Cohousing-L Mailing List: The Deeper Wound

[aamato (aamato]

I've been getting some e-mail on the spiritual responses to the tragedy.  Here
is one of the most interesting ones, from Deepak Chopra.  A fellow co-houser
suggested I send it along.
 Peacefully,
 Anna Amato
 Takoma Village, Washington, DC

 The Deeper Wound

     As fate would have it, I was leaving New York on  a jet flight that took
 off 45 minutes before the unthinkable  happened.
     By the time we landed in Detroit, chaos had  broken out. When I grasped the
  fact that American security had broken down so  tragically, I couldn't
 respond at first.
      My wife and son were also in the air on separate  flights, one to Los
 Angeles,
 one to San Diego.  My body went absolutely rigid with fear. All I could think
 about was their safety, and it took several hours before I found  out that
 their flights
  had been diverted and both were  safe.
     Strangely, when the good news came, my body  still felt that it had been
 hit by a truck.  Of its own accord it seemed to feel a far greater trauma
 that reached  out to the thousands who would not survive and the tens of
 thousands  who would survive only to live through months and years of  hell.
     And I asked  myself,  Why didn't I feel this way  last week?   Why didn't
 my body
 go stiff during the bombing of Iraq or  Bosnia?
     Around the world my horror and worry are  experienced every day.
 Mothers weep over horrendous loss,  civilians are bombed mercilessly,
 refugees are ripped from any sense of  home or homeland.
      Why did I not feel their anguish enough to call a halt  to it?
     As we hear the calls for tightened American  security and a fierce military
 response to terrorism, it is obvious  that none of us has any answers.
     However, we feel compelled to ask  some questions.

 Everything has  a cause, so we have to ask,
 What  was the root cause of this evil?

 We must find out not superficially but at the  deepest level.
  There is no doubt that such evil is  alive all around the world and is even
 celebrated.

 Does this evil grow from the  suffering and anguish felt by people we don't
 know and therefore ignore?

 Have they lived in this condition for a long  time?
 One assumes that whoever did this attack feels implacable hatred  for
 America.

 Why were we  selected to be the focus of suffering around the  world?

 All this hatred and anguish seems to have  religion at its basis.
 Isn't something terribly wrong  when jihads and wars develop in the name of
 God?
 Isn't God invoked with hatred  in Ireland, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan,
 Israel, Palestine, and even  among the intolerant sects of America?

 Can any military response make  the slightest difference in the underlying
 cause?

 Is there not a deep wound at the heart  of humanity?

 If there is a deep wound, doesn't it affect everyone?

 When  generations of suffering respond with bombs,
 suicidal attacks, and biological  warfare,

 Who  first developed these weapons?

 Who  sells them?

 Who gave birth to the  satanic technologies now being turned against  us?

 If all of us are wounded, will  revenge work?

 Will punishment in any  form toward anyone
  solve the wound or aggravate  it?

 Will an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and limb for  a limb,
 leave us all blind, toothless and  crippled?

 Tribal warfare  has been going on for two thousand years and has now been
 magnified  globally.
 Can tribal warfare be brought to an  end?

 Is patriotism and nationalism even  relevant anymore,
 or is this  another form of tribalism?

 What are you and I as persons going to do about what  is happening?

 Can we afford to let the deeper wound fester any  longer?

 Everyone is calling this an attack on America, but is it not a rift in our
 collective  soul?

  Isn't this an attack on civilization from  without that is also from within?

 When we have secured our safety once more and  cared for the wounded, after
 the period of shock and mourning is over,  it will be time for soul
 searching. I only hope that these  questions are confronted with the deepest
 spiritual intent.  None of us will feel safe again behind the shield of
 military  might and stockpiled arsenals.

 There can  be no safety until the root cause is faced.
 In this moment of  shock I don't think anyone of us has the answers.
 It is imperative that we pray and  offer solace and help to each other.

 But if you and I  are having a single thought of violence or hatred against
 anyone
 in the world at this moment, we are  contributing to the wounding of the world.

 Love,

 Deepak Chopra, M.D.


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