Hold the light & Clean our national
conscience so we can be free
from the editor
by Tim Miejan
My stepson is beautiful. He's now 13, and his mother and I have begun wondering when the girls are going to start calling. His dark brown eyes sparkle with curiosity. His dark hair is usually kept short and neat. His smile is ever present.
A child blessed with the heritages of Germany, Africa and Native America, Kyle stands tall and is strong. He has small freckles on his face, but you have to look closely. His skin is light brown, much darker in the summer.
Up to now, Kyle has been relatively unscathed by racial prejudice. He has heard the "n" word, but he knows people call others names because of their own insecurity, and he doesn't seem to worry about that. Kyle is well liked at school and seems to be someone who others want to be around.
He also has a last name that he inherited when his father converted to Islam.
Engendering fear
The other day his grandfather remarked about the possibility of problems because of his Muslim surname. While that could have engendered fear, Kyle merely brushed it aside as a non-issue. I could see that as bravery, but more likely it is naiveté.
Last night while watching television, I saw the saddest thing since the morning of September 11. It was a report on the escalation of hate crimes since the World Trade Center attack. A camera crew followed a turbaned Sikh devotee of East Indian descent as he drove his car along streets in his city. Angry white youths flipped him the middle finger. They shouted obscenities. A policeman responded quickly and urged the man to drive away.
There has been at least one confirmed death as a result of a hate crime: Balbir Singh Sodhi, a gas station owner in Mesa, Ariz., was shot dead on Saturday, September 15. Unconfirmed as a casualty of hate was Waqar Hasan, a grocery store owner in Dallas, Texas, who was killed on Saturday, September 15. The South Asian Journalism Association also reports hate mail, physical threats and harassment, and racial profiling by government officials from various cities.
Reports of men of Southern Asian descent being killed in their own gas stations and grocery stores cause my heart to cry with as much pain as when I saw four hijacked airlines crash and burn. Sacred Islamic mosques throughout North America are being burned and fire-bombed. The news keeps coming. Children across the country are ostracizing schoolmates who happen to have brown skin and parents from India and abroad.
Judge not
To my fellow Americans, I urge you to not judge your neighbors with brown skin as murderers.
To my government, I urge you to not bomb Afghani citizens who support the West and live like beggars under the totalitarian regime of the Taliban and suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, who is not even an Afghani native. With the assistance of the international community, capture the network of terrorists and bring them to justice for killing citizens of at least 50 countries in one day. In due time, let the accused face their accusers in a world court. But do not kill the innocent.
Too many innocents already have died. It is time for America to wake up and clean its national conscience of the bloodstains on its hands. Like all icons, the United States of America is not all that she represents. Remember, America is not the nation that kills people around the globe -- America is the nation that supplies most of the weaponry and war machinery that kills people around the globe.
We must stop killing others in the name of democracy and stop helping others kill in the name of profit.
It will be sad if the United States of America kills undeserving people in Afghanistan. We preach the value of breaking the cycle of domestic violence. Let's break the cycle of international violence. Let's do something truly progressive by doing everything in our power to prevent the loss of one more life. Let's be a nation that others look up to, rather than hate.
Fits the profile
It is sad that so many lives were lost in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania on September 11. We all mourn those who have died and are missing, and it is natural to be angry. When we were children, our anger turned into tantrums and acting out. What I see across the streets of our nation are adults who are tantrumming and lashing out against anyone who fits the profile of the suspected terrorists. One day they are merely neighbors and shop owners. The next, they are targets of intense hatred.
Guilt by association -- or by blood, I suppose.
What I don't understand is that many of these flag-wavin' hate-mongerers also proclaim to be believers in God. The fine line between patriotism and racial bigotry akin to the Klan seems to get more blurry every day under the leadership of George W. Bush.
It calls to mind the wisdom of singer-songwriter John Prine, who in 1971 recorded a song about patriotism and the conflict in Vietnam. It is called "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You into Heaven Anymore" and goes like this:
"Your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore
They're already overcrowded from your dirty little war
And Jesus don't like killing no matter what the reason's for
And your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore"
Love one another
Waving a flag doesn't entitle anyone to hurt another human being.
Being a white citizen of the United States doesn't entitle anyone to become judge, jury and executioner.
Back in the Wild West, a two-holstered vigilante with a red, white and blue kerchief would have ridden into town and ordered all the brown-skinned people out into the streets, effectively issuing their death certificates in the dirt where they lie. How much have we evolved in more than a hundred years?
As much as it hurts to sit still, what we can do in this situation as American citizens is send our prayers to those whose bodies have perished in the smoke and to friends and family members and relief workers who must carry on.
We can hold the light that we are, and even intensify it with visualization, affirmation and meditation. Send floods of love to the planet, to the animal and plant kingdoms, for surely they are feeling the effects of their connection with us.
Abraham Lincoln said, "I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends." Let us flood our enemies with love. Love like you've never loved before.
Tim Miejan is editor of The EDGE. Contact him at (651) 578-8969 or editor@edgenews.com.
Copyright © 2001 Tim Miejan
A Message from Neale Donald Walsch, Marianne Williamson, James Twyman, James Redfield, Doreen Virtue, and Gordon Banta:
The events of this day cause every thinking person to stop their daily lives, whatever is going on in them, and to ponder deeply the larger questions of life. We search again for not only the meaning of life, but the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have created it -- and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate ourselves anew as a human species, so that we will never treat each other this way again.
The hour has come for us to demonstrate at the highest level our most extraordinary thought about Who We Really Are.
There are two possible responses to what has occurred today. The first comes from love, the second from fear.
If we come from fear we may panic and do things -- as individuals and as nations -- that could only cause further damage. If we come from love we will find refuge and strength, even as we provide it to others.
This is the moment of your ministry. This is the time of teaching. What you teach at this time, through your every word and action right now, will remain as indelible lessons in the hearts and minds of those whose lives you touch, both now, and for years to come.
We will set the course for tomorrow, today. At this hour. In this moment.
Let us seek not to pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause.
Unless we take this time to look at the cause of our experience, we will never remove ourselves from the experiences it creates. Instead, we will forever live in fear of retribution from those within the human family who feel aggrieved, and, likewise, seek retribution from them.
To us the reasons are clear. We have not learned the most basic human lessons. We have not remembered the most basic human truths. We have not understood the most basic spiritual wisdom. In short, we have not been listening to God, and because we have not, we watch ourselves do ungodly things.
The message we hear from all sources of truth is clear: We are all one. That is a message the human race has largely ignored. Forgetting this truth is the only cause of hatred and war, and the way to remember is simple: Love, this and every moment.
If we could love even those who have attacked us, and seek to understand why they have done so, what then would be our response? Yet, if we meet negativity with negativity, rage with rage, attack with attack, what then will be the outcome?
These are the questions that are placed before the human race today. They are questions that we have failed to answer for thousands of years. Failure to answer them now could eliminate the need to answer them at
all.
If we want the beauty of the world that we have co-created to be experienced by our children and our children's children, we will have to become spiritual activists right here, right now, and cause that to happen. We must choose to be at cause in the matter.
So, talk with God today. Ask God for help, for counsel and advice, for insight and for strength and for inner peace and for deep wisdom. Ask God on this day to show us how to show up in the world in a way that will cause the world itself to change. And join all those people around the world who are praying right now, adding your Light to the Light that dispels all fear.
That is the challenge that is placed before every thinking person today. Today the human soul asks the question: What can I do to preserve the beauty and the wonder of our world and to eliminate the anger and hatred -- and the disparity that inevitably causes it -- in that part of the world which I touch?
Please seek to answer that question today, with all the magnificence that is You.
What can you do TODAY...this very moment?
A central teaching in most spiritual traditions is: What you wish to experience, provide for another.
Look to see, now, what it is you wish to experience -- in your own life, and in the world. Then see if there is another for whom you may be the source of that.
If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe.
If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand.
If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another.
Those others are waiting for you now. They are looking to you for guidance, for help, for courage, for strength, for understanding, and for assurance at this hour. Most of all, they are looking to you for love.
We love you, and we send you our deepest thoughts of peace.
-- Neale, Marianne, James, James and Doreen and Gordon
A Message from Echo Bodine
I've received several e-mails from people asking if I would shed some light on what took place here in our country the morning of September 11 and what we can do to protect ourselves in the future.
I spent the majority of that day in the silence. I didn't turn on a TV or radio until 4 p.m. I had received several phone calls in the morning, so I knew what had happened, but something very important that I've learned on my spiritual journey is NOT TO LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF THE WORLD, but to go within for guidance. I needed to get centered in the truth that God is still in charge of the world and feel the inner calmness before being bombarded with all of the negativity that took place that morning. It's very easy to get pulled into the drama of loss, rage, panic and doom and forget that there is a higher order going on at all times.
Yes, as the media puts it, America was under attack and it is probably the worst thing any of us will see in our lifetime. The wreckage of human lives, buildings and a way of life is beyond words. What took place is evil in action, that's for sure. But we have to stay mindful that even though the people that created this are hoping to shatter our lives forever, no one can ever do that to us.
People in general are good, kind and loving. Something like this brings our goodness to the surface and we get creative with it. We find ways to express our love to one another. We find ways to help. We become united as a country and as a world. Hopefully in the next few days, weeks and months ahead, we will hear wonderful stories of human nature and how humankind rallied to help each other through this crisis.
Yes, we can sit around and say we're doomed. That this group of people, whoever they are, took our freedom away from us. We can dive deeper into depression or end our own lives, because our fears become too big or withdraw inside and shut our hearts down to each other. But if we do that, these attackers will have accomplished what they set out to do -- and we can't let that happen.
People have asked me what they can do to feel safe and protect their families. People are feeling powerless right now and are thinking it's up to our government to keep us safe. Our government is doing everything it can right now to provide a sense of safety for us, but there is something each one of us can do.
As spiritual seekers, we need to discipline ourselves to go to the higher place within each of us and stay in that calmness as we go about our business in the days and weeks ahead and above all else, we need to listen to the voice within for our guidance. As difficult as that can be in this challenging time, we need to discipline ourselves to shut out the anger, rage, terror, fear and panic of the world and go within for guidance.
Every person dead, or alive, has an intuition, or inner voice. That voice will guide you to safety always. Forget about what the doomsdayers are saying. Go within and focus on that light within yourself. Ask the source within to guide you in your everyday dealings. Ask it what you can do for yourself, your family and for others who are suffering right now. You will be guided. This is what it means to walk a spiritual path.
This is not a drill. This is the time where we put into practice our spiritual principles. We go within and seek our guidance there.
People have asked me if this is God's will or why God didn't intervene. God's will would never destroy anyone. God has given us all free will and a group of people have chosen to use that free will to destroy others.
God is in every situation that goes on. God is here to hold our hands and help us through each painful experience we cause ourselves and others. God's will is only for goodness. This is a time for healing. If you are having a very difficult time right now emotionally, this attack may have opened up some old un-resolved wounds that you are still harboring. Look at this as an opportunity to heal this old pain. Reach out to others but above all else, go within and seek counsel.
An old friend of mine taught me to turn my scars into stars. He said that was the best way to get through a challenge. Look for whatever good you can in the face of adversity. That is our challenge right now as we move into the days and weeks ahead. Everyday we have two choices. We can focus on the negativity or we can look for whatever good is coming out of this.
Americans are strong, loving, positive people and we will come through this much stronger and wiser.
Practical Tips
• Keep life as simple as possible right now. Stick to your daily routines so that you can feel that sense of continuity. Do your chores. Don't let them pile up because if your surroundings look out of order, you'll feel even more out of order internally.
• When we suffer any kind of shock, our bodies go into survival mode. They need different kinds of fuel, so it's important to check with your intuition when picking food to eat. Loading up on extra sugar or alcohol will only compromise your immune system, so think twice before putting any extra stress on your body.
• When hit with a crisis of this proportion, oftentimes we do one of two things. We get rageful and want revenge. We end up taking that revenge out on someone that usually has nothing to do with the powerless feelings we're going through. The other common reaction is apathy. We shut down emotionally and tell ourselves the world is going to hell, and we shouldn't bother caring. Neither of these is a healthy choice. I've found that the quickest way out of our pain is to go into it. Journal about all your feelings. The helplessness and despair. The rage and bewilderment. Talk it out with friends or family. Don't let these feelings fester inside because that only turns into health problems.
If you have any kind of decision to make in the coming days and weeks, ask your inner voice for guidance. Should you take that trip now? Is it safe to get on that airplane? What foods should you eat? Daily, ask God or the Universe to show you what you need to do for that day. Who you need to call or see and where you should go. Whenever you get an inner knowing about something, whether it's to stay home from work, or go shopping at the mall, or call a loved one, act on it. Let your inner knowingness override your need for logical explanations.
Anytime you feel fearful, if a situation feels overwhelming, walk away from it as best as you can and ask God or your guides to SHOW YOU THE TRUTH OF THE SITUATION NOW.
Try not to stay glued to the TV. The constant bombardment of hopelessness and despair will not help right now. Tune in periodically to stay abreast of anything new, but do what you can to maintain some kind of normalcy in your life, for your sake and the sake of your family. This is an experience none of us have had before. We're not sure how to react or what to do. You need to be patient with yourself and others right now and remember we're all in this together.
God Bless You. Echo Bodine
Attack On America
A personal perspective from Gregg Braden
"What we must bear in mind is that the choices made in the next hours and days will set the course of human history for generations to come."
Our world changed on September 11, 2001. This is, perhaps, the one fact of which we may be absolutely certain during a time of tremendous uncertainty. It has been approximately 48 hours since the tragedy that has fallen upon the United States began. The fact that it has taken two days to write about what we have experienced tells me how deeply I have been affected by the horror of the events that we have witnessed, along with the rest of the world, in ways that may take months, or longer, to fully comprehend.
I had just arrived in Melbourne, Australia, for a series of conferences when the local programming was interrupted with the first images of devastation and the unforgettable images of the New York City skyline ablaze. Witnessing the tragedy and grief of our country, while being half a world away, has truly been a profound experience. Additionally, it has afforded me a unique opportunity to see America through the eyes of the people in another land. The experience has truly been life-altering.
We Are Not Alone
During the taxi ride from my hotel to the airport on the first day of the reports, people were openly sobbing in the hotel lobby, on the streets and throughout the airports. Everywhere I turned, crowds were huddled around television monitors hoping to glean additional information from U.S. stations -- something that would help them to make sense of the horror they were witnessing from the live video feeds that have now become engrained into our memories.
What has become abundantly clear during the last two days is that the U.S. is not alone in this time of grief and tragedy. Immediately following the first reports, our office began receiving e-mails of sympathy and support from our friends throughout the world, messages from nearly every continent.
The outpouring of sympathy, friendship and unity from our Australian neighbors has been particularly overwhelming. The many messages of condolence for our country, the loss of families and rescue teams that I have received personally have been constant, heartfelt, and they continue. As I am writing this memo, teams of Australian firefighters and relief crews are making plans to travel to the U.S. when air restrictions are lifted to offer relief to the teams that have been working nonstop for nearly three days. While we may not hear of it on a daily basis, this was a reminder of the powerful bond and deep friendship that exists between the U.S., Australia and the rest of our global community.
Where Do We Go From Here?
The tragedy that has fallen upon our nation has placed world leaders, and individuals alike, into the uneasy position of "uncharted territory." There are no models, strategies or manuals, no one to turn to with detailed procedures as to where we go from here. How are we to respond to such an unconscionable act carried out by faceless perpetrators resulting in unimaginable losses? How do our leaders balance the anger of a nation with the most sophisticated arsenal of military power that the world has ever known? History has shown us that there are no pre-determined answers to these questions. There are only our choices that result from what we know and believe to be true, information that changes by the hour.
In the aftermath of the last hours and days, the magnitude of what has happened is surpassed only by the uncertainty of what comes next. This, by far, is the greatest fear that I have heard expressed. The events that have unfolded leave us at a particularly perilous crossroads teetering between our emotions of outrage and the need for retribution and a longing for reason. What are we to "do" next?
What we must bear in mind is that the choices made in the next hours and days will set the course of human history for generations to come.
The magnitude of the events within the last days has opened a deep wound in the consciousness of our nation and the civilized world; a void that seeks to be filled quickly, to balance the emptiness. Whatever rushes in to fill the void of our nation's loss will set the stage for events of lasting consequences and irreversible effects. Do we fill the void with an overwhelming display of force and power to quell the pain of a grieving nation, or do we fill the void with the measured response of a nation demonstrating to the world that we have truly entered an unprecedented era of dealing with conflict through new and innovative ways?
Albert Einstein stated that the problems of our world cannot be solved with the same thinking that created the problems to begin with. The events of September 11, 2001, may well represent the first opportunity in the new millennium for the most powerful nation in the history of the earth to demonstrate to the world that there is another way to deal with those who oppose our ideals of peace and freedom. The choices that we make as a people will define us as a nation and lay the foundation of global policies for generations to come.
What Do We Do?
Clearly, there is nothing that can justify the unthinkable acts of tragedy and pre-meditated attacks that have resulted in the loss of so many lives. Just as clearly, there is nothing that we can do to any individual or any nation to bring back the immeasurable number of lives that have been lost.
Our office has been flooded with telephone calls and email messages asking a simple question: "What do we do?"
I will be the first to state clearly that I do not have "the answer" to this question. Each individual must find a way to reconcile the events of the last days in their minds and in their hearts. Sometimes it helps to break the big problems into manageable pieces. I offer the following as guidelines only, in an effort to serve those who have asked for recommendations and guidance.
With these ideas in mind, our first actions must be near-term:
• To care for our own.
• To search for survivors. To support our rescue and recovery teams, our governmental and organizational leaders. Clearly our nation has been attacked. We must demonstrate that not only has the attack failed to fragment our country, it has melded our nation into a unified force of support and solidarity.
• To take the necessary precautions to secure our nation in the presence of the very real threat of additional attacks.
• To choose our response wisely and responsibly
• To understand that the policies of "globalization" have melded us into a global family. The choices made over the next days and weeks will affect all people of all nations and have the potential of lasting consequences for the quality of life and the future of our world.
• To invoke our power of prayer, a very real power that quantum science now defines as our ability to participate in a unified web of energy that links all of creation.
• Through our prayers, empower our leaders to choose wisely, with the guidance of our creator, for the good of all people with the long-term vision of a global peace rather than a short-term goal of balancing an act of terror.
• Ultimately, to realize that there is no "them" and "us." We share the same world and there is a "we" -- different aspects of the same conscious body. When the dust has settled, ultimately, we must look deep within ourselves to know what it is within ourselves that is mirrored by increasingly greater acts of terror and destruction. From dysfunctional families, to school shootings, to acts of terror against the United States on foreign soil, to the attacks upon our own soil, we are witnessing a pattern of increasingly greater acts of anger and lack of respect for human life directed toward Americans. Imposing a military action on the "outside" does not change the thinking that led to the acts to begin with. If we have the wisdom to recognize the language of "mirrors," we will have witnessed an obvious indication of the need for change.
The Prayer
Though we may each feel as though we are being tested, the oldest texts of humankind suggest that moments such as this can become less of a test and more of an opportunity to demonstrate to the world, and to one another, precisely the kind of people and nation that we have become.
As we consider our response to the tragedies, we must remember that we are no longer responding alone. Our response will have implications that reach deep into the hearts and the streets of our closest allies and most distant neighbors. While a response is certainly warranted, the world is looking to us, the most powerful nation in the history of the earth, to temper our response with reason, justice and a consideration for our global family and collective future.
I invite you to join me in a prayer empowering our leaders with the wisdom of a greater power as they implement their choices of response. Utilizing our "lost mode of prayer" identified in the Great Isaiah Scroll, where we feel as if the outcome has already occurred, rather than asking for intervention, our prayer may begin as:
Dear God,
In this time of great tragedy, we give thanks for the courage within our leaders to recognize the difference between the anger in their minds, the wisdom of their hearts and the courage to act wisely in their choices.
May each leader have the strength to act for the good of all people, in all nations and our collective future as a global family.
Through this prayer we claim that peace, democracy and human life are stronger and more enduring than the buildings that symbolize them. We breathe life into their existence from the dust of hate that is transformed by our soil.
For these blessings in our lives, we give thanks,
Amen
Many blessings of peace,
Gregg Braden, Melbourne, Australia 2001 [ssawbraden@aol.com / on the web at www.greggbraden.net]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Now, the whole of the world of the sickness diminishes the Peace and Seeds of Hope. However, with Prayer, I still believe we WILL unite as the Human Family and Pray this Evil out of our world.
The Hopi Elders have instructed us to live very carefully. And we must not pick up our Bows and Arrows in these troubled times. Of course, this is our first reaction. However, everything the Elders have ever taught is that Humankinds' lives are decided by our loving Prayers to the Creator along with the Spiritual leaders of the World.
Please look to our Traditional Hopi Web Page: www.timesoft.com/hopi
Our elders have left us much wisdom and a way of grace and a path to
Peace. I pray to you all that you find something in their world and words that touch the Human Heart. Set aside our words of war and help us pray. Not only for the Living but all those whom have gone before, and especially the Dear Families and Loved ones that so innocently were disregarded. My prayer is for somehow for all of us to find the peace we pray for, that all the TWO Hearted peoples some way be touched by the spirit of the Holy Ancestors, Creator, God, Mother Creator or whatever your prayer is dedicated to. We must keep our prayer vigils and come together.
-- Katherine Cheshire of the Hopi Nation [Kc4behopi@aol.com]
The Deeper Wound
by Deepak Chopra
As fate would have it, I was leaving New York on a jet flight that took off 45 minutes before the unthinkable happened. By the time we landed in Detroit, chaos had broken out. When I grasped the fact that American security had broken down so tragically, I couldn't respond at first. My wife and son were also in the air on separate flights, one to Los Angeles, one to San Diego. My body went absolutely rigid with fear. All I could think about was their safety, and it took several hours before I found out that their flights had been diverted and both were safe.
Strangely, when the good news came, my body still felt that it had been hit by a truck. Of its own accord, it seemed to feel a far greater trauma that reached out to the thousands who would not survive and the tens of thousands who would survive only to live through months and years of hell. And I asked myself, "Why didn't I feel this way last week? Why didn't my body go stiff during the bombing of Iraq or Bosnia? Around the world, my horror and worry are experienced every day. Mothers weep over horrendous loss, civilians are bombed mercilessly, refugees are ripped from any sense of home or homeland. Why did I not feel their anguish enough to call a halt to it?"
As we hear the calls for tightened American security and a fierce military response to terrorism, it is obvious that none of us has any answers. However, we feel compelled to ask some questions.
Everything has a cause, so we have to ask, "What was the root cause of this evil?" We must find out not superficially but at the deepest level. There is no doubt that such evil is alive all around the world and is even celebrated. Does this evil grow from the suffering and anguish felt by people we don't know and therefore ignore? Have they lived in this condition for a long time?
One assumes that whoever did this attack feels implacable hatred for America. Why were we selected to be the focus of suffering around the world? All this hatred and anguish seems to have religion at its basis. Isn't something terribly wrong when jihads and wars develop in the name of God? Isn't God invoked with hatred in Ireland, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Israel, Palestine and even among the intolerant sects of America? Can any military response make the slightest difference in the underlying cause? Is there not a deep wound at the heart of humanity? If there is a deep wound, doesn't it affect everyone?
When generations of suffering respond with bombs, suicidal attacks and biological warfare, who first developed these weapons? Who sells them? Who gave birth to the satanic technologies now being turned against us? If all of us are wounded, will revenge work? Will punishment in any form toward anyone solve the wound or aggravate it? Will an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and limb for a limb, leave us all blind, toothless and crippled? Tribal warfare has been going on for 2,000 years and has now been magnified globally. Can tribal warfare be brought to an end? Is patriotism and nationalism even relevant anymore, or is this another form of tribalism? What are you and I as people going to do about what is happening? Can we afford to let the deeper wound fester any longer?
Everyone is calling this an attack on America, but is it not a rift in our collective soul? Isn't this an attack on civilization from without that is also from within? When we have secured our safety once more and cared for the wounded, after the period of shock and mourning is over, it will be time for soul searching.
I only hope that these questions are confronted with the deepest spiritual intent. None of us will feel safe again behind the shield of military might and stockpiled arsenals. There can be no safety until the root cause is faced. In this moment of shock, I don't think anyone of us has the answers. It is imperative that we pray and offer solace and help to each other. But if you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world.
Deepak Chopra is the founder of the Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, Calif. He is the author of 25 books. Contact the Chopra Center for Well Being toll-free at 1 (888) 424-6772 or e-mail info@chopra.com
Copyright Deepak Chopra
Terrorist Attack on America
by Cindy Clifford
Why does it so often take this kind of an event to remind us of what we should be aware of every day? Things like how precious our families are, what a 'resource-full' country we have, and that we share this planet with others, and what affects part of the whole impacts the whole.
I pray cool heads will prevail and we don't have any "knee-jerk" reactions, such as retaliating before we're absolutely certain of the target, and are clear on our objective (which wasn't the case in Desert Storm), or retaliating against those people in our country who aren't American. Another knee-jerk reaction I hope we avoid is our Congressional representatives emotionally voting for a new, expanded defense budget (by robbing the Social Security fund). It's not more missiles or troops that we need (none of which would've prevented the current tragedy), but rather more intelligence, and more intelligent utilization of the manpower and technology we already possess.
Let's affirm that our faith is bigger than our fear...and may we remember too that, "as we seek, so shall we find". Amidst the horror, let's not forget to look for the good that will come from this and indeed, already has. This event is already mobilizing people in every state to pray and send aid to the target areas. Across America, people everywhere stood in lines in order to give blood, because they were moved to do SOMETHING. I trust that despite outward appearances, GOD is STILL in control. I pray our leaders don't let the terrorists win by taking away even more of our civil liberties in the name of "security". Our true security lies in each individual person's relationship with their Creator; not in people or things of this world.
I pray that this day will become the fulcrum around which we become once more, a "nation under God, indivisible..." Let us remember we are Americans first and foremost, not the divided nation we've seen in recent years. Most importantly, we cannot let the terrorists bring more fear, hatred, and bigotry into our system of government, for then they will have won in the worst way.
We CAN make a difference, one person at a time. Just as the ripples of hatred can reach across the world, so can the ripples of light and love. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." And, "...perfect love casts out fear."
"Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." And you, and you, and YOU!
Cindy Clifford is an Advertising Sales Consultant for The Edge in the Springfield, Mo., area. She has been a Writer/Creative Consultant for the past six years here in Springfield, and have worked on and off in radio and television since 1993. She's been published in The Springfield News-Leader, The Kansas City Star, 417 and Unity Magazines, and The KGBX Today's Woman. Contact her at (417) 866-2250, or e-mail springfield@edgenews.com
Copyright 2001 Cindy Clifford
The Bigger Picture
by Patricia Diane Cota-Robles
Editor's note: For a full version of the author's insight on "The Bigger Picture," go to her website at www.1spirit.com/eraofpeace/1st.html
I ask you to read this information through the eyes of Divine Discerning Intelligence. Ask your God Self to guide you to perceive and accept only the Truth that is in alignment with your Divine Plan.
The seers of old said that during these end times we would experience "screaming and the gnashing of teeth." They also predicted Armageddon -- the ultimate battle between good and evil. The reason for their dire predictions is that the seers witnessed what naturally occurs when the Light of God increases on Earth. They saw that when the Light of God penetrates into the physical plane and pierces into the core of purity in every electron of precious Life energy, all of the humanly created patterns of imperfection that conflict with that Divine Light are pushed to the surface to be healed and transmuted into Light.
For example, when Divine Love fills our hearts, everything that conflicts with that Love is pushed to the surface to be healed. That includes hatred, fear, intolerance, prejudice, abuse, anger, lack of reverence for Life and every other thought, word, action or feeling that is void of Love.
If people are not aware of what is happening, it appears as though things are getting worse in their lives. That causes them to become frightened, and when people move into fear, it is easy to latch onto the negative patterns that are coming up to be healed. When that happens, they often act out of their old, destructive behavior patterns which, of course, just exacerbates the situation.
The Light of God has greatly increased on Earth since the 15th Harmonic Convergence that occurred on August 17. The negativity that is surfacing is reflecting our abuse of power and lack of reverence for Life.
The very best way to reverse what is happening is to invoke the opposite -- the Divine Qualities of our Father-Mother God -- which are the Divine Authority, Will and Power of our Father God and the Divine Love and Reverence for Life of our Mother God. We must BE the OPEN DOOR that no one can shut. Allow the Light of God to flow through the Power Center of your Throat Chakra and the Love Center of your Heart Chakra. Project the Light into every negative pattern that is surfacing at this time.
Where your attention is, there YOU are. Do not allow yourself to become part of the problem by getting caught up in the fear, anger, grief and horror of what has happened. Become part of the solution and transcend those emotions. Allow the Presence of God blazing in your heart to take full dominion of your thoughts, words, actions and feelings. BE A PEACE-COMMANDING PRESENCE AND HOLD YOUR HEART OPEN IN THE FACE OF ALL ADVERSITY.
Invoke the Angels of Comfort, Love, Peace and Healing to envelop every person, place, condition and thing involved in this tragedy. And, above all, remember -- THE LIGHT OF GOD IS ALWAYS VICTORIOUS, AND YOU ARE THAT LIGHT! This is why you are on Earth during this Cosmic Moment! BE WHO YOU ARE!
Patricia Cota-Robles is an internationally known author and teacher who travels to many parts of the world to teach and work with awakening lightworkers who are committed to self-empowerment, personal transformation and planetary healing. Her website is www.1spirit.com/eraofpeace. E-mail her at PattiCR@aol.com, fax at (520) 886-4897 or write P.O. Box 41883, Tucson, AZ 85717.
Copyright 2001 Patricia Cota-Robles
A Letter to the President
by H.H. the Dalai Lama
The following is a letter from H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet to U.S.
President George W. Bush, in which he urges the President and all of us to consider carefully the consequences of violent retaliation.
Your Excellency,
I am deeply shocked by the terrorist attacks that took place involving four apparently hijacked aircrafts and the immense devastation these caused. It is a terrible tragedy that so many innocent lives have been lost and it seems unbelievable that anyone would choose to target the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. We are deeply saddened.
On behalf of the Tibetan people, I would like to convey our deepest condolence and solidarity with the American people during this painful time. Our prayers go out to the many who have lost their lives, those who have been injured and the many more who have been traumatized by this senseless act of violence. I am attending a special prayer for the United States and its people at our main temple today.
I am confident that the United States as a great and powerful nation will be able to overcome this present tragedy. The American people have shown their resilience, courage and determination when faced with such a difficult and sad situation.
It may seem presumptuous on my part, but I personally believe we need to think seriously whether a violent action is the right thing to do and in the greater interest of the nation and people in the long run. I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence. But how do we deal with hatred and anger, which are often the root causes of such senseless violence? This is a very difficult question, especially when it concerns a nation and we have certain fixed conceptions of how to deal with such attacks. I am sure that you will make the right decision.
With my prayers and good wishes,
The Dalai Lama
Inner and Outer Work
That we each can do during the current crisis
by Gordon Davidson and Corinne McLaughlin
Adapted from: "Spiritual Politics: Changing the World From the Inside Out" By Gordon Davidson and Corinne McLaughlin Ballantine Books, 1994
INNER MEDITATIVE WORK (Some suggestions):
• Begin by aligning with your higher self or soul.
• Align with the soul or higher purpose of America.
• Focus upwards the invocative cry of humanity to God for help, understanding and healing.
• See this invocation connecting with spiritual sources of Light, Love and Power, then linking with the Will of God.
• Recognize a higher purpose outworking through this crisis, awakening humanity to the Divinity and value within all life.
• See the astral (emotional) plane calming and stabilizing with light, love and peace shining through it, so that fear and anger may be transformed.
• Hold open your heart in love to the human suffering from this attack, but also from the daily violence being suffered by many people in countries worldwide.
• Send healing energy to the victims of the attack and their families, as well as to the heroic rescue and medical workers.
• Visualize a flow of loving wisdom to humanity, as people around the world unite together and learn the deeper lessons from this tragedy.
• See Americans recognizing the rights and destinies of all people in the world, and overcoming tendencies towards separateness, isolation and chauvinism.
• Visualize Americans being guided by justice rather than revenge in their response to this attack, avoiding racial and religious bigotry and stereotyping.
• Hold our leaders in light and love, so that they may align with their highest selves and make decisions for the greatest good of humanity.
• Visualize protection for the President, Congress and all branches of government.
• Close with the Prayer for Our Nation and/or The Great Invocation (see attached).
OUTER PRACTICAL WORK
• Watch or read the news with a new lens, reflecting on deeper questions. Examine the inner, spiritual forces at work behind this crisis. Note symbolism in the event. Observe the spiritual lessons being learned:
Try to understand the meaning of the event by identifying with the participants. Reflect on how these experiences are helping us open our hearts further to develop greater compassion and love for all humanity. Explore how the event serves a larger purpose in human evolution. Research the history and karma of the situation; seek to understand the deeper causes and longer cycles that have created this event.
• Write, call or e-mail your Congressperson and let him/her know your views about an appropriate, wise response to this crisis.
• Call in to talk shows, write articles, emails or letters to the editor, help shape public opinion by providing a compassionate and wiser understanding of what has occurred, helping others resist the desire for revenge, while promoting compassion and justice through international law.
• Convene a citizen dialogue group and listen deeply and carefully to how different people are responding to this crisis. Ask the questions, "Why are some people around the world so angry at the United States?" "What can we do change this?"
Refuse to become entrenched in a polarized position, yet stand for principles. Work to find common ground. Find the grain of truth, the positive intent in each position. Use a whole systems approach -- see how all issues are interconnected. Explore the deeper causes, to create lasting, more effective solutions. Include ethics and values in all discussions. Build a higher synthesis of the wisest of all views.
• Do one thing that symbolizes your commitment to humanity -- join or contribute money or time to an organization that is effectively creating alternatives to retribution and war; volunteer your time to help the victims; donate blood, etc.
• Focus on the positive and the best in humanity. Give attention, energy and support to everything that promotes greater harmony, compassion and justice in the world.
THE GREAT INVOCATION
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.*
Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ** return to Earth.
From the center where the will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men,
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the center which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
*Can be changed to be gender inclusive, e.g. "Let light stream forth into human minds."
**Also known as the Coming One, the Messiah by Jews, the Iman Mahdi by Muslims, Krishna by Hindus, Maitreya by Buddhists, etc.
PRAYER FOR OUR NATION
May we as a nation be guided by the Divine to rediscover the sacred flame of our national heritage, which so many have given their lives to safeguard;
Let the wounds of separation and division be healed by opening our hearts to listen to the truth on all sides, allowing us to find a higher truth that includes us all;
May we learn to honor and enjoy our diversity and differences as a people, even as we more deeply touch our fundamental unity;
May we, as a people, undergo a transformation that will draw forth soul-inspired leaders who embody courage, compassion and a higher vision;
May our leaders inspire us, and we so inspire each other with our potential as a nation, that a new spirit of forgiveness, caring and honesty be born in our nation;
May we, as a united people, move with clear, directed purpose to take our place within the community of nations to help build a better future for all humankind and all life;
May we as a nation rededicate ourselves to truly living as one nation, one humanity, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all;
And may God's Will be done for the United States, as we, the people, align with that Will.
For information: The Center for Visionary Leadership, 3408 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20016. Call (202) 237-2800, e-mail cvldc@visionarylead.org, go to www.visionarylead.org
The New Energy
by Soleira Green
The e-mail I'm about to write is an interpretation, another perspective, on the events of yesterday. They seek a higher/deeper/richer understanding of what is happening as it happens. Too often, we don't see the beauty of the moments until months or even years after the fact. This is an attempt to understand it now...and from that place of higher/deeper/richer understanding, to work for the most profoundly possible outcome for all.
If it resonates with you, feel free to allow this understanding to work with you. If not, adopt today whatever means of understanding best moves you to your own powerful place of creation in this amazing time.
Yesterday, September 11th, 2001, was a turning point for humanity. It is a moment when the choice of a new reality, a new Earth versus an old reality, an old Earth, is placed distinctly in front of us. Two weeks ago, we worked with many around the world and in all the unseen dimensions and realities of consciousness to bring forth into being the new man, an archetype for the possibility of huMANity. This archetype was rich with wisdom and laughter, insight and delight, power and strength, yet gentle in his soul. This archetype blended the very best of the archangelic with the creatorship of the Elohim. The seeds of this new man were sown in every human heart.
On Sunday, September 9, these seeds were activated and woman joined with man to become one in creatorship for a new world and beyond. On the morning of September 11, just a few hours before the events in New York City, a new energy was brought through into being. It is the energy of the original essence of creation...creation before creation...the life source of LIFE.
It occurs as feminine energy, as it sources from the very womb of creation itself. This energy needed to be able to blend with the seeds of creatorship within the heart and soul of every huMAN. The tragedy yesterday allowed for the opening of hearts and souls everywhere for this new energy to emerge and for the blending of the archangelic with creatorship with the source of creation.
Just like at the funeral of Princess Diana we saw hearts opening wide to receive a new energy and as the wave rose from the crowds outside the cathedral where she was being eulogized, we saw the first evidence of group consciousness birthed into human reality. Because of yesterday, we see another opportunity for a huge shift in humanity. To choose understanding and wisdom over revenge and more hatred. As we engaged in a global link-up last night, I saw all those who passed over during the attack. They were standing side by side, black, white, Arab, American. Yes, they were slightly stunned, but suddenly they were reminded by hosts of earthly angels why they had chosen this particular role in our new destiny. They smiled and moved very quickly into the fullness of their being and saw that their job was to strengthen the forces of heaven moving into current Earth reality. Their job is to be with their families and friends and the world as a whole to let them know that there is no separation. Not even in death are we lost from one another. They moved quickly and powerfully with great love for all to where they were most needed now.
Today a wonderful group of spiritual leaders, including James Twyman and Marianne Williamson, sent out a request for a seven-day vigil to recreate our world. I quote their e-mail: "Seven Days of Prayer -- It took seven to create the world, we now ask you to join us in spending the next seven days recreating it."
This tragedy has a purpose...a purpose so HUGE and MAGNIFICENT that it makes you weep with joy to be able to be a part of it. This is the profound potential of man shifting into being. This is the profound potential of humanity, joined as one, beyond the confines of judgment, of laws, of boundaries, of separation. WE ARE ONE PEOPLE. WE ARE ONE WITH THE EARTH. WE WILL STAND FOR THE GREATNESS OF EVERY HUMAN BEING AND FOR THE POTENTIAL OF ALL TO BE KNOWN, UNDERSTOOD AND RECOGNISED NOW IN THEIR BEAUTY, TRUTH AND MAGNIFICENCE. We are the creators of a new world. In these seven days, your creatorship will come into its true light and you will do that which you came to the Earth to do.
As I read all the e-mails that flooded my e-mail box today, I was awed at the strength of conviction that those of heart and soul are finding within them. We are here. We are ready. We shall prevail. We see the beauty in you humanity...and we will forever love you regardless the outcome.
With all my love, Soleira Green
Promise me,
promise me this day,
promise me now,
while the sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith,
promise me:
Even as they
strike you down
with a mountain of hatred & violence;
even as they step on you & crush you
like a worm,
even as they dismember & disembowel you,
remember, brother,
remember:
man is not our enemy.
The only thing worthy of you is compassion --
invincible, limitless, unconditional.
Hatred will never let you face
the beast in man.
One day, when you face this beast alone,
with your courage intact, your eyes kind,
untroubled
(even as no one sees them),
out of your smile
will bloom a flower.
And those who love you
will behold you
across ten thousand worlds of birth & dying.
Alone again,
I will go on with bent head,
knowing that love has become eternal.
On the long, rough road,
the sun & the moon
will continue to shine.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Find the united state of mind to, on a subliminal level, remind us all to find that place of unity within and be in the place of love in our heart of hearts no matter the chaos that may be reigning.
Remember that the world wide web is a living, breathing connection to all people of like minds and hearts...from our centre establish a remembering that we all have that centre place, the place where stillness just is...where we just are -- without having to do anything, say anything...just be...there, remembering that this place exists in us all whether we are consciously aware of it or not...create an awareness of the awareness of that stillness in all people on this planet...support this with your heart...go back to awareness of the stillness... remember that we are all one...we are home...it is only the apparent covering of skin that makes it seem that we are separate -- we are all one -- we are home...now...in oneness....
-- Carole Isis [carole@isisongs.com]
Hello to all,
I have wanted to write something about what I have sensed occurring within the collective for some time now. The events of this week seem to be the catalyst.
Since the Solstice Eclipse in June, I personally have been very focused, moving through deeper layers of distortion in my body and consciousness. I also noticed this happening for others. I said over and over that we are now dealing with releasing a level of bedrock patterning that needs to come out of the body. Through the process, I have felt the presence particularly of the Blue Ray of Truth and Archangel Michael. This has been balanced with the energy of compassion and for me, a connection with Quan Yin.
About two weeks ago I began to feel a sense of impending loss. I found it hard to sleep well and felt that the collective was getting ready to deal with something big. At times I wondered if I was going to lose someone close to me. I'd tune into each one to see if the sense I was feeling belonged to any of them. It didn't.
Last week the Ray of Truth, or Flaming Blue Sword that clears illusion and distortion was gaining strength. Whenever fear or old patterns began to surface, I would ask for the Blue Ray to purify and clarify to the level of what is Real. Instantly, fear or other thoughts would be erased.
Last weekend, I was called to name and say "No" with love to a distorted pattern within a group I was facilitating so the creative fire of Life would be free to continue to thrive and grow. It was a difficult but necessary action, one that included a strange feeling of a door closing somewhere. Then, the night before the attacks, I barely slept. Again I checked through those close to me. Then it happened.
My first awareness was that it was a collective event, one that had been setting up for some time. The energetic build-up to it and Michael's presence indicated that it was opening up an opportunity for an exposé of illusions and distortion so that greater Truth and awareness could come to light. I also immediately saw a web of Light extending from person to person; all those who have chosen Love and Life were linking hands energetically around the Earth. Significant Beings of Light anchored the Web of Light and they emanated to all of us to stay connected to the web without fear or reaction, even though there was great destruction.
I felt my Spirit and those of millions of others focusing into a frequency of Love, calm and awareness, even if understanding wasn't fully in place. I blessed all those whose souls left so suddenly and was told that those in Spirit were prepared to receive them on the other side. Another psychic friend said she turned on the television just as the second plane was coming into the picture and saw all the souls leave the plane just before the crash. That often happens in traumatic and sudden departures. In such collective events, pain is most often spared for those choosing death as their part in the whole.
I am sorry if you are personally touched by the loss of someone dear to you. May Love embrace and hold you as you move through the process of grief and healing. Know that they were well tended in their passing. And may this same Love touch all who have suffered through endless acts of violence throughout this age of Duality, inherited and passed on from generation to generation until a generation would look inward to discover the original wound of separation and choose Love.
During one particular challenging time in my life, Jesus told me to walk in the valley of Light and to not look into the shadows on either side. I thought of this advice the other day and chose not to watch television at all, but to listen and attune to the living web of Light. People began to call to talk, and to ask why they didn't feel more sadness, fear or anger in response to the attack. It is my sense that we know that the events of Tuesday are part of a larger unfolding within creation that includes the destruction of the old dying dualistic matrix of consciousness. Simultaneously, out of the ashes of what is passing away, the New Matrix of Creation is giving life to new forms.
One could say that the twin towers of Duality collapsed in front of millions of people via satellite, televised around the world, over and over and over again. The old is passing away while, simultaneously, we have an opportunity to focus into the creation of a new world experience.
Another word that kept coming into my consciousness on Tuesday was "Arrogance." I sensed the arrogance of those behind the attack, gloating at the power they had to shake the security of a great country, because they could. Arrogance. I also saw the arrogance of the American people and particularly those governing that have been saying to the world that we can do whatever we please at the expense of others, the environment and international relationships. Arrogance. Within this vision was the arrogance of mega-corporations and those who invest in those companies' stocks where the bottom line is to continue to make increasing profits without regard or respect for life, human or otherwise. Arrogance. I saw those with money feeling superior to those without, using pity to mask it. Arrogance. I saw those of one race or religion or political party feeling that their way or truth was superior to another. Arrogance. The whole pattern was there, vibrating in consciousness, and I realized that wherever the "ends justified the means" without Love, there was arrogance; the kind of pride that superiority has bred within duality.
We all inherited the patterning of Duality and the subtle or not-so-subtle arrogance within it. The answer is not to swing to the opposite pole; denial of the good within self or one's natural place within the whole, false humility or shame. If one is willing to stand fearlessly within one's own consciousness with unconditional Love and a desire to shift the patterning of Duality, one will be transformed, changed down to the DNA bedrock levels within the embodied codes of consciousness.
For myself, rather than judging any of those in the unfolding drama, I acknowledged with compassion those patterns within the whole and within myself, particularly when I have driven myself past my own physical or emotional boundaries to achieve a goal, disregarding my own health and well-being. I also saw the pattern whenever I stood in judgment of another, wherever my need to feel right was stronger than my ability to be vulnerable and stay open to a process of discovery, and whenever I allowed my spiritual purpose or service to others to overrule my own needs.
As I have come to love my life and all of Life more, I now choose to include my physical and personal needs, desires, and feelings along with that which informs me of purpose and service in how I create my life in wholeness and balance.
People are wondering what to do in response to this event. Some are joining together in Spirit at 9 p.m. EDT each night for seven nights to visualize creating a new earth experience. I am participating since this will strengthen the web of Living Light and Love that is in already in place. I would also encourage you to use the Blue Flame of Truth to discover areas within your own consciousness or life that stand in a superior positioning with any other part, i.e. mind over body, spirit over matter, needing to know over trusting the mystery, or vice verse.
Wherever you stand in a position of, "I know better than another," there is arrogance, and that patterning can be lifted into the Blue Flame of Truth for transformation beyond duality. That, too, is helpful within the collective during this time of collective shifting and choice. Other choices are to choose Life wherever you find it, nurturing it and protecting it from the dying distortions that want to suck the life out of anything that has budding new Life. Refusing to support with your money, time, focus or life energy that which is dying, which has no energy for you, or which takes energy from you or others without respect or return.
Choose Life, bless those who are in the process of grief, fear or reaction, and attune to the wisdom within the web of Living Light to inform you as you make choices each day.
Conscious creation, conscious co-creation with all of Life within the whole of Love, is what each one of us is being called to in this time. Even in the midst of shedding the bedrock, I have felt a buoyancy and excitement as a new version of myself has begun to emerge to recreate my life. Some things must pass away, painful as that process is, so that the Real can emerge free of patterning of duality.
I sense that what we have been doing on a personal level for years is now happening on a much larger scale, as well. We have been told again and again that the transformation of consciousness would escalate, and many over time have predicted such a time would come. That time is now. How it will unfold, I do not know, but I have absolute faith in the presence of Living Love, the Rays of Creation and the Masters that serve them now moving in our midst. And I also acknowledge and honor all people of consciousness who are forming the web of Living Light that is in place around the Earth in this time.
Even in the midst of death, listen and watch for what is Real (with a capital R!) as it emerges within you and others from the ashes of the old to take part in creating new Life in this time. And may we all be blessed with Love and whatever is needed to move through the personal and collective challenges of these times.
Alomaha, Michele Mayama
Finding My Way Back to a Meaningful Life
by Suzanne Vadnais Monson
For the past few days, I have been unable to clearly articulate what it is I feel about the graphic terror that is sweeping across my world. I sort through a mountain of confused thoughts, knee-jerk reactions and emotions. My first response: Horror. My second: Denial. "No, I will not turn on the television set and watch this." My response when my husband called to tell me what had happened Tuesday morning. Next, I cried. Then I wanted to know why. Why had this happened? What was the history behind this terrible event?
I wanted the whole story, the big picture. As I began to gather information from my most trusted sources, I realized my first assumptions about "why" were wrong. I'd been assuming this was a random act of violence. It clearly wasn't random. I'd assumed some evil empire was behind the brutal use of passenger planes as bombs. What do I know about evil? I felt the attack was personal. But how could it be? I am a long ways away from Ground Zero. I thought I had nothing in common with "them," the people responsible for this atrocity. When in fact, I know that I do.
In my lifetime I have witnessed in the press many "holy wars" that deeply confused me. Belfast, Israel, Pakistan, Tibet, Bosnia -- pictures in news reports of constant terror. I have never understood these strongly held religious beliefs that bring out the worst human behavior imaginable. From the beginning of our human history, we have been attacking and destroying each other over our beliefs. Why? Why do we judge and condemn each other based on what we believe? Why are we so certain we are right? Why are we so addicted to being right?
If I am willing to consider another person's point of view, there is a chance I will learn something. I may not like what I am told, I may not agree, I may not understand. But is how I interpret another person's beliefs really that important? There is a lot of gray in our world, a lot that is not black or white. There is a lot we have no idea about. Maybe our role as human beings has more to do with tolerating what we don't understand than judging these things. What I'm searching for now is a way to live with this awareness: My beliefs are shaped by my attempts to make my experience meaningful.
What is it all about? What am I really after? How do the stories I create about my experience affect my experience? I was abused as a child. I spent a good 20 years investigating why. In fact, I was totally obsessed with every detail of why. After endless therapy, reading, interviewing family members and transcribing memories, I had an epiphany. No one could tell me why this had happened. There were a lot of theories, there was even some hard evidence, but precisely why my mother chose to hurt me could not be proven.
Nor could I erase what had happened to me. I could blame my mother, make her wrong and me right. I was lost in this feel-good anger for many years, defiant and rebellious in my hatred of my mother. And in time, I grew weary of this tremendous burden. So I began to ask another question. What now? What do I want to do with this wild and precious life of mine? What was keeping me from celebrating my life? How could I heal? When would it be safe to stop hiding, always fearing someone was waiting to hurt me again? How could I rebuild?
These are the questions I continue to ask. And this is how I begin to sort out my feelings about what has happened this week. I know I have hated someone as much as the people responsible for this terrible act of violence. I used to wish my mother's plane would crash when she was flying. I wanted her dead. Only as I began to focus on my own healing work was I able to let go of trying to change or blame my mother. Only as I zeroed in on mak
I am still working on finding my way back to building a meaningful life. I return to the daily practices that comfort me. I write in my journal. I read a new poem each day. I paint. I walk in the woods. I put quality art materials on the table and invite my developing artist to play with them. I encourage others to do the same. I read stories that remind me there is magic and love and hope, aloud, to my husband. I am grateful for Harry Potter. I talk with the people I love. I listen to what they have to say. And I pray.
Walking through this beautiful patch of the Earth I am fortunate enough to call my home, I listen to the stirrings of my soul. I gather evidence of hope from the little signs all around me. The leaves are turning colors. I saw a beautiful black bear in my yard. The birds still sing and surround my feeders. I continue to find little ways to shore up this self under construction. And I keep looking for true, soul-filled experience. I want raw, straight from my arrow-pierced heart truth. I have discovered that living my life this way is my most powerful recipe for creating the kind of life I want. I am finding my way to be meaningful as I go.
Suzanne Vadnais Monson is the owner of Come Out and Play, a business dedicated to developing the creative conditions for living our best lives. Her deck of 64 simple ceremony and playful practice cards is available for $24 at a number of Twin Cities retailers or directly from the author. Call (715) 294-4522 or e-mail her at comeoutandplay@cornernet.com for information on her products or her transformational workshop series, Intuitive Adventures.
Copyright 2001 Suzanne Vadnais Monson
By the Numbers
The number 11 in Numerology is a Master number! Change agents, inspiration, purpose is to enlighten all humankind! There is a Divine Plan:
The date of the attack: 9/11 • 9 + 1 + 1 = 11
9/11 = 911 • Emergency's Phone Number
September 11 is the 254th day of the year • 2 + 5 + 4 = 11
After September 11, there are 111 days left to the end of the year.
119 is the area code to Iraq/Iran • 1 + 1 + 9 = 11
The Twin Towers standing side by side looked like the number 11
The first plane to hit the towers was Flight 11
The state of New York was the 11th state added to the Union
New York City has 11 Letters
Afghanistan has 11 Letters
The Pentagon has 11 Letters
Ramzi Yousef, convicted of orchestrating the attack on the
WTC in 1993, has 11 Letters
Flight 11 had 92 people on board • 9 + 2 = 11
Flight 77 had 65 on board • 6 + 5 = 11
A Response to the Numbers
by Deb Cahill
The information below has been circulating since the attack. I think I have received this five times. I have a different take on this that I would like to share.
In numerology, you always add the remaining numbers until you arrive at a single digit. If you do this with the numbers below you always end up with the number 2; twin towers. The number two symbolizes polarity; opposites. The result of transforming the two into one pile of rubble has been unity, on a global scale, symbolized by the number one. This is not the preferred way of finding harmony in opposition, this is the extreme. Unfortunately, our entrenched beliefs and habits as a global consciousness have been resistant to transformation by any less dramatic means. I certainly do not applaud this action in any way shape or form, I only wish to offer another viewpoint.
The energy released by this event can go on to build more harmony and unity or we can return to the opposition and tension that led up to this event. Each individual has a choice, make it and take responsibility for your choice. It is the only way you truly have any "voice" in the outcome. Use the energy of your thoughts, words and actions wisely. Make your choices locally and watch as it transforms us globally.
many blessings, Deb Cahill
Where there is darkness let us lift the veils and let the light through...where there is pain let us apply the balm of love and compassion...where there is blindness let us give a guiding hand into seeing with the heart.
Let us be the ever intensifying beacon of light along the path of those who underwent transition; the vehicle of peace to those who are traumatized, fearful and angry; the precipitator of healing to those who are injured and in pain; the bearers of goodwill to those whose hatred intensifies their will to inflict destruction; the manifestation of compassion to all. Let us look for the terrorist (no matter how tiny or insignificant) who may be lurking in the wastelands within ourselves and let love transform it into the creative idealist who recognizes Oneness.
America, may the full measure of blessings be upon you and upon us all. May all be and do the divine will on earth. Let peace prevail on earth. Let goodwill be among all beings. Let us co-create a world where we can live as happy loving noble spirit-infused beings.
-- Rashmi and Ravi Singh, the Ra Kendra Centre, Philippines [rkpeace@rakendra.com.ph]
September 11, 2001:
Personal reflections on A Turning Point For All Humanity
by Peter H. Rosen
We at Creativity Cafe express our heartfelt condolences to all those who have lost loved ones and friends in the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001.
I was in Florida nursing my Dad back to health from a heart attack. I had been on my way to visit my Mother for her birthday and was diverted to help my Dad. On August 30, after being reached with word of my Father's infirmary, I changed my travel plans to arrive in New Jersey on Sept 11. Little did I know then that that ticket now marks a day in infamy.
I am all the more compelled and stimulated on behalf of all Humanity to bring my work in gathering lightworkers and heartfelt evolutionary spirits, together to express our highest vision for Humanity at this grievous time. Please consider this an open invitation to voice your thoughts on these incomprehensible acts and events at Creativity Café memorial forum.
Here are mine:
This most challenging act of destruction and war against "civilization" is a desperate attempt to express a need for balance -- the forces of nature, of which humankind is but a small part, have sent an awakening call and reminder. America the Powerful can be humbled.
Dear Human, we can not rest on our complacency with life; Expecting and Accepting that the way things are, have been...and will continue to be. This is a now blatantly obvious misbelief. We can no longer exist by the old rules. Our hand is being forced not by the terrorist, and it really doesn't matter who they are. Our hand is being force to rethink life on planet earth, so rather than spending billions on fear-based thinking and "National Security" (failing), we must turn our attention to forgiveness for our brutality against ourselves (denial) and our brothers and sisters on planet Earth. We are a dysfunctional family now loudly crying out for balance.
We must find a way to re-tool our thinking. To take care of the hungry and needy, the tormented souls that live in a world where things like this are possible -- because of the nearsightedness of Humankind.
I was a graduate of EST, Warner Erhard's brutal personal growth seminar. While I fought the ego-busting process then, I now speak of the training as one that allowed me to break free from the prison of my beliefs. And so, our world must now "fess up" to all the ways we don't acknowledge our mutual stewardship of Spaceship Earth.
EST worked wonderfully to reveal to me how we all thwart our personal power and cause separation. The terrorist acts are damaging in many ways, for sure. But as a Belief Buster, this incident in the annals of human history can and will be a liberating experience, albeit not one easily accepted.
Our natural inclination is to resist change -- unless something outside our "Self Image" forces us to re-examine who we are. This terrorist act, this dark cloud of humanity rearing its ugly head, has penetrated the psyche of America.
Terrorism is a force to be dealt with indeed. One must crush the bad seed at all costs you might say? But this is not only a call to arms, but also a call to each of us to rethink our purpose in Service of Humanity. Hey, if the ants can do it so well and keep their community alive for millennia, what about us?
This call to arms is not so much about power, but about ideology, freedom and democracy. Let's not forget socialism while we are at it. This ignorant and childish act is a baby demanding attention. Those who negatively mark our way of life, as vehemently as Hitler saw reason to snuff out the Jews, causes us to recapitulate the fabric of life on Planet Earth.
We must forge ahead in not only technological prowess, but in all social interactions and relationships. Buckminster Fuller coined the idea of "Trim Tab Effect." The idea that a small group -- or even one person can affect humanity's destiny in as powerful and compelling a way, as whole armed forces of all the nations. We have had a mistaken security that billion dollar investments -- in armaments and security -- is no match for human ingenuity.
WRONG! Score one for God (disguised as terrorists)! The fact is, Americans' view of "what life should be like" is just as warped as any other nation that does not uphold the Spirituality of life as clearly as God herself intended (and is reminding us in so rude a fashion). Can you not see the joke of Humanity's left hand fighting its right? Or is that left brain and right brain?
Balance is called for in all things. We have been put here by God as a part of nature. Like all of us, the forests, animals that live in them and all living and non-living things are inexhonorably related and interdependent.
Let's imagine for a moment that we are all connected and are designed to find that middle ground. That equilibrium that all of nature easily and without struggle, finds. Except Humans.
Humans have chosen, being sentient creatures, to see each other as separate and different. Natural selection works in most of nature in the most basic and physical ways. With Humans however, we are inventive and self-aware enough to have destroyed any natural symbiosis with the rest of Nature.
Through the various filters of culture and language differences, Humanity has become a polyglot of the powerful and the "self-serving," mixed with scapegoats of the economic, technological and educational divides.
September 11, will go down as the wake up call for Humanity. Let the creative personality in you, speak loudly through the pages of Creativity Café and our live, interactive community events. Stay tuned!
Blessings and Love to you! Peter H. Rosen
Peter H. Rosen is founder of Visionary Artists Resources, Including Other Unique Services, at creativity.net, creativity.com
Copyright 2001 Peter H. Rosen
A Meditation for World Peace
A Daily Meditation for All Lightmasters
Offered by Paula Sunray
Please join with your fellow Lightmasters and do the following meditation daily at 7 p.m. as a group. Your focused effort is needed NOW. Please make this a priority in your life. If you cannot do it at 7, please do it individually at any time of day on a regular basis.
• Place an intent for world healing and peace.
• Breathe in a full deep breath and then breathe out making a releasing sound through your mouth. Do this three times, releasing tension and stress in your body. Really let go.
• Focus on your solar plexus and breathe into this area. Feel the full range of your emotions. Feel your emotions fully and intensely. Take your time. Then release the energy of these emotions to your Higher Self, to your Soul, to God/Goddess. Release the full intensity of these emotions.
• Allow your High Self, Soul, and God/Goddess to transmute and transform your emotions into greater love. Feel that love lift you to your heart center. Let that love lift you into the loving arms of God/Goddess/All That Is where you become a Co-Creator with God.
• Stand tall in that love and light. You are a LIGHTMASTER. Become a beacon of that Divine Love and Light. Shine love and light to every person on the planet. Send that love and light to every country and to the planet itself. FEEL THE WORLD MENDING AND HEALING. Meld and merge that love and light with everything on the planet: every person, plant, bird, animal, ocean creature and nation. Feel the whole world becoming ONE in this LIGHT and LOVE. Feel the world coming into ONENESS. Really feel the HEALING and the PEACE.
Take the essence of this meditation and do it as you feel guided in your own unique way. It is the energy and intent that matters. Do this meditation on an on-going basis. Please commit to this process. This is the most important work you can do. Please invite others to join you on a daily basis.
Your higher service work to the planet has now begun. Step boldly into your new function as a creator and protector of the new energies of the new world that has recently been birthed. As a magician of the coming times, this is the dawning of your day. As in any polarity, it coincides with the tragedy of the times. Keep yourself focused on the dawning of the new day. You are the exclusive creator of this new space. Do not get lost in the illusion of tragedy. Do not get lost in REACTION. Stay focused on CREATION. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me -- inside of me.
Amen and so be it.
Our spirit lives on forever....
by Nancy Velardi
I just completed a ceremony to help lost souls make their transition from this world to the spirit world. The first group of souls to cross were those hit by the initial impact of the planes hitting the twin trade towers.
"Where are my papers? I can't do anything without my papers," said one bewildered, bespectacled middle aged man. He was wringing his hands in confusion and shock. I remembered hearing about the "paper rain" that fell soon after the attack.
Gently I connected with his spirit and explained there'd been an accident. "You have died, and need to move on now," I said as naturally as I could.
He nodded, and then his spirit guide took him by the arm and led him away.
The next group of souls were the burn victims.
"We were alive until the fire. It consumed everything." There were cries of families looking for each other, even as they lined up to pass over to the spirit world.
"Where's my boy?"
"Where's my folks?"
Lovingly, spirit guides moved amongst the multitudes of souls who were waiting to cross, finding the specific spirit they'd worked with, even if they had worked on a subconscious level.
The last group of souls were those who had been fragmented by the explosion and subsequent building collapse. Their spirits were completely intact, even if their physical bodies weren't. I saw that as another confirmatiion that our spirit lives on forever.
I learned how to do "psychopomp" work through my experiences with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. The weekend workshops began my development of shamanic work, or experiencing non-ordinary reality with the use of a drum, and my own personal work has enhanced what I learned. Now when there are disasters, either personal or public, I make a point to help souls make their transition if they need assistance.
It's comforting to know our spirit lives on forever. Assisting souls in transition is a solace to me. I feel an accomplishment.
It is a gift I have, and in giving, I receive one hundredfold.
We all have gifts.
Whether it's writing, praying, giving blood, providing comfort, holding someone's hand, or saying "I love you," we each have a gift to share.
And now is the time.
For our spirit lives on forever.
A Letter to Lightworkers
by Doreen Virtue
Right now, your nerves may feel frayed, and you may notice that you and other people are jumpy or irritable. These are normal reactions to times of great stress. Following hurricanes and intense illnesses, for example, it's common for family members to fight and for people to engage in addictive behaviors.
Please don't forget your powerful spiritual resources at this time. The roar that cries for revenge and war can overshadow the quieter, but more powerful voice, of Divine Love.
Why would God allow such an event to occur? God is 100 percent Love and cannot know anything but Love. All attack comes from the ego, which is not of God. If we focus on attack in any way, our egos become engaged. And that makes us feel all of the ego-feelings: fear, anger and doubt.
A psychotherapist named Phyllis Crystal was on an airplane that sat on a tarmac in the Middle East, many years ago. Suddenly, three armed men stood up to hijack the plane. Phyllis prayed for help, and she suddenly received a very strong and intense influx of love. Phyllis was guided to send that love to the hijackers. The moment that she did this, one hijacker "accidentally" cut himself with his knife. He hurt himself so badly that he got angry and flustered. The hijackers then ran off the plane, calling off the hijacking entirely.
We, too, can love the "hell" out of people who seem to attack us. We only make the situation more dire by holding divisive "Us vs. Them" thoughts. We may never be able to forgive their actions, but we CAN forgive the people involved, to heal the situation.
Remember that A Course in Miracles says that there is no order of difficulty in miracles, that one miracle isn't harder or larger than another. We CAN spiritually heal this situation, and transform a situation of suffering and fear into one of peace and unity -- if we use our power of thought to affirm that truth:
• We must surrender the situation to the Divine wisdom of our Creator. The Mind of God is so creative and already has a solution.
• We must remind ourselves that God is everywhere, even within the terrorists. As easy as it is to write them off as subhuman, they ARE holy children of God, just like you and me. The more we know this truth, the more difficult it will be for them to act in un-Godly ways. Remember: We are loving the "hell" out of them.
• Focus your mind on peace. Affirm peace in all ways. Refuse to affirm the illusion of chaos. Wherever there is chaos, God is not there -- and THAT would be impossible. Chaos and danger are nightmares from a mind that is asleep to the spiritual truth of God's omnipresent Love. Let us awaken from the nightmare and see the truth, so that we can live in a world of Divine love and peace.
The angels have told me that those who perished in the explosions and crashes want their deaths to be a testament to the importance of peace. They don't want us to "avenge their deaths with hatred or attack." While we all understand the need to take action to prevent a reoccurrence of September 11th's tragedies, there are overtones of a bloodthirsty need for revenge, which we must avert. The ego's need for revenge will put us on a course of chaos and fear!
We must elevate our consciousness above the cries and rallies for war. Let the renewed patriotic spirit stand for "One Nation Under God," not for "One Nation Bent on Revenge." The former comes from our higher self; the latter comes from the ego. Which type of world do we want?
"Dear God, Thank you for your eternal peace, within my own self, and within each person and animal upon this planet. We are so grateful for Your angels, which hover even closer to us right now. We know that we are made in Your image and likeness, so we are ALL filled with love, peace, and Divine wisdom at all times. We stay centered in that truth, and see a world that is peaceful. Since God is all that is, and God is entirely peaceful, there is nothing BUT peace in our world."
Doreen Virtue, Ph.D. is a metaphysical healer and author of Angel Therapy and The Lightworker's Way. Go to www.AngelTherapy.com
Copyright © 2001 Doreen Virtue
Fear Itself
by Sarah York
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." -- from Franklin D. Roosevelt's Inaugural Speech, 1933, addressing the depression panic that was gripping the nation
* * * *
"When things fall apart and we're on the verge of we know not what, the test for each of us is to stay on that brink.... The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe that things last -- that they don't disintegrate, that they can be counted on to satisfy our hunger for security. From this point of view, the only time we ever know what's really going on is when the rug's been pulled out and we can't find anywhere to land.... Right now -- in the very instant of groundlessness -- is the seed of taking care of those who need our care and of discovering our goodness." (p. 9)
"The off-center, in-between state is a...situation in which...we can open our hearts and minds beyond limit....
"To stay with that shakiness to stay with a broken heart, a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic -- this is the spiritual path. Getting the knack of catching ourselves, of gently and compassionately catching ourselves, is the path of the warrior. We catch ourselves one zillion times as once again, whether we like it or not, we harden into resentment, bitterness, righteous indignation--harden in any way, even into a sense of relief, a sense of inspiration.
"Every day we could think about the aggression in the world, in New York, Los Angeles, Halifax, Taiwan, Berut, Kuwait, Somalia, Iraq, everywhere. All over the world, everybody always strikes out at the enemy, and the pain escalates forever. Every day we could reflect on this and ask ourselves, 'Am I going to practice peace, or am I going to war?' "
-- from Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart
* * * *
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." -- from the First Epistle of John
* * * *
On the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 11, I received an e-mail message from Suzie, a high school classmate whom I have not seen for 40 years. Her 22-year-old son was there. He watched as the second plane slammed into the Number Two Tower of the World Trade Center and exploded; he saw people fall or jump from the towers, and he later witnessed the collapse of the pillars of trade and finance that had dominated the skyline of Manhattan. While he was running away from his office, he called from his cell phone and woke his parents in California. Some of his friends were dead -- he knew that, for he had worked with them in the building that crumbled before his eyes.
Suzie wanted to know if I had any resources to suggest for him. I told her he needed human resources, not books, and gave her some suggestions. And I said, "Suzie, you are an important resource, too." Later, she wrote again, saying, "I don't think he'll feel like returning to his job no matter how much counseling he receives. He can't close his eyes now without seeing people jumping from the tower. He said he'll never fly again and wants us to come get him. My 220-pound, super intelligent son wants his mama and daddy to come pick him up."
It was only a day later that she wrote again to say, "He is unbelievably resilient. Yesterday he was filled with despair and anguish after witnessing the second plane attack and the many who jumped to their death. Today he has anger. I think this is healthy. He is no longer so quick to let terrorists chase him from his job."
"What is his name?" I asked. "August," she said. "But everyone calls him Champ."
Thousands of stories
I went to church Tuesday evening and I lit a candle for Champ and for so many others who have witnessed the ugly visage of terrorism up-close. It is said that a thousand deaths are a statistic; one death is a tragedy. There will be thousands of stories of this tragedy, and we will hear them one death at a time, one grieving spouse at a time, one parent or sibling at a time, one orphaned child at a time, one friend or colleague at a time.
Shock. The urge to run away. Rage. Grief. Feel them. Feel them.
And fear. Feel that, too. Fear itself. Feel it, express it, and move toward it. Know it. Name it.
To know and name your fear is to begin to disarm its deadly power.
I am afraid.
I am afraid that we have only seen the beginning of what kind of horror can be wrought in our own land in the name of holy hatred.
I am afraid that patriotism will become nationalism and that our leaders will be too quick to make a show of force where it will do more harm than good.
I am afraid that our democracy will become a police state.
I am afraid that distrust will prevail among Americans of diverse ethnic or cultural descent and that fear will become an excuse for violence and discrimination against the people of Islam.
Yes, I am afraid.
And I have fears for my own safety, too. For one thing, I am not too excited about getting on an airplane. I am not alone. Paranoia is palpable in the friendly skies. A political cartoon depicts an airplane on the runway, with the caption, "This is your captain speaking. Please place your fears and anxieties in the upright position and prepare for take-off."
Apart from the threat of terrorism, I am generally nervous about flying, because it means putting my life in the hands of pilots and mechanics and equipment and weather -- all of which I have no ability to control. The threat of terrorism -- whether from a bin Laden disciple or an angry employee or a Libyan fanatic or an American militant -- the threat of terrorism adds one more thing to fantasize as I am imagining someone trying to go through the big mess on my desk or as I think about what I should have changed in my will. If I am sitting in the back of the plane, I recall the DC10 that had the rear engine blow out; if I am near the front, I remember the big hole in the front of a Hawaiian plane. Or I hear my husband Chuck saying, "You should always sit in the rear, because a plane never backs into a mountain."
Review of my life
Seriously (actually I am being serious even as I make fun of myself) -- seriously, I do not board a plane without fear. It is subtle -- a sort of review of my life. I may think, "Is this trip worth risking my life for?" Generally the answer is no, but there I am. Because if I didn't get on the plane, I would be giving in to the fear; I would be its hostage. I would give up the freedom to travel long distances in a matter of hours. And with that freedom, other freedoms would be eroded, as well.
There are measures that can and should be taken to reduce the risks of terror in the sky and elsewhere. I advocate taking some of them. By all means, pass legislation against handguns and other weapons that are designed to kill people. Tighten up security at the borders. Smoke out the known perpetrators of hate. And spend more money for sophisticated detection devices in major airports. But don't expect any legislation or any detection devices to address the real problem. Not unless you can legislate against hatred and detect the wounds deep in the hearts of righteous fanatics.
As for the effectiveness of airport security, one writer sums it up when he says that increasing security measures against terrorists puts the country in the position of "a giant trying to swat a gnat." Learn to detect metal, and they make bombs of plastic; learn to detect plastic and they will use wax. Confiscate pocketknives and they will use a box of matches.
If we put our faith in legislation or technology, we are putting our faith in fear itself.
If we expect government to get control of the problem, then we invite government to get control of us. John Adams once said that "fear is the foundation of most governments." It is most assuredly the foundation of all oppressive governments.
And if we allow ourselves to become hostages to fear, we infect our children with nameless terror.
A way of life
David Grossman is an Israeli who has lived in the shadow of terrorism. He describes a way of life in which you are surrounded by your protectors -- guards at every corner, alarm buttons in schools, searches and roadblocks, phone taps, secret arrests. A typical excuse for shooting someone is to say, "Oops, I thought he was a terrorist." In the shadow of terrorism, you become more racist. We know how that works: Just ask any Muslim how he or she felt after the Oklahoma City explosion. Ask them how they feel now.
Terrorism, he tells us, "always succeeds because the very act of fighting it and adjusting (your) life to it slowly distorts all that is dear and humane." As a hostage of fear, you develop the "wisdom of the survivor who does not even know how much a prisoner he (or she) is to (the) struggle for survival."
Grossman concludes, "The price we pay" for a high level of security in Israel is "our humanity." The soul -- the soul of every single person -- "gets cloaked in harshness and callousness."
Amen. Amen. Amen. This is a very high price, indeed. As Lance Morrow says, "Disaster sends us looking for the devil." Our anxiety creates "a kind of low-grade moral infection" because we do not know exactly what evil we are up against. And the more we project that evil out there on our enemy, the more that moral infection weakens our spirits and the spirit of our country.
Fear itself: nameless, unreasoning terror. Witch hunts in Salem. Depression panic. McCarthy inquisitions. Hysteria and cruelty to people living with AIDS. Internment of Japanese-American citizens. Hate crimes against Jewish-Americans, against homosexuals, against African Americans. Hate-crimes against Muslim-Americans, Sikhs and anyone who looks vaguely Middle Eastern.
This fear is a moral infection, a social dis-ease, and our democracy is not immune. It infects each of us an individuals and it infects us as a country. It kills the human spirit. I'm not exaggerating. That's exactly what it does. And it destroys human community.
Antidote to fear
The antidote to fear is not increased security. The antidote to fear is an extraordinary kind of love. Agape. Divine love. Spiritual power. Martin Luther King Jr. said this kind of love seeks to preserve and create community. It is not passive and it does not deny the rage that demands justice. It is the power that fueled the American Civil Rights Movement and the power that ended Apartheid in South Africa. This power is soul-force, the same nonviolent method of response that Mahatma Gandhi called ahimsa and used to dismantle institutionalized racism in India.
At the core of their teachings was one pure and vital principle, common to their Christian and Hindu faiths: Do not return violence with violence. As Martin Luther King Jr., put it, "Let no man pull you so low as to hate him." Standing in the rubble where his own home had been bombed, he said, "We want to love our enemies." Surely he must have been angry and afraid, but he said that the fear of death was overcome by loving something more. There is room in love for anger; there is not room in love for violence.
Fear is a normal, healthy human response -- a survival mechanism. It can teach you reasonable caution or create walls of prejudice and distrust between you and others. It can alert you to danger or provoke you to engage in violent behavior. It can spur you to inform your children wisely about dangers in the world or it can cause you to frighten them unnecessarily. Fear can open your heart to your human vulnerability or imprison you inside of yourself. If you allow yourself to become a hostage to fear -- to be pulled so low as to hate or to become violent -- you give power to the fear-mongers; you concede your integrity to that minority of people whose betrayal or violent behavior will terrorize your heart and cut you off from the resources of human community.
Name it
The only thing I know to do with fear is name it. Name what you feel it doing to you. Name what freedoms it has taken away from you. Look fear in the face. Stare it down.
Let fear teach you reasonable caution, but do not allow it to create walls of prejudice and distrust.
Let fear make you alert to danger, but do not allow it to make you violent.
Let fear spur you to inform and protect your children, but do not allow it to make you frighten them.
Let fear inspire you to lobby for decisive international action, but do not allow it to make you divisive.
Let fear open your heart to your human vulnerability, but do not allow it to imprison you inside of yourself.
The great secret of democracy, says David Grossman, is that in order to have a democratic, safe, serene way of life, we need a lot of good will. Invite goodwill wherever you can. Start in your own neighborhood, where anyone who is Arab or Egyptian or Iranian or Muslim may be afraid to go outside their own home.
And forget about trying to control things. You can't. You can't control what a disturbed person or a religious fanatic will do. So do what you can.
Nurture gratitude and reverence for life. If you live it, others will too. It really does work that way. Take time every day to see something beautiful, to marvel at the extravagant beauty of Autumn, to give thanks for family or food or running water. Give thanks for your child's ready tears and easy laughter, your lover's familiar wrinkles, for your own aching or aging body. Give thanks for this incredible gift of life that is unfair and unpredictable and cannot ever, ever be safe.
And remember that fear kills the Spirit. Love heals it. Love casts out fear.
In fear, we isolate ourselves from others.
In love, we connect with others.
In fear, we become immobilized.
In love, we are empowered to act.
In fear, we judge others.
In love, we seek justice.
In fear, we distrust.
In love, we trust.
In fear, we seek punishment.
In love, we seek mercy and forgiveness.
In fear, we see death.
In love, we see life.
In fear, we retreat.
In love, we reach out.
Let us respond to this crisis of our times with love.
Let us reach out.
Sarah York, a Unitarian Universalist minister for 19 years, delivered this sermon as the guest minister at the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Boone, N.C. She is the author of Remembering Well: Rituals for Celebrating Life and Mourning Death, Pilgrim Heart: The Inner Journey Home, and Into the Wilderness. Information about Ms. York and her books is available on her website, www.sarahyork.com
Copyright © 2001 Sarah York