All Paths to One Mountain Top

    Basic meditation instructions usually guide us to de-armor mentally, emotionally & physically, to allow us to open up to ultimate reality. We do this by: Relaxing (letting go of efforting); Simply "being" (letting go of "doing mode" - trying to control everything) - allowing the belly to soften, allowing the heart area to soften, allowing the mind to open (transcending habitual thought loops, must haves & must avoids). Part of us (our heart / right hemisphere) clearly wants to open up to ultimate reality.
    But another part of us (ego mind / left hemisphere) resists because we fear losing control & being overwhelmed by our shadow. This resistance is the main obstacle to peace & joy. Asking us to let go of our fearful avoidances, defensiveness & distractions is like asking a drowning person to let go of the scraps of wood they're hanging onto for dear life. We resist letting go as if our life depended on it. Our shadows are the scary-looking gargoyles "guarding" the entrance to holy places of transformation. Our usual "ordinary unhappiness" level of life does indeed depend on maintaining protective armoring; while our awakened life waits for us beyond this.
    One way or another, awakening out of universal human suffering involves learning to approach (rather than avoid), accept (rather than reject), and actually befriend & become intimate with our own personal "darkness" or shadow. And the result is transformational.

    “The process of unlocking your higher purpose is one of turning the authority of your mind over to your heart. This alone will transform your life.”
    Richard Rudd “The Gene Keys. Embracing Your Higher Purpose.” Watkins, 2009.

    Below, Richard Rudd's brief summary of his Gene Keys path towards Awakening :

    "Through the Gene Keys ... I’ve looked at DNA through a poet’s eyes, because I’m essentially a poet (which) means I attempt to live a poetic life and I see things poetically. And to see things poetically is to see beauty basically, in as many places as you can, especially in ugly places.
    And so we have to start by looking at the ugly places inside us, which in Gene Keys we call the shadow state. Everyone kind of knows these places. If you just close your eyes for a moment and think, ‘Where is the ugliest place inside me right now? Where’s the big challenge? What is it?’ And you know what it is, where it is, instantly. Somewhere something that you’re grappling with that is a grain in the oyster - that shadow pattern, which you are attempting to resolve, or trying to distract yourself from. 

    IF you give it space inside your being, IF you give it time, IF you allow it some compassion, IF you treat yourself gently, IF you watch it, IF you bring mindfulness & awareness to it, you will see it begin to transform. That’s the case with any shadow pattern, any victim pattern that we are playing out, going round-and-round in circles in the samsara loop.
    You have to recognize that this is the point of meditation, the point of contemplation. Contemplation is the word / technique I use, because it doesn’t necessarily involve closing our eyes – you can create the contemplative state, while doing absolutely anything in your daily life, and so through the art of contemplation, I teach how to bring that state, that interior awareness, into everything in your life, beginning by taking little pauses throughout your day so that you can begin to create that space. Lots of little pauses, interconnected, starts to create quite a lot of space, and it also creates more time throughout your day, which is an irony really, because you’re pausing, so you might think that you’re losing time, but actually you’re pumping time into your day. It’s a strange paradox, because you’re stopping, pausing. When I say pause, you can still be in motion. You’re pausing in your mind loops, in your struggles, your old patterns, so that you can see them clearly. And you’re creating space, compassion & gentleness around them.

    That begins to create this ... kind of flower which begins to open out of the shadow, out of the very thing that you’ve been avoiding, ends up being this great gift. 

    So in the Gene Keys are all 3 levels: the seed is the shadow; the flower is the gift that’s hidden in the seed & the shadow – every shadow, every difficulty in life is really asking us to do some alchemy. There’s something powerful in that. The most difficult thing in your life has the most potential if you have the courage to give it some space, and really look at it. You have to be authentic, so honest with yourself. That’s a process, and you might need support as well.
    And then the final aspect is the siddhi – a Sanskrit word, you could say Divine Essence, Divine Treasure. It’s the genetic enlightened expression of a specific part of your nature. So everyone, when they become fully awake, has a completely different expression. So when you look at the Gene Keys, there are 64 of them, and you look down the line of the language for the siddhis, you see all these words for compassion, rapture, ecstasy, perfection, beauty, humility … they’re all describing the same state, but through a slightly different lens. So understanding that every shadow contains one of those siddhis inside it, it’s hidden in there, it’s the fruit, in the seed. And you might think it's a long way away – the seed is tiny, and it’s going to grow into a tree, and it’s going to have to go through all this, and then you get this beautiful fruit, and the fruit of course contains another seed, which is a beautiful metaphor in itself. But that is in there, and that metaphor is life. 

    All you have to do, is create that contemplative space inside you, those pauses, so you can begin to look at these difficult patterns. That’s all the ancients actually ever taught. Now we can go off into quantum realities and describe it all ((as Robert Grant does in the earlier part of this interview)), but actually, it comes down to just that, just that mindfulness, just that spaciousness, so that the pattern has space to transform, and then it can transform really quickly as well. You can go from a seed to a tree really fast because awareness is the water, the nutrition & the nourishment that allows that whole process to happen, and then you’re left with this fruit, the juicy ecstasy of biting into this mango, or whatever your favourite fruit is.
    And it was there all along, that golden thread, that golden awareness, that awakening. It was there all along. It was in the numbers, it was just hidden in the thread, in the stream, and we just had to unlock it. And that’s what the Gene Keys are. And that’s what the Keys of Enoch were. And that’s what all these ancient teachings are about – the I Ching, Shakras, and the Vedic systems, the Kerala system, all the systems. You get to see the same golden thread in every single one, but just in a totally different way. Look at the Sufis in the Middle-Eastern deserts, they had more words for love than any other tradition. Like the Eskimos have different words for snow, the Sufis had different words for love – just layers and layers of different words to describe different aspects of love, because that’s all they wanted to see was love. There’s love that’s full of angst, desire & misery, but it’s still love. And then there’s love that’s at the highest level of divine annihilation and oneness with the cosmos – that’s also love. So it’s all about love ultimately. It begins with self-love.
    So creating space in your life through a contemplative practice, and I would say ultimately learning to be gentle with yourself is the greatest secret I’ve ever learned.
    And I learned one day ... what awakening is ... It’s a series of softenings. That went into me so deep. Wow. You just have to go on softening your heart, and then the mind opens, and everything begins to just kind of transform. And then those higher states are just there, are revealed, they’re underneath.” Richard Rudd
    “A Meeting of Brilliant Minds - Richard Rudd & Robert Grant on a Collective Awakening” - DejaBlu Ep109 https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/a-meeting-of-brilliant-minds-richard-rudd-robert/id1480169551?i=1000617036026

    An excellent free app to help practice the Gene Keys is: "Tripple Flame"

Discretionary Suffering?

    Many today are drowning in a dazzling array of challenges: burn-out from overwork / depression from unemployment; anxiety / boredom; overwhelmed by too many people / desperate loneliness; obesity / hunger; adrift in too much choice from wealth / imprisoned by poverty; etc.
    “The Buddha once spoke of what he called the eight worldly winds. Gain & loss, fame & disgrace, praise & blame, and pleasure & pain spin the world, he said, and the world spins after them.
    These eight winds blow through everyone’s lives, no matter how much we have meditated or how accomplished we have become. They challenge us endlessly: we instinctively recoil from the discomfort they create yet chase after the ego gratification they promise.
    The Buddha suggested that this (our recoiling / chasing reaction) ties us unnecessarily to the vagaries of worldly life. The eight winds come and go ceaselessly; as much as we try to pick and choose among them, it is impossible to have some without the others. While we cannot stop them, with enough foresight we can learn to relate to them differently. Desirable things do not have to beguile the mind, and undesirable ones do not have to bring endless resistance. We can let the winds blow through us instead of letting them buffet us about.” Mark Epstein, “How Meditation Failed Me” Tricycle 2022

    MOST of our suffering is "discretionary" - completely unnecessary according to Buddhism! We CAN: learn to gradually accept even the painful challenges that we can't change eg constant change, aging, sickness & death of even our closest loved ones & ourselves. We CAN: find the energy & courage to change the things we can & should. And we CAN: discover our innate wisdom to know the difference between what we can't change & must accept, and what we can & should change.

    Obtaining relief from the bulk of our suffering (as described above), demands radical acceptance! http://www.johnlovas.com/2022/06/too-beautiful-to-die.html

    We underestimate & overlook the EXTREME efforts SO MANY make in their FUTILE attempts to escape relentless suffering:
    • An estimated 703,000 people a year take their life around the world. For every suicide, there are likely 20 other people making a suicide attempt and many more have serious thoughts of suicide.
    • Overdose deaths remain a leading cause of injury-related death in the United States. The majority of overdose deaths involve opioids. 91,799 in the USA in 2020. 3,556 in Canada, between January & June of 2022 - approximately 20 deaths per day.
    • Addictions:
            Psychologists estimate that the prevalence of work addiction in Americans is 10%. Other estimates that range from 15–25% may include people who are committed workers rather than those who have a true addiction to work. Jun 3, 2022
            Chronic phone use is a recently developed form of addiction. The American Psychiatric Association does not officially recognize the condition. Still, it is acknowledged as a behavioral addiction by many medical professionals and researchers worldwide. According to several studies, over time, the devoted use of smartphones can alter and negatively impact an individual much like gambling. The devices are carefully designed to be hard to put down. Through its colors, sounds, & vibrations, the technology purposely keeps its users engaged. According to former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris, features like “pull to refresh” were inspired by slot machines & other casino games. Designers & engineers meticulously develop every aspect of the device to create fanatical users.
            Approximately 1 percent of the adult population in the United States has a severe gambling problem. The most recent research estimates that 6 to 9 percent of young people and young adults experience problems related to gambling -- a higher rate than among adults.
            About 10% of all adults admit to having an addiction to sexual content on the internet. This includes 17% of women. Officially, however, about 200,000 Americans meet the classification of porn addiction. Sep 13, 2022
            More than 5% of the population may suffer from food addiction, according to one study. Foods full of fat and sugar can supercharge the brain’s reward system similarly to the way addictive drugs do. They can override the brain’s normal ability to tell an individual to stop eating. When this happens, a person may want to eat more and more.
            Hoarding disorder is now a medically recognized mental health disorder and one which can be greatly affected by addiction. The overall prevalence of hoarding disorder is approximately 2.6%, with higher rates for people over 60 years old and people with other psychiatric diagnoses, especially anxiety and depression.
            More than 3 billion people play video games globally, including 214 million in the U.S. The World Health Organization reports that up to 3% of people who play video games have a video game addiction.
            Some extreme adventurers readily admit to being addicted to their very dangerous sports: "Something larger than you takes over. It’s mysterious and inexplicable. You need to go out there again and again to find it.” Maria Coffey (see below)

    Regarding the use of the term "addiction," one psychiatrist who specialized in treating addictions for over 25 years wrote that there's only a quantitative difference between those addicted to substances and the average person's clinging to the momentum of their sleep-walking life - ie most of us resist living a more consciously evolving life. Gerald May. "Addiction and Grace. Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions." HarperCollins, 1988.
    Even more pointedly, neuroscientist & professor of developmental psychology Mark Lewis PhD, argues that addiction is not a disease, but results from the motivated repetition of the same thoughts & behaviors until they become habitual. https://healthyhealers.blogspot.com/2015/08/addiction-not-disease.html

    "similarly to my alcoholism and addiction, I view depression and anxiety as the inevitable result of a consciousness that doesn't take time to turn inward & listen to what needs acceptance. My sanity, like my sobriety, is a daily reprieve born of effort & diligence, rather than a birthright. And, quite frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way." Josh Korda 

    Former world champion extreme skier, Kristen Ulmer, teaches her workshop participants “to breathe in their fear and breathe out the possibility of ever getting rid of it.
    ‘As humans we have these disowned voices. For years I completely disowned fear; it was not going to help me accomplish being the best woman skier in the world. No fear, no fear – it was like having this screaming child in the basement desperate to get out. At some point it’s going to start tearing you apart.
    Only when you embrace your fear [AND other parts of your "shadow"] can your fear relax. It’s like a child that needs to be listened to. Once it’s listened to, it calms down.’”
    Maria Coffey. “Explorers of the Infinite. The Secret Spiritual Lives of Extreme Athletes – and What They Reveal About Near-Death Experiences, Psychic Communications, and Touching the Beyond.” Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, 2008. FANTASTIC imho

 

                            “The purpose of life is not to transcend the body,
                             but to embody the transcendent.” Dalai Lama 

 

 

More Conscious Awareness

      Our health & quality of life depends on our becoming consciously aware of who we truly are, as well as what influences our behavior. Both of these require deep self-reflection & meditation. The former is profoundly helped by advanced meditation & self-inquiry practices; the latter by Jungian analysis (depth psychology), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Transpersonal Psychology etc.
     Sadly, our current society, is not only ignorant about, but actively & passively discourages self-reflection, serious meditation, & sustained attention to anything of substance. 

               “For what is not available in our culture
                we are now obliged to find for ourselves.”         James Hollis

     “The mother complex, that is, the affectively (emotionally) charged idea of mother, is in us all. It is experienced as the longing for warmth, connection and nurturance.
     When one’s initial experience of life met these needs, or largely so, one feels that one belongs in life, that here is a place where one will be nurtured and protected. … the child will feel more grounded in his or her own reality and more trusting of the world around. As Freud once observed, the child who has the mother’s devotion will feel invincible.     

     Where the primal experience of the feminine was conditional or painful, one feels deracinated (uprooted from one's natural geographical, social, or cultural environment), disconnected. Such an ontological wound is felt in the body, burdens the soul and is frequently projected onto the world at large. One’s entire Weltanschauung (philosophy, view of life, worldview) can derive from this largely unconscious, phenomenological ‘reading’ of the world.

     I have seen a considerable number of men in therapy whose need for mothering is so extensive that they are doomed to be dissatisfied with their wives. While it is clear that women do not want to be mothers to their husbands, it is also clear that many men seek in their wives the sort of unconditional acceptance and nourishment associated with positive mothers. Indeed, I have seen many men stuck in marriages that were dreadful for various reasons but they were unable to countenance the idea of leaving. Departure held all the terrors of the child leaving home for the unknown. Sexuality, in particular, is freighted with the infantile need for bodily contact and nurturance. As women grow weary of taking care of little boys, so little boys find it harder and harder to leave home and grow up, since neither father nor the fathers are available to show the way.
     When men feel the push-pull of the mother complex they are apt to confuse that power with the outer woman in their life. Just as they often regress in intimate relationships, making a mother of their partner, unconsciously demanding she be ‘the good breast,’ so they fear and oppress women, as if by controlling them they might master the fear of their own undertow. The sorry history of men’s treatment of women is stark testimony to this. One oppresses what one fears. Fear is responsible for the oppression of women and for gay bashing, the latter most notably by young men insecure in their on psychological reality. The resistance President Clinton encountered in proposing to end the ban on homosexuals in the American military was not because there were no homosexuals already serving bravely and honorably, nor because regulations regarding sexual harassment were not already in place, but because of the macho man’s fear of his own feminine side.
     Machoism is in direct proportion to man’s fear, and the banding together of fearful men is the breeding ground of violence and the tacit admission of the power of the feminine in their lives. Vast bastions of macho mentality remain in contemporary society, perhaps none more regressive than the military. Possibly, in order to do the work of killing, a man has to override every principle of relatedness within him; he can ill afford to pay attention to doubt or to the eros principle. In his frightened heart he knows what the Greeks made clear long ago, that in the end Ares (Mars) was no match for Aphrodite (Venus). But he will fight her power because, sadly, he has not yet learned that to be a man is to feel comfortable with his feminine side as well. Because his fear is only partly conscious, it is projected onto women and gays, among others. In his unreasoning fear, the macho man remains a little boy just as much as the man who expects all women to mother him. Both of them have unwittingly succumbed to the power of the mother experience and denied that same large power within themselves.
     Surely the greatest tragedy for men in regard to the feminine principle is that their fear alienates them from their own anima, the principle of relatedness, feeling and connection to the life force. This alienation from self obliges alienation from other men as well. Often their only connection with each other comes through superficial talk about outer events, such as sports and politics.”
      James Hollis. “Under Saturn’s Shadow: The Wounding and Healing of Men.” Inner City Books, 1994. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

      Our task then is to become fully conscious of all the mostly unconscious material that so profoundly affects our life. Actively investigating all of this, mostly subconscious material, is best accomplished with the assistance of a trained Jungian analyst. The excerpt from Hollis' book points out how all of us need to balance assertiveness, competency & empowerment with relatedness, feeling & connection to the life force. Skillfully investigating & integrating this material allows us to become BALANCED enough to prioritize realizing how we are INFINITELY MORE than these neuroses, complexes & habits. SEE: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.com/2021/07/learning-to-rest-in-silence.html

 

To Know What is True ...

     “To understand our true nature, consciousness must take a journey that reveals all that we are not. For most of us who long to know God, or to know what is true, this is a long inner journey in which our shadowy sides, stuck points of view, traumas, and emotional contractions appear to be faced and released. Consciousness enters the vastness of emptiness in which there is no-self, that is, no personal self – just one cosmic self, one consciousness penetrating all existence. Some of us feel this to be God, some feel it to be our true nature, and we resolve to deepen our awakening. … 
     Our thinking mind is not big enough to grasp the whole of our journey to enlightenment. It has created models, like yoga science, Buddhist insights, and esoteric practices, but these do not convey the essence. We might understand the chemistry of water, but that is not the same knowing of water as drinking it when we are thirsty.
     This limitation of thought calls us to rest instead in this unconditional openness, allowing it to permeate the cells of our body. When a heart embraces this emptiness, it becomes possible to bring unconditional compassion and love into the world.” 
       Bonnie L. Greenwell. “When Spirit Leaps. Navigating the Process of Spiritual Awakening.” Non-Duality Press, 2018. 

“Deep in the soul, below pain,
below all the distraction of life,
is a silence vast and grand –
an infinite ocean of calm,
which nothing can disturb;
nature’s own exceeding peace,
which ‘surpasses understanding’.
That which we seek with passionate longing,
here and there,
upward and outward;
we find at last within ourselves.”         Richard Maurice Bucke MD (1837-1902)

Ghita Levin - Heron Platter stoneware - fogforestgallery.ca

Unconditional Love

     “… scientific methodology is the product of human hands and thus cannot reach some permanent truth. We build scientific theories to organize and manipulate the world, to reduce phenomena into manageable units. Science is based on reproducibility & manufactured objectivity. 
     As strong as that makes its ability to generate claims about matter & energy, it also makes scientific knowledge inapplicable to the existential, visceral nature of human life, which is unique and subjective and unpredictable.
    Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue.”
       Paul Kalanithi MD. “When Breath Becomes Air.” Random House, 2016.
 
      "The essential dynamic of the shadow patriarch (dark side of male energy), whether operating within a man or woman, is the unrelenting drive to power, dominance, and control. In many ways this attempts to compensate for the loss of connection, love, & belonging, and ultimately for the loss of an ability to feel intimacy with life.” Thanissara

     “It’s great if we become a super cool meditator ... but if the heart isn’t free from suffering – or at least moving in that direction – we may have missed the point. In other words, we need to reflect on the results. What are the effects of meditation practices in my life? Are wholesome qualities of heart increasing – like generosity, kindness, & wisdom? Are unwholesome ones – greed, hatred, & delusion – decreasing?" Kittisaro

     “Love is the bridge
      between you and everything.” Rumi

     “If you judge people (* including yourself *), you have no time to love them.” Mother Teresa
 
     “The love & attention you always thought
      you wanted from someone else,
      is the love and attention
      you first need to give to yourself.” Bryant McGill 

     “It’s not a luxury to feel loved and cared for — it’s what makes us emotionally secure. If it didn’t happen when we were children, meditation can help us develop a secure emotional base now.
     … connecting with our true nature in order to gradually make our minds freer is a real possibility. And that same capacity for attunement translates into more genuine connections.” Tara Bennett-Goleman PhD

     “Your task is not to seek for love,
      but merely to seek & find all of the barriers
      within yourself that you have built against it.” Helen Schueman

“There is a light in this world, 

a healing spirit more powerful 

than any darkness we may encounter.  

We sometimes lose sight of this force 

when there is suffering, too much pain.  

Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge 

through the lives of ordinary people 

who hear a call 

and answer in extraordinary ways.”

Mother Teresa

www.buddhadoodles.com

Curing Power of Kind Attention and Awareness

     The more we practice meditation, the more we recognize the effects of traumas we've sustained over a lifetime. Reading a book like Van Der Kolk's “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” may be a revelation to some of us in this regard. Some of us would clearly benefit from psychotherapy, and all of us would benefit from remarkably wise tools for healing found in meditative practices. 
     Adyashanti teaches an advanced practice he calls "conjoining the opposites." A more easily approachable practice is to hold difficult emotions, as they arise, within the heart area. This is instead of usual tendencies: acting out and or intellectually fighting difficult emotions. Holding the physical manifestations of these emotions in the heart area to me is quite similar to dealing with "open questions." In both cases, we let all of our intelligences slowly, without time limits, work away on big, complex issues, that our (modest) intellect alone is ill-equipped to handle.
     Below is, IMHO, a clear, helpful excerpt from a superb book:

     “It is not easy to maintain mindfulness when our primary defenses are activated. These defenses are forged in reaction to intense feelings, felt from conception through our preverbal years. Our psychological defenses are not ‘bad,’ they are simply strategies we learned that helped us survive as tiny babies. Neither are they necessarily there because of a lack of care. Just our vulnerability or waiting to be fed as babies can evoke powerful feelings of abandonment, fear, and longing. These feelings overwhelm a tiny baby and infant. In response, our defenses were built to protect us from these feelings. However, as we grow up our defenses become imprisoning. They split us away from our innate energy, and we become locked in dysfunctional patterns and end up limping through life rather than having access to the fullness of our energy.
      The desire for nonexistence or annihilation (vibhava-tanha), which manifests as psychological desolation, despair, depression, and self aversion, is a common primary defense. As we bring mindfulness to this dynamic, behind the sophisticated ways we deny and dissociate, we will encounter unsettling feelings. We will find ourselves faced with our ‘shadow,’ a term Carl Jung coined to refer to powerful emotions and beliefs held in the unconscious that influence our life. Behind our ‘shut down’ can be fear, rage, or a fog of confusion. At times when these become triggered, we need to take a lot of care. When touching deep areas of primary feeling, behind our defenses, we need to take space, have kindness, and be patient.
     Instead of crashing out, we can be mindful, one breath at a time. Gradually this becomes a strong container to help us withstand our deepest pains without defaulting to self-harming or acting out. This container is strengthened through moments of kind attention and awareness to the feeling tones that are present. When these factors are in place, then as painful feelings emerge, like despair, or the wish to annihilate ourselves in some addictive pattern, we will know an opportunity has offered itself.
     As our capacity for awareness strengthens it is possible to tolerate the deeper wounds within the psyche. Often these are disguised beneath the restless momentum of desire and our attempts to fulfill its demands.”


       Kittisaro & Thanissara. "Listening to the Heart. A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism." North Atlantic Books, 2014.

with kind permission from: www.buddhadoodles.com

All in the Family - OR - Evil Outsider?

     As the worst of human nature erupts yet again today on Ottawa's Parliament Hill, the temptation to wipe such "evil" off the face of the earth arises, yet again. 
     But wait, isn't that precisely what these & other terrorists claim to be doing? And if Canada and her allies were able to "eliminate" each terrorist involved in this attack, and apprehend and imprison all of their (immediate) supporters, what exactly would it accomplish? Isn't Israel far better at this approach than we Canadians? And how's it working for them? Hasn't this approach been clubbed to death over the past million years or so?
     Haven't the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and a host of other wise people repeatedly told us that an eye for an eye only makes more and more of us blind? How long must we keep beating this dead horse?
     Evil is not in others, the evil is within our own individual heart-minds, it is our "shadow". We project this evil onto "the other". All groups, even "peace" activists & "right-to life" activists, have members who are willing to be violent, particularly towards "the other, evil side."
     The willingness and ability to act out our OWN demons requires THERAPY, not encouragement & support. 
     Only when we stop supporting others' DIRTY WORK, will atrocities diminish. All of us who support heart-mindless violence against "the other", must rethink what we're doing - our minds, hearts & hands are also bloody. Quickly & definitively eliminating "evil" once and for all can't be done. Both World Wars were supposed to "end war for all time".

     The current state of affairs is repulsive to all evolved human beings, regardless of faith, nationality, race, etc and is ineffective. We live in an age in which we must recognize & transcend this inherited reptilian reflex within ourselves, first & foremost. 
     Human beings are ONE FAMILY. We can only solve our problems as ONE FAMILY PULLING TOGETHER.