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Opinion How To Stop The Bombing

Jan 6, 2005
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Metro-Vancouver, B.C., Canada
HOW TO STOP THE BOMBING

The great sadness that enveloped the people of Boston and the participants in the Boston Marathon is the same great sadness that envelopes people everywhere in our global village. The two bombs that exploded in Boston, USA, killed three people and injured 176; the bomb that exploded on that same day in Mogadishu, Somalia, killed twenty people and injured more; and the twenty bombs that exploded on that same day across Iraq in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tikrit, and three other cities killed 37 people and injured 140. One week earlier a bomb that exploded in rural Afghanistan killed 5 people, and on that same day an American airstrike - another bomb - killed 10 children. All of these bombings had the same cause, created the same effect, and forced the same question upon us.

The cause of these bombings was the pain of powerlessness, of feeling vulnerable and not being able to do anything about it, the pain of helplessness and hopelessness, the desperate need to feel superior, righteous, and powerful for at least a moment. It is a pain so deep and terrible that we push love aside without thought or regret in order to avoid it and shatter lives and bodies with satisfaction. Who among us has not felt the depths of this terrible pain and the magnetic attraction of anything that can mask it from us?

The effect of these bombings is violence and destruction - emotional violence and destruction between family members, neighbors, and friends, and physical violence and destruction as well between nations and groups. Who among us is safe from it?

The question that these bombings force upon us is: Why should I not seek vengeance? Why should I not tear out the hearts of those who have torn out mine? Why should I stand for love while others stand for violence and death? Why should I respond with compassion to those who have none?

Two different understandings of power now present themselves to humankind. The first is the understanding of power as the ability to manipulate and control, the alignment of yourself with your time-bound personality, its five-sensory limitations, and its self-focused wants. This kind of power is the obsolete remnant of a dying human consciousness. The second is the understanding of power as the alignment of yourself with your immortal, timeless soul and its intentions - humbleness, forgiveness, clarity, and love - and the world that it longs to create of harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life. This kind of power is now necessary for human evolution. Love is the energy of the soul. Fear is the energy of the personality. You must choose between them moment by moment.

Now is the time to choose love instead of fear, soul instead of personality - now while the smoke is still settling over the finish line at the Boston Marathon, now while the wailing of Afghani mothers for their dead children still hangs in the air, now while innocents still suffer in Guantanamo and prisons around the world, now as you awaken to your ability and responsibility to transform the perception upon our planet of life as a cheap commodity into the perception of Life as precious, Life as pervading everything that is.

Now is the time to feel the pain and suffering of all the terrible, horrible, unfathomable experiences of our history - slavery, holocaust, massacres of Native peoples - and use them to cultivate within ourselves the compassion and wisdom that call to us now, that always call to us now, and act accordingly.

That is how to stop the bombing.

Love,

Gary Zukav ( Seat of the Soul Institute )
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
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Jun 17, 2004
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Does the author of this article understand that those who feel love don't need this message. It is like preaching to the choir, to use a Christian metaphor. Empathy is a two way street. One loves and the other is open to receive the love.

People who carry out such deeds no longer feel. They are automatons, psychologically dead for a variety of reasons. Or they were sociopaths to begin with, for whom empathy is a word in the dictionary.

I don't have an answer. However, articles like these make only the author feel better.
 

spnadmin

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Jun 17, 2004
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You know this is not an easy problem to solve. How is that for a truism? The earliest recorded example of a biological weapon of mass destruction occurred when the Ottoman Turks lobbed a dead body infested with small pox over the walls of Constantinople, seat of the Byzantine empire. The city had survived a long siege. The rest is history.

Dystopic scenarios (inherently fictional anti-utopias as found in science fiction) have a way of becoming real. So either I buy into their reality and behave accordingly -- perhaps even like a fool. Or I don't -- and ignore the imminent danger -- again like a fool.

In this no-win scenario which stretches back into history, understanding, compassion, and even love are needed so that I can heal myself.

I have no illusions that I can heal either the Unibomber or the despairing souls who commit atrocities.
 

Luckysingh

Writer
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Dec 3, 2011
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You know this is not an easy problem to solve. How is that for a truism? The earliest recorded example of a biological weapon of mass destruction occurred when the Ottoman Turks lobbed a dead body infested with small pox over the walls of Constantinople, seat of the Byzantine empire. The city had survived a long siege. The rest is history.

That reminds me of how the European whiteman wiped out 90% of the Native Indians in North America !!
Blankets were accepted by the natives as signs of peace and friendship according to their traditions. However, the Europeans deliberately gave smallpox infested blankets to wipe them out after they learnt that even the common cold of the whiteman was fatal for the disease free Indians !
Can you believe the numbers that were wiped out ?- Near enough 90% I believe
 

Kanwaljit.Singh

Writer
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Jan 29, 2011
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Wow those who did so to aboriginal people, were not emotionally disconnected. They were simply doing business. I am sure many of them felt bad about it later.

Same for maker of a potato chips company, who pushed the consumers in a vicious circle of salt, fat (and sweet in other junk foods) to make exponential amounts of money. Now he regrets he has doomed health of a nation.

The more I read about such things, the more I realize people are selfish. That is why Guru Nanak asked us to think inwards and help outwards. That is why he said Ik Onkar. All creation is One.
 

chazSingh

Writer
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Feb 20, 2012
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Does the author of this article understand that those who feel love don't need this message. It is like preaching to the choir, to use a Christian metaphor. Empathy is a two way street. One loves and the other is open to receive the love.

People who carry out such deeds no longer feel. They are automatons, psychologically dead for a variety of reasons. Or they were sociopaths to begin with, for whom empathy is a word in the dictionary.

I don't have an answer. However, articles like these make only the author feel better.

Satnaam Ji,

I don't think the message is intended for the ones that feel love, compassion etc...

it's probably intended for the ones that are horrified by the event but after get fueled with anger, hate, revenge etc etc etc.

there were probably similar articles after the 9/11 attacks and many other attacks...maybe just maybe some of the people that respond in hate and revenge after such incidents..maybe just maybe some of them read the article and it makes them think a little more about their own actions after such horrific events.


but the message still has to go out into the crowd...amongts the ones that feel love and are in control of their own actions, and the ones that think they feel love, but who's reactions are fuled by the 5 thieves.

just my thoughts
 

spnadmin

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Jun 17, 2004
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buddhashah ji

You make an excellent point and I hope your words are heeded by those who are fueled by hatred. Maybe such people will think twice. Let us pray they do.
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
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Well what would you tell the 19 and 26 year old brothers? That is an important question. What would the victim families want with the apprehended suspect #2?

That is a very important question. We have to wait to find out. But often victims and their families are wiling to forgive. Let's see where that takes us.
 

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