Gazing in the Mirror

October 28 - Shifting Away From Violence

There is a subconscious way
of taking violence as a way of
expression, as a normality, and
it has a lot of effects in the
youth in the way they absorb
education and what they hope
to get out of life.
~ Salma Hayek

Consequently, no person who is
enlightened would seek to use
this law destructively; for he
would know that, sooner or later,
the very power set in motion by
himself would ultimately destroy him.
~ Ernest Holmes

All my life I've heard of times from long, long ago when warriors gathered around the central fire to re-live their glories of battle. However I also do personally believe in a time "before" that was so. Perhaps it is only a dream, a myth. I think there was an innocent time when people didn't need to defend themselves from other people though there were still the dangers of wild animals and acts of nature. I feel that war is very counterproductive to quality of life but other people do seem to believe that war is a way for them to create change. Whether war is productive or not it has been a huge part of human life for so very long.

Efforts to initiate and promote peace go back almost as far as war-like behaviors. For 6,000 years mankind has attempted to shift our civilizations toward peace only to fall into a warring mode once again. At the first millennium, violence in Europe had reached such extreme proportions that the Roman Catholic Church sought to alter the situation with a Peace of God concept that succeeded only in protecting the church's wealth and priests and perhaps some of its parishioners. There were religious orders formed early on with Peace as a central tenet of their faith – the Mennonites, Anabaptists, Unitarians and Quakers. There were many peace movements in Europe from 1843 until the start of World War I. Then it was hoped that was "the war to end all war" but of course history teaches us that did not happen and so we then had World War II and of course other wars since then.

How do people move beyond fear to discover a deep enough sense of security so that the frequency of war and cruelty among men can actually come to an end ? This is one of the blessings of learning about metaphysics. As one comes to recognize how their mind actually does out-picture into events one becomes more careful with their thinking. The practitioner learns that there is no such thing as an idle word.

For example, consider the interaction of a human being with a very aggressive and ferocious dog on a chain. Some people ARE able to interact with that dog without being harmed by it. Even when skewed and damaged regarding its perspective that human beings present a danger to the animal, it is the nature of the dog to seek men it can also trust and be befriended by. To be vicious and dangerous is not actually the nature of a dog, not even the original nature of dogs bred to inflict harm on living beings. So a person with calm energy and love for that dog will be interpreted correctly as a "friend" by that dog. This cannot be faked, the dog knows the actual energy imprint. Unfortunately a dog can interpret the energy of fear as indicating danger to itself. How can it not ? Through the long millennia of that species' existence a fearful reaction by man towards dog will tend to cause physical damage to that dog.

One must understand the inter-relatedness of all energies on this planet. Every person's energy does impact and affect other people. So that if a person "positively" controls the "nature" of their beliefs, thoughts, actions and most importantly their feelings in life affirming ways what the person will find is that their vibrational alignment is such that their lives begin to out-picture a prosperous and peaceful life, full of joy and pleasurable experiences. I have seen this shift in my own life as I have turned from the common perspectives of the mass of humanity and blazed my own path based upon what truly feels right and good to my deepest core. It is said that "those that live by the sword, die by the sword" and I believe that is truth. That is why there is but a little bit of difference between law enforcement officers and common criminals. It is simply two ends of a spectrum that creates a kind of wholeness with definite similarities.

The same can be said for those who are in the military. ALL veterans have my utmost compassion and understanding. It is the worldview that is "wrongful" towards the individuals that it uses. During the Gulf War with Iraq I will admit to being taken in by war justifying perspectives but when I mentioned it to my paternal grandfather (who was a veteran of the secret service for the United States stationed in Germany during WWII), he said a rather surprising thing to me. He said there is NO justification for war and I was convinced that he was correct about that because I knew he had been there and was totally passionate about "his cause" at the time he lived it. Now I say "let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me". I have to stop war in my own self. It is truly the only place it can end and if every person did that it would make a real difference. It would be a beautiful thing if this essay were to become meaningless to future generations. My heart would that it may prove to be so someday. And so it will be and is now. Peace is already real. All that discovering peace requires is an individual effort.

~ perspective

I understand deeply how what
I am at my core is what I see
reflected around me.
I know that if I do not like
what I am seeing, I must first
acknowledge it within my own
self and then I must release it
as a reality and see the illusion
it represents for what it is –
no thing.
All illusions are capable of
morphing, mutating and changing
into something else.
I take comfort in knowing that
regardless of everything else
that is going on in the world
around me, what I am experiencing
moment to moment can be of a
good quality that makes living
worthwhile.
My reality is what I believe it to
be and it will actually prove its
reality to me EVERY time.

#compassion #criminality #cruelty #energy #fear #peace #security #understanding #violence #war