Twelve Gates Foundation President Offers Brief Remarks at the World Peace Festival 2022

On September 14, 2022, Dr. Frank Kaufmann, President of the Twelve Gates Foundation, offered brief remarks at the World Peace Festival. This episode includes the speech offered by Frank Kaufmann of the Twelve Gates Foundation to the 33rd Annual Peace Festival of the World Yoga Community. The annual World Peace Festival is organized and hosted by Guru Dileepji, the Global Chairman of the World Yoga Community, and NGO Affiliated with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Podcast:

Video:

Transcript:

Guruji: Now, I want to invite Dr. Frank Kaufmann, and acknowledge Morgana Sityo from URI joined here. She has to leave, though she may come back again. So, Frank Kaufman is the president of the 12 Gates Foundation, and a representative for United Nations, who has for 8 years, he did hard work to bring peace and harmony, interfaith harmony, especially around the globe. Even though I didn’t meet him when I came to New York, but I knew about him from India. It took a little while to find him in person, becoming his brother. So, now, we do a lot of things together. Dr. Frank, welcome. 

Dr. Kaufmann: Am I audible now? 

Guruji: Yeah. 

Dr. Kaufmann: Thank you very much Guruji, for the invitation to be here. Thank you for all you do. As many have said, your remarkable energy and tirelessness is always a wonder to behold, and true spiritual people make us realize that there is a power of greater than ordinary power in the world. And you’re one of those people by your sheer capacity for productivity and energy. It points to that which we must know exists; the greater life beyond. You said earlier that by working with young people, it makes you feel like a young person. But since I worked with you, the other thing is true too that by working with you, you make me feel like a young person thinking that I’m looking up to some gentleman; it’s always a great joy. This is a great testimony, this Peace Festival. It’s 33 years old, and it’s not only the energetic life of moment to moment, but it’s the persistence that makes over long periods of time. People just remark at things that lasts long, but within them is a great deal of suffering, a great deal of overcoming, both internally and externally. So, a Peace Festival of 33 years in longevity is a great accomplishment. I’d like to thank the ambassador for his presence here for his life of dedication to the cause of peace, and for his very informative presentation. It was very helpful to me. I’d like to thank all the speakers who preceded me, I’ve learned a lot all morning. I’d like to thank Grandmother Patricia for her soft spoken authority. She is our roots, we have genuine spiritual roots as with you, Guruji, and with the indigenous family that allows us to be in our land together. I pondered the issue of peace and prepared a few thoughts I’d like to share, I will be as brief as possible. As I pondered the notion of peace, I came to the thought or sentence that; ‘The pursuit of peace is basically bringing entities with vying purposes and desires into harmonious collaboration and mutual support’. For entities to have vying purposes and vying desires; there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. That’s just simple life in the world. You come into encounter with other entities, other people, other circumstances, other groups in which they are pursuing something, you’re pursuing something. You have certain desires, they have certain desires, and you end up vying with one another. This is a perfectly normal state of being. It doesn’t represent anything wrong with what anybody’s doing. If you walk into a store and you need a shirt, right beside you is another person who needs a shirt, there’s only one there. You end up in a circumstance with vying purposes and vying desires. You both need the shirt, it doesn’t matter if the person beside you is black or white, or green or yellow, it doesn’t matter if they’re a woman or a man, doesn’t matter if they’re tall or short, you simply find yourself in a circumstance that needs some means by which we can reconcile desires, and find some way to come to a conclusion that is peaceful, and doesn’t resort to dystopic or dysphoric ways of behaving. So, that’s a reality in the world. It’s a reality all the time everywhere, and peace seekers are people who are striving to relate to this reality. The primary side of human life that advises on how to do that; how to accomplish meeting these circumstances which are ever present, and have nothing particularly wrong about them, or about me, is religion and spiritual life. That is the body of thought and expression that is dedicated expressly to how to solve that normal reality in the world. There are other types of information in the world. There’s medical information, there’s astronomical information, there’s also infographic information, there’s economic information, there are tons of information, they’re all needed, they’re all helpful, they’re all absolutely needed, they all participate in the pursuit of peace. But, that collection of information and instruction that is devoted specifically to dealing with this reality in which we find ourselves is religion and spiritual life. Religion and spiritual life basically speaks to the individual. Anything you hear that is presented in the voice of spiritual guidance, is for and the voice of spiritual guidance is peace, it’s speaking to the individual. Why would a body of knowledge, a way of life, speak to the individual about peace? It must be because there is some necessity to deal with that common problem, vying purposes, vying desires. Otherwise, why would religion be addressed to individuals? Why does it work on individuals? The vying purposes within an individual are the purposes of our heart and mind, which is innately and inherently living for the sake of others, longs for the wellbeing of others, and the desires of our physical embodiment. Our body needs to survive, it needs to take, it needs to eat, it needs to consume, possibly even at the expense of something that another needs. The human individual is a pairing of vying interests, desires and purposes, our mind and our body. And religion and spiritual life gives us the precise way to create harmony, collaboration, and mutual support among these two entities; spiritual side, heart and mind, and body. Now, in addition to being individuals, we function in society. The other side of seeking peace is basically understood to be political. You talk about world peace, or you talk about racism in America or you talk about issues, large issues, and then people are often talking about social programs, legislation, all types of proposals and things like that. They’re political in nature. This is a bifurcated language. There’s a political language and there is a spiritual language. And the spiritual language is limited, mostly to personal human behavior. And then there’s political speaking. That’s why you hear one or the other. And, spiritual speaking is somewhat reiteration. We’re familiar with it. We’ve heard it for 2000 years, 4000 years, we’re familiar with it. And political speaking is basically speculation. Because, no one has ever achieved and we’ve never seen large political peace. So, you have peace seekers, who are speaking one or the other, and there’s no bridge. I see with the split screen I must be at the end of my time. So, I’ll bring the rest of my thoughts together. There must be mediating categories in which the spiritual is brought consistently and systematically across from the spiritual and the individual, out to the political very quickly. This is the range between mediating social structures; their family, their clan, their tribe. And unless you can manifest spiritual life in mediating structures, we will have nothing but reiteration, spiritual talk and speculation, political talk, without effective application. Thanks for giving me a few words to speak and for the time today. Thank you. 

Guruji: I’m glad you brought this spiritual matter to change. You know, politicians are taking over the world. If they’re saddled with a full heart, it’s beautiful. A lot of the time, they have their agendas and they won’t care for people much at all. So, my advice was to say you need the spiritual surgery rather than surgery related to the physical nature, but the spiritual nature, also need surgery. We have to delete certain areas of negative thoughts and activities in our life, to remove it and upgrade it and update it. We need it. I’m so glad you brought those points, appreciate your friendship. And we always hang out, we talk, discuss what to change in the world. We know it will take time but still, never give up. Thank you Dr. Frank Kaufmann for all of your support, I appreciate it.