Challenge to Find Peace Within Yourself & Create It in the World

The Apprentice of Peace: An Uncommon Dialogue by Ronnie Qi Harvey

There are many lessons to be extracted from Ronnie “Qi” Harvey’s just-re-released self-help book The Apprentice of Peace (Xlibris). But for me, two words ring out loud and clear, even if Harvey doesn’t use them himself: “Get real!”

Get real, in the context of finding your inner peace. See beyond a false sense of self, created by high-tech distractions, social networks and other escapist paths that lead to drugs and alcohol abuse.

“The soul of your being is asking for a break from all the gossiping, backbiting and negative turmoil that has become your life, asking to be realigned with its natural state, which is a state of peace,” writes Harvey. The author is also the co-founder of The Apprentice for Peace Wellness Center, which he describes as practicing the uncommon dialogue and striving to inspire people to seek self-peace through practices and principles that allow them to express their true nature in the form of love and giving.

Finding Peace

So “real” takes the form of “realization” — making the time to stop and assess what’s really happening in your life and whether peace is in fact missing. Next is the committed effort to work toward that realization, along with the accepting principle, or what Harvey calls “the only way” to acknowledge what might be lacking and open a line of communication to find it.

While Harvey believes the realization of peace can often propel someone to great heights, he warns that it can also send a person “crashing down into the depths of the deepest darkness, afraid of the truth and the change that peace might bring about.”

He emphasizes that actions speak louder than words. It is people’s ability to rise above daily stress, bad habits, prejudices, grudges, conflicts and childhood traumas to let go of these hindrances in order to achieve the stillness and serenity of peace. Basically, strip down everything you know, have learned, and been conditioned to believe and take a fresh approach.

Nuggets of Wisdom

Harvey’s writing is a combination of guiding ideas, sayings, concepts, beliefs and examples, all the while not straying even one step from his primary focus of helping readers achieve inner peace. While it’s most logical to start at the beginning and proceed through, readers will find that turning to any page will offer numerous nuggets of wisdom. I don’t have enough Post-it Notes to keep track of them all!

Within all of these ideas, the apprentice of peace, says Harvey, is “the voice of reason, the example of common sense and social responsibility, the champion of the community.” It is the business of the apprentice to oversee the peacemakers and ensure the continued flow of peacekeeping.

“We sincerely believe the principles we have developed are capable of spreading a larger dose of peace and awareness in our culture today.”

Our society has made it too easy to be anti-social. So get real. Step out of your comfort zones. And trust in Harvey’s belief that journeying through unfamiliar territory is the only way to overcome personal demons and reach the self-peace for which everyone is worthy.