{"id":4996,"date":"2013-04-18T16:21:23","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T20:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/?p=4996"},"modified":"2013-04-18T16:47:22","modified_gmt":"2013-04-18T20:47:22","slug":"how-to-stop-the-bombing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/?p=4996","title":{"rendered":"How to stop the bombing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The great sadness that enveloped the people of Boston and the participants in the Boston Marathon is the same great sadness that envelopes people everywhere in our global village.\u00a0 The two bombs that exploded in\u00a0Boston<\/strong>, USA, killed three people and injured 176; the bomb that exploded on that same day in\u00a0Mogadishu<\/strong>, Somalia, killed twenty people and injured more; and the\u00a0twenty<\/em>\u00a0bombs that exploded on that same day across Iraq in\u00a0Baghdad<\/strong>, Kirkuk, Tikrit, and three other cities killed 37 people and injured 140.\u00a0 One week earlier a bomb that exploded in rural\u00a0Afghanistan<\/strong>\u00a0killed 5 people,\u00a0and on that same day an American airstrike – another bomb – killed 10 children.\u00a0 All of these bombings had the same cause, created the same effect, and forced the same question upon us.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0cause<\/strong>\u00a0of these bombings was the pain of powerlessness, of feeling vulnerable and not being able to do anything about it, the pain of helplessness and hopelessness, the desperate need to feel superior, righteous, and powerful for at least a moment.\u00a0 It is a pain so deep and terrible that we push love aside without thought or regret in order to avoid it and shatter lives and bodies with satisfaction.\u00a0 Who among us has not felt the depths of this terrible pain and the magnetic attraction of anything that can mask it from us?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0effect<\/strong>\u00a0of these bombings is violence and destruction – emotional violence and destruction between family members, neighbors, and friends, and physical violence and destruction as well between nations and groups.\u00a0 Who among us is safe from it?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0question<\/strong>\u00a0that these bombings force upon us is: Why should I not seek vengeance?\u00a0 Why should I not tear out the hearts of those who have torn out mine?\u00a0 Why should I stand for love while others stand for violence and death?\u00a0 Why should I respond with compassion to those who have none?<\/p>\n

Two different understandings of\u00a0power<\/strong>\u00a0now present themselves to humankind.\u00a0 The first is the understanding of power as the ability to manipulate and control, the alignment of yourself with your time-bound personality, its five-sensory limitations, and its self-focused wants.\u00a0 This kind of power is the obsolete remnant of a dying human consciousness.\u00a0 The second is the understanding of power as the alignment of yourself with your\u00a0immortal, timeless soul\u00a0<\/strong>and its intentions –\u00a0humbleness, forgiveness, clarity,<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0love<\/strong>\u00a0– and the world that it longs to create of\u00a0harmony, cooperation, sharing<\/strong>, and\u00a0reverence for Life<\/strong>.\u00a0 This kind of power is now necessary for human evolution.\u00a0 Love is the energy of the soul.\u00a0 Fear is the energy of the personality.\u00a0 You must choose between them moment by moment.<\/p>\n

Now is the time to choose\u00a0love<\/strong>\u00a0instead of fear,\u00a0soul<\/strong>\u00a0instead of personality – now while the smoke is still settling over the finish line at the Boston Marathon, now while the wailing of Afghani mothers for their dead children still hangs in the air, now while innocents still suffer in Guantanamo and prisons around the world, now as you awaken to your\u00a0ability<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0responsibility<\/strong>\u00a0to transform the perception upon our planet of life as a cheap commodity into the perception of Life as\u00a0precious<\/strong>,\u00a0Life<\/strong>\u00a0as pervading everything that is.<\/p>\n

Now is the time to feel the pain and suffering of all the terrible, horrible, unfathomable experiences of our history – slavery,\u00a0holocaust,\u00a0massacres of Native peoples – and use them to cultivate within ourselves the\u00a0compassion<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0wisdom<\/strong>\u00a0that call to us now, that always call to us now, and act accordingly.<\/p>\n

That is how to stop the bombing.<\/p>\n

\"GaryZukav220\"(Gary Zukav’s\u00a0gentle presence, humor, and insightful wisdom have inspired millions to realize their soul\u2019s greatest potential. A master teacher and the eloquent author of four consecutive New York Times bestsellers, Gary is dedicated to the current extraordinary transformation in human consciousness \u2013 an unprecedented threshold in the human experience. This transformation is no less than a Revolution of the Soul, one that touches the heart of all humanity and is based on spiritual growth, conscious choices, and a deep celebration and reverence for Life.\u00a0His insight, thoughtful presence, and contagious enthusiasm have endeared Gary Zukav to millions of viewers through his 34 appearances on\u00a0The Oprah Winfrey Show. Six million copies of his books are in print and translations have been published in 32 languages. To find out more, please visit his website\u00a0The Seat of the Soul Institute<\/span><\/a><\/span>,\u00a0a source of\u00a0information, tools, support,\u00a0and\u00a0community,\u00a0as you explore, learn about, and create authentic power.)<\/em><\/p>\n

(If you would like to contribute an article you have authored to the Guest Column, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to\u00a0Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com<\/span><\/a><\/span>. Please label the topic: \u201cGuest Column.\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The great sadness that enveloped the people of Boston and the participants in the Boston Marathon is the same great sadness that envelopes people everywhere in our global village.\u00a0 The two bombs that exploded in\u00a0Boston, USA, killed three people and injured 176; the bomb that exploded on that same day in\u00a0Mogadishu, Somalia, killed twenty people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[1145,1144,1146,1130,1141,1142,1149,1147,1152,1151,1143,1148,1150],"class_list":["post-4996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-column","tag-afghanistan","tag-bghdad","tag-bostn","tag-boston-marathon","tag-gary-zukav","tag-how-to-stop-the-bombing","tag-kirkuk","tag-mogadishu","tag-power","tag-powerlessness","tag-seat-of-the-soul-institute","tag-somalia","tag-tikrit"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4996"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5016,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4996\/revisions\/5016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}