Not Celebrating

‎"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." ~ Martin Luther King Jr

I for one am not celebrating in the death of Bin Laden. I am not really sure I am glad he is dead, not glad about the way he died. Yes he was a murderous evil man and caused the deaths of thousand, non-Muslims and Muslims, he was the one who is responsible for the horror of 9/11, a tragic day burned into my memory. I have a spiritual belief which deep down inside says killing is wrong even the killing of ones enemies.

Are we justified in our blood lust dance? Does our blood lust differ from his and his followers? Do we have the right to think we are superior or our cause is superior? I personally don't think so. For one thing all living organisms are intertwined, we all require the same air, water and earth for survival. I am the same as you, as the flower, the fish, the bird etc. For another, who I am I to play God or Divine what ever? Do I have the right to say and know who has the right to live and the right to die. There are people in the world who would say I should die or be imprisoned for my beliefs, hell there are people in this country who would imprison or censor me for my beliefs. I can't justify the being happy about the killing of another just because I perceive them to be spiritually or socially inferior to myself or my country.

Bin Laden's death will not stop the killings, it will not end the war on terrorist. No many more innocent people will die. Many more American service men and women will die. As a veteran, who served 20 years, my heart goes out to my brothers and sisters in arms. I never wanted to see them experience the horrors of war to begin with and still want them safe at home ASAP. Some how some way, the world needs to address the underlying cause for all the hatred, hatred which has lead to the senseless killings. The world has been at war since the dawn of time, war is the one thing our heightened intelligence has failed to eradicate.

As I have grown in my spiritual practices, I am more aware of how my own ignorance and prejudices shaped the big ME of self. Bit by bit I chisel away at the views which keep me from showing true compassion and loving kindness. I do my best not to sit in judgement of others, I am not God. I am a simple being among other beings, other living organisms. People laugh at me because I don't kill insects for no reason, granted the mosquito sucking my blood is a goner and an over abundance of flies in the house fall to a swatter but I do my best to leave them alone, we have repellents for such pest. I have a fondness for spiders because they are natures own controllers of obnoxious pest. When I look deeply at the interdependence of all living things, I try and see how we can coexist with each other. When I pull a weed from my garden, the weed decomposes and returns as food for the grass where I throw it. What I am fumbling to say is; I am learning to cherish all life. Yes I still eat meat so I have not given up my selfishness on this, nor have I stopped smoking another act of selfishness.

From the recovery side of justifying the celebration of the death of an enemy I reflect on what the Big Book says about resentments. " It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die.

If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison."

I can't pick and choose who deserves my anger and who doesn't. A resentment is a resentment, whether it is against a murder, my sister or my neighbor. If my spirit is darkened by resentments then I am blocking out the sunlight of the spirit, sunlight which can be used to benefit others. Could my anger at a world figure cause me not to smile at the sad cashier or the person I encounter who is having a rough day and really could use a friend smile and greeting from a stranger? I believe it can. If my eyes are the window to my soul, shouldn't I do my best to make my soul shine from them, to use spiritual tools to wipe away the grime and smugs of anger and resentment.

I am saddened by all the hoopla and celebration of Bin Laden's death. I read post on Facebook by friends in recovery and people who regularly post pro-religious messages and wonder what part of the message of spiritual living are they missing. I know this is judgmental of me. I am saddened by most of the news articles also. A few of the 9/11 families have written post saying they are not happy about the hoopla either, that an eye for an eye will not bring back their loved ones and are sadden the death of their loved ones has brought only more death and destruction. I am saddened by the message we are sending out to our youth. How can we create a future of peace with more violence? We can't teach love and hatred at the same time, it has to be one or the other. What would Jesus, Buddha, Saint Francis think about all of this? I think I know what Gandhi and John Lennon would be saying, Dr. King is quoted above so there is no speculation about him.

I wish I had some answers for the troubles of the world but I don't. I am not perfect either. I do what I can to humbly voice my simple opinion on issues which trouble my heart and I don't expect agreement. This celebration will pass, like everything else it is impermanent. We will all find another issue to obsess about soon, maybe Lindsey Lohan, Donald Trump or Charlie Sheen will do some more stupid shit to divert our attention away from the reality of world suffering.

Thanks for allowing me to express myself. I wrote this because writing this stuff out brings me a bit more peace.

My prayers to out to all who are suffering tonight. To a special blogger friend who has found it necessary to end her blog, she will be missed but knows she is loved my many.

Namaste

Scott

You may say I am dreamer

Well I didn’t think I would be writing this soon again but it is flippin dead at work and I need something to keep me occupied for another hour. So here are some thoughts or a thought that has been running through my mind this afternoon.

I wish there was a way to get everyone to listen to and follow Thich Nhat Hanh teachings. Yah I am extremely bias to his teachings, I love the man’s writings, and he has such a wonderful way of explaining things. He is very humble and understanding. Thay not only teaches the Dharma, he also talks a lot about Jesus of Nazareth and his true message. Why do I want people to read or listen to the words of Thich Nhat Hanh? Because this world we live in is sorely lacking in compassion, loving kindness and tolerance. Today at work there was a video email going around, the email was Ted Nugent spouting off about killing people and such, total intolerance, now grant it Ted Nugent is a complete horses ass and should be taken with a grain of salt but the fact was people were praising what Nugent had to say. I spoke my peace and said that violence was not the solution and it would only create more violence and suffering for everyone, needless to say I was scoffed at. Yes folks I am a weenie liberal pacifist, although one who spent 21 years serving in the armed forces, so I don’t know anything. I hear all this intolerance and it really can make a person sick, Rush Limbaugh the king of intolerant talk radio often gets played on the radio, my boss calls the virtual players in computer Hearts vulgar names. Different co-works often step into my office, I share it with my boss, they say degrading things about other workers, engineering or upper management. If only the media would replace the barrage of intolerant talking heads with people like Thay, I don’t care what religion they are or aren’t as long as they talked about the alternative to violence and intolerance, maybe after awhile some of the message would start to sink through the ignorance of the people who gobble up hatred and fear. It really is sad you know. And if just isn’t the right wing doing this, the left is just as guilty and in the name of Right View I had to stop reading or watching intolerant liberals. We are the fortunate ones, those of us who understand that intolerance is unhealthy for us and creates spiritual sickness. I raise my coffee cup to my Christian, Buddhist, Pagan, Islamic, Jewish, Naturalist, agnostic and the rest, brothers and sisters who live their lives in peace and do their best to show the rest of the world how to live via example. We don’t have to preach, we can simply state our beliefs without getting into a fight, short sweet and to the point. We carry loving kindness and compassion around inside of us and it shows on the outside with the people we encounter daily. This is something Thay has instilled in me, but it has been there all along, via my early encounters with Jesus and Native American shaman, it just took reading and listening to him to awaken the understand and show me the true sense of it all. There is no way to change the world, the media and people in general over night but maybe tiny steps can be made if we join together in unity for the good of our world and it’s future.

Yeah you can start playing John Lennon now, “you may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one, I hope some day you’ll join us and the world will live as one”

For what it’s worth those are my thought right now.
Peace Love and Light
Scott