All over the world we hear the call to peace, and though it seems impossible to restore it fully at this moment, we have to find out how human beings should behave in order to avoid conflicts in the future. In complicated situations the ideas HPB expressed in her books are of enormous value and help. Her central teaching is Universal Brotherhood. How easy this seems to be, how many times has the word brotherhood been used, and yet how difficult it is to live accordingly!
Where does brotherhood start? The first step -- before we do something, invent something, start something new -- is a thought. Brotherhood -- or peace -- and also hatred, conflicts, turmoils, and wars, begin in our minds. The present world situation is a manifestation on the physical plane of all the many wrong thoughts we, as a humanity, have, of all the thoughts that lack peace and brotherly feelings with our fellow beings. We must try to nullify as many wrong thoughts as possible by giving forth only good thoughts to everyone and everything around us. If we succeed in weaving a garment of positive thoughts around us, that will be a protection against evil, just as a warm coat protects us against icy winds. And our actions will follow our thoughts.
Once we no longer give wrong thoughts an opportunity, wars and other conflicts will ebb. HPB and many other authors have given us hints on how to make this dream of peace a reality, pointing out that we ourselves -- each one -- are responsible for all that is going to happen. At first we can be little centers trying to live according to the ideas of universal brotherhood. And from these centers brotherhood can spread out like waves, finally reaching every corner in the universe. Good thoughts will accumulate and there won't be any room left for evil ones. The future will happen just the way we prepare for it in our minds. If our thoughts become peaceful, the world will become so also.
(From Sunrise magazine, June/July 1991; copyright © 1991 Theosophical University Press)