Life in Brazil’s big cities is impressive with its scenic views and picturesque skyscrapers. The major urban spaces of Brazil are highly developed and modern, and yet also surrounded by green nature and water. But, in a city that is always moving there arises the need for stillness. This was the mission of Peace Revolution’s crew when they went to visit 3 cities in Brazil. Who would have imagined that peace and cities could co-exist?

Peace Revolution’s 2012 Campaign: Change the world – In the beginning turned its attention to South America. After having already passed through Bolivia, Colombia and Peru in May 2012, Peace Revolution arrived in Brazil to conclude the South American Tour. The 3-city tour of Belo Horizonte, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, was organized by 4 Brazilian peace agents: Raphaela Simões Pedroso, Alessandra Monteiro De Oliveira Santos, Sandra Auharek and Mariana Mattos De Araujo.

Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte was named for its beautiful view, as it literally means, “Beautiful Horizon”. It is built on hills and completely surrounded by mountains. BH, as it is known to the locals, is a friendly city undergoing massive development. The girls organized a 3 day meditation retreat among other activities and after 5 days we reached almost 500 people all searching for inner peace and balance in their busy city life.

“I believe that meditation brings serenity and peace to the mind”, says Thata Dolabella, one of the participants . “It can change our habits. This is something that I need, because it makes a difference in my daily life. I will try to do what I learned here, which is to center my mind during my day, while brushing my teeth and practicing exercises. I will try to meditate for half an hour after waking up before starting my day. It is very important to have a serene mind and body.”

“The first reason is to know myself,” says Guilherme, one of the teachers who attended the retreat. “My profession as an academic at the university and in my daily life is based on the external aspects of observing and to understanding what is happening on the outside. As a teacher of Botany I am always worried about what is happening on the outside world. But, after I started to practice meditation I am searching for an inner knowledge, for understanding myself. So, this is a bigger lever of knowledge about the world, and about myself. This is an important point in my life.”

São Paulo

The second stop was in Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo is the largest city in all of South America, the hub of ethnic diversity in Brazil. This makes it also a center of cultural activity like food, art, and entertainment. With 5 sessions in this city, Peace Revolution met educators, social activists, interested in spirituality, and students from business law and economic schools, and touched their minds with a little bit of peace.

Mauricio Moreira, a local Paulistano says, “It is funny that we are talking about this in Sao Paulo, because this is a very busy place. Everybody is running especially at work. There are deliverables and deadlines and suddenly we come to this context. This place is an oasis in the middle of a turbulent city. Sometimes we make jokes that we would like to make a hole in the floor and go to the opposite side of the world. This place is something like that, where you can kind of do it. It is a moment when everyone reaches complete silence, even when there is noise outside. We could reach it, we could reach a state of meditation until not wanting to open the eyes. ”

São Paulo is also the home of a great peace monument, Marco da Paz, which means ‘the mark of peace’. Marco de Paz symbolizes the ideal of all people in the search of peace, fraternity, and solidarity. “The "peace landmark" was conceptualized by Gaetano Brancati Luigi in 2000. When Peace Revolution came to visit the monument, Gaetano Brancate Luigi said, “It was an honour for us from the Commercial Association in Sao Paulo. This movement is a dream come true, which is the march for peace in the world. So, it is an honour to have the Thai monks here.”

Simone Ramounoulou from Willis Harman House shared her experience about why meditation is an essential component in living a life in peace. “Well, meditation is still being seen as a religious spiritual expression. In fact, meditation is an alignment of our being, physically, our emotions, and our mind. When we can align and balance ourselves, we can act in the world in a more truthful way with our true being. So, this is the convergence independent of spiritual and religious practice.”

At the Commerce University (FGV) about 70 people undertook the journey within and followed the special technique the monk taught. Fernando Allen Pedra, one of the participants of the retreat explains, “There are two monks here and they got 70 people to swallow the sun.” Fernando continues, “To keep the light inside you shining, you have to share it with others. If you don’t, it does.” Swallowing the sun is a visualization technique that helps the mind stay still for longer periods of time in the center of the body, the stomach area. Imagining that one is swallowing a bright object, like the sun, will create a real feeling of it existing in the stomach, or body’s center.

Rio de Janeiro

The last city of the Brazilian tour, and the last stop in the South American tour was Rio de Janeiro. Rio is a city that is always brimming with sound, colour, rhythm, and its seductive beach life. It will also soon be the host of the RIO+20 summit where over 100 world leaders will come together to discuss solutions for our planet Earth. The team arrived here to ignite a change through the process of meditation. To change the world, we must change our minds first.

In Rio, Peace Revolution organized a 3 day retreat, a meeting with the Wisdom Keeper’s Council and workshops and roundtable discussions at the 6th World Youth Congress.

“I could do it last night, and we did a meditation, for one and a half hours or two. But it seemed more like 5 minutes to me” said Marcus Vinicius, one of the participants of the 3 day retreat. “When the monk said let’s come back and concentrate our energy back in our body, I didn’t want to come back. It was the best night of sleep for quite some time for me. It’s very cool. And today I woke up at 5am, smiling.”

One of the highlights of the visit to Rio was presenting at the 6th World Youth Congress. Some 300 youth from over 100 countries attended this Congress, and Peace Revolution conducted practical workshops. The workshops consisted of a guided meditation and a discussion about the relation between meditation, human development and sustainable development.

Sonia Preisser, a peace agent and co-organizer of the WYC explains about the aim of WYC. “It is to bring people from all over the world, to interact and become more tolerant of one another by learning about other cultures, ways of thinking, other ways of doing things. So we try to bring them all together so they learn, and begin to understand why people think different than they do. And they become more tolerant.”

“To change the world, you have to change yourself first,” says one of the participants and attendees of the Peace Revolution workshops, “And in order to change yourself, you have to know yourself and know where you want to change, and meditation is one of the best ways you can do that.”

All of these events were created by just a few peace agents with few resources, but when they put their hands together they were able to do big things. For 1,000 people in 3 Brazilian cities in, peace lives within them.