|
Millions of dollars for people starting a business, going to collage, or purchasing a house. We will write the grant for you!
Click here for details.
Rent Movies with Blockbuster Online(R)
40,000 DVD titles to choose from
No due dates ? no late fees
Unlimited rentals, FREE shipping
Tired of High Gas
Prices - Fill up your
gas tank at your favorite gas station!
Get FREE
Gas for One Year!
You Can Be a Full-Time Mom... and Still Have a Full-Time Income! Find out how this can work for you!
Hugs for Single Moms
Raising Boys Without Men
|
Single Mothers - Day-to-Day
Articles
The Peaceable
Response
A spirituality.com
commentary
I was surfing yesterday and found this fantastic
freebie online. It's for a completely free
subscription to Parents magazine. That's pretty
cool! I sign up for mine.
Get a free subscription to Parents Magazine!
================
People commit
offenses all the time. On the highway, in crowds,
at work—wherever people get together—there are
opportunities to cause and feel affronts. And,
many instinctively want to strike back. Movies,
TV, video games and such set up scenarios that
justify not only striking back, but doing it in an
overwhelming way. Even news reports often show
examples of “shock and awe” tactics, with people
trying to get even for atrocities by committing
even worse atrocities.
And yet, over
the centuries, in many societies, the ability to
control the reflex to retaliate has been presented
as a mark of maturity, even greatness. Originally
the Hebrew scripture’s “eye for eye” standard was
an attempt to keep people from going overboard
when striking back at an offender, making the
punishment equal to the offense and not more so.
But even that kind of moderation has evolved to a
more radical “love your enemies” standard that
many people around the world accept as a worthy
ideal.
Society
asks us to control our response.
Granted, it
isn’t always easy to love your enemy, especially
right after they’ve done something bad to you.
Sometimes a gut level emotional jolt pushes us to
strike back. Society asks us to control our
response, because it knows an impulse allowed to
operate freely eventually becomes a reflex that is
harder and harder to control. A destructive reflex
creates mayhem in society—and in the heart of the
person striking back. On the other hand, a loving
response often helps turn around offensive people
and situations and leads to feelings of well being
for all.
Some recent
examples on the world stage come to mind: The
Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South
Africa has been called a “miracle” for its role in
helping a society make a peaceful transition of
political power after decades of apartheid against
blacks. A few years before that, the Berlin Wall
came down without a shot being fired. And many
personal stories of forgiveness and victory over
revenge exist, smaller but no less important—some
of which can be read on this site.
Could it be
that a loving response is actually more natural
than an unloving one? Is it possible that at the
core of our being there’s a divinely imparted
purity, a goodness, a harmlessness that is the
source of the drive to be loving? Many people on a
spiritual path believe so. They claim the unloving
response is an imposition on our true nature,
something that in fact is a learned response
through repetition and example. This cultivated
negativity is the only thing that makes loving
one’s enemies difficult.
The
results are a spiritually progressive life.
When this bad habit is broken, when this imposed
attribute is lifted, the essentially good nature
of humankind is revealed and is allowed to govern
behavior. The good news is that the ability to
throw off impositions CAN be cultivated with
sincere desire and consistent practice, because
it’s inherent in us. And the results are a
spiritually progressive life, a more spontaneous
love, a more genuine forgiveness, a more
sustainable peace.
The practice of
spiritual study and quiet meditation or prayer
helps establish a basis for peace in the life of
anyone who takes the time to do it. Such practice
focuses thought on the underlying spiritual
harmony of all existence. Maintaining through
prayer a vision of existence as caused and
maintained by one supreme spiritual law of Love
strengthens our control in aggressive situations
and protects us from knee-jerk retaliation. It’s
inherent in our nature as the creations of Love.
Mary Baker Eddy, whose
ideas guide this site and the paths of many
spiritual seekers, had many occasions in her life
as a revolutionary thinker to apply the Christian
principle of loving one’s enemies. This led her to
conclude: “Love your enemies, or you will not lose
them; and if you love them, you will help to
reform them.”
It’s exciting to think
about a world full of reformed enemies. Making
love our response is the first step. |
