A radio show interviewer ask if I really am a pacifist, didn’t I believe all violence and war wrong? That appeared logical since I advocated forgiving anyone of anything. Logically it follows to never be violent in any circumstance, but I knew that not true of me at least in my current level of spiritual development. Something seemed awfully right about tracking down the Hamas folks and stopping them from killing children. Corralling those folks was not going to happen through prayer and meditation. Or perhaps it could happen, if my ego wasn’t running the world. So what do I do with that? The truth is I support the soldiers who are trying to stop these people from killing. I also support those who speak for the aspirations of people everywhere even of terrorists. I can’t bring myself to hate the terrorists and yet I think it is ultimately peaceful to stop them.
Would I fight to protect my family? Yes.
Yet killing is just another extreme example of fear in response to the appearance of attack—all part of the grand illusion our minds weave for us. Does that mean we should ignore the fact that a child was murdered by his mother or an old man was shot in Afghanistan. No, just overlook the specialness of it, the opportunity for special justification, special guilt, and special hate. These terrible incidents remind us to forgive more and turn everything to love. Each of us no matter what our station in life, professional, homemaker, inmate, solder are all the same. When we meet each other on the battlefield in the Middle East or in the supermarket, we can recognize who we talk to—another child of God, another member of the Christ, another brother of Buddha, his leg, his arm, his heart.
Then we’re free from judgment. We no longer have to figure out who’s right or wrong. Instead we know what’s right for us and see our brother as so thoroughly part of us that we would have no need to judge his actions. This would certainly make violence unnecessary under all circumstances.
So an approach to dealing with images of violence on television, on our streets and in our own minds is to look softly with a forgiving eye upon the person involved no matter what they’ve done. We are all making decisions under insane circumstances in this world.
Pray for the American soldier, then pray for the Israeli soldier, pray for the young man who joined Hamas because he thought God wanted him to, pray for the child murdered by his mother, then prayer for the mother, pray for the police officer killed in the line of duty then pray for the man who shot him. Pray for the family whose house was invaded then pray for the armed robber. We pray for those responsible for hurting others not because we approve or condone their behavior, nor to rescue them from the consequences for their action but because we want to free them and us from our judgment, because we want to see what the power of love can do.
Join me; let’s unleash the power of love.
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