The LKPY Concept

This was the official LKPY website in 2008. The content below is from the site's 2008 archived pages as well as other outside sources including LKPY facebook posts.

About LKPY

LKPY is an international peace organization for young people, launched in June 2007.
LKPY is a non-religious, non-profit, charity organization that focuses on the natural goodness within all of us. It aims to create a space for young people to engage in developing peace for themselves, their communities, and the world as a whole.

 

LKPY believes that peace starts with individuals developing the basis of their own inner peace – kindness; patience; tolerance; generosity.


About LKPY

WHO?

LKPY (Loving Kindness Peaceful Youth) is an international peace organisation for young people, which launched worldwide on June 8th 2007.

There are many peace and youth organisations out there, but what makes us different is our perception of peace. We donÂ’'t view peace as just the absence of war. LKPY believes peace comes from the individual - it's about changing our way of thinking and doing to a more serene approach to: ourselves; to others and the environment. 

We aim to include everyone... 

All faiths, non-faiths, cultures, sizes, shapes, colours, backgrounds and ages. Even though we say youth, we just mean young thinking. When people are young they tend to think differently, they are inspired to make a difference, make changes and they are passionate about the place they live in and surrender to old age habits.

There is a saying
“a waterfall starts from just one drop of water”.
..LKPY believes “Peace starts from just one person”.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Right) aged 28
Auckland, New Zealand 1975

This idea came to me as a result of all the discussion which followed the Columbine shootings. You’ll remember how some years ago in the US, some young students carried guns into their school and killed many of their classmates and teachers.  People and politicians discussed for months and months whether to allow guns or whether not to allow guns. I never saw one person on TV talking about compassion. I was very surprised, for if you change the way your mind thinks, if you place focus on generating compassion, then you are far less likely to harm others in the first place.  I started thinking of ways in which compassion could be regularly encouraged in young people, and it was then that I visualized LKPY – an organization which focuses on educating both the heart, and the mind, with peaceful ideals.  I pictured this organization in many countries, especially those countries with a lot of violence, and understood that with a focus on compassion, we could help young people’s lives grow happier and more peaceful, and assist them in finding true fulfillment through the education of a good heart.

–Lama Zopa Rinpoche, 2004

 

Started in 1999, LKPY has been organically sprouting into an organization. In 2006 five young people, inspired by Lama Zopa’s LKPY concept, gathered together from different sides of Australia to create it into a reality and are known as the originators of LKPY, (Shyla, Freeman, Poh Lin, Mike, Matt, pictured right). In early 2007 more people from all over the world jumped on board, and in June 2007 (to coincide with the Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Dalai Lama’s Australian tour) LKPY launched with an event in Melbourne, Australia, then with events held in eight countries all over the world. In 2010 we gained support of some major corporations, including CleanItSupply.com, who has created scholarships and charitable programs for young people worldwide. To visit and support this business, click here. Your support is always welcome and we encourage you to patronize those businesses that assist our efforts.

The Concept

Here at LKPY we believe that peace isn’t just the absence of war… We believe that peace lies naturally within us all and is our primary reason for existence… LKPY is not about protesting wars, demanding weapon restrictions, creating borders and separation, making demands on politicians, going into war zones, or standing in front of tanks…

Its simpler, its starts with you and me… and that’s why it can work!

It’s about focusing on the positives not the negatives, and through cultivating the organic goodness within ourselves we can reduce the space for the weeds to grow. We do this with simple practices of breathing, slowing down, stretching, communicating and taking the time and space to regularly nourish our mind and body… From this space of feeling better and clearer within ourselves we can then best begin to help others…

The Vision

We believe peace is a constantly growing process: starting through ourselves and then emanating outwards to our families, neighbors and friends, to our community and our environment… We encourage peaceful communication through recognizing our similarities while celebrating our differences, no matter what our beliefs or appearances are.  We facilitate this through open discussions, through listening to inspiring people who have done amazing things, through learning about our environment and through volunteering, through getting up and getting out there, for doing what needs to be done to really benefit others.

We all want to make a difference. We all want to be happy. And we all what peace… LKPY just nourishes what is already within you and me!

Objectives

Our objectives are to engage in a range of projects, that specifically focus on:

  • Peace building
  • Education
  • Positive dialogue
  • Intercultural & interfaith understanding
  • Peer-to-peer support
  • Non-violent expression
  • Environmental awareness
  • Community commitment
  • Celebration of creativity
  • Personal integrity and empowerment
  • Mindful living.

LKPY is for Everyone

LKPY is universal, for all people of all cultures, ages, colors, countries and beliefs. We are about organically cultivating people from the inside out. We encourage slowing down, contentment, breathing, volunteering, smiling, creativity, tolerance, moderation, kindness, supporting others and taking the time to nurture not only ourselves, but our community and the world around us.

We are a way of life.

LKPY utilizes the principles and tools of The Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom, as well as building on a variety of other resources.  We support people of all beliefs and cultures to develop inner peace; we wish to give them the skills and confidence to make a difference in themselves, their community and ultimately – the whole world! 
 
LKPY places a focus on young people as in being the ‘next generation’ they are therefore in a prime position to create new concepts of peace.  Added to this, young people like to ‘think out of the square’, think ‘big’, and LKPY projects aims to nurture that unique quality within all young people and support their expression of it, so that they can make a difference.

So what’s a young person? Well, age is another boundary we are trying not to subscribe to, so by ‘young’ we mean ‘young minds’ – we want people who think big, with the energy, the enthusiasm and the courage to make a difference. We want everyone to be involved! 

LKPY recognizes that global peace starts with the individual, then through others recognizing this positive change, it will slowly have an impact on the larger community.  Ultimately LKPY aims to help create a peaceful world.

Projects

Our strategies are to focus on slowing down (through projects such as Habit), communicating with others by focussing on similarities rather than differences (through projects such as Talking Peace), celebrating people's creativities (through projects such as Pieces of Peace and the Talking Peace documentary), inspiring people to do peaceful initiatives (through projects such LKPY Seed Grant) and generally bringing kindness and love back to the world (through projects such as Acts: deliberate acts of kindness).

Eventually we want to run projects for young addicts, underprivileged youths, young people coming out of prisons, young people with life limiting and serious illnesses and disabilities, as well as concerts, cafes, documentaries and online communities for everyone!(and many more things).

LKPY exists through projects that allow people to get involved in a variety of ways.  We are in the beginning stages of building ideas for projects. If you would like to get involved or share ideas, please get in touch!

This is currently the key LKPY project:

HABIT!
HABITS are regular gatherings held at café’s or other chilled out venues. These is tea time for the soul… a chance to catch up with like minded people, slow down, change your thinking, workshop the way the world works, learn, listen, collaborate, and be passionate about making a difference.

HABIT!

HABITS are regular gatherings held at caféÂ’s or other chilled out venues. This is tea time for the soul a chance to catch up with like minded people, slow down, change your thinking, workshop the way the world works, learn, listen, collaborate, and be passionate about making a difference.

The HABIT project launch: Sat 1st March 11am Wellington, New Zealand... Contact habit[at]lkpy.org

In 2008 HABITS are being launched in 11 cities across 6 countries.

The HABIT project will be launched worldwide from early 2008. We are just putting the final touches on the HABIT Coordinator Booklet now and it should be ready soon. Are you keen to become a HABIT Coordinator in your town?

How You Can Get Involved with LKPY
LKPY loves…. new ideas, advice, interesting stories, volunteers, new thoughts for LKPY projects, love letters, pictures, donations, your input! 

Deliberate Acts of Kindness

Acts of kindness occur everyday. This project is about consciously promoting and celebrating act of kindness, big and small. 

1000Â’s of Acts of Kindness postcards are being distributed throughout the world – asking people to commit to, carry out and tell us about their Deliberate Act of Kindness. 

Some ideas are - putting money in someone's parking meter, baking biscuits and giving it to your neighbours, write an old friend a letter, stand on a street corner with a bunch of flowers and give them to the first person who walks past. 

You can even download the postcards here, weve translated them into a variety of languages, so everyone all over the world can get involved: 

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Any support is very appreciated...

We are a non-profit organisation based in Australia with a worldwide scope.

We are run by young people for young people.Our funds are raised through the kindness of others.

LKPY is run by volunteers and all support goes directly towards creating peace in the world.

Ideas for your kindness include:
 

  • To print 1000 deliberate acts of kindness postcards is AUD $120
  • To sponsor 5 HABIT Coordinators Packs is AUD$100
  • To post one peace class survey pack is AUD$20
  • And any contributions towards the peace grant is welcome

OR

Send cheques and money orders to:
Loving Kindness Peaceful Youth
PO Box 551
Unley SA 5061
AUSTRALIA

Corporate sponsorship and philanthropists are always welcome and if you hear of any grant opportunities please let us know.

If you have any queries, questions, comments, suggestions, ideas please do not hesitate to contact our treasurer Mike Reid - michael[at]lkpy.org

Donations are not always about money - we would love you to donate your time and skills too:

 

 

LKPY.org