The following messages were received in response to my comments in the last postcard about the tragedies of 11 September 2001. I wrote: Dear friends of life, I don't know how the civilized world is going to limit the destructiveness of the fundamentalist zealots found in every faith, but it seems to me that controlling the most extreme forms of violent religious expression must become a political and social priority from this moment on. Freedom of religion can no longer mean that any of us has the right to limit the freedom of others to practice whatever religion they happen to have chosen or been born into... even when it is the "wrong" faith. We all have a right to make our own mistakes. Forcing others to conform to our particular view of religious "truth" must be wiped from the face of the earth... and soon. Many friends have sent me published commentaries and personal thoughts
on the current disaster facing the world. I'd like to share some of them
(without attribution as I haven't asked permission). Dear Fred, it has been a very difficult and painful week with images
that keep coming to mind. One of the best things I have read is from the
Dalai Lama. You may have already seen it but if not here is a copy. Dear friends around the world, The events of this day cause every thinking person to stop their daily lives, whatever is going on in them and to ponder deeply the larger questions of life. We search again for not only the meaning of life, but the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have created it-and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate ourselves anew as a human species, so that we will never treat each other this way again. The hour has come for us to demonstrate at the highest level our most extraordinary thought about Who We Really Are. There are two possible responses to what has occurred today. The first comes from love, the second from fear. If we come from fear we may panic and do things-as individuals and as nations-that could only cause further damage. If we come from love we will find refuge and strength, even as we provide it to others. This is the moment of your ministry. This is the time of teaching. What you teach at this time, through your every word and action right now will remain as indelible lessons in the hearts and minds of those whose lives you touch, both now, and for years to come. We will set the course for tomorrow, today. At this hour. In this moment. Let us seek not to pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause. Unless we take this time to look at the cause of our experience, we will never remove ourselves from the experiences it creates... Instead, we will forever live in fear of retribution from those within the human family who feel aggrieved, and, likewise, seek retribution from them. To us the reasons are clear. We have not learned the most basic human lessons. We have not remembered the most basic human truths. We have not understood the most basic spiritual wisdom. In short, we have not been listening to God, and because we have not, we watch ourselves do ungodly things. The message we hear from all sources of truth is clear: We are all one. That is a message the human race has largely ignored. Forgetting this truth is the only cause of hatred and war, and the way to remember is simple: Love, this and every moment. If we could love even those who have attacked us, and seek to understand why they have done so, what then would be our response? Yet if we meet negativity with negativity, rage with rage, attack with attack, what then will be the outcome? These are the questions that are placed before the human race today. They are the questions we have failed to answer for thousands of years. Failure to answer them now could eliminate the need to answer them at all. If we want the beauty of the world that we have co-created to be experienced by our children and our children's children, we will have to become spiritual activists right here, right now, and cause that to happen. We must choose to be at cause in the matter. So, talk with God today. Ask God for help, for counsel and advice for insight and for strength and for inner peace and for deep wisdom. Ask God on this day to show us how to show up in the world in a way that will cause the world itself to change. And join all those people around the world who are praying right now, adding your Light to the Light that dispels all fear. That is the challenge that is placed before every thinking person today. Today the human soul asks the question: What can I do to preserve the beauty and the wonder of our world and to eliminate the anger and hatred-and the disparity that inevitably causes it - in that part of the world which I touch? Please seek to answer that question today, with all the magnificence that is You. What can you to TODAY...at this very moment? A central teaching in most spiritual traditions is: What you wish to experience, provide for another. Look to see, now, what it is you wish to experience-in your own life, and in the world. Then see if there is another for whom you may be the source of that. If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another. If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe. If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand. If you wish to heal your own sadness of anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another. Those others are waiting for you now. They are looking to you for guidance, for help, for courage, for strength, for understanding and love. My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. Dalai Lama Forwarded by MM in Santa Barbara On the Bombings, by Noam Chomsky The terrorist attacks were major atrocities. In scale they may not reach the level of many others, for example, Clinton's bombing of the Sudan with no credible pretext, destroying half its pharmaceutical supplies and killing unknown numbers of people (no one knows, because the US blocked an inquiry at the UN and no one cares to pursue it). Not to speak of much worse cases, which easily come to mind. But that this was a horrendous crime is not in doubt. The primary victims, as usual, were working people: janitors, secretaries, firemen, etc. It is likely to prove to be a crushing blow to Palestinians and other poor and oppressed people. It is also likely to lead to harsh security controls, with many possible ramifications for undermining civil liberties and internal freedom. The events reveal, dramatically, the foolishness of the project of "missile defense." As has been obvious all along, and pointed out repeatedly by strategic analysts, if anyone wants to cause immense damage in the US, including weapons of mass destruction, they are highly unlikely to launch a missile attack, thus guaranteeing their immediate destruction. There are innumerable easier ways that are basically unstoppable. But today's events will, very likely, be exploited to increase the pressure to develop these systems and put them into place. "Defense" is a thin cover for plans for militarization of space, and with good PR, even the flimsiest arguments will carry some weight among a frightened public. In short, the crime is a gift to the hard jingoist right, those who hope to use force to control their domains. That is even putting aside the likely US actions, and what they will trigger -- possibly more attacks like this one, or worse. The prospects ahead are even more ominous than they appeared to be before the latest atrocities. As to how to react, we have a choice. We can express justified horror; we can seek to understand what may have led to the crimes, which means making an effort to enter the minds of the likely perpetrators. If we choose the latter course, we can do no better, I think, than to listen to the words of Robert Fisk, whose direct knowledge and insight into affairs of the region is unmatched after many years of distinguished reporting. Describing, "The wickedness and awesome cruelty of a crushed and humiliated people," he writes, "this is not the war of democracy versus terror that the world will be asked to believe in the coming days. It is also about American missiles [given to Israel] smashing into Palestinian homes and US helicopters firing missiles into a Lebanese ambulance in 1996 and American shells crashing into a village called Qana and about a Lebanese militia -- paid and uniformed by America's Israeli ally -- hacking and raping and murdering their way through refugee camps." And much more. Again, we have a choice: we may try to understand, or refuse to do so; contributing to the likelihood that much worse lies ahead. -- Noam Chomsky from TC in Santa Barbara And from BM (Santa Barbara) a web site offering other published perspectives on the current crisis. And an exchange with another friend: ... Of course, nothing can save us from our craziness. I'm reminded of
the classic experiment with a small group of breeding rats introduced into
an ideal, but limited habitat. Eventually they produced so many of
themselves they began fighting and eventually turned to cannibalism!
You've got to wonder how long it will be before we start eating one
another. How prophetic! I trust you did hear the news about today's 4 airplane hijackings and suicidal crashes into New York City's World Trade Center and into the Pentagon. Somehow it doesn't seem surprising to me; the inevitability of the "rest of the world" getting mad enough to attack the USA has been apparent to me for decades. What makes me mad is the media hype/support of the government 'hawks' who are raising the hue and cry to 'punish' those responsible! It is so stupid as to be laughable that such a great preponderance of people here and around the world can't see the problem with killing other people to 'right the wrong' of killings that have happened... And the media just love the resulting feeding frenzy. So I shake my head and return to the work of creating and maintaining peace in my own spirit, and send best wishes for the same for you and others. Shalom, JT Washington State My Dear American Friends, I have been out of town for more than 10 days. I apologize for trying to get in touch with you this late. During these days I did not have much access to the Internet but have been watching CNN continuously in great shock. We are all so saddened and distressed about the attack. Whatever has happened in the US is beyond anyone's imagination. In light of the sad events that occurred I wish to extend my condolences to the American public and those affected in the US atrocities. I am deeply sharing your feelings. I do hope that you, your friends and family members are all safe and ok. Please drop me a few lines some time at your convenience. I believe that this is a matter of humanity, not a matter of nationality or religion. For a better world we need to fight together and humanity will win. SY, a Muslim friend in Istanbul, Turkey FRED: LA Times says South Africa has 27,000 murders each year. They even beat us. I'm reading the Koran in Italian. Very interesting. Bin Laden gave another interview recently in which he pretty clearly explicates the point he has been making all along, which we have been ignoring all along, rightly or wrongly, which is: "Americans, get out of the Middle East, and especially out of Israel and the Moslem countries." It all seems pretty simple and obvious to me: if the oil were not there, we would not be there, and they would not be here. At bottom, as Plato says, "All wars are about money." That seems a reasonable explanation to me, from my life's experience. In spite of all the tragedy, I see this whole event having some positive effects. People, world wide, are really communicating more, and are exhibiting more love and compassion, along with the hatred, for each other than I observed prior to Sept. 11. Have fun, EG in Santa Barbara Dear Fred, I have just made up an African fable, about a lion that was bitten on the ass by a wasp. He whirled, and struck out, and snapped but he could not find the wasp. He therefore declared war on all of the wasps in the world. I hope that my country is not a lion, at least, not that dumb of a lion, but I have real fears. I worry that we can be either an empire or a republic, and that we can have either safety or freedom, and I really don't believe that it is possible for us to have all four. I Love You, and My Country. AS in Washington State There were other thoughtful messages following the New York-Washington tragedies, but these gave me special jolts of understanding and provoked me to ponder in uncommon ways. Hope some of them will add to your own understanding of the interesting times in which we live. Peace, Fred
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