9 /11 - let’s put an end to hateWe have all been moved by the events of the past week. The killing of Osama bin Laden has been a kind of watershed moment. I’m not very comfortable with all the jubilation but I can understand that many people want to express their feeling this way. My prayer is that it brings an end to all forms of hate and extremism and that it opens a new dialogue between America and the Arab world. We are moving towards time of great change and the more intolerance and hatred that is going around the harder that transition will be. I remember the time of the 9/11 bombings very well. I was living here in Dublin, Ireland, I had just moved into a new apartment, it’s probably safe to say I wasn’t in the greatest place mentally. This was before my own awakening, but I was probably in the spiritual supermarket. I remember that continuous image, played over and over, of the plane going into the first tower, then it coming down. And then the second one. All that billowing smoke and dust, you could almost taste it or smell it coming out of the tv screen. At first it was total disbelief. I was just numb all day. Everyone was in a glazy-eyed state. Here in Ireland there was sadness on the faces of everyone, people were crying, conspiracy theories were gaining momentum. No one knew how to channel their feelings or in what way to do so. I remember attending an ecumenical service a few days later. Shops and businesses closed down for a whole day, people wanted to do something, show solidarity, make some kind of statement or gesture that things weren’t the way they had been. For those actually in New York it must have been hell. The panic, the fear that raged through the streets. The terror that something worse may be about to happen, like it's the end of the world or something. All our primordial fears come to the surface. Victim consciousness too, why are they doing this to us, to me? Why do they hate us? It’s like a raw cut flesh wound, deep and lacerated. It feels like nothing can ease the pain at the time and that it will never end. Of course wounds do heal, and in time a semblance of normality returns. For those of course who lost loved ones the private hell continues. Then there are the reprisals that followed. And the further bombings in Bali, Madrid, London and India. Hate begets hate. It changed our lives completely. Airtravel became a much more hazardous task. I remember going to the States pre 9/11 and we were hardly even checked going through. A state of inner safety had been replaced by a state of fear. New legislation introduced in America appeared to infringe on civil liberties. Not to mention Guantanamo. Internment without due respect to the law didn’t work then, as it didn’t in Northern Ireland some decades earlier, in hasn’t work in Russia, it never will. Intolerance is ugly wherever it raises its head, be it Creationists who believe the world is only a few thousand years old, al-Qaida terrorism, Catholic Church cover up of child abuse. When we harbour hate and intolerance in our hearts this is what we get. And it’s not a new thing, we saw it down the ages, the Cathars, the Crusades, Salem witch trials, I could go on. I am aware that bin Laden didn’t represent most Moslems, at the heart of that faith is a belief in peace and a deep reverence for God. The Source of all life knows nothing about hate. When we indulge in hatred we are separating ourselves from the light, from love, from the Source. What we hate we hold on to. It will reappear in our lives, in some future, maybe a future life, not as a punishment, not because karma follows us around like a bad penny, but because we still have it. What you keep becomes part of your life. We are inseparable from our emotions. Let us remind ourselves in this very important moment of the Buddha’s words “Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed.” If you have memories, stories of 9/11 that you wish to share get in touch with me
here.
If anyone wishes I will be happy to publish their story on the site. Be peaceful. And may your God go with you. See also Resurrection for a slightly differrent look at the events of 9/11.
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