Pastel Horizon by Dan Sutherland

The Twelve Virtues of Peace

Nantucket Peaceworks encourages people along a path to inner peace. Most people can’t put their daily lives on “pause” to live with monks in Tibet. We encourage the practice of twelve virtues of peace along with the practice of intentional reflection about how our lives reflect these virtues. Allowing the twelve virtues to form the foundation and framework for our conscious life helps us to develop spiritually, so that the virtues of peace gradually become more and more our way of being in the world.

To initiate this process, seekers are invited to undertake a searching and fearless moral inventory: Are we humble, forgiving and appreciative? Are we patient, tolerant and gracious? Are we understanding, compassionate, accepting and benevolent? Do we consistently exhibit these traits?This moral inventory, a form of self-honesty, starts with reflection on the virtues and definitions listed below. After absorbing a definition, click on the virtue to see a series of quotations about that virtue. The quotations provide examples of how real people, in their complex human lives, have understood the virtue. Reflect on the experiences those quotations suggest for your own life, and the lessons you have learned from those experiences. Follow the same steps for the remaining virtues.Once these virtues are integrated into our daily lives, we begin to experience awe-inspiring revelations about inner peace and its power in our lives. We become better able to live as the kind of human beings we aspire to be.

The path to peace begins with a single click. Click on terms below to learn more.

• Honesty:
Truthfulness, sincerity and self-knowledge. Communicating and acting authentically with oneself and others.

• Humility:
Freedom from false pride or arrogance. Having an awareness of one's own shortcomings and others’ strengths.

• Gratitude:
Thankful appreciation for what one has received. Showing gratefulness and recognition to others.

• Understanding:
Wisdom, awareness, perspective and intuition; Mindfulness. The ability to comprehend one's own and other's feelings, attitude and points of view;  Empathy.

• Acceptance:
Acknowledgement of the truth regarding a situation or condition; appreciation and validation of one's own and others' human personalities (even traits we may wish to change); letting go of resistance and denial; absolute cooperation with the inevitable.

• Forgiveness:
A letting go or releasing of resentments. The willingness to move beyond past events, perhaps to reconcile and restore.

• Tolerance:
Open-mindedness to ideas, opinions and practices that differ from one's own; the absence of prejudice; a live-and-let-live attitude.

• Patience:
Calm endurance of hardship, pain or delay. Demonstrating perseverance, restraint and determination.

• Graciousness:
The attribute of being kind to all. Politeness, cordiality and good-natured disposition.

• Benevolence:
Friendliness, kindness, selflessness and the inclination to be generous. Having a love of humankind accompanied by a desire to encourage the happiness of others.

• Compassion:
A deep empathy that gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another’s suffering.

• Integrity:
Moral consistency of actions, values and principles. Honesty in regard to the motivations of one’s actions.

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