Spirituality and Violence in a 9-11 World.

There is an article on What is Enlightenment that I recommend everyone read. 

The title is, "Is God a Pacifist?". 
It's a pretty in-depth run down of various positions around peace,
religion, spirituality, in a way that both acknowledges the wish for
peace in every religion, but also acknowledges that every religion has
also been used to justify war. 
What is the response of an enlightened integral spirituality, to violence? 

How many enlightened beings were killed in Tibet, do you think, when
the Chines invaded over 50 years ago, and burned monasteries?  One
hundred?  One thousand? 

One of the "intuitive understandings" that nearly everyone goes through
during a spiritual awakening, is the sense of the Other as
yourself.  The union, oneness, non-separateness that is
true.  For me, at those "peak" moments, the ability to do harm is
ludicrous.  The metaphor that seems obvious is that it would be
like cutting off your own foot.  When I return to the small i,
however, and I'm on some dark street in the city, and a couple of
suspicious characters are coming towards me, I keep my calm.  But
if that same character starts harassing me, it is easy to notice that I
still have the "fight or flight" syndrome going on, in the body. 
The adrenalin washes over me, training kicks in, I go to stance and I'm
- ready.

This has only happened a couple of times, but the dichotomy is what's
fascinating.  Two hours previous, if not within the same hour, I
can be floating on the bliss, of a good meditation.  And it takes
only a dark night, a couple of shouted words, with fast movement
towards me, for the bliss and peace to turn into fight or flight.









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