Martin Luther King understood a fundamental spiritual principle …. that what is inside us is reflected in our lives … we live out of the thoughts and energies that circle deep within our psyche, our spirit and our bodies. The sustained dislike I feel for another person eventually becomes the physical act of violence … maybe not by me but certainly by someone else to another! Every act of violence is first rooted in the collective turning away from each other, it becomes collective hatred, and eventually collective violence.
And it can also be traced back to the hatred & violence I feel for myself. I dislike parts of myself … either because I have been told directly or indirectly to hate them, or because I have absorbed enough shame & guilt from others that I begin to hate myself.
The ONLY antidote is LOVE & COMPASSION … firstly for myself … for those parts of me I have learned to shun and push away. I must draw them close with an embrace of forgiveness. Only when I have done this deep inner work of forgiveness for myself can I begin to forgive another … not to condone what they have done but to release the hatred I hold in my own heart. When I release the hatred & violence in my own heart … and if enough of us do this … I believe there will be a better chance of it being released in the collective!
Our world is wobbling on the brink in so many ways right now … those of us who consciously hold the light … we must dig deep! We must do this sacred deep inner work of reconciliation within ourselves before there is any chance of it being done in our outer world. We are being called right now to step up and shine our light … first on ourselves and then for those around us.
Martin Luther saw a powerful vision of the mountain top … and it is up to us and those who follow to go over to the promised land!
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