Dear Spiritual Companions,

I recently read that President Obama was speaking to a group of students in Virginia.  He was asked this question by one of the students, “If you could choose anyone in history to have dinner with, alive or dead, who would you choose?”  The President thought for a couple of minutes and responded, “Gandhi.”  Rather surprising.  Not President Abraham Lincoln or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but rather Gandhi.  I am very encouraged by his answer.  I have been a pacifist for the majority of my adult life.  I was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and worked in a Hospital for two years to fulfill my service obligation.  I could not bring myself to killing another human being or supporting such efforts.  This came from my reltionship with Jesus and his encouragement to turn the other cheek and to do good for harm.  Gandhi built his non-violence approach partly on his reading of the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount of Jesus.  What an interesting revelation of who President Obama is.

In the Bhagavad Gita there are some interesting stories that lead up to the opening verses.  In one of the stories Duryodhana and Arjuna come to Krishna to request help in their war.  Krishna gives them a choice.  Either they can choose an army of 200,000 warriors equal in strength to Krishna or Krishna who will not fight.  Because Arjuna was seen first he was given first choice.  He choose Krishna.  Duryodhana was delighted.  Who do you think President Obama would choose and putting this in the context of Christianity would it be Jesus who wouldn’t fight or all of our weapons.  Not a bad thing to discuss with Gandhi.  Going a step further who would we choose?  Or would we support President Obama if he decided to not fight?  My hunch would be most of us would choose the warriors.

The key to me is not in the choice, but what is behind the choice.  If you are still with me let’s take a look at what is going on behind the scenes in our hearts.  What is it within us that needs an army and bombs to protect us?  What are we looking for from this kind of lifestyle?  I believe what is important is to admit that we are afraid.  If we deny this and keep our fears in the darkness we will continue to walk through life unconscious.  Now we can seek our inner fears to see what is driving us to all of our crazy actions or non-actions.  Wars are first and foremost fought inside of us.  Jesus and all of the spiritual leaders have spent considerable time on their inner journey so they could see why their outer journey was evolving the way it was.  For example, if I am afraid of what you can do to me I will be defensive or offensive with you.  If I am not fearful I can accept you as you are and not have to fight you.  Who you are is no longer a threat even if you are different than me.

I am encouraged by President Obama’s choice of Gandhi because he was inner driven.  If he wanted to change the world he always began with himself.  A mother once brought a child to him because she was frustrated with her son’s eating habits.  It seemed he loved sweets.  She asked Gandhi to talk with him.  Gandhi told the Mom to bring him back in a week.  When she brought him back Gandhi talked with him and things seemed to improve.  The Mom thanked Gandhi and then asked why he had to wait a week.  Gandhi replied that he had to give up sweets first before he could know what was going on with her son.  He had to know what it felt like to not eat something before he could chat with him.  War will never end until we get in touch with our fears so we can be open to the fears of others, which maybe very similar to ours.  It may seem easier to fight someone else to impose our will, but in truth the minute we turn our back they go back to the way it was before.  If on the other hand if we work to get to know what is going on in our lives we will want to also know what is going on in theirs.

President Obama recently ended the missile shield plan for Eastern Europe that President Bush started during his presidency.  Some leader said that Obama was giving into the Russians at the expense of security.  The Russians responded by acknowledging the President’s act by saying they were going to reduce their missile program.  At the same time they are also going to look into their support of Iran, which just happens to be one of our major concerns.  Sounds like the spirit of Gandhi might actually be helping the world to change a bit.  Is everything fixed?  Of course not, but there seems to be a different more Godly approach that is being tried. Maybe our inner fears might even lessen, but we will never know until we face what they are.  By doing that we might become aware of leaders who scare us into acting in support of unhealthy human approaches versus those who aren’t trying to manipulate us by playing on our fears.

Just a spiritual thought.

Peace

Gary