On June 13th, fifty mighty warriors laid down their lives to wake us up. This is an amazing sacrifice. Are we listening? It’s time to hold each other tight, so tight that the maddening rhetoric about hate and separation cannot sneak in. So tight that we all remember that the answer to every question and concern is always and only love. I thank all the brave souls and master teachers who gave their lives or limbs in Orlando, Florida that we might learn what that level of pain and hatred is capable of causing. They are asking us to search our own hearts and decide whether we will respond with more hatred or love, love for each of them…and, yes, even love for a tortured soul who gave in to his hatred and fear. There is only one answer and we must choose it together.
There have been master teachers throughout history. Hitler taught us what atrocities man is capable of inflicting on others. The terrorists are teaching us what killing looks like when religion or patriotism is an excuse. Politicians and some police are teaching us what the misuse of power looks like. People who lie are teaching us how we lie to ourselves and each other. People who betray us are teaching us how we betray ourselves.
Every person who betrays his or her integrity, who leaves his or her honor and truth to lie or harm is a grand teacher for us. That person has sacrificed this incarnation to be a bad guy, which takes infinitely more courage than being the good guy. Jesus went to Judas and thanked him for betraying him so that he could fulfill his purpose. These teachers who we often label evil, will return to work off their karma, or release the impact of their actions and decisions. And, they do this for us. But have we been listening?
What we have been dawn to, is the misuse of power, the illusion of control and the betrayal of boundaries and respect. We have seen this bad behavior as power itself, when in fact it’s not. Force is never power. True power does not require force. True power stands in integrity and chooses to do no harm. True power is not quiet, nor loud, it is gentle, compassionate and safe. It is not raucous and vile, accusatory or shaming. It does not create separation, instead it creates healing and unity. Any teaching or teacher filled with judgment, contempt or separation is not teaching from spirit or love. He or she is teaching from fear.
The way to silence that teaching is to stop giving it life and energy. Stop promoting it, supporting it or idolizing it. As my wise supervisor once said, “When you see trouble coming through the door, shut it if you don’t want trouble in your life.” We have no “fairness” obligation to support terror or violence in any way. We need to shut the door. Let these masters have their say. We get to stop listening. We get to empower that which we know is honorable and loving. Gandhi free a nation of 350 million people without a single act of violence. So can we.
The Daddy or the Mommy, the warrior or the savior who we keep looking for is in us. That is what all these teachers are trying to teach us. None of them have ever saved anyone. We can only save ourselves. How? By returning to the true character of our souls and standing in our integrity. We can’t play small any more. The stakes are simply too great. You know what truth, courage and integrity is and does. I know what truth courage and integrity is and does. Now we can stand with the spirits, all those throughout time, all those in Orlando, Paris, New York and everywhere in the world, who have role-modeled what courage looks like and how it acts and we can be their voice. Listen…the silence in the void of their lost voice is deafening, now we must fill it with ours. We must prove we are are listening, and their divine sacrifice is not in vain.
© Dr. Dina Bachelor Evan 2016. All rights reserved. No part of the intellectual property of Dr. Dina Evan may be reproduced, placed on mechanical retrieval system, transmitted in any form by electronic, video, laser, mechanical photocopy, recording means or otherwise in part or in whole, without written permission of the author. Contents are fully copyrighted and may not be owned by any other individual or organization.