In a world changing so quickly. there is an ever-growing importance to look at where we are, where we've been, and where we are going. If you can't see the change you wish to see in the world, how can you expect it to happen?
So the question becomes, what do you want to see?
If you have no vision, maybe it will work out, maybe it won't. Maybe we we will just drift aimlessly through life, unable to effect any positive change.
On a day like this one, we have to live with yet another shocking story of a mass shooting, and we can't help but to wonder why. But instead of focusing our energies on preventing such madness, I want to offer an alternative. Fill your heart with love. Fill it with compassion and forgiveness. Try to understand that things happen as a result of their causes. This is the law of Kamma (Karma).
What then, is the cause of such madness? Who can say for sure! It's probably not as simple as being able to blame one thing, one movie or video game, one genre of music, one abusive figure, one haunting memory. If we could easily say what caused these things, and we could change that cause, then by all means, let's do it. But the truth is, we can't do that. There are just too many factors here, and it seems like a waste of time and energy to make speculations and point fingers.
Let's look to the future.
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
The change starts with you. If you are waiting for everyone else to change, it's never going to happen. You have to believe that by opening your own heart, you are doing your part. Even if you can't see how that is going to make a difference, it will.
Do you envision a world with more security guards, cameras and surveillance everywhere? Locked doors and buildings and checkpoints and having to be searched TSA style to even get into a mall or a school? Do you want to be patted down before you go see a movie? More gates, more guard dogs, more alarm systems?
Although this is not a competition, this is allowing those who commit such acts of hate against us to win. This is them getting under our skin. This is us on our knees, weak, with our spirits crippled.
So when we use wise contemplative reflection to see what has happened, we see a recent past full of blood-shed. When we use wise observational analysis of where we are, we see a system that lives in fear, a system that breeds hate through hatred. We see a system that has changed, and we wonder what happened. And when we use wise speculative projection to see where we are going, now we have a choice.
Do we want to increase security measures, lock everything down, and live in a world of fear? Or do we want to live in a world of love, with one global family, taking responsibility for our weakest links. When you honor the goodness is others, that is what you get. But we seem quick to point fingers and see "them" as so much different from "us." But what is the difference? Are we all not humans? Do we not have blood pumping through our hearts? Are "they" born killers, or were they driven to act with such cruelty.
I personally believe in the goodness of humankind, and will continue to make changes in my own heart, opening up with compassion for ALL, not just those who I choose as being worthy. If we separate, if we isolate, we might as well bar the windows and the doors, stock-pile the weapons, and hide our families in fear. Might as well spring for the bullet-proof glass while we're at it.
The past is gone, but here in the present moment is when we have an opportunity to lay the framework for the future. I hope, for the sake of the children and all others who have died for seemingly no reason, that we choose to love one another, to acknowledge that the fundamental change needs to start within our own hearts, and then, and only then, can we pave the way for a brighter future.
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