A Proposal of the Concept of “Holistic Spiritual Peace”

Abstract

The concept of “peace” starts from the definition “a condition of no war,” which gradually changes. It has, for example, broadened to “a condition of no violence.” Therefore the chosen purposes of this study were: (1) first, survey the changes in the conventional concept of peace, (2) explore the effectiveness for peace of “spiritual peace,” a comparatively new and somewhat vague concept that is among those changes and (3) define the “spirituality” that is useful for peace, and then examine and define the concept of “holistic spiritual peace” as a new peace objective based on the definition of spirituality. As a result, “holistic spiritual peace” was defined as “a great something which focuses on social states and processes (including interpersonal relations, groups, organizations, communities, nation-states, ethnic peoples, and the environment) that are created by four qualities and forces residing in all things, and which are possessed by spirituality ([1] “diversity,” which produces diverse and irreplaceable things, [2] “transcendence,” which crosses various boundaries, [3] “oneness,” which crosses boundaries and links things into one, and [4] “harmony,” which steers them in a desirable direction).”