i thought about dropping roses and lilies and marigolds. Chocolate. Maybe truffles from Belgium. These would float down from the air and soften the hearts of all those men with guns. Surely, this is what is needed to cure the radical mind. A show of tenderness and affection. A show of force doesn’t work- the planes dropping bombs.
Force creates counter-force. It is a basic law of physics. Bombing Islamic State causes Islamic state to bomb us. Unless...Unless...Unless, this cycle is broken. So, how do we do that?
Dr. David Hawkins deduced that power is greater than force. What is the difference between power and force? Power creates win-win. Love and compassion are two of the highest ranking powers. Is it possible to beat terrorists with that? It seems to me that it’s worth a try.
The question is, how can we harness power to overcome the evil of Islamic State and other extremist and terrorist groups? How do we, effectively, defeat the dark side in non-violent ways? Without going to the dark side ourselves? Where is Yoda now?
It seems to me that it is up to us to find the Yoda within ourselves.
My friend and director of the Healing Touch program, Cynthia Hutchison, spoke to me about the “knowing glance.” When we look at someone who has committed a wrong or harmful action with the “knowing glance,” it is an act of recognition which banishes evil. It has nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. It must flee.
Hildegard von Bingen, a twelfth-century Benedictine abbess from Germany, wrote about casting a net around evil. Just catching it and containing it, i imagine, trapping it so it can not go free.
Buddha spoke about transforming our pain and suffering into love and compassion.
These seem to me like useful stepping stones on this path of achievement. Peaceful strategy is new territory to charter. Do we have the consciousness to do it?
What i know for sure is that to strike with flowers and chocolates rather than bullets and bombs would be the greatest surprise attack ever. Imagine this raining down from the sky. How would it not soften the hardened heart?
The next round could be candles and pomegranates. Maybe we leave baskets of baguette and brie with bottles of wine outside the door. Suddenly we are no longer the enemy. How could we be? We are now a friend.
We have be-friended the dark with light. The dark can no longer exist. It has been illuminated.
I say shower the terrorists with hand knitted pillows and blankets made by our grandmothers. Teddy bears. Music and meditation CDs from John Lennon and Deepak Chopra. This is a way to Victory. This is a peaceful strategy to win war with Terrorism.
Love and kindness. Love and kindness. Like a beating drum....This may be the best way to infiltrate the radicalization process and the radicalized mind.