Peace Pilgrim Quotations

We have all the light we need, we just need to put it in practice.

If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.

There is a criterion by which you can judge whether the thoughts you are thinking and the things you are doing are right for you. The criterion is: Have they brought you inner peace?

Do not suppress it - that would hurt you inside. Do not express it - this would not only hurt you inside, it would cause ripples in your surroundings. What you do is transform it.

Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. If you have them, you have to take care of them! There is great freedom in simplicity of living. It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest.

For light I go directly to the Source of light, not to any of the reflections.

The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace. A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being that places harmony in one's life.

Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions.

Worry is a useless mulling over of things we cannot change.

The way of peace is the way of love. Love is the greatest power on earth. It conquers all things....

A pilgrim is a wanderer with a purpose.

Pure love is a willingness to give without a thought of receiving anything in return.

I don't eat junk foods and I don't think junk thoughts.

To attain inner peace you must actually give your life, not just your possessions. When you at last give your life - bringing into alignment your beliefs and the way you live then, and only then, can you begin to find inner peace.

We are all cells in the same body of humanity.

Keep your feet on the ground and your thoughts at lofty heights.

No one can find inner peace except by working, not in a self- centered way, but for the whole human family.

You're in a much better position to talk with people when they approach you than when you approach them.

As I lived up to the highest light I had, higher and higher light came to me.

Humanity has only scratched the surface of its real potential.

One little person, giving all of her time to peace, makes news. Many people, giving some of their time, can make history.

There is something to that old saying that hate injures the hater, not the hated.

Praying without ceasing is not ritualized, nor are there even words. It is a constant state of awareness of oneness with God.

THIS IS THE WAY OF PEACE: Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love... 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. One in harmony with God's law of love has more strength than an army, for one need not subdue an adversary; an adversary can be transformed.

When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others. Inner peace is not found by staying on the surface of life, or by attempting to escape from life through any means. Inner peace is found by facing life squarely, solving its problems, and delving as far beneath its surface as possible to discover its verities and realities.

Before the tongue can speak, it must have lost the power to wound.

My appointed work is to awaken the divine nature that is within.

People see themselves as the center of the universe and judge everything as it relates to them.

The valid research for the future is on the inner side, on the spiritual side.

You are within God. God is within you.

Make food a very incidental part of your life by filling your life so full of meaningful things that you'll hardly have time to think about food.

It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest.

You must give if you want to receive. Let the center of your being be one of giving, giving, giving. You can't give too much, and you will discover you cannot give without receiving.

Do not suppress it-that would hurt you inside. Do not express it-this would not only hurt you inside, it would cause ripples in your surroundings. What you do is transform it.

Were I to solve problems for others they would remain stagnant; they would never grow. It would be a great injustice to them. My approach is to help with cause rather than effect. When I help others, it is by instilling within them the inspiration to work out problems by themselves. If you feed a man a meal, you only feed him for a day-but if you teach a man to grow food, you feed him for a lifetime.

We lump together all things that are beyond the capacity of all of us collectively to understand-and one name we give to all those things together is God. Therefore, God is the creative force, the sustaining power, that which motivates toward constant change, the overall intelligence which governs the universe by physical and spiritual law, truth, love, goodness, kindness, beauty, the ever-present, all-pervading essence or spirit, which binds everything in the universe together and gives to everything in the universe..

I recognized that there are some well-known, little understood, and seldom practiced laws that we must live by if we wish to find peace within or without. Included are the laws that evil can only be overcome by good; that only good means can attain a good end; that those who do unloving things hurt themselves spiritually.

In my life, what I want and what I need are exactly the same. Anything in excess of needs is burdensome to me. You couldn't give me anything I don't need. I am penniless, but have difficulty remaining so. Several of my well meaning, well-to-do friends have offered me large sums of money, which I of course refused.

I would like to mention some preparations that were required of me. The first preparation is to take a right attitude toward life. This means, stop being an escapist! Stop being a surface liver who stays right in the froth of the surface. There are millions of these people, and they never find anything really worthwhile. Be willing to face life squarely and get down beneath the surface of life where the verities and realities are to be found. That's what we are doing here now.

I walk until given shelter, fast until given food. I don't ask - it's given without asking. Aren't people good! There's a spark of good in everybody, no mater how deeply it may be buried. It's waiting to govern your life gloriously.

I sleep equally well in a soft bed or on the grass beside the road. If I am given food and shelter, fine. If not, I'm just as happy. Many times I am given shelter by total strangers. When hospitality is not available there are always bus depots, railroad stations and all night truck stops.... When no shelter is available to me, I sleep in the fields or by the side of the road with God to guard me.

Evil cannot be overcome by more evil. Evil can only be overcome by good. It is the lesson of the way of love.

If you are harboring the slightest bitterness toward anyone, or any unkind thoughts of any sort whatever, you must get rid of them quickly. They are not hurting anyone but you. It isn't enough just to do right things and say right things - you must also think right things before your life can come into harmony.

After you have found inner peace you have endless energy - the more you give, the more you receive. After you have found your calling, you work easily and joyously. You never get tired.

When I began my pilgrimage I left the Los Angeles area without a cent, having faith that God would provide me with everything I needed. Although I have never asked for anything, God has provided me with everything along the way. Without ever asking for anything I've been supplied.

There should be intensive research of all forms of clean energy - sun power, wind power, water power including wave power. In some places thermal energy is available. I stayed on a ranch which, with solar panels and two windmills, provided its own energy.

I feel a complete protection on my pilgrimage. God is my shield. There are no accidents in the Divine Plan nor does God leave us unattended. No one walks so safely as those who walk humbly and harmlessly with great love and great faith.

As I looked about the world, so much of it impoverished, I became increasingly uncomfortable about having so much while my brothers and sisters were starving. Finally I had to find another way. The turning point came when, in desperation and out of a very deep seeking for a meaningful way of life, I walked all one night through the woods. I came to a moonlit glade and prayed.

IN THE BEGINNING I undertook my walking not only to contact people, I undertook it as a prayer discipline to keep me concentrated on my prayer for peace... After the first few years the prayer discipline was completely unnecessary, because I had learned to pray without ceasing. I made the contact so thoroughly that into my prayer consciousness I put any condition or person in the world I am concerned about and the rest takes place automatically.

There was a time - when I attained inner peace - when I died, utterly died to myself. I have since renounced my previous identity. I can see not reason to dwell upon my past, it is dead and should not be resurrected. Don't inquire of me - ask me about my message. It is not important to remember the messenger, just remember the message.

My desire is to strive toward perfection; to be as much in harmony with God's will as possible; to live up to the highest light I have. I'm still not perfect, of course, but I grow daily... I am able to do everything I am called to do, and I do know what I need to know to do my part in the Divine Plan. And I do experience the happiness of living in harmony with God's will for me.

I have never met anyone who built a bomb shelter and felt protected by it. I have never met a modern military man who did not realize that military victory is a concept which became obsolete with the coming of the nuclear age, and most civilians realize this also. Wisdom demands that we stop preparing to wage a war which would eliminate mankind - and start preparing to eliminate the seeds of war.

The pain and suffering that comes to us has a purpose in our lives-it is trying to teach us something. We should look for its lesson.

If any influential nation had the great spiritual strength to lay down its arms and appear with clean hands before the world, the world would be changed. I see no evidence that any influential nations has such great spiritual strength and courage. Therefore disarmament will be a slow process, motivated by the wish to survive.

The basic cause of all our difficulties is immaturity. That's why I talk so much about peace within ourselves as a step toward peace in our world. 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 lesson of sharing...

In all the people I meet - though some may be governed by the self-centered nature and may not know their potential at all - I see that divine spark. And that's what I concentrate on. All people look beautiful to me; they look like shining lights to me. I always have the feeling of being thankful for these beautiful people who walk the earth with me.

Walk with me, but don't follow me blindly. Hold fast to the truth, not to my garments. My body is merely a clay structure; today it is here, tomorrow it shall be gone. If you attach yourself to me today, what are you going to do tomorrow when I am not with you? Attach yourself to God, attach yourself to humanity, only then will you be closer to me.

I define democracy as control by the people. Slaves are those who allow others to control their lives. Insofar as people succeed in solving their problems fairly and efficiently at a grassroots level, they retain control over their lives. Insofar as they delegate their problem solving to a higher authority, they lose control over their lives.

I considered myself liberated long before it became the fashion. First I liberated myself from debilitating habits, and went on to free myself of combative, aggressive thoughts. I have also cast aside any unnecessary possessions. This, I feel, is true liberation.

Penance is the willingness to undergo hardships for the achievement of a good purpose. I was willing. But when hardships came I found myself lifted above them. Instead of hardship, I found a wonderful sense of peace and joy and conviction that I was following God's will. Blessings instead of hardships are showered upon me.

Just as a human soul that faces great difficulties also faces great opportunities for spiritual growth, so a human society that faces destruction also faces the opportunity to enter a period of renaissance. I think that, barring an accident, the wish to survive will keep us from a nuclear war.

Some people seem to think that my life dedicated to simplicity and service is austere and joyless, but they do not know the freedom of simplicity. I am thankful to God every moment of my life for the great riches that have been showered upon me. My life is full and good but never overcrowded. If life is overcrowded then you are doing more than is required for you to do.

People have the most control over their affairs at the grass-roots level. Anything that can be fairly and efficiently handled at a grass-roots level should be thus handled, and only delegated to a higher authority when necessary.

My mission is to help promote peace by helping others to find inner peace. If I can find it, you can too. Peace is an idea whose time has come.

My clothes are most comfortable as well as practical. I wear navy blue slacks and a long sleeve shirt topped with my lettered tunic. Along the edge of my tunic, both front and rear, are partitioned compartments which are hemmed up to serve as pockets. These hold all my possessions which consist of a comb, a folding toothbrush, a ball point pen, a map, some copies of my message and my mail.

We must be able to appreciate and enjoy the places where we tarry and yet pass on without anguish when we are called elsewhere. In our spiritual development we are often required to pull up roots many times and to close many chapters in our lives until we are no longer attached to any material thing and can love all people without any attachment to them.

If you give your life as a prayer, you intensify the prayer beyond all measure.

You can find God if you will only seek - by obeying divine laws, by loving people, by relinquishing self-will, attachments, negative thoughts and feelings. And when you find God it will be in stillness. You will find God within.

There is great freedom in simplicity of living, and after I began to feel this, I found harmony in my life between inner and outer well-being. There is a great deal to be said about such harmony, not only for an individual life but also for the life of a society. It's because as a world we have gotten ourselves so far out of harmony, so way off on the material side, that when we discover something like nuclear energy we are still capable of putting it into a bomb and using it to kill people! This is because our inner well-being lags so far behind our outer well-being.

Then there is the way that was taught two thousand years ago - of overcoming evil with good, which is my way, the way Jesus taught. Never loose faith: God's way is bound to prevail in the end.

The darkness that we see in our world today is due to the disintegration of things out of harmony with God's laws. The basic conflict is not between nations, it is between two opposing beliefs. The first is that evil can be overcome by more evil, that the end justifies the means. This belief is very prevalent in our world today. It is the war way. It is the official position of every major nation.

I began my pilgrimage on the first of January in 1953. It is my spiritual birthday of sorts. It was a period in which I was merged with the whole. No longer was I a seed buried under the ground, but I felt as a flower reaching out effortlessly toward the sun.

If you think you can't do something, you can't. But if you think you can, you may be surprised to discover that you can.

When we hear a prediction of some disaster we need to throw the entire weight of our positive thought in the opposite direction!

We are all cells in the body of humanity - all of us, all over the world. Each one has a contribution to make, and will know from within what this contribution is.

The lesson of the way of love is that evil can only be overcome by good. We don't need to reach out and tear down the things that are evil because nothing which is contrary to the law of love can endure.

People allow themselves to be slaves of their bad habits and society's bad habits - but they have free will, and if they wish to be free they can.

Spiritual truth should never be sold - those who sell it injure themselves spiritually.

Let us help the phoenix to rise from the ashes; let us help lay the foundation for a new renaissance; let us help to accelerate the spiritual awakening until it lifts us into the golden age which would come.

It takes quite a while for the living to catch up with the believing, but of course it can. As we live up to the highest light we have, more light is given.

If you have a negative thought about a world situation, dwell upon the best that could happen in that situation.

Knowing that all things contrary to God's laws are transient, let us avoid despair and radiate hope for a warless world.

The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace.

Many people who say they have financial problems really mean that they want more than they need.

we tend to attract the things we fear.

A few really dedicated people can offset the ill effects of masses of out-of-harmony people, so we who work for peace must not falter.

In my work I have chosen the positive approach. I never think of myself as protesting against something, but rather as witnessing for harmonious living. Those who witness for, present solutions. Those who witness against, usually do not - they dwell on what is wrong, resorting to judgment and criticism and sometimes even name-calling. Naturally, the negative approach has a detrimental effect on the person who uses it, while the positive approach has a good effect

When you do something for world peace, peace among groups, peace among individuals, or your own inner peace, you improve the total peace picture.

I don't eat junk foods and I don't think junk thoughts! Let me tell you, junk thoughts can destroy you even more quickly than junk food. Junk thoughts are something to be wary of.

Most human beings only scratch the surface of their real potential. They have no idea what they're capable of.

Few find inner peace but this is not because they try and fail, it is because they do not try. . . When your life is governed by the divine nature instead of the self-centered nature you have found inner peace.

If you did not face problems you would just drift through life. It is through solving problems in accordance with the highest light we have that inner growth is attained.

When you have found inner peace, you are in constant contact with the source of universal energy and cannot be tired. . . You have endless energy.

Religion is to be used as a stepping stone to God but it must never be used as a tower to hold one aloft from others. We are all cells in the body of humanity. When anyone attempts to isolate another, they only isolate themselves more.

Religion is not an end in itself. One's union with God is the ultimate goal.

The simplified life is a sanctified life, Much more calm, much less strife. Oh, what wondrous truths are unveiled- Projects succeed which had previously failed. Oh, how beautiful life can be, Beautiful simplicity.

Constantly through thought you are creating your inner conditions and helping to create the conditions around you. So keep your thoughts on the positive side, think about the best that could happen, think about the good things you want to happen.

I wish that every child could have growing space because I think children are a little like plants. If they grow too close together, they become thin and sickly and never obtain maximum growth. We need room to grow.

All of us can work for peace. We can work right where we are, right within ourselves, because the more peace we have within our own lives, the more we can reflect into the outer situation.

Many common problems are caused by wrong attitudes. People see themselves as the center of the universe and judge everything as it relates to them. Naturally you won't be happy that way. You can only be happy when you see things in proper perspective: all human beings are of equal importance in God's sight, and have a job to do in the divine plan.