The Tsunami, Terrorism and Trusting the Timeless Angels
by Dr. Darryl Pokea

As our lessons transcend time and events, I begin this article with two very human quotes, one current from Asia, and one in the past from the United States. 

We have all witnessed the shattering of so many lives in the recent tsunami. Before this event, terrorism was a daily story presented as clusters of events of seemingly never-ending destruction. In Iraq, the land that historically was once the seat of civilization, people are attempting to live without painful remnants of the genocide of old regimes, a painful war, and the immediate terrorists/insurgents entanglements. There, simply living and being are disrupted daily as nearly instantaneous images are placed before our eyes of their painful struggles. 

All these images and the ones showing the effects of the tsunami, illustrate the intense need for peace and genuine desire to just live among so many of our fellow human beings. As videos and photos of these events are repeatedly brought to our minds, all of our religious and spiritual beliefs clatter and vibrate. We stutter as we attempt to express our thoughts and words in understanding these intense events that rattle all portions of our consciousness; particularly where we have any fixed illusions about our present very human condition. As deeply as earthquakes undulate through the surface around the earth's core, we are further shaken when the image of a tsunami's over-powering waves of motion flood our minds and bodies with so much emotion.

All our comfortable sets of coping routines and all our habitual activities, which we thought were secure, are rattled. As the tsunami shifted and altered landmasses, everything is shifting around the core of our human consciousness. All this profoundly redirects our attention both inwardly and outwardly. Now with the sunrise that begins each day, we must begin our reflection anew of who we think we are in both our personal and collective human experiences. All the dislocations and change, some sudden and some subtle, illuminates our minds and teaches us viscerally how alive our planet is as it nudges our human species to evolve.

We are all called to pause from thoughts and words as when we try to speak fluently about all that is happening to us, we stutter. We may fumble for words and then return to quiet reflection and let it be; that is all that is required in these moments. During our silent pause, we may observe all the parts of our own personal evolution that rises like the sun, following such intense reshaping of the earth and ourselves. We begin again to witness our valuing one another in our many flickers of light and courage as we realize again that the living earth hosts us.

Some people and many animals were attentive and attuned before the tsunami arrived. Perhaps we have been moving too quickly without reflecting on our actions and our deepest feelings. We all know, at some level of consciousness, that we may be moving mindlessly at times, consuming Mother Earth's life sustaining resources. Tsunami waves, moving at five hundred miles per hour, may be required to mirror to us what we ourselves have been doing and catch our attention. Have we forgotten to attend to our deepest feelings that surface that surround our inner core? Can we learn from all this that all the gyrations in the waters and waves of our emotional being require conscious attention so we do not end up needlessly hurting one another?

Through all this, Gaia (Earth) nudges our consciousness that we share with her. She is keeping us alive generously and courageously and with forgiveness. She is one in her being with our human species as our species has often neglected being fully connected with her. Now like the earthquakes around the earth's core, our own courage, generosity and forgiveness from inside our core are called to pour out. These virtues may touch wherever the tsunami waves have swept away human beings and plant and animal life. We are all made of the same stuff, all part of Creation, all part of Mother Earth. Her virtues remain constant over time though they sometimes flood us with waves and gyrations of intense emotion. This opens us to awaken again to the understanding that we do not realize what we do to her or one another.

We do not yet see terrorists responding with courage and generosity towards the many human beings in need, following the tsunami. In their group mind, they may view themselves as a set of teachers with lesson plans that violently disrupt, but teachers who are so self-occupied with generating fear, remain trapped in and through all their actions. Their mutilating and self-mutilating actions attempt to destroy civilizations and cultures, while the rest of us are just trying to live and evolve. Their own un-mastered fear within, keeps them generating fear without. For them, pseudo thoughts of mastery consume their conscience from being aware of anything else but "teaching the world their bitter lesson". Such fear-based teachings and destructive events that they plan, quickly dissolve in time; but they still pass their own pain deep within, onto others.

It is not unlike what many have been doing in ignoring the earth. We pollute it when we ignore the pollution in our own minds that has yet to be mastered. The terrorists, who ignore their own internal pain by promoting blame and shame, use many other innocent people, as a container for their unprocessed pain. All of us to some degree have used the earth as a container for our pain, much the same. Many are awakening to understanding again, that what we do to the earth, we do to ourselves, and what we do to one another, we do to ourselves. These lessons in our times are timeless and will survive in all our learning, transformation and evolution.

For the terrorists, the fear they generate and all the destructive events, which they inflict, will never be timeless. They are not able, as of yet, to participate in the learning, evolution and transformation that arise from all events affecting our species, including natural disasters. The earth-shaking event and huge waves of human emotion that all of us know deeply within ourselves, have not yet rattled them sufficiently to pause, stutter and reflect, even when the earth, violently provides the lesson for all her students.

We all must collectively remember that all of our civilizations and cultures may be imperfect, but all of earth's humans are generally making a continual effort to find their way again to a harmonized peaceful being. The Earth is forgiving even now for all our disharmonious rhythms with her, with each other, and with all forms of life on this living planet. 

There are other forms of covert (disguised) terrorism as well, sprinkled throughout our civilizations and cultures in these times. These terrorists also see themselves as the world's teacher. They too use the earth and other human beings as the container for their own internal pain as they continually pass pain into others. This terrorism takes the forms of first being trapped in themselves and then infectious greed and unrelenting abuse of power grows within them. The deep pain within, surrounding their inner core, remains unprocessed though it is outwardly expressed towards the planet and all of us. Those who participate in this form of terrorism, add to the troublesome events affecting everyone throughout our species. 

Most of us can easily witness that both forms of terrorism have no compassion or supportive response for anyone in these events, regardless if they, themselves, have contributed to or created them. They have no response either when disaster occurs in the rhythmic shifts and vibrations of our planet. All the many overt and covert forms of terrorism harm other people, even those, themselves, who practice its many forms as a way of life. All forms ignore the internal rhythms of life and the lives of everyone else and the planet.

As of yet, we can see no contribution from the terrorists towards the many people affected by the tsunami. With this event, many people within many nations show courageous caring that is lighting the paths for our species' evolution. Service, generosity, forgiveness and caring towards everyone affected, gives the paths illumination. As courage must awaken first in every one of us to embrace our own internal fears, the terrorists have an opportunity to follow the tsunami's wake up call. They too may learn to courageously embrace their own pain within and cease passing it onto others. Once they take their steps in beginning to do this, the deepest fear and conflicted thoughts within them, will start to fade and dissolve. They will no longer view everyone else as the enemy that they have not faced within.

The opportunity is here now, for them to turn their minds and begin constructive actions of generosity and service towards those devastated by the tsunami. Some covert terrorists are beginning to reconsider and look deeper within their self. Many are shifting their attention as the Earth helps all of us to shift ours. Some covert terrorists have returned to concern about their own healing by practicing generosity and service that is healing for others. They may continue their self-development by extending service and their resources generously, to all on our planet. There is plenty to attend to for the homeless, hungry, and destitute, who are unemployed and have little opportunity for education. Just as important to their curing their own poverty of spirit, is their recognizing spirit in all human beings and life on the planet, including our Earth, a living being. 

Covert terrorists must mourn what they have done that has contributed to pollution, the extinction of species, over consumption of earth's resources and global warming of our planet. They also must mourn the unequal distribution of wealth that leads to much poverty, unemployment, poor education, and loss of the opportunity to pursue happiness. As they mourn these effects from their previous life style that was dominated by poverty of spirit, they may reverse their spiritual debt and lesson the consequences of their previous actions and inactions.

All of us have these lessons and it is the same for all gatekeepers who may have become covert terrorists or overt terrorists. As they, like us, accept courage to embrace their fears within, great transformation may take place as sudden as the earthquake and tsunami. They may begin each day seeing the reflections of light in the desolation and devastation they participated in creating. Then they may begin to serve their fellow human beings and the Earth again. The antidote is simple and the same for all overt and covert terrorism. The remedy for the poison is the same for every human being, whether they are the perpetrator or the receiver:

Always Be Careful and in All Ways Be Filled With Care

From the core of each of our conscious being, we may know that the better angels in and throughout our species always remain. In the midst of all these seemingly unconscionable and devastating events, there are many throughout all of our nations and diverse cultures that contribute what they can, to lesson the pain and suffering. Such courage, caring, generosity and self-forgiveness, may not yet be possible for all the terrorists, but all these events invite them back to the classroom to learn and work through their attention deficits. 

The better angels of our human nature will never be destroyed by any tragic event as they remain timelessly within us. In (deed) as most of us are rattled, stutter, pause and reflect, the better angels of our nature always do come forward in wordless, careful and caring actions. We all can remember and learn again the lessons that follow all life events that may include the tsunami and overt and covert terrorists attacks. 

In his timeless inauguration words, Lincoln, both before and after the terrorizing events of his era, invited all human beings back to union. Perhaps we are opening our visiting hours again with timelessness as our visitor. The deepest rumbling and rattling are getting our attention, so we may consciously receive these deeper lessons already upon us in our evolution. Even with these most life shattering lessons, we may live the same union with all human beings, with all forms of being, and with our living planet, Earth.

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