PRESIDENT BUSH CREATES BAD KARMA FOR OUR COUNTRY

This headline came to me during a sleepless spell last night.

I try to remain apolitical; to keep my mind on more spiritual issues. But politics sometimes comes creeping in. My lack of sleep might explain, partly, why at one o’clock in the morning I was thinking negative thoughts about George Bush. I was thinking about what an arrogant man our President is to manipulate the facts about the dangers posed by Iraq. Thoughts like these, I’m guessing, are probably fairly common amongst the citizens of our country.

But from this line of thinking, my mind sank a bit beneath the surface where I thought that the responsibility for the war in Iraq cannot be blamed solely on our President alone. It may seem that our President acted almost by himself in starting this war but because we, as citizens, are all connected as a country, it means that all of us must share in the responsibility for the war. Even though neither you nor I gave the order to fire the first shot, each of us being an American, is still culpable.

Moreover, the war in Iraq is part of our collective karma—our country’s karma.

I thought of all the people we—our country—have killed and wounded in Iraq in addition to those American and Coalition lives which were lost; the ones we see tallied up one or two or three at a time on television each morning. During a trip to Baghdad last year I witnessed the devastation from US air strikes and I can only imagine the destruction of human life—the screams, the loss of blood, the loss of lives and limbs that are also part of the war.

Who knows the real depth of pain and suffering we caused? I don’t. But I have learned that all the things that people do—both good and bad—are documented on a subtler, more cosmic level of existence called the Akash.

In the Akashic Records it will show, for all time and for all to see, that we started this war in the Middle East. The records may show that we thought we were doing the right thing—or perhaps it will show that we manipulated the facts for selfish gain. Only those who can read them will know.

What I do know it is that the records will show that I—a citizen of this country—didn’t do enough to try to stop the war—to try to keep the peace. So I, together with the President, must share in the responsibility for what has been done.

Perhaps even more important than that, is my duty as a citizen and as a human being to try to do the right thing from this day forward.