Peace Installations

Peace Installation is an interactive earth art created to generate peace in the world. Peace Installation has the distinction of relating to the future as opposed to a peace monument, which documented past sacrifices to attain peace. The old perception of peace is that someday peace will come. In our history, there had seldom been long periods of peace. Therefore I propose that peace is attainable in the Now when you step outside of your personal self. If we use Peace Now as a foundation, the outcome will add to reaching a critical mass for peace in the world. I chose the labyrinth as a tool. By definition, walking the labyrinth is a process to attain personal inner peace. For the Peace Installation project, a symbol for world peace is added. It is placed in the center of the labyrinth. The purpose is to embrace world peace in addition to finding personal inner peace.

Peace Installation No. 1

Sivananda Yoga Farm, Grass Valley, California, U.S.A.
In the third alternative paradigm, your future lies in the next person you meet. We tend to view the encounter from a personal perspective. What do we get from meeting this person? That would be just the tip of a much greater reality. When two people met and aligned their intention towards a greater good, something incredible happened. Swami Sita met my wife and I in the Sivananda Ashram in Bahamas in March, 2002l. She invited us to come to Grass Valley to assist the renovation project. We began the consultation by email, and quickly a third alternative emerged. My first intention was to simply redefine the word "Farm" and to add a distinction. The result was to use the labyrinth as a tool to engage people to participate in world peace. A peace pole was being created as the center sculpture for the installation. Everything began to fall into place quickly. On May 16, 2002, Peace Installation No.1 was presented to the world.

Peace Installation No. 2

Museo Interactivo Para Ninos, Jalisco.  Jalisco Children Interactive Museum,  Guadalajara, Mexico.
The design is different than the one in Grass Valley. The labyrinth pattern is in concentric circles shaped like half moons. The ground is packed earth where 5000 small plants were used to make the labyrinth. Later on the installation may be moved to another permanent location inside the museum. Five hundred children came to plant the five thousand trees. Families gathered to witness the ceremony. The Museum opened to the public in May, 2003.

Peace Installation No. 3

Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.

This installation was made in an ingenious fashion by Doctora Miriam, a famous naturopath doctor in Xalapa. Observing children playing with toy balls in the garden one day, she came up with an idea. Cutting open the plastic toy ball into two halves as a mold, she had workmen pour cement into the mold anchored by a short mental stick. She ordered five hundred of these made and used them to construct the Peace Installation.

The lesson I learned from this project is that Peace Installation does not always have to be big, like Peace Installation No. 2 in the Children Museum. It can be in the garden of a clinic, or on personal property. Innovative idea is a third alternative. By taking away expectations, it opens up unlimited possibilities. The important thing for me is that the flow of creating Peace Installations in the world continues.

The Peace Installation was completed in February, 2004. Doctora Miriam told me that children came by to walk and play in the installation with fascination. Her patients also used the Installation as part of their healing journey.

Peace Installation No. 4 (work in progress )

Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.

Inspired by Doctora Miriam's creation, two kindergarten teachers, Manuel and Maria de la Luz, husband and wife are designing one of their own in the school where they work. The latest information I received from them was that they will use bamboo sticks to make the construction. Target date for completion is late fall, 2004.

Peace Installation No. 5 (work in progress)

Burk's Fall, Ontario, Canada.

During my visit to the Sivananda Ashram in Val Morin, Quebec in the summer of 2003, I met Savitri Devi, a stained glass artist. She was doing karma yoga at the time attending Swami Mahadevananda. A friendship was made. She invited me to go to her home town in Ontario to give a course on Inner Vision Design. There I met her husband, Glenn, who is an environmental artist. Glenn has a loving and caring attitude for the land. He is knowledgeable in every aspect of nature management. They were inspired to create a Peace Installation on their property using a stained glass sculpture created by Savitri Devi as the symbol for world peace in the middle of the installation. This project will be completed in the fall of 2004.