Afghanistan soldiers and civilians deaths and wounded.Peace said, "All present wars must cease-we need to find a way to lay down our arms together. We need to set up a mechanism to avoid physical violence in the world." We people of the world need to learn to put the welfare of the whole family above the welfare of any group. The means determines the end-only a good means can really attain a good end. Real peace is more than the absence of war: it is the absence of the cause of the war. Have as your objective the resolving of conflict not the gaining of advantage and live to give instead of get.Peace said the cause of all difficulties is immaturity. If we were mature, war would not be possible and peace would be assured. In our immaturity we do not know the laws of the universe, and we think evil can be overcome by more evil. One symptom of our immaturity is greed, making it difficult for us to learn the simple lesso

I read this book several years ago and was stunned to think that such a remarkable person could have actually existed! Her friends have done a wonderful job of compiling the materials for this book. I have read and reread this book. I imagine I will wear it out before I am through. Her message was simple, her thoughts were clear. Her 28 year pilgrimage was awe inspiring!

One time in my life when I was really confused and troubled I read "Creative Visualization" by Shakti Gawain and found it to be good guidance. A lot of things changed in my life and I became happy again. But a lot of what I found there just seemed kind of weird and eventually the strength of it ran out for me. Later I read an article about Peace Pilgrim in Utne Reader. It was the most compelling and soul touching thing I had ever seen. I really tried to live up to the advice it offered. One thing I particularly remember was how the Peace Pilgrim suggested to live all the good things one believed in; that believing in a good thing would be perfectly useless unless one lived that belief. She wrote of living as many good things as one could and that the more one did this, the more light would be opened up to a person. This was the beginning of my spiritual walk. Peace Pilgrim's life and work in her own words is the most inspirational book I have ever read or will ever read...

This wonderful women lived as we all have and do live. She did as we all are doing: working, making money, making a living, raising a family, and enjoying all the fruits of our efforts. But somehow there's a spark of something missing, something undefinable eludes us, something that percolates up in a thought when one takes just a moment of complete silence. During that silence why are you not smiling and your heart is not singing? As it should be with this wonderful life. Peace Pilgrim gives definition and focus to how she found meaning to that spark and to her life. Her words help sort out the clutter that living builds up in one's mind. Her pilgrimage, courage and commitment is an inspiration of thoughts and words. She does not encourage us to take a pilgramage like herself, but she offers very basic steps towards inner peace in the little pamphlet that accompanies the book. She outlined the steps clearly to make it easy for anyone to find their inner peace as she did when she set out on her pilgrimage at the age of 45. The little pamphlet can be obtained free from the Friends of Peace Pilgrim if you do not have one that comes with the her book.

From 1953 until 1981 Peace Pilgrim walked thousands of miles for peace among nations, groups and individuals, as well as for inner peace. She walked penniless, giving up even her name and her past identity, to live her faith. Consequently, this compilation of her teachings, to me, has enormous credibility, and the authentic ring of inner truth. This is the simplest and purest guide to inner peace I've ever encountered. It should appeal to people of all faiths, but especially to those of no faith -- seekers of spiritual truth who, for whatever reason, are not attracted to any particular "organized" religion. In essence, her message is a pure distillation of those core spiritual beliefs shared by virtually all religions. Peace Pilgrim belonged to no denomination. The kernel of spiritual truth is too often obscured by dogma, she believed. Yet this remarkable woman was welcomed and embraced as a speaker and teacher in churches of many faiths. Such was the universality of her message. Peace Pilgrim's simple guidance: live a life of service, leave behind a self-centered and materialistic life based on ego and possessions, love and show compassion for every person, live by the Golden Rule, banish negative thinking, look within for your own divine purpose. The purity and simplicity of her message is astoundingly. I've already seen a transformation in my own life from taking this book to heart. Working actively to eliminate negative thinking, I find myself remarkably serene in the face of daily provocations and irritations. Peace Pilgrim has taught me that allowing others to get under my skin has absolutely no impact on the "offenders," and hurts only me. Amazingly, I find myself viewing with compassion those I would have previously despised. This is, indeed, one powerful book.