Subject: people power and humanity's dream: We can make it work…if we care to.
What if God's dream were to become humanity's dream!
Safety cannot come with bigger weapons (to kill people with), sharper swords, cleverer political organizing or technology.It cannot come from hatred, force, manipulation, propaganda ,espionage/surveillance,and pre-emptive violence.
We've already tried that method and learned it doesn't work!
It's how we've gotten to where we are!
Combating evil with evil only leads to escalating evil.
Martin Luther King, Jr. put it well:
"Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder.-Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.
Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth.
Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate.
Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that."
"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers."
I appreciate that to many this solution seems laughable and unrealistic--the crazy, naive,utopian fantasy of poets and mystics--certainly not the way of generals,military advisors (who live for war),the military industry (for whom war and armaments are a lucrative livelihood),and some politicians who believe in violence/militarism(and lay waste the resources of the earth in their pursuit of military supremacy/dominance.U.S. defense budget is 3/4 trillion dollars)
as a legitimate problem-solving strategy for settling dispute and conflict(see "the military solution:giving war a chance").(Bush Doctrine:We will dominate the world by our superior military power)
But what’s actually crazy is what we’re doing and pursuing instead –- thinking, after all these millennia, that "might is right",that hate can conquer hate, war end war, pride overcome pride, violence end violence, revenge stop revenge, and exclusion create cohesion.Endlessly repeating the same behaviour yet somehow expecting a different result--is this not the definition of madness!?
Perhaps it is time to embrace a different paradigm rather than continueing in the same mindset that has filled the world with violence!
To change our habitual patterns of behaviour we must change the patterns of thought wch cause the behaviour.For our actions are but the outward manifestation of our thoughts!
If we want to change "the way of the world",we have to begin to think differently.We have to change the mindset that condones violence and war.
We have to oppose those who believe that power is gained and maintained at the point of a sword. We have to replace the pre-eminance of military strenght with moral strenght.
We can choose to cherish and nurture one another ,to cooperate in achieving common goals, or we can choose to kill each other.In other words ,if we do not choose to love each other we will end up killing each other.
None can avoid reaping the consequences of their actions. We will reap what we sow.
What kind of harvest are we planting!
If we want to be loved(respected,appreciated),we must love--it's the Golden Rule.
The war between good and evil has been going on forever.
It is upon the battlefield of each human heart that God
and the Devil (good and evil) contend for victory.
We create the world we want to live in through the exercise of our free will by
every choice that we make.
WE create our own enemies and our friends.
Such is the power of choice!: the rule of force vs the rule of love.
The choices we make will determine what we become!
Our actions today shape the future and the living world that we will pass on to our children.
We must be careful what we plant/sow ,because it will grow up!
Every action evokes a response. What kind of response do we want to elicit?!
The future is not something that just happens;
the future is something that we create!
What kind of world do we want to create,and are we willing to make the effort to make it real?! Are we doing our best to create the world we want?
We are here....six billion strong! We have the power and the means to change the world --to make it better!Do we care enuf to use this opportunity to help/serve/benefit our community and our fellow man? What kind of people do we want to become ? What kind of world do we want to leave behind for our children?
Why do we teach young children not to hit/fight and hurt others both physically and emotionally if as grown ups we are not willing to practice this teaching in our own behavior?
If it is okay to solve international conflicts between nation states by resorting to force/violence,why is it not equally acceptable to employ violence to solve interpersonal differences within the boundaries of a nation?
By using force against another ,we give them permission to use force against us in return.see "the normalization of violence"
Humans must learn to resolve their differences peacefully!
May we see the day when those who engage in war (who commit or profit from acts of war)as a means of resolving conflict will be tried and punished by a world court for committing war crimes (the crime of committing the atrocity of war)--as criminals who violate the sanctity of life!
No more crime,violence, or war
"They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation,neither will they learn war anymore."
--Isaiah 2:4
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May love and harmony prevail on earth.May we serve one another and live in peace. When the members of a family are divided there is conflict and misery.Discord and conflict are the result of an absence of love(mutual respect). But when there is unity there is happiness.Love is the greatest unifying force. Although we belong to different nationalities and religions and see the world through different eyes ,we are essentially One in Spirit and trace our origins to a common source(One parent).True religion unifies men through the affirmation of the same indwelling spirit in all. Peace cannot be achieved by politicians whose vision is distorted by narrow personal(self-serving)and national self-interests. Selfishness, pride and greed whether among individuals or nations can only cause misery for all.
Love limited to one's country,loyalty confined to one's race,religion,community,attachment to one's family and identification of Self with one's body,are all alike the offspring of ignorance wch confines us to a cage of smaller or bigger dimensions
Wars,religious conflicts,social injustice ,economic exploitation,and political tyrannies all spring from greed and selfishness born of the failure to realize the unity of all beings and creatures. All world teachers unanamously declare "oh man! If you want peace for yourself and others in the world,adjust your conduct to comply with the law of Love. Expand your vision and the boundaries of your identity so as to embrace all fellow beings. Rise above narrow creeds and personal or national interests and embrace the common interest of humanity.
We are called on(challenged) not only to think but to act beyond our existing/usual limits in order to effect a positive improvement in the condition of the world.
It is as simple as stretching to understand others.We are each unique and have a great deal to learn from one another.
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subject: love is the antidote to hatred(hatred instills fear;love instills security )--it's the law of the universe!
Thanks for the feedback and the invitation to your site!
I'm just trying to "keep 'em honest" ,"make 'em think" ,and bring Truth to the issues.
In the search for Truth we need to test the evidence,challenge the
official story, disclose concealed information ,and question
everything.
If we are dissatisfied with the state of the world and would like
to construct a better ,kinder,more loving world then there has to be a drastic
change in our way of thinking (and our core beliefs).Because all that we see happening in the world originates in the human mind!
Lets watch and see how the universe unfolds before us!
But basically the age-old argument is rather simple:
Hatred and the the ideology of hatred(retaliation, vengeance,pre-emptive aggression/violence )are eroding our peace, sense of security and threatening our survival (our capacity to live).
Hate cannot overcome /vanquish hatred,but only generates a spiral of
continueing and escalating hatred.Violent acts merely generate retaliatory violence.
We cannot solve the problem of terrorism by killing all those who hate.
The doctrine of pre-emption is based on faulty logic.
Only love (the Golden Rule is common to all the world's religions --the doctrine of
forgiveness,non-retaliation and pre-emptive kindness)can be victorious over hatred .All healing and reconciliation must begin with forgiveness!
If we want to decrease the amount of hatred in the world we must stop hating and start exercising our capacity to love.
The question is: What kind of world do we want to create for our children , and are
we willing to make the effort to make it real?!
If belief in the basic goodness of oneself and others makes for a better world then kindness is the only thing that makes sense.For it is kindness that calls forth the basic goodness of others! Love begets love!
This philosophy of living is as ancient as time. The reason it continues to survive as a formula for living is because it works!
It is a message for all times and all ages--a message never more needed than when righteousness declines and evil prevails in the world.
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"Hatred does not cease through hatred. Hatred ceases through love. This is the eternal law." --Buddha
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.
-The Buddha
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Retaliation is counter-poison and poison breeds more poison.
The nectar of Love alone can destroy the poison of hate.
-Mahatma Gandhi
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
-Mahatma Gandhi
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''The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, it has
been found difficult and left untried.'' -G.K. Chesterton
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"..Christians in the USA think Bush is a religious man.
I wonder what part of his policies they think reflect the teachings
of Jesus Christ?"
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Cross and Christians ,end to end, i examined. He was not on the
Cross. I went to the Hindu Temple , to the ancient pagoda. In none
of them there was any sign. To the heights of Herat I went and to
Kandhar, I looked. He was not on the elevation not on the low
lands. Resolutely I went to summit of the fabulous mountain of
Ka'af. There was only the dwelling of the Anqa bird.I went to Kaaba
at Mecca. He was not there. I asked him from Avicenna the
philosopher. he was beyond the range of Avicenna, I looked into my
own heart. In that place I saw him
He was in no other place.
Mevlana RUMI
kindness has the power to transform
Sworn enemies into firm friends.
And if there is healing of bad feeling,
There certainly will be less ill will,
Because kindness is the greatest of all balms.
- Rumi
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Love
Love makes bitter things sweet.
Love turns copper to gold.
With love dregs settle into clarity.
With love suffering ceases.
Love brings the dead back to life.
Love transforms the King into a slave.
Love is the consummation of Gnosis.
How could a fool sit on such a throne?
- Rumi
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An Impossible Dream?
Beyond all else, it is a story of the future, of something trying to happen, of a four-hundred-year-old age rattling in its deathbed as another struggles to be born -- a transformation of consciousness, culture, society, and institutions such as the world has never experienced.
It is written with deep conviction that it is far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism. In time such as these, it is no failure to fall short of realizing all that we might dream -- the failure is to fall short of dreaming all that we might realize.
We must try.
- - Dee Hock, introduction to Birth of the Chaordic Age
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Not to try is to be tormented for the rest of one's life by the feeling of having betrayed the earth, it's creatures ,and especially one's own soul!
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Imagine
You may say I'm a dreamer,
But I'm not the only one.
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as One.
--John Lennon
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Dare to hope for a better world!
