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On this first anniversary of the murderous, terrorist attacks on the human beings in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon of September 11, 2001, there is an opportunity to make this a time of national reflection as a country and as members of humanity.
I listen to debates in the media on what actions our country should take in our "war on terrorism." I notice the simplistic "Good" vs. Evil" arguments and exhortations that deepen our sense of separation from "them," and plays upon our still present shock, fears and rage at the brutal violation of our sense of safety and insulation from the rest of the worlds pain and turmoil. Pundits and politicians urge us to launch our own righteous "jihad," and unconsciously invite us to become a mirror of "the enemy" by playing the same game of demonization that our attackers used to justify the horror that they committed on innocent men, women and children a year ago today. I watch us struggling with how to balance our concern for our individual rights and freedoms as citizens of a democracy, against the daily demands for national security. I observe that Osama has dropped out of our consciousness and focus as the Evil One the U.S. will hunt down and bring to justice (remember the promise that "he can run, but he cannot hide"?). His role has been given to another, as our country's leadership considers military action against the present Iraqi regime in what could be the first pre-emptive strike in the history of the United States.
With all this, and an economic downturn, too, it is imperative that we as a people include in the discussions about our future path the principles and practices found in the Wisdom traditions of East and West. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell had a transformational experience on the moon as he looked at the earth and realized that we were all ONE, that "there were no boundary lines on it." Our own view of ourselves and the world ---as separate or as one humanity --- will critically shape our choice of actions, and determine the future we create for ourselves and the generations that follow us.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) showed the possibility of putting the wisdom of Masters like Jesus, the Buddha, Lao-Tzu, and Hillel into action. In the application of his techniques for non-violent social action, first in South Africa, and then in India, Gandhi demonstrated to the world that there were ways to resolve conflicts creatively, while honoring the humanity of all beings. He was also one of the first to promote critical thinking regarding the appropriate use of technology. Under the leadership of men such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Gandhi's model for non-violent social transformation initiated enormous changes in our own country's civil rights laws for all our citizens.
Gandhi called his way, "The Law of Love." To live from it is not for the faint-hearted and fearful. To live from The Law of Love requires courage, commitment, compassion, and an open Heart.
I invite you to reflect on Gandhi's words below. They resonate deeply with our present need for creative, effective solutions and actions that demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the principles our country was founded upon. When we live and breath our "Self-evident" rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then they are not platitudes on a historical document; they are alive and well as a bright beacon of possibility for all human beings.
What would be possible if we incorporated the Law of Love of which Gandhi speaks?
-- Hal Isen
A Core Wisdom Quote
. . . Non-violence is a weapon of the strong. With the weak, it might easily be hypocrisy. Fear and love are contradictory terms. Love is reckless in giving away, oblivious as to what it gets in return. Love wrestles with the world as with itself and ultimately gains a mastery over all other feelings. My daily experience, as of those who are working with me, is that every problem would lend itself to solution if we were determined to make the law of truth and non-violence the law of life. For truth and non-violence are, to me, faces of the same coin.
Whether mankind will consciously follow the law of love I do not know. But that need not perturb us. The law will work, just as the law of gravitation will work whether we accept it or no. And just as a scientist will work wonders out of various applications of the laws of nature, even so a man who applies the law of love with scientific precision can work greater wonders. For the force of non-violence is infinitely more wonderful and subtle than the force of nature, like
for instance electricity.
The person who discovered for us the law of love was a far greater scientist than any of our modern scientists. Only our explorations have not gone far enough and so it is not possible for everyone to see all its workings. Such, at any rate, is the hallucination, if it is one, under which I am laboring. The more I work at this law, the more I feel the delight in life, the delight in the scheme of this universe. It gives me a peace and a meaning of the mysteries of nature that I have no power to describe.
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