CYPRUS has seen bicommunal groups eating for peace and drinking for peace among other things. Now a local meditation group is having a shot at bringing peace and reconciliation to the two sides by bringing them together as people without ethnic barriers.
The Cyprus branch of the Foundation for International Spiritual Unfoldment (FISU) said it is organising an introductory talk and meditation for Greek and Turkish Cypriots next Tuesday at the Fulbright Centre near the Ledra Palace checkpoint.
FISU, whose head office is in London, is one of the biggest meditation groups in the UK, led by Rajesh and Jasmini Ananda, who will be in Cyprus to give the introductory talk. The organisation is non-denominational, non-sectarian and is registered as a non-profit-making charity.
“The prejudices between the two cultures in Cyprus are based on fear,” Rajesh told the Cyprus Mail. “If we take away the politics we are left with only two cultures that can live in perfect harmony, and in essence will want to.”
He said the UN’s Annan plan had failed because it had omitted to speak to the people in Cyprus.
“Cyprus must start to think of itself as one island and two cultures that can exist and all efforts for reunification must be based on this understanding,” Rajesh said. “Surely we have all evolved enough in the 21st century to renounce the problems of the past and strengthen the opportunities of the future.”
Rajesh said people have to go beyond the surface of the mind to look at the issues. “When we do that we begin to feel the other races and nations share something in common with us, a brotherhood of humanity. Culture belongs only on the surface of the mind and it is only beyond that people unite,” he added.
However to do this, he said, people had to find a way to focus their minds. One way of doing this was through meditation, which can be enjoyed by all races and cultures irrespective of religion or politics.
“The message is that you can have culture and tradition and also learn to appreciate other people’s cultures and traditions, after which prejudice and fear disappear,” said Rajesh.
Asked to comment on meditation as a possible new bicommunal project, an UNFICYP spokesman said: “I’ll meditate on that.”
“Actually it’s a nice idea to move into the spiritual and away from the temporal,” he said. Diplomatic sources said: “Well it can’t do any harm to try.”
n The talk will take place at the Fulbright Centre at 8pm on Tuesday October 25. Entrance is free. It will be in English and Greek. For more details Tel: 99 463344. www.fisu.org
