June July 2016 Disturbance in the Vitality Field

June July 2016 Disturbance in the Vitality Field

Brussels airport bombed by ISIL
Orlando nightclub massacre
Istanbul airport entrance bombed
Police Shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling
Dallas officers shot
France truck driver ploughs down dozens

In the 30-40 days previous to this writing, there have been 6 news events that caused major dislocations in the world's sense of safety and stability. With the Republican National Convention just around the corner, may God forbid another paroxysm of violence: Black Lives Matter against White Me 

First. However that confrontation works out, the forces of polarization are afoot: the dogs of war are running. Sunni vs. Shia, billionaires vs. gig economy workers, atheists vs. believers, conservatives vs. progressives.

As the world nears a tipping point, which way will you go?

Irresistibly, those in the center politically are being pulled to the extremes. As poorly educated and willfully ignorant people move to the forefront of American politics and world leadership, the questions of how to live a life of decency and compassion are brought up more urgently. The great dramatist Shakespeare presented this as Hamlet's dilemma: whether to bear "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them."

This is the dilemma now facing moderates in America and the world.

Taking arms seems to be a choice anyone might think of today. With more guns than people, the United States is the country where obtaining firearms is easy. Gun advocates urge everyone to have one. But those who own and carry guns don't seem to be safer, they seem to be in more danger. The danger is deeper than physical, carrying a gun causes violence to the soul. For to carry means to clean, to load, to shoot, to practice violence.

No less, the practice of brutal gory violence in movies and gaming causes harm to the individual spirit and so the fabric of the neighborhood. It's far too late to control violence around us, but must we continue to submit to watching it for entertainment?

Whether or not to own and maintain a modern weapon is a decision more of us will face. Is the potential risk of death by firearm greater for those who own a gun? Is the cost of owning the means to easily trigger the death of a fellow human worth the effort and anxiety it brings? Will those who own guns, on the average, survive better than those who don't?

There is a way to study violence without succumbing to its gruesome internal lust. 

"Harmony with vital energy" is the study of how to neutralize violent force through turning it against itself.

This way is to align with the part of the human self that is beyond cause and effect, and to practice defusing violence. To give ones life in this practice is a possibility worth considering.

It's time for gun owners and those who resist gun violence to move beyond the fault line. Everyone who shoots and everyone who bans guns from their life can practice "Harmony with Vital Energy."