Spiritual Activism

Are you looking for a way to participate in ending terrorism? Have you considered how you could act on your desires to contribute? Have you considered that the inner topography of your thoughts, words, emotions, beliefs, and intentions all contribute to shaping events? Do you want to make a difference?

Collectively, we make a difference with the commitment to maintain a consistency of effort. Once a day is a consistency of effort. Practicing more often is desirable, but this is a personal choice. All actions have personal and global implications. Each moment, each event, every thought, holds the potential to make a difference if utilized differently.

We can do this as we live our daily lives, and participate in ending terrorism. This participation is dual natured, simultaneously containing individual and global applications.

It is possible to stop terrorism and move beyond desires for revenge. One approach is through understanding opposites. Harmlessness is the antithesis of terrorism. Harmlessness is not soft, weak, nor ineffective, nor does it allow harm under any circumstance. It is strength and dedication, a steadfastness of intention that contributes to the creation of safety, ethical behavior, and healthy boundaries, with each successive application. It potentially moves into a state of being without reference to motives, anger, revenge, or justification. This goal is equally as rigorous and challenging in its desire to be, as terrorists are in their desire to torture, instill fear, inflict revenge, and hide.

We are responsible for our choices and their consequences, and we acknowledge that we cannot control events or another's choice. We choose to take responsibility in our daily life to lessen the effects of personal and global terrorism by monitoring our thoughts, words, emotions, actions and choices and aligning them with the opposite of terrorism: harmlessness.

We can stop terrorizing ourselves with fears over what we cannot control: feelings of powerlessness, fear, inevitability, torture or revenge, and take personal responsibility for ending the subtle ways we unconsciously discount ourselves. Subtle everyday terrorism does far more damage in people's lives than any terrorist. Spoken or unspoken, thought or imagined, wished for or deserved, conscious or otherwise, a desire to harm and the fear of being harmed are unconscious forms of terrorism we innocently subject ourselves and others to.

We unwillingly participate in terrorism whenever thoughts are intended to harm us, or another; whenever words are used to harm us, or another; whenever actions harm another or us. It is not compassionate to harm or to threaten harm with thoughts, words or actions. It is not harmless to discount yourself.

We can lessen terrorism by becoming aware of the acts of self-terrorism in which we unconsciously and unwittingly participate. With a few moments of practice each day, we can become more aware of our inner landscape. Before explaining what this looks like, and the how-to of application, it helps to keep in mind the image of a child learning to walk. Once a child begins to stand, momentary lapses do not discourage future efforts. The efforts continue until the desired goal is achieved. This type of innocent persistence supports success.

Consider the concept of the highest good. One way to define the highest good is as a quality, in this instance, the quality of harmlessness. The highest good could also be defined as compassion, but a foundational understanding is no harm.

Begin with whatever your concept of the highest good is, defined as a quality, not an event, and gradually align individual thoughts, emotions, choices, and actions with the highest good. At first, this may feel mechanical, but it becomes second nature with applied diligence and practice. When you forget, just begin again without self-recrimination. Judgment is neither harmless, nor is it compassion. This intention carries great strength. What you intend, happens. Practiced consistent intention produces results.

In a way, terrorists live within areas where we hide from ourselves. Individually, choose to be aware of your reasons when you choose not to align a thought, word, emotion, choice or action with the highest good. Examine the motivation and intent of your choices. Remember, you have to be as committed to your goals as the terrorists are to theirs. Practice, practice, practice, is integral to this anti-terrorist training.

Allow yourself to recognize the communication you offer yourself about the beliefs you hold, via the emotions you associate with a thought, word, choice, or event. You begin where you are and continue to move into better and more, through application and intention.

The simple practice of saying good-bye with the thought, energy, or words, "Be Safe" creates a space of safety. This is extremely powerful with children, adults, loved ones, and as an attitude held towards the warriors on the front line of saying no to terrorism. For example, try the phrase "be careful." Notice the differences in energy between them. "Be Safe" is also a starting point, able to stand on its own.

Globally, taking personal responsibility translates into the practice of aligning your thoughts, emotions, and words with the intention of the highest good. As you consider the threat of terrorism or the likelihood of war, remember this intention and align individual emotional, mental and verbal responses with this concept, even when thoughts or emotions do not want to go there. It softens conflict but does not remove it. This is not about imposing anyone's will on a situation or person, nor is it about control or anticipation of an outcome. We are contributing a quality - harmlessness - which softens and allows for the least harm for the most people on the planet and the planet itself. This last intention is powerful enough to use alone.

Globally, terrorists hide. Do not passively allow them to hide because you do not feel you can do anything. When thinking of terrorism or terrorists, see them being seen. See their intentions being recognized. See them being discovered. See them being prevented from harming anyone. Shine a brilliant spotlight on them. This approach is beyond linear thinking. It is actually the intent of harm that attracts to would-be terrorists this revealing light. Holding the intention of harmlessness, as a quality, empowers this exercise. Intention linked with harmlessness empowers all these exercises.

The ways terrorists communicate with each other are hidden. Intend that their communications be cut. See them within an impenetrable sphere that renders them simultaneously isolated and easily seen. Intend that their means of communication be discovered. It does not matter what image or images you use. See them alone, unable to communicate, vulnerable, and seen. What you intend happens. The intention of harmlessness allows no harm.

Recognize and acknowledge that there is no less harm being done when a Filipino, Israeli, Palestinian, or Arab, is killed, than when an American is killed. We are all in this together. All life is sacred, no matter the ethnic background of an individual. Soul is eternal, not ethnic.

Harmlessness is a quality of soul. Those who make a sustained effort contribute to their own soul growth while supporting the soul growth of all concerned. This effort can take many forms; it need only be maintained. Once a day, a few times a day, a few minutes a day, make the effort, for each effort makes a difference. It is better than sitting on the sidelines feeling like a victim.

By no means is this to suggest that bad things will not happen. We cannot control outcomes nor anticipate or predict future events. Taking personal responsibility is a choice. We can take responsibility for today, in the moment, or not. We can direct the strength of the combined energies of each of us towards a common goal, ending terrorism. Your participation helps. We rise or fall together. It is a collaborative effort.