A spiritual partner in
Las Vegas who knows how to create authentic power – who understands about
emotional pain and the destructive consequences that follow from acting on it –
was quiet and solemn. The terrible, senseless deaths, the deranged
murderer, the grieving of those still alive, the shock of an impending
nightmare become real and then gone, leaving a stunned silence filled with
disbelief, then anger, rage, depression – all the experiences of frightened
parts of the personality.
Our spiritual partner
has helped many people develop emotional awareness and make responsible choices
in difficult times. These are exactly the times when creating authentic
power is most needed and most fruitful. A time when conscious choices to
love, reach out, replace vengeance with compassion, and forgive are most
difficult, and the rewards for doing these things while the emotional pain is
greatest are the most freeing, unimaginable, and liberating.
All this presented
itself to our spiritual partner in Las Vegas, and it presents itself to
everyone day after day – when a death leaves us altered in ways we do not yet
understand, when violence imposes itself. These things were close to her
home because it was her neighbors, among others, who died and a neighbor who
killed them.
Everyday millions of
people suffer brutality and death – in sinking island nations, former colonies
in worn-ravaged Africa, and megacities around the world. Their suffering
is also close to home – our home. As our consciousness expands beyond the
limitations of the five senses, our home becomes very large and the people in
it become very close. Fear and death, love and blessing, self-service and
selfless service are close to home for all of us. Every suffering and
every joy is close to home.
The Lakota people say,
“The joy of one is the joy of all, and the suffering of one is the suffering of
all.” Everything that you do is close to home for everyone. Everything
that I do is close to home for everyone.
What shall we do with
this understanding?
Gary Zukav
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