It seems to many peace-loving people that too many people are being killed in the world. Some of them are killed by strangers, some by law enforcement, some by the military and others by friends, spouses, and the judicial system. And, sadly, we don't even know most of them.
They are faceless strangers we see on television, read about on the Internet or in newspapers. They're not part of our family. So we don't weep for them, except in those situations where we imagine something similar happening to one of our family members.
When it applies to us, we recognize the importance of life. And when it doesn't, we don't dwell on it long, unless the news media make us. We're stuck with our beliefs about the importance of life, or lake thereof. We're also stuck with our beliefs that some lives are more important than others.
Many of us don't like to discuss the importance of life outside of our immediate families. Perhaps we find this difficult to do, because we know that our society have already determined the value of our lives. They rank us according to where we live, the color of our skin, our religion, social, economic, and political status, and so on. We're born into this value-ranking system. No one asked us for our input.
Nevertheless, after we live for awhile, we begin to like ourselves and the way we look, talk, and act. We spend countless hours grooming ourselves, watching our diets, and trying to live socially accepted lives. And even with all of our efforts, we're unsure if we are having any impact on the decision-makers. Are they willing to give greater value to our lives because of the work we're doing?
The secret members of our society are not really too concern about what we think about the value of our lives. They must defend the existing ranking system, which determines the value of all of our lives. Although we don't know whose making these judgments, we believe it must be the oligarchy, or maybe it's even us doing it to ourselves.
Meanwhile, we continue to want our lives to be just as valuable as others in the society. And while we know that society doesn't agree with us, we still move forward with our desires to not have our lives labeled as inferior to others. Deep within our being, we believe we are important, our lives valuable, and we don't want our society to devalue us by its values life ranking system.
Similarly, we know that a devalued life is the core cause of personal suffering -- the cravings to become something that's acceptable to others and not to ourselves. Whenever we forget that we are adequate, complete as we are now, we begin to plunge ourselves deeper into victimization. By accepting judgments about the value of our lives, we embody the deleterious effects of victimization.
Unfortunately, many of us continue to do this until we reach the point where our lives become meaningless, worthless. At this stage of our victimization, we believe everyone in our class lives are worthless. This causes us to believe we are justified to take another person in our class life. We have minimal fears that we will be seriously punished by the system for killing someone whose life has already been devalued.
The violence in our society and in the world comes primarily from devalued people who believe their lives are meaningless. The thousands of people killed in our cities every year are far greater than the combined deaths of our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, sadly, those responsible for the killings believe they are fighting a war to gain self-respect from society. They want to be somebody.
For us to stop thinking of ourselves as victims with devalued lives, we must begin the process to revalue our own lives. We must begin to connect with our core feelings and to stop the senseless violence. To do this, we must lean what it means to really live in the world where we're able to experience and share love, peace, and compassion with ourselves and others.
Somewhere buried deep within our consciousness is the self-awareness of pure goodness. This place exists beneath the layers of victim beliefs, the years of victimization, and the deep yearning to feel good about our lives. It's there.
To find it, we must overcome the doubts we have about the value of our lives. We must remain firm in our commitment to seek enlightenment. The value of life is contained in our awareness of enlightenment.
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