¨Polarity Responses

[Charles Clasen, Training Path]

Dear all,

Thank you for all the heartfelt, moving and inspirational postings. As it happened, on Sep 11,  I only found out about the unfolding calamity because of the postings on this list that came in while I was working.
 
But: I am increasingly bewildered the way this Camino list is becoming a shouting ground for sometimes conflicting opinions about the atrocities on Sep 11.  Is this the best we can do? Is the way(/camino?) Where are we trying to get to? Is there anything our experience of the Camino can show us?

One thing which the Camino showed me was the uselessness of my carefully cultivated hobby of righteous indignation. There were plenty of events that triggered it, but I saw as never before that it only does me harm and never resolves the situation positively....

What applies to trivial incidents in an individual's life may hold good for the enormous event in which we are all plunged, and maybe the lesson is the same, only this time the world's fate is at risk.

The choice: an eye for an eye, or turning the other cheek?

Those who follow Christ have the example of an innocent man put most cruelly to death - and who chose not to defend himself. 

There is dignity, transformation, growth in absorbing the cruelty and injustice of others - if we can do it. It takes it out of the loop, stops the escalation. But can we do it? Some say that is what we are here for, and doing so empowers the soul.

A middle way lies in understanding. Ultimately, to understand is to agree. Sometimes it is too easy and convenient to come to conclusions, including the ones about Good and Evil.

As for justice, is it possible? 

'Know your enemy'  The irony of the present moment is that we do not. Could it be within?

And many, looking back in their lives, see that where they suffered most, they grew most.

May God Bless us ALL (It probably makes the job easier if enough of us pray for this!)

Love and peace - despite everything            Charles Clasen

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