Peace Class: Self-Love is World Service

LIVE for the first time a month ago. Mandy Kahn (mandykahn.com) Earth Day, April 22

 

Peace Class, Wednesdays, 6:00 pm on Zoom

Friends, Peace Class meets Wednesday nights. Join in via Zoom at 6:00 pm (Pacific). 

• Feel free to share link with friends
• ALL are welcome
• Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/82150472713
• ID: 821 5047 2713

This is the text of the talk delivered at last week's class:

 

Self-love is world service

By Mandy Kahn at PRS, Earth Day 2026, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Holy Doors: Poems of Mandy Kahn

When we are kind to ourselves, when we have compassion for ourselves, when we love ourselves without reserve, we create the conditions in which to most easily evolve.

All of this evolution is towards a more peaceful and loving version of the [conventional] self.

 

Self-love creates a state in which one can hear the voice of our higher self and also feel that voice in the heart.

 

That higher voice points to the path ahead. The path ahead is always evolving [becoming] towards a more loving version of self. Self-love creates a kind of quiet in the mind/heart.

Lower mind

 

Not sex but symbolism of union

The lower mind is the place of judgment. That which is not love, that which is harsh, is loud in the lower mind. Self-love is the antidote to this loud voice. It balances and heals the harshness, restoring a kind of homeostasis, a calm, equitable ground [dzogchen]. Self-love creates neutrality in the self. It creates openness, and openness is peace. Into the true openness of peace, the presence of universal love, universal kindness, universal knowing arrives.

Tibetan Dharmacakra - Ground (Dzogchen)

All those who walk with universal love walk in service to all beings.

So self-love creates the conditions for one to more easily become peace, and into that peace of the self, the great wisdom of universal loving-kindness arrives. And the individual into which it arrives now carries it as a remarkable offering for all.

Higher mind

It is as if self-love builds the room. The empty room is peace. And universal love always arrives to fill it. Put simply:

• Unconditional self-love creates neutrality.
• And into [out of] this neutrality, peace is born.
• And this neutrality is peace.
• And into this peace, love-without-end [absorption or samādhi through metta] is born.

This peace flows from the individual consciousness into the collective consciousness, where it heals that which has not been loved which has remained there as residue.

• ["One-pointedness of mind/heart (cittass'ekaggatā), Ven. Visakha, is called concentration (samādhi, stillness, coherence)" (MN 44).]

Flower power made in the USA

When peace has flowed into the collective consciousness and has healed that which is not-love that is there, new possibilities emerge for humankind.

• Old wounds are healed.
• Old grievances are healed.
• And more people, no longer held in bondage by old grievances, are able to hear their higher selves' voice, which is a loving voice.
• And more people, hearing their highest voice, choose to act in love.
• And things begin to change.
• Old patterns suddenly end.
• There is more harmony between people.
• There is more peace.
• And that peace, felt by any one person, enters the collective consciousness and heals another layer of what is there
• calling to be loved,
• calling to be witnessed,
• calling to be healed,
• calling to be honored for all that it is, exactly as it is.
• Peace does that.
• [EDITORIAL NOTE: When Goenka talks about observing sensations (feelings) in the body, he says to observe each one “AS IT IS.” The Pali phrase he uses is “yathā-bhūta.” Buddhist Sanskrit (tathātā) akin to the Chinese term rú zhēn (如眞) “suchness.”]

It's as if our hearts were burning as one at BM.

So all is honored, all is healed, and another wave of people feel called to lean into that voice at the center of their chests, their own heart's voice, the voice of a higher self, a voice that speaks of their purpose. That voice is loving, the font of love at the center of each being, what we can call the heart's voice. So it is better perceived, easier to hear and learn from.

An act of service to the world

Earth and every living being on it is so much more beautiful and unbelievable close up.

 
Our self-love is an ACT [karma] of service (sevā) to the world. Is builds our peace first, and our peace builds all peace.

Yes, it builds our neutrality (equanimity, unbiased looking on, upekṣā), which allows us to hear our higher voice. The peace it builds in our own heart/mind travels into the collective consciousness, where it heals and creates new opportunities for future peace, our own and the peace of others.

The "peacening" process

Buddhist Goddess Prajnaparamita (personification of Perfection of Wisdom), Java

.

Goddess Sophia (Wisdom)

Our self-love powers this whole peacening [pacifying, cooling, slaking, quenching towards the highest peace of all, which is Nirvana or the "nirvanering"] process.

• Our self-love is local -- planetary service to others.
• Our self-love is holy.
• Our self-love is a holy offering that changes things.
• It changes us and everything else at once.
• It loves us and everything into wholeness.
• It loves you, it loves me, it loves everyone and everything at once (immediately, instantly, timelessly, akāliko). [The Gnostics knew it.]
• Boho chic; Girl in Yellow; text by Mandy Kahn, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly, Earth Day 2026

Can Buddhist monks talk about politics?

(Walk for Peace 2026) After the peace walk, someone in Washington DC asked Venerable Pannakara about politics: The room fell silent

Zoom: Poet Mandy Kahn's Peace Class

WHAT HAPPENED?

The meditative music was soothing and immediately set a calming and peaceful tone. Mandy held a mudra of welcome, honoring Zoom participants. She not only spoke of peace but embodied it with a guided meditation/visualization. The format is ever-evolving. It's free. It's weekly. And space is open to come and investigate next Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, at 6:00 pm.

Peace Class

What's peace? Passaddhi (serene inner peace)

Friends in Peace, during this time of war, we are inspired by Aloka and the Buddhist Monks' Peace Walk. How can we bring that inner peace into our hearts, minds, and expression?

Peace activist Mandy Kahn's Peace Class (from the Philosophical Research Society in Hollywood, LA) resumes tonight for 2026.

Mandy and Seven found peace in Los Angeles.

Feel free to share link with friends. All are welcome at Peace Class (prs.org).

To join us, simply click on this Zoom link at the start time: Wednesday, 6:00 pm (PT). 

• PEACE CLASS (Wednesdays)
• FREE, February 4th, 6:00 pm (PT)
• Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/82150472713
• Meeting ID: 821 5047 2713
• Mandy Kahn: mandykahn.com

What is "peace" and who cares?

What goddess could make peace?

Peace (passaddhi) is one of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (one component of the larger Seven Requisites of Enlightenment) the historical Buddha pointed out as the Path-of-Practice (that brings one to calm and insight) to Awaken.

So it holds a very honored place in the Dharma and in American life, at least in the Sixties (because of the Peace Movement and the Hippies) and earlier due to the influence of the timeless Quakers, Transcendentalists, Christian Gnostics, and Catholic monastics, particularly the Franciscans and Carmelites.

I like chanting the Buddha's actual words

In a language spoken by the Buddha (Pali), "peace" (passaddhi) is a noun (Sanskrit prasrabhi, Tibetan ཤིན་ཏུ་སྦྱང་བ་, shin tu sbyang ba) variously translated as "serenity," "calmness," "tranquility," "repose" [1]. The verb is passambhati ([rest], calm, quiet) [2].

In Buddhism, peace refers to tranquility of body, speech, and mind (thoughts and consciousness) on the path to enlightenment. As part of the seven mental factors to be cultivated, peace is preceded by rapture (pīti, bliss, joy, supersensual pleasure) and precedes stillness (samādhi, focus, concentration). More

• The Four Divine Abidings (brahmaviharas) are peace

Inner Peace, World Peace

Publisher, Inner Peace, World Peace: Essays on Buddhism and Nonviolence

Mandy Kahn hosts monthly poetry readings in Manly P. Hall's Library of World Religions (PRS)

.

Inner Peace, World Peace

What can one person do to foster world peace? How does one person's state of mind [heart] affect the state of the world? How can the ideal of nonviolence be manifested in daily life?

Buddhists have been exploring questions like these for 25 centuries, and they are still timely today. Inner Peace, World Peace is the first work in any Western language to examine the Buddhist approach to nonviolence.

Warriors for Peace? Buddhist Peace Walk

Well-known Buddhist scholars, a noted authority on nonviolent struggle, a prominent Thai Theravada Buddhist activist, and other leaders in their fields collaborate to show the contemporary relevance of the Buddhist tradition.

The authors also discuss a new international movement known as "Socially Engaged Buddhism."

• Inner Peace, World Peace: Essays on Buddhism and Nonviolence

Holy Doors: Poems by Mandy Kahn

I love the way Mandy Kahn makes poetry that elevates the ordinary to the sublime (DBM).

 

Holy Doors (Hat & Beard Press)

Mandy Kahn’s third collection of poems is a lyrical, luminous, and highly spiritual journey that explores:

• meditation
• prayer
• the afterlife
• the poet’s love of peace
• ever-accessible grace.

It is also a record of what life is like as our spiritual nature begins to live more fully within the body. Each of Kahn’s poems begins with earnest inquiry and ends with an ecstatic moment of communion with the part of the self that is connected to all things. Holy Doors: Poems by Mandy Kahn

• The Tao of Inner Peace (Diane Dreher)
• Can inner peace be improved by Mindfulness training: A randomized controlled trial (Liu, 2015, Wiley)
• Inner Peace, World Peace: Essays on Buddhism and Nonviolence (Kenneth Kraft)
• Mandy Kahn; Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Peace Walk talk: illness and tough times

(True Way of Buddha) How to handle illness and difficult times (suffering/dukkha) | Peace Walk leader Ven. Pannakara, abbot of HD Temple, Texas | Walk for Peace

• Ven. Pannakara on Aloka's medical treatment (Aloka the Dog)
• In this world, hate has never dispelled hate; only love can (Barre Center for Buddhist Studies)

Making friends in Buddhist Vietnam

(What Susan Does) The kindness of strangers: a 12-year-old girl invited me home, and I said yes!

• Buddhism in Vietnam
• Buddhist concept of friendship (kalyāṇa-mittatā)

Vietnamese Buddhist nun after ordination

Buddhism in Vietnam (Vietnamese Đạo Phật, 道佛 or Phật Giáo, 佛教), as practiced by the Vietnamese people, is a form of East Asian Mahayana Buddhism, according to 2019 figures [1].

Buddhism is the second religion in Vietnam (though arguably the first since the U.S. Department of State's 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom cites Vietnam's "White Book" that the Buddhist population increased from nearly 10 million in 2008 to approximately 14 million in 2021, which accounts for 13.3% of the overall population of Vietnam).

Korean Beauty Expo influences the Vietnamese

According to the Vietnamese government's 2019 National Population and Housing Census, approximately 4.6 million individuals officially identified as Buddhists, representing 4.8% of the total population at that time.

Roman Catholics represented 6.1% of the total population in the same 2019 census.

The vast majority (83.6%) in this officially atheistic communist country stated that they have no [organized] religion or practice [the traditional] folk religion. More

Walk for Peace: Buddhist monks and dog

(Houston Stringer) Walk for Peace: Buddhist monks and their dog Aloka (Pali "Light") stop at Laotian Wat Phouthasamakhy (Buddhist temple) in Houston, Texas

Peace: Happy Armistice Day (11/11)

Nation(s) fall silent to mark Armistice Day

(Sky News) Nov. 11, 2025: The nation has fallen silent for two minutes to mark the end of the First World War (WW I). Wreaths were laid at the Cenotaph in central London in honor of those who were killed for imperialism, hegemony, and the enrichment of war profiteers, while the pretty face of the House of Windsor, Princess Kate of Wales, attended the Service of Remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum. The Queen laid a wreath at London's Paddington Station. #firstworldwar #remembranceday #armisticeday #endlesswar #corporations #fascism #militaryindustrialcomplex #propaganda #patriotism

(DemocracyNow.org) Top U.S. & World Headlines — November 11, 2025

From the river to the sea, Palestine...

CHANT: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!"

Break in Louvre jewel heist case: more arrests, but no jewels recovered yet

• Roundtable; DemocracyNow.org, Oct. 30, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Finally, there's PEACE in Palestine(?)

(Breaking Points) Israeli "settler" (illegal occupier) violence, West Bank

(DemocracyNow.org) Protesters rally in Washington, DC

• Kim Iversen, Oct. 20, 2025; Sheldon S., Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What Would Jello Do? (Dead Kennedys)

(Telerama) Jello Biafra (AlternativeTentacles.com), singer (original frontman) for the Dead Kennedys: "In some ways, maybe punk should die...that way it can be reborn" [and become something influential and important again]. Once a great independent thinker, what has happened now?

• Jello Biafra, Dead Kennedys, ABCLibrarySales; Telerama; Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Israel attacks Gaza, alters fake peace plan

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free...no matter what lies Israel tells the world

Israeli strikes on Gaza continue as ceasefire negotiators head to Egypt: Blame Trump and Bibi

Israeli strikes on Gaza continue as ceasefire negotiators head to Egypt

I want to exterminate ALL Arabs 'n meet Messiah

(CBC News: The National) CBC/Radio-Canada is a Canadian public broadcast service.) Oct. 5, 2025: Israel's IDF planes and tanks are continuing their genocide as they pound areas across the Gaza Strip as Egypt prepares to host delegates from HAMAS, Israel, the United States, and Qatar for talks over implementing this latest effort to halt the conflict [which Israel does not want to stop].

(Katie Halper) Roger Waters rips Trump and Bibi's fake peace plan

Israeli and Palestinian communities in Canada are cautiously optimistic about the prospects of a ceasefire deal.

The National is the flagship of CBC News, showcasing award-winning journalism from across Canada and around the world. Led by Chief Correspondent Adrienne Arsenault, our team of trusted reporters helps you make sense of the world, wherever you are.

• CBC News - The National, Oct. 5, 2025; Roger 'Pink Floyd' Water, The Katie Halper Show, Oct. 5, 2025; Sheldon S., Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Comedy Kimmel, Trump, HAMAS for peace?

Matt Damon forces his way onto show, Trump’s 'Big Beautiful Shutdown' continues

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) Oct. 3, 2025: Tonight is JKL!'s fifth and final show in Brooklyn, Jimmy’s parents and Aunt Chippy are in the audience, and his Aunt Joanne and Uncle Tony are in from Marine Park, Guillermo makes his entrance as John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, the Yankees beat the Red Sox last night to win the wild card round, P. Diddy was sentenced to four years, we are now on Day 3 of Trump’s Big Beautiful Government Shutdown, a statue of Trump and Epstein has been returned to the National Mall after being removed, and the demon Matt Damon sneaks his way onto the show dressed as New York’s own Frankie Focus. #Kimmel

(DemocracyNow.org) Top U.S. and World Headlines: Oct. 3, 2025

Objector: I refuse to fight for Israel

(Doc Room) I refuse to fight for Israel | OBJECTOR

Why recognize the State of Palestine

Peace breaks out in Cambodia/Thailand?

Guided Loving Kindness Meditation 💖

Guided Loving Kindness Meditation | Buddhism in English

(Buddhism) Mettā (Sanskrit maitrī) means loving-kindness [2, 3], friendliness [3, 4], benevolence [1], amity [4], goodwill [5], and active interest in the welfare of others [4]. It is the first of the "Four Sublime Abidings" (Brahma Viharas) and one of the Ten Perfections (pāramīs) of the Theravāda Buddhist school. More

• Mahamevnawa Bodhignana Monastery
• Hewagama, Kaduwela, Sri Lanka
• +94 112 571471
• info@shraddha.lk shraddha.lk

• © Shraddha TV. Join on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram
• Shraddha.lk, 9/24/22; Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Jewish ANTI-Zionist Congress, 2025

Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress in Vienna 2025 impressions

Top 100 most famous [secular] Jewish personalities | Religion of Famous People

(Palästina Solidarität Österreich - PSÖ) June 20, 2025: The world watches in horror the unfolding Jewish-Zionist genocide against the Palestinian people committed by [Christian] Zionism in partnership with the West.

It is our duty [as Jews and Christian people of conscience] to take action, as this is done in our name. We must join our Palestinian brothers and sisters in their darkest hour, and work for freeing and decolonizing Palestine!

To achieve this just aim, we must have progressive organizations and individuals across the world with us, working against Zionist Apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide as the last devastating evidence of colonialism which must be terminated.

• juedisch-antizionistisch....
• juedisch-antizionistisch.at/

Jews and people of Jewish descent everywhere -- those whom the criminal Zionist state claims to speak for -- are uniting to declare their unwavering opposition to Zionism.

Since the First Zionist Congress over a century ago, [fringe] Zionism claimed to speak on behalf of all Jews, while permanently attempting to silence our opposition to its constant crimes.

Jewish tradition, history, and culture are totally opposed to genocide. The impressive history of Jewish resistance to Zionism is as long as [that of] Zionism: it included [dissenting] religious communities as well as secular movements of Jewish descent, and the vehement Jewish opposition to the creation of the Zionist state in Palestine itself.

• IDF Veterans try to explain: breakingthesilence.org.il

Zionism is a crime against Judaism and the indigenous people of Palestine [whether racistly calling them "Arabs" or rightly calling them Palestinians], and we are committed to putting an end to it.

Over the years, it became clear that Zionism, instead of protecting Jews, placed them in great danger by committing atrocities in their name.

Zionism is based on racial supremacy, adopting the very racist assumptions which are inherent to antisemitism -- describing Jews as belonging to some special chosen race -- a notion which is fundamentally racist and which has no relation to Judaism.

The Zionist settler-colonial entity [the imperial project calling itself "Israel"] denies Palestinians their most basic rights [even their right to be viewed as a people, a distinct group with its own customs].

Zionism operates through colonialism, apartheid, ethnic-cleansing, and genocide in Palestine even before 1948 [and the Nakba or "Catastrophe" of displacement, theft, terror, and mass murder].

Ilan Pappé: Israel has a legal right to exist?

Ilan Pappé: Does Israel have the right to exist or not?

Fourteen million Palestinians worldwide are its direct victims. [A world of Jews everywhere are its indirect victims.]

To Israel we firmly declare “Not in Our Name!”

We are devoted to terminating Zionism, and we are devoted to the decolonization of Palestine under Palestinian leadership!

Above all, Zionism is a crime against humanity. Dedicated to the oath of the survivors of Mauthausen Concentration Camp, handed down to us as testimony of resistance against Nazi fascism, we follow their universal legacy and reiterate their message:

“The permanence in the camp, lasting years, has reinforced in our minds the knowledge of the value of brotherhood among the people of all nations. True to these ideals, we make a solemn oath to continue to fight, firm and united, against imperialism and against the instigation of hatred between peoples.”

Together we will join forces at the first Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress and united we will join the Palestinians in liberating Palestine and building a democratic, just, and equal society for all!

People of all backgrounds were invited. Joining forces with Palestinians and allies in the struggle against Zionism.

Do Jews, Muslims, Christians have same God? - All Palestinian children are Hamas. Kill 'em all!

Unterstützt uns und unsere Arbeit, verbreitet unsere Videos und folgt uns auf den Sozialen Medien. Werdet selbst aktiv und werdet Teil von "Palästina Solidarität Österreich". Für ein freies Palästina, ohne Apartheid und Kolonialismus! Freiheit für 🇵🇸 Falls Ihr uns auch finanziell unterstützen wollt: Spenden-Möglichkeit: 🚩Banküberweisung: Palästina Solidarität Österreich (manche Banken erlauben keine diakritischen Zeichen, dann Palaestina Solidaritaet Oesterreich) IBAN: DE64100110012625567017 BIC: NTSBDEB1XXX Abonniere uns auf: ▶▶Facebook: palaestinasolidaritaet.at ▶▶Telegram: t.me/palsolioe ▶▶TikTok: palestinesolidarity_at ▶▶Instagram: palaestinasolidaritaet.at ▶▶WhatsApp: whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaKK... Weitere Infos auf unserer Homepage: ▶▶ palaestinasolidaritaet.at

• Pink Floyd's Roger Waters message anti-Zionist solidarity